Celsius, scale based on 0° for the freezing point of water and 100° for the boiling point of water. Invented in 1742 by the Swedish astronomer Anders Celsius, it is sometimes called the centigrade scale because of the 100-degree interval between the defined points. The following formula can be used

Anders Celsius was an astronomer who invented the Celsius temperature scale (often called the centigrade scale). Celsius was professor of astronomy at Uppsala University from 1730 to 1744, and in 1740 he built the Uppsala Observatory. In 1733 Celsius published a collection of 316 observations of

Carolus Linnaeus: Early life and travels: …lectures; however, the university professor Olof Celsius provided Linnaeus access to his library. From 1730 to 1732 he was able to subsidize himself by teaching botany in the university garden of Uppsala.

Origen: Writings: …of the 2nd-century anti-Christian philosopher Celsus and is therefore a principal source for the pagan intelligentsia’s view of 2nd-century Christianity as well as a classic formulation of early Christian reply. Both protagonists agree in their basic Platonic presuppositions, but beside this agreement, serious differences are argued. Celsus’ brusque dismissal of…

St. Malachy: …vicar in Armagh by Archbishop Ceallach (Celsus) during the latter’s absence from Armagh to administer the bishopric of Dublin. For a short period Malachy received training under Máel-Ísu (Malchus) in Lismore, a center of church reform in Ireland.

Aulus Cornelius Celsus was one of the greatest Roman medical writers, author of an encyclopaedia dealing with agriculture, military art, rhetoric, philosophy, law, and medicine, of which only the medical portion has survived. De medicina, now considered one of the finest medical classics, was

celt, characteristic New Stone Age tool, a polished stone ax or adz head designed for attachment to a wooden shaft and probably mainly used for felling trees or shaping wood. Great numbers of celts have been discovered in sites in the British Isles and Denmark; they were obviously traded widely.

Celt, a member of an early Indo-European people who from the 2nd millennium bce to the 1st century bce spread over much of Europe. Their tribes and groups eventually ranged from the British Isles and northern Spain to as far east as Transylvania, the Black Sea coasts, and Galatia in Anatolia and

Celt, a member of an early Indo-European people who from the 2nd millennium bce to the 1st century bce spread over much of Europe. Their tribes and groups eventually ranged from the British Isles and northern Spain to as far east as Transylvania, the Black Sea coasts, and Galatia in Anatolia and

Celt, a member of an early Indo-European people who from the 2nd millennium bce to the 1st century bce spread over much of Europe. Their tribes and groups eventually ranged from the British Isles and northern Spain to as far east as Transylvania, the Black Sea coasts, and Galatia in Anatolia and

Mo Ibrahim: …Investments, which was later renamed Celtel International. He created a business plan that was built around the idea that no bribes would be given or accepted by him and his cofounders, in stark contrast to standard dealings among many African companies. Celtel expanded quickly to become one of the largest…

Conradus Celtis was a German scholar known as Der Erzhumanist (“The Archhumanist”). He was also a Latin lyric poet who stimulated interest in Germany in both classical learning and German antiquities. Celtis studied at the universities of Cologne and Heidelberg and was crowned poet laureate by the

Rhône-Poulenc SA: In 1961 it absorbed Celtex, a major synthetic-fibre producer, and went on to become a leader in that field in France. It was nationalized by the French government in 1982 but returned to private ownership in 1993. Although synthetic fibres accounted for a larger share of company production, the…

Celtiberia, an area in present north-central Spain occupied from the 3rd century bc onward by tribes thought to be of mixed Iberian and Celtic stock. These Celtiberians inhabited the hill country between the sources of the Tagus (Tajo) and Iberus (Ebro) rivers, including most of the modern province

Scipio Africanus the Younger: Siege of Numantia: …engaged in war with the Celtiberians and had suffered a series of defeats and humiliating setbacks. One such scandal concerned the Senate’s repudiation of a truce arranged by the commander Gaius Hostilius Mancinus and his young quaestor Tiberius Gracchus, which had saved a Roman army from destruction. The story cannot…

Celto-Iberian language, extinct Indo-European language of the western part of the Iberian Peninsula. Celto-Iberian was written in the Iberic script (borrowed from speakers of the non-Indo-European Iberian language in eastern and southern Spain) and is known primarily from a small number of coin

Arevaci: …against the Romans in the Celtiberian War, which lasted from 153 to 133 bc. After such victories as that of 137 bc, in which 20,000 Romans surrendered to between 4,000 and 8,000 Celtiberians at Numantia, the tribes’ resistance was broken by the Roman siege and destruction of Numantia in 133…

Celtic, Scottish professional football (soccer) team based in Glasgow. Nicknamed “the Bhoys,” (the h is said to have been added to phonetically represent an Irish pronunciation of the word boys) Celtic shares a fierce rivalry with the crosstown Rangers, which is often of a sectarian nature, with

Bill Hartack: He also rode the winner Celtic Ash in the Belmont Stakes in 1960 and Ridan in the Arlington Futurity in 1961. In 1972 Hartack became the fifth jockey ever to win more than 4,000 races. He retired in 1980.

Worms, city, Rhineland-Palatinate Land (state), southwestern Germany. Worms is a port on the left (west) bank of the Rhine River, just northwest of Mannheim. Known originally as Celtic Borbetomagus, by the reign of Julius Caesar it was called Civitas Vangionum, the chief town of the Vangiones. In

Celtic Church, the early Christian church in the British Isles, founded probably in the 3rd century. Highly ascetic in character, it contributed to the conversion of the Anglo-Saxons in the 7th century, but its organization and customs—for instances concerning the calculation of the date of

Celtic, Scottish professional football (soccer) team based in Glasgow. Nicknamed “the Bhoys,” (the h is said to have been added to phonetically represent an Irish pronunciation of the word boys) Celtic shares a fierce rivalry with the crosstown Rangers, which is often of a sectarian nature, with

United Kingdom: Iron Age: …the traditional round house, the “Celtic” system of farming with its small fields, and storage pits for grain.

Celtic, Scottish professional football (soccer) team based in Glasgow. Nicknamed “the Bhoys,” (the h is said to have been added to phonetically represent an Irish pronunciation of the word boys) Celtic shares a fierce rivalry with the crosstown Rangers, which is often of a sectarian nature, with

Celtic languages, branch of the Indo-European language family, spoken throughout much of Western Europe in Roman and pre-Roman times and currently known chiefly in the British Isles and in the Brittany peninsula of northwestern France. On both geographic and chronological grounds, the languages

Celtic literature, the body of writings composed in Irish and the languages derived from it, Scottish Gaelic and Manx, and in Welsh and its sister languages, Breton and Cornish. For writings in English by Irish, Scottish, and Welsh authors, see Irish literature, Scottish literature, and Welsh

Celtic: …moved to its longtime home, Celtic Park (also known as Parkhead), in 1892. Renovated in 1995, the stadium now accommodates more than 60,000 spectators. Celtic began playing in white shirts with green collars, and the club’s famous uniform of a green-and-white striped shirt with white shorts debuted in 1903.

Celtic religion, religious beliefs and practices of the ancient Celts. The Celts, an ancient Indo-European people, reached the apogee of their influence and territorial expansion during the 4th century bc, extending across the length of Europe from Britain to Asia Minor. From the 3rd century bc

William Butler Yeats: The Celtic Twilight (1893), a volume of essays, was Yeats’s first effort toward this end, but progress was slow until 1898, when he met Augusta Lady Gregory, an aristocrat who was to become a playwright and his close friend. She was already collecting old stories,…

Lugdunensis, a province of the Roman Empire, one of the “Three Gauls” called the Gallia Comata. It extended from the capital of Lugdunum (modern Lyon) northwest to all the land between the Seine and the Loire rivers to Brittany and the Atlantic Ocean. It included what came to be Paris. The area was

hackberry, any of several trees of the genus Celtis, with about 70 species in the hemp family (Cannabaceae), that are valued for their wood or for ornamental qualities. They are distributed primarily in temperate and tropical areas. The eastern North American tree called hackberry, or nettle tree,

hackberry: The Mediterranean hackberry, or European nettle tree (C. australis), is an ornamental that has lance-shaped, gray-green leaves and larger edible fruit. Some West African species produce valuable timber.

hackberry: …American tree called hackberry, or nettle tree, is C. occidentalis. It has bright green elmlike leaves, which often have three prominent veins arising from the base of the blade, and edible pea-sized purplish-black fruits attractive to birds. The bark is sometimes covered with wartlike bumps. Of easy culture, it is…

Conradus Celtis was a German scholar known as Der Erzhumanist (“The Archhumanist”). He was also a Latin lyric poet who stimulated interest in Germany in both classical learning and German antiquities. Celtis studied at the universities of Cologne and Heidelberg and was crowned poet laureate by the

San Marino: Geography: …dialect has been defined as Celto-Gallic, akin to the Piedmont and Lombardy dialects as well as to that of Romagna.

Celto-Iberian language, extinct Indo-European language of the western part of the Iberian Peninsula. Celto-Iberian was written in the Iberic script (borrowed from speakers of the non-Indo-European Iberian language in eastern and southern Spain) and is known primarily from a small number of coin

lettuce: …of lettuce are cultivated: (1) celtuce, or asparagus lettuce (variety augustana), with narrow leaves and a thick, succulent, edible stem; (2) head, or cabbage, lettuce (variety capitata), with the leaves folded into a compact head; (3) leaf, or curled, lettuce (variety crispa), with a rosette of leaves that are curled,…

Bayezid II: …father in 1481, his brother Cem contested the succession. Bayezid, supported by a strong faction of court officials at Constantinople, succeeded in taking the throne. Cem eventually sought refuge with the Knights of Saint John at Rhodes and remained a captive until his death in 1495.

millet, (Turkish: “religious community,” or “people”), according to the Qurʾān, the religion professed by Abraham and other ancient prophets. In medieval Islāmic states, the word was applied to certain non-Muslim minorities, mainly Christians and Jews. In the heterogeneous Ottoman Empire (c.

Africa: Internal trade: …former colonial powers include: the Economic and Monetary Community of Central Africa (CEMAC), which comprises Cameroon, Gabon, the Central African Republic, Equatorial Guinea, Chad, and the Republic of the Congo and is part of the larger Economic Community of Central African States (CEEAC), which also includes Angola, Burundi, the Democratic…

Damascus: Ottoman period: In a countermove, Cemal Paşa, the Ottoman commander in chief, hanged 21 Arab nationalists on May 6, 1916, a day that is still commemorated as Martyrs’ Day. The Ottomans, however, were defeated by the double-pronged attack of the British and Arab forces and evacuated the city in September…

Cemal Paşa was a Turkish army officer and a leading member of the Ottoman government during World War I. Cemal joined the secret Committee of Union and Progress while a staff officer, becoming a member of the military administration after the Revolution of 1908. A forceful provincial governor, he

cement, in general, adhesive substances of all kinds, but, in a narrower sense, the binding materials used in building and civil engineering construction. Cements of this kind are finely ground powders that, when mixed with water, set to a hard mass. Setting and hardening result from hydration,

cementum, in anatomy, thin layer of bonelike material covering the roots and sometimes other parts of the teeth of mammals. Cementum is yellowish and softer than either dentine or enamel. It is made by a layer of cementum-producing cells (cementoblasts) adjacent to the dentine. The fibres of the

Fyodor Vasilyevich Gladkov: …best known for Tsement (1925; Cement, 1929), the first postrevolutionary novel to dramatize Soviet industrial development. Although crudely written, this story of a Red Army fighter who returns to find his hometown in ruins and dedicates himself to making industry thrive again anticipated in two important ways the future trends…

Ian McEwan: His first novel, The Cement Garden (1978; film 1993), traces the incestuous decline of a family of orphaned children. The Comfort of Strangers (1981; film 1990) is a nightmarish novel about an English couple in Venice.

cement: Composition: …a compact calcareous clay, and cement rock contain both the calcareous and argillaceous components in proportions that sometimes approximate cement compositions. Another raw material is blast-furnace slag, which consists mainly of lime, silica, and alumina and is mixed with a calcareous material of high lime content. Kaolin, a white clay…

cobalt processing: Cemented carbides: …the production of a so-called cemented carbide, such as tungsten carbide, a briquetted mixture of tungsten carbide and cobalt powder is heated at a temperature above the melting point of cobalt. The latter melts and binds the hard carbides, giving them the toughness and shock resistance needed to make carbides…

cementation, in geology, hardening and welding of clastic sediments (those formed from preexisting rock fragments) by the precipitation of mineral matter in the pore spaces. It is the last stage in the formation of a sedimentary rock. The cement forms an integral and important part of the rock, and

powder metallurgy: Cemented carbides are formed by bonding the hard, heat-resistant particles together with a metal, usually cobalt. See also metallurgy.

iron processing: …carbide (Fe3C), also known as cementite, is formed; this leads to the formation of pearlite, which in a microscope can be seen to consist of alternate laths of alpha-ferrite and cementite. Cementite is harder and stronger than ferrite but is much less malleable, so that vastly differing mechanical properties are…

cementum: …layer of cementum-producing cells (cementoblasts) adjacent to the dentine. The fibres of the periodontal membrane, which holds the tooth in its socket, are embedded in the cementum. Deposition of cementum continues throughout the life of the animal, especially in response to stresses. In humans, for example, as the tooth…

cementum, in anatomy, thin layer of bonelike material covering the roots and sometimes other parts of the teeth of mammals. Cementum is yellowish and softer than either dentine or enamel. It is made by a layer of cementum-producing cells (cementoblasts) adjacent to the dentine. The fibres of the

cemetery, place set apart for burial or entombment of the dead. Reflecting geography, religious beliefs, social attitudes, and aesthetic and sanitary considerations, cemeteries may be simple or elaborate—built with a grandeur that overshines the community of the living. They may also be regarded as

India: The Post-Urban Period in northwestern India: …the pottery known from the Cemetery H at Harappa. This coincides with a major reduction in both the number and size of settlements, suggesting a deterioration in the environment. In the eastern Punjab too there is a disappearance of the larger, urban sites but no comparable reduction in the number…

Gabriel Josipovici: … (1993), Hotel Andromeda (2014), and The Cemetery in Barnes (2018). The radio play Vergil Dying (1981) was perhaps his most acclaimed drama. He also wrote the short-fiction collections Mobius the Stripper (1974), Four Stories (1977), and In the Fertile Land (1987). Josipovici’s later nonfiction works included A Life (2001), a…

Stephen Dobyns: …Black Dog, Red Dog (1984), Cemetery Nights (1987), Velocities: New and Selected Poems, 1966–1992 (1994), Common Carnage (1996), The Porcupine’s Kisses (2002), Winter’s Journey (2010), and The Day’s Last Light Reddens the Leaves of the Copper Beech (2016).

Aldo Rossi: …(with Gianni Braghieri) for the Cemetery of San Cataldo (1971–84) in Modena, Italy. Rossi’s design for the sanctuary of the cemetery, a heavy cube standing on square pillars with raw square windows carved out in symmetrical layers, stripped architecture down to its essence. While in some ways reminiscent of Greek…

Apichatpong Weerasethakul: …Rak ti Khon Kaen (2015; Cemetery of Splendor). He also directed a segment in Ten Years Thailand (2018).

scarlet snake, (Cemophora coccinea), small, burrowing, nocturnal member of the family Colubridae. It occurs in the United States from New Jersey to Florida and as far west as Texas. It is a burrower that is found in areas of friable and sandy soils. Scarlet snakes eat a variety of insects and small

Jacques Dubochet: …cryoEM of vitreous sections (CEMOVIS), which researchers could apply to the vitrification of cells and tissues for the visualization of very fine structural detail. He also continued to apply electron microscopy to the study of structural aspects of DNA and chromatin.

Cen Shen was one of the celebrated poets of the Tang dynasty (618–907) of China. Because of the decline of his aristocratic family, Cen had to rely upon his literary skill to secure government appointment through the examination system. During the 750s he held several assignments in the Central

Cen Shen was one of the celebrated poets of the Tang dynasty (618–907) of China. Because of the decline of his aristocratic family, Cen had to rely upon his literary skill to secure government appointment through the examination system. During the 750s he held several assignments in the Central

Giordano Bruno: Works: In the Cena de le Ceneri (1584; “The Ash Wednesday Supper”), he not only reaffirmed the reality of the heliocentric theory but also suggested that the universe is infinite, constituted of innumerable worlds substantially similar to those of the solar system. In the same dialogue he anticipated…

Umberto Giordano: In La cena delle beffe (1924; “The Feast of Jests”) he reverted to a sensational manner with a story set in medieval Florence.

Gaius Petronius Arbiter: The Satyricon.: …of the Satyricon is the Cena Trimalchionis, or “Banquet of Trimalchio” (ch. 26–78). This is a description of a dinner party given by Trimalchio, an immensely rich and vulgar freedman (former slave), to a group of friends and hangers-on. This episode’s length appears disproportionate even to the presumed original size…

John Cena is an American professional wrestler, actor, and author who first gained fame with the World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) organization and later had success in movies and books. His notable films included Trainwreck (2015), F9: The Fast Saga (2021), and The Suicide Squad (2021). Cena

John Cena is an American professional wrestler, actor, and author who first gained fame with the World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) organization and later had success in movies and books. His notable films included Trainwreck (2015), F9: The Fast Saga (2021), and The Suicide Squad (2021). Cena

cénacle, a literary coterie formed around various of the early leaders of the Romantic movement in France, replacing the salon as a place for writers to read and discuss their works. An early cénacle formed around the brothers Deschamps, literary editors of the short-lived but influential Muse

Last Supper, one of the most famous artworks in the world, painted by Leonardo da Vinci probably between 1495 and 1498 for the Dominican monastery Santa Maria delle Grazie in Milan. It depicts the dramatic scene described in several closely connected moments in the Gospels, including Matthew

archaea: Habitats of the archaea: In fact, Cenarchaeum symbiosum was grown in the laboratory with its host sponge and was the first nonthermophilic Crenarchaeota to be cultured and described. It was the first organism considered for classification in the proposed Thaumarchaeota lineage.

Sincelejo, city, capital of Sucre departamento, northern Colombia. It is located north of the Abibe Mountains, near the Gulf of Morrosquillo. The original Indian village of Cencelejo, which consisted of scattered clearings in dense forest, was beyond Spanish control in the 16th century. The actual

Ricardo Güiraldes: …volume of poetry and prose, El cencerro de cristal (1915; “The Crystal Bell”), was harshly received by critics because of its stylistic idiosyncracies but has since been recognized as the forerunner of post-World War I literary innovation in Argentina.

sandbur, (genus Cenchrus), genus of about 20 to 25 species of grasses native to warm sandy areas of North America, North Africa, Asia, Europe, and the South Pacific. The plants can be used for forage when young, but they later form rounded sharp-spined burs that can catch on the coats of or scratch

Beatrice Cenci was a young Roman noblewoman whose condemnation to death by Pope Clement VIII aroused public sympathy and became the subject of poems, dramas, and novels, including The Cenci (1819) by Percy Bysshe Shelley and Beatrice Cenci (1958) by Alberto Moravia. Beatrice was the daughter (by

Beatrice Cenci: …(by his first wife) of Francesco Cenci, a vicious and violent Roman nobleman of great wealth and influence. In 1595 he took his second wife, Lucrezia, with Beatrice, to the lonely castle of La Petrella, in the province of Aquila, imprisoning them there and treating them with great brutality. After…

Theatre of Cruelty: …only one of Artaud’s plays, Les Cenci (1935), based on works by Percy Bysshe Shelley and Stendhal, was ever produced to illustrate these theories, his ideas influenced the productions of Jean-Louis Barrault, Jerzy Grotowski, Jean Vilar, Peter Brook, and The Living Theatre as well as the work of such

The Cenci, verse tragedy in five acts by Percy Bysshe Shelley, published in London in 1819 and first staged privately by the Shelley Society in 1886. Modeled after Shakespearean tragedy, it is noted for its powerful characters, evocative language, and moral ambiguities. It is based on an incident

Blaise Cendrars was a French-speaking poet and essayist who created a powerful new poetic style to express a life of action and danger. His poems Pâques à New York (1912; “Easter in New York”) and La Prose du Transsibérien et de la petite Jehanne de France (1913; “The Prose of the Trans-Siberian

Anton Francesco Grazzini: …comedies (written 1540–50) and in Le cene (“The Suppers”), a collection of 22 stories in the manner of Giovanni Boccaccio, purporting to be told by a group of young people at a carnival. (D.H. Lawrence translated one, The Story of Doctor Manente [1917].) The plays, like the stories and poems,…

Brecon Beacons National Park, national park in southern Wales, occupying 519 square miles (1,344 square km) of mountains, moors, forests, pastureland, lakes, and the broad Usk valley. The easternmost highlands in the park are the Black Mountains (old red sandstone) of Powys county, lying east of

Ireland: Early political history: …branches of Niall’s descendants, the Cenél nEogain, of the northern Uí Néill, and the Clan Cholmáin, of the southern Uí Néill, alternated as kings of Ireland from 734 to 1002, a fact that suggests a formal arrangement between the two septs (i.e., descendants of a common ancestor). Inevitably, claims to…

Grazia Deledda: …his brother’s bride; Cenere (1904; Ashes; film, 1916, starring Eleonora Duse), in which an illegitimate son causes his mother’s suicide; and La madre (1920; The Woman and the Priest; U.S. title, The Mother), the tragedy of a mother who realizes her dream of her son’s becoming a priest only to…

Gioachino Rossini: Italian period: There followed La cenerentola (1817; Cinderella). As with The Barber, this work uses a contralto for the heroine’s role (though both roles are often sung by sopranos); it proved no less successful. In between these two comedies came Otello (1816; Othello), a setting of William Shakespeare’s play that held the…

São Paulo FC: …with more than 240 goals—and Rogerio Ceni, the long-serving goalkeeper who played in more than 800 matches with the club.

Mount Cenis, massif and pass over the French Alps to Italy, Savoie département, southeastern France, northeast of Briançon and west of the Italian city of Turin. The pass, an invasion route from earliest times, is traversed by a road 24 miles (38 km) long, built by Napoleon I in 1803–10, linking

Chennai, city, capital of Tamil Nadu state, southern India, located on the Coromandel Coast of the Bay of Bengal. Known as the “Gateway to South India,” Chennai is a major administrative and cultural center. Pop. (2011) city, 4,646,732; urban agglom., 8,696,010. Chennai is located on the Coromandel

Cennino Cennini was a late Gothic Florentine painter who perpetuated the traditions of Giotto, which he received from his teacher Agnolo Gaddi. He is best known for writing Il libro dell’arte (1437; The Craftsman’s Handbook), the most informative source on the methods, techniques, and attitudes of

Cennino Cennini was a late Gothic Florentine painter who perpetuated the traditions of Giotto, which he received from his teacher Agnolo Gaddi. He is best known for writing Il libro dell’arte (1437; The Craftsman’s Handbook), the most informative source on the methods, techniques, and attitudes of

cenobitic monasticism, form of monasticism based on “life in common” (Greek koinobion), characterized by strict discipline, regular worship, and manual work. This communal form of monasticism exists in a number of religious traditions, particularly Christianity and Buddhism. St. Pachomius was the

Cenomani, a Celtic people of Cisalpine Gaul (northern Italy) who, during the 3rd and 2nd centuries bc, allied with the Romans against other Gallic tribes. After first joining the uprising led by the Carthaginian Hamilcar, an agent of Hannibal in Gaul, in 200 bc, they deserted the Insubres (q.v.)

Cenomanian Stage, first of six main divisions (in ascending order) in the Upper Cretaceous Series, representing rocks deposited worldwide during the Cenomanian Age, which occurred 100.5 million to 93.9 million years ago during the Cretaceous Period. Rocks of the Cenomanian Stage overlie those of

cenotaph, (from Greek kenotaphion, “empty tomb”), monument, sometimes in the form of a tomb, to a person who is buried elsewhere. Greek writings indicate that the ancients erected many cenotaphs, including one raised by the Athenians to the poet Euripides, though none of these survive. Such

John Constable: Final years: …his last Royal Academy entry, Cenotaph to the Memory of Sir Joshua Reynolds, Erected in the Grounds of Coleorton Hall, Leicestershire, by the Late Sir George Beaumont. The work was a valediction to Reynolds, the father of British art, whose ties to tradition Constable revered; to George Beaumont, whose early…

cenote, (from Maya dz’onot), natural well or reservoir, common in the Yucatán Peninsula, formed when a limestone surface collapses, exposing water underneath. The major source of water in modern and ancient Yucatán, cenotes are also associated with the cult of the rain gods, or Chacs. In ancient

Chichén Itzá: …tradition at Chichén was the Cult of the Cenote, involving human sacrifice to the rain god, Chaac, in which victims were thrown into the city’s major cenote (at the northernmost part of the ruin), along with gold and jade ornaments and other valuables. In 1904 Edward Herbert Thompson, an American…

Cenozoic Era, third of the major eras of Earth’s history, beginning about 66 million years ago and extending to the present. It was the interval of time during which the continents assumed their modern configuration and geographic positions and during which Earth’s flora and fauna evolved toward

North America: Mesozoic and Cenozoic orogenic belts: The youngest mountain ranges (the Cordilleras) formed along the western margin of the continent and around the Caribbean Sea. The development of the Cordilleras occurred mainly after the Atlantic Ocean began to open and North America started drifting westward over the floor…

thurible, vessel used in the Christian liturgy for the burning of aromatic incense strewn on lighted coals. Censers of terra-cotta or metal were widely used in Egypt, in the ancient Middle Eastern civilizations, including the Jewish, and in the classical world. Because they were destined chiefly

history of Europe: The peasantry: The censives, lands subject to the seigneur, still owed dues even if no longer owned by him. The cens, paid annually, was significant because it represented the obligations of the peasant: free to buy and sell land, he still endured burdens that varied from the trivial…