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head-hunting

(Encyclopedia)head-hunting, practice of taking and preserving the head of a slain enemy. It has occurred throughout the world from ancient times into the 20th cent. In Europe, it flourished in the Balkans until the...

mosaic

(Encyclopedia)mosaic mōzāˈĭk [key], art of arranging colored pieces of marble, glass, tile, wood, or other material to produce a surface ornament. The Gothic revival of the 19th cent. produced some modern ...

mask

(Encyclopedia)mask, cover or partial cover for the face or head used as a disguise or protection. Masks have been worn from time immemorial throughout the world. They are used by primitive peoples chiefly to impers...

Socotra

(Encyclopedia)Socotra səkōˈtrə, sō– [key], island, 1,383 sq mi (3,582 sq km), S Yemen, at the mouth of the Gulf of Aden. With three much smaller islands to the west it forms the Socotra Archipelago governora...

Charles Martel

(Encyclopedia)Charles Martel märtĕlˈ [key] [O.Fr.,=Charles the Hammer], 688?–741, Frankish ruler, illegitimate son of Pepin of Heristal and grandfather of Charlemagne. After the death of his father (714) he se...

Genesis

(Encyclopedia)Genesis jĕnˈəsĭs [key], 1st book of the Bible, first of the five books of the Law (the Pentateuch or Torah) ascribed by tradition to Moses. Beginning with two accounts of the creation and of human...

archery

(Encyclopedia)archery, sport of shooting with bow and arrow, an important military and hunting skill before the introduction of gunpowder. England's Charles II fostered archery as sport, establishing in 1673 the wo...

Megiddo

(Encyclopedia)Megiddo məgĭdˈō [key], city, ancient Palestine, by the Kishon River on the southern edge of the plain of Esdraelon, N of Samaria, located at present-day Tel Megiddo, SE of Haifa, Israel, near mode...

wheel

(Encyclopedia)wheel. Through the many millennia of the Paleolithic period and the Neolithic period no use of the wheel was known to humans. Its use was not known to the Native Americans until the Europeans introduc...

Patna

(Encyclopedia)Patna pătˈnə, pŭtˈ– [key], city (1991 pop. 1,099,647), capital of Bihar state, NE India, on the Ganges River. It is the hub of a rice-growing region and is an administrative, commercial, and ed...
 

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