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glacial periods

(Encyclopedia)glacial periods, times during which large portions of the earth's surface were covered with thick glacial ice sheets. In the Pleistocene epoch, in the Carboniferous and Permian periods of the Paleozoi...

Joseph, in the Bible

(Encyclopedia)Joseph, one of the heroes of the patriarchal narratives of the Book of Genesis. He is presented as the favored son of Jacob and Rachel, sold as a boy into slavery by his brothers, who were jealous of ...

Nehemiah, book of the Bible

(Encyclopedia)Nehemiah, originally combined with Ezra to form a single book in the Hebrew canon. In the Septuagint, Ezra and Nehemiah are combined as Second Esdras. The book narrates the return to Jerusalem of Nehe...

Leviticus

(Encyclopedia)Leviticus lĭvĭtˈəkəs [key], book of the Bible, 3d of the five books of the Law (the Pentateuch or Torah) ascribed by tradition to Moses. It is in essence a collection of liturgical legislation wi...

Meinecke, Friedrich

(Encyclopedia)Meinecke, Friedrich frēˈdrĭkh mīˈnĕkə [key], 1862–1954, German historian and intellectual figure. Educated at the Univ. of Berlin, he became a professor there in 1914 and directed (1893–193...

Keilson, Hans Alex

(Encyclopedia)Keilson, Hans Alex, 1909–2011, German-Dutch novelist and physician. He attended medical school in Berlin, but Nazi racial laws prevented Keilson, who was Jewish, from practicing. In 1933 he publishe...

Leiter, Saul

(Encyclopedia)Leiter, Saul lītˈər [key], 1923–2013, American photographer, b. Pittsburgh. A painter in the early 1940s, Leiter switched to photography late in the decade. Along with Robert Frank and Diane Arbu...

Paul, Les

(Encyclopedia)Paul, Les, 1915–2009, American guitarist and inventor, b. Waukesha, Wis., as Lester William Polsfuss (later Polfuss). He began playing country music a...

byliny

(Encyclopedia)byliny bĭlēˈnē [key] [Rus.,=what has happened], Russian scholarly term first applied in the 1840s to a great body of narrative and heroic poems. They are called by the folk stariny [Rus.,=what is ...

bloodhound

(Encyclopedia)bloodhound, breed of large hound whose ancestors were known in the Mediterranean region before the Christian era. It stands about 25 in. (63.5 cm) high at the shoulder and weighs between 80 and 110 lb...