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New Granada

(Encyclopedia)New Granada grənäˈdə [key], former Spanish colony, N South America. It included at its greatest extent present Colombia, Ecuador, Panama, and Venezuela. Between 1499 and 1510 a host of conquerors ...

Malraux, André

(Encyclopedia)Malraux, André äNdrāˈ mälrōˈ [key], 1901–76, French man of letters and political figure. An intellectual with a broad knowledge of archaeology, art history, and anthropology, Malraux led a re...

raccoon

(Encyclopedia)raccoon, nocturnal New World mammal of the genus Procyon. The common raccoon of North America, Procyon lotor, also called coon, is found from S Canada to South America, except in parts of the Rocky Mt...

ring, piece of jewelry

(Encyclopedia)ring, small ornamental hoop usually worn on finger or thumb, but it may be attached to the ear or the nose. Finger rings made of bronze, gold, and silver from the period c.2600–1500 b.c. have been f...

opossum

(Encyclopedia)opossum əpŏsˈəm, pŏsˈ– [key], name for several marsupials, or pouched mammals, of the family Didelphidae, native to Central and South America, with one species extending N to the United States...

imperialism

(Encyclopedia)imperialism, broadly, the extension of rule or influence by one government, nation, or society over another. Imperialism was reborn in the West with the emergence of the modern nation-state and the ...

Phoenicia

(Encyclopedia)Phoenicia fĭnēˈshə [key], ancient territory occupied by Phoenicians. The name Phoenicia also appears as Phenice and Phenicia. These people were Canaanites (see Canaan), and in the 9th cent. b.c. t...

cryptography

(Encyclopedia)cryptography krĭptŏgˈrəfē [key] [Gr.,=hidden writing], science of secret writing. There are many devices by which a message can be concealed from the casual reader, e.g., invisible writing, but t...

Akkadian

(Encyclopedia)Akkadian əkāˈdēən [key], extinct language belonging to the East Semitic subdivision of the Semitic subfamily of the Afroasiatic family of languages (see Afroasiatic languages). Also called Assyro...

Etruscan art

(Encyclopedia)Etruscan art ĭtrŭsˈkən [key], the art of the inhabitants of ancient Etruria, which, by the 8th cent. b.c., incorporated the area in Italy from Salerno to the Tiber River (see Etruscan civilization...