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Permian period

(Encyclopedia)Permian period pûrˈmēən [key] [from Perm, Russia], sixth and last period of the Paleozoic era (see Geologic Timescale, tablegeologic timescale, table) from 250 to 290 million years ago. Many ma...

vault

(Encyclopedia)CE5 Vaults vault, ceiling over a room, formed in any one of a variety of curved shapes. The architects of the Renaissance and baroque periods abandoned Gothic methods and returned to Roman vault...

Sufism

(Encyclopedia)Sufism so͞oˈfĭzəm [key], an umbrella term for the ascetic and mystical movements within Islam. While Sufism is said to have incorporated elements of Christian monasticism, gnosticism, and Indian m...

spurge

(Encyclopedia)CE5 Snow-on-the-mountain, Euphorbia marginata spurge spûrj [key], common name for members of the Euphorbiaceae, a family of herbs, shrubs, and trees of greatly varied structure and almost cosmopo...

Marxism

(Encyclopedia)Marxism, economic and political philosophy named for Karl Marx. It is also known as scientific (as opposed to utopian) socialism. Marxism has had a profound impact on contemporary culture; modern comm...

cosmology

(Encyclopedia)cosmology, area of science that aims at a comprehensive theory of the structure and evolution of the entire physical universe. The earliest pre-Ptolemaic theories assumed that the earth was the cent...

Greek literature, modern

(Encyclopedia)Greek literature, modern, literature written in Greek in the modern era, primarily beginning during the period of rebellion against the rule of the Ottoman Empire. In general, 20th-century Greek lit...

Dürer, Albrecht

(Encyclopedia)Dürer, Albrecht älˈbrĕkht dürˈər [key], 1471–1528, German painter, engraver, and theoretician, most influential artist of the German school, b. Nuremberg. Dürer's principal accomplishmen...

criminology

(Encyclopedia)criminology, the study of crime, society's response to it, and its prevention, including examination of the environmental, hereditary, or psychological causes of crime, modes of criminal investigation...

shipping

(Encyclopedia)shipping, transportation of passengers and goods on waterways. From prehistoric times shipping has had a major influence on human social development. Water routes, unlike roads, did not need building,...