title: Great Plague of London

text: Graunt recorded the incompetence of the Searchers at identifying true causes of death, remarking on the frequent recording of 'consumption' rather than other diseases which were recognized then by physicians. He suggested a cup of ale and a doubling of their fee to two groats rather than one was sufficient for Searchers to change the cause of death to one more convenient for the householders. No one wished to be known as having had a death by plague in their household, and Parish Clerks, too, connived in covering up cases of plague in their official returns. Analysis of the Bills of Mortality during the months plague took hold shows a rise in deaths other than by plague well above the average death rate, which has been attributed to misrepresentation of the true cause of death. As plague spread, a system of quarantine was introduced, whereby any house where someone had died from plague would be locked up and no one allowed to enter or leave for 40 days. This frequently led to the deaths of the other inhabitants, by neglect if not from the plague, and provided ample incentive not to report the disease. The official returns record 68,596 cases of plague, but a reasonable estimate suggests this figure is 30,000 short of the true total. A plague house was marked with a red cross on the door with the words "Lord have mercy upon us", and a watchman stood guard outside.


title: Great Plague of London

text: Reports of plague around Europe began to reach England in the 1660s, causing the Privy Council to consider what steps might be taken to prevent it crossing to England. Quarantining (isolation) of ships had been used during previous outbreaks and was again introduced for ships coming to London in November 1663, following outbreaks in Amsterdam and Hamburg. Two naval ships were assigned to intercept any vessels entering the Thames estuary. Ships from infected ports were required to moor at Hole Haven on Canvey Island for a "trentine" – period of 30 days – before being allowed to travel up-river. Ships from ports free of plague or completing their isolation period were given a certificate of health and allowed to travel on. A second inspection line was established between the forts on opposite banks of the Thames at Tilbury and Gravesend with instructions only to pass ships with a certificate.


title: Great Plague of London

text: The isolation period was increased to forty days – a "quarantine" – in May 1664 as the continental plague worsened, and the areas subject to quarantine changed with the news of the spread of plague to include all of Holland, Zeeland and Friesland (all regions of the Dutch Republic); restrictions on Hamburg were removed in November. Quarantine measures against ships coming from the Dutch Republic were put in place in 29 other ports from May, starting with Great Yarmouth. The Dutch ambassador objected at the constraint of trade with his country, but England responded that it had been one of the last countries introducing such restrictions. Regulations were enforced quite strictly, so that people or houses where voyagers had come ashore without serving their quarantine were also subjected to 40 days of quarantine.


title: Great Plague of London

text: Plague was one of the hazards of life in Britain from its dramatic appearance in 1348 with the Black Death. The Bills of Mortality began to be published regularly in 1603, in which year 33,347 deaths were recorded from plague. Between then and 1665, only four years had no recorded cases. In 1563, a thousand people were reportedly dying in London each week. In 1593, there were 15,003 deaths, 1625 saw 41,313 dead, between 1640 and 1646 came 11,000 deaths, culminating in 3,597 for 1647. The 1625 outbreak was recorded at the time as the 'Great Plague', until deaths from the plague of 1665 surpassed it. These official figures are likely to under-report actual numbers.


title: Great Plague of London

text: Plague was sufficiently uncommon that medical practitioners might have had no personal experience of seeing the disease; medical training varied from those who had attended the college of physicians, to apothecaries who also acted as doctors, to charlatans. Other diseases abounded, such as an outbreak of smallpox the year before, and these uncertainties all added to difficulties identifying the true start of the epidemic. Contemporary accounts suggest cases of plague occurred through the winter of 1664–65, some of which were fatal but a number of which did not display the virulence of the later epidemic. The winter was cold, the ground frozen from December to March, river traffic on the Thames twice blocked by ice, and it may be that the cold weather held back its spread.


title: Great Plague of London

text: This outbreak of bubonic plague in England is thought to have spread from the Netherlands, where the disease had been occurring intermittently since 1599. It is unclear exactly where the disease first struck but the initial contagion may have arrived with Dutch trading ships carrying bales of cotton from Amsterdam, which was ravaged by the disease in 1663–64, with a mortality given of 50,000. The first areas to be struck are believed to be the dock areas just outside London, and the parish of St Giles. In both of these localities, poor workers were crowded into ill-kept structures. Two suspicious deaths were recorded in St Giles parish in 1664 and another in February 1665. These did not appear as plague deaths on the Bills of Mortality, so no control measures were taken by the authorities, but the total number of people dying in London during the first four months of 1665 showed a marked increase. By the end of April, only four plague deaths had been recorded, two in the parish of St. Giles, but total deaths per week had risen from around 290 to 398.


title: Great Plague of London

text: There had been three official cases in April, a level of plague which in earlier years had not induced any official response, but the Privy Council now acted to introduce household quarantine. Justices of the Peace in Middlesex were instructed to investigate any suspected cases and to shut up the house if it was confirmed. Shortly after, a similar order was issued by the King's Bench to the City and Liberties. A riot broke out in St. Giles when the first house was sealed up; the crowd broke down the door and released the inhabitants. Rioters caught were punished severely. Instructions were given to build pest-houses, which were essentially isolation hospitals built away from other people where the sick could be cared for (or stay until they died). This official activity suggests that despite the few recorded cases, the government was already aware that this was a serious outbreak of plague.


title: Great Plague of London

text: With the arrival of warmer weather, the disease began to take a firmer hold. In the week 2–9 May, there were three recorded deaths in the parish of St Giles, four in neighbouring St Clement Danes and one each in St Andrew Holborn and St Mary Woolchurch Haw. Only the last was actually inside the city walls. A Privy Council committee was formed to investigate methods to best prevent the spread of plague, and measures were introduced to close some of the ale houses in affected areas and limit the number of lodgers allowed in a household. In the city, the Lord Mayor issued a proclamation that all householders must diligently clean the streets outside their property, which was a householder's responsibility, not a state one (the city employed scavengers and rakers to remove the worst of the mess). Matters just became worse, and Aldermen were instructed to find and punish those failing their duty. As cases in St. Giles began to rise, an attempt was made to quarantine the area and constables were instructed to inspect everyone wishing to travel and contain inside vagrants or suspect persons.


title: Great Plague of London

text: People began to be alarmed. Samuel Pepys, who had an important position at the Admiralty, stayed in London and provided a contemporary account of the plague through his diary. On 30 April he wrote: "Great fears of the sickness here in the City it being said that two or three houses are already shut up. God preserve us all!" Another source of information on the time is "A Journal of the Plague Year", which was written by Daniel Defoe and published in 1722. He had been only six when the plague struck but made use of his family's recollections (his uncle was a saddler in East London and his father a butcher in Cripplegate), interviews with survivors and sight of such official records as were available.


title: Great Plague of London

text: By July 1665, plague was rampant in the City of London. The rich ran away, including King Charles II of England, his family and his court, who left the city for Salisbury, moving on to Oxford in September when some cases of plague occurred in Salisbury. The aldermen and most of the other city authorities opted to stay at their posts. The Lord Mayor of London, Sir John Lawrence, also decided to stay in the city. Businesses were closed when merchants and professionals fled. Defoe wrote "Nothing was to be seen but wagons and carts, with goods, women, servants, children, coaches filled with people of the better sort, and horsemen attending them, and all hurrying away". As the plague raged throughout the summer, only a small number of clergymen, physicians and apothecaries remained to cope with an increasingly large number of victims. Ellen Cotes, author of "London's Dreadful Visitation", expressed the hope that "Neither the Physicians of our Souls or Bodies may hereafter in such great numbers forsake us".


title: Great Plague of London

text: The poorer people were also alarmed by the contagion and some left the city, but it was not easy for them to abandon their accommodation and livelihoods for an uncertain future elsewhere. Before exiting through the city gates, they were required to possess a certificate of good health signed by the Lord Mayor and these became increasingly difficult to obtain. As time went by and the numbers of plague victims rose, people living in the villages outside London began to resent this exodus and were no longer prepared to accept townsfolk from London, with or without a certificate. The refugees were turned back, were not allowed to pass through towns and had to travel across country, and were forced to live rough on what they could steal or scavenge from the fields. Many died in wretched circumstances of starvation and dehydration in the hot summer that was to follow.


title: Great Plague of London

text: In the last week of July, the London Bill of Mortality showed 3,014 deaths, of which 2,020 had died from the plague. The number of deaths as a result of plague may have been underestimated, as deaths in other years in the same period were much lower, at around 300. As the number of victims affected mounted up, burial grounds became overfull, and pits were dug to accommodate the dead. Drivers of dead-carts travelled the streets calling "Bring out your dead" and carted away piles of bodies. The authorities became concerned that the number of deaths might cause public alarm and ordered that body removal and interment should take place only at night. As time went on, there were too many victims, and too few drivers, to remove the bodies which began to be stacked up against the walls of houses. Daytime collection was resumed and the plague pits became mounds of decomposing corpses. In the parish of Aldgate, a great hole was dug near the churchyard, fifty feet long and twenty feet wide. Digging was continued by labourers at one end while the dead-carts tipped in corpses at the other. When there was no room for further extension it was dug deeper until ground water was reached at twenty feet. When finally covered with earth it housed 1,114 corpses.


title: Great Plague of London

text: Plague doctors traversed the streets diagnosing victims, many of them without formal medical training. Several public health efforts were attempted. Physicians were hired by city officials and burial details were carefully organized, but panic spread through the city and, out of the fear of contagion, bodies were hastily buried in overcrowded pits. The means of transmission of the disease were not known but thinking they might be linked to the animals, the City Corporation ordered a cull of dogs and cats. This decision may have affected the length of the epidemic since those animals could have helped keep in check the rat population carrying the fleas which transmitted the disease. Thinking bad air was involved in transmission, the authorities ordered giant bonfires to be burned in the streets and house fires to be kept burning night and day, in the hope that the air would be cleansed. Tobacco was thought to be a prophylactic and it was later said that no London tobacconist had died from the plague during the epidemic.


title: Great Plague of London

text: Trade and business had dried up, and the streets were empty of people except for the dead-carts and the dying victims, as witnessed and recorded by Samuel Pepys in his diary: "Lord! How empty the streets are and how melancholy, so many poor sick people in the streets full of sores… in Westminster, there is never a physician and but one apothecary left, all being dead." That people did not starve was down to the foresight of Sir John Lawrence and the Corporation of London who arranged for a commission of one farthing to be paid above the normal price for every quarter of corn landed in the Port of London. Another food source was the villages around London which, denied of their usual sales in the capital, left vegetables in specified market areas, negotiated their sale by shouting, and collected their payment after the money had been left submerged in a bucket of vinegar to "disinfect" the coins.


title: Great Plague of London

text: Records state that plague deaths in London and the suburbs crept up over the summer from 2,000 people per week to over 7,000 per week in September. These figures are likely to be a considerable underestimate. Many of the sextons and parish clerks who kept the records themselves died. Quakers refused to co-operate and many of the poor were just dumped into mass graves unrecorded. It is not clear how many people caught the disease and made a recovery because only deaths were recorded and many records were destroyed in the Great Fire of London the following year. In the few districts where intact records remain, plague deaths varied between 30% and over 50% of the total population.


title: Great Plague of London

text: The outbreak was concentrated in London, but it affected other areas as well. Perhaps the best known example occurred in the village of Eyam in Derbyshire. The plague allegedly arrived with a merchant carrying a parcel of cloth sent from London. The villagers imposed a quarantine on themselves to stop the further spread of the disease. This prevented the disease from moving into surrounding areas, but around 33% of the village's inhabitants died over a period of fourteen months. Other places hit hard included Derby and Norwich. In Bristol strenuous efforts by the City Council seems to have limited the death rate to c.0.6 percent during an outbreak lasting from April to September 1666.


title: Great Plague of London

text: By late autumn, the death toll in London and the suburbs began to slow until, in February 1666, it was considered safe enough for the King and his entourage to come back to the city. With the return of the monarch, others began to return: The gentry returned in their carriages accompanied by carts piled high with their belongings. The judges moved back from Windsor to sit in Westminster Hall; Parliament, which had been prorogued in April 1665, did not reconvene until September 1666. Trade recommenced and businesses and workshops opened up. London was the goal of a new wave of people who flocked to the city in expectation of making their fortunes. Writing at the end of March 1666, Lord Clarendon, the Lord Chancellor, stated "... the streets were as full, the Exchange as much crowded, the people in all places as numerous as they had ever been seen ...".


title: Great Plague of London

text: Plague cases continued to occur sporadically at a modest rate until mid-1666. That September, the Great Fire of London destroyed much of the City of London, and some people believed that the fire put an end to the epidemic. It is now thought that the plague had largely subsided before the fire took place. Most of the later cases of plague were found in the suburbs, and it was the City of London that was destroyed by the fire.


title: Great Plague of London

text: According to the Bills of Mortality, there were in total 68,596 deaths in London from the plague in 1665. Lord Clarendon estimated that the true number of mortalities was probably twice that figure. 1666 saw further deaths in other cities but on a lesser scale. Dr Thomas Gumble, chaplain to the Duke of Albemarle, both of whom had stayed in London for the whole of the epidemic, estimated that the total death count for the country from plague during 1665 and 1666 was about 200,000.


title: Great Plague of London

text: The Great Plague of 1665/1666 was the last major outbreak of bubonic plague in Great Britain. The last recorded death from plague came in 1679, and it was removed as a specific category in the Bills of Mortality after 1703. It spread to other towns in East Anglia and the southeast of England but fewer than ten percent of parishes outside London had a higher than average death rate during those years. Urban areas were more affected than rural ones; Norwich, Ipswich, Colchester, Southampton and Winchester were badly affected, while the west of England and areas of the English Midlands escaped altogether.


title: Great Plague of London

text: The population of England in 1650 was approximately 5.25 million, which declined to about 4.9 million by 1680, recovering to just over 5 million by 1700. Other diseases, such as smallpox, took a high toll on the population without the contribution by plague. The higher death rate in cities, both generally and specifically from the plague, was made up by continuous immigration, from small towns to larger ones and from the countryside to the towns.


title: Great Plague of London

text: There were no contemporary censuses of London's population, but available records suggest that the population returned to its previous level within a couple of years. Burials in 1667 had returned to 1663 levels, Hearth Tax returns had recovered, and John Graunt contemporarily analysed baptism records and concluded they represented a recovered population. Part of this could be accounted for by the return of wealthy households, merchants and manufacturing industries, all of which needed to replace losses among their staff and took steps to bring in necessary people. Colchester had suffered more severe depopulation, but manufacturing records for cloth suggested that production had recovered or even increased by 1669, and the total population had nearly returned to pre-plague levels by 1674. Other towns did less well: Ipswich was affected less than Colchester, but in 1674, its population had dropped by 18%, more than could be accounted for by the plague deaths alone.


title: Great Plague of London

text: As a proportion of the population who died, the London death toll was less severe than in some other towns. The total of deaths in London was greater than in any previous outbreak for 100 years, though as a proportion of the population, the epidemics in 1563, 1603 and 1625 were comparable or greater. Perhaps around 2.5% of the English population died.


title: Great Plague of London

text: The plague in London largely affected the poor, as the rich were able to leave the city by either retiring to their country estates or residing with kin in other parts of the country. The subsequent Great Fire of London ruined many city merchants and property owners. As a result of these events, London was largely rebuilt and Parliament enacted the Rebuilding of London Act 1666. The street plan of the capital remained relatively unchanged, but some improvements were made: streets were widened, pavements were created, open sewers abolished, wooden buildings and overhanging gables forbidden, and the design and construction of buildings controlled. The use of brick or stone was mandatory and many gracious buildings were constructed. Not only was the capital rejuvenated, but it became a healthier environment in which to live. Londoners had a greater sense of community after they had overcome the great adversities of 1665 and 1666.


title: Great Plague of London

text: Rebuilding took over ten years and was supervised by Robert Hooke as Surveyor of London. The architect Sir Christopher Wren was involved in the rebuilding of St Paul's Cathedral and more than fifty London churches. King Charles II did much to foster the rebuilding work. He was a patron of the arts and sciences and founded the Royal Observatory and supported the Royal Society, a scientific group whose early members included Robert Hooke, Robert Boyle and Sir Isaac Newton. In fact, out of the fire and pestilence flowed a renaissance in the arts and sciences in England.


title: Great Plague of London

text: Plague pits have been archaeologically excavated during underground construction work. Between 2011 and 2015, 3,500 burials from the 'New Churchyard' or 'Bethlam burial ground' were discovered during the construction of the Crossrail railway at Liverpool Street. "Yersinia pestis" DNA was found in the teeth of individuals found buried in pits at the site, confirming they had died of bubonic plague.


title: Vennela Kishore

text: Bokkala Kishore Kumar (born 19 September 1977), known professionally as Vennela Kishore, is an Indian actor and director who works in Telugu-language films. Known for his comic roles, he was given the moniker "Vennela" after his first feature film "Vennela" (2005). He is a recipient of two Nandi Awards, two SIIMA Awards and one IIFA Utsavam Award.


title: Vennela Kishore

text: Kishore was born and brought up in Kamareddy of present-day Telangana. He moved to Hyderabad for graduation and then emigrated to the US for higher studies. Kishore completed his master's degree in Ferris State University, Michigan and started as a software engineer.


title: Vennela Kishore

text: During his stay in the U.S., Kishore got an opportunity to work in Deva Katta's directorial "Vennela" (2005) which marked his entry to the film industry.


title: Vennela Kishore

text: Kishore received appreciation for his role "Akella Vigneswara Rao" in the film "". His other performances include "Bindaas", "Pilla Zamindar", "Daruvu", "Sarkaru Vaari Paata", "Badshah", "Doosukeltha", "Pandaga Chesko", "Goodachari", "S/O Satyamurthy", "Srimanthudu", "Bale Bale Magadivoy", "Ekkadiki Pothavu Chinnavada", and "Ami Thumi". He also directed two Telugu films ("Vennela 1½", and "Jaffa"). After tasting failure with his directorial projects, he has returned to acting.


title: Horned God

text: The Horned God is one of the two primary deities found in Wicca and some related forms of Neopaganism.


title: Horned God

text: The term "Horned God" itself predates Wicca, and is an early 20th-century syncretic term for a horned or antlered anthropomorphic god partly based on historical horned deities.


title: Horned God

text: The Horned God represents the male part of the religion's duotheistic theological system, the consort of the female Triple goddess of the Moon or other Mother goddess.


title: Horned God

text: In common Wiccan belief, he is associated with nature, wilderness, sexuality, hunting, and the life cycle. Whilst depictions of the deity vary, he is always shown with either horns or antlers upon his head, often depicted as being theriocephalic (having a beast's head), in this way emphasizing "the union of the divine and the animal", the latter of which includes humanity.


title: Horned God

text: In traditional Wicca (British Traditional Wicca), he is generally regarded as a dualistic god of twofold aspects: bright and dark, night and day, summer and winter, the Oak King and the Holly King. In this dualistic view, his two horns symbolize, in part, his dual nature. (The use of horns to symbolize duality is also reflected in the phrase "on the horns of a dilemma.") The three aspects of the Goddess and the two aspects of the Horned god are sometimes mapped on to the five points of the Pentagram or Pentacle, although which points correspond to which deity aspects varies. In some other systems, he is represented as a triune god, split into three aspects that reflect those of the Triple goddess: the Youth (Warrior), the Father, and the Sage.


title: Horned God

text: The Horned God has been explored within several psychological theories and has become a recurrent theme in fantasy literature.


title: Horned God

text: In traditional and mainstream Wicca, the Horned God is viewed as the divine male principality, being both equal and opposite to the Goddess. The Wiccan god himself can be represented in many forms, including as the Sun God, the Sacrificed God and the Vegetation God, although the Horned God is the most popular representation. The pioneers of the various Wiccan or Witchcraft traditions, such as Gerald Gardner, Doreen Valiente and Robert Cochrane, all claimed that their religion was a continuation of the pagan religion of the Witch-Cult following historians who had purported the Witch-Cult's existence, such as Jules Michelet and Margaret Murray.


title: Horned God

text: For Wiccans, the Horned God is "the personification of the life force energy in animals and the wild" and is associated with the wilderness, virility and the hunt. Doreen Valiente writes that the Horned God also carries the souls of the dead to the underworld.


title: Horned God

text: Wiccans generally, as well as some other neopagans, tend to conceive of the universe as polarized into gender opposites of male and female energies. In traditional Wicca, the Horned God and the Goddess are seen as equal and opposite in gender polarity. However, in some of the newer traditions of Wicca, and especially those influenced by feminist ideology, there is more emphasis on the Goddess, and consequently the symbolism of the Horned God is less developed than that of the Goddess.


title: Horned God

text: In Wicca the cycle of the seasons is celebrated during eight sabbats called The Wheel of the Year. The seasonal cycle is imagined to follow the relationship between the Horned God and the Goddess. The Horned God is born in winter, impregnates the Goddess and then dies during the autumn and winter months and is then reborn by the Goddess at Yule. The different relationships throughout the year are sometimes distinguished by splitting the god into aspects, the Oak King and the Holly King. The relationships between the Goddess and the Horned God are mirrored by Wiccans in seasonal rituals. There is some variation between Wiccan groups as to which sabbat corresponds to which part of the cycle. Some Wiccans regard the Horned God as dying at Lammas, August 1; also known as Lughnasadh, which is the first harvest sabbat. Others may see him dying at Mabon, the autumn equinox, or the second harvest festival. Still other Wiccans conceive of the Horned God dying on October 31, which Wiccans call Samhain, the ritual of which is focused on death. He is then reborn on Winter Solstice, December 21.


title: Horned God

text: Other important dates for the Horned God include Imbolc when, according to Valiente, he leads a wild hunt. In Gardnerian Wicca, the Dryghten prayer recited at the end of every ritual meeting contains the lines referring to the Horned God:


title: Horned God

text: According to Sabina Magliocco, Gerald Gardner says (in 1959's "The Meaning of Witchcraft") that The Horned God is an Under-god, a mediator between an unknowable supreme deity and the people. (In Wiccan liturgy in the Book of Shadows, this conception of an unknowable supreme deity is referred to as "Dryghtyn." It is not a personal god, but rather an impersonal divinity similar to the Tao of Taoism.)


title: Horned God

text: Whilst the Horned God is the most common depiction of masculine divinity in Wicca, he is not the only representation. Other examples include the Green Man and the Sun God. In traditional Wicca, however, these other representations of the Wiccan god are subsumed or amalgamated into the Horned God, as aspects or expressions of him. Sometimes this is shown by adding horns or antlers to the iconography. The Green Man, for example, may be shown with branches resembling antlers; and the Sun God may be depicted with a crown or halo of solar rays, that may resemble horns. These other conceptions of the Wiccan god should not be regarded as displacing the Horned God, but rather as elaborating on various facets of his nature. Doreen Valiente has called the Horned God "the eldest of gods" in both The Witches Creed and also in her Invocation To The Horned God.


title: Horned God

text: Wiccans believe that The Horned God, as Lord of Death, is their "comforter and consoler" after death and before reincarnation; and that he rules the Underworld or Summerland where the souls of the dead reside as they await rebirth. Some, such as Joanne Pearson, believe that this is based on the Mesopotamian myth of Inanna's descent into the underworld, though this has not been confirmed.


title: Horned God

text: Doreen Valiente, a former High Priestess of the Gardnerian tradition, claimed that Gerald Gardner's Bricket Wood coven referred to the god as Cernunnos, or Kernunno, which is a Latin word, discovered on a stone carving found in France, meaning "the Horned One". Valiente claimed that the coven also referred to the god as Janicot, which she theorised was of Basque origin, and Gardner also used this name in his novel "High Magic's Aid".


title: Horned God

text: Stewart Farrar, a High Priest of the Alexandrian tradition referred to the Horned God as Karnayna, which he believed was a corruption of the word Cernunnos. The historian Ronald Hutton has suggested that it instead came from the Arabic term Dhul-Qarnayn which meant "Horned One". Margaret Murray had mentioned this information in her 1933 book "The God of the Witches", and Hutton theorised that Alex Sanders had taken it from there, enjoying the fact that he shared his name with the ancient Macedonian emperor, Alexander the Great, to whom this epithet was originally applied. Prudence Jones has suggested that the name may instead derive from Karneios, a Spartan deity conflated with Apollo as a subordinate consort to Diana.


title: Horned God

text: In the writings of Charles Cardell and Raymond Howard, the god was referred to as Atho. Howard had a wooden statue of Atho's head which he claimed was 2200 years old, but the statue was stolen in April 1967. Howard's son later admitted that his father had carved the statue himself.


title: Horned God

text: In Cochrane's Craft, which was founded by Robert Cochrane, the Horned God was often referred to by a Biblical name; Tubal-cain, who, according to the Bible was the first blacksmith. In this neopagan concept, the god is also referred to as Brân, a Welsh mythological figure, Wayland, the smith in Germanic mythology, and Herne, a horned figure from English folklore.


title: Horned God

text: In the neopagan tradition of Stregheria, founded by Raven Grimassi and loosely inspired by the works of Charles Godfrey Leland, the Horned God goes by several names, including Dianus, Faunus, Cern, and Actaeon.


title: Horned God

text: Sherry Salman considers the image of the Horned God in Jungian terms, as an archetypal protector and mediator of the outside world to the objective psyche. In her theory the male psyche's 'Horned God' frequently compensates for inadequate fathering.


title: Horned God

text: When first encountered, the figure is a dangerous, 'hairy chthonic wildman' possessed of kindness and intelligence. If repressed, later in life The Horned God appears as the lord of the Otherworld, or Hades. If split off entirely, he leads to violence, substance abuse and sexual perversion. When integrated he gives the male an ego 'in possession of its own destructiveness' and for the female psyche gives an effective animus relating to both the physical body and the psyche.


title: Horned God

text: In considering the Horned God as a symbol recurring in women's literature, Richard Sugg suggests the Horned God represents the 'natural Eros', a masculine lover subjugating the social-conformist nature of the female shadow, thus encompassing a combination of the shadow and animus. One such example is Heathcliff from Emily Brontë's "Wuthering Heights". Sugg goes on to note that female characters who are paired with this character usually end up socially ostracised, or worse – in an inverted ending to the male hero-story.


title: Horned God

text: Following the work of Robert Bly in the Mythopoetic men's movement, John Rowan proposes the Horned God as a "Wild Man" be used as a fantasy image or "sub-personality" helpful to men in humanistic psychology, and escaping from "narrow societal images of masculinity" encompassing excessive deference to women and paraphillia.


title: Horned God

text: Many horned deities are known to have been worshipped in various cultures throughout history. Evidence for horned gods appear very early in the human record. The so-called Sorcerer dates from perhaps 13,000 BCE. Twenty-one red deer headdresses, made from the skulls of the red deer and likely fitted with leather laces, have been uncovered at the Mesolithic site of Star Carr. They are thought to date from roughly 9,000 BCE. Several theories have been created to establish historical roots for modern Neopagan worship of a Horned God.


title: Horned God

text: Following the writings of suffragist Matilda Joslyn Gage and others, Margaret Murray, in her 1921 book "The Witch-Cult in Western Europe", proposed the theory that the witches of the early-modern period were remnants of a pagan cult and that the Christian Church had declared the god of the witches was in fact the Devil. Without recourse to any specific representation of this deity, Murray speculates that the head coverings common in inquisition-derived descriptions of the devil "may throw light on one of the possible origins of the cult."


title: Horned God

text: In 1931 Murray published a sequel, "The God of the Witches", which tries to gather evidence in support of her witch-cult theory. In Chapter 1 "The Horned God". Murray claims that various depictions of humans with horns from European and Indian sources, ranging from the paleolithic French cave painting of "The Sorcerer" to the Indic Pashupati to the modern English Dorset Ooser, are evidence for an unbroken, Europe-wide tradition of worship of a singular Horned God. Murray derived this model of a horned god cult from James Frazer and Jules Michelet.


title: Horned God

text: In dealing with "The Sorcerer", the earliest evidence claimed, Murray based her observations on a drawing by Henri Breuil, which some modern scholars such as Ronald Hutton claim is inaccurate. Hutton states that modern photographs show the original cave art lacks horns, a human torso or any other significant detail on its upper half. However, others, such as celebrated prehistorian Jean Clottes, assert that Breuil's sketch is indeed accurate. Clottes stated that "I have seen it myself perhaps 20 times over the years".


title: Horned God

text: Breuil considered his drawing to represent a shaman or magician – an interpretation which gives the image its name. Murray having seen the drawing called Breuil's image "the first depiction of a deity", an idea which Breuil and others later adopted.


title: Horned God

text: Murray also used an inaccurate drawing of a mesolithic rock-painting at Cogul in northeast Spain as evidence of group religious ceremony of the cult, although the central male figure is not horned. The illustration she used of the Cogul painting leaves out a number of figures, human and animal, and the original is more likely a sequence of superimposed but unrelated illustrations, rather than a depiction of a single scene.


title: Horned God

text: Despite widespread criticism of Murray's scholarship some minor aspects of her work continued to have supporters.


title: Horned God

text: The popular image of the Greek god Pan was removed from its classical context in the writings of the Romantics of the 18th century and connected with their ideals of a pastoral England. This, along with the general public's increasing lack of familiarity of Greek mythology at the time led to the figure of Pan becoming generalised as a 'horned god', and applying connotations to the character, such as benevolence that were not evident in the original Greek myths which in turn gave rise to the popular acceptance of Murray's hypothetical horned god of the witches.


title: Horned God

text: The reception of "Aradia" amongst Neopagans has not been entirely positive. Clifton suggests that modern claims of revealing an Italian pagan witchcraft tradition, for example those of Leo Martello and Raven Grimassi, must be "match[ed] against", and compared with the claims in "Aradia". He further suggests that a lack of comfort with "Aradia" may be due to an "insecurity" within Neopaganism about the movement's claim to authenticity as a religious revival.


title: Horned God

text: Valiente offers another explanation for the negative reaction of some neopagans; that the identification of Lucifer as the god of the witches in "Aradia" was "too strong meat" for Wiccans who were used to the gentler, romantic paganism of Gerald Gardner and were especially quick to reject any relationship between witchcraft and Satanism.


title: Horned God

text: In 1985 Classical historian Georg Luck, in his "Arcana Mundi: Magic and the Occult in the Greek and Roman Worlds", theorised that the origins of the Witch-cult may have appeared in late antiquity as a faith primarily designed to worship the Horned God, stemming from the merging of Cernunnos, a horned god of the Celts, with the Greco-Roman Pan/Faunus, a combination of gods which he posits created a new deity, around which the remaining pagans, those refusing to convert to Christianity, rallied and that this deity provided the prototype for later Christian conceptions of the Devil, and his worshippers were cast by the Church as witches.


title: Horned God

text: Eliphas Levi's image of "Baphomet" serves as an example of the transformation of the Devil into a benevolent fertility deity and provided the prototype for Murray's horned god. Murray's central thesis that images of the Devil were actually of deities and that Christianity had demonised these worshippers as following Satan, is first recorded in the work of Levi in the fashionable 19th-century Occultist circles of England and France. Levi created his image of Baphomet, published in his "Dogme et Rituel de la Haute Magie" (1855), by combining symbolism from diverse traditions, including the "Diable" card of the 16th and 17th century Tarot of Marseille. Lévi called his image "The Goat of Mendes", possibly following Herodotus' account that the god of Mendes—the Greek name for Djedet, Egypt—was depicted with a goat's face and legs. Herodotus relates how all male goats were held in great reverence by the Mendesians, and how in his time a woman publicly copulated with a goat. E. A. Wallis Budge writes,


title: Horned God

text: Margaret Murray's theory of the historical origins of the Horned God has been used by Wiccans to create a myth of historical origins for their religion. There is no verifiable evidence to support claims that the religion originates earlier than the mid-20th century.


title: Horned God

text: Modern scholarship has disproved Margaret Murray's theory, however various horned gods and mother goddesses were indeed worshipped in the British Isles during the ancient and early Medieval periods.


title: Horned God

text: The "father of Wicca", Gerald Gardner, who adopted Margaret Murray's thesis, claimed Wicca was a modern survival of an ancient pan-European pagan religion. Gardner states that he had reconstructed elements of the religion from fragments, incorporating elements from Freemasonry, the Occult, and Theosophy, which came together in the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn, where Gardner met Aleister Crowley, whose influence became the basis for Wiccan magical practices.


title: Horned God

text: Gerald Gardner was initiated into the O.T.O. by Aleister Crowley and subsequently went on to found the Neopagan religion of Wicca. Various scholars on early Wiccan history, such as Ronald Hutton, Philip Heselton, and Leo Ruickbie concur that witchcraft's early rituals, as devised by Gardner, contained much from Crowley's writings such as the Gnostic Mass. The third degree initiation ceremony in Gardnerian Wicca (including the Great Rite) is derived almost completely from the Gnostic Mass.


title: Horned God

text: Georg Luck, repeats part of Murray's theory, stating that the Horned God may have appeared in late antiquity, stemming from the merging of Cernunnos, an antlered god of the Continental Celts, with the Greco-Roman Pan/Faunus, a combination of gods which he posits created a new deity, around which the remaining pagans, those refusing to convert to Christianity, rallied and that this deity provided the prototype for later Christian conceptions of the devil, and his worshippers were cast by the Church as witches.


title: Horned God

text: In 1908's "The Wind in the Willows" by Kenneth Grahame, in Chapter 7, "The Piper at the Gates of Dawn", Ratty and Mole meet a mystical horned being, powerful, fearsome and kind. Grahame's work was a significant part of the cultural milieu which stripped the Greek god Pan of his cultural identity in favor of an unnamed, generic horned deity which led to Murray's thesis of historical origins.


title: Horned God

text: Outside of works that predate the publication of Murray's thesis, horned god motifs and characters appear in fantasy literature that draws upon her work and that of her followers.


title: Horned God

text: In the novel "Childhood's End" (1953) by Arthur C. Clarke, all humans have a collective premonition, also described as a memory of the future, of horned aliens which arrive to usher in a new phase of human evolution. The collective subconscious image of the horned aliens is what accounts for mankind's image of the devil or Satan. This theme is also explored in the "Doctor Who" story "The Dæmons" in 1971, where the local superstitions around a landmark known as The Devil's Hump prove to be based on reality, as aliens from the planet Dæmos have been affecting man's progress over the millennia and the Hump actually contains a spacecraft. The only Dæmon to appear is a classic interpretation of a horned satyr-like being with hooves.


title: Horned God

text: In the critically acclaimed and influential 1950s TV series created by Nigel Kneale, "Quatermass and the Pit", depictions of supernatural horned entities, with specific reference to prehistoric cave-art and shamanistic horned head-dress are revealed to be a "race-memory" of psychic Martian grasshoppers, manifested at the climax of the film by a fiery horned god.


title: Horned God

text: Murray's theories have been seen to have had influence on the horror film "The Blood on Satan's Claw" (1971), where a murderous female-led cult worships a horned deity named Behemoth.


title: Horned God

text: Marion Zimmer Bradley, who acknowledges the influence of Murray, uses the figure of the "horned god" in her feminist fantasy transformation of Arthurian myth, "Mists of Avalon" (1984), and portrays ritualistic incest between King Arthur as the representative of the horned god and his sister Morgaine as the "spring maiden".


title: Horned God

text: In the popular video game "", its expansion "" has a plot enemy known as Hircine, the Daedric god of the Hunt, who appears as a horned man with the face of a deer skull. He condemned his "hounds" (werewolves) to walk the mortal ground during the Bloodmoon until a champion defeats him or Bloodmoon falls. When in combat, Hircine appears as a horned wolf or bear.


title: Horned God

text: The 1992 "Discworld" novel "Lords and Ladies", by Terry Pratchett, features a King of the Elves who is strongly reminiscent of the Horned God. Although not worshipped by the witches who are the heroines of the book (indeed, quite the reverse), they temporarily ally themselves with him out of necessity.


title: Horned God

text: The 2015 film "The Witch", which takes place in 17th century New England during the latter end of the early modern inquisition against witchcraft that swept across Europe, deals with an interpretation of the Horned God, which takes the form of Black Phillip, the family goat.


title: Excellency

text: Excellency is an honorific style given to certain high-level officers of a sovereign state, officials of an international organization, or members of an aristocracy. Once entitled to the title "Excellency", the holder usually retains the right to that courtesy throughout their lifetime, although in some cases the title is attached to a particular office, and is held only for the duration of that office.


title: Excellency

text: Generally people addressed as "Excellency" are heads of state, heads of government, governors, ambassadors, Roman Catholic bishops and high-ranking ecclesiastics and others holding equivalent rank (e.g., heads of international organizations). Members of royal families generally have distinct addresses (Majesty, Highness, etc.)


title: Excellency

text: It is sometimes misinterpreted as a title of office in itself, but in fact is an honorific that precedes various titles (such as Mr. President, and so on), both in speech and in writing. In reference to such an official, it takes the form "His" or "Her Excellency"; in direct address, "Your Excellency", or, less formally, simply "Excellency".


title: Excellency

text: The abbreviation "HE" is often used instead of "His/Her Excellency"; alternatively it may stand for "His Eminence".


title: Excellency

text: In most republican nation states, the head of state is formally addressed as "His or Her Excellency".


title: Excellency

text: If a republic has a separate head of government, that official is almost always addressed as "Excellency" as well. If the nation is a monarchy, however, the customs may vary. For example, in the case of Australia, all ambassadors, high commissioners, state governors and the governor-general and their spouses are entitled to the use of Excellency.


title: Excellency

text: Governors of colonies in the British Empire were entitled to be addressed as "Excellency" and this remains the position for the governors of what are now known as British Overseas Territories.


title: Excellency

text: In various international organizations, notably the UN and its agencies, "Excellency" is used as a generic form of address for all republican heads of state and heads of government. It is often granted to the organization's head as well, and to those chiefs of UN diplomatic missions, such as Resident Coordinators (who are the designated representatives of the Secretary-General), who are accredited at the Head of State level (like an Ambassador), or at the lower Head of Government level.


title: Excellency

text: In recent years, some international organizations, such as the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe, or the European Union, have designated their permanent representatives in third countries as "ambassadors", although they do not represent sovereign entities. This is now largely accepted, and because these "ambassadors" rank after the UN representative in the orders of precedence of representatives of international organizations, the UN coming naturally first as pre-eminent, the UN Resident Coordinators are now also commonly but informally referred to in diplomatic circles as "ambassadors", although the UN itself does not refer to them in this way.


title: Excellency

text: In some monarchies the husbands, wives, or children, of a royal prince or princess, who do not possess a princely title themselves, may be entitled to the style. For example, in Spain spouses or children of a born "infante" or "infanta" are addressed as "Excellency", if not accorded a higher style.


title: Excellency

text: Also, former members of a royal house or family, who "did" have a royal title but forfeited it, may be awarded the style afterwards. Examples are former husbands or wives of a royal prince or princess, including Alexandra, Countess of Frederiksborg, following her divorce from Prince Joachim of Denmark. Likewise, Count Carl Johan Bernadotte of Wisborg, who lost his succession rights to the Swedish throne and discontinued use of his royal titles in 1946 when he married the commoner Elin Kerstin Margaretha Wijkmark, was accorded the style.


title: Excellency

text: In some emirates (e.g., Kuwait or Qatar), only the Emir, heir apparent and prime minister are called "His Highness". Their children are styled with the lower treatment of "His/Her Excellency" (unless they possess a higher honorific).


title: Excellency

text: In Spain members of the high nobility, holding the dignity of grandee, are addressed as "The Most Excellent Lord/Lady".


title: Excellency

text: In Denmark, some counts ("lensgrever"), historically those related by blood or marriage to the monarch, who have entered a morganatic marriage or otherwise left the Royal Family have the right to be styled as "Your Excellency", e.g., the Counts of Danneskiold-Samsøe, some of the counts of Rosenborg and the Countess of Frederiksborg ("ad personam").


title: Excellency

text: In the Sultanate of Sulu, senior nobility and holders of royal offices that are granted the title of Datu Sadja are addressed as "His/Her Excellency."


title: Excellency

text: "Excellency" can also attach to a prestigious quality, notably in an order of knighthood. For example, in the Empire of Brazil, it was attached to the highest classes, each time called "Grand Cross", of all three imperial orders: Imperial Order of Pedro I, Imperial Order of the Southern Cross (in this case, also enjoying the military honours of a Lieutenant general) and Order of the Rose.


title: Excellency

text: In modern days, Knights Collar and Knights Grand Cross of the Spanish Orders of Chivalry, like the Order of Charles III, Order of Isabella the Catholic, Order of Civil Merit, Order of Alfonso X the Wise, Royal Order of Sports Merit, Civil Order of Health, as well as recipients of the Grand Cross of Military, Naval, and Aeronautical Merit are addressed as such. Furthermore, Knights Grand Cross of the Order of Saint Gregory the Great and the Order of St. Sylvester of the Holy See, and Grand Cross of The Lion, Crested Crane, Crown, and The Drum of Rwanda, and Knights of the Order of the Golden Fleece, and Knights Grand Cross of several other orders of high prestige, are often addressed as Excellency.


title: Excellency

text: By a decree of the Sacred Congregation of Ceremonial of 31 December 1930 the Holy See granted bishops of the Catholic Church the title of "Most Reverend Excellency" (Latin: "Excellentia Reverendissima"). In the years following the First World War, the ambassadorial title of "Excellency", previously given to nuncios, had already begun to be used by other Catholic bishops. The adjective "Most Reverend" was intended to distinguish the religious title from that of "Excellency" given to civil officials.


title: Excellency

text: The instruction "Ut sive sollicite" of the Holy See's Secretariat of State, dated 28 March 1969, made the addition of "Most Reverend" optional, sanctioning what had been (except possibly for the beginnings of letters and the like) always the practice.


title: Excellency

text: According to the letter of the decree of 31 December 1930, titular patriarchs too were to be addressed with the title of "(Most Reverend) Excellency", but in practice the Holy See continued to address them with the title of "Beatitude", which was formally sanctioned for them with the motu proprio "Cleri sanctitati" of 2 June 1957.


title: Excellency

text: In some English-speaking countries, the honorific of "Excellency" does not apply to bishops other than the nuncio. In English law, Anglican archbishops are granted the title of "Grace" (Your Grace, His Grace, as for a duke), and bishops are granted the title of "Lord". The same titles are extended by courtesy to their Catholic counterparts, and continue in use in most countries that are or have been members of the Commonwealth. An exception is former British East Africa (Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania).


title: Excellency

text: In Afghanistan the title "Jalalat Mahab" is used for Princes (Sardars) of the former Muhammadzai Dynasty, who are descendants of the Afghan King Sultan Mohammed Khan Telai. Although Jalalat Mahab is derived from the Arabic term "Jalalat" literally meaning "His Majesty", it is regarded as equal to "His Excellency" internationally.


title: Excellency

text: The descendants of King Nadir Shah held the title "Alaa Hazrat" in which context "Hazrat" is Turkish and means "Majesty" or "Highness" and thus literally translated means "Higher Majesty" or "Higher Highness". But it is in rank equal to "His Highness". The King himself held the title "Alaa Hazrat Humayoon" which literally translated means" His Most Exalted Majesty", but it can be equalized with "His Majesty". President Daoud Khan the Cousin of the last Afghan King Zahir Shah, who acted as Prime Minister under his cousin held the address "Jalalat Mahab Aali Qadr Sardari Alaa" during his term as Prime Minister.


title: Excellency

text: The president, the chairman of the Parliament and the prime minister are addressed as "His/Her Excellency".


title: Excellency

text: The president, the prime minister, the chairman of the Parliament, as well as ministers and ambassadors of Armenia are addressed as "Excellency" (in Armenian Ձերդ գերազանցութիւն - Dzerd gerazancutiwn). The members of the traditional Armenian nobility are also addressed as "Excellency", although in Armenian it is Ձերդ պայծառութիւն - Dzerd paytzarrowtiwn, literally "Your brightness".


title: Excellency

text: In Bangladesh the prime minister, the president, the speaker of the Parliament and the international diplomat are styled with "His/Her Excellency".


title: Excellency

text: Members of the Council of Ministers of Belgium (prime minister, deputy prime minister(s), other ministers, and Secretaries of state), but also honorary ministers of state, are entitled to the style of "His/Her Excellency".


title: Excellency

text: The style is also used for the governors of Belgium (i.e. governors of the ten provinces of Belgium, governor of Brussels, governor of the national bank of Belgium) and ambassadors (both foreign ambassadors in Belgium and Belgian ambassadors to other countries).


title: Excellency

text: Moreover, within the Catholic Church in Belgium, the (arch-)bishops and (pro-)nuntia are addressed as "His Excellency Monsignor" (i.e. in Dutch as "Zijne Excellentie Monseigneur").


title: Excellency

text: In 1991, the Brazilian Presidential Office issued a composition manual to establish the appropriate usage of the Portuguese language for all government agencies. The manual states that the title of "Excelência" (Excellency) is the proper form used to address the president and vice president, all members of parliament and judges, among other officials.


title: Excellency

text: In the Kingdom of Cambodia, deputy prime ministers, senior ministers, members of the Council of Ministers, secretary of state, and members of Parliament are addressed as "His/Her Excellency" (, /, ).


title: Excellency

text: Within the Commonwealth of Nations, the following officials usually use the style "His or Her Excellency":


title: Excellency

text: While reference may be made to the "King's Most Excellent Majesty", the style "Excellency" is not used with reference to the King.


title: Excellency

text: The president of Chile and the president of the Chamber of Deputies of Chile are addressed by the style "His/Her Excellency".


title: Excellency

text: The president of Germany and chancellor of Germany are both addressed by the style "Excellency" in international diplomacy, albeit not domestically.


title: Excellency

text: The president of India and governors of Indian states are addressed as Rāshtrapati Mahoday (राष्ट्रपति महोदय/ महोदया, Honourable President) and Rājyapāl Mahoday or Rājyapāl Mahodaya (if lady) (राज्यपाल महोदय/Honourable Governor) respectively.


title: Excellency

text: "His/Her Excellency", a custom dating from the ancient times wherein the Samrāt and Sāmrājñi (सम्राट, साम्राज्ञी/Emperor, Empress), Generals, Kings, Ambassadors were addressed. A classic example is addressing Devvrat (Bhishma) as महामहिम भीष्म (His/Your Excellency Bhishma) in Mahabharat.


title: Excellency

text: However the Constitution makers approved will discontinue "ancient era" styles of Mahāmahim. The same release states that in English (which is the other language in which subsidiary official communications are released in the Central Government of India in its capacity of Sahāyak Rājabhāśhā: Subsidiary Officiating language) the style Honourable shall replace the erstwhile His/Her/Your Excellency. The newer style will be "Honourable".


title: Excellency

text: The corresponding changes in releases from the President's Secretariat shall be from Mahāmahim to Rāshtrapatiji. The release also talks about the styles of other dignitaries, like governors. "Hon'ble" will be used before the titles "president" and "governor", while the traditional honorifics "Shri" or "Smt." ("Shrimati") should precede the name.


title: Excellency

text: However, "Excellency" will continue to be used, only for interaction of leaders with foreign dignitaries and foreign dignitaries with Indian leaders as is customary international practice.


title: Excellency

text: The president of Ireland is addressed as "Your Excellency" or in the Irish language, "a Shoilse". Alternatively, one may address the president simply as "President" or in the Irish language "a Uachtaráin".


title: Excellency

text: The president of Italy and the prime minister of Italy (officially called President of the Council of Ministers) are addressed as “His/Her Excellency” in international diplomacy. Furthermore, the terms “president” and “premier” are used as well. This latter is an informal and common address for the prime minister of Italy. For both institutional charges, the term “president” is usually exploited in formal and informal situations.


title: Excellency

text: Like many countries that once formed part of the Ottoman Empire, "His/Her Excellency" is used as the style for those with the title of Bey or Pasha. In Arabic the latter titles are often included between the first and last names of the holder, while in English the titles are not usually included and the style of "His/Her Excellency" is used on its own. Those styled this way include government ministers, senior military officers, and the husbands and children of Princesses.


title: Excellency

text: The governors (Yang di-Pertua Negeri) of Melaka, Penang, Sabah, and Sarawak are addressed as "His Excellency" (Tuan Yang Terutama). High commissioners and ambassadors are also addressed as "His/Her Excellency" (Tuan/Puan Yang Terutama).


title: Excellency

text: The president of Myanmar, first lady, state counsellor, vice-presidents of Myanmar, speaker of the Pyidaungsu Hluttaw, speaker of the House of Nationalities, speaker of the House of Representatives of Myanmar, governor of the Central Bank of Myanmar, members of the Cabinet of Myanmar, chief ministers of states and regions of Myanmar, mayors and ambassadors are addressed as "His/Her Excellency" while justices of the Supreme Court of Myanmar are addressed as "The Honourable".


title: Excellency

text: Members of the cabinet of the Netherlands (prime minister, deputy prime minister(s), other ministers, and state secretaries), but also honorary ministers of state, are entitled to the style of "His/Her Excellency".


title: Excellency

text: The style is also used for the executive officers of the Dutch royal court (great officers of the Royal House, hofmarschall, equerrys), governors of the constituent countries of the Kingdom of the Netherlands (Aruba, Curaçao, and Sint Maarten), ambassadors (both foreign ambassadors in the Netherlands and Dutch ambassadors to other countries), judges of the International Court of Justice, and flag- and general officers of three-star rank and above (generals, lieutenant-generals, lieutenant-admirals, and vice-admirals).


title: Excellency

text: Moreover, within the Catholic Church in the Netherlands, the (arch-)bishops and (pro-)nuntia are addressed as "His Most Reverend Excellency" (i.e. in Dutch as "Zijne Hoogwaardige Excellentie").


title: Excellency

text: The president of Nigeria and vice-president of Nigeria shares the style "His/Her Excellency" with the various governors and their deputies of the country's regional states as well as their wives.


title: Excellency

text: The prime minister of Pakistan and the president of Pakistan, are both addressed as "His/Her Excellency".


title: Excellency

text: The president of Peru is addressed as "His/Her Excellency" (In Spanish: "Su Excelencia") if in diplomatic context.


title: Excellency

text: The president (Filipino: "pangulo"; Spanish and colloquially: "presidente") is addressed in English as "Your Excellency" and "Sir" or "Ma'am" thereafter, and is referred to "His/Her Excellency". The president can also less formally be addressed as "Mister/Madam President". In Filipino, the president may be referred to with the more formal title of ""Ang Mahál na Pangulo"", with ""mahál"" connoting greatness and high social importance.


title: Excellency

text: Populist president Rodrigo Duterte has expressed dislike for the traditional title. After assuming office in June 2016, he ordered that the title, along with all honorifics, be dropped from official communications, events, and materials but instead, he be addressed only as "Mayor" since people are already used to calling him as such due to Duterte being the longest-serving mayor of Davao City and that his cabinet officials only be addressed as "Secretary". Other government officials followed suit by abandoning use of "The Honorable". However, despite the prior unofficial abandonment, the president continues to be addressed as "Excellency" in formal correspondences and petitions, either verbally or written.


title: Excellency

text: All other local and national government officials are styled "The Honorable"; both titles, however, may be glossed in Filipino as "Ang Kagalang-galang".


title: Excellency

text: The president of Somalia is addressed as "His/Her Excellency" or "Jaale". Jaale was also a title used by armed forces staff officers of all branches, especially in the Aden Adde-Shermarke Era, and the Barre Era but has now is rare and has become a title for civil servants and senior government secretaries.


title: Excellency

text: The president of South Africa (and historically the state president of the South African Republic), is (and was) addressed as "His/Her Excellency" if in a formal context.


title: Excellency

text: The president of South Korea is addressed as "His/Her Excellency" () if in a formal context both inside and outside of South Korea.


title: Excellency

text: Spain uses the title "The Most Excellent" extensively as a formal address to high officers of the state. The following officials receive the treatment:


title: Excellency

text: The style "His Excellency", which has a higher connotation than "The Most Excellent", is instead reserved for the children of an Infante or Infanta, who have the rank (but not the title) of Grandees.


title: Excellency

text: The president of Sri Lanka was addressed as "His/Her Excellency". This was until 2022, when President Ranil Wickremesinghe banned the use. However, it is still used diplomatically.


title: Excellency

text: The Swedish language title and forms of address are "Hans/Hennes Excellens" (His/Her Excellency) and "Ers Excellens" (Your Excellency).


title: Excellency

text: During most of the 20th century in Sweden, only three officials (other than foreign ambassadors accredited in Sweden and Swedish ambassadors at their post) were granted to the style of "Excellency": the prime minister, the minister for foreign affairs and the marshal of the realm (the highest ranking courtier). They were indeed collectively referred to as "the three excellencies" () In the 1970s it fell out of custom in Sweden to address the prime minister and the minister of foreign affairs as such, although they continue to be addressed as such in United Nations protocol and in other diplomatic writing.


title: Excellency

text: Prior to the 19th century, a Lord of the Realm () and a member of the Council of the Realm were also entitled to the style as Excellency.


title: Excellency

text: The prime Minister of Thailand, deputy prime ministers, other cabinet members, governors and ambassadors are addressed as "His/Her Excellency".


title: Excellency

text: In the United States, the form "Excellency" was commonly used for George Washington during his service as commander-in-chief of the Continental Army and later when president of the United States, but it began to fall out of use with his successor John Adams, and today is sometimes replaced in direct address with the simple "Mr. President" or "the Honorable".


title: Excellency

text: Nevertheless, in the protocol of many foreign countries and United Nations, the president and the secretary of state are usually referred to as "Excellency". Diplomatic correspondence to President Abraham Lincoln during the American Civil War, as during the Trent Affair, for instance, frequently referred to him as "His Excellency".


title: Excellency

text: The form "Excellency" was used for the governors of most of the original Thirteen Colonies, and the practice formally continued after independence. For example, the term was formerly used in Georgia on the state governor's letterhead, the text of executive orders, any document that requires the governor's signature, and informal settings. However, in most states the practice fell out of use (or was never introduced) and the title "Honorable" is now used instead.


title: Excellency

text: Though the U.S. president and U.S. ambassadors are traditionally accorded the style elsewhere, the U.S. government does not usually use "Excellency" for its own chiefs of missions, preferring "Honorable" instead.


title: Early European modern humans

text: Early European modern humans (EEMH), or Cro-Magnons, were the first early modern humans ("Homo sapiens") to settle in Europe, migrating from Western Asia, continuously occupying the continent possibly from as early as 56,800 years ago. They interacted and interbred with the indigenous Neanderthals ("H. neanderthalensis") of Europe and Western Asia, who went extinct 40,000 to 35,000 years ago; and from 37,000 years ago onwards all EEMH descended from a single founder population which contributes ancestry to present-day Europeans. Early European modern humans (EEMH) produced Upper Palaeolithic cultures, the first major one being the Aurignacian, which was succeeded by the Gravettian by 30,000 years ago. The Gravettian split into the Epi-Gravettian in the east and Solutrean in the west, due to major climate degradation during the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM), peaking 21,000 years ago. As Europe warmed, the Solutrean evolved into the Magdalenian by 20,000 years ago, and these peoples recolonised Europe. The Magdalenian and Epi-Gravettian gave way to Mesolithic cultures as big game animals were dying out and the Last Glacial Period drew to a close.


title: Early European modern humans

text: EEMH were anatomically similar to present-day Europeans, but were more robust, having broader faces, more prominent brow ridges, and bigger teeth. The earliest EEMH specimens also exhibit features that are reminiscent of those found in Neanderthals, as well as modern day African, European and aboriginal Australian populations. The first EEMH would have had darker skin; natural selection for lighter skin would not begin until 30,000 years ago. Before the LGM (Last Glacial Maximum), EEMH had overall low population density, tall stature similar to post-industrial humans, expansive trade routes stretching as long as , and hunted big game animals. EEMH had much higher populations than the Neanderthals, possibly due to higher fertility rates; life expectancy for both species was typically under 40 years. Following the LGM, population density increased as communities travelled less frequently (though for longer distances), and the need to feed so many more people in tandem with the increasing scarcity of big game caused them to rely more heavily on small or aquatic game, and more frequently participate in game drive systems and slaughter whole herds at a time. The EEMH arsenal included spears, spear-throwers, harpoons, and possibly throwing sticks and Palaeolithic dogs. EEMH likely commonly constructed temporary huts while moving around, and Gravettian peoples notably made large huts on the East European Plain out of mammoth bones.


title: Early European modern humans

text: EEMH are well renowned for creating a diverse array of artistic works, including cave paintings, Venus figurines, perforated batons, animal figurines, and geometric patterns. They may have decorated their bodies with ochre crayons and perhaps tattoos, scarification, and piercings. The exact symbolism of these works remains enigmatic, but EEMH are generally (though not universally) thought to have practiced shamanism, in which cave art — specifically of those depicting human/animal hybrids — played a central part. They also wore decorative beads, and plant-fibre clothes dyed with various plant-based dyes, which were possibly used as status symbols. For music, they produced bone flutes and whistles, and possibly also bullroarers, rasps, drums, idiophones, and other instruments. They buried their dead, though possibly only people which had achieved or were born into high status received burial.


title: Early European modern humans

text: Remains of Palaeolithic cultures have been known for centuries, but they were initially interpreted in a creationist model, wherein they represented antediluvian peoples which were wiped out by the Great Flood. Following the conception and popularisation of evolution in the mid-to-late 19th century, EEMH became the subject of much scientific racism, with early race theories allying with Nordicism and Pan-Germanism. Such historical race concepts were overturned by the mid-20th century. During the first wave feminism movement, the Venus figurines were notably interpreted as evidence of some matriarchal religion, though such claims had mostly died down in academia by the 1970s.


title: Early European modern humans

text: When early modern humans ("Homo sapiens") migrated onto the European continent, they interacted with the indigenous Neanderthals ("H. neanderthalensis") which had already inhabited Europe for hundreds of thousands of years. In 2019, Greek palaeoanthropologist Katerina Harvati and colleagues argued that two 210,000 year old skulls from Apidima Cave, Greece, represent modern humans rather than Neanderthals — indicating these populations have an unexpectedly deep history — but this was disputed in 2020 by French paleoanthropologist and colleagues. About 60,000 years ago, marine isotope stage 3 began, characterised by volatile climatic patterns and sudden retreat and recolonisation events of forestland in way of open steppeland.


title: Early European modern humans

text: The earliest indication of Upper Palaeolithic modern human migration into Europe is a series of modern human teeth with Neronian industry stone tools found at Grotte Mandrin Cave, Malataverne in France, dated in 2022 to between 56,800 and 51,700 years ago. The Neronian is one of the many industries associated with modern humans classed as transitional between the Middle and Upper Palaeolithic. Beyond this there is the Balkan Bohunician industry beginning 48,000 years ago, likely deriving from the Levantine Emiran industry, and the next oldest fossils date to roughly 45–43 thousand years ago in Bulgaria, Italy, and Britain. It is unclear, while migrating westward, if they followed the Danube or went along the Mediterranean coast. About 45 to 44 thousand years ago, the Proto-Aurignacian culture, the first widely-recognised European Upper Palaeolithic culture, spread out across Europe, probably descending from the Near Eastern Ahmarian culture. After 40,000 years ago with the onset of Heinrich event 4 (a period of extreme seasonality), the Aurignacian proper evolved perhaps in South-Central Europe, and rapidly replaced other cultures across the continent. This wave of modern humans replaced Neanderthals and their Mousterian culture. In the Danube Valley, the Aurignacian features sites few and far between, compared to later traditions, until 35,000 years ago. From here, the "Typical Aurignacian" becomes quite prevalent, and extends until 29,000 years ago.


title: Early European modern humans

text: The Aurignacian was gradually replaced by the Gravettian culture, but it is unclear when the Aurignacian went extinct because it is poorly defined. "Aurignacoid" or "Epi-Aurignacian" tools are identified as late as 18 to 15 thousand years ago. It is also unclear where the Gravettian originated from as it diverges strongly from the Aurignician (and therefore may not have descended from it). Nonetheless, genetic evidence indicates not all Aurignacian bloodlines went extinct. Hypotheses for Gravettian genesis include evolution: in Central Europe from the Szeletian (which developed from the Bohunician) which existed 41 to 37 thousand years ago; or from the Ahmarian or similar cultures from the Near East or the Caucasus which existed before 40,000 years ago. It is further debated where the earliest occurrence is identified, with the former hypothesis arguing for Germany about 37,500 years ago, and the latter III rockshelter in Crimea about 38 to 36 thousand years ago. In either case, the appearance of the Gravettian coincides with a significant temperature drop. Also around 37,000 years ago, the founder population of all later early European modern humans (EEMH) existed, and Europe would remain in genetic isolation from the rest of the world for the next 23,000 years.


title: Early European modern humans

text: Around 29,000 years ago, marine isotope stage 2 began and cooling intensified. This peaked about 21,000 years ago during the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM) when Scandinavia, the Baltic region, and the British Isles were covered in glaciers, and winter sea ice reached the French seaboard. The Alps were also covered in glaciers, and most of Europe was polar desert, with mammoth steppe and forest steppe dominating the Mediterranean coast. Consequently, large swathes of Europe were uninhabitable, and two distinct cultures emerged with unique technologies to adapt to the new environment: the Solutrean in Southwestern Europe which invented brand new technologies, and the Epi-Gravettian from Italy to the East European Plain which adapted the previous Gravettian technologies. Solutrean peoples inhabited the permafrost zone, whereas Epi-Gravettian peoples appear to have stuck to less harsh, seasonally frozen areas. Relatively few sites are known through this time. The glaciers began retreating about 20,000 years ago, and the Solutrean evolved into the Magdalenian, which would recolonise Western and Central Europe over the next couple thousand years. Starting during the Older Dryas roughly 14,000 years ago, Final Magdalenian traditions appear, namely the Azilian, Hamburgian, and Creswellian. During the Bølling–Allerød warming, Near Eastern genes began showing up in the indigenous Europeans, indicating the end of Europe's genetic isolation. Possibly due to the continual reduction of European big game, the Magdalenian and Epi-Gravettian were completely replaced by the Mesolithic by the beginning of the Holocene.


title: Early European modern humans

text: Europe was completely re-peopled during the Holocene climatic optimum from 9 to 5 thousand years ago. Mesolithic Western Hunter-Gatherers (WHG) contributed significantly to the present-day European genome, alongside Ancient North Eurasians (ANE) which descended from the Siberian Mal'ta–Buret' culture and Caucasus Hunter-Gatherers (CHG). Most present-day Europeans have a 40–60% WHG ratio, and the 8,000 year old Mesolithic Loschbour man seems to have had a similar genetic makeup. Near Eastern Neolithic farmers which split from the European hunter-gatherers about 40,000 years ago started to spread out across Europe by 8,000 years ago, ushering in the Neolithic with Early European Farmers (EEF). EEF contribute about 30% of ancestry to present-day Baltic populations, and up to 90% in present-day Mediterranean populations. The latter may have inherited WHG ancestry via EEF introgression. The Eastern Hunter-Gatherers (EHG) population identified around the steppes of the Urals also dispersed, and the Scandinavian Hunter-Gatherers appear to be a mix of WHG and EHG. Around 4,500 years ago, the immigration of the Yamnaya and Corded Ware cultures from the eastern steppes brought the Bronze Age, the Proto-Indo-European language, and more or less the present-day genetic makeup of Europeans.


title: Early European modern humans

text: EEMH have historically been referred to as "Cro-Magnons" in scientific literature until around the 1990s when the term "anatomically modern humans" became more popular. The name "Cro-Magnon" comes from the 5 skeletons discovered by French palaeontologist Louis Lartet in 1868 at the Cro-Magnon rock shelter, Les Eyzies, Dordogne, France, after the area was accidentally discovered while clearing land for a railway station. Fossils and artefacts from the Palaeolithic had actually been known for decades, but these were interpreted in a creationist model (as the concept of evolution had not yet been conceived). For example, the Aurignacian Red Lady of Paviland (a young man) from South Wales was described by geologist Reverend William Buckland in 1822 as a citizen of Roman Britain. Subsequent authors contended the skeleton was either evidence of antediluvian (before the Great Flood) people in Britain, or was swept far from the inhabited lands farther south by the powerful floodwaters. Buckland assumed the specimen was a woman because he was adorned with jewellery (shells, ivory rods and rings, and a wolf-bone skewer), and Buckland also stated (possibly in jest) the jewellery was evidence of witchcraft. Around this time, the uniformitarianism movement was gaining traction, headed principally by Charles Lyell, arguing that fossil materials well predated the biblical chronology.


title: Early European modern humans

text: Following Charles Darwin's 1859 "On the Origin of Species", racial anthropologists and raciologists began splitting off putative subspecies and sub-races of present-day humans based on unreliable and pseudoscientific metrics gathered from anthropometry, physiognomy, and phrenology continuing into the 20th century. This was a continuation of Carl Linnaeus' 1735 "Systema Naturae", where he invented the modern classification system, in doing so classifying humans as "Homo sapiens" with several putative subspecies classifications for different races based on racist behavioural definitions (in accord with historical race concepts): ""H. s. europaeus"" (European descent, governed by laws), ""H. s. afer"" (African descent, impulse), ""H. s. asiaticus"" (Asian descent, opinions), and ""H. s. americanus"" (Native American descent, customs). The racial classification system was quickly extended to fossil specimens, including both EEMH and the Neanderthals, after the true extent of their antiquity was recognised. In 1869, Lartet had proposed the subspecies classification ""H. s. fossilis"" for the Cro-Magnon remains. Other supposed subraces of the 'Cro-Magnon race' included (among many others): ""H. pre-aethiopicus"" for a skull from Dordogne which had "Ethiopic affinities"; ""H. predmosti"" or ""H. predmostensis"" for a series of skulls from Brno, Czech Republic, purportedly transitional between Neanderthals and EEMH; "H. mentonensis" for a skull from Menton, France; ""H. grimaldensis"" for Grimaldi man and other skeletons near Grimaldi, Monaco; and ""H. aurignacensis"" or ""H. a. hauseri"" for the Combe-Capelle skull.


title: Early European modern humans

text: These 'fossil races', alongside Ernst Haeckel's idea of there being backwards races which require further evolution (social darwinism), popularised the view in European thought that the civilised white man had descended from primitive, low browed ape ancestors through a series of savage races. Prominent brow-ridges were classified as an ape-like trait, and consequently Neanderthals (as well as Aboriginal Australians) were considered a lowly race. These European fossils were considered to have been the ancestors to specifically living European races. Among the earliest attempts to classify EEMH was done by racial anthropologists Joseph Deniker and William Z. Ripley in 1900, who characterised them as tall and intelligent proto-Aryans, superior to other races, who descended from Scandinavia and Germany. Further race theories revolved around progressively lighter, blonder, and superior races (subspecies) evolving in Central Europe and spreading out in waves to replace their darker ancestors, culminating in the "Nordic race". These aligned well with Nordicism and Pan-Germanism (that is, Aryan supremacy), which gained popularity just before World War I, and was notably used by the Nazis to justify the conquest of Europe and the supremacy of the German people in World War II. Stature was among the characteristics used to distinguish these sub-races, so taller EEMH such as specimens from the French Cro-Magnon, Paviland, and Grimaldi sites were classified as ancestral to the "Nordic race", and smaller ones such as Combe-Capelle and Chancelade man (also from France) were considered the forerunners of either the "Mediterranean race" or "Eskimoids". The Venus figurines — sculptures of pregnant women with exaggerated breasts and thighs — were used as evidence of the presence of the "Negroid race" in Palaeolithic Europe, because they were interpreted as having been based on real women with steatopygia (a condition which causes thicker thighs, common in the women of the San people of Southern Africa) and the hairdos of some are supposedly similar to those seen in Ancient Egypt. By the 1940s, the positivism movement — which fought to remove political and cultural bias from science and had begun about a century earlier — had gained popular support in European anthropology. Due to this movement and raciology's associations with Nazism, raciology fell out of practice.


title: Early European modern humans

text: The beginning of the Upper Palaeolithic is thought to have been characterised by a major population increase in Europe, with the human population of Western Europe possibly increasing by a factor of 10 in the Neanderthal/modern human transition. The archaeological record indicates that the overwhelming majority of Palaeolithic people (both Neanderthals and modern humans) died before reaching the age of 40, with few elderly individuals recorded. It is possible the population boom was caused by a significant increase in fertility rates.


title: Early European modern humans

text: A 2005 study estimated the population of Upper Palaeolithic Europe by calculating the total geographic area which was inhabited based on the archaeological record; averaged the population density of Chipewyan, Hän, Hill people, and Naskapi Native Americans which live in cold climates and applied to this to EEMH; and assumed that population density continually increased with time calculated by the change in the number of total sites per time period. The study calculated that: from 40 to 30 thousand years ago the population was roughly 1,700–28,400 (average 4,400); from 30 to 22 thousand years ago roughly 1,900–30,600 (average 4,800); from 22 to 16.5 thousand years ago roughly 2,300–37,700 (average 5,900); and 16.5–11.5 thousand years ago roughly 11,300–72,600 (average 28,700).


title: Early European modern humans

text: Following the LGM, EEMH are thought to have been much less mobile and featured a higher population density, indicated by seemingly shorter trade routes as well as symptoms of nutritional stress.


title: Early European modern humans

text: For 28 modern human specimens from 190 to 25 thousand years ago, average brain volume was estimated to have been about , and for 13 EEMH about . In comparison, present-day humans average , which is notably smaller. This is because the EEMH brain, though within the variation for present-day humans, exhibits longer average frontal lobe length and taller occipital lobe height. The parietal lobes, however, are shorter in EEMH. It is unclear if this could equate to any functional differences between present-day and early modern humans.


title: Early European modern humans

text: EEMH are physically similar to present-day humans, with a globular braincase, completely flat face, gracile brow ridge, and defined chin. However, the bones of EEMH are somewhat thicker and more robust. The earliest EEMH display features that are reminiscent of those seen in Neanderthals, as well as features observed in modern day African, European, and aboriginal Australian populations. Aurignacians featured a higher proportion of traits somewhat reminiscent of Neanderthals, such as (though not limited to) a slightly flattened skullcap and consequent occipital bun protruding from the back of the skull (the latter could be quite defined). Their frequency significantly diminished in Gravettians, and in 2007, palaeoanthropologist Erik Trinkaus concluded these were remnants of Neanderthal introgression which were eventually bred out of the gene pool in his review of the relevant morphology.


title: Early European modern humans

text: In early Upper Palaeolithic Western Europe, 20 men and 10 women were estimated to have averaged and , respectively. This is similar to post-industrial modern Northern Europeans. In contrast, in a sample of 21 and 15 late Upper Palaeolithic Western European men and women, the averages were and , similar to pre-industrial modern humans. It is unclear why earlier EEMH were taller, especially considering that cold-climate creatures are short-limbed and thus short-statured to better retain body heat. This has variously been explained as: retention of a hypothetically tall ancestral condition; higher-quality diet and nutrition due to the hunting of megafauna which later became uncommon or extinct; functional adaptation to increase stride length and movement efficiency while running during a hunt; increasing territorialism among later EEMH reducing gene flow between communities and increasing inbreeding rate; or statistical bias due to small sample size or because taller people were more likely to achieve higher status in a group before the LGM and thus were more likely to be buried and preserved.


title: Early European modern humans

text: Prior to genetic analysis, it was generally assumed that EEMH, like present-day Europeans, were light skinned as an adaptation to better generate vitamin D from the less luminous sun farther north. However, of the 3 predominant genes responsible for lighter skin in present-day Europeans — KITLG, SLC24A5, and SLC45A2 — the latter two, as well as the TYRP1 gene associated with lighter hair and eye colour, experienced positive selection as late as 19 to 11 thousand years ago during the Mesolithic transition. The variation of the gene which is associated with blue eyes in present-day humans, OCA2, seems to have descended from a common ancestor about 10–6 thousand years ago somewhere in Northern Europe. Such a late timing was potentially caused by overall low population and/or low cross-continental movement required for such an adaptive shift in skin, hair, and eye colouration. However, KITLG experienced positive selection in EEMH (as well as East Asians) beginning approximately 30,000 years ago.


title: Early European modern humans

text: While anatomically modern humans have been present outside of Africa during some isolated time intervals potentially as early as 250,000 years ago, present-day non-Africans descend from the out of Africa expansion which occurred around 65–55 thousand years ago. This movement was an offshoot of the rapid expansion within East Africa associated with mtDNA haplogroup L3. Mitochondrial DNA analysis places EEMH as the sister group to Upper Palaeolithic East Asian groups ("Proto-Mongoloid"), divergence occurring roughly 50,000 years ago.


title: Early European modern humans

text: Initial genomic studies on the earliest EEMH in 2014, namely on the 37,000-year-old Kostenki-14 individual, identified 3 major lineages which are also present in present-day Europeans: one related to all later EEMH; a "Basal Eurasian" lineage which split from the common ancestor of present-day Europeans and East Asians before they split from each other; and another related to a 24,000-year-old individual from the Siberian Mal'ta–Buret' culture (near Lake Baikal). Contrary to this, Fu et al. (2016), evaluating much earlier European specimens, including Ust'-Ishim and Oase-1 from 45,000 years ago, found no evidence of a "Basal Eurasian" component to the genome, nor did they find evidence of Mal'ta–Buret' introgression when looking at a wider range of EEMH from the entire Upper Palaeolithic. The study instead concluded that such a genetic makeup in present-day Europeans stemmed from Near Eastern and Siberian introgression occurring predominantly in the Neolithic and the Bronze Age (though beginning by 14,000 years ago), but all EEMH specimens including and following Kostenki-14 contributed to the present-day European genome and were more closely related to present-day Europeans than East Asians. Earlier EEMH (10 tested in total), on the other hand, did not seem to be ancestral to any present-day population, nor did they form any cohesive group in and of themselves, each representing either completely distinct genetic lineages, admixture between major lineages, or have highly divergent ancestry. Because of these, the study also concluded that, beginning roughly 37,000 years ago, EEMH descended from a single founder population and were reproductively isolated from the rest of the world. The study reported that an Aurignacian individual from Grottes de Goyet, Belgium, has more genetic affinities to the Magdalenian inhabitants of Cueva de El Mirón, Spain, than to more or less contemporaneous Eastern European Gravettians.


title: Early European modern humans

text: Haplogroups identified in EEMH are the patrilineal (from father to son) Y-DNA haplogroups IJ, C1, and K2a; and matrilineal (from mother to child) mt-DNA haplogroup N, R, and U. Y-haplogroup IJ descended from Southwest Asia. Haplogroup I emerged about 35 to 30 thousand years ago, either in Europe or West Asia. Mt-haplogroup U5 arose in Europe just prior to the LGM, between 35 and 25 thousand years ago. The 14,000 year old Villabruna 1 skeleton from Ripari Villabruna, Italy, is the oldest identified bearer of Y-haplogroup R1b (R1b1a-L754* (xL389,V88)) found in Europe, likely brought in from eastern introgression. The Azilian "Bichon man" skeleton from the Swiss Jura was found to be associated with the WHG lineage. He was a bearer of Y-DNA haplogroup I2a and mtDNA haplogroup U5b1h.


title: Early European modern humans

text: Genetic evidence suggests early modern humans interbred with Neanderthals. Genes in the present-day genome are estimated to have entered about 65 to 47 thousand years ago, most likely in West Asia soon after modern humans left Africa. In 2015, the 40,000 year old modern human Oase 1 was found to have had 6–9% (point estimate 7.3%) Neanderthal DNA, indicating a Neanderthal ancestor up to four to six generations earlier, but this hybrid Romanian population does not appear to have made a substantial contribution to the genomes of later Europeans. Therefore, it is possible that interbreeding was common between Neanderthals and EEMH which did not contribute to the present-day genome. The percentage of Neanderthal genes gradually decreased with time, which could indicate they were maladaptive and were selected out of the gene pool.


title: Early European modern humans

text: Valini et al. 2022 found that Europe was populated by three distinct lineages, the earliest inhabitants (represented by Zlaty Kun ~50kya) split from the common Eurasian lineage before the divergence of Western and Eastern Eurasians, but after the divergence of the hypothetical Basal-Eurasians. This earliest sample did not cluster with any modern human population, including Africans, and died out without leaving ancestry to modern peoples. The second wave (represented by Bacho Kiro ~45kya) appeared to be more closely related to modern East Asians and Australasians compared to Europeans, suggesting that this lineage split initially after the formation of Eastern Eurasians, and migrated instead northwestwards into Europe. This lineage similarly did not contribute ancestry to later populations, and was replaced by a West-Eurasian lineage (~40kya), which expanded into Europe and Siberia. Proper Aurignacian people (40-26kya) were still part of a large Western Eurasian "meta-population", related to Paleolithic Siberian and Western Asian populations. Earlier samples (such as the Bacho Kiro sample) were relatively closer to East Asians and Australasians, although distinct from them.


title: Early European modern humans

text: There is a notable technological complexification coinciding with the replacement of Neanderthals with EEMH in the archaeological record, and so the terms "Middle Palaeolithic" and "Upper Palaeolithic" were created to distinguish between these two time periods. Largely based on Western European archaeology, the transition was dubbed the "Upper Palaeolithic Revolution," (extended to be a worldwide phenomenon) and the idea of "behavioural modernity" became associated with this event and early modern cultures. It is largely agreed that the Upper Palaeolithic seems to feature a higher rate of technological and cultural evolution than the Middle Palaeolithic, but it is debated if behavioural modernity was truly an abrupt development or was a slow progression initiating far earlier than the Upper Paleolithic, especially when considering the non-European archaeological record. Behaviourly modern practices include: the production of microliths, the common use of bone and antler, the common use of grinding and pounding tools, high quality evidence of body decoration and figurine production, long-distance trade networks, and improved hunting technology. In regard to art, the Magdalenian produced some of the most intricate Palaeolithic pieces, and they even elaborately decorated normal, everyday objects.


title: Early European modern humans

text: Historically, ethnographic studies on hunter-gatherer subsistence strategies have long placed emphasis on sexual division of labour and most especially the hunting of big game by men. This culminated in the 1966 book "Man the Hunter", which focuses almost entirely on the importance of male contributions of food to the group. As this was published during the second-wave feminism movement, this was quickly met with backlash from many female anthropologists. Among these was Australian archaeologist Betty Meehan in her 1974 article "Woman the Gatherer", who argued that women play a vital role in these communities by gathering more reliable food plants and small game, as big game hunting has a low success rate. The concept of "Woman the Gatherer" has since gained significant support.


title: Early European modern humans

text: It has typically been assumed that EEMH closely studied prey habits in order to maximise return depending on the season. For example, large mammals (including red deer, horses, and ibex) congregate seasonally, and reindeer were possibly seasonally plagued by insects rendering fur sometimes unsuitable for hideworking. There is much evidence that EEMH, especially in Western Europe following the LGM, corralled large prey animals into natural confined spaces (such as against a cliff wall, a cul-de-sac, or a water body) in order to efficiently slaughter whole herds of animals (game drive system). They seem to have scheduled mass kills to coincide with migration patterns, in particular for red deer, horses, reindeer, bison, aurochs, and ibex, and occasionally woolly mammoths. There are also multiple examples of consumption of seasonally abundant fish, becoming more prevalent in the mid-Upper-Palaeolithic. Nonetheless, Magdalenian peoples appear to have had a greater dependence on small animals, aquatic resources, and plants than predecessors, probably due to the relative scarcity of European big game following the LGM (Quaternary extinction event). Post-LGM peoples tend to have a higher rate of nutrient deficiency related ailments, including a reduction in height, which indicates these bands (probably due to decreased habitable territory) had to consume a much broader and less desirable food range to survive. The popularisation of game drive systems may have been an extension of increasing food return. In particularly southwestern France, EEMH depended heavily upon reindeer, and so it is hypothesised that these communities followed the herds, with occupation of the Perigord and the Pyrenees only occurring in the summer. Epi-Gravettian communities, in contrast, generally focused on hunting one species of large game, most commonly horse or bison. It is possible that human activity, in addition to the rapid retreat of favourable steppeland, inhibited recolonisation of most of Europe by megafauna following the LGM (such as mammoths, woolly rhinoceroses, Irish elk, and cave lions), in part contributing to their final extinction which occurred by the beginning of or well into the Holocene depending on the species.