title: Timeline of the Syrian civil war (2022)

text: On 18 September, Syrian Army forces shelled the town of Atarib near the frontline in the western Aleppo countryside, killing three fighters of Tahrir al-Sham. One Turkish soldier was killed by rocket-fire originating from Syria.


title: Timeline of the Syrian civil war (2022)

text: On 20 September, a Syrian soldier was killed and two others were injured after an AGTM was fired at a Syrian Army post on the al-Malaga area of the southern Idlib frontline.<ref name="TGJ15-21/9/2022"></ref>


title: Timeline of the Syrian civil war (2022)

text: On 21 September, three ISIS fighters were killed and another was captured after SDF forces foiled an attack on the al-Hawl prisoner camp in northern Syria.


title: Timeline of the Syrian civil war (2022)

text: On 22 September, at least 89 mainly Syrian and Lebanese migrants drowned off the coast of Tartus after trying to sail to Europe from Lebanon.


title: Timeline of the Syrian civil war (2022)

text: On the same day, a Syrian government army post was attacked by ISIS militants near the village of Al-Saan, in the Hama desert, killing the government soldiers.


title: Timeline of the Syrian civil war (2022)

text: On 25 September, a military bus carrying Syrian government soldiers on the Al-Raqqah-Al-Salmiyah road in Hama governorate was attacked by ISIL fighters, killing two Syrian soldiers.<ref name="TGJ22-6/10/2022"></ref>


title: Timeline of the Syrian civil war (2022)

text: On 27 September, two SDF fighters were killed in a Turkish drone strike on their car in the town of Al-Muabbada, in the al-Hasakah countryside. The government said that two children were killed by Turkish shelling in the Abu Rasin area of Al-Hasakah Subdistrict, northern Syria.


title: Timeline of the Syrian civil war (2022)

text: During 27-28 September, at least five ISIS militants were killed in Russian airstrikes in the Syrian desert.


title: Timeline of the Syrian civil war (2022)

text: In summer 2022, there were reports that Syrian diplomats had met with Turkish diplomats, at an international conference. In late 2022, Turkish President Erdogan expressed openness to meeting with Assad. Some analysts attributed this new attitude to Erdogan's desire to improve his popularity with voters, ahead of upcoming elections; and also, to improve Turkey's relations with Russia, which has forces deployed in Syria.


title: Timeline of the Syrian civil war (2022)

text: Various rights advocates expressed concerns that improved relations between Syrian President Assad and Turkish President Erdogan might eventually be detrimental to Syrian refugees in Turkey. Also, there were reports of an increase of attacks on Syrian immigrants living in Turkey. In October 2022, some NGOs stated that that thousands of Syrian refugees in Turkey were being forcibly returned to Syria by Turkish forces, and specifically being forced to relocate to the northern zone of Syria controlled by Turkey. The Commander of the SDF, Mazloum Abdi , expressed concerns that normalization of relations between Assad and Erdogan might be detrimental to Kurdish communities.


title: Timeline of the Syrian civil war (2022)

text: In October 2022, the United Nations called for a "nationwide ceasefire" in Syria. The U.N. special envoy for Syria, Geir Pedersen, met with Syria's foreign minister in Damascus; afterwards, Pedersen said that Syria's economic situation is “extremely difficult as close to 15 million people are in need for humanitarian assistance." One of the main local military conflicts was an internal conflict, amongst factions of the Turkish-backed Syrian National Army (SNA).


title: Timeline of the Syrian civil war (2022)

text: On October 3, suspected ISIS fighters targeted members of the Syrian regime's National Security forces east of Deir ez-Zor, killing 3 of them and injuring another 4.


title: Timeline of the Syrian civil war (2022)

text: On the same day, a fighter of the Palestinian Liwa al-Quds was killed in clashes with suspected ISIS fighters in the Jebel Bishri area.


title: Timeline of the Syrian civil war (2022)

text: On October 4, according to Middle East Monitor, two fighters of the opposition Sultan Murad Division were killed and 6 others were wounded in an SDF infiltration attempt on the outskirts of Al-Jatal village, Aleppo.


title: Timeline of the Syrian civil war (2022)

text: On October 6, a pro-Assad Iranian-backed militiaman was killed by suspected ISIL sniper fire in the Mayadin desert.


title: Timeline of the Syrian civil war (2022)

text: At midnight on October 6, a suspected high ranking Islamic State militant by the name of Rakkan Wahid al-Shammri, Abu Hayil, was killed by American special forces during a raid in the village of Muluk Saray near Qamishli in the Al-Hasakah Governorate. Later that day, a helicopter raid killed two senior Islamic State leaders in Qamishli, including the Islamic State's deputy leader in Syria, Abu 'Ala, and Abu Mu'ad al-Qahtani, an official responsible for prisoner affairs. However, CENTCOM said that no U.S. military personnel or civilians were killed or injured in the operation.


title: Timeline of the Syrian civil war (2022)

text: On 10 October, an American drone strike killed a member of ISIS in the village of Hamam al-Turkman near Tell Abyad.


title: Timeline of the Syrian civil war (2022)

text: On 12 October, clashes began between Hayat Tahrir al-Sham and the Levant Front in the Aleppo governorate.


title: Timeline of the Syrian civil war (2022)

text: On the same day, clashes started between ISIS militants and SAA forces after ISIS fighters attacked Syrian military positions in the Al-Duweir region near Mayadin, Deir ez-Zor. The clashes killed 9 Syrian soldiers, 3 ISIS fighters and 3 civilians. <ref name="TGJ7-19/10/2022"></ref>


title: Timeline of the Syrian civil war (2022)

text: On 13 October, at least 18 Syrian military personnel were killed and 27 others were wounded after an explosion targeted a Syrian military bus in the Al-Sabboura area of the Rif Dimashq countryside.


title: Timeline of the Syrian civil war (2022)

text: On 15 October, 4 Pro-Assad gunmen and 10 ISIS fighters were killed in clashes in the town of Jasim, Daraa. A senior Iraqi ISIS militant by the name of Abdulrahman al-Iraqi was killed in the fighting.


title: Timeline of the Syrian civil war (2022)

text: On 16 October, at least six rebel fighters affiliated to Suqur Al-Sham were killed after Russian airstrikes targeted a military base between Azaz and Afrin.


title: Timeline of the Syrian civil war (2022)

text: On 17 October, an ISIS suicide bomber blew himself up and 3 other ISIS members after the Syrian army launched a security operation in Jasim, Daraa, following clashes a few days before.


title: Timeline of the Syrian civil war (2022)

text: On the same day, 2 NDF militiamen were killed and 5 others were wounded after their vehicle drove over a mine in the al-Talahej area, east of Hama.


title: Timeline of the Syrian civil war (2022)

text: Between 22-23 October at least one Syrian soldier and one opposition fighter were killed during intense artillery duels on the Idlib frontline.<ref name="TGJ20-26/10/2022"></ref>


title: Timeline of the Syrian civil war (2022)

text: In October, the United Nations called for a "nationwide ceasefire" in Syria. The U.N. special envoy for Syria, Geir Pedersen, met with Syria's foreign minister in Damascus; afterwards, Pedersen said that Syria's economic situation is “extremely difficult as close to 15 million people are in need for humanitarian assistance."


title: Timeline of the Syrian civil war (2022)

text: In late 2022, Turkish President Erdogan expressed openness to meeting with Assad. Some analysts attributed this new attitude to Erdogan's desire to improve his popularity with voters, ahead of upcoming elections; and also, to improve Turkey's relations with Russia, which has forces deployed in Syria.


title: Timeline of the Syrian civil war (2022)

text: In October 2022, a rights group raised concerns that thousands of Syrian refugees in Turkey were being forcibly returned to Syria by Turkish forces, and specifically being forced to relocate to the northern zone of Syria controlled by Turkey. Various rights advocates were stated to be concerned that improved relations between Syrian President Assad and Turkish President Erdogan might eventually be detrimental to Syrian refugees in Turkey. Also, there were reports of an increase of attacks on Syrian immigrants living in Turkey.


title: Timeline of the Syrian civil war (2022)

text: Between 31 October and 15 November, 16 ISIS fighters, 6 Pro-Assad militiamen and 6 civilians were killed in clashes in and around the city of Daraa.


title: Timeline of the Syrian civil war (2022)

text: On 4 November, a commander of the Liwa al-Quds militia was killed and several others were wounded after a mine was activated whilst searching for ISIS cells in the desert south of Deir ez-Zor.


title: Timeline of the Syrian civil war (2022)

text: On 6 November, Syrian government forces shelled a camp for the displaced in the rebel-held northwestern part of Idlib, killing 9 and wounding dozens.


title: Timeline of the Syrian civil war (2022)

text: Between 5-7 November, 13 Syrian soldiers and 3 HTS fighters were killed in clashes on the Sahl al-Ghab area of the Idlib frontline.<ref name="TGJ3-9/11/2022"></ref>


title: Timeline of the Syrian civil war (2022)

text: On 9 November, 14 people, including some Iranian militiamen, were killed in a Israeli airstrike in the town of Abu Kamal near the border with Iraq.


title: Timeline of the Syrian civil war (2022)

text: On 13 November, 2 Syrian soldiers were killed and 3 others were wounded by 4 Israeli airstrikes on Shayrat Airbase in Homs.


title: Timeline of the Syrian civil war (2022)

text: On the same day, two Syrian soldiers were killed in an ISIS ambush after an IED was activated against their vehicle on the Homs-Palmyra road.<ref name="TGJ3-10-16/11/2022"></ref>


title: Timeline of the Syrian civil war (2022)

text: On the same day, a bombing occurred in Istanbul's Beyoğlu district in Turkey, killing 6 and wounding 81. Turkish authorities announced they suspected the PKK and the Syrian PYD of carrying out the attack.


title: Timeline of the Syrian civil war (2022)

text: On 19 November, in the early hours of the morning, 4 Syrian soldiers were killed and another was injured in Israeli airstrikes on a Syrian military position on the Tartus coastline.


title: Timeline of the Syrian civil war (2022)

text: In the early hours of 20 November, Turkey launched 'Operation Claw-Sword' in Syria and Iraq in response to the recent Istanbul bombing. Initial attacks in Syria came in the form of airstrikes against Kurdish and Syrian Government positions in northern Syria, such as Kobani and Tell Tamer.


title: Timeline of the Syrian civil war (2022)

text: On the same day, 4 Syrian soldiers were killed in an ISIS ambush whilst patrolling the desert west of Palmyra.


title: Timeline of the Syrian civil war (2022)

text: On 22 November, 5 civilians were killed and another 5 were wounded after rockets were launched into the city of Azaz in northern Syria. The rockets were likely fired by Kurdish forces as part of recent clashes between Rojava and Turkey.


title: Timeline of the Syrian civil war (2022)

text: On 27 November, 4 drug smugglers were killed in clashes with the Jordanian army on the Syria-Jordan border near As-Suwayda.


title: Timeline of the Syrian civil war (2022)

text: On 29 November, 2 Syrian soldiers were killed after ISIS forces ambushed and opened fire on their military vehicle at the T3 junction about 40km east of Palmyra.


title: Timeline of the Syrian civil war (2022)

text: On 1 December, clashes broke out between ISIS and Syrian Army forces in the desert near Palmyra, killing at least 3 Syrian soldiers.<ref name="TGJ1-7/12/2022"></ref>


title: Timeline of the Syrian civil war (2022)

text: First week of December was marked by the beginning of large-scale demonstrations in the southern Druze-majority city of Suweida; headquarters of Suweida governorate. Angry protestors chanted slogans against the Assad family; calling for the overthrow of the regime. The protests resulted in the death of one policeman and one protestor. On December 4, over 200 Druze protestors stormed and occupied the office of Suweyda's governor and burned portraits of Bashar al-Assad.


title: Timeline of the Syrian civil war (2022)

text: On 6 December, Al Jazeera reported that Turkey had set a deadline of 2 weeks for SDF forces to leave the areas of Manbij, Tell Rifat and Kobani and that a failure to do so would result in a new ground offensive as part of Operation Claw-Sword.


title: Timeline of the Syrian civil war (2022)

text: Between 6-7 December, 2 Syrian soldiers and a fighter of HTS were killed in clashes on the Idlib frontline.


title: Timeline of the Syrian civil war (2022)

text: On 6 December, 2 ISIS fighters and 9 Syrian militiamen, some of which were Afghan, were killed in clashes in the desert in the eastern Homs countryside.


title: Timeline of the Syrian civil war (2022)

text: On the same day, Syrian forces lost contact with a patrol of the 'Homeland Defence Forces', a militia within the Syrian Armed Forces, whilst they were combing the al-Tabani desert area for ISIS cells northwest of Deir ez-Zor


title: Timeline of the Syrian civil war (2022)

text: On 10 December, an ISIS militant was killed and 3 Asayish fighters were wounded during a Kurdish-launched raid on a house in the city of Raqqa.


title: Timeline of the Syrian civil war (2022)

text: On 11 December, at least 2 Syrian soldiers were killed in an Inghimasi attack by Tahrir al-Sham militants on a Syrian Army position on the outskirts of the village of Dadikh on the Idlib frontline. The position was destroyed by HTS fighters after the attack.


title: Timeline of the Syrian civil war (2022)

text: On the same day, HTS forces attacked Syrian military positions at Al-Bayda village in the Turkmen mountains on the Latakia/Idlib frontline, killing 3 Syrian soldiers.


title: Timeline of the Syrian civil war (2022)

text: In the early morning on 12 December, American forces launched a raid on a house in the village of Al-Zor in the eastern Deir ez-Zor desert. 2 ISIS fighters were killed in the raid including a prominent local leader by the name of 'Anas'.


title: Timeline of the Syrian civil war (2022)

text: On 12 December, under the cover of fog, ISIS cells launched an attack on Syrian forces in the Al-Shula area, 30km south of Deir ez-Zor. 6 Syrian soldiers/militiamen were killed in the attack and a number of others were wounded.


title: Timeline of the Syrian civil war (2022)

text: The next day, following previous clashes, ISIS militants temporarily took control of the town of Al-Kawm for an entire day using the fog to their advantage.


title: Timeline of the Syrian civil war (2022)

text: On 15 December, ISIS forces ambushed a convoy of the Syrian NDF militia on the Ithriya -Al-Raqqa road in the Hama desert. The ambush began following the detonation of a landmine under the militiamen's car, killing 3 NDF fighters immediately. Brief clashes took place between ISIS forces and the militiamen, another 2 NDF fighters were killed in the clashes.<ref name="TGJ8-14/12/2022"></ref>


title: Timeline of the Syrian civil war (2022)

text: On 18 December, at least 3 Syrian soldiers were killed in a HTS infiltration on Syrian positions near the village of Arbikh near Taftanaz, north of Saraqib on the Idlib frontline. HTS released footage of the attack the same day.


title: Timeline of the Syrian civil war (2022)

text: On the same day, HTS also launched a similar infiltration offensive on a Syrian military position in the town of Qubtan Al-Jabal in the western Aleppo countryside, killing at least 7 Syrian soldiers and then blowing up the building Syrian forces had been occupying. Footage of the attack was released by HTS.


title: Timeline of the Syrian civil war (2022)

text: The SOHR reported that the recent increase of attacks by HTS on the Idlib frontline was due to potential talks between Turkey, Russia and Syria and that HTS was launching a campaign of attacks as a way of rejecting any deal made on the 'de-escalation zone' in Idlib.


title: Hallstatt culture

text: The Hallstatt culture was the predominant Western and Central European culture of Late Bronze Age (Hallstatt A, Hallstatt B) from the 12th to 8th centuries BC and Early Iron Age Europe (Hallstatt C, Hallstatt D) from the 8th to 6th centuries BC, developing out of the Urnfield culture of the 12th century BC (Late Bronze Age) and followed in much of its area by the La Tène culture. It is commonly associated with Proto-Celtic populations. Older assumptions of the early 20th century of Illyrians having been the bearers of especially the Eastern Hallstatt culture are indefensible and archeologically unsubstantiated.


title: Hallstatt culture

text: It is named for its type site, Hallstatt, a lakeside village in the Austrian Salzkammergut southeast of Salzburg, where there was a rich salt mine, and some 1,300 burials are known, many with fine artifacts. Material from Hallstatt has been classified into four periods, designated "Hallstatt A" to "D". Hallstatt A and B are regarded as Late Bronze Age and the terms used for wider areas, such as "Hallstatt culture", or "period", "style" and so on, relate to the Iron Age Hallstatt C and D.


title: Hallstatt culture

text: By the 6th century BC, it had expanded to include wide territories, falling into two zones, east and west, between them covering much of western and central Europe down to the Alps, and extending into northern Italy. Parts of Britain and Iberia are included in the ultimate expansion of the culture.


title: Hallstatt culture

text: The culture was based on farming, but metal-working was considerably advanced, and by the end of the period long-range trade within the area and with Mediterranean cultures was economically significant. Social distinctions became increasingly important, with emerging elite classes of chieftains and warriors, and perhaps those with other skills. Society was organized on a tribal basis, though very little is known about this. Only a few of the largest settlements, like Heuneburg in the south of Germany, were towns rather than villages by modern standards.


title: Hallstatt culture

text: According to Paul Reinecke's time-scheme from 1902, the end of the Bronze Age and the Early Iron Age were divided into four periods:


title: Hallstatt culture

text: Already by 1881 Otto Tischler had made analogies to the Iron Age in the Northern Alps based on finds of brooches from graves in the south of Germany.


title: Hallstatt culture

text: It has proven difficult to use radiocarbon dating for the Early Iron Age due to the so-called "Hallstatt-Plateau", a phenomenon where radiocarbon dates cannot be distinguished between 750 to 400 BC. There are workarounds however, such as the wiggle matching technique. Therefore dating in this time-period has been based mainly on Dendrochronology and relative dating.


title: Hallstatt culture

text: For the beginning of HaC wood pieces from the Cart Grave of Wehringen (Landkreis Augsburg) deliver a solid dating in 778 ± 5 BC (Grave Barrow 8).


title: Hallstatt culture

text: Despite missing an older Dendro-date for HaC, the convention remains that the Hallstatt Period begins together with the arrival of the iron ore processing technology around 800 BC.


title: Hallstatt culture

text: HaC is dated according to the presence of Mindelheim-type swords, binocular brooches, harp brooches, and arched brooches.


title: Hallstatt culture

text: Based on the quickly changing fashions of brooches, it was possible to divide HaD into three stages (D1-D3). In HaD1 snake brooches are predominant, while in HaD2 drum brooches appear more often, and in HaD3 the double-drum and embellished foot brooches.


title: Hallstatt culture

text: The transition to the La Tène Period is often connected with the emergence of the first animal-shaped brooches, with Certosa-type and with Marzabotto-type brooches.


title: Hallstatt culture

text: In 1846, Johann Georg Ramsauer (1795–1874) discovered a large prehistoric cemetery near Hallstatt, Austria (), which he excavated during the second half of the 19th century. Eventually the excavation would yield 1,045 burials, although no settlement has yet been found. This may be covered by the later village, which has long occupied the whole narrow strip between the steep hillsides and the lake. Some 1,300 burials have been found, including around 2,000 individuals, with women and children but few infants. Nor is there a "princely" burial, as often found near large settlements. Instead, there are a large number of burials varying considerably in the number and richness of the grave goods, but with a high proportion containing goods suggesting a life well above subsistence level.


title: Hallstatt culture

text: The community at Hallstatt was untypical of the wider, mainly agricultural, culture, as its booming economy exploited the salt mines in the area. These had been worked from time to time since the Neolithic period, and in this period were extensively mined with a peak from the 8th to 5th centuries BC. The style and decoration of the grave goods found in the cemetery are very distinctive, and artifacts made in this style are widespread in Europe. In the mine workings themselves, the salt has preserved many organic materials such as textiles, wood and leather, and many abandoned artifacts such as shoes, pieces of cloth, and tools including miner's backpacks, have survived in good condition.


title: Hallstatt culture

text: Finds at Hallstatt extend from about 1200 BC until around 500 BC, and are divided by archaeologists into four phases:


title: Hallstatt culture

text: Hallstatt A–B (1200–800 BC) are part of the Bronze Age Urnfield culture. In this period, people were cremated and buried in simple graves. In phase B, tumulus (barrow or kurgan) burial becomes common, and cremation predominates.


title: Hallstatt culture

text: The "Hallstatt period" proper is restricted to HaC and HaD (800–450 BC), corresponding to the early European Iron Age. Hallstatt lies in the area where the western and eastern zones of the Hallstatt culture meet, which is reflected in the finds from there.


title: Hallstatt culture

text: Hallstatt C is characterized by the first appearance of iron swords mixed amongst the bronze ones. Inhumation and cremation co-occur. For the final phase, Hallstatt D, daggers, almost to the exclusion of swords, are found in western zone graves ranging from c. 600–500 BC. There are also differences in the pottery and brooches. Burials were mostly inhumations. Halstatt D has been further divided into the sub-phases D1–D3, relating only to the western zone, and mainly based on the form of brooches.


title: Hallstatt culture

text: Major activity at the site appears to have finished about 500 BC, for reasons that are unclear. Many Hallstatt graves were robbed, probably at this time. There was widespread disruption throughout the western Hallstatt zone, and the salt workings had by then become very deep. By then the focus of salt mining had shifted to the nearby Hallein Salt Mine, with graves at Dürrnberg nearby where there are significant finds from the late Hallstatt and early La Tène periods, until the mid-4th century BC, when a major landslide destroyed the mineshafts and ended mining activity.


title: Hallstatt culture

text: Much of the material from early excavations was dispersed, and is now found in many collections, especially German and Austrian museums, but the Hallstatt Museum in the town has the largest collection.


title: Hallstatt culture

text: It is probable that some if not all of the diffusion of Hallstatt culture took place in a Celtic-speaking context. In northern Italy the Golasecca culture developed with continuity from the Canegrate culture. Canegrate represented a completely new cultural dynamic to the area expressed in pottery and bronzework, making it a typical western example of the western Hallstatt culture.


title: Hallstatt culture

text: The Lepontic Celtic language inscriptions of the area show the language of the Golasecca culture was clearly Celtic making it probable that the 13th-century BC precursor language of at least the western Hallstatt was also Celtic or a precursor to it. Lepontic inscriptions have also been found in Umbria, in the area which saw the emergence of the Terni culture, which had strong similarities with the Celtic cultures of Hallstatt and La Tène. The Umbrian necropolis of Terni, which dates back to the 10th century BC, was virtually identical in every aspect to the Celtic necropolis of the Golasecca culture.


title: Hallstatt culture

text: Trade with Greece is attested by finds of Attic black-figure pottery in the elite graves of the late Hallstatt period. It was probably imported via Massilia (Marseilles). Other imported luxuries include amber, ivory (as found at the ) and probably wine. Red kermes dye was imported from the south as well; it was found at Hochdorf. Notable individual imports include the Vix krater (the largest known metal vessel from Western classical antiquity), the Etruscan lebes from Sainte-Colombe-sur-Seine, and the Grächwil Hydria.


title: Hallstatt culture

text: The largest settlements were mostly fortified, situated on hilltops, and frequently included the workshops of bronze-, silver-, and goldsmiths. Major settlements are known as 'princely seats' (or "Fürstensitze" in German), and are characterized by elite residences, rich burials, monumental buildings and fortifications. These central sites are described as urban or proto-urban by numerous scholars, and as 'the first cities north of the Alps' by some authors. Typical sites of this type are the Heuneburg on the upper Danube surrounded by nine very large grave tumuli, Mont Lassois in eastern France near Châtillon-sur-Seine with, at its foot, the very rich grave at Vix, and the hill fort at Molpír in Slovakia. However, most settlements were much smaller villages. The large monumental site of Alte Burg may have had a religious or ceremonial function, and possibly served as a location for games and competitions.


title: Hallstatt culture

text: At the end of the Hallstatt period many major centres were abandoned and there was a return to a more decentralized settlement pattern, prior to the emergence of urban centres across temperate Europe in the 3rd and 2nd centuries BC during the La Tène period.


title: Hallstatt culture

text: In the central Hallstatt regions toward the end of the period (Ha D), very rich graves of high-status individuals under large tumuli are found near the remains of fortified hilltop settlements. Tumuli graves had a chamber, rather large in some cases, lined with timber and with the body and grave goods set about the room. There are some chariot or wagon burials, including (possibly) Býčí Skála, Vix and Hochdorf. A model of a chariot made from lead has been found in Frögg, Carinthia, and clay models of horses with riders are also found. Wooden "funerary carts", presumably used as hearses and then buried, are sometimes found in the grandest graves. Pottery and bronze vessels, weapons, elaborate jewellery made of bronze and gold, as well as a few stone stelae (especially the famous Warrior of Hirschlanden) are found at such burials. The daggers that largely replaced swords in chief's graves in the west were probably not serious weapons, but badges of rank, and used at the table.


title: Hallstatt culture

text: The material culture of Western Hallstatt culture was apparently sufficient to provide a stable social and economic equilibrium. The founding of Marseille and the penetration by Greek and Etruscan culture after c. 600 BC, resulted in long-range trade relationships up the Rhone valley which triggered social and cultural transformations in the Hallstatt settlements north of the Alps. Powerful local chiefdoms emerged which controlled the redistribution of luxury goods from the Mediterranean world that is also characteristic of the La Tène culture.


title: Hallstatt culture

text: The apparently largely peaceful and prosperous life of Hallstatt D culture was disrupted, perhaps even collapsed, right at the end of the period. There has been much speculation as to the causes of this, which remain uncertain. Large settlements such as Heuneburg and the Burgstallkogel were destroyed or abandoned, rich tumulus burials ended, and old ones were looted. There was probably a significant movement of population westwards, and the succeeding La Tène culture developed new centres to the west and north, their growth perhaps overlapping with the final years of the Hallstatt culture.


title: Hallstatt culture

text: Occasional iron artefacts had been appearing in central and western Europe for some centuries before 800 BC (an iron knife or sickle from Ganovce in Slovakia, dating to the 18th century BC, is possibly the earliest evidence of smelted iron in Central Europe). By the later Urnfield (Hallstatt B) phase, some swords were already being made and embellished in iron in eastern Central Europe, and occasionally much further west. Initially iron was rather exotic and expensive, and sometimes used as a prestige material for jewellery. Iron swords became more common after c. 800 BC, and steel was also produced from c. 800 BC as part of the production of swords. The production of high-carbon steel is attested in Britain after c. 490 BC.


title: Hallstatt culture

text: The remarkable uniformity of spoked-wheel wagons from across the Hallstatt region indicates a certain standardisation of production methods, which included the use of lathe-turning. Iron tyres were also developed and refined in this period, leading to the invention of shrunk-on iron tyres without nails in the later La Tène period. The potter's wheel appeared towards the end of the Hallstatt period.


title: Hallstatt culture

text: The extensive use of planking and massive squared beams indicates the use of long saw blades and possibly two-man sawing. The planks of the Hohmichele burial chamber (6th c. BC), which were over 6m long and 35cm wide, appear to have been sawn by a large-timber-yard saw. The construction of monumental buildings such as the Vix palace further demonstrates a "mastery of geometry and carpentry" that was capable of freeing up vast interior spaces.


title: Hallstatt culture

text: At least the later periods of Hallstatt art from the western zone are generally agreed to form the early period of Celtic art. Decoration is mostly geometric and linear, and best seen on fine metalwork finds from graves (see above). Styles differ, especially between the west and east, with more human figures and some narrative elements in the latter. Animals, with waterfowl a particular favourite, are often included as part of other objects, more often than humans, and in the west there is almost no narrative content such as scenes of combat depicted. These characteristics were continued into the succeeding La Tène style.


title: Hallstatt culture

text: Imported luxury art is sometimes found in rich elite graves in the later phases, and certainly had some influence on local styles. The most spectacular objects, such as the Strettweg Cult Wagon, the Warrior of Hirschlanden and the bronze couch supported by "unicyclists" from the Hochdorf Chieftain's Grave are one of a kind in finds from the Hallstatt period, though they can be related to objects from other periods.


title: Hallstatt culture

text: More common objects include weapons, in Ha D often with hilts terminating in curving forks ("antenna hilts"). Jewellery in metal includes fibulae, often with a row of disks hanging down on chains, armlets and some torcs. This is mostly in bronze, but "princely" burials include items in gold.


title: Hallstatt culture

text: The origin of the narrative scenes of the eastern zone, from Hallstatt C onwards, is generally traced to influence from the Situla art of northern Italy and the northern Adriatic, where these bronze buckets began to be decorated in bands with figures in provincial Etruscan centres influenced by Etruscan and Greek art. The fashion for decorated situlae spread north across neighbouring cultures including the eastern Hallstatt zone, beginning around 600 BC and surviving until about 400 BC; the Vače situla is a Slovenian example from near the final period. The style is also found on bronze belt plates, and some of the vocabulary of motifs spread to influence the emerging La Tène style.


title: Hallstatt culture

text: According to Ruth and Vincent Megaw, "Situla art depicts life as seen from a masculine viewpoint, in which women are servants or sex objects; most of the scenes which include humans are of the feasts in which the situlae themselves figure, of the hunt or of war". Similar scenes are found on other vessel shapes, as well as bronze belt-plaques. The processions of animals, typical of earlier examples, or humans derive from the Near East and Mediterranean, and Nancy Sandars finds the style shows "a "gaucherie" that betrays the artist working in a way that is uncongenial, too much at variance with the temper of the craftsmen and the craft". Compared to earlier styles that arose organically in Europe "situla art is weak and sometimes quaint", and "in essence not of Europe".


title: Hallstatt culture

text: Except for the Italian Benvenuti Situla, men are hairless, with "funny hats, dumpy bodies and big heads", though often shown looking cheerful in an engaging way. The Benevenuti Situla is also unusual in that it seems to show a specific story.


title: Hallstatt culture

text: Two culturally distinct areas, an eastern and a western zone are generally recognised. There are distinctions in burial rites, the types of grave goods, and in artistic style. In the western zone, members of the elite were buried with sword (HaC) or dagger (HaD), in the eastern zone with an axe. The western zone has chariot burials. In the eastern zone, warriors are frequently buried with helmet and a plate armour breastplate. Artistic subjects with a narrative component are only found in the east, in both pottery and metalwork. In the east the settlements and cemeteries can be larger than in the west.


title: Hallstatt culture

text: The approximate division line between the two subcultures runs from north to south through central Bohemia and Lower Austria at about 14 to 15 degrees eastern longitude, and then traces the eastern and southern rim of the Alps to Eastern and Southern Tyrol.


title: Hallstatt culture

text: While Hallstatt is regarded as the dominant settlement of the western zone, a settlement at the Burgstallkogel in the central Sulm valley (southern Styria, west of Leibnitz, Austria) was a major centre during the Hallstatt C period. Parts of the huge necropolis (which originally consisted of more than 1,100 tumuli) surrounding this settlement can be seen today near Gleinstätten, and the chieftain's mounds were on the other side of the hill, near Kleinklein. The finds are mostly in the Landesmuseum Joanneum at Graz, which also holds the Strettweg Cult Wagon.


title: Hallstatt culture

text: Trade, cultural diffusion, and some population movements spread the Hallstatt cultural complex (western form) into Britain, and Ireland.


title: Hallstatt culture

text: A genetic study published in "Nature" in May 2018 examined the remains of a male and female buried at a Hallstatt cemetery near Litoměřice, Czech Republic between ca. 600 BC and 400 BC. The male was found to be a carrier of the paternal haplogroup R1b and the maternal haplogroup H6a1a. The female was a carrier of the maternal haplogroup HV0.


title: Hallstatt culture

text: A genetic study published in the "Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America" in June 2020 examined the remains of 5 individuals ascribed to either Hallstatt C or the early La Tène culture. The sample of Y-DNA extracted was determined to belong to haplogroup G2a, while the 5 samples of mtDNA extracted were determined to belong to the haplogroups K1a2a, J1c2o, H7d, U5a1a1 and J1c-16261. The examined individuals of the Hallstatt culture and La Tène culture displayed genetic continuity with the earlier Bell Beaker culture, and carried about 50% steppe-related ancestry.


title: Hallstatt culture

text: A genetic study published in iScience in April 2022 examined 49 genomes from 27 sites in Bronze Age and Iron Age France. The study found evidence of strong genetic continuity between the two periods, particularly in southern France. The samples from northern and southern France were highly homogenous, with northern samples displaying links to contemporary samples form Great Britain and Sweden, and southern samples displaying links to Celtiberians. The northern French samples were distinguished from the southern ones by elevated levels of steppe-related ancestry. R1b was by far the most dominant paternal lineage, while H was the most common maternal lineage. The Iron Age samples resembled those of modern-day populations of France, Great Britain and Spain. The evidence suggested that the Celts of the Hallstatt culture largely evolved from local Bronze Age populations.


title: Nuclear weapons testing

text: Nuclear weapons tests are experiments carried out to determine nuclear weapons' effectiveness, yield, and explosive capability. Testing nuclear weapons offers practical information about how the weapons function, how detonations are affected by different conditions, and how personnel, structures, and equipment are affected when subjected to nuclear explosions. However, nuclear testing has often been used as an indicator of scientific and military strength. Many tests have been overtly political in their intention; most nuclear weapons states publicly declared their nuclear status through a nuclear test.


title: Nuclear weapons testing

text: The first nuclear device was detonated as a test by the United States at the Trinity site in New Mexico on July 16, 1945, with a yield approximately equivalent to 20 kilotons of TNT. The first thermonuclear weapon technology test of an engineered device, codenamed "Ivy Mike", was tested at the Enewetak Atoll in the Marshall Islands on November 1, 1952 (local date), also by the United States. The largest nuclear weapon ever tested was the "Tsar Bomba" of the Soviet Union at Novaya Zemlya on October 30, 1961, with the largest yield ever seen, an estimated 50–58 megatons.


title: Nuclear weapons testing

text: In 1963, three (UK, US, Soviet Union) of the then four nuclear states and many non-nuclear states signed the Limited Test Ban Treaty, pledging to refrain from testing nuclear weapons in the atmosphere, underwater, or in outer space. The treaty permitted underground nuclear testing. France continued atmospheric testing until 1974, and China continued until 1980. Neither has signed the treaty.


title: Nuclear weapons testing

text: Underground tests conducted by the Soviet Union continued until 1990, the United Kingdom until 1991, the United States until 1992, and both China and France until 1996. In signing the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty in 1996, these countries have pledged to discontinue all nuclear testing; the treaty has not yet entered into force because of failure to be ratified by eight countries. Non-signatories India and Pakistan last tested nuclear weapons in 1998. North Korea conducted nuclear tests in 2006, 2009, 2013, 2016, and 2017. The most recent confirmed nuclear test in September 2017 in North Korea.


title: Nuclear weapons testing

text: Nuclear weapons tests have historically been divided into four categories reflecting the medium or location of the test.


title: Nuclear weapons testing

text: Another way to classify nuclear tests is by the number of explosions that constitute the test. The treaty definition of a salvo test is:


title: Nuclear weapons testing

text: In conformity with treaties between the United States and the Soviet Union, a salvo is defined, for multiple explosions for peaceful purposes, as two or more separate explosions where a period of time between successive individual explosions does not exceed 5 seconds and where the burial points of all explosive devices can be connected by segments of straight lines, each of them connecting two burial points, and the total length does not exceed 40 kilometers. For nuclear weapon tests, a salvo is defined as two or more underground nuclear explosions conducted at a test site within an area delineated by a circle having a diameter of two kilometers and conducted within a total period of time of 0.1 second.


title: Nuclear weapons testing

text: The USSR has exploded up to eight devices in a single salvo test; Pakistan's second and last official test exploded four different devices. Almost all lists in the literature are lists of tests; in the lists in Wikipedia (for example, "Operation Cresset" has separate items for "Cremino" and "Caerphilly", which together constitute a single test), the lists are of explosions.


title: Nuclear weapons testing

text: Separately from these designations, nuclear tests are also often categorized by the purpose of the test itself.


title: Nuclear weapons testing

text: Aside from these technical considerations, tests have been conducted for political and training purposes, and can often serve multiple purposes.


title: Nuclear weapons testing

text: Hydronuclear tests study nuclear materials under the conditions of explosive shock compression. They can create subcritical conditions, or supercritical conditions with yields ranging from negligible all the way up to a substantial fraction of full weapon yield.


title: Nuclear weapons testing

text: Critical mass experiments determine the quantity of fissile material required for criticality with a variety of fissile material compositions, densities, shapes, and reflectors. They can be subcritical or supercritical, in which case significant radiation fluxes can be produced. This type of test has resulted in several criticality accidents.


title: Nuclear weapons testing

text: Subcritical (or cold) tests are any type of tests involving nuclear materials and possibly high explosives (like those mentioned above) that purposely result in no yield. The name refers to the lack of creation of a critical mass of fissile material. They are the only type of tests allowed under the interpretation of the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty tacitly agreed to by the major atomic powers. Subcritical tests continue to be performed by the United States, Russia, and the People's Republic of China, at least.


title: Nuclear weapons testing

text: The first atomic weapons test was conducted near Alamogordo, New Mexico, on July 16, 1945, during the Manhattan Project, and given the codename "Trinity". The test was originally to confirm that the implosion-type nuclear weapon design was feasible, and to give an idea of what the actual size and effects of a nuclear explosion would be before they were used in combat against Japan. While the test gave a good approximation of many of the explosion's effects, it did not give an appreciable understanding of nuclear fallout, which was not well understood by the project scientists until well after the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.


title: Nuclear weapons testing

text: The United States conducted six atomic tests before the Soviet Union developed their first atomic bomb (RDS-1) and tested it on August 29, 1949. Neither country had very many atomic weapons to spare at first, and so testing was relatively infrequent (when the U.S. used two weapons for "Operation Crossroads" in 1946, they were detonating over 20% of their current arsenal). However, by the 1950s the United States had established a dedicated test site on its own territory (Nevada Test Site) and was also using a site in the Marshall Islands (Pacific Proving Grounds) for extensive atomic and nuclear testing.


title: Nuclear weapons testing

text: The early tests were used primarily to discern the military effects of atomic weapons ("Crossroads" had involved the effect of atomic weapons on a navy, and how they functioned underwater) and to test new weapon designs. During the 1950s, these included new hydrogen bomb designs, which were tested in the Pacific, and also new and improved fission weapon designs. The Soviet Union also began testing on a limited scale, primarily in Kazakhstan. During the later phases of the Cold War, though, both countries developed accelerated testing programs, testing many hundreds of bombs over the last half of the 20th century.


title: Nuclear weapons testing

text: Atomic and nuclear tests can involve many hazards. Some of these were illustrated in the U.S. Castle Bravo test in 1954. The weapon design tested was a new form of hydrogen bomb, and the scientists underestimated how vigorously some of the weapon materials would react. As a result, the explosion—with a yield of 15 Mt—was over twice what was predicted. Aside from this problem, the weapon also generated a large amount of radioactive nuclear fallout, more than had been anticipated, and a change in the weather pattern caused the fallout to spread in a direction not cleared in advance. The fallout plume spread high levels of radiation for over , contaminating a number of populated islands in nearby atoll formations. Though they were soon evacuated, many of the islands' inhabitants suffered from radiation burns and later from other effects such as increased cancer rate and birth defects, as did the crew of the Japanese fishing boat "Daigo Fukuryū Maru". One crewman died from radiation sickness after returning to port, and it was feared that the radioactive fish they had been carrying had made it into the Japanese food supply.


title: Nuclear weapons testing

text: Castle Bravo was the worst U.S. nuclear accident, but many of its component problems—unpredictably large yields, changing weather patterns, unexpected fallout contamination of populations and the food supply—occurred during other atmospheric nuclear weapons tests by other countries as well. Concerns over worldwide fallout rates eventually led to the Partial Test Ban Treaty in 1963, which limited signatories to underground testing. Not all countries stopped atmospheric testing, but because the United States and the Soviet Union were responsible for roughly 86% of all nuclear tests, their compliance cut the overall level substantially. France continued atmospheric testing until 1974, and China until 1980.


title: Nuclear weapons testing

text: A tacit moratorium on testing was in effect from 1958 to 1961, and ended with a series of Soviet tests in late 1961, including the Tsar Bomba, the largest nuclear weapon ever tested. The United States responded in 1962 with Operation Dominic, involving dozens of tests, including the explosion of a missile launched from a submarine.


title: Nuclear weapons testing

text: Almost all new nuclear powers have announced their possession of nuclear weapons with a nuclear test. The only acknowledged nuclear power that claims never to have conducted a test was South Africa (although see Vela Incident), which has since dismantled all of its weapons. Israel is widely thought to possess a sizable nuclear arsenal, though it has never tested, unless they were involved in Vela. Experts disagree on whether states can have reliable nuclear arsenals—especially ones using advanced warhead designs, such as hydrogen bombs and miniaturized weapons—without testing, though all agree that it is very unlikely to develop significant nuclear innovations without testing. One other approach is to use supercomputers to conduct "virtual" testing, but codes need to be validated against test data.


title: Nuclear weapons testing

text: There have been many attempts to limit the number and size of nuclear tests; the most far-reaching is the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty of 1996, which has not, , been ratified by eight of the "Annex 2 countries" required for it to take effect, including the United States. Nuclear testing has since become a controversial issue in the United States, with a number of politicians saying that future testing might be necessary to maintain the aging warheads from the Cold War. Because nuclear testing is seen as furthering nuclear arms development, many are opposed to future testing as an acceleration of the arms race.


title: Nuclear weapons testing

text: In total nuclear test megatonnage, from 1945 to 1992, 520 atmospheric nuclear explosions (including eight underwater) were conducted with a total yield of 545 megatons, with a peak occurring in 1961–1962, when 340 megatons were detonated in the atmosphere by the United States and Soviet Union, while the estimated number of underground nuclear tests conducted in the period from 1957 to 1992 was 1,352 explosions with a total yield of 90 Mt.


title: Nuclear weapons testing

text: In US context, it was decided during the Manhattan Project that yield measured in tons of TNT equivalent could be imprecise. This comes from the range of experimental values of the energy content of TNT, ranging from . There is also the issue of which ton to use, as short tons, long tons and metric tonnes all have different values. It was therefore decided that one kiloton would be equivalent to .


title: Nuclear weapons testing

text: The nuclear powers have conducted more than 2,000 nuclear test explosions (numbers are approximate, as some test results have been disputed):


title: Nuclear weapons testing

text: There may also have been at least three alleged but unacknowledged nuclear explosions (see list of alleged nuclear tests) including the Vela Incident.


title: Nuclear weapons testing

text: From the first nuclear test in 1945 until tests by Pakistan in 1998, there was never a period of more than 22 months with no nuclear testing. June 1998 to October 2006 was the longest period since 1945 with no acknowledged nuclear tests.


title: Nuclear weapons testing

text: A summary table of all the nuclear testing that has happened since 1945 is here: Worldwide nuclear testing counts and summary.


title: Nuclear weapons testing

text: There are many existing anti-nuclear explosion treaties, notably the Partial Nuclear Test Ban Treaty and the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty. These treaties were proposed in response to growing international concerns about environmental damage among other risks. Nuclear testing involving humans also contributed to the formation of these treaties. Examples can be seen in the following articles:


title: Nuclear weapons testing

text: The Partial Nuclear Test Ban treaty makes it illegal to detonate any nuclear explosion anywhere except underground, in order to reduce atmospheric fallout. Most countries have signed and ratified the Partial Nuclear Test Ban, which went into effect in October 1963. Of the nuclear states, France, China, and North Korea have never signed the Partial Nuclear Test Ban Treaty.


title: Nuclear weapons testing

text: The 1996 Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty (CTBT) bans all nuclear explosions everywhere, including underground. For that purpose, the Preparatory Commission of the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty Organization is building an international monitoring system with 337 facilities located all over the globe. 85% of these facilities are already operational. , the CTBT has been signed by 183 States, of which 157 have also ratified. However, for the Treaty to enter into force it needs to be ratified by 44 specific nuclear technology-holder countries. These "Annex 2 States" participated in the negotiations on the CTBT between 1994 and 1996 and possessed nuclear power or research reactors at that time. The ratification of eight Annex 2 states is still missing: China, Egypt, Iran, Israel and the United States have signed but not ratified the Treaty; India, North Korea and Pakistan have not signed it.


title: Nuclear weapons testing

text: Over 500 atmospheric nuclear weapons tests were conducted at various sites around the world from 1945 to 1980. As public awareness and concern mounted over the possible health hazards associated with exposure to the nuclear fallout, various studies were done to assess the extent of the hazard. A Centers for Disease Control and Prevention/ National Cancer Institute study claims that nuclear fallout might have led to approximately 11,000 excess deaths, most caused by thyroid cancer linked to exposure to iodine-131.


title: Nuclear weapons testing

text: The following list is of milestone nuclear explosions. In addition to the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the first nuclear test of a given weapon type for a country is included, as well as tests that were otherwise notable (such as the largest test ever). All yields (explosive power) are given in their estimated energy equivalents in kilotons of TNT (see TNT equivalent). Putative tests (like Vela Incident) have not been included.


title: Sophia (Gnosticism)

text: Sophia ( "Wisdom", "the Sophia") is a major theme, along with Knowledge ( "gnosis", Coptic ), among many of the early Christian knowledge-theologies grouped by the heresiologist Irenaeus as (), ‘knowing’ or ‘men that claimed to have deeper wisdom’. Gnosticism is a 17th-century term expanding the definition of Irenaeus' groups to include other syncretic and mystery religions.


title: Sophia (Gnosticism)

text: In Gnosticism, Sophia is a feminine figure, analogous to the human soul but also simultaneously one of the feminine aspects of God. Gnostics held that she was the "syzygy" (female twin divine Aeon) of Jesus (i.e. the Bride of Christ), and Holy Spirit of the Trinity. She is occasionally referred to by the Hebrew equivalent of (, ) and as (). In the Nag Hammadi texts, Sophia is the lowest Aeon, or anthropic expression of the emanation of the light of God. She is considered to have fallen from grace in some way, in so doing creating or helping to create the material world.


title: Sophia (Gnosticism)

text: Almost all Gnostic systems of the Syrian or Egyptian type taught that the universe began with an original, unknowable God, referred to as the Parent or Bythos, or as the Monad by Monoimus. From this initial unitary beginning, the One spontaneously emanated further Aeons, being pairs of progressively 'lesser' beings in sequence. Together with the source from which they emanate they form the "Pleroma", or fullness, of God, and thus should not be seen as distinct from the divine, but symbolic abstractions of the divine nature. The transition from the immaterial to the material, from the noumenal to the sensible, is brought about by a flaw, or a passion, or a sin, in one of the Aeons.


title: Sophia (Gnosticism)

text: In most versions of the Gnostic mythos, it is Sophia who brings about this instability in the Pleroma, in turn bringing about the creation of materiality. According to some Gnostic texts, the crisis occurs as a result of Sophia trying to emanate without her syzygy or, in another tradition, because she tries to breach the barrier between herself and the unknowable Bythos. After cataclysmically falling from the Pleroma, Sophia's fear and anguish of losing her life (just as she lost the light of the One) causes confusion and longing to return to it. Because of these longings, matter (Greek: , ) and soul (Greek: , ) accidentally come into existence. The creation of the Demiurge (also known as Yaldabaoth, "Son of Chaos") is also a mistake made during this exile. The Demiurge proceeds to create the physical world in which we live, ignorant of Sophia, who nevertheless manages to infuse some spiritual spark or "pneuma" into his creation.


title: Sophia (Gnosticism)

text: In the "Pistis Sophia", Christ is sent from the Godhead in order to bring Sophia back into the fullness (Pleroma). Christ enables her to again see the light, bringing her knowledge of the spirit (Greek: , ). Christ is then sent to earth in the form of the man Jesus to give men the Gnosis needed to rescue themselves from the physical world and return to the spiritual world. In Gnosticism, the Gospel story of Jesus is itself allegorical: it is the Outer Mystery, used as an introduction to Gnosis, rather than it being literally true in a historical context. For the Gnostics, the drama of the redemption of the Sophia through Christ or the Logos is the central drama of the universe. The Sophia resides in all humans as the Divine Spark.


title: Sophia (Gnosticism)

text: Jewish Alexandrine religious philosophy was much occupied with the concept of the Divine "Sophia", as the revelation of God's inward thought, and assigned to her not only the formation and ordering of the natural universe (comp. Clem. "Hom." ) but also the communication of knowledge to mankind. In Wisdom (the noun is feminine) is described as God's Counsellor and Workmistress (Master-workman, R.V.), who dwelt beside Him before the Creation of the world and sported continually before Him.


title: Sophia (Gnosticism)

text: In accordance with the description given in the Book of Proverbs, a dwelling-place was assigned by the Gnostics to the Sophia, and her relation to the upper world defined as well as to the seven planetary powers which were placed under her. The seven planetary spheres or heavens were for the ancients the highest regions of the created universe. They were thought of as seven circles rising one above another, and dominated by the seven Archons. These constituted the (Gnostic) Hebdomad. Above the highest of them, and over-vaulting it, was the Ogdoad, the sphere of immutability, which was nigh to the spiritual world (Clemens Alexandrinus, "Stromata", , 161; comp. , 138 sqq.). Now we read in :


title: Sophia (Gnosticism)

text: These seven pillars being interpreted as the planetary heavens, the habitation of the Sophia herself was placed above the Hebdomad in the Ogdoad ("Excerpt. ex Theodot". 8, 47). It is said further of the same divine wisdom ():


title: Sophia (Gnosticism)

text: This meant, according to the Gnostic interpretation, that the Sophia has her dwelling-place "on the heights" above the created universe, in the place of the midst, between the upper and lower world, between the Pleroma and the . She sits at "the gates of the mighty," i.e. at the approaches to the realms of the seven Archons, and at the "entrances" to the upper realm of light her praise is sung. The Sophia is therefore the highest ruler over the visible universe, and at the same time the mediatrix between the upper and the lower realms. She shapes this mundane universe after the heavenly prototypes, and forms the seven star-circles with their Archons under whose dominion are placed, according to the astrological conceptions of antiquity, the fates of all earthly things, and more especially of man. She is "the mother" or "the mother of the living." (Epiph. "Haer". 26, 10). As coming from above, she is herself of pneumatic essence, the (Epiph. 40, 2) or the (Epiph. 39, 2) from which all pneumatic souls draw their origin.


title: Sophia (Gnosticism)

text: In reconciling the doctrine of the pneumatic nature of the Sophia with the dwelling-place assigned her, according to the Proverbs, in the kingdom of the midst, and so outside the upper realm of light, there was envisioned a descent of Sophia from her heavenly home, the Pleroma, into the void () beneath it. The concept was that of a seizure or robbery of light, or of an outburst and diffusion of light-dew into the , occasioned by a vivifying movement in the upper world. But inasmuch as the light brought down into the darkness of this lower world was thought of and described as involved in suffering, this suffering must be regarded as a punishment. This inference was further aided by the Platonic notion of a spiritual fall.


title: Sophia (Gnosticism)

text: Alienated through their own fault from their heavenly home, souls have sunk down into this lower world without utterly losing the remembrance of their former state, and filled with longing for their lost inheritance, these fallen souls are still striving upwards. In this way the mythos of the fall of Sophia can be regarded as having a typical significance. The fate of the "mother" was regarded as the prototype of what is repeated in the history of all individual souls, which, being of a heavenly pneumatic origin, have fallen from the upper world of light their home, and come under the sway of evil powers, from whom they must endure a long series of sufferings until a return into the upper world be once more vouchsafed them.


title: Sophia (Gnosticism)

text: But whereas, according to the Platonic philosophy, fallen souls still retain a remembrance of their lost home, this notion was preserved in another form in Gnostic circles. It was taught that the souls of the Pneumatici, having lost the remembrance of their heavenly derivation, required to become once more partakers of Gnosis, or knowledge of their own pneumatic essence, in order to make a return to the realm of light. In the impartation of this Gnosis consists the redemption brought and vouchsafed by Christ to pneumatic souls. But the various fortunes of such souls were wont to be contemplated in those of Sophia, and so it was taught that the Sophia also needed the redemption wrought by Christ, by whom she is delivered from her and her , and will, at the end of the world's development, be again brought back to her long lost home, the Upper Pleroma, into which this mother will find an entrance along with all pneumatic souls her children, and there, in the heavenly bridal chamber, celebrate the marriage feast of eternity.


title: Sophia (Gnosticism)

text: The Sophia mythos has in the various Gnostic systems undergone great variety of treatment. The oldest, the Syrian Gnosis, referred to the "Sophia" the formation of the lower world and the production of its rulers the Archons; and along with this they also ascribed to her the preservation and propagation of the spiritual seed.


title: Sophia (Gnosticism)

text: As described by Irenaeus, the great Mother-principle of the universe appears as the first woman, the Holy Spirit () moving over the waters, and is also called the mother of all living. Under her are the four material elements—water, darkness, abyss, and chaos. With her, combine themselves into two supreme masculine lights, the first and the second man, the Father and the Son, the latter being also designated as the Father's . From their union proceeds the third imperishable light, the third man, Christ. But unable to support the abounding fullness of this light, the mother in giving birth to Christ, suffers a portion of this light to overflow on the left side. While, then, Christ as (He of the right hand) mounts upward with his mother into the imperishable Aeon, that other light which has overflowed on the left hand, sinks down into the lower world, and there produces matter. And this is the Sophia, called also (she of the left hand), and the male-female.


title: Sophia (Gnosticism)

text: There is here, as yet, no thought of a fall, properly so called, as in the Valentinian system. The power which has thus overflowed leftwards, makes a voluntary descent into the lower waters, confiding in its possession of the spark of true light. It is, moreover, evident that though mythologically distinguished from the (Greek: , ), the Sophia is yet, really nothing else but the light-spark coming from above, entering this lower material world, and becoming here the source of all formation, and of both the higher and the lower life. She swims over the waters, and sets their hitherto immoveable mass in motion, driving them into the abyss, and taking to herself a bodily form from the . She compasses about, and is laden with material every kind of weight and substance, so that, but for the essential spark of light, she would be sunk and lost in the material. Bound to the body which she has assumed and weighed down thereby, she seeks in vain to make her escape from the lower waters, and hasten upwards to rejoin her heavenly mother. Not succeeding in this endeavour, she seeks to preserve, at least, her light-spark from being injured by the lower elements, raises herself by its power to the realm of the upper region, and there spreading herself out she forms out of her own bodily part, the dividing wall of the visible firmament, but still retains the . Finally seized with a longing for the higher light, she finds, at length, in herself, the power to raise herself even above the heaven of her own forming, and to fully lay aside her corporeity. The body thus abandoned is called "Woman from Woman."


title: Sophia (Gnosticism)

text: The narrative proceeds to tell of the formation of the seven Archons by Sophia herself, of the creation of man, which "the mother" (i.e. not the first woman, but the Sophia) uses as a mean to deprive the Archons of their share of light, of the perpetual conflict on his mother's part with the self-exalting efforts of the Archons, and of her continuous striving to recover again and again the light-spark hidden in human nature, till, at length, Christ comes to her assistance and in answer to her prayers, proceeds to draw all the sparks of light to Himself, unites Himself with the Sophia as the bridegroom with the bride, descends on Jesus who has been prepared, as a pure vessel for His reception, by Sophia, and leaves him again before the crucifixion, ascending with Sophia into the world or Aeon which will never pass away (; Epiph. 37, 3, sqq.; Theodoret, h. f. i. 14).


title: Sophia (Gnosticism)

text: In this system the original cosmogonic significance of the Sophia still stands in the foreground. The antithesis of Christus and Sophia, as He of the right (') and She of the Left ('), as male and female, is but a repetition of the first Cosmogonic Antithesis in another form. The Sophia herself is but a reflex of the "Mother of all living" and is therefore also called "Mother." She is the formatrix of heaven and earth, for as much as mere matter can only receive form through the light which, coming down from above has interpenetrated the dark waters of the ""; but she is also at the same time the spiritual principle of life in creation, or, as the world-soul the representative of all that is truly pneumatic in this lower world: her fates and experiences represent typically those of the pneumatic soul which has sunk down into chaos.


title: Sophia (Gnosticism)

text: In the Gnostic system described by Irenaeus (; see Ophites) the name Prunikos several times takes the place of Sophia in the relation of her story. The name Prunikos is also given to Sophia in the account of the kindred Barbeliot system, given in the preceding chapter of Irenaeus. Celsus, who shows that he had met with some Ophite work, exhibits acquaintance with the name Prunikos () a name which Origen recognizes as Valentinian. That this Ophite name had really been adopted by the Valentinians is evidenced by its occurrence in a Valentinian fragment preserved by Epiphanius (Epiph. "Haer". xxxi. 5). Epiphanius also introduces Prunikos as a technical word in the system of the Simonians (Epiph. "Haer". xxi. 2) of those whom he describes under the head of Nicolaitans (Epiph. "Haer". xxv. 3, 4) and of the Ophites (Epiph. "Haer". xxxvii. 4, 6).


title: Sophia (Gnosticism)

text: Neither Irenaeus nor Origen indicates that he knew anything as to the meaning of this word; and we have no better information on this subject than a conjecture of Epiphanius (Epiph. "Haer". xxv. 48). He says that the word means "wanton" or "lascivious," for that the Greeks had a phrase concerning a man who had debauched a girl, . One feels some hesitation in accepting this explanation. Epiphanius was deeply persuaded of the filthiness of Gnostic morals, and habitually put the worst interpretation on their language. If the phrase reported by Epiphanius had been common, it is strange that instances of its use should not have been quoted from the Greek comic writers. It need not be denied that Epiphanius had heard the phrase employed, but innocent words come to be used in an obscene sense, as well by those who think "double entendre" witty, as by those who modestly avoid the use of plainer language. The primary meaning of the word seems to be a porter, or bearer of burdens, the derivation being from , the only derivation indeed that the word seems to admit of. Then, modifying its meaning like the word , it came to be used in the sense of a turbulent violent person. The only distinct confirmation of the explanation of Epiphanius is that Hesychius ("s. v. Skitaloi") has the words . This would be decisive, if we could be sure that these words were earlier in date than Epiphanius.


title: Sophia (Gnosticism)

text: In favour of the explanation of Epiphanius is the fact, that in the Gnostic cosmogonical myths, the imagery of sexual passion is constantly introduced. It seems on the whole probable that is to be understood in the sense of which has for one of its meanings "precocious in respect of sexual intercourse." According to Ernst Wilhelm Möller (1860) the name is possibly meant to indicate her attempts to entice away again from the lower Cosmic Powers the seed of Divine light. In the account given by Epiphanius ("Haer". 37:6) the allusion to enticements to sexual intercourse which is involved in this name, becomes more prominent.


title: Sophia (Gnosticism)

text: However, in the "Exegesis on the Soul" text found at Nag Hammadi, the soul is likened to a woman which fell from perfection into prostitution, and that the Father will elevate her again to her original perfect state. In this context, the female personification of the soul resembles the passion of Sophia as Prunikos.


title: Sophia (Gnosticism)

text: Nigh related to this is the notion widely diffused among Gnostic sects of the impure "mētra" (womb) whence the whole world is supposed to have issued. As according to the Italian Valentinians the Soter opens the "mētra" of the lower Sophia, (the ), and so occasions the formation of the universe (, ) so on the other hand the "mētra" itself is personified. So Epiphanius reports the following cosmogony as that of a branch of the Nicolaitans:


title: Sophia (Gnosticism)

text: The Sethians (Hippolytus. "Philosophum." ) teach in like manner that from the first concurrence ("syndromē") of the three primeval principles arose heaven and earth as a . These have the form of a "mētra" with the "omphalos" in the midst. The pregnant "mētra" therefore contains within itself all kinds of animal forms in the reflex of heaven and earth and all substances found in the middle region. This "mētra" also encounters us in the great "Apophasis" ascribed to Simon where it is also called Paradise and Eden as being the locality of man's formation.


title: Sophia (Gnosticism)

text: These cosmogonic theories have their precedent in the Thalatth or Tiamat of Syrian mythology, the life-mother of whom Berossus has so much to relate, or in the world-egg out of which when cloven asunder heaven and earth and all things proceed. The name of this Berossian Thalatth meets us again among the Peratae of the "Philosophumena" () and is sometimes mistakenly identified with that of the sea—"thalassa".


title: Sophia (Gnosticism)

text: A similar part to that of the "mētra" is played by Edem, consort of Elohim in Justin's Gnostic book "Baruch" () who there appears as a two-shaped being formed above as a woman and from the middle downwards as a serpent ().


title: Sophia (Gnosticism)

text: Among the four and twenty Angels which she bears to Elohim, and which form the world out of her members, the second female angelic form is called "Achamōs" ["Achamōth"]. Like to this legend of the "Philosophumena" concerning the Baruch-Gnosis is that which is related by Epiphanius of an Ophite Party that they fabled that a Serpent from the Upper World had had sexual intercourse with the Earth as with a woman (Epiphanius, "Haer". 45: 1 cf. 2).


title: Sophia (Gnosticism)

text: Very nigh related to the doctrines of the Gnostics in Irenaeus are the views of the so-called Barbeliotae (). The name Barbelo, which according to one interpretation is a designation of the upper Tetrad, has originally nothing to do with the Sophia. This latter Being called also and is the offspring of the first angel who stands at the side of the Monogenes. Sophia seeing that all the rest have each its "syzygos" within the Pleroma, desires also to find such a consort for herself; and not finding one in the upper world she looks down into the lower regions and being still unsatisfied there she descends at length against the will of the Father into the deep. Here she forms the Demiurge (the "Proarchōn"), a composite of ignorance and self-exaltation. This Being, by virtue of pneumatic powers stolen from his mother, proceeds to form the lower world. The mother, on the other hand, flees away into the upper regions and makes her dwelling there in the Ogdoad.


title: Sophia (Gnosticism)

text: We meet this Sophia also among the Ophiana whose "Diagram" is described by Celsus and Origen, as well as among various Gnostic (Ophite) parties mentioned by Epiphanius. She is there called Sophia or Prunikos, the upper mother and upper power, and sits enthroned above the Hebdomad (the seven Planetary Heavens) in the Ogdoad (Origen, "Against Celsus". , , , ; Epiphan. "Haer". 25, 3 sqq. 26, 1,10. 39, 2 ; 40, 2). She is also occasionally called "Parthenos" () and again is elsewhere identified with the Barbelo or Barbero (Epiph. "Haer". 25, 3 ; 26, 1, 10).


title: Sophia (Gnosticism)

text: This mythos of the soul and her descent into this lower world, with her various sufferings and changing fortunes until her final deliverance, recurs in the Simonian system under the form of the All-Mother who issues as its first thought from the "Hestōs" or highest power of God. She generally bears the name "Ennoia", but is also called Wisdom (Sophia), Ruler, Holy Spirit, Prunikos, Barbelo. Having sunk down from the highest heavens into the lowest regions, she creates angels and archangels, and these again create and rule the material universe. Restrained and held down by the power of this lower world, she is hindered from returning to the kingdom of the Father. According to one representation she suffers all manner of insult from the angels and archangels bound and forced again and again into fresh earthly bodies, and compelled for centuries to wander in ever new corporeal forms. According to another account she is in herself incapable of suffering, but is sent into this lower world and undergoes perpetual transformation in order to excite by her beauty the angels and powers, to impel them to engage in perpetual strife, and so gradually to deprive them of their store of heavenly light. The "Hestōs" himself at length comes down from the highest heaven in a phantasmal body in order to deliver the suffering "Ennoia", and redeem the souls held in captivity by imparting gnosis to them.


title: Sophia (Gnosticism)

text: The most frequent designation of the Simonian "Ennoia" is "the lost" or "the wandering sheep." The Greek divinities Zeus and Athena were interpreted to signify "Hestōs" and his "Ennoia", and in like manner the Tyrian sun-god Herakles-Melkart and the moon-goddess Selene-Astarte. So also the Homeric Helena, as the cause of quarrel between Greeks and Trojans, was regarded as a type of the "Ennoia". The story which the fathers of the church handed down of the intercourse of Simon Magus with his consort Helena (; ; Epiphanius "Haer". 21; ; Philaster, "Haer". 29; , ; ; ), had probably its origin in this allegorical interpretation, according to Richard Adelbert Lipsius (1867).


title: Sophia (Gnosticism)

text: In the Simonian "Apophasis" the great "dynamis" (also called "Nous") and the great "epinoia" which gives birth to all things form a syzygy, from which proceeds the male-female Being, who is called "Hestōs" (). Elsewhere "nous" and "epinoia" are called the upper-most of the three Simonian Syzygies, to which the "Hestōs" forms the Hebdomad: but on the other hand, "nous" and "epinoia" are identified with heaven and earth ().


title: Sophia (Gnosticism)

text: The most significant development of this Sophia mythos is found in the Valentinian system. The descent of the Sophia from the Pleroma is ascribed after Plato's manner to a fall, and as the final cause of this fall a state of suffering is indicated which has penetrated into the Pleroma itself. Sophia or "Mētēr" is in the doctrine of Valentinus the last, i.e. the thirtieth Aeon in the Pleroma, from which having fallen out, she now in remembrance of the better world which she has thus forsaken, gives birth to the Christus "with a shadow" ("meta skias tinos"). While Christus returns to the Pleroma, Sophia forms the Demiurge and this whole lower world out of the "skia", a right and a left principle (). For her redemption comes down to Sophia either Christus himself () or the "Soter" (, cf. "exc. ex Theod". 23; 41), as the common product of the Aeons, in order to bring her back to the Pleroma and unite her again with her "syzygos".


title: Sophia (Gnosticism)

text: The motive for the Sophia's fall was defined according to the Anatolian school to have lain therein, that by her desire to know what lay beyond the limits of the knowable she had brought herself into a state of ignorance and formlessness. Her suffering extends to the whole Pleroma. But whereas this is confirmed thereby in fresh strength, the Sophia is separated from it and gives birth outside it (by means of her "ennoia", her recollections of the higher world), to the Christus who at once ascends into the Pleroma, and after this she produces an , the image of her suffering, out of which the Demiurge and the lower world come into existence; last of all looking upwards in her helpless condition, and imploring light, she finally gives birth to the , the pneumatic souls. In the work of redemption the Soter comes down accompanied by the masculine angels who are to be the future "syzygoi" of the (feminine) souls of the Pneumatici, and introduces the Sophia along with these Pneumatici into the heavenly bridal chamber ("Exc. ex Theod." 29–42; ). The same view, essentially meets us in the accounts of Marcus, (; cf. ; ; ) and in the Epitomators of the Syntagma of Hippolytus (; Philaster, "Haer". 38).


title: Sophia (Gnosticism)

text: The Italic school distinguished on the other hand a two-fold Sophia, the "ano Sophia" and the "katō Sophia" or Achamoth.


title: Sophia (Gnosticism)

text: According to the doctrine of Ptolemaeus and that of his disciples, the former of these separates herself from her "syzygos", the through her audacious longing after immediate Communion with the Father of all, falls into a condition of suffering, and would completely melt away in this inordinate desire, unless the "Horos" had purified her from her suffering and established her again in the Pleroma. Her , on the other hand, the desire which has obtained the mastery over her and the consequent suffering becomes an , which is also called an , is separated from her and is assigned a place beyond the limits of the Pleroma.


title: Sophia (Gnosticism)

text: From her dwelling-place above the Hebdomad, in the place of the Midst, she is also called Ogdoad (Ὀγδοάς), and further entitled "Mētēr", "Sophia" also, and "he Hierousalēm, Pneuma hagion", and () "Kyrios". In these names some partial reminiscences of the old Ophitic Gnosis are retained.


title: Sophia (Gnosticism)

text: The Achamoth first receives (by means of Christus and "Pneuma hagion" the Pair of Aeons within the Pleroma whose emanation is most recent), the . Left alone in her suffering she has become endued with penitent mind (). Now descends the son as the common fruit of the Pleroma, gives her the , and forms out of her various affections the Demiurge and the various constituents of this lower world. By his appointment the Achamoth produces the pneumatic seed (the ).


title: Sophia (Gnosticism)

text: The end of the world's history is here also (as above) the introduction of the lower Sophia with all her pneumatic offspring into the Pleroma, and this intimately connected with the second descent of the Soter and his transient union with the psychical Christus; then follows the marriage-union of the Achamoth with the Soter and of the pneumatic souls with the angels (; "exc. ex Theod". 43–65).


title: Sophia (Gnosticism)

text: The same form of doctrine meets us also in Secundus, who is said to have been the first to have made the distinction of an upper and a lower Sophia (), and in the account which the "Philosophumena" give us of a system which most probably referred to the school of Heracleon, and which also speaks of a double Sophia (). The name Jerusalem also for the "exō Sophia" meets us here (). It finds its interpretation in the fragments of Heracleon (ap. Origen. "in Joann." tom. x. 19). The name Achamoth, on the other hand, is wanting both in Hippolytus and in Heracleon. One school among the Marcosians seems also to have taught a two-fold Sophia (; cf. ).


title: Sophia (Gnosticism)

text: August Hahn (1819) debated whether the name "Achamōth" (Ἀχαμώθ) is originally derived from the Hebrew "Chokhmah" (חָכְמָ֑ה), in Aramaic "Ḥachmūth" or whether it signifies 'She that brings forth'—'Mother.' The Syriac form "Ḥachmūth" is testified for us as used by Bardesanes (Ephraim, "Hymn" 55), the Greek form "Hachamōth" is found only among the Valentinians: the name however probably belongs to the oldest Syrian Gnosis.


title: Sophia (Gnosticism)

text: Cosmogonic myths play their part also in the doctrine of Bardesanes. The "locus foedus" whereon the gods (or Aeons) measured and founded Paradise (Ephraim, "Hymn" 55) is the same as the impure "mētra", which Ephraim is ashamed even to name (cf. also Ephraim, "Hymn" 14). The creation of the world is brought to pass through the son of the living one and the Rūha d' Qudshā, the Holy Spirit, with whom Ḥachmūth is identical, but in combination with "creatures," i.e. subordinate beings which co-operate with them (Ephraim, "Hymn" 3). It is not expressly so said, and yet at the same time is the most probable assumption, that as was the case with the father and mother so also their offspring the son of the Living One, and the Rūha d' Qudshā or Ḥachmūth, are to be regarded as a Syzygy. This last (the Ḥachmūth) brings forth the two daughters, the "Shame of the Dry Land" i.e. the "mētra", and the "Image of the Waters" i.e. the "Aquatilis Corporis typus", which is mentioned in connection with the Ophitic Sophia (Ephraim, "Hymn" 55). Beside which, in a passage evidently referring to Bardesanes, air, fire, water, and darkness are mentioned as aeons (Īthyē: "Hymn" 41) These are probably the "Creatures" to which in association with the Son and the Rūha d' Qudshā, Bardesanes is said to have assigned the creation of the world.


title: Sophia (Gnosticism)

text: Though much still remains dark as to the doctrine of Bardesanes we cannot nevertheless have any right to set simply aside the statements of Ephraim, who remains the oldest Syrian source for our knowledge of the doctrine of this Syrian Gnostic, and deserves therefore our chief attentions. Bardesanes, according to Ephraim, is able also to tell of the wife or maiden who having sunk down from the Upper Paradise offers up prayers in her dereliction for help from above, and on being heard returns to the joys of the Upper Paradise (Ephraim, "Hymn" 55).


title: Sophia (Gnosticism)

text: These statements of Ephraim are further supplemented by the "Acts of Thomas" in which various hymns have been preserved which are either compositions of Bardesanes himself, or at any rate are productions of his school.


title: Sophia (Gnosticism)

text: In the Syriac text of the Acts, we find the "Hymn of the Pearl", where the soul which has been sent down from her heavenly home to fetch the pearl guarded by the serpent, but has forgotten here below her heavenly mission until she is reminded of it by a letter from "the father, the mother, and the brother," performs her task, receives back again her glorious dress, and returns to her old home.


title: Sophia (Gnosticism)

text: Of the other hymns which are preserved in the Greek version more faithfully than in the Syriac text which has undergone Catholic revision, the first deserving of notice is the "Ode to the Sophia" which describes the marriage of the "maiden" with her heavenly bridegroom and her introduction into the Upper Realm of Light. This "maiden," called "daughter of light," is not as the Catholic reviser supposes the Church, but Ḥachmūth (Sophia) over whose head the "king," i.e. the father of the living ones, sits enthroned; her bridegroom is, according to the most probable interpretation, the son of the living one, i.e. Christ. With her the living Ones i.e. pneumatic souls enter into the Pleroma and receive the glorious light of the living Father and praise along with "the living spirit" the "father of truth" and the "mother of wisdom."


title: Sophia (Gnosticism)

text: The Sophia is also invoked in the first prayer of consecration. She is there called the "merciful mother," the "consort of the masculine one," "revealant of the perfect mysteries," "Mother of the Seven Houses," "who finds rest in the eighth house," i.e. in the Ogdoad. In the second Prayer of Consecration she is also designated, the "perfect Mercy" and "Consort of the Masculine One," but is also called "Holy Spirit" (Syriac "Rūha d' Qudshā") "Revealant of the Mysteries of the whole Magnitude," "hidden Mother," "She who knows the Mysteries of the Elect," and "she who partakes in the conflicts of the noble Agonistes" (i.e. of Christ, cf. "exc. ex Theod". 58 "ho megas agōnistēs Iēsous").


title: Sophia (Gnosticism)

text: There is further a direct reminiscence of the doctrine of Bardesanes when she is invoked as the Holy Dove which has given birth to the two twins, i.e. the two daughters of the Rūha d' Qudshā (ap. Ephraim, "Hymn" 55).


title: Sophia (Gnosticism)

text: A special and richly coloured development is given to the mythical form of the Sophia of the Gnostic book "Pistis Sophia". The two first books of this writing to which the name "Pistis Sophia" properly belongs, treat for the greater part (pp. 42–181) of the fall, the Repentance, and the Redemption of the Sophia.


title: Sophia (Gnosticism)

text: She has by the ordinance of higher powers obtained an insight into the dwelling-place appropriated to her in the spiritual world, namely, the "thēsauros lucis" which lies beyond the XIIIth Aeon. By her endeavours to direct thither her upward flight, she draws upon herself the enmity of the "Authadēs", Archon of the XIIIth Aeon, and of the Archons of the XII Aeons under him; by these she is enticed down into the depths of chaos, and is there tormented in the greatest possible variety of ways, in order that she may thus incur the loss of her light-nature.


title: Sophia (Gnosticism)

text: In her utmost need she addresses thirteen penitent prayers ("metanoiai") to the Upper Light. Step by step she is led upwards by Christus into the higher regions, though she still remains obnoxious to the assaults of the Archons, and is, after offering her XIIIth "Metanoia", more vehemently attacked than ever, until at length Christus leads her down into an intermediate place below the XIIIth Aeon, where she remains until the consummation of the world, and sends up grateful hymns of praise and thanksgiving.


title: Sophia (Gnosticism)

text: The earthly work of redemption having been at length accomplished, the Sophia returns to her original celestial home. The peculiar feature in this representation consists in the further development of the philosophical ideas which find general expression in the Sophia mythos. According to (1854), Sophia is here not merely, as with Valentinus, the representative of the longing which the finite spirit feels for the knowledge of the infinite, but at the same time a type or pattern of faith, of repentance, and of hope. After her restoration she announces to her companions the twofold truth that, while every attempt to overstep the divinely ordained limits, has for its consequence suffering and punishment, so, on the other hand, the divine compassion is ever ready to vouchsafe pardon to the penitent.


title: Sophia (Gnosticism)

text: We have a further reminiscence of the Sophia of the older Gnostic systems in what is said in the book "Pistis Sophia" of the Light-Maiden ("parthenos lucis"), who is there clearly distinguished from the Sophia herself, and appears as the archetype of Astraea, the Constellation Virgo. The station which she holds is in the place of the midst, above the habitation assigned to the Sophia in the XIIIth Aeon. She is the judge of (departed) souls, either opening for them or closing against them the portals of the light-realm (pp. 194–295). Under her stand yet seven other light-maidens with similar functions, who impart to pious souls their final consecrations (pp. 291 sq. 327 sq. 334). From the place of the "parthenos lucis" comes the sun-dragon, which is daily borne along by four light-powers in the shape of white horses, and so makes his circuit round the earth (p. 183, cf. pp. 18, 309).


title: Sophia (Gnosticism)

text: This light-maiden ("parthenos tou phōtos") encounters us also among the Manichaeans as exciting the impure desires of the Daemons, and thereby setting free the light which has hitherto been held down by the power of darkness ("Dispuiat. Archelai et Manetis", c. 8, n. 11; Theodoret., h. f. I. 26). On the other hand, the place of the Gnostic Sophia is among Manichaeans taken by the "Mother of Life" ("mētēr tēs zōēs"), and by the World-Soul ("psychē hapantōn"), which on occasions is distinguished from the Life-Mother, and is regarded as diffused through all living creatures, whose deliverance from the realm of darkness constitutes the whole of the world's history (Titus of Bostra, "adv. Manich". I., 29, 36, ed. Lagarde, p. 17 sqq. 23; Alexander Lycopolites c. 3; Epiphan. "Haer". 66, 24; "", c. 7 sq. et passim). Their return to the world of light is described in the famous "Canticum Amatorium" (ap. Augustin. c. Faust, iv. 5 sqq).


title: Sophia (Gnosticism)

text: In "On the Origin of the World", Sophia is depicted as the ultimate destroyer of this material universe, Yaldabaoth and all his Heavens:


title: Sophia (Gnosticism)

text: Carl Jung linked the figure of Sophia to the highest archetype of the anima in depth psychology. The archetypal fall and recovery of Sophia is additionally linked (to a varying degree) to many different myths and stories (see damsel in distress). Among these are:


title: Sophia (Gnosticism)

text: Note that many of these myths have alternative psychological interpretations. For example, Jungian psychologist Marie-Louise von Franz interpreted fairy tales like Sleeping Beauty as symbolizing the 'rescue' or reintegration of the anima, the more 'feminine' part of a man's unconscious, but not wisdom or "sophia" per se.


title: Planet Hollywood

text: Planet Hollywood International Inc. (stylized as planet Hollywood, planet Hollywood observatory and ph) is a themed restaurant chain inspired by the popular portrayal of Hollywood. The company is owned by Earl Enterprises corporation. Earl Enterprises was founded by Robert Earl.


title: Planet Hollywood

text: It was launched in New York City on October 22, 1991, with the backing of Hollywood stars Sylvester Stallone, Bruce Willis, Demi Moore, and Arnold Schwarzenegger. The actors recruited were paid for their appearances and endorsements through an employee stock ownership plan. Further celebrity endorsement included actors Whoopi Goldberg, Jean-Claude Van Damme, Don Johnson, Cindy Crawford, Melanie Griffith, Tom Arnold, Wesley Snipes, and Danny Glover; director John Hughes; and comedian Roseanne Barr.


title: Planet Hollywood

text: Robert Earl had a history of opening theme-restaurants first in Britain (1970s) and in Orlando, Florida. In 1987, he sold this restaurant group (President Entertainments; 70 restaurants) to a larger company, Pleasurama PLC. For Pleasurama, Earl acquired control of Hard Rock Cafe International (eastern rights company) from co-founder Isaac Tigrett then in 1989 named as chief executive of the company. At the end of 1989, Mecca Leisure acquired Pleasurama. Mecca was then purchased by the Rank Organisation in 1990. While expanding Hard Rock Cafe from seven to 20 locations over the next two years, Earl met Bryan Kestner, with whom he had a shared vision of music, movies, and sports transcending language and other barriers.


title: Planet Hollywood

text: Planet Hollywood was opened in late 1991 in New York City, at the base of two adjacent office buildings at 130 and 140 West 57th Street. Arnold Schwarzenegger, Sylvester Stallone, Bruce Willis, Demi Moore and Whoopi Goldberg were some of the actors who became investors/promoters. By the next year, three more locations were opened: London, southern California, and Chicago. In 1993, the company opened two new locations, Washington, D.C., and Cancun, Mexico, while arranging leases for five new locations. Each new unit, opening with a gala event, generated nearly $15 million revenue in their first operational year.


title: Planet Hollywood

text: With its success, the company continued its aggressive expansion plan in 1994 while turning its attention to developing more theme-restaurant concepts, one of which was the Official All Star Café, a sports version of Planet Hollywood. Given the go ahead, they started recruiting professional sports figures and planning its stadium and home cuisine menu and planning its merchandise.


title: Planet Hollywood

text: The brand's highest-grossing location unit was opened in Las Vegas in 1994 with double the usual seating to 500. This was followed later in the year by another 500-seater at Walt Disney World.


title: Planet Hollywood

text: With expansion operating smoothly, Earl started working on other area of growth in 1995. Construction on the All Star Café's first location in New York City began in August 1995 near the Planet Hollywood and opened on December 18, 1995. Development was started on a Marvel Comics-based restaurant concept and on a "Planet Hollywood Squares" television game show with King World and Roseanne Barr's production company based on the Hollywood Squares. With the success of the merchandise, stand alone retail stores, Planet Hollywood Superstores were opened around 1996.


title: Planet Hollywood

text: As of the May 1998 IPO circular, the celebrities were only minor holders of stock with Earl and Barish owning 57.2 percent and a 24.2 percent stake owned by Ong Beng Seng. In April 1996, Planet Hollywood went public on the New York Stock Exchange at $18 a share. The company's share price reached an all-time high of $32 on the first day of trading; by 1999, it was down to less than $1. The company has gone bankrupt twice. In addition to going public, the company had MBNA issue Planet Hollywood VISA credit cards that gave cardholders priority restaurant seating. Planet Hollywood International and ITT Corporation formed a joint venture for Planet Hollywood casinos. The corporation and Marvel Entertainment Group agreed to launch the Marvel Mania comic book character-based restaurant concept. The company also had started to develop Chefs of the World concept, which would feature a "'star-studded' culinary staff".


title: Planet Hollywood

text: The company planned to expand by 30 to 40 percent each year in annual revenue and the number of restaurant locations. Additional competitors also started up, including Country Star chain, Harley-Davidson Café, Robert De Niro's Tribeca Grill and Thunder Roadhouse. Some speculated that the company had thinned its resources too much, and, with the trend of novelty location visits dropping, store revenue would continue to drop.


title: Planet Hollywood

text: In September 1997, Planet Hollywood International Inc. announced its Cool Planet Cafe ice-cream shop chain which would open 10 locations in 1998. ITT Corporation and Planet Hollywood were in discussion early September 1997 for a Planet Hollywood hotel near Times Square. The corporation then formed on September 24, 1997, a joint venture for an Official All Star Hotel.


title: Planet Hollywood

text: In the fourth quarter of 1997, the company recorded a $40 million loss. Too much focus on diversification showed that the original chain was neglected with mediocre food, high menu prices and below normal service. In early November 1998, Barish resigned as board chairman while retaining his board director post and filing to sell some of his company's stock. Earl replaced him as chairman. Barish was replaced by William Baumhauer as president. The franchise in Cape Town, South Africa, had a bomb attack in August 1998. $244 million in losses were recorded in 1998.


title: Planet Hollywood

text: The first Marvel Mania opened in January 1998 near Universal Studios Hollywood. With MTV Networks, Planet Hollywood opened its first Sound Republic in London in mid-1998. In July 1999, the company started its Planet Movies by AMC. In August 1998, the first Cool Planet Cafe opened in Santa Monica, California.


title: Planet Hollywood

text: In March 1999, Barish resigned as board director and sold shares that week. At a May, 1999, shareholder's annual meeting, the company indicated that a delayed-payment agreement was in negotiation and that they were renovating some and are considering closing other outlets.


title: Planet Hollywood

text: Causing little change on the company's net profit/loss line, Baumhauer resigned in June, 1999, with the company having $359 million in debt on the books to return to his previous employer, Unique Casual Restaurants. By July, 1999, Planet Hollywood had sold its Orlando HQ for cash and leased it back for 15 years. On October 12, 1999, the company filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in an attempt to reorganize. They closed or sold poorly performing Planet Hollywood restaurants and Official All Star Cafes. It moved to focus to its original theme concept, stopping operation of Planet Movies by AMC and sold its Sound Republic units.


title: Planet Hollywood

text: Schwarzenegger severed his financial ties with the business in January, 2000. Planet Hollywood exited Chapter 11 bankruptcy on May 9, 2000, with the approval of its reorganization plan. New celebrities were sought out for their restaurants while renewing relationships with early recruits. The plan included capital and debt restructuring including a cash infusion plus new products and improvements to decor and the menu. Planet's first website was launched with entertainment news and chat rooms. Earl, Prince Al-Waleed bin Talal and Ong Beng Seng had led restructuring plan which left the company with 35 locations, 25 of which were franchised.