Ahura­Mazda was god of light (the Sun, (q) the Star) while Ahriman created the material world (the Earth and the planets). In Zoroastrianism Ahriman became Angru Mainyu (the evil spirit) while Ahura­Mazda, originally Spenta Mainyu (the holy spirit), became Ormazd (lord of wisdom). Ahura­Mazda originally may have been androgenous since Ahura was originally a feminine name.

The Magi regarded Ahriman, whose influence was considered greater on the Earth than that of Ahura­Mazda (whose realm was the celestial), as the source of their magic. The Magi were experts in the art of purification of the natural substances: earth, water, and fire. At least later Ahura­Mazda represented the pure of substances from which the world was made. The wisdom of the Magi, which conceptually and theologically resembles that of the Celts may provide one of the roots of alchemy. Their rites of purification may be associated with the quest to return creation into its original form.

Ain ez Zarqa Artesian springs emerge in the Biqa Valley at Ain ez Zarqa producing an oasis on the arid landscape. The waters arise from snows fallen on the high summits of the nearby Anti Liban mountains. The spring water emerges from a fault in the underlying limestone layers. Flow amounts to 13 cubic meters per second. The spring waters feed the N flowing Ari (Orontes) River.

Human habitation near the spring extends into the Lithic Age. Cave­like cells remain in the steep walls of a deep canyon close to the oasis. Their latest occupancy dates until at least 1400.

aircraft a conveyance by which human beings can rise into and/or travel through the atmosphere. Aircraft can be classified into those whose lifting power derives from aerostatic processes (buoyancy) as well as those rising under aerodynamic conditions (use of a static or moving airfoil and by those which remain aloft by following a ballistic trajectory): today, hot­air balloons, helium­filled dirigibles, airplanes (propeller and jet driven), helicopters, rockets, and certain ground­effect machines (hovercraft) qualify.

Aircraft may have (q) significance in that certain ancient traditions incorporate the notion that humans, or other beings, ascended into or came down from the heavens. Children may have resulted from sexual union between these "air travellers" and local humans. These offspring may have been the original "children of god" or they may have been born "monsters" of various kinds. On the plains of Nazca in Peru there are deliberate markings of great size, presumably the works of mankind, which could only have been seen by an observer viewing them from aloft. Only the region around the Mediterranean Sea was mapped accurately in ancient times but one map showing the outline of Antarctica is also existent. The notion that these maps may have been made from an airborne platform has been presented, and though it seems an implausible explanation for the maps attaining the necessary airborne vantage point to make them might be possible in (q) terms if the maps have sufficient antiquity. That is, in early ages the Earth's atmosphere seems to have been more dense than today. As well it may have joined to, or even have been a part of, a system enveloping gaseous plenum filling the spaces between the planets, the Sun, and its early companion star. If this hypothesis for the structure of the early Solar System is accurate then airborne navigation might have been within the reach of humans, or even long extincted residents on other planets.

Airy, G. B. Astronomer Royal, who in 129 performed a crucial experiment concerning the aberration of starlight. In 274 it had been determined that the star positions showed apparent displacements with a period of one sidereal year. The amount of shift depends upon the star's proximity to the pole of the Ecliptic. Aberration is interpreted as an effect due to the motion of the Earth around the Sun. Airy repeated the earlier experiments using a water­filled rather than an air­filled telescope, expecting that the amount of aberration would be increased 33% over that in air because the path followed by light would be bent upon entering the water from the air. He found that the aberration remained at 20".5 no matter what substance filled his telescope. Airy's result is taken as an early indication of the correctness of the postulate that the speed of arriving light is not affected by the observer's motion, in this case the motion of the orbiting Earth.

Airy also considered issues germane to the Earth sciences during his career. When it was found that the Himalaya massif did not exert any gravitational pull on a nearby plumbline Airy offered the theory that reversed mountains, immersed in the magma, exist below the visible mountain ranges. The intrusion of lighter granite into the more dense basalt (isostacy) would explain why a mountain does not deflect a plumbline. A difficulty with this experiment is the inability to determine the local vertical independently of the existing terrain. Positions N and S of the Equator are determined by observing which stars pass overhead. This must be done with the mountains in place so that any effect they have has already been included when the latitude was measured.

Airy speculated that terrestrial poles could be shifted a few "miles" by the sudden raising of a substantial mountainous mass. In Airy's opinion the axis of rotation would be displaced from the axis of the figure (the Earth's shape) so that wobbling would induce polar wander. Airy's calculation fell well short of explaining the great changes in climate reported by the geologists which motivated him to attempt this explanation.

Ajios Jakvos A destruction site, one of the many reported on and correlated by Claude Schaeffer with natural disasters, that may or may not have been exo-terrestrial in origin.

Akhnaton pharaoh of Egypt of the Theban Dynasty, variously times (c) at 3400's, (q)3100's, 2900's, 2700's, who upon ascending throne declared a cultural and political revolution, annihilated the name of his father, married his mother Tiy and made her Queen, married his daughter Nefertiti, whom he exiled later, set up the worship of one god alone (for which deed Sigmund Freud credited him with the inspiration of one Moses, an Egyptian Prince, who left Egypt taking with him monotheism and the Hebrew tribe), and was overthrown by conservatives after perhaps two decades of brilliant but controversial rulership. His name is changed from his name upon accession, which was Amenhotep IV, worshipper of Amen, declares him a worshipper of the god Aton, who (c) believe to have been the Solar Disk (hence one step away from abstract monotheism) and some (q) believe to have been the Planet Venus. He created a new city in honor of his god, inspired a new realism sharply contrasting with age­old Egyptian art forms, and posed with his family for many portraits and sculptures, insisting, apparently that he be portrayed as he was, with a monstrously long head and swollen limbs, symptoms of a rare disease. The sphinx evidently first appeared now and was initially the portrayal of a woman with breasts and catlike form in honor of his beloved mother Tiy, whom he married and made Queen. When he disappeared in a coup and all trace of him was thought to be extinguished by the reactionaries whom he had suppressed, his sons succeeded him but, after brief rules, fought each other and both were killed. The younger, King Tutankhamen, was buried in great splendor and his tomb luckily remained undisturbed until opened by archaeologists in modern times. The story of Akhnaton struck the imaginations of the ancient world and the Oedipus legend of the Greeks, subject of the drama by Aeschylus, is modelled in astonishing detail upon it. Oedipus is Akhnaton, Queen Jocasta is Tiy, etc., but the important small difference is that in Greece incest was taboo whereas in Egypt, Iran and elsewhere in the Orient it was acceptable, at least among royalty. Akhnaton was deposed because of his cultural and religious revolution, rather than for his incestuous relations with his family. The founders of Greek Thebes may have settled there upon the capture and destruction of their home city by the Assyrians. It would be more likely that the time span between Akhnaton and the founding of Thebes would be less than the half­millennium called for by (c) dating. Catastrophes were striking the Eastern Mediterranean and elsewhere around the times argued for Ahknaton. Several references occur in the Amarna royal letters archive to heavy natural destruction.

Akkad, Akkadian region and people of Mesopotamia occupying the N part of Babylonia. The Akkadians used a Semitic language. Their capital Akkad or Agade, believed located near Babylon, has never been found. King Sargon of Akkad is reputed to have conquered lands from the Black Sea to the Mediterranean shores as well as the S land of Sumer. Sargon's empire (c) dates to somewhere around 43Ce ago. Naturalistic sculpture and glyptic art are the only remnants suggestive of this empire, as isolated in time as it is devoid of artifacts. Akkad is thought to have been overrun by mountainous tribes from the N.

The Akkadians are not represented stratigraphically by any layer of artifacts. Written Akkadian texts date younger than 2700. These are believed by (c) scholars to be copies of originals dating to the time of Sargon. No remains have been found of Sargon's capitol, Dur­Sharru­Kin, reputedly built by him in N Mesopotamia, but a rather great ruin remain for the later Sargon of Assur at Khorsabad. Many correspondences between the lives of Sargon of Akkad and the (c) 1500y later Sargon of Assyria exist. Similarities between their empires is carried to the coincidence that the earlier Sargon's holdings were lost to mountain tribesmen to the N, while the empire of the later Sargon fell to the Scythian's who emerged from the land between the Black and Caspian Seas (Armenia). Temporal anomalies in the texts presently ascribed to the Akkadian Sargon, notably a reference to the splendor of Babylon which demonstrably was not splendid until rebuilt after 2688, suggest a reexamination of the entire chronology of the Mesopotamian Region and of the assignment of the strata to each stage of civilization represented there. Part of the difficulty revolves around the insistence of (b) scholars that the Hebrew Patriarch Abraham must be literally associated with the city of Ur during the 5Mn. It is possible that the tradition of this Patriarch has been merged with later life in Babylon during the period of the Captivity (»2596 to 2537).

Alabama 22nd American state. Entered Union in 18 1. Area is 134,000km². Population 4 million. Capital at Montgomery. Largest city is Birmingham. The state is situated mainly on the rolling coastal plain of the Gulf of Mexico. Northern Alabama includes a part of the Cumberland Plateau. NE region is cut by the Appalachian Piedmont. Highest elevation: Cheaha mountain, 734m. Major river system rises from the Piedmont. Alabama river is over 500km long. It forms where the Coosa and Tallapoosa rivers join, near Montgomery. The Alabama flows SW where it joins the Tombigbee river, which drains the western part of the state, to form the Mobile river which drains into Mobile Bay on the Gulf of Mexico. Tennessee River cuts across the northern boundary of the state near both corners. Cotton remains major crop in irrigated land near the Tennesee river. Central belt of black soil is very fertile because of mild and moist climate. Here, cotton has been displaced by cattle and poultry as the principal agricultural products. Mountainous ridges are mineral rich. Coal, electricity, iron, petroleum, stone, and timber are used by state's manufacturing industries.

Four groups of indigenous peoples were located in Alabama: Creek and Cherokee in E, Choctaw and Chickasaw in W. Mound State Monument near Tuscaloosa is location of many burial mounds.

Russell Cave National Monument near Bridgeport is the site of 125ha of limestone caves which show evidence of habitation from earliest times until 350.

Allacia Hüyük site in Anatolia. The artifacts of the first inhabitants include Helladic pottery. The original habitation was destroyed by a natural calamity (earthquakes and fire) during the Early Bronze Age (between levels III and II). Reestablished site is noted for the royal tombs of the Hittites. Alacia Hüyük was again wrecked by earthquakes, felt simultaneously all over the Near Eastern World. Among the relics of the renewed habitation (ascribed to the Middle Bronze Age) are found artifacts resembling those found widely across the region. Another destruction, common to the rest of Asia Minor, follows after which the inhabitants produce artifacts characteristic of the Late Bronze Age. Stag and bull icons from this site resemble Galacian rock art. Saharan rock­art contain elements of both traditions.

Aland Islands a labyrinth of rocky islands located in the entrance of the Gulf of Bothnia between Finland and Sweden. The gently rounded islands are low­lying amd covered with evergreens. The exposed bedrock is a red or pink tinted granite composed of feldspar embedded in fine grained quartzes. The islands, like the mainland around it, were covered by the ice sheet. Their granite was scoured and planed into a gently undulating surface by the ice. When the ice melted the Baltic Sea flooded the area and cleared away most of the debris that should have been left by the ice. During the past 10,000 years the earth's crust in this region has been slowly rising, presumably because of the relaxation of the compressed land from the glacial overburden. The islands grow larger as the land emerges from the sea. The largest of the Aland Islands now covers 740km². The usual q/ questions apply as to the source of the vanished Pleistocene ice and the mechanism of its motion across the islands.