История

What is the meaning of legendary or phantom islands? A phantom island is a purposed island which was included on maps for a period of time, but was later found not to exist. Most of these phantom islands appeared on maps from the 1200s until the early 1800s. Some of islands did not disappear on maps until our time. But is an island simply falsely mapped and then turned out to be not existent. This paper analyses the histories, meaning of and the etymologies of these phantom islands in different parts of the world ocean. It can be argued that these mysterious lands were almost all found in the Middle Ages and some centuries later. To which depictions of sea monsters, dragons and Cyclops on various maps from the Middle Ages bear witness? Or these fantasies and hallucinations are in the minds of sailors? This paper also tries to put these legendary islands into a far much larger perspective. Be it in the world of mythology or in the world of fantasy, in the inexplicable universe or simply in weather phenomena under extreme conditions both among the sailors and in the world of nature.

Death and funeral traditions in the pre-Christian era have been studied in different degree, thoroughly in the cultures of ancient Rome and ancient Greece, much less in detail in the cultures of pagans, who in Europe were commonly called barbarians. The article is an attempt to comparatively analyze the customs and rituals of burial of the dead in the Roman Empire and Gallia in the I-III centuries AD. The paper shows the main similarities and differences of funeral traditions in these cultures and their mutual influence.

Статья посвящена анализу следственного процесса над старообрядцами-спасовцами, связанного с совершением ритуального самоубийства 35 человек в селе Копены Аткарского уезда Саратовской губернии (1827 г.). Даётся общая характеристика событий и мотивации фанатичного поведения в общем контексте девиантных культурных практик в старообрядчестве. Особый акцент в работе сделан на выявлении социального подтекста произошедшего и связи «проповеди» самоубийства с внешними обстоятельствами. В частности, делается попытка выяснить специфику существования спасовской общины в Копенах и её взаимоотношения с вотчинным управлением поместья Нарышкиных. Автор приходит к выводу о существовании глубоких противоречий в жизни удельных крестьян, вынудивших фанатичную часть спасовцев пойти на радикальный шаг, а также о влиянии данных событий на формирование отрицательного образа старообрядчества.

The Denisova man is an extinct human-like member of the genus Homo. In March 2010 it was announced that the remains of a young individual who lived approx. 50,000 years ago had been found in the Denisova Cave in the Altai Mountains – an area that was inhabited by Neanderthals and modern humans around the same time. The presence of Denisova man has been also found as far south as Laos. Denisova man is a descendant of hominids migrants from Africa. So far, Dinisova DNA has been found in East Asians as well as indigenous people from Papua New Guinea and Australia. Therefore, it is believed that Denisova man lived in Siberia and East Asia. It is well worth pointing out that the knowledge on the Denisovan anatomy is still limited and the question of them being a separate species remains disputed, and that this means that given problem continues to be discussed within genetic relationships between prehistoric and present day humans. It is obvious that modern science still has more questions than answers when studying the Denisova man.