Nicephorus Gregoras: His Correspondence, containing more than 160 letters, is a rich source for knowledge of the outstanding Byzantine ecclesiastical and political figures of the period. Among Gregoras’s other notable works are philosophical dialogues against the Sophists, studies in astronomy, a commentary on the Almagest of the 2nd-century…

Vyacheslav Ivanovich Ivanov: …Perepiska iz dvukh uglov (1921; Correspondence Across a Room), a dialogue with the philosopher Mikhail Gershenzon about the fate of culture and civilization after war and revolution. In 1944 Ivanov wrote a series of poems that were published posthumously in Svet vecherny (1962; “Evening Light”). His Povest o Tsareviche-Svetomire (“Tale…

chess: Correspondence chess: Chess games have been conducted by move-carrying messengers since at least the 17th century, but the introduction of low-cost mail service created a small boom for postal chess in the early 19th century.

correspondence education, historic method of providing education for nonresident students, primarily adults who received lessons and exercises through the mails or some other device and, upon completion, returned them for analysis, criticism, and grading. It was extensively used by business and

correspondence principle, philosophical guideline for the selection of new theories in physical science, requiring that they explain all the phenomena for which a preceding theory was valid. Formulated in 1923 by the Danish physicist Niels Bohr, this principle is a distillation of the thought that

correspondence education, historic method of providing education for nonresident students, primarily adults who received lessons and exercises through the mails or some other device and, upon completion, returned them for analysis, criticism, and grading. It was extensively used by business and

epistemology: G.W.F. Hegel: …entails a kind of “correspondence” between belief and reality. The search for such a correspondence is logically absurd, Hegel argued, since every such search must end with some belief about whether the correspondence holds, in which case one has not advanced beyond belief. In other words, it is impossible…

Committees of Correspondence, groups appointed by the legislatures in the 13 British American colonies to provide colonial leadership and aid intercolonial cooperation. Their emergence as agencies of colonial discontent was prompted by Samuel Adams, who, at a Boston town meeting on November 2,

Anne Michaels: Early life and poetry: Correspondences (2013) is a book-length poem that serves as an elegy for the poet’s father as it forms a broader meditation on memory, history and language. As in Michaels’s earlier books, Correspondences invokes a variety of artistic and intellectual inspirations and ancestors, including such figures…

M.H. Abrams: …Romantic topics were collected in The Correspondent Breeze (1984).

liquid: Behaviour of substances near critical and triple points: …commonly referred to as the law of corresponding states. Roughly speaking, this approach presumes that, if the phase diagram is plotted using reduced variables, the behaviour of all substances will be more or less the same. Reduced variables are defined by dividing the actual variable by its associated critical constant:…

Limousin: …encompassed the central départements of Corrèze, Haute-Vienne, and Creuse. In 2016 the Limousin région was joined with the régions of Poitou-Charentes and Aquitaine to form the new administrative entity of Nouvelle Aquitaine.

Lough Corrib, lake in Counties Galway and Mayo, western Ireland, formed by the solution of limestone bedrock and by glacial deepening. Drained by the River Corrib, it has an area of 68 square miles (176 square km) and an irregular outline, with a long arm running northwestward to Lough Mask. On its

bullfighting, the national spectacle of Spain and many Spanish-speaking countries, in which a bull is ceremoniously fought in a sand arena by a matador and usually killed. Bullfighting is also popular in Portugal and southern France, though in the former, where the bull is engaged by a bullfighter

bullfighting, the national spectacle of Spain and many Spanish-speaking countries, in which a bull is ceremoniously fought in a sand arena by a matador and usually killed. Bullfighting is also popular in Portugal and southern France, though in the former, where the bull is engaged by a bullfighter

Thomas Demand: Corridor (1995) depicts the hallway leading to the apartment of serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer. Poll (2001) makes reference to the disputed ballot count in the 2000 U.S. presidential election. Kitchen (2004) reconstructs the kitchen in the hideout of Ṣaddām Ḥussein, former president of Iraq, before…

Lorna Simpson: One such work, Corridor (2003), juxtaposed the stories of two African American women—an American Civil War-era runaway slave and a bored mid-20th-century housewife—and drew parallels between their lives of isolation.

origins of agriculture: Sheep: …in the 20th century, the Corriedale had become established as a breed, carrying approximately 50 percent Australian Merino, with Leicester and Lincoln blood making up the remainder. The Corriedale was successfully introduced into the United States in 1914. Since World War II a more uniform lamb carcass has been developed…

Corrientes, city, capital of Corrientes provincia (province), northeastern Argentina, and river port on the east bank of the Paraná River, opposite Resistencia. It originated in 1588 when Juan Torres de Vera y Aragón, governor of the Viceroyalty of the Río de la Plata, built a fort there named San

Corrientes, provincia (province), northeastern Argentina. It is bounded by the Paraná River (north and west), which forms the border with Paraguay (north), and by the Uruguay River (southeast), which borders Uruguay and Brazil. The city of Corrientes, in the northwest on the Paraná, is the

Cape Corrientes, cape on the Pacific Ocean, southwestern Jalisco state, west central Mexico. The headland, rising to an elevation of 505 ft (154 m) above sea level, is formed by the western extremity of the Sierra del Cuale, in the southern portion of the Sierra Madre Occidental. A lighthouse

Corriere della Sera, morning daily newspaper published in Milan, long one of Italy’s leading newspapers, in terms of both circulation and influence, noted for its foreign coverage and its independence. It was Italy’s preeminent daily for many years following World War II. Established in 1876 as an

Italy: Media and publishing: …La Gazzetta dello Sport and Corriere dello Sport.

Máiread Maguire is a Northern Irish peace activist who, with Betty Williams and Ciaran McKeown, founded the Peace People, a grassroots movement of both Roman Catholic and Protestant citizens dedicated to ending the sectarian strife in Northern Ireland. For their work, Maguire and Williams shared

Máiread Maguire is a Northern Irish peace activist who, with Betty Williams and Ciaran McKeown, founded the Peace People, a grassroots movement of both Roman Catholic and Protestant citizens dedicated to ending the sectarian strife in Northern Ireland. For their work, Maguire and Williams shared

Christa Corrigan McAuliffe was an American teacher who was chosen to be the first private citizen in space. The death of McAuliffe and her fellow crew members in the 1986 space shuttle Challenger disaster was deeply felt by the nation and had a strong effect on the U.S. space program. Christa

Sir Dominic John Corrigan, Baronet , Baronet was an Irish physician and author of several reports on diseases of the heart. His paper on aortic insufficiency (1832) is generally regarded as the classic description of the condition. Many eponyms (Corrigan’s respiration, Corrigan’s cirrhosis,

Germaine de Staël: Literary theories: …two novels, Delphine (1802) and Corinne (1807), to some extent illustrate her literary theories, the former being strongly sociological in outlook, while the latter shows the clash between Nordic and southern mentalities.

Corriverton, town, northeastern Guyana. It is situated on the estuary of the Courantyne (Corentyne) River, separating Guyana from Suriname to the east. The town is a small port, connected by ferry with Nieuw Nickerie, Suriname, across the Courantyne estuary. Corriverton is the southeastern terminus

Australia: Theatre: For indigenous Australians, the corroboree comes closest to a modern concept of theatre, but this participatory public performance of songs and dances represents much more than entertainment; it is a celebration of Aboriginal mythology and spirituality. Groups such as Bangarra Dance Theatre bring a modern sensibility to bear on…

Australia: Conservation: …long-term survival of the endangered corroboree frogs, captive breeding programs were established by eastern Australian institutions such as the Melbourne Zoo, the Taronga Zoo, and Tidbinbilla Nature Reserve as part of the National Recovery Plan for the southern and northern corroboree frogs. (The northern corroboree frog [Pseudophryne pengilleyi] is found…

psocid, (order Psocoptera), any of a group of about 5,000 species of soft-bodied insects, usually less than 5 mm (0.2 inch) long. Its slender antennae are at least as long as its body, and wing venation is simple, with no crossveins. Mouthparts are adapted for chewing, with the upper jaw usually

lead processing: The metal and its alloys: 94 percent is designated corroding lead (the name derives from the process by which it was formerly produced, not from any characteristic of the metal). Chemical lead, the most frequently used grade after corroding lead, is lead refined to a copper content of 0.04 to 0.08 percent and a…

Koror, one of the Caroline Islands that is part of Palau. It lies in the western Pacific Ocean just southwest of Babelthuap island. Koror city served as the provisional capital of Palau until 2006, when the capital was moved to Melekeok in eastern Babelthuap. Partly uplifted coralline limestone and

corrosion, wearing away due to chemical reactions, mainly oxidation (see oxidation-reduction, oxide). It occurs whenever a gas or liquid chemically attacks an exposed surface, often a metal, and is accelerated by warm temperatures and by acids and salts. Normally, corrosion products (e.g., rust,

fungicide: Mercury(II) chloride, or corrosive sublimate, is sometimes used as a dip to treat bulbs and tubers; it is highly toxic to humans. Strobilurin compounds are used in industrial agriculture to kill various types of mildews, molds, and rusts. Other substances occasionally used to kill fungi include chloropicrin,

hazardous-waste management: Hazardous-waste characteristics: Corrosive wastes include strong acidic or alkaline substances. They destroy solid material and living tissue upon contact, by chemical reaction.

roller: Corrugated rollers, single or tandem, crush clods and firm the soil after plowing. A type usually called a roller-packer or land presser has heavy, wedge-shaped wheels about 3 feet (1 m) in diameter and is used in dry seasons to compress the soil after plowing.

papermaking: Finishing and converting: A corrugated box consists of two structural elements: the facings (linerboard) and the fluting structure (corrugating medium).

United Kingdom: Peel and the Peelite heritage: The Corrupt Practices Act of 1854 provided a more exact definition of bribery than there had been before, but it was not until a further act of 1883 that election expenses were rigorously controlled. It was then that, quite emphatically, parliamentary representation became not a matter…

science fiction: Time travel: ” In John Kessel’s Corrupting Dr. Nice (1997), cynical exploiters from the future invade the past wholesale, kidnapping major historical figures and crassly employing them as underlings and talk-show hosts.

corruption, Improper and usually unlawful conduct intended to secure a benefit for oneself or another. Its forms include bribery, extortion, and the misuse of inside information. It exists where there is community indifference or a lack of enforcement policies. In societies with a culture of

Ugo Betti: , Corruption in the Palace of Justice, 1962) depicts an unscrupulous judge who, having clawed his way to the presidency of the Supreme Court, realizes his own guilt and gives himself up for trial.

attainder: …attainder was the doctrine of corruption of blood, by which the person attainted was disqualified from inheriting or transmitting property and his descendants were forever barred from any inheritance of his rights to title. All forms of attainder—except the forfeiture that followed indictment for treason—were abolished during the 19th century.

corruption perceptions index (CPI), measure that rates countries on the basis of their perceived level of corruption, on a scale from 0 (highly corrupt) to 10 (clean). The CPI was created and used by Transparency International, an international nongovernmental organization established in 1993 with

paleography: Textual corruptions: Textual corruptions are another obstacle to correct elucidation. A legal document is certain to have been checked at the time of writing, but one cannot be sure in the case of a literary, philosophical, or theological text. Scribes were fallible, and, if there…

Ugo Betti: , Corruption in the Palace of Justice, 1962) depicts an unscrupulous judge who, having clawed his way to the presidency of the Supreme Court, realizes his own guilt and gives himself up for trial.

cirque, (French: “circle”), amphitheatre-shaped basin with precipitous walls, at the head of a glacial valley. It generally results from erosion beneath the bergschrund of a glacier. A bergschrund is a large crevasse that lies a short distance from the exposed rock walls and separates the

the Palio, festival of medieval origin conducted annually in certain Italian cities and featuring bareback horse races. Best known to foreigners is the Palio of Siena. Horse racing in Siena dates from 1232. The Palio was first held in 1482 as a civic celebration. The current course was formally

fox: Classification: corsac (corsac, or steppe, fox) Small and social steppe-dwelling fox that inhabits steppes and semideserts of eastern Eurasia; coat yellowish gray or brown to reddish gray; body similar in form to the red fox but with larger legs and ears. V. ferrilata (Tibetan fox) Short-eared short-tailed…

corsage, a small bouquet of flowers originally worn by women at the waist or bodice and later worn on the shoulder or wrist or pinned to a handbag. A florist constructs a corsage from the heads of flowers; he inserts wires through the calyx (the external leaves at the base of a flower), binds them

attack aircraft: …in 1954; and the Ling-Temco-Vought A-7 Corsair, first flown in 1965. The Fairchild Republic A-10 Thunderbolt II (better known as the “Warthog”), a twin-engine aircraft first flown in 1972, became in the mid-1970s the principal close-support attack aircraft of the U.S. Air Force. Its primary armament is a nose-mounted, seven-barreled,…

Lord Byron: Life and career: …The Bride of Abydos (1813); The Corsair (1814), which sold 10,000 copies on the day of publication; and Lara (1814).

Søren Kierkegaard: A life of collisions: …he picked a quarrel with The Corsair, a newspaper known for its liberal political sympathies but more famous as a scandal sheet that used satire to skewer the establishment. Although The Corsair had praised some of the pseudonymous works, Kierkegaard did not wish to see his own project confused with…

fox: Classification: corsac (corsac, or steppe, fox) Small and social steppe-dwelling fox that inhabits steppes and semideserts of eastern Eurasia; coat yellowish gray or brown to reddish gray; body similar in form to the red fox but with larger legs and ears. V. ferrilata (Tibetan fox) Short-eared short-tailed…

Meïr Aron Goldschmidt: In 1840 he founded Corsaren (“The Corsair”), a satirical weekly expressing liberal and democratic ideas. His own witty, and often politically ambiguous, contributions made the publication influential. A feud with the philosopher Søren Kierkegaard caused him to give up the paper and go abroad in 1846. His first novel,…

The Blob: Cast: Assorted Referencesrole of McQueen

Corsica, collectivité territoriale (territorial collectivity) of France and island in the Mediterranean Sea embracing (from 1976) the départements of Haute-Corse and Corse-du-Sud. Corsica is the fourth largest island (after Sicily, Sardinia, and Cyprus) in the Mediterranean. It lies 105 miles (170

Napoleon I was a French general, first consul (1799–1804), and emperor of the French (1804–1814/15), one of the most celebrated personages in the history of the West. He revolutionized military organization and training; sponsored the Napoleonic Code, the prototype of later civil-law codes;

corset, article of clothing worn to shape or constrict the waist and support the bosom, whether as a foundation garment or as outer decoration. During the early eras of corsetry, corsets—called stays before the 19th century and made stiff with heavy boning—molded a woman’s upper body into a V-shape

Franco Zeffirelli was an Italian director, designer, and producer of opera, theatre, motion pictures, and television. He was particularly noted for the authentic details and grand scale of his opera productions and for his film adaptations of William Shakespeare. Zeffirelli attended the University

opera: Civic humanism: …home of another Alterati member, Jacopo Corsi, the Florentine nobleman who was to sponsor the first production of an opera, La Dafne (which dramatized the myth of Daphne and Apollo), during the pre-Lenten Carnival of 1598. This experimental work, for which most of the music is now lost, was the…

Corsica, collectivité territoriale (territorial collectivity) of France and island in the Mediterranean Sea embracing (from 1976) the départements of Haute-Corse and Corse-du-Sud. Corsica is the fourth largest island (after Sicily, Sardinia, and Cyprus) in the Mediterranean. It lies 105 miles (170

Sardinian language: …encroachment of medieval Ligurian and Corsican influences. Gallurese in particular is related to the dialect of Sartène in Corsica, and it may have been imported into the Gallura region in the 17th and 18th centuries by refugees from Corsican vendettas. Superstrata (languages such as Catalan, Spanish, and Italian that were…

Corsican National Liberation Front, largest and most violent of a number of Corsican nationalist movements. It was formed in 1976 from two smaller groups that sought autonomy for Corsica through armed struggle. The main method of the FLNC was bomb attacks, and the main targets were the property of

Napoleon I was a French general, first consul (1799–1804), and emperor of the French (1804–1814/15), one of the most celebrated personages in the history of the West. He revolutionized military organization and training; sponsored the Napoleonic Code, the prototype of later civil-law codes;

Corsini Family, a Florentine princely family, whose first recorded ancestors rose to wealth as wool merchants in the 13th century. As typical members of the popolo grasso (rich merchants) that ruled Florence during the later European Middle Ages, they regularly served as priors and ambassadors of

Clement XII was the pope from 1730 to 1740. A member of the influential Florentine princely family of Corsini, he became papal ambassador to Vienna in 1691, cardinal deacon in 1706, and pope on July 12, 1730. Despite ill health and total blindness (from 1732), he sought to halt the decline of papal

Christina: …palace, the Riario (now the Corsini, on the Lungara in Rome), contained the greatest collection of paintings of the Venetian school ever assembled, as well as other notable paintings, sculpture, and medallions. It became the meeting place of men of letters and musicians. The Arcadia Academy (Accademia dell’Arcadia) for philosophy…

Gregory Corso was an American poet, a leading member in the mid-1950s of the Beat movement. Corso lived in an orphanage and with foster parents until he was 11, when his remarried father took him to live with him. A repeated runaway, he was placed in juvenile institutions. At 17 he was sentenced to

Gregory Corso was an American poet, a leading member in the mid-1950s of the Beat movement. Corso lived in an orphanage and with foster parents until he was 11, when his remarried father took him to live with him. A repeated runaway, he was placed in juvenile institutions. At 17 he was sentenced to

Rome: Via del Corso and environs: The main street in central Rome is the Via del Corso, an important thoroughfare since Classical times, when it was the Via Flaminia, the road to the Adriatic. Its present name comes from the horse races (corse) that were part…

Sardinian language: …encroachment of medieval Ligurian and Corsican influences. Gallurese in particular is related to the dialect of Sartène in Corsica, and it may have been imported into the Gallura region in the 17th and 18th centuries by refugees from Corsican vendettas. Superstrata (languages such as Catalan, Spanish, and Italian that were…

Cannon v. University of Chicago: The Supreme Court’s ruling: …that it had enunciated in Cort v. Ash (1975), a case that addressed corporate expenses in connection with federal election campaigns when a statute is silent or unclear about private remedies.

Pieter Cort van der Linden was a Dutch Liberal statesman whose ministry (1913–18) settled controversies over state aid to denominational schools and extension of the franchise, central issues in Dutch politics since the mid-19th century. After having been employed as a solicitor in The Hague until

Henry Cort was an English ironmaster known for being the discoverer of the puddling process for converting pig iron into wrought iron. Having accumulated capital by serving 10 years as a civilian official of the Royal Navy, Cort bought an ironworks near Portsmouth in 1775. In 1783 he obtained a

pampas grass, (Cortaderia selloana), tall reedlike grass of the family Poaceae, native to southern South America. Pampas grass is named for the Pampas plains, where it is endemic. It is cultivated as an ornamental in warm parts of the world and is considered an invasive species in some areas

café cubano: Preparation and variants: …drink is known as a cortadito, and café con leche refers to a tall mug containing much more milk than coffee.

history of Europe: Prestige and status: The settlement at Cortallois-Est, on Lake Neuchâtel in Switzerland, illustrates the main features of such sites: straight rows of equal-sized houses aligning paths and alleyways, with the whole complex contained within a perimeter fence. Each house had a fireplace with a decorated house-alter, or firedog. The rubbish accumulated…

Microsoft Corporation: Windows evolution: XP, Vista, and Windows 7 (and 8, 9, 10, and 11): …10, released in 2015, featured Cortana, a digital personal assistant capable of responding to voice commands (as did the iPhone’s Siri), and a new Web browser, Microsoft Edge, which replaced Internet Explorer.

Cortazar, city, south-central Guanajuato estado (state), north-central Mexico. It is situated in the Bajío region, at an elevation of 5,643 feet (1,720 metres) above sea level on the Laja River. From its founding in 1721 until it was given its present name in 1857, Cortazar was known as San José de

Julio Cortázar was an Argentine novelist and short-story writer who combined existential questioning with experimental writing techniques in his works. Cortázar was the son of Argentine parents and was educated in Argentina, where he taught secondary school and worked as a translator. Bestiario

Corte, town, Haute-Corse département, Corsica région, France, in the mountains of north-central Corsica, 52 miles (84 km) northeast of Ajaccio, and 44 miles (70 km) southwest of Bastia. At an elevation of more than 1,200 feet (365 metres) the upper town is situated on a precipitous rock overhanging

Gaillard Cut, artificial channel in Panama forming a part of the Panama Canal. It is an excavated gorge, more than 8 miles (13 km) long, across the Continental Divide. It is named for David du Bose Gaillard, the American engineer who supervised much of its construction. The unstable nature of the

Francisco Rodrigues Lobo: …the lively and elegant dialogues Côrte na Aldeia (1619; “Village Court”), in which a young noble, a student, a wealthy gentleman, and a man of letters discuss manners, philosophy, social questions, and especially literary style. Rodrigues Lobo was accidentally drowned on a voyage on the Tagus River.

Giovanni Della Casa: …etiquette manual, Baldassare Castiglione’s Il cortegiano (“The Courtier”), in being more concerned with the details of correct behaviour in polite society than with courtly etiquette. Like Il cortegiano, Della Casa’s manual became widely read throughout Europe.

Giovanni Della Casa: …etiquette manual, Baldassare Castiglione’s Il cortegiano (“The Courtier”), in being more concerned with the details of correct behaviour in polite society than with courtly etiquette. Like Il cortegiano, Della Casa’s manual became widely read throughout Europe.

Galeazzo Ciano, conte di Cortellazzo was an Italian statesman and diplomat who became one of the key figures in the Fascist regime of Benito Mussolini after his marriage to Mussolini’s daughter Edda (1930). He was especially influential in bringing about Italy’s entry into World War II after the

White House press secretary: The first press secretaries: His secretary, George Cortelyou, carried out various tasks, one of which was to meet daily with reporters. Cortelyou also subsequently worked for U.S. Pres. Theodore Roosevelt, who created a space in the West Wing for reporters to be stationed permanently. Roosevelt sought to make his own news…

Italy: The war in northern Italy: …a heavy blow in the Battle of Cortenuova. He followed his military success with a strong propaganda attack, chiefly directed against Gregory IX. But the victory won at Cortenuova proved difficult to convert into permanent gains. Milan continued to hold out. In the following summer Frederick laid siege to Brescia…

Cortes, a representative assembly, or parliament, of the medieval Iberian kingdoms and, in modern times, the national legislature of Spain and of Portugal. The Cortes developed in the Middle Ages when elected representatives of the free municipalities acquired the right to take part in the

Spain: Constitutional framework: The legislature, known as the Cortes Generales, is composed of two chambers (cámaras): a lower chamber, the Congress of Deputies (Congreso de los Diputados), and an upper chamber, the Senate (Senado). As with most legislatures in parliamentary systems, more power is vested in the lower chamber. The Congress of Deputies…

Hernán Cortés was a Spanish conquistador who overthrew the Aztec empire (1519–21) and won Mexico for the crown of Spain. Cortés was the son of Martín Cortés de Monroy and of Doña Catalina Pizarro Altamarino—names of ancient lineage. “They had little wealth, but much honour,” according to Cortés’s

Hernán Cortés was a Spanish conquistador who overthrew the Aztec empire (1519–21) and won Mexico for the crown of Spain. Cortés was the son of Martín Cortés de Monroy and of Doña Catalina Pizarro Altamarino—names of ancient lineage. “They had little wealth, but much honour,” according to Cortés’s

Hernán Cortés was a Spanish conquistador who overthrew the Aztec empire (1519–21) and won Mexico for the crown of Spain. Cortés was the son of Martín Cortés de Monroy and of Doña Catalina Pizarro Altamarino—names of ancient lineage. “They had little wealth, but much honour,” according to Cortés’s

Gulf of California, large inlet of the eastern Pacific Ocean along the northwestern coast of Mexico. It is enclosed by the Mexican mainland to the east and by the mountainous peninsula of Baja California to the west. There are two schools of thought as to the origin of the gulf. One holds that it

Gulf of California, large inlet of the eastern Pacific Ocean along the northwestern coast of Mexico. It is enclosed by the Mexican mainland to the east and by the mountainous peninsula of Baja California to the west. There are two schools of thought as to the origin of the gulf. One holds that it

cortex, in plants, tissue of unspecialized cells lying between the epidermis (surface cells) and the vascular, or conducting, tissues of stems and roots. Cortical cells may contain stored carbohydrates or other substances such as resins, latex, essential oils, and tannins. In roots and in some

Tadeus Reichstein: …discovered, among them cortisone and desoxycorticosterone, which was used for many years to treat Addison’s disease.

Cortez, city, seat (1889) of Montezuma county, southwestern Colorado, U.S., on the Navajo Trail, in the San Juan Basin at an elevation of 6,177 feet (1,883 metres). The Ancestral Pueblo (Anasazi), an early Pueblo culture, were the first known inhabitants of the region. After their mysterious