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1758_31 | In northern Catalonia and in the town of Sóller (Majorca), a uvular trill or approximant can be heard instead of an alveolar trill; e.g. ('to run').
In some Valencian dialects final can be lenited before a vowel: ('all this').
In some dialects (e.g. many Valencian accents) initial can be lenited: (EC) (WC).
In Majorcan varieties, and become and word-finally and before front vowels, in some of these dialects, this has extended to all environments except before liquids and back vowels; e.g. ('blood').
In Majorcan and Minorcan Catalan, undergoes total assimilation to a following consonant (just as stops do): ('large puff'). |
1758_32 | In some Valencian dialects (e.g. Northern Valencian), and are auditorily similar such that neutralization may occur in the future. That is the case of Northern Valencian where is depalatalized to as in ('box'). Central Valencian words like ('half') and ('ugly') have been transcribed with rather than the expected , and Southern Valencian "has been reported to undergo depalatalization without merging with ". as in ('small steps') versus ('promenade')
In Aragon and Central Valencian (the so called ), voiced fricatives and affricates are missing (i.e. has merged with , has merged with , with only voiceless realizations occurring) and has merged with the set. |
1758_33 | Historical development
Catalan shares features with neighboring Romance languages (Occitan, Italian, Sardinian, French, Spanish).
Marked contrast of the vowel pairs and , as in other Western Romance languages, except Spanish and Sardinian.
Lenition of voiced stops as in Galician and Spanish.
Lack of diphthongization of Latin short , , as in Galician and Portuguese, and unlike French, Spanish and Italian.
Abundance of diphthongs containing , as in Galician and Portuguese.
Abundance of and occurring at the end of words, as for instance ("wet") and ("year"), unlike Spanish, Portuguese or Italian.
In contrast with other Romance languages, Catalan has many monosyllabic words; and those ending in a wide variety of consonants and some consonant clusters. Also, Catalan has final obstruent devoicing, thus featuring many couplets like ('male friend') vs. ('female friend'). |
1758_34 | Phonological sample
{| class="wikitable"
|+ Universal Declaration of Human Rights, Article 1
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! Original
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! Old Catalan (Around the 13th century) IPA
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! Balearic Catalan IPA
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! Eastern Central Catalan IPA
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! Northern Catalan IPA
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! North-Western Catalan IPA
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! Valencian IPA
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See also
Catalan dialects
Alguerese dialect#Phonology
Index of phonetics articles
Occitan phonology
References
Bibliography
Further reading
External links
A proposal for Catalan SAMPA
Gramàtica de la llengua catalana
Els sons del català
L'estàndard oral valencià
Phonology, Catalan
Italic phonologies |
1759_0 | Guadalajara (, ) is a city and municipality in Spain, located in the autonomous community of Castilla–La Mancha. It is the capital of the Province of Guadalajara.
Lying on the central part of the Iberian Peninsula at roughly metres above sea level, the city straddles the Henares River. it has a population of 86,222 which makes it the region's second most populated municipality.
History
Alleged identification with Arriaca
A Roman town called Arriaca, possibly founded by a pre-Roman culture, is known to have been located in that region. There is however no archeological proof of its existence, only references in texts such as the Ruta Antonina, which describe it as being in the hands of the Carpetani when encountered by the Romans. The city, as Caracca, was incorporated into the Roman province of Hispania Tarraconensis. The city was on the high road from Emerita (modern Mérida) to Caesaraugusta (modern Zaragoza), 22 M. P. northeast of Complutum (modern Alcalá de Henares). |
1759_1 | Early Middle Ages
The founding, dating from the Islamic period, is attributed to a person named "Faraŷ". It was officially known as Madīnat al-Faraŷ in the 9th and 10th centuries. The town was later known as Wādī l-Ḥiŷāra (), possibly meaning "Valley of Stones" (as in river gravel); in theory it may be a literal translation of the Iberian name Arriaca. It has also been also proposed that Ḥajāra should not be understood as stones/gravel, but in the sense of "castles" or "fortified rocks". |
1759_2 | Part of the Middle March of Al-Andalus, the city and its wider district was controlled by the Masmuda Berber clan of the Banū Sālim who governed on behalf of the Umayyad rulers of Córdoba. During the Muslim period an Alcázar (fortress) was built by the mid-9th century, as well as the Bridge over the Henares (its construction has been tentatively dated by the late 10th century or early 11th century). Walls enclosing the city were also built by then. In 920, the Banū Sālim were routed from Guadalajara (reportedly because of the local population resented their rule) by Abd al-Rahman III, who attempted to directly rule the territory.
Guadalajara was part of the territory annexed by Alfonso VI of León-Castile in the 1085 conquest of the Taifa of Toledo, with the city of Guadalajara surrendering and offering no resistance. Tradition claims however that a contingent led by Álvar Fáñez de Minaya (one of the lieutenants of El Cid) seized the city on 24 June, at night. |
1759_3 | The area was repopulated with people from the North (Castilians from the mountains and Merindades, Basques and Navarreses mainly).
Alfonso VII granted Guadalajara its first fuero on 3 May 1133. This charter progressively incorporated several amendments. The second fuero, probably conceived during the reign of Alfonso VIII, was anyway confirmed by Ferdinand III on 26 May 1219 and 13 April 1251.
For most of its history, up until the 20th century, Guadalajara's water supply came from two sources: the Henares river and the springs located along the cornice formed by the border of the limestone moors of La Alcarria. Control over the scarce water resources was fought over and it became a symbol of social status for the local nobility during the Late Middle Ages.
During the reign of Alfonso X of Castile, the protection of the king allowed the city to develop its economy by protecting merchants and allowing markets.
Rule of the Mendozas |
1759_4 | Traditionally a town, with a vote in the Cortes of Castile, the town became under the influence of the powerful Mendoza family until well into the Early Modern period. Despite the former meddling that underpinned the political control of the city, Guadalajara was not enshrined as formal seigneurial jurisdiction of the Mendozas in a legal sense. The family included Íñigo López de Mendoza, also known as Marqués de Santillana (1398–1458), and Pedro González de Mendoza (1428–1495), Great Cardinal of Spain and adviser of the Catholic Monarchs.
The Mendoza family held the title of Dukes and Duchesses of El Infantado from 1475. On 25 March 1460, Henry IV granted Guadalajara the status of 'City'. In this period, the Mendoza Family ordered the building of El Palacio del Infantado as their main residence. It was completed in the early 1480s and it is considered by many the oldest surviving building built in a pure Renaissance style outside Italy. |
1759_5 | The city's economy prospered thanks to the development of an specialised artisanate and a bustling trade.
In the early 16th century, the city was one of the main focal points of the iluminismo (or alumbrados) in the Kingdom of Toledo, linked to heterodox religious figures such as and .
In the context of the Revolt of the Comuneros across the Crown of Castile, the comunero rebels in Guadalajara, as early as 5 June 1520, asked the Duke of the Infantado, Diego Hurtado de Mendoza, to join the anti-imperial revolt. The demonstrators lit the houses of the procurators who went to the Cortes of La Coruña to vote in favour of the taxes and obligations levied by Emperor Charles V. The Duke of Infantado played a cautious waiting game to see which side would win, finally choosing to endorse the Emperor in 1521. He ordered the beheading of the local leaders of the insurgency and the deportation of his own son and successor Íñigo López de Mendoza, who had leaned towards the comunero cause. |
1759_6 | By 1591, the city had a population of 6,754.
Crisis
The Crisis of the 17th century took a heavy toll in many Castilian cities, and particularly in Guadalajara. The city was affected by the 1610 expulsion of the moriscos both in terms of the net demographic loss (10% of the population) as well as by their critical weight in key sectors of the local economy such as the artisanate and trade. Many palaces were left forsaken. The Mendozas left the city for good in 1657. |
1759_7 | During the War of the Spanish Succession, in the early 18th century, Guadalajara was sacked. Ravaged by the Austracist army, a largely ruined Guadalajara hit then its lowest demographic point, with only around 2,200 inhabitants. Without external assistance the city may have simply ceased to exist. The 20,000,000 maravedies indebted to the Royal Treasury were forgiven in 1716. Philip V ordered the establishment of the Real Fábrica de Paños (Royal Factory of Clothes), which was opened in the city in 1719 in the Palacio del Marqués de Montesclaros, critically helping the city to move on from the calamitous situation it found itself.
Contemporary times |
1759_8 | The 19th century started with two major setbacks: the damages caused by the Peninsular War (1808–1814) and the closing of the Real Fábrica de Paños in 1822. In 1808, Guadalajara was taken by the French Army led by General Hugo and the city was destroyed. During the war, the 14 convents in the city were abandoned and turned into barracks, paving the way for the future processes of desamortización, most decisively in between 1833 and 1843.
The desamortización entailed the change of use of religious buildings (turned to hospitals, high schools, military workshops), the demolition of some convents to widen street space and to erect new residential areas, and the reduction of the share of church properties in the estate structure.
Both the declaration of Guadalajara as provincial capital and the parallel installment of the Academy of Military Engineers in the city in 1833, fostered some slow growth. |
1759_9 | Railway transport arrived to the city with the opening of the Madrid–Guadalajara stretch of the Madrid–Zaragoza line (built by the , MZA) on 3 May 1859. Conversely, the Guadalajara–Jadraque stretch to the northeast was opened on 5 October 1860.
The municipality had a population of 12,662 in 1900, the most populated municipality in the province, followed by Sigüenza (10,581). The 20th century saw the construction of the current water supply system bringing the waters of the Sorbe to the city. |
1759_10 | On 21 July 1936, following the general coup d'état of 18 July that sparked the Spanish Civil War (1936–1939), the conspiring officers in the city (joined by the forces of public order and some civilians, amounting to an overall force of roughly 800) raised in arms, seizing control of the city. The next day, the Republican Government in Madrid sent Ildefonso Puigdendolas to quell the rebellion and secure the city. The rebels were pushed in retreat to the Cuartel de Aerostación, where they surrendered. The militias executed roughly one hundred of them.
The city was the target of several aerial bombing attacks by the Francoist faction throughout the conflict; the most known one, in December 1936, affected the Palacio del Infantado. |
1759_11 | On 8 March 1937, the four divisions of the Italian Corpo Truppe Volontarie (CTV), attacked Republican positions outside Guadalajara as a supporting diversionary attack supporting the Nationalist Jarama Offensive launched at the beginning of February. After four days of slow, cautious advance during rainy weather, the tanks started attacking down substantial hard paved roads and outran their air and anti-aircraft artillery support. Shortly thereafter, Republican aviation assets airborne in newly cleared skies found the tanks and infantry in a traffic jam on the main road heading into Guadalajara. The Republican aircraft proceeded to attack and destroy all the vehicles in the mechanized spearhead. The CTV was thrown back with casualties in the thousands. Ernest Hemingway and other war correspondents labeled the attack, "Italian débâcle at Guadalajara." Republican forces enjoyed an increase in recruitment as a result of the victory. |
1759_12 | This defeat at Guadalajara had two long-standing effects. First, the Italian Army of the Mussolini dictatorship acquired a reputation for incompetence that never left it before the armistice of 1943. Second, some observing nations adopted an armored doctrine that ruled out tanks operating as an independent force, but emphasized tying them tightly to large infantry formations.
The Civil War and the heavy fighting around the city caused significant damage. After two decades of slow rebuilding, Guadalajara was included in 1959 in the development plans addressing the congestion of Madrid's industrial estates (El Plan de Descongestión Industrial de Madrid en Castilla-La Mancha). These plans attempted to move industrial and accompanying residential growth to the periphery, resulting in increased industry presence in Guadalajara. Since then, Guadalajara has been one of the cities in Spain with greatest relative growth. |
1759_13 | Guadalajara absorbed the municipalities of Taracena, Valdenoches and Iriépal in 1969, Marchamalo in 1972 and Usanos in 1973. Later, in 1999, Marchamalo segregated from Guadalajara, becoming a standalone municipality again.
Nowadays, Guadalajara is involved in urban development plans that are quickly increasing the population of the city. New districts like Aguas Vivas (Live Waters) have been inaugurated.
Ciudad Valdeluz was planned to increase the number of inhabitants of Guadalajara by 30,000, creating a new city around the AVE Station (Spanish High-Speed Trains). The company investing in the construction of Ciudad Valdeluz went bankrupt. Fewer than 500 inhabitants decided to occupy their flats and the remaining infrastructure is slow degrading. The AVE trains are used by only 60 passengers a day. |
1759_14 | The town-plannings have dramatically increased the cost of the new houses, and it has become one of the cheapest provinces in Spain for house-buying to be the 3rd province in Spain with the most expensive square meter.
Geography
Location
Guadalajara is located the central part of the Iberian Peninsula, in the southern half of the Inner Plateau.
Chosen as settlement on the basis of defensive purposes, the historic urban core of the city lies on a small elevation near the left-bank of the Henares River, also enclosed to the East and West by two small ditches corresponding to two watercourses, and San Antonio, respectively, forming a narrow and easily defendable space upon their confluence with the Henares.
The municipality spans across a total area of 235.49 km2.
Climate |
1759_15 | Guadalajara enjoys a Mediterranean climate (Köppen climate classification: Csa) with continental influences for being well inland at 700 meters above sea level. Summers are hot with relatively cool nights, while winters are cool with cold nights. The lowest temperature ever recorded in Guadalajara is on 12 January 2009. The highest temperature ever recorded is on 10 August 2012.
Politics and administration
Guadalajara is a municipality, the basic level of local division in Spain. The Ayuntamiento is the body charged with the municipal government and administration. The Plenary of the ayuntamiento is formed by 25 elected municipal councillors, who in turn invest the mayor. The last municipal election took place on 26 May 2019. Since June 2019, the current mayor is Alberto Rojo Blas (Spanish Socialist Workers' Party).
Demographics |
1759_16 | Urban area
The 2020 report on urban areas in Spain published by the Ministry of Transports, Mobility and Urban Agenda identifies an urban area formed by the municipality of Guadalajara together with the neighbouring municipalities of Azuqueca de Henares, Alovera, Cabanillas del Campo, Marchamalo, Villanueva de la Torre and Chiloeches, with a population of 161,683 (2019).
Architecture
City proper |
1759_17 | The bridge across the Henares river is Arab but built on Roman foundations. It has several historic buildings such as the Palacio del Infantado, as well as many churches, such as the church of San Ginés. Although Guadalajara is the biggest city in its diocese, the cathedral is located in the nearby town of Sigüenza. However, in Guadalajara, there is a "co-cathedral", the church of Saint Mary, in Mudejar style. Very close to this church, is placed the chapel known as "Capilla de Luis de Lucena", which has several fresco paintings on its walls and ceiling. The Church of los Remedios was declared Bien de Interés Cultural in 1924, and currently serves as the auditorium of the University of Alcalá. The Church of la Piedad was declared Bien de Interés Cultural in 1931. |
1759_18 | Before the Civil War, Guadalajara was also known to be among the cities with most number of antique azulejos in the Iberian Peninsula housed in their buildings, since the city housed the largest collection of azulejos from Talavera de la Reina pottery; now almost all of those azulejos are lost.
Pedanías
The small villages (pedanías) of Iriépal, Taracena, Usanos, and Valdenoches that belong to the municipality feature few monumental landmarks other than their humble rural churches. Thus, in Iriépal there is the Concepción church, constructed in the 16th century, which is known for its Mudéjar tower. In Taracena there is the 17th century Church of the Immaculate, in a very simple Renaissance style. In Usanos, there is the 13th-century Romanesque church of the Assumption, considerably remodeled in later periods and which features a crenelated tower. |
1759_19 | Other types of monuments that are also noteworthy are the Iriépal laundry, work of 1910 in historicist style with funding from the Jose Santa María de Hita Foundation, and Iriépal (1858) and Valdenoches (1656) funds.
Throughout all the villages there are examples of Castilian mansions, quite modest compared to those in the cities. Of note also is Villaflores, a farming village built in 1887, designed by Ricardo Velázquez Bosco and commissioned to Maria Diega Desmaissières.
Transport
Guadalajara is served by two railway stations:
Guadalajara railway station, located in the city centre and part of the classical railway lines, e.g., connecting Chamartín to Portbou/Cerbère.
Guadalajara–Yebes railway station, located at the South-East of Guadalajara, on the Madrid–Barcelona high-speed rail line. |
1759_20 | Sports
The local men's football team, CD Guadalajara, currently play at the Tercera División, the fourth tier of the Spanish football system. Their home pitch is the Pedro Escartín.
The BM Guadalajara play at the ASOBAL league, the top tier of the men's handball system in Spain. Their home fixtures are played at the Palacio Multiusos de Guadalajara. Guadalajara was one of the host cities of the 2013 World Men's Handball Championship.
International relations
Twin towns and sister cities
Guadalajara is twinned with:
Livorno, Italy (since 1979)
Roanne, France (since 1980)
Parma, Italy (since 1982)
Guadalajara, Mexico (since 1982)
Nitra, Slovakia (since 1988)
Nuneaton, United Kingdom (since 1990)
Guadalajara de Buga, Colombia (since 1996)
Other city partnerships
Nowy Sącz, Poland |
1759_21 | Notable people
Distinguished people from or related to the town were:
Álvar Fáñez de Minaya (fl. 1076–1114), alleged Christian conqueror of Guadalajara, represented on the city's coat of arms.
Nuño Beltrán de Guzmán (c. 1490–1558), founder of Guadalajara, Mexico
Isabel Muñoz-Caravaca (1838–1915), teacher, writer and labour activist.
(1852–1889), pharmacist, linguist and botanist.
(1852–1916), Countess of Vega del Pozo and Duchess of Sevillano.
Jose de Creeft (1884–1982), famous sculptor born in Guadalajara.
José Ortiz-Echagüe (1886–1980), military engineer and photographer, honorary lifetime president of SEAT and founder of CASA.
Antonio Buero Vallejo (1916–2000), 20th-century writer.
See also
Monument to Romanones (Guadalajara)
Museum of Guadalajara
References
Informational notes
Citations
Bibliography
External links
Municipal Government
Municipalities in the Province of Guadalajara
Roman sites in Spain |
1760_0 | The Melville Monument is a large column in St Andrew Square, Edinburgh, Scotland, constructed between 1821 and 1827 as a memorial to Henry Dundas, 1st Viscount Melville. |
1760_1 | Dundas was a dominant figure in Scottish and British politics during much of the late 18th century. Plans to construct a memorial to him began soon after his death in 1811 and were largely driven by Royal Navy officers, especially Sir William Johnstone Hope. After a successful campaign for subscriptions, construction of the monument began in 1821 but time and costs soon spiralled out of control. The project was not completed until 1827 and not paid off until 1837. From the 2010s, the monument became the subject of increasing controversy due to Dundas' legacy, especially debates over the extent of his role in legislating delays to the abolition of the slave trade in the British Empire. In the wake of protests following the murder of George Floyd in 2020, the City of Edinburgh Council moved to erect a plaque on the monument to explain Dundas' legacy. |
1760_2 | Designed by William Burn, the column is modelled after Trajan's Column in Rome. Robert Stevenson provided additional engineering advice during construction. The column is topped by a 4.2m (14ft) tall statue of Dundas designed by a Francis Leggatt Chantrey and carved Robert Forrest. The total height of the monument is about 45m (150ft). It is one of Edinburgh's most prominent landmarks.
History
Henry Dundas, 1st Viscount Melville |
1760_3 | Dundas was born on 28 April 1742 at Arniston House, Midlothian to one of Scotland's most distinguished legal families. After studying at the University of Edinburgh and practising as an advocate, he first entered parliament in 1774. The following year, Dundas became Lord Advocate and arrogated immense power over Scottish affairs to the office. He also took an interest in the welfare of the Highlands, repealing the Disarming Act in 1781 and founding the Highland Society in 1784. Having tried to prevent widespread electoral manipulation, he abandoned these efforts and instead used such practices to his own ends. By 1796, he had effective control of all but two of Scotland's members of parliament. |
1760_4 | Aligned with the Tories, Dundas gained influence under prime minister, William Pitt and soon became Home Secretary: in this role, he suppressed popular unrest in the wake of the French Revolution. In the face of the French Revolutionary Wars, he supported consolidation of the empire and the union of Great Britain with Ireland alongside Catholic emancipation.
In the Commons, Dundas opposed William Wilberforce's legislative efforts to abolish the slave trade immediately. As Pitt's Secretary of State for War, Dundas instructed Sir Adam Williamson, the lieutenant-governor of Jamaica, to sign an agreement with representatives of the French colonists in Saint Domingue, later Haiti, that promised to restore the ancien regime, slavery, and discrimination against mixed-race colonists: a move that drew criticism from abolitionists such as Wilberforce and Thomas Clarkson. |
1760_5 | As First Lord of the Admiralty, he led the strengthening of the Royal Navy in the period before the Battle of Trafalgar. Having been ennobled as Viscount Melville in 1802, Dundas was impeached for misappropriation of naval funds and tried by the House of Lords. Dundas was found not guilty on all charges and re-entered the Privy Council. He died in Edinburgh on 27 May 1811.
Moves to commemorate Dundas |
1760_6 | In 1812, Dundas' supporters raised a large obelisk to his memory on his Dunira estate near Comrie, Perthshire. At the same time, Dundas' family, with support from subscribers among the public, supported the creation of a monument to Dundas in Edinburgh. The result was the marble statue by Francis Leggatt Chantrey in Parliament Hall, completed in 1818. The existence of this memorial later led some to question the relevance of the St Andrew Square project. In March 1821, shortly before construction began, a correspondent in The Scotsman, a Whig newspaper, argued the existence of this statue made another memorial to the same figure in the same city irrelevant. |
1760_7 | The idea another monument to Dundas in Edinburgh was first raised at a meeting of the Pitt Club of Scotland in May 1814. This may have motivated Vice Admiral Sir William Johnstone Hope to initiate a movement for such a monument within the Royal Navy. Hope started the Melville Monument Committee, of which he was convener. In government, Dundas had become known as the "Seaman's Friend" for his advancement of measures to support sailors of the Royal Navy and their dependents. In its initial stages, the project was both led by naval officers and supported exclusively by subscriptions from sailors; although civic and legal figures were represented on the committee. Alongside this primarily naval impetus for the monument, The Scotsman noted strong support from Dundas' own family. |
1760_8 | C.G. Desmarest argues the monument is "imperial in character and context": part of a general movement around the turn of the nineteenth century to honour heroes of Britain's empire. Desmarest cites the Nelson Monument, the National Monument and Chantrey's own statue of Pitt the Younger on George Street among other examples of this trend in Edinburgh. Memorials of this time in Scotland often figures from the arts or from distant history. Such figures express "antiquarian nationalism" and "Unionist nationalism", which assert Scotland's unique national identity without challenging its place within the United Kingdom. In this context, Dundas represented, in Desmarest's words: "... a defender of the notion that Scotland was not a colony, but an equal partner in the Union". The monument's lengthy construction coincided with a period in which Dundas' legacy became more divisive. By the early 1830s, debates over the extension of the franchise dominated Edinburgh's politics while Dundas came |
1760_9 | to represent a repressive Tory administration. |
1760_10 | Development
The form and location of the monument were not initially settled and Hope first successfully applied to the town council for a site at the north east edge of Calton Hill. A correspondent in the Caledonian Mercury opposed the Calton Hill site, instead proposing the monument could be built on Arthur's Seat. Further suggestions included Picardy Place or, nearby, the top of Leith Walk. By the end of 1818, the committee appeared to have settled on St Andrew Square at the eastern end of Edinburgh's New Town. Around this time, William Burn – an architect sympathetic to Dundas' Tory politics – appears to have been engaged. The form of a column modelled after Trajan's Column was agreed; though Burn's initial plan did not include a statue. The proprietors of the square agreed to the scheme by April 1819. |
1760_11 | In February 1820, the committee announced it was abandoning St Andrew Square in favour a site at the intersection of Melville Street and what is now Walker Street in the West End. At the time, this was an under-developed site on the private property of Sir Patrick Walker outside the boundaries of the city. The committee had been negotiating with Walker since December 1818 but soon after the announcement, many on the committee balked at Walker's insistence that he and his descendants would maintain the monument. This entanglement with a private landowner, they feared, would undermine the monument's public character. |
1760_12 | The proprietors of St Andrew Square responded by renegotiating the contract for the monument. They offered the site free of charge while the city council agreed to maintain the structure. The contract was agreed in January 1821 and St Andrew Square was finally settled as the site of the monument. The town council also agreed to accept responsibility for the monument on its completion. William Armstrong was engaged as builder at an agreed cost of £3,192: well within the £3,430 6s 4d the committee had raised. On 28 April 1821, the anniversary of Dundas' birth, Admirals Otway and Milne laid the foundation stone and a time capsule was sealed into the structure; George Baird, Principal of the University of Edinburgh said prayers as part of the ceremony. The day concluded with a celebratory dinner at the Warterloo Tavern.
Construction |
1760_13 | Soon after the contract was signed, Patrick Walker attempted to sue the committee for "breach of engagement" and claim damages of £10,000. In the end, the committee settled for £408, effectively tipping the project into debt. Debt and delay grew, especially after an assessment by Robert Stevenson recommend strengthening the foundations and constructing the shaft from solid blocks rather than rubble infill as Burn had proposed. These changes added £1,000 to the overall cost. Stevenson's assessment was offered free of charge and had been spurred by the square's residents, many of whom were fearful of the stability of such a large monument. Despite these problems, the committee persevered and, in 1822, agreed to include a statue, designed by Francis Leggatt Chantrey and carved Robert Forrest. |
1760_14 | At Stevenson's suggestion, J. & J. Rutherford constructed the column using an iron balance crane such as Stevenson had employed during the construction of the Bell Rock Lighthouse. The column, without its statue, was almost complete by the visit of George IV to Edinburgh in August 1822. By August 1824, the statue was under construction at Forrest's workshop near Lesmahagow. In summer 1827, the sculpture was erected at the top of the monument, having been brought from Forrest's workshop in twelve carts and pulled up, block-by-block, via pulleys on an external scaffold. The face was the last block to be installed; beforehand, it had been stored for display in a wooden case in the gardens. |
1760_15 | Before and after the monument's completion, the committee's strong connections with the Royal Navy had made it reluctant to canvass public support to pay off the project's massive debts. In summer 1826, requests for support were therefore sent round every ship in the Navy. The Scotsman and The Times condemned the appeal, arguing it exploited impecunious junior seamen. In February 1827, the committee finally made an appeal for public support. By April 1834, this and appeals to the Pitt Club had failed to reduce the debt below £1,100. The committee decided to require each of its own members to pay £41 13s 4d under threat of legal action. In the end, this too proved ineffective and only by 1837 were the final costs were paid by six remaining naval officers on a sub-committee. The ultimate cost of the monument was £8,000.
Reception and subsequent history |
1760_16 | At its erection, the Caledonian Mercury negatively compared the monument with similar recent structures, Lord Hill's Column at Shrewsbury and the Britannia Monument at Great Yarmouth. The newspaper claimed these monuments, lacking the reliefs that decorate the shaft of Trajan's Column, appeared "tottering and insecure" while the Melville Monument appeared "rather the remains of an edifice, than an entire object". By contrast, another contemporary, Thomas Babington Macaulay, praised the monument while damning its subject. In a letter of 1828, he wrote: "There is a new pillar to the memory of Lord Melville; very elegant, and very much better than the man deserved. [...] It is impossible to look at it without being reminded of the fate which the original most richly merited." In the 1830s, the town council recorded the complaints of citizens who objected to the city's maintenance of a memorial to an "unpopular" figure whose policies were "unwise and offensive". Despite controversies over |
1760_17 | Dundas' legacy, Connie Byrom assesses most contemporary reactions to the column's appearance to be positive. |
1760_18 | On 14 July 1837, lightning stuck the monument. The committee remained unable to pay both the cost of repairs and the cost of a protective railing, which had been installed round the base of the monument in 1833. These railings, within whose bounds the square's gardeners kept their equipment, had been removed by 1947.
The monument has been protected as a Category A listed building since 1966. In 2003, the Institution of Civil Engineers placed an explanatory plaque to the monument at the western entrance to the garden and, in 2008, Edinburgh World Heritage supported the conservation of the monument as part of its Twelve Monuments scheme. The restoration coincided with a £2.4m refurbishment of St Andrew Square. The refurbishment concluded with the opening of the square for full public access for the first time in its history. Restoration of the statue proved especially difficult; a special scaffold was constructed around the top of the monument.
Controversy |
1760_19 | Reappraisal of Dundas' legacy had begun soon after his death in 1811. Dundas' younger contemporary, the Whig lawyer Henry Cockburn, called Dundas "the absolute dictator of Scotland" for his domination of the country's patronage networks. Cyril Matheson, writing in 1933, describes how Dundas "took the lead" in opposing William Wilberforce's annual motions to abolish the slave trade. Matheson concludes: "the future was against him, and his reputation has suffered in consequence". Later historians of the slave trade, including David Brion Davis and Roger Anstey, have shared the assessment of Dundas as a major – but not unique – force in undermining parliamentary efforts in 1792 and 1796 to abolish the slave trade. |
1760_20 | In 2017, the city council, responding to a petition from environmental campaigner, Adam Ramsay, convened a committee to draft the wording of a new plaque to reflect controversial aspects of Dundas' legacy, including his role in the delay in the abolition of the slave trade. The committee included academic and anti-racism campaigner Sir Geoff Palmer. The committee also included historian Michael Fry, who argued that, by arguing for "gradual" abolition, Dundas was taking a pragmatic approach to support abolition in a pro-slavery parliament. Although the council aimed to install a new plaque by September 2018, the committee's work remained incomplete by 2020. |
1760_21 | In early June 2020, Palmer, responding to the international outcry over the murder of George Floyd, reiterated calls for a new plaque. At this time, activity around the monument included graffiti on the pedestal and a petition to remove the monument altogether. While a permanent plaque awaited planning, the council installed temporary plaques in July 2020. These bore the intended wording of the permanent plaque, which had been drafted by a sub-committee including representatives of the council and Edinburgh World Heritage along with Palmer. In response, historian Sir Tom Devine criticised the council's decision-making process as a "kangaroo court". He argued Dundas had been "scapegoated" for the delay in the abolition of the slave trade, which, he claimed, would have been impossible at the time in any case. |
1760_22 | In March 2021, the council approved the installation of a permanent plaque which will be "dedicated to the memory of the more than half a million Africans whose enslavement was a consequence of Henry Dundas's actions" and which will state that Dundas "defended and expanded the British empire, imposing colonial rule on indigenous peoples" and "curbed democratic dissent in Scotland". In response, two of Dundas' descendants – Jennifer Dundas and Bobby Dundas, the current Viscount Melville – criticised the wording of the plaque. They argued their ancestor was one of the first MPs to support abolition and pointed to his role in the legal defence of Joseph Knight in the Knight v. Wedderburn: the case which led to the effective abolition of slavery in almost all cases in Scotland. Palmer responded by recognising Dundas' role in Knight's case while refuting the claim that Dundas was an abolitionist.
Description
Setting |
1760_23 | The monument stands in the centre of St Andrew Square at the eastern end of Edinburgh's New Town. The square was an integral part of
James Craig's original scheme for the development and was one of the first parts of the New Town to be developed. The feuing of the square began in 1767 and the square was entirely built by 1781. Initially, the square's gardens were accessible only by inhabitants of the surrounding residences: some of the most desirable in the city. By the time of the monument's construction, however, the square had declined as a residential area and was, as it remains, largely occupied by commercial properties. In 2008, the square, as part of its full opening to the public, was redeveloped by the design firm Gillespies. Gillespies' plan created a south west to north east axis across the square, which includes a central oval-shaped open space surrounding the monument. |
1760_24 | Craig's original plan of the New Town had proposed equestrian statues at the centres of Charlotte Square and St Andrew Square. The latter would have occupied the site of the Melville Monument. Craig also intended the western and eastern views along George Street would terminate at a church on Charlotte Square and one on St Andrew Square respectively. Although the former was achieved with Robert Reid's St George's Church on Charlotte Square, Sir Lawrence Dundas' purchase of the a plot on the eastern side of St Andrew Square for his own house meant the eastern end lacked such a vista. The construction of the Melville Monument provided that visual terminus to the east end of George Street. |
1760_25 | Historic Environment Scotland describes the monument as "among the most prominent landmarks in Edinburgh". A.J. Youngson describes the monument as "inescapable" when approaching George Street. The monument occupies a prominent position at the eastern end of the ridge on which the New Town is constructed. Relevant to its origin as a tribute from sailors of the Royal Navy, its position made it visible from ships in the Firth of Forth and to sailors as they travelled from the port at Leith to Edinburgh via Leith Walk.
C.G. Desmarest argues the Melville Monument is a picturesque reaction to the formality of Craig's plan, which it enhances without disrupting it. As the Melville Monument rose, some proposed a similar column, based on that of Antoninus Pius and dedicated to Pitt the Younger for Charlotte Square. If this had been constructed, Desmarest claims, it would also have enhanced the formal symmetry of the New Town.
Column and pedestal |
1760_26 | The overall design of the column is modelled on the early second-century Trajan's Column in Rome, albeit with a shaft decorated with regular vertical fluting rather than with the relief sculptures of its ancient model. The shaft is also punctuated by vertical slits to illuminate the interior.
The shaft is topped by a Doric capital decorated with egg-and-dart moulding: this supports a square pedestal, above which a two-stage drum supports the statue. Within the drum is a door, which provides access to the pedestal from a spiral staircase which ascends the interior of the shaft. The square pedestal at the base of the monument more closely imitates that of its Roman model, especially in the corner eagles with oak leaf swags stretching between them. Access to the internal staircase is via the door in the west face of the pedestal. At its base, the pedestal is approximately 5.5m (18ft) at each face and 6.3m (21ft) tall. |
1760_27 | The column itself is about 35.5m (117ft) in height with a diameter at the base of around 3.7m (12ft) at the base, tapering to 3.2m (10.5ft) at the top. Combined with the pedestal and statue, this gives the monument an overall height of about 45m (150ft). The pedestal and column are constructed from Cullalo sandstone.
Statue
The statue, designed by Francis Leggatt Chantrey and carved by Robert Forrest, is constructed from Nethanfoot and Threepwood sandstone and stands at approximately 4.2m (14ft) tall. The statue weighs about 18 tons and consists of 15 blocks secured by gunmetal bolts. |
1760_28 | The statue depicts its subject clad in the robes of a peer and facing west along George Street with his left hand on his chest and his right foot slightly overstepping the pedestal. This pose is similar to that adopted by Chantrey's 1818 depiction of Dundas, housed in Parliament Hall. Due to the monument's great height, the statue's features are exaggerated, especially the trim of the robes, the hair, and eyebrows. Overall, the statue conforms with contemporary descriptions of its subject as tall and muscular with striking features.
Cultural references
In the children's television series Hububb, which aired on CBBC from 1997 to 2001, the main character, played by mime artist Les Bubb, lives in the Melville Monument. |
1760_29 | The immediate response to the controversy around the monument in 2020, sparked a nummber of works. Jack Docherty's short story "Statuesque", centring on the monument, was broadcast by BBC Radio 4 on 28 June 2020 in its Short Works series of stories inspired by current events. The monument was the subject of Sunken Statues, a speculative design project, which imagines the full length of the monument sunk in a hole in the square. The project won the grand prize in the 2021 John Byrne Awards.
The monument was also subject of a BBC Scotland television documentary Scotland, Slavery, and Statues, broadcast on 20 October 2020. Sir Tom Devine criticised the programme as "a kind of Punch and Judy show" and "a miserable failure". The programme's producer, Parisa Urquhart, defended her work, pointing to positive comments from the Wilberforce Diaries Project and from Professor James Smith, Chair of Africa and Development Studies at the University of Edinburgh. |
1760_30 | See also
List of listed buildings in Edinburgh
Notes
Explanatory notes
References |
1760_31 | Bibliography
Anstey, Roger (1975). The Atlantic Slave Trade and British Abolition. MacMillan
Byrom, Connie (2005). The Edinburgh New Town Gardens. Birlinn
Cockburn, Henry (1856). Memorial of his Time. (1979 ed.) The University of Chicago Press
Davis, David Brion (1975). The Problem of Slavery in the Age of Revolution: 1770–1823. (1999 ed.) Oxford University Press.
Fry, Michael (1992). The Dundas Despotism. John Donald
Gifford, John; McWilliam, Colin; Walker, David (1984). The Buildings of Scotland: Edinburgh. Penguin Books.
Grant, James (1880). Old and New Edinburgh. II. Cassell's
Gray, William Forbes (1927). "The Melville Monument". Book of the Old Edinburgh Club. XV: 207–213.
Lindsay, Ian G. (1948). Georgian Edinburgh. Oliver and Boyd.
McKenzie, Ray; King, Dianne; Smith, Tracy (2018). Public Sculpture of Britain Volume 21: Public Sculpture of Edinburgh. Liverpool University Press.
McWilliam, Colin (1975). Scottish Townscape. Collins. |
1760_32 | Matthew, H.C.G. & Harrison, Brian (eds.) (2004) Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. XVII. Oxford University Press
Fry, Michael. "Dundas, Henry, first Viscount Melville (1742–1811)".
Matheson, Cyril (1933). The Life of Henry Dundas, 1st Viscount Melville. Constable & Co
Paxton, Richard & Shipway, Jim (2007). Civil Engineering Heritage: Scotland – Lowlands and Borders. Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historic Monuments of Scotland.
Trevelyan, George Otto (ed.) (1876). Life and Letters of Lord Macaulay.
Youngson, Alexander J.
(1966). The Making of Classical Edinburgh. Edinburgh University Press.
(2001). The Companion Guide to Edinburgh and the Borders. Polygon. |
1760_33 | External links
Historic Environment Scotland: "ST ANDREW SQUARE, MELVILLE MONUMENT WITH BOUNDARY WALLS AND RAILINGS: LB27816"
Canmore: "Edinburgh, St Andrew Square, Melville's Monument"
Edinburgh World Heritage: "The Melville Monument"
Monumental columns in Scotland
Category A listed buildings in Edinburgh
New Town, Edinburgh |
1761_0 | Slimonia is a genus of eurypterid, an extinct group of aquatic arthropods. Fossils of Slimonia have been discovered in deposits of Silurian age in South America and Europe. Classified as part of the family Slimonidae alongside the related Salteropterus, the genus contains three valid species, S. acuminata from Lesmahagow, Scotland, S. boliviana from Cochabamba, Bolivia and S. dubia from the Pentland Hills of Scotland and one dubious species, S. stylops, from Herefordshire, England. The generic name is derived from and honors Robert Slimon, a fossil collector and surgeon from Lesmahagow. |
1761_1 | Out of the four described species of Slimonia, three measured below or up to in length. Only S. acuminata was larger, with the largest specimens measuring in length. Though this is large for a predatory arthropod, Slimonia would be exceeded in length by later and more derived (more "advanced") members of the closely related pterygotid family of eurypterids, which would become the largest known arthropods to ever live.
Description |
1761_2 | Slimonia is in many ways similar to the more derived (more "advanced") eurypterids of its superfamily, the Pterygotioidea. In particular, the expanded and flattened telson (the most posterior segment of the body) of Slimonia is similar to that of the pterygotid eurypterids and is a feature that Slimonia and the pterygotids only share with some derived hibbertopterid eurypterids (where the feature convergently evolved). The pterygotid telson was in general slightly larger than that of Slimonia and was more slender. The telson spike of Slimonia was much longer than any seen in the Pterygotidae (constituting just over half of the total telson length) however, serrated and ending in a fine point. The largest species of Slimonia, S. acuminata, reached a maximum length of 100 cm (39 in) whilst the smallest, S. dubia, grew to 12 cm (5 in) in length. Though 100 cm is large for a predatory arthropod, Slimonia would be exceeded in length by later and more derived (more "advanced") members of |
1761_3 | the closely related pterygotid family of eurypterids, which would become the largest known arthropods to ever live. |
1761_4 | Slimonia can be distinguished from other members of its family, the Slimonidae, by a variety of characteristics. The prosoma (head) is quadrate (square-shaped) in shape and had small compound eyes on the frontal corners. The bodies were large and cordate (heart-shaped), with a narrow postabdomen and a telson with a strongly expanded anterior half. The chelicerae (frontal appendages) were small in comparison to those of the pterygotids and the walking legs had denticles, but no spines. Genital appendages were long and narrow in both males and females.
History of research |
1761_5 | The type species of Slimonia, S. acuminata, was first described as a species of Pterygotus, "Pterygotus acuminata" (acuminata being Latin for "sharp" or "tapering"), by John William Salter in 1856, based on fossils recovered from deposits of Llandovery-Wenlock (Early to Middle Silurian) age in Lesmahagow, Scotland. That same year David Page erected a new genus to contain the species, as several distinctive characteristics made the species considerably different from other known species of Pterygotus, among them the shape of the carapace and S. acuminata lacking the large cheliceral claws known from Pterygotus. The generic name is derived from and honors Robert Slimon, a fossil collector and surgeon from Lesmahagow. Slimon was the first to discover eurypterid fossils in Lesmahagow, bringing them to the attention of Roderick Murchison in 1851. S. acuminata remains the largest known species, with the largest specimens measuring up to 100 cm (39 in) in length. |
1761_6 | In 1899, an additional species, S. dubia, would be referred to the genus. This species was recovered from slightly earlier deposits (Llandovery age) in the Pentland Hills of Scotland and could be distinguished from S. acuminata by the more elongated telson (also not as broad in the parts furthest back), thinner telson spike and a slightly different, tapering, body shape that tapers evenly the whole way instead of suddenly narrowing near the seventh segment as in S. acuminata. The type specimen of S. dubia is a badly preserved carapace, with fragments of various degrees of completion of the first eleven segments found associated. Despite its fragmentary nature, the quadrangular (square) shape of the carapace and the eyes placed at its corners allowed zoologist and paleontologist Malcolm Laurie to place it within Slimonia when describing it in 1899. The size of the carapace suggests that the species would have grown to 12 cm (5 in) in length. |
1761_7 | Another species, S. stylops, was first considered a species of Pterygotus when described by John William Salter in 1859, and the highly fragmentary nature of the known fossils make a precise identification difficult and problematic. Only one specimen, the anterior part of a carapace with the compound eyes placed on the margin, is known and though it does resemble Slimonia, it could also potentially be referred to Hughmilleria or even represent the carapace of Salteropterus abbreviatus (a closely related slimonid eurypterid known only from the telson and metastoma, a large plate part of the abdomen). The fossils were recovered from deposits of Pridoli (Late Silurian) age in Herefordshire, England and suggest that the species grew to 12 cm (5 in) in length. Due to its problematic nature, S. stylops is seen as a nomen dubium by modern researchers. |
1761_8 | In 1973, another species of Slimonia was named by Kjellesvig-Waering based on one single fossil recovered by Eduardo Rodriguez from the Kirusillas Formation, of Ludlow-Pridoli (Late Silurian) age, in Cochabamba, Bolivia. Named S. boliviana, the holotype (BLV15, deposited at the National Museum of Natural History of France) comprises a well-preserved telson typical of the genus, being laterally inflated and with a dagger-like terminal point. It was anteriorly covered with small scales semilunar to mucronitic ("spined") grouped into a single row of large marginal scales that form a linear serrated edge. A slight dorsal keel is present along the telson. There was a triangular area at the base of the telson which could have been a point of union with the muscles. S. boliviana differed from S. acuminata in having the keel much less developed, narrower and not reaching the terminal spike. The latter was wider, not as pointed and with less developed serrations. The telson itself was wider |
1761_9 | and shorter than in the type species. This species was the third Silurian eurypterid in the Southern Hemisphere to be described, the other two coming from Australia. The fossil suggest a total body length of . |
1761_10 | Classification
Slimonia is classified as part of the eurypterid family Slimonidae, within the superfamily Pterygotioidea. Historically Slimonia was first considered a member of the Pterygotidae, until it was reclassified alongside Hughmilleria and other genera to the family Hughmilleriidae in 1951 by Erik N. Kjellesvig-Waering. Nestor Ivanovich Novojilov classified Slimonia as part of a family of its own in 1968. |
1761_11 | Slimonia is one of the most closely related genera to the pterygotid family and the Slimonidae is often interpreted as a sister-taxon to the Pterygotidae. The other Pterygotioid family, the Hughmilleriidae, has also been interpreted as the most closely related sister-taxon to the pterygotids. The discovery of Ciurcopterus, the most primitive known pterygotid, and studies revealing that Ciurcopterus combines features of Slimonia (the appendages are particularly similar) and of more derived pterygotids, revealed that the Slimonidae is more closely related to the Pterygotidae than the Hughmilleriidae is.
The cladogram below is simplified from a study by O. Erik Tetlie (2007), and showcases the position of Slimonia relative to the rest of the Eurypterina suborder of eurypterids, with the Stylonurina suborder as an outgroup. |
1761_12 | Paleobiology
In 2017, W. Scott Persons IV and John Acorn reported finding an S. acuminata specimen, MB.A 863, in the Patrick Burn Formation of Scotland, dated to the Telychian, around 430 million years ago. The specimen was a complete and articulated series of telsonal, postabdominal and preabdominal segments, and it showed a very strong lateral curvature in the postabdomen. Persons and Acorn admitted that it might have experienced some disarticulation postmortem or could represent a partial molt (exuviae), but concluded that since there was no apparent disarticulation in the metasoma, it was likely that the articulation seen in the postabdominal segments (which is also seen in some other eurypterid fossils, such as of Eurypterus and Alkenopterus) would have been possible in life. |
1761_13 | Biomechanical studies on the telsons and postabdominal segments of eurypterids closely related to Slimonia, particularly those of the family Pterygotidae, had revealed that the body was very stiff, and that the flattened telson would likely have served as a rudder that would have allowed the animals to be agile and capable of quick turns when chasing after prey, contradicting previous hypotheses that the telson would have served a propulsive function. Whilst the postabdomen of Slimonia was likely similarly stiff and inflexible dorsally (up and down), Persons and Acorn claimed that their specimen suggested that it was highly flexible laterally (side to side). As such, they theorised that the tail may have been used as a weapon. The telson spine, serrated along the sides and exceeding the flattened telson in length, ends in a sharp tip, and they proposed that it could have been capable of piercing prey. |
1761_14 | However, the Persons and Acorn theory was challenged in 2018 by James Lamsdell, David Marshall, and Derek Briggs. Even though the Persons and Acorn study claimed that the fossil didn't show any signs of disarticulation, Lamsdell, Marshall, and Briggs showed this is likely not true. They argued that both tergite 8 and 10 clearly overlapped the other tergites in an unnatural way. Furthermore, they noted that the specimen was definitely a molt rather than a carcass, and argued that this meant that the pose the fossil was in did not represent a possible life position. They further argued that since the telson of Slimonia also possessed a keel, this would have created significant drag on it while Slimonia was trying to laterally sweep the telson to stab its prey. Lastly, they argued that the serrations on the telson would most likely be attachment points for setae that would have aided the animal in sensing the water flow to make steering much easier. |
1761_15 | Visual acuity, the clarity of vision, can be determined in arthropods by determining number of lenses in their compound eyes and the interommatidial angle (shortened as IOA and referring to the angle between the optical axes of the adjacent lenses). The IOA is especially important as it can be used to distinguish different ecological roles in arthropods, being low in modern active arthropod predators. Slimonia was very similar to the basal pterygotid Erettopterus in terms of visual acuity, with the number of lenses being comparable to those of Pterygotus and Jaekelopterus and possessing an IOA between 2 and 3 (which is higher than the IOA of Pterygotus and Jaekelopterus, suggesting that the visual acuity of Slimonia was good, but not as good as in the derived pterygotids).
Paleoecology |
1761_16 | Fossils of Slimonia have been recovered in deposits home to diverse eurypterid faunas. Telychian deposits in the Pentland Hills, where remains of S. dubia have been found, preserve fossils of a large amount of other eurypterids, including Drepanopterus pentlandicus, Laurieipterus elegans, Parastylonurus ornatus, Hardieopterus macrophthalmus, Carcinosoma scoticus, Stoermeropterus conicus and Pentlandopterus minor. Also preserved are fossils of orthocerids, such as Geisonoceras maclareni. Similar levels of eurypterid diversity are also observed in fossil deposits where other species of Slimonia have been found. S. acuminata has been found associated with Nanahughmilleria lanceolata, Hardieopterus lanarkensis, Eusarcana obesus, Parastylonurus sigmoidalis, Carcinosoma scorpionis and Erettopterus bilobus and S. stylops have been found associated with Nanahughmilleria pygmaea, Eusarcana salteri, Hardieopterus megalops, Erettopterus brodiei, E. gigas, Hughmilleria banksi, Eurypterus |
1761_17 | cephalaspis and Pterygotus ludensis. |
1761_18 | The living environment of the pterygotids differed from genus to genus, with some (such as Pterygotus) being found in estuaries, while other (such as Jaekelopterus) were found in freshwater environments; Slimonia has been found in environments which appear to have been intertidal to marine. Slimonia likely preyed on smaller fish, as it lacked the enlarged cheliceral claws of the pterygotids and was smaller in size than the largest members of that group. Prey likely included jawless fish such as heterostracans and early osteostracans, which Slimonia would have seized with its frontal appendages. Slimonia traversed its living environment on spindly legs or through using its swimming appendages. The lungs of the genus were located on the underside of the body in a series of folds. |
1761_19 | Like many eurypterid species, Slimonia acuminata requires a modern re-description to properly establish defining traits and characteristics. Some traits that appear to be unique to S. acuminata have been described based on specimens housed at the Doncaster Museum and Art Gallery, including rows of pustules (bulges) along the marginal rim of the body and appendages. In some arthropods, pustules serve as attachment points of setae (bristle- or hair-like structures with sensory functions). Similar pustule rows have been discovered in the other eurypterid Drepanopterus abonensis, a sweep-feeder that used the marginal rim to search the substrate of its living environment for prey. If the pustules of S. acuminata had setae, these pustules may have functioned as tactile and sensory organs used for locating and identifying prey, together with the pedipalps (the gracile second pair of appendages, behind the chelicerae).
See also
List of eurypterid genera
Timeline of eurypterid research |
1761_20 | References
Pterygotioidea
Silurian eurypterids
Silurian first appearances
Silurian extinctions
Eurypterids of Europe
Silurian United Kingdom
Fossils of England
Fossils of Scotland
Eurypterids of South America
Silurian Bolivia
Fossils of Bolivia
Fossil taxa described in 1856 |
1762_0 | Fort Buford was a United States Army Post at the confluence of the Missouri and Yellowstone rivers in Dakota Territory, present day North Dakota, and the site of Sitting Bull's surrender in 1881.
Company C, 2nd Battalion, 13th Infantry, 3 officers, 80 enlisted men and 6 civilians commanded by Capt. (Brevet Lt. Col.) William G. Rankin, first established a camp on the site on June 15, 1866, with orders to build a post, the majority of which was built using adobe and cottonwood enclosed by a wooden stockade. The fort was named after the late Major General John Buford, a Union Army cavalry general during the American Civil War.
Lakota attacks |
1762_1 | The second night after arrival the camp was attacked by a band of the Hunkpapa Lakota led by Sitting Bull, they were driven off with one soldier wounded. The next day, the same group attacked and attempted to drive off the company's herd of beef cattle, but were repulsed and two Lakota killed. Parties of men cutting and rafting logs from the mouth of the Yellowstone were often attacked and driven to camp, where the fighting often lasted from two to six hours with losses on both sides.
Hard winter |
1762_2 | Three civilian wood cutters were killed at the mouth of the Yellowstone in December. Lieut. Hiram H. Ketchum with sixty men reacted, drove off the Indians and recovered the bodies with slight loss to his detachment. According to the regimental history, the Lakota boasted that they intended to annihilate the soldiers and during the winter they besieged the post. The siege cut off the garrison from the nearby Missouri River and forced them to sink shallow wells near their quarters in order to obtain fresh water. The shallow well water they drank was contaminated, by the post's livestock and/or human waste, and caused dysentery. From December 21–24 a large group of the Hunkpapas repeatedly attacked and captured the post's ice house and sawmill located near the river and opened fire on the post. The attackers were not repelled until Rankin ordered his two 12 pound Napoleons to return fire. Captain Rankin's wife spent the winter in camp, enduring the hardships and dangers with the troops |
1762_3 | in garrison. |
1762_4 | Massacre hoax |
1762_5 | The harassing raids and resulting lack of communication from the isolated post led to the perpetration of a hoax, the "Fort Buford Massacre", purporting that the fort had been wiped out, Capt. Rankin captured and tortured to death, and Rankin's wife captured and abused. The episode began when the Philadelphia Inquirer ran a story April 1, 1867, based on a letter allegedly written from the fort, which was then picked up and run the next day nationwide. It was given "legs" by a letter published April 6 in the Army and Navy Journal, attributed to the wife of a prominent Army officer, confirming the massacre. Although by April 4 many newspapers had begun to question the validity of the report, The Chicago Daily Times, Detroit Free Press, New York Daily Tribune, The New York Times, and Boston Herald, among others, continued to feed the rumors with further stories for another month, many of them accusing the Army and the Johnson Administration of covering up the massacre. The hoax was |
1762_6 | eventually exposed by Rankin himself in correspondence to the war department. |
1762_7 | Although the general harassing by the Lakota of Fort Buford lasted until the early 1870s, the worst was during that first year, June 1866 to May 1867. In May, the Missouri River thawed allowing the sternwheeler steamboat Graham to reinforce the garrison with additional riverboats arriving in June carrying Companies B, F, G, and part of E thereby enabling the garrison to better defend itself and allow for more permanent structures to be built.
Construction phases |
1762_8 | With the arrival of Companies B, F, G, and E, Fort Buford was expanded in 1867–1868 from the original 1866 one-company 360-foot square frontier stockade to a 540 x 1,080 feet 5 company fort with only three walls towards the West, North, and East. The South side, while not being walled off, was enclosed by the long portion of a reverse "L" of adobe barracks buildings and the Missouri River towards the South served as a natural moat. The reconstructed barracks on the site today is on the location of where the original that formed the short leg of the "L" was. In 1867, old Fort Union, A fur trading post dating back to 1829 and located 2 miles away by land, 7 by river, was bought by the Army and parts of it were demolished and used at Fort Buford during this construction phase. The reason being that the wood there had 30 years worth of age and was of superior quality to the green cottonwood available along the Yellowstone and Missouri Rivers where the only native wood grew. |
1762_9 | The post was expanded again in 1871–1872 with the arrival of Colonel William B. Hazen's 6th Infantry Regiment to a six-company infantry post covering approximately a square mile, including laundress' quarters and other civilian areas, using lumber shipped from the Eastern United States by steamboat but with no stockade. At that time the fighting had moved further westward into Montana Territory and the garrison was large enough to no-longer need the perimeter stockade. The original Commanding Officer's Quarters at the site today was part of this expansion and originally built in 1871–1872 and served as Hazen's residence from 1872–1880. This structure sits at the southern end of what once was a double row of Officer's Quarters that ran towards the North. Beyond this double row the stone Powder Magazine was built in 1875 out of sandstone quarried from an area located to the North of the fort. When in use the magazine held over a million rounds of ammunition for the fort's garrison, much |
1762_10 | of it being black powder cartridges one of which was the .45-70. At this time Fort Buford became a key element in the supply route for the military campaigns of 1876–1877 in Montana Territory. At the peak of occupation, which followed the Battle of the Little Bighorn in 1876 until 1881, there were just under 100 buildings and approximately 1,000 people occupying the post at any given moment including infantry and cavalry companies bivouacking in tents on the parade ground while being resupplied. |
1762_11 | Following the 1871–1872 expansion there were several improvements to the fort. In 1873–1874 the 6 adobe barracks from the 1867–1868 expansion were rehabilitated in order to stabilize their crumbling adobe, this was done by adding wood sheathing to the outside of the building protecting it from the weather as well as plastering the interior and replacing the sod roof with a new lighter roof covered with tar and gravel. At the same time, the kitchen and mess hall for each barracks was relocated from the main building to a new addition connected by a short hallway. This new addition was built using the same quality lumber from the Eastern States as used in the other buildings of the 1871–1872 expansion, the existing reconstruction represents what the original building would have looked like in 1876. By 1880 however, all of the remaining adobe barracks buildings were collapsing, with a few having already collapsed and forcing the men to bivouac in tents on the parade ground. By 1881, the |
1762_12 | adobe structures were torn down and replaced with wooden structures relocated to the eastern side of the parade ground. In 1883, the Commanding Officer's Quarters' bay window was pushed out to the South adding on two rooms to the structure. |
1762_13 | In 1889, the last of the expansions took place. A much larger Commanding officer's Quarters was built on the northern end of Officer's Row replacing the 1872 Hazen Quarters which then became the Field Officer's Quarters. A water tower was built towards the river and attempts were made at installing water mains to the structures. The attempt failed however, because they could not bury the pipes deep enough to keep them from freezing every Winter with the last attempt at 8 feet.
The remoteness of the post, poor quality of its original construction, and age resulted in the fort's deterioration with many of the original adobe and cottonwood structures constantly in a state of collapse due to unskilled labor, the elements, and poor construction methods when built.
An Indian village in The Fort Buford Military Reservation |
1762_14 | Around 1870, the garrison received unexpected newcomers. They were Hidatsa and Mandan Indians from the joint settlement Like-a-Fishhook Village nearly 100 miles further downstream in the Fort Berthold Indian Reservation. From 150 to 200 migrants, led by Bobtail Bull and Crow Flies High, founded a new settlement of mainly log cabins some two miles northwest of the fort. The Indian rebels were in conflict with the old village chiefs. Further, they fled the newly introduced reservation system. |
1762_15 | Since the Hidatsas never had taken up arms against the U.S. Army, they were accepted in the area. Moreover, they were enemies of the Sioux. The very grounds for the separatists to settle this close to the military fort "was the greater protection from the Sioux" it offered to a small village. The garrison recognized the military value of its new neighbors and enlisted some as scouts to a regular pay.
Once in the 1880s, the scouts and the soldiers went to Bismarck, expecting problems with some reservation Sioux which never emerged. In peacetime, the Hidatsas carried military mail to places like Poplar and Glendive, Montana.
The Indian village in the Military Reservation lasted until 1884. Commanding officer J.N.G. Whistler closed the settlement due to a growing number of inhabitants, instances of prostitution and some begging at the fort.
Decommissioning and the site as it is today |
1762_16 | Due to the settlement of the region and the poor condition of the post, Fort Buford was decommissioned by the Army on October 1, 1895. In 1896, all of the remaining structures were sold at auction to be either hauled away or torn down. All but 3 were moved: the 1872 Commanding Officer's Quarters where Sitting Bull surrendered his rifle, the 1875 stone Powder Magazine, and a Duplex Officer's Quarters. The Duplex was used as a residence and the much smaller Commanding Officer's Quarters was used as a guest house and later as a granary by the Mercer family and the grounds were called "Villa Militare" until the grounds were given to the State of North Dakota in 1927. The Duplex burned down destroying with it many artifacts in 1937. In the 1990s the former Officer of the Guard/Officer of the Day building was found being used as a pump house for the nearby irrigation canal and was relocated to its original location. In 2004, an example of an adobe barracks was built at the location of an |
1762_17 | original barracks that was there from 1867 to 1881. From archaeological findings at the site prior to its construction, it was determined that this particular barracks held Co. G 6th Infantry Regiment while the 6th Infantry was stationed at the post from 1871 to 1880. Of the approximately 1 square mile sized fort only 40 acres is currently owned by the state of North Dakota. Today the North Dakota State Historical Society runs Fort Buford as Fort Buford State Historic Site. |
1762_18 | See also
Fort Buford Stage Road, also National Register-listed
Fort Union Trading Post National Historic Site, nearby site that predates Fort Buford.
Missouri-Yellowstone Confluence Interpretive Center
Fort Dilts State Historic Site
Fort Abraham Lincoln State Park
References
Remele, Larry (ed). Fort Buford and the Military Frontier on the Northern Plains 1850–1900. Bismarck, ND: State Historical Society of North Dakota, 1987.
Further reading
Barnes, Jeff. Forts of the Northern Plains: Guide to Historic Military Posts of the Plains Indian Wars. Mechanicsburg, PA: Stackpole Books, 2008.
Remele, Larry (ed). Fort Buford and the Military Frontier on the Northern Plains 1850–1900. Bismarck, ND: State Historical Society of North Dakota, 1987.
External links
Fort Buford – North Dakota State Historic Site
PBS – THE WEST – Ft. Buford |
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