Ammonoidea

Ammonites /ˈæmənaɪts/ are an extinct group of marine mollusc animals in the subclass Ammonoidea of the class Cephalopoda. These molluscs are more closely related to living coleoids (i.e., octopuses, squid, and cuttlefish) than they are to shelled nautiloids such as the living Nautilus species. The earliest ammonites appear during the Devonian, and the last species died out during the Cretaceous–Paleogene extinction event.

Ammonites are excellent index fossils, and it is often possible to link the rock layer in which a particular species or genus is found to specific geologic time periods. Their fossil shells usually take the form of planispirals, although there were some helically spiraled and nonspiraled forms (known as heteromorphs).

The name "ammonite", from which the scientific term is derived, was inspired by the spiral shape of their fossilized shells, which somewhat resemble tightly coiled rams' horns. Pliny the Elder (d. 79 AD near Pompeii) called fossils of these animals ammonis cornua ("horns of Ammon") because the Egyptian god Ammon (Amun) was typically depicted wearing ram's horns. Often the name of an ammonite genus ends in -ceras, which is Greek (κέρας) for "horn".

Ammonite language

Ammonite is the extinct Canaanite language of the Ammonite people mentioned in the Bible, who used to live in modern-day Jordan, and after whom its capital Amman is named. Only fragments of their language survive - chiefly the 9th century BC Amman Citadel Inscription, the 7th-6th century BC Tell Siran bronze bottle, and a few ostraca. As far as can be determined from the small corpus, it was extremely similar to Biblical Hebrew, with some possible Aramaic influence including the use of the verb ‘bd (עבד) instead of the more common Biblical Hebrew ‘śh (עשה) for "make". The only other notable difference with Biblical Hebrew is the sporadic retention of feminine singular -t (’šħt "cistern" but ‘lyh "high (fem.)".)

It was first described as a separate language in 1970 by Italian Orientalist Giovanni Garbini. Subsequently, a number of inscriptions previously identified as Hebrew, Phoenician, or Aramaic were reclassified, as a result of consensus around the similarity of the Amman Theatre Inscription, Amman Citadel Inscription, Tell Siren Bottle, Heshbon Ostraca, and Tell el-Mazer Ostraca.

Ammonite (novel)

Ammonite is Nicola Griffith's first novel, published in 1992 (ISBN 978-0-345-37891-0). It won both the Lambda Literary Award for LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender) fiction, and the James Tiptree, Jr. Award for science fiction or fantasy that explores or expands our understanding of gender.

Plot summary

Ammonite is the story of Marghe Taishan, an employee of the sinister, monolithic 'Company', sent to the planet GP (Gershom's Planet- pronounced 'Jeep') as an anthropologist. The distinctive feature of Jeep is an endemic disease which kills all men (and some women) who contract it. While testing a vaccine made to protect unexposed people form the virus, Marghe makes a journey across Jeep, living with many of its indigenous cultures. She is enslaved by the nomadic Echraide, and then reaches the quieter village of Ollfoss, where she joins a family, learns the mystic discipline of linking, and eventually becomes a 'viajera', or traveling wise woman, giving up the vaccine in favor of accepting the virus into her body and truly learning what it is like to be a native. Afterward, she is forced to the center of a conflict between her former people, the Mirrors, with their native allies and the Echraide, who follow a member of their tribe whom they believe to be the Death God- Uaithne, possibly experiencing psychosis. Marghe wins peace for all as the Mirror's guard ship is blown out of the sky by the Company, who believe the vaccine has failed.