Sun cross

A sun cross (also solar cross, wheel cross) is the term for a symbol consisting of an equilateral cross inside a circle when considered as a solar symbol.

The design is frequently found in the symbolism of prehistoric cultures, particularly during the Neolithic to Bronze Age periods of European prehistory. The symbol's ubiquity and apparent importance in prehistoric religion have given rise to its interpretation as a solar symbol, whence the modern English term "sun cross" (a calque of German Sonnenkreuz).

The symbol can be depicted in Unicode as U+2295 (⊕ globe with equator and a meridian). The same symbol is in use as a modern astronomical symbol representing the Earth rather than the Sun.

Interpretation as solar symbol

The interpretation of the simple equilateral cross as a solar symbol in Bronze Age religion was widespread in 19th-century scholarship. The cross-in-a-circle was interpreted as a solar symbol derived from the interpretation of the disc of the Sun as the wheel of the chariot of the Sun god. Wieseler (1881) postulated an (unattested) Gothic rune hvel ("wheel") representing the solar deity by the "wheel" symbol of a cross-in-a-circle, reflected by the Gothic letter hwair (𐍈).

Sun

The Sun (in Greek: Helios, in Latin: Sol) is the star at the center of the Solar System and is by far the most important source of energy for life on Earth. It is a nearly perfect spherical ball of hot plasma, with internal convective motion that generates a magnetic field via a dynamo process. Its diameter is about 109 times that of Earth, and it has a mass about 330,000 times that of Earth, accounting for about 99.86% of the total mass of the Solar System.About three quarters of the Sun's mass consists of hydrogen; the rest is mostly helium, with much smaller quantities of heavier elements, including oxygen, carbon, neon and iron.

The Sun is a G-type main-sequence star (G2V) based on spectral class and it is informally referred to as a yellow dwarf. It formed approximately 4.567 billion years ago from the gravitational collapse of matter within a region of a large molecular cloud. Most of this matter gathered in the center, whereas the rest flattened into an orbiting disk that became the Solar System. The central mass became increasingly hot and dense, eventually initiating nuclear fusion in its core. It is thought that almost all stars form by this process.

Sun (Thomas Bergersen album)

Sun is the second stand-alone production album created by Thomas J. Bergersen from Two Steps from Hell, released on September 30, 2014. The release contains 16 tracks, featuring vocal performances by Merethe Soltvedt, Molly Conole and other vocalists. The album cover and artwork are designed by Bergersen himself. The album was announced for pre-order on September 9 across iTunes, Amazon, and CD Baby, with the tracks "Empire of Angels," "Final Frontier," and "Starchild" made available on iTunes prior to the full release. In addition, a signed limited deluxe edition CD version has been scheduled for somewhere in 2015, set to include additional music, notes on each track written by Thomas, and a large-size poster featuring his artwork.

Track listing

Use in media

The tracks from Two Steps from Hell are frequently used in film trailers and other promotional materials.

Cun (unit)

The cun (Chinese: 寸; pinyin: cùn; Wade–Giles: ts'un; Japanese: sun; Korean: chon) is a traditional Chinese unit of length. Its traditional measure is the width of a person's thumb at the knuckle, whereas the width of the two forefingers denotes 1.5 cun and the width of all fingers side-by-side is three cuns. In this sense it continues to be used to chart acupuncture points on the human body in various uses of traditional Chinese medicine.

The cun was part of a larger system, and represented one-tenth of a chi ("Chinese foot"). In time the lengths were standardized, although to different values in different jurisdictions. (See chi (unit) for details).

In Hong Kong, using the traditional standard, it measures ~3.715 cm (~1.463 in) and is called a "tsun". In the twentieth century in the Republic of China, the lengths were standardized to fit with the metric system, and in current usage in People's Republic of China and Taiwan it measures 3 ¹⁄₃ cm (~1.312 in).

In Japan, the corresponding unit, sun (寸（すん）, sun), was standardized at ¹⁰⁰⁰⁄₃₃ mm (~3.030 cm, ~1.193 in, or ~0.09942 ft).

Crucifixion

Crucifixion is a method of slow and painful execution in which the victim is tied or nailed to a large wooden cross and left to hang for several days until eventual death from exhaustion and asphyxiation. It is principally known from antiquity, but remains in occasional use in some countries.

The crucifixion of Jesus is a central narrative in Christianity, and the cross (sometimes depicting Jesus nailed onto it) is the main religious symbol for many Christian churches.

Terminology

Ancient Greek has two verbs for crucify: ana-stauro (ἀνασταυρόω), from stauros, "stake", and apo-tumpanizo (ἀποτυμπανίζω) "crucify on a plank," together with anaskolopizo (ἀνασκολοπίζω "impale"). In earlier pre-Roman Greek texts anastauro usually means "impale."

New Testament Greek uses four verbs, three of them based upon stauros (σταυρός), usually translated "cross". The most common term is stauroo (σταυρόω), "to crucify", occurring 43 times; sustauroo (συσταυρόω), "to crucify with" or "alongside" occurs five times, while anastauroo (ἀνασταυρόω), "to crucify again" occurs only once at the Epistle to the Hebrews 6:6. prospegnumi (προσπήγνυμι), "to fix or fasten to, impale, crucify" occurs only once at the Acts of the Apostles 2:23.

Crosses in heraldry

The Christian cross had been used as a symbol of Christianity from Late Antiquity. Beginning in the 11th century, and increasingly during the age of the Crusades, a variety of variant forms of cross symbols were developed for the purposes of the emerging system of heraldry.

The cross symbol was also used on flags from the medieval period, and in modern times also on numerous national flags.

History

Heraldry emerges in the 12th century out of earlier traditions. The Christian cross is one of the earliest and most widespread heraldic charges, dating back to the field signs used in the First Crusade, and used to distinguish the various noble crusaders from at least the Second Crusade.

In 1188, Henry II of England and Philip II of France agreed to launch the Third Crusade together, and that Henry would use a white cross and Philip a red cross. The red-on-white cross came to be used by the Knights Templar, and the white-on-red one by the Knights Hospitaller (also white-on-black); the Teutonic Order used a black-on white version.

Four-cross

Four-cross (4X), also called mountain-cross, not to be confused with fourcross, is a relatively new style of mountain bike racing where four bikers race downhill on a prepared, BMX like, track, simply trying to get down first. These bikes are generally either full suspension with 3 to 4 inches of travel, or hardtails, and typically have relatively strong frames. They run a chainguide on front and gears on the back. They have slack head angles, short chainstays and low bottom brackets for good cornering and acceleration. In recent years the tracks raced on have been rougher and less like those used in BMX.

The current world champion is Joost Wichman.

Four-cross was added to the UCI Mountain Bike World Cup and the UCI Mountain Bike & Trials World Championships in 2002, replacing dual slalom. It was removed from the World Cup following the 2011 series. A replacement world series, the 4X Pro Tour, was launched in 2012.

See also