Piltdown hoax Forgery of human fossil remains that impeded early 20th-century progress in the study of human evolution. The apparently fossilized skull found at Piltdown Common near Lewes, Eng., was first proposed as a new species of prehistoric man (“Piltdown man”) in 1912. Only in 1954 was the skull shown to consist of a human cranium skill¬ fully joined to the jaw of an orangutan. The hoax may have been perpe¬ trated by the skull’s discoverer, Charles Dawson, though evidence discovered in the 1970s suggests a British Museum staff member, Martin A.C. Hinton.
Pima Vpe-m3\ North American Indian people living mainly in Arizona, U.S. The Pima language is of Uto-Aztecan language stock, and the name Pima was given by the Spanish, who may have derived it from the phrase pi-nyi-match, meaning “I don’t know.” They call themselves Akimel O’odham, meaning “River People.” Their traditional lands are located in the core area of the prehistoric Hohokam culture, from which they prob¬ ably descend. The Pima originally were sedentary com farmers who lived in one-room houses and used the Gila and Salt rivers for irrigation. Some hunting and gathering were also done. Their villages were larger than those of the related Papago Indians, and they possessed a stronger tribal
Pill bugs (Armadillidium vulgare)
E.S. ROSS
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pimiento ► pineapple I 1501
unity. The Pima were long friendly with whites but enemies of the Apache. At the turn of the 21st century they numbered some 15,000.
pimiento or pimento Any of various mild peppers of the genus Cap¬ sicum that have distinctive flavour but lack pungency, including the Euro¬ pean paprikas. A common flavouring in Hungarian dishes, paprika is made by grinding dried peppers. The term pimento sometimes refers to allspice because early Spanish explorers of the West Indies and Central America mistook the highly aromatic berries of the tropical allspice tree for a type of pepper and called it pimenta.
pin (fastener) In mechanical and civil engineering, a peg or bar designed to fasten machine and structural components together or to keep them aligned. Dowel pins are used to keep machine components aligned, sometimes without making a rigid joint (as in a pin-connected truss). Taper pins are used to fix the hub of a gear or a pulley to a shaft. Split cotter pins prevent nuts from turning on bolts and keep loosely fitting pins in place. The clevis pin has a ridge at one end and is kept in place by a cotter pin inserted through a hole in the other end. Many other types of pins are used in various machines.
Pinatubo X.pe-na-'tii-boV, Mount Volcano, western Luzon, Philippines. Located about 55 mi (90 km) northwest of Manila, it rose to a height of about 4,800 ft (1,460 m) before its eruption in 1991 (for the first time in 600 years). Its explosions produced a column of smoke and ash more than 19 mi (30 km) high and left some 100,000 people homeless. The ashfalls forced the evacuation and eventual closing of a nearby U.S. Air Force base. The eruption was one of the largest of the 20th century.
Pinchback, Pinckney (Benton Stewart) (b. May 10, 1837, Macon, Ga., U.S.—d. Dec. 21, 1921, Washington, D.C.) U.S. politician. Born to a former slave and a white planter, he became a steward on river steamboats. At the outbreak of the American Civil War, he reached Union- held New Orleans, where he raised and led a company of black Union volunteers called the Corps d’Afrique (1862-63). After the war he was elected to the Louisiana senate (1868) and served as lieutenant governor (1871). Elected to the U.S. House of Representatives (1872) and Senate (1873), he was denied his seat in each body on unproved charges of elec¬ tion fraud. He subsequently became a lawyer and moved to Washington, D.C.
Pinchot Vpin-shoV, Gifford (b. Aug. 11, 1865, Simsbury, Conn., U.S.—d. Oct. 4, 1946, New York, N.Y.) U.S. forestry and conservation pioneer. He graduated from Yale University and studied forestry in Europe. In 1892 he became the first professional U.S. forester. In 1896 he joined the national forest commission of the National Academy of Sci¬ ences and helped plan the U.S. system of forest reserves (later national forests). As chief of the U.S. Forest Service (1898-1910), he established the nation’s forest-service system. He founded the Yale School of For¬ estry and taught there from 1903 to 1936. He served as governor of Penn¬ sylvania from 1923 to 1927 and from 1931 to 1935.
Pinckney, Charles (b. Oct. 26, 1757, Charleston, S.C.—d. Oct. 29, 1824, Charleston, S.C., U.S.) U.S. statesman. A cousin of Charles C. Pinckney and Thomas Pinckney, he fought in the American Revolution. From 1784 to 1787 he served in the Continental Congress, where he was instru¬ mental in calling for the Constitutional Convention. As a delegate to the convention from South Carolina, he proposed numerous provisions that were incorporated in the final draft of the Constitution of the United States. He helped write the South Carolina constitution and was also governor of the state (1789-92, 1796-98, 1806-08). He served in the U.S. Senate from 1798 to 1801 and as minister to Spain from 1801 to 1805.
Pinckney, Charles Cotesworth (b. Feb. 25, 1746, Charleston, S.C.—d. Aug. 16, 1825, Charleston, S.C., U.S.) U.S. soldier, statesman, and diplomat. A cousin of Charles Pinckney and the brother of Thomas Pinckney, he was an aide to George Washington in the American Revolu¬ tion, commanded at Savannah, Ga., and was promoted to brigadier gen¬ eral in 1783. He was a delegate to the Constitutional Convention. Appointed minister to France (1796), he was involved in negotiations that ended in the XYZ Affair; when one of the group of French negotiators suggested that the U.S. representatives offer a gift in order to gain a peace treaty, Pinckney is said to have replied, “No! No! Not a sixpence!” He was the unsuccessful Federalist candidate for vice president in 1800 and for president in 1804 and 1808.
Pinckney, Eliza orig. Elizabeth Lucas (b. c. Dec. 28, 1722, Anti¬ gua, West Indies—d. May 26, 1793, Philadelphia, Pa., U.S.) British-
American planter. The daughter of a British landowner in South Carolina, she managed his plantations from 1739. Experimenting with various crops, she succeeded in marketing the first American crop of indigo. After her marriage to the lawyer Charles Pinckney (1744), she revived the cul¬ tivation of silkworms and manufacture of silk on his plantation. She con¬ tinued to manage their extensive landholdings after his death (1758). Charles C. Pinckney and Thomas Pinckney were her sons.
Pinckney, Thomas (b. Oct. 23, 1750, Charleston, S.C.—d. Nov. 2, 1828, Charleston, S.C., U.S.) U.S. soldier, politician, and diplomat. The brother of Charles C. Pinckney and a cousin of Charles Pinckney, he served as governor of South Carolina (1787-89) and as minister to Britain (1792- 96). As special envoy to Spain (1795), he negotiated the Treaty of San Lorenzo, also called Pinckney’s Treaty, which fixed the southern border of the U.S. and granted the U.S. navigation rights on the Mississippi River and the right of deposit (storage of goods) at New Orleans. He was a major general in the War of 1812.
Pindar (b. 518/522, Cynoscephalae—d. c. 438 bc, Argos) Greek poet. A Boeotian of aristocratic birth, Pindar was educated in neighbouring Athens and lived much of his life in Thebes. Almost all his early poems have been lost, but his reputation was probably established by his later hymns in honour of the gods. He developed into the greatest lyric poet of ancient Greece, respected throughout the Greek world. Of his 17 vol¬ umes, comprising almost every genre of choral lyric, only four have sur¬ vived complete, and those lack his musical settings. The extant poems, probably representing his masterpieces, are odes (see Pindaric ode) com¬ missioned to celebrate triumphs in various Hellenic athletic games. Lofty and religious in tone, they are noted for their complexity, rich metaphors, and intensely emotive language.