Until the 17th century, art referred to any skill or mastery and was not differentiated from crafts or sciences, but in modern usage the fine arts, where aesthetic considerations are paramount, are distinguished from acquired skills in general, and the decorative or applied arts.

Until modern times there was no clear distinction between the architect and engineer.

Until his death in 1848, Muhammad Ali Pasha instituted a number of social and economic reforms that earned him the title of founder of modern Egypt.

Until modern times, nitrogen fixation was the major source of nitrogen for ecosystems.

Until 1902, a possible enclave of Dorset people or Sadlermiut ( in modern Inuktitut spelling Sallirmiut ) existed on Southampton Island.

Until the modern era lullabies were usually only recorded incidentally in written sources.

Until the late eighteenth century, the principal towns were on the east coast — Al Huwayla, Fuwayrit, and Al Bida — and the modern city of Doha developed around the largest of these, Al Bida.

Until modern times, the form of government for almost all states was monarchy.

Until the construction boom of the late 1970s, relatively few modern buildings had been constructed.

Until 1060 the kings of Uppsala ruled most of modern Sweden except the southern and western coastal regions, which remained under Danish rule until the 17th century.

Until 1990, Albania was one of the world's most isolated and controlled countries, and installation and maintenance of a modern system of international and domestic telecommunications was precluded.

Until the 17th century, the Ruthenian language, the predecessor of modern Belarusian, was used in Grand Duchy as a chancery language, that is the language used for official documents.

Until the advent of light weight modern sailcloth and modern sail handling systems, the larger sails of a sloop were somewhat of a disadvantage.

Until the 18th Century, prisoners were housed in the towers of the medieval and early modern fortifications store.

Until the modern era, smoking was of a more " heavy duty " nature as the main goal was to preserve the food.

Until modern times, cloves grew only on a few islands in the Maluku Islands ( historically called the Spice Islands ), including Bacan, Makian, Moti, Ternate, and Tidore.

Until Kenyan independence in 1963, the fastest and most modern ferry,, was designated a Royal Mail Ship.

Until the early modern period, the two remained separate cities: Clermont, an episcopal city ; Montferrand, a comital one.

Until 1863, the Spartans simply visited loved ones in the military and delivered the equivalent of modern day care packages.

Until 1975 it formed part of the county of Renfrewshire for local government purposes along with the modern council areas of Renfrewshire and Inverclyde.

Until 2003, Tate Liverpool was the largest gallery of modern and contemporary art in the UK outside of London.

Until 1878 Bulgarian was influenced lexically by medieval and modern Greek, and to a much lesser extent, by Turkish.

Until 1980 secondary modern education was provided by schools in the town itself ; and grammar school education by Hyde Grammar School.

Until fairly recent times, there has been a remarkable homogeneity in the culture throughout this area, which traditionally relied on fish, sea mammals, and land animals for food, heat, light, clothing and tools.

Until fairly recently, about the end of the Second World War, such weapons were characterized by a barrel length 15 to 25 times the caliber of the gun.

Until the 1980s, Saudi Arabia had lakes at Layla Aflaj and deep waterholes at ' Al-Kharj, fed by huge underground aquifers, formed in prehistoric times and non-renewable.

Until fairly recent times, the raiment of the Veddhas was remarkably scanty.

Until the latter half of the 20th century, sugarbeet production was highly labor-intensive, as weed control was managed by densely planting the crop, which then had to be manually thinned two or three times with a hoe during the growing season.

Until 1995, the forecasts had been played at various times each hour, but are currently shown at times ending in " 8 ", hence the title of the local forecasts is " Local on the 8s " ( though local forecasts are reduced to once every half-hour when non-forecast programs are aired which is now a majority of the air day ).

Until the 20th century, Bukhara was also home to the Bukharan Jews, whose ancestors settled in the city during Roman times.

Until late Victorian times it was a distinct village outside London, sitting astride the main road to the north.

Until the arrival of formal docks, shipping was required to land goods in the Pool of London, but industries related to construction, repair, and victualling of ships flourished in the area from Tudor times.

Until medieval times, a branch of the river Rhine flowed close to the centre of the town.

Until recent times, there were several Indian Trail Trees in the area.

Describing the post-war times, Pete Townshend wrote in his autobiography, " Until he was expelled, Roger had been a good pupil.

Until the announcement of Kepler-10b in January 2011, COROT-7b was the smallest exoplanet to have its diameter measured, at 1. 58 times that of the Earth ( which would give it a volume 3. 95 times Earth's ).

Until 1833 any population is an approximation, in later times the population was counted or updated by the local government or other institutions of the government.

Until modern times, the dwellings of the Xibe housed up to three different generations from a same family, since it was believed that while the father was alive no son could break the family clan and to the house.

Until the promtion of Dogen studies in modern times, the study of Chinese texts was prevalent in Soto:

Until modern times, the Japanese wrote with a brush rather than a pen, and their familiarity with brush techniques has made them particularly sensitive to the values and aesthetics of painting.

Until modern times, firearms were colloquially known in Japan as " Tanegashima ", due to the belief that they were introduced by the Portuguese on board that ship.