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Journal article
Silver dirhams from the Storr Rock Viking Hoard
A 10th-century hoard found on the Isle of Skye contained 19 dirhams, silver coins from the Islamic emirates of central Asia. These were not exotic curiosities collected by a Viking traveller, but evidence of trade routes connecting Scotland across vast distances at the turn of the first millennium.Maldonado, Adrián
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Journal article
Negative ion electrospray mass spectrometry of neoflavonoids
The electrospray ionisation mass spectra of the neoflavanoids brazilin and hematoxylin are reported in both their reduced (1 and 2, respectively) and their oxidised forms (3 and 4, respectively). In the reduced forms, breakdown pathways under collision induced decomposition (CID) conditions produce fragments characteristic of rings A and C; in...Hulme, Alison N ; McNab, Hamish ; Peggie, David A ; Quye, Anita
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Journal article
Democratising 19th-century Science and Technology
Rose Roberto discusses the impact of a Special Projects Grant awarded by the BSHSRoberto, Rose
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Journal article
2',4',6'-Trihydroxy-1-methoxyacetophenone monohydrate at 150 K
The geometry of the title compound, 2-methoxy-1-(2,4,6-trihydroxyphenyl)ethanone, C9H10O5·H2O, is determined by the presence of an intramolecular hydrogen bond; the geometry of the benzene ring is distorted by a flanking carbonyl group.Ferreira, Ester S B ; Hulme, Alison N ; McNab, Hamish ; Quye, Anita ; Parsons, S
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Journal article
Simulation experiments for determining the use of ancient pottery vessels: the behaviour of epicuticular leaf wax during boiling of a leafy vegetable
Laboratory experiments were performed using replica ceramic jars to simulate ancient pottery vessel use. The aim of the study was to investigate the behaviour of lipids, specifically, epicuticular leaf wax components during the processing of foodstuffs in unglazed ceramic vessels to determine if the pattern of lipid accumulation in a... -
Journal article
Liquid chromatography determination of natural dyes in extracts from historical Scottish textiles excavated from peat bogs
Textiles excavated from Scottish sites belonging now to the collections of the National Museums of Scotland, including seventeenth century textiles from peat bogs in the Scottish Highlands and Islands, were selected for analysis by high performance liquid chromatography with photodiode array detection (PDA HPLC) to detect whether any dyes remained...Surowiec, Izabella ; Trojanowicz, Marek ; Quye, Anita
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Journal article
Raman spectroscopy of coloured resins used in antiquity: dragon's blood and related substances
Dragon's blood is a deep red resin which has been used for centuries by many cultures and much prized for it's rarity, depth of colour and alchemical associations. The original source of dragon's blood resin is believed to be Dracaena cinnabari from Socotra in Africa, but since mediaeval times there...Edwards, Howell G M ; de Oliviera, Luiz Fernando C ; Quye, Anita
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Journal article
‘Dragon’s Blood’ I—characterization of an Ancient resin using Fourier transform Raman spectroscopy
Several resins generically known as ‘dragon’s blood’ from different botanical and geographical sources were characterised non‐destructively using Fourier transform Raman spectroscopy. Genuine ‘dragon’s blood’ resin (Dracaena spp.) as found on Socotra Island was the probable source in antiquity. The spectra of recently collected Socotran resins from different sites were compared...Quye, Anita ; Edwards, Howell G M ; Farwell, D W
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Journal article
Mummy 1911-210-1
n ancient Egyptian mummy from the collections of the National Museums of Scotland was examined using computerised tomography (CT) scanning as part of the NMS mummy project. A facial reconstruction was produced from the CT scans for comparison with a painted 'portrait' which covers the face of the wrappings. The...Macleod, R I ; Eremin, Katherine ; Wright, A R ; McDonald, J
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Quye, Anita
lac, analysis, liquid chromatography, dyes, madder, Cochineal, and kermes
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Journal article
Non-destructive analysis of nineteenth century Scottish calotype negatives and salt prints
The combination of Raman spectroscopy and Secondary Ion Mass Spectrometry can improve understanding of the chemistry of the glass alteration process. Formic and acetic acids play an important role in the alteration of museum glass objects placed in a humid atmosphere. Raman spectroscopy indicates that the soda-rich glass structure is...Robinet, L ; Eremin, Katherine ; Fearn, Sarah ; Pulham, C ; Hall, Christopher
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Journal article
Ancient genomes indicate population replacement in Early Neolithic Britain
The roles of migration, admixture and acculturation in the European transition to farming have been debated for over 100 years. Genome-wide ancient DNA studies indicate predominantly Aegean ancestry for continental Neolithic farmers, but also variable admixture with local Mesolithic hunter-gatherers. Neolithic cultures first appear in Britain circa 4000 bc, a millennium after...Brace, Selina ; Diekmann, Yoan ; Booth, Thomas J ; Faltyskova, Zuzana ; Rohland, Nadin …
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Journal article
Effect of organic acid vapors on the alteration of soda silicate glass
Organic acids were previously shown to be involved in the alteration of historic soda silicate glasses in humid atmospheres under museum storage conditions. The present study investigates the role of these pollutants on the visual, compositional and structural modification of soda silicate glasses. Replica glasses aged in humid or humid/acidic... -
Journal article
The use of Raman spectrometry to predict the stability of historic glasses
In the National Museums of Scotland (NMS) widespread alterations have been observed in the glass collections of 19th to 20th century, affecting British, Islamic and Asian glasses. It is important for museums to be able to distinguish between stable and unstable glasses, so that particular care can be taken to...Robinet, L ; Eremin, Katherine ; Coupry, Claude ; Hall, Christopher
alkali silicate, elemental composition, stability, and historic glass
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Journal article
New theropod dinosaur teeth from the Middle Jurassic of the Isle of Skye, Scotland
The Middle Jurassic is a largely mysterious interval in dinosaur evolution, as few fossils of this age are known worldwide. In recent years, the Isle of Skye has yielded a substantial record of trackways, and a more limited inventory of body fossils, that indicate a diverse fauna of Middle Jurassic...Young, Chloe M E ; Hendrickx, Christopher ; Challands, Thomas James ; Foffa, Davide ; Ross, Dugald A …
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Journal article
Raman investigation of the structural changes during alteration of historic glasses by organic pollutants
The combination of an unstable glass composition, fluctuating humidity and a high concentration of organic pollutants is responsible for the widespread alteration of part of the glass collections of the National Museums of Scotland (NMS). The alteration has resulted in the formation of crystalline corrosion at the surface and strong...Robinet, L ; Eremin, Katherine ; Coupry, Claude ; Hall, Christopher
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Journal article
Appropriate and appropriated sites for elephants: a case study of the making of museum objects
Through a case study of the museum career of a mounted specimen of African elephant, the nature of “museum objects” and sites in which they engage in the construction of meaning are examined. The paper tracks a series of representations through a museum and explores how this representative of the...Swinney, Geoffrey N
material culture, natural museology, remediation, translation, meta-representation, and afterlife
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Journal article
Three memoirs of Hugh Miller (1802–1856) by his son Hugh Miller FGS
Hugh Miller FGS (1850–1896) wrote a set of three memoirs on his father Hugh Miller (1802–1856), geologist, writer and newspaper editor. The first two are successive versions of a text written about 1883 to accompanya portrait of the elder Miller by the pioneering photographers David Octavius Hill (1802–1870)and RobertAdamson(1821–1848).The second...Taylor, Michael A
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Journal article
Revision of the Late Jurassic deep-water teleosauroid crocodylomorph Teleosaurus megarhinus Hulke, 1871 and evidence of pelagic adaptations in Teleosauroidea
Teleosauroids were a successful group of semi-aquatic crocodylomorphs that were an integral part of coastal marine/lagoonal faunas during the Jurassic. Their fossil record suggests that the group declined in diversity and abundance in deep water deposits during the Late Jurassic. One of the few known teleosauroid species from the deeper...Foffa, Davide ; Johnson, Michela M ; Young, Mark T ; Steel, Lorna ; Brusatte, Stephen L
Crocodylomorpha, Teleosauroidea, Kimmeridgian, and Aquatic adaptations
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Journal article
A new hexactinellid sponge from the Silurian of the Pentland Hills (Scotland) with similarities to extant rossellids
The Pentland Hills sponge fauna (Llandovery, Telychian) consists of an unusual, aberrant assemblage, but of low diversity. A new specimen of a unique sponge, Eoghanospongia carlinslowpensis gen. et sp. nov., is described from the classic locality of R82. The mushroom-shaped, probably stalked body (peduncle attachment to body not exposed) resembles...Botting, Joseph P ; Candela, Yves ; Carrió, Vicen ; Crighton, William R B
Rossellidae, fossil, prostalia, Porifera, and North Esk Inlier
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Journal article
Disentangling wing shape evolution in the African mayfly, Teloganodidae (Ephemeroptera)
Wings are one of the most important structures in the evolution of insects and winged insects are widely accepted as being monophyletic. In Ephemeroptera, wing structure and shape is important for interpreting taxonomic relationships. Morphological variation in wing shape of 14 distinct operational taxonomic units (OTUs) of South African Teloganodidae...Pereira-da-Conceicoa, Lyndall L ; Benítez, Hugo A ; Barber-James, Helen M
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Journal article
Synoptic revision of the Silurian fauna from the Pentland Hills, Scotland described by Lamont (1978)
Archibald Lamont (1907-1985) sampled the North Esk Inlier Silurian fauna for almost 30 years. He had amassed a substantial fauna that has been, in part, bequeathed to the National Museums Scotland after his death. Unfortunately, the descriptions of the faunas in his last opus were careless and the illustrations were...Candela, Yves ; Crighton, William R B
systematics, Scotland, museum collections, North Esk Inlier, and palaeontology
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Journal article
Review of the fossil record of Bolitophilidae, with description of new taxa and discussion of position of Mangas Kovalev (Diptera: Sciaroidea)
The dipteran family Bolitophilidae, with the single extant genus Bolitophila, is a small family of mycophagous flies. In marked contrast to related families such as Sciaridae and Mycetophilidae, the family has a poor fossil record with no definite species assigned to the genus. In addition, the position of the extinct...Blagoderov, Vladimir
Eocene, new species, Diptera, Cretaceous, fossil insect, Kishenehn Formation, Mangas, Bolitophilidae, Khasurty, Baltic amber, and Bolitophila
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Journal article
Manpower, myth and memory: analysing Scotland's military contribution to the Great War
The aim of this article is to determine what conclusions the available sources allow us to make about the nature of Scottish service and sacrifice in the Great War. The article finds that contemporary sources do not lend themselves well to statistical analysis of Scotland's manpower contribution in the Great...Watt, Patrick
Great War, Royal Navy, losses, statistics, Scotland, myth, British Army, Royal Flying Corps, memory, and military
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Journal article
An ammonite trapped in Burmese amber
Amber is fossilized tree resin, and inclusions usually comprise terrestrial and, rarely, aquatic organisms. Marine fossils are extremely rare in Cretaceous and Cenozoic ambers. Here, we report a record of an ammonite with marine gastropods, intertidal isopods, and diverse terrestrial arthropods as syninclusions in mid-Cretaceous Burmese amber. We used X-ray–microcomputed...Yu, TingTing ; Kelly, Richard S ; Mu, Lin ; Ross, Andrew ; Kennedy, Jim …
ammonite, amber, paleoecology, taphonomy, and fossil
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Journal article
Braconid and ichneumonid (Hymenoptera) parasitoid wasps of Lepidoptera from the Maltese Islands
Fourteen species of Ichneumonidae are here recorded from the Maltese Islands. Of these, all were reared from Lepidoptera hosts with the exception of Netelia (Paropheltes) inedita (Kokujev) which was collected from a malaise trap. Of these, the following species (or genera) are here reported for the first time from the...Mifsud, David ; Farrugia, Lucia ; Shaw, Mark R
Braconidae, host records, Ichneumonidae, Malta, Mediterranean, and Hymenoptera
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Journal article
Two examples of anterior / posterior gynandromorphism in Ichneumonidae (Hymenoptera)
Two specimens of Ichneumonidae exhibiting interior/posterior gynandromorphism are described. In both the specimens of Ephialtes manifestator (L.) (Ichneumonidae: Pimplinae) and Cylloceria sylvestris (Gravenhorst) (Ichneumonidae: Cylloceriinae), the head is female (as is the mesosoma of E. manifestator) and the metasoma is male. A potential mechanism for generation of transverse (anterior/posterior) gynandromorphs...Shaw, Mark R ; Broad, Gavin R
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Journal article
After-hours events at the National Museum of Scotland: a product for attracting, engaging and retaining new museum audiences?
Cultural heritage is recognized as one of the major contributors to the economy and has traditionally been funded from the public sector. Operating in an increasingly competitive tourism environment, museums have moved away from their traditional role as collectors and conservators of artefacts of historical importance, to become more audience-...Easson, Hilary ; Leask, Anna
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Journal article
Wild and majestic: romantic visions of Scotland
Dr Patrick Watt provides an in-depth review of the National Museum of Scotland's new exhibition that considers changing views of the tartan and bagpipes so beloved of modern-day global audiences.Watt, Patrick
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Journal article
A Mitochondrial Phylogeny of the Sand Cat (Felis margarita Loche, 1858)
The sand cat, Felis margarita Loche, 1858, is a small desert cat with a fragmented distribution across the Sahara, Arabian Peninsula, and Central Asia. It is currently listed as Least Concern by the IUCN; however, its status in many countries is unknown. Sand cats are generally classified into four subspecies:... -
Journal article
The jet bead. In: Gibson, A. Survey and sampling at the Castle Dykes Iron Age ‘henge’, Wensleydale, North Yorkshire
Survey and sampling at the classic single-entranced henge monument at Castle Dykes, in North Yorkshire, has revealed traces of circular timber structures, interpreted as later prehistoric roundhouses, in the immediate vicinity and within the henge. Coring of the waterlogged silts of the internal ditch has produced considerable environmental data: plant,...Sheridan, J A
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Journal article
Pictish symbols: inscribing identity beyond the fringe of empire
In the first of two features about early scripts in Britain, we visit north-east Scotland, where Pictish symbol stones tease the imagination with their appealing designs and mysterious origins. A new project has dated them, finding they were inspired by contact with the Roman world, like runes and ogham. Gordon...Noble, Gordon ; Goldberg, D Martin ; Hamilton, Derek
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Journal article
The Excavation: The Later Post-Medieval Period. In: Stoakley, M 2019 ‘Great fears of the sickness here in the City … God preserve us all …’ A Plague Burial Ground in Leith, 1645: an archaeological excavation at St Mary’s (Leith) RC Primary School, Leith Links, Edinburgh, Scottish Archaeological Internet Reports 86
In 2016, Wardell Armstrong undertook an archaeological excavation at St Mary’s (Leith) RC Primary School, Edinburgh. The archaeological excavation revealed four phases of activity; Phases 1 and 2 comprised coffined and uncoffined human burials. The lack of infectious pathognomic skeletal lesions, the dating of the finds, the dendrochronological analysis of...Haggarty, George ; Stoakley, Megan
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Journal article
The first Triassic vertebrate fossils from Myanmar: Pachypleurosaurs in a marine limestone
As ecosystems recovered from the end-Permian extinction, many new animal groups proliferated in the ensuing Triassic. Among these were the sauropterygians, reptiles that evolved from terrestrial ancestors and transitioned to a marine environment. The first sauropterygians were small, marine-adapted taxa such as pachypleurosaurs, which are known from Middle–Late Triassic deposits,...San, Khaing Khaing ; Fraser, Nicholas C ; Foffa, Davide ; Rieppel, Olivier ; Brusatte, Stephen L
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Journal article
The Sobieski Stuarts and the Garde-Robe of Scotland
Julie Holder provides a new assessment of the celebrity brothers John and Charles Edward Sobieski Stuart, whose assertion of descent from Prince Charles Edward Stuart has tended to overshadow their important work in the study of tartan and the history of Gaelic culture.Holder, Julie