Search Constraints
Search Results
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Journal article
Palaeogenomic Evidence for the Long-Term Reproductive Isolation Between Wild and Domestic Cats
Domestic cats were derived from the Near Eastern wildcat (Felis lybica), after which they dispersed with people into Europe. As they did so, it is possible that they interbred with the indigenous population of European wildcats (Felis silvestris). Gene flow between incoming domestic animals and closely related indigenous wild species...Jamieson, Alexandra ; Carmagnini, Alberto ; Howard-McCombe, Jo ; Doherty, Sean ; Hirons, Alexandra …
domestication, palaeogenomics, and cats
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Abstract
Fragmented metalwork hoards as a selective practice in Late Bronze Age north-western Europe
Hoards of fragmented metalwork are often seen as one of the defining practices of Late Bronze Age communities in Europe. Such hoards have attracted much attention with debates around how and why metalwork was broken and buried. Were hoards abandoned scrap? Or was there a ritual aspect? Although it is...Knight, Matthew G
Europe, communities , Hoards, Late Bronze Age , and fragmented metalwork
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Journal article
Revealing observatory networks through object stories: Observatory audiences
Like the contributions to the other papers in this collection (‘Object itineraries’ and ‘Instrumental networks’), those in this final section explore instrumental networks and object itineraries in order to tell new histories of observatory sites and their associated networks. (For a discussion of the genesis and thinking behind the collection... -
Journal article
Revealing observatory networks through object stories: Introduction
This paper introduces a group of three articles that bring together object stories relating to observatory history and networks. The three articles (‘Instrumental networks’, ‘Object itineraries’ and ‘Observatory audiences’) each bring together three object stories by different authors that contribute to the article theme. Here the genesis of the collection...Higgitt, Rebekah
object stories, observatory sites, astronomy, networks, collections, object biography, scientific instruments, object itineraries, Time, observatory sciences, and observatories
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Abstract
The long, strange journey of Viking-age ringed pins
Ringed pins are the calling card of the Viking Age in Britain and Ireland: small, low-value metal cloak fasteners, found in dressed burials, and frequently encountered as stray finds. They have a complex trajectory, beginning as Irish dress items in the pre-Viking period. From the middle of the ninth century,...Maldonado, Adrián
death rituals, Viking Age in Britain and Ireland, burials, ringed pins, Hiberno-Norse, and cloak fasteners
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Lecture
Beyond Picts and Vikings: Northern mainland Scotland 800-1100
Adrian Maldonado speaking about the artefacts and carved stones from the end of the Pictish period and Viking Age in the northern mainland. This is a re-recording of a talk given person at Strathpeffer on 28th October 2023 for NOSAS's 25th anniversary celebrations.Maldonado, Adrián
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Journal article
The mitochondrial DNA diversity of captive ruffed lemurs (Varecia spp.): implications for conservation
Ruffed lemurs ( and ) are categorized as Critically Endangered on the IUCN Red List, and genetic studies are needed for assessing the conservation value of captive populations. Using 280 mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) D-loop sequences, we studied the genetic diversity and structure of captive ruffed lemurs in Madagascar, Europe and...Vega, Rodrigo ; Hopper, Jane ; Kitchener, Andrew C ; Catinaud, Jérôme ; Roullet, Delphine …
Biodiversity, diversity, Lemuridae, genetic, primates, conservation, and Madagascar
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Journal article
Exhibition Review: Tales in Gaelic (Temporary exhibition - Sgeul/Story: Folk Tales from the Scottish Highlands, National Library of Scotland, Edinburgh)
Bruce Blacklaw finds folklore and beauty in this celebration of the Gaelic languageBlacklaw, Bruce
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Book
Dyes in History and Archaeology 41
This Special Issue features contributions from the conference DHA41. Dyes in History and Archaeology (DHA) is an annual international conference that focuses on the academic discussion of dyes and organic pigments which have been used in the past. Every year since 1982, this meeting has drawn together conservators; curators; (technical)...Sandström, Edith
contributions, conference , organic colorants, Dyes in History and Archaeology, and conservation
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Journal article
Two Sculptures, One Master? A Technical Study of Two Rare Examples of Polychrome Sculptures Associated with “the Master of Saint Catherine of Gualino”, Italy, Fourteenth Century
Between the 1960s and 1990s art historian Giovanni Previtali identified a group of polychrome wood trecento sculptures from the Umbrian-Abruzzo region of Italy as the work of one hand. He named his artist the Maestro della Santa Caterina Gualino after one of the pieces considered to epitomize the style he... -
Journal article
The Power of Glass: Craft Scotland Conference, 2022
In 2022, the UN marked the International Year of Glass, celebrating the essential role glass has, and will continue to have, in society. One element of this celebration was the importance of glass within art and its history, which the Craft Scotland 2022 Conference: The Power of Glass looked to... -
Journal article
Fair Isle Knitwear
Fair Isle knitwear with its brightly-coloured geometric patterns, is known across the world today. The style has had various fashion flashpoints over the last two centuries, not least in the 1920s when the Prince of Wales, the future Edward VIII, was photographed looking very dapper wearing Fair Isle sweaters. It...Wyld, Helen ; Laurenson, Sarah
research , craft, textiles, Fair Isle knitwear , knitting, and National Museums Scotland collections
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Journal article
A new species of Lygistorrhina (Lygistorrhina) Skuse, 1890 (Diptera: Keroplatidae, Lygistorrhininae) with a key to the subgenus
A new species of Lygistorrhina (Lygistorrhina) Skuse, 1890, Lygistorrhina woodi sp. nov., is described. The specimen was dissected from an alcohol-preserved flower of Ceropegia aristolochioides ssp. deflersiana Bruyns (Apocynaceae, Asclepiadoideae, Ceropegieae) stored in the Kew herbarium. This is the first occurrence of the lygistorrhine gnats in a hot, semi-arid climate....Blagoderov, Vladimir ; Ollerton, Jeff ; Whittington, Andrew
Fungus gnats , Taxonomy , Apocynaceae, Biodiversity, Ceropegia, New taxa , Diptera, and Afrotropical region
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Journal article
Hwiccewyrm trispiculum gen. et sp. nov., a new leptopleuronine procolophonid from the Late Triassic of southwest England
The fissure fill localities of southwest England and South Wales are well‐known for preserving rich assemblages of predominantly small‐bodied Late Triassic to Early Jurassic tetrapods, but many aspects of these assemblages remain contentious. The age of the Late Triassic fissures is disputed, with some lines of argument suggesting a latest...Butler, Richard J ; Meade, Luke E ; Cleary, Terri J ; McWhirter, Kai T ; Brown, Emily E …
Procolophonidae , phylogeny , Parareptilia , fissure fills , and Triassic
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Journal article
Albinism in the common shrew Sorex araneus
Albinism is a hypopigmentation disorder which occurs as a consequence of mutations in genes involved in melanin biosynthesis. It is recorded in many mammalian species but is generally considered to be rare in natural populations. Here, we describe a fully albino individual of the common shrew found in south-western Poland....Wójcik, Jan M ; Kowalczyk, Rafał ; Rybiałek, Jerzy ; Herman, Jeremy
Fur colouration , Albino , Shrews, Pelage , and Soricidae
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Journal article
Skull morphology of bottlenose dolphins worldwide and patterns of adaptation between coastal and offshore environments
The morphological differentiation between coastal and offshore ecotypes of bottlenose dolphins (genus ) has been researched since the 1960s, particularly in (Montagu, 1821), although most morphological studies have focused on localized populations. Therefore, it is unclear how patterns observed in these individual populations integrate within the global morphological variation. Here...Oxford‐Smith, N ; Ruta, M ; Gao, A ; Viaud‐Martinez, K A ; Sabin, R …
ecotype , dolphin , offshore , adaptation , biogeography , Tursiops truncatus, coastal , and skull morphology
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Journal article
How genomic insights into the evolutionary history of clouded leopards inform their conservation
Clouded leopards ( spp.), a morphologically and ecologically distinct lineage of big cats, are severely threatened by habitat loss and fragmentation, targeted hunting, and other human activities. The long-held poor understanding of their genetics and evolution has undermined the effectiveness of conservation actions. Here, we report a comprehensive investigation of...Yuan, Jiaqing ; Wang, Guiqiang ; Zhao, Le ; Kitchener, Andrew C ; Sun, Ting …
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Journal article
Genetic swamping of the critically endangered Scottish wildcat was recent and accelerated by disease
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Journal article
Integrative taxonomy reveals unrecognised species diversity in African Corypha larks (Aves: Alaudidae)
The species complex comprising the rufous-naped lark Corypha africana, Sharpe’s lark Corypha sharpii, the red-winged lark Corypha hypermetra, the Somali long-billed lark Corypha somalica and Ash’s lark Corypha ashi encompasses 31 recognised taxa across sub-Saharan Africa, many of which are extremely poorly known and some not observed for decades. Only...Alström, Per ; Mohammadi, Zeinolabedin ; Donald, Paul F ; Nymark, Marianne ; Enbody, Erik D …
behaviour, morphometrics, Africa, bird, and new classification
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Journal article
A revision of the ‘coelophysoid-grade’ theropod specimen from the Lower Jurassic of the Isle of Skye (Scotland )
The broadest diversification of early predatory dinosaurs is represented by the ‘coelophysoid-grade’ neotheropods, but their Hettangian–Sinemurian ( 191–201 Ma) record is scarce worldwide. More information is needed to shed light on the evolution of this dinosaur group after the end-Triassic mass extinction ( 201 Ma). Here we revisit the anatomy...Ezcurra, Martín D ; Marke, Daniel ; Walsh, Stig A ; Brusatte, Stephen L
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Lecture
Mineralogy of the Mobile phone
Did you know that mobile phones use over fifty different chemical elements to work? Where do these come from and how are they used?Walcott, Rachel
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Journal article
Reaching Further with Earth Science Data
Earth Sciences cover a broad spectrum of research fields such as petrology, sedimentology, structural geology, seismology, and geomorphology, to name a few, which aim to understand interrelated processes on the surface and in the interior of our planet. Many of the research questions studied in the Earth sciences, such as,...Walcott, Rachel ; Lehnert, Kerstin
geology, mineralogy, geochemistry, Mineral Extension for Darwin Core, and soil science
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Book chapter
Vers une histoire globale de la mode. Un debat entre BuYun Chen, Beverly Lemire et Lucy Norris
Perspective interroge la mode en tant que pratique rhétorique, artistique et culturelle. Historiens de l’art, de la mode et archéologues, mais aussi designers et conservateurs se penchent sur les manières dont le vêtement et la parure ont servi à exprimer le lien des individus aux identités individuelles et collectives qui...Breward, Christopher ; Riello, Giorgio
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Abstract
Late Ordovician echinoderms from the Brabant Massif (Belgium): Taxonomic revision, palaeoecology and palaeobiogeographic implications
In the Ordovician, the Brabant Massif (Belgium) was situated in the eastern part of the Avalonia microcontinent, which then also comprised eastern Newfoundland, southern Ireland, Wales, England, the Netherlands, southern Denmark and northwestern Germany. With the exception of the British Isles, which yielded a more or less continuous fossil record...Lefebrve, Bertrand ; Candela, Yves
Brabant Massif (Belgium), taxonomy, Ordovician , and echinoderms
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Journal article
A documentation checklist for (Linked) humanities data
Documentation, including information, instructions, and use cases, is key to reproducibility in Digital Humanities research and usability of resulting tools and resources. However, despite multiple studies that support this assertion, clear and comprehensive documentation is often lacking due to fundamental incompatibilities with existing funding models and the resulting prioritisation of...Middle, Sarah
Reproducibility , User research, Usability , Digital humanities , and Linked data
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Journal article
Human consumption of seaweed and freshwater aquatic plants in ancient Europe
During the Mesolithic in Europe, there is widespread evidence for an increase in exploitation of aquatic resources. In contrast, the subsequent Neolithic is characterised by the spread of farming, land ownership, and full sedentism, which lead to the perception of marine resources subsequently representing marginal or famine food or being...Buckley, Stephen ; Hardy, Karen ; Hallgren, Fredrik ; Kubiak-Martens, Lucy ; Miliauskienė, Žydrūnė …
Lipids and Archaeology
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Journal article
Limited historical admixture between European wildcats and domestic cats
Domestic cats were derived from the Near Eastern wildcat (Felis lybica), after which they dispersed with people into Europe. As they did so, it is possible that they interbred with the indigenous population of European wildcats (Felis silvestris). Gene flow between incoming domestic animals and closely related indigenous wild species...Jamieson, Alexandra ; Carmagnini, Alberto ; Howard-McCombe, Jo ; Doherty, Sean ; Hirons, Alexandra …
ancient DNA, cats, hybridization , and domestication
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Lecture
Skeleton Keys: Using Archaeology to Unlock Whithorn's Past’
For five years archaeologists have been investigating evidence of early medieval life in Whithorn. Now they can disclose some of the exciting insights they've achieved, bringing the past closer than ever before. What scientists and archaeologists are unearthing will revolutionise our understanding of the origins and spread of Christianity in...Maldonado, Adrián ; Curtis-Summers, Shirley
Early Medieval Scotland, Christianity , Whithorn, archaeology, and digital visualisation
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Lecture
Putting metalwork in its place. An analysis of the Late Bronze Age and Earliest Iron Age finds from Somerset
An analysis of the Late Bronze Age and Earliest Iron Age finds from Somerset. During the Late Bronze Age and Earliest Iron Age (c.1150-600 BC), many bronze and gold objects were buried across Europe. This lecture will explore the meanings of metalwork deposition through the evidence from Somerset and investigate...Knight, Matthew G
Bronze Age, metal dispositionb, Somerset, finds, bronze , Iron Age , and gold
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Lecture
‘Some finds “of more than ordinary interest”: Exploring small socketed axeheads from northern Britain’
In 2019 a miniature bronze socketed axehead was discovered near Morebattle, Scottish Borders. These enigmatic finds are rare in northern Britain and are often considered to date anywhere from the Late Bronze Age to the Roman period. The discovery at Morebattle prompted a research project analysing unusually small socketed axeheads... -
Conference paper (unpublished)
Re-discovering a Lost Neolithic Tomb in 2023
The Neolithic site in Holm was largely destroyed by Victorian antiquarians 127 years ago. Experts from National Museums Scotland (NMS) and Cardiff University rediscovered the tomb after a search for its precise location. Despite the damage, the archaeologists have found 14 skeletons of men, women and children.Anderson-Whymark, Hugo ; Cummings, Vicki
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Book chapter
'Neolithic' and 'Chalolithic?/Early Bronze Period' In: Boughey, Keith, A Tale of Two Collectors: The Lithic Collections of Geoffrey Taylor and David Heys (with particular reference to the county of Yorkshire)
The book begins with brief biographies of the two collectors and outlines the areas in which they collected, principally the North York Moors, and their method of working, before attempting to set their work into its wider prehistoric context. It then explains how the over 18,000 worked pieces in the...Sheridan, J A
Flint, Jet, North York Moors, Neolithic, Lithics, and Bronze Age
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Book chapter
Fashionable Masculinities in England and Beyond
The design, production, selling, and wearing of men’s clothing through the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries has had a significant impact on the visual culture and social experience of the modern world. It has also determined many of the underlying influences that have contributed to the development and expansion of...Breward, Christopher
masculine consumption, visual culture , male clothing , and social experience
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Book chapter
'Discoidal knives' In: Boughey, Keith, A Tale of Two Collectors: The Lithic Collections of Geoffrey Taylor and David Heys (with particular reference to the county of Yorkshire)
The book begins with brief biographies of the two collectors and outlines the areas in which they collected, principally the North York Moors, and their method of working, before attempting to set their work into its wider prehistoric context. It then explains how the over 18,000 worked pieces in the...Boughey, Keith ; Sheridan, J A
Flint , Neolithic, Lithics , Jet , and Bronze Age
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Dataset
Scientific Instrument Makers and Events Ontology, SIMEOn
SIMEOn (Scientific Instrument Makers and Events Ontology) is an ontology designed to model data about the lives and work of scientific instrument makers. It was created to represent data in the legacy SIMON (Scientific Instrument Makers, Observations and Notes) database of makers in Britain and Ireland, 1550-1914, held by Royal... -
Book chapter
Accidental remainders: working men's fashion c.1730–1880 in National Museums Scotland
In 1999 Christopher Breward introduced The Hidden Consumer Masculinities, Fashion and City Life 1860-1914 with a critique of separate spheres gendering in historical fashion studies and the unquestioning absorption by menswear scholars of psychologist J. C. Flügel's 'The Great Masculine Renunciation'. 1 This theory, that men repressed fashionable engagement in...Taylor, Emily
Fashion and Textiles, working men's fashion, museum collections , menswear scholarship, dress historians, European Decorative Arts, and menswear objects
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Book chapter
The Tootal paisley scarf
I’m not sure when I took it, without permission, from my father’s wardrobe. It must have been around 1982, my final year as a fifth-former at a Comprehensive School in Yeovil, Somerset, during a summer of O-Level exam results, teenage parties and those first tentative explorations in establishing a personal...Breward, Christopher
Tootal scarf, textile production, male dress, and paisley pattern
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Lecture
Waking the Dead: Inside the insect collection at National Museums Scotland
The phrase “insect collection” often conjures up images of Victorian naturalists chasing down rare butterflies with their nets and attaches a stigma to these important resources. The insect collections held in our museums are a vital resource for understanding how species are related to one another and how they are...Whiffin, Ashleigh
curatorial role, scientific research, insect collections, entomological specimens, National Museums Scotland, and National Museums Collection Centre
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Journal article
Excavation and survey at the Giant’s Grave, Slochd Measach, Nereabolls, a Neolithic chambered cairn on the Isle of Islay, Argyll & Bute
The ‘Giant’s Grave’, formally known as Slochd Measach, Nereabolls, (SM3927) is located on the Isle of Islay in western Scotland and is one of seven confirmed Clyde Cairns on the island. We describe the standing remains and excavations between 2015-18 intended to address the origin, architecture and use of this...Mithen, Steven ; Maričević, Darko ; Berg-Hansen, Inger M ; Elliott, Sarah ; Fry, Rob …
Neolithic, Chambered Cairn, Isle of Islay, Excavation, and The Giant’s Grave
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Journal article
A curious account of ancient Egyptian Treasure Trove in Scotland
An ancient Egyptian object buried in the grounds of a historic house near Monimail in Fife was found by chance in 1952 and acquired at the time by the then Royal Scottish Museum (now National Museums Scotland). A second object from the same location appeared by chance in 1966 and...Goring, Elizabeth ; Maitland, Margaret
Egyptology, collecting, Treasure Trove, 19th century, museum, and Ancient Egypt
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Journal article
Small socketed axeheads from northern Britain
In 2019 a miniature bronze socketed axehead was discovered near Morebattle, Scottish Borders. As such artefacts are rare finds in northern Britain, the opportunity has been taken to draw together the range of unusually small socketed axeheads recorded from Scotland and northern England, and to discuss them in their wider...Paul, Ella B ; Knight, Matthew G ; Cowie, Trevor G ; Troalen, Lore
axeheads, socketed, Iron Age, diminutive, Bronze Age , miniature, metalwork, and functionality
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Journal article
Complex Evolutionary History With Extensive Ancestral Gene Flow in an African Primate Radiation
Understanding the drivers of speciation is fundamental in evolutionary biology, and recent studies highlight hybridization as an important evolutionary force. Using whole-genome sequencing data from 22 species of guenons (tribe Cercopithecini), one of the world's largest primate radiations, we show that rampant gene flow characterizes their evolutionary history and identify...Jensen, Axel ; Swift, Frances ; de Vries, Dorien ; Beck, Robin M D ; Kuderna, Lukas F K …
ancient hybridization, phylogenomics, mammalian radiation, guenon, speciation, and evolutionary genomics
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Journal article
Getting to the Meat of It: The Effects of a Captive Diet upon the Skull Morphology of the Lion and Tiger
Zoo animals are crucial for conserving and potentially re-introducing species to the wild, yet it is known that the morphology of captive animals differs from that of wild animals. It is important to know how and why zoo and wild animal morphology differs to better care for captive animals and...Cooper, David M ; Yamaguchi, Nobuyuki ; Macdonald, David W ; Patterson, Bruce D ; Salkina, Galina P …
Panthera Leo , Panthera Tigris , Diet, Captive Animals, Shape, Wild Animal , Meat , and Skull
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Blog post
Disability Histories: Our Stories
For Disability History Month, assistant curator Julie Holder brought together colleagues Georgia Vullinghs, Georgina Ripley and Sophie Goggins to highlight some of the objects in our collection connected to people in the past and present with disabilities, bodily differences or impairments.Holder, Julie
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Journal article
"Metal assemblage" In: Hill, Ian and Gamble, Michelle 'Hume Village and Castle: the setting of a late medieval stronghold and post medieval folly in the Scottish Borders'
From the excavations of the Contextualising Hume Project, ten items from secure contexts in the castle grounds were submitted for analysis, along with an unstratified cannonball found in the garden of West End Cottage. These items consisted of eight iron items, one piece of unclassified iron-working slag, and a coin...Hunter, Fraser
cannonball , iron, archaeological excavations, Contextualising Hume Project , and metal assemblage