Suchen
Suchergebnisse
-
Journal article
A Boyne to Brodgar research framework
Note: this research framework, created by Alison Sheridan (National Museums Scotland) and Gabriel Cooney (University College Dublin), forms part of an article, ‘The Boyne to Brodgar initiative: understanding – and preserving, presenting and raising awareness of – Neolithic monuments and the people who built and used them in Ireland, Scotland...Sheridan, J A ; Cooney, Gabriel
-
Journal article
(Re)discovering the Gaulcross Hoard and other early medieval silver
Modern excavations can sometimes provide surprising new insights on antiquarian finds of metalwork. The Pictish silver hoard from Gaulcross in north-eastern Scotland provides an excellent example. Recent fieldwork, including metal-detecting, has clarified the size and composition of the hoard, and uncovered 100 new silver items, including coins, fragments of brooches...Noble, Gordon ; Goldberg, D Martin ; McPherson, Alistair ; Sveinbjarnarson, Oskar
late Roman, Hacksilber, Scotland, metal-detecting, Pictish, silver hoard, and early medieval
-
Journal article
Collecting 21st-century science, technology and medicine
Museums are often associated exclusively with bygones. This can be problematic, especially for those who manage science, technology and medicine (STM) collections. In seeking to correct this misconception with contemporary collecting, they also face other problems, especially in scale and complexity. While acknowledging such challenges, this opinion piece proposes opportunities...Alberti, S J M M ; Cox, Elsa ; Phillipson, Tacye ; Taubman, Alison
-
Journal article
The development of the Pictish symbol system: inscribing identity beyond the edges of Empire
The date of unique symbolic carvings, from various contexts across north and east Scotland, has been debated for over a century. Excavations at key sites and direct dating of engraved bone artefacts have allowed for a more precise chronology, extending from the third/fourth centuries AD, broadly contemporaneous with other non-vernacular...Noble, Gordon ; Goldberg, D Martin ; Hamilton, Derek
language, Scotland, Pictish, writing, carving, and symbolism
-
Journal article
The polaris subspecies of Little Auk Alle alle on the British List
This paper describes the analysis of a number of Little Auk Alle alle specimens collected in Scotland that show biometrics of the subspecies A.a. polaris which breeds in the eastern part of the species' Arctic range. Wing length measurements confirmed that two specimens are A.a. polaris. This conclusion has been...McInerney, C J ; McGowan, R Y
-
Journal article
Distinguishing the victim from the threat: SNP‐based methods reveal the extent of introgressive hybridization between wildcats and domestic cats in Scotland and inform future in situ and ex situ management options for species restoration
The degree of introgressive hybridization between the Scottish wildcat and domestic cat has long been suspected to be advanced. Here, we use a 35‐SNP‐marker test, designed to assess hybridization between wildcat and domestic cat populations in Scotland, to assess a database of 295 wild‐living and captive cat samples, and test...Senn, Helen ; Ghazali, Muhammad ; Kaden, Jennifer ; Barclay, David ; Harrower, Ben …
carnivores, captive populations, conservation management, and invasive species
-
Journal article
Art treasures were sold as palace vanished from sight
The demolition of Hamilton Palace at Hamilton in South Lanarkshire in the 1920s and the dispersal of its treasures in two sales in 1882 and 1919 was a national tragedy.Evans, Godfrey
Scotland, mausoleum, Hamilton, Duke of Hamilton, Hamilton Palace, and Scottish
-
Journal article
St Patrick’s footprint – an early Medieval royal inauguration site at Portpatrick?
A rock-cut footprint linked in tradition to St Patrick was recorded and destroyed during harbour works at Portpatrick (Wigtownshire) in the early nineteenth century. This paper argues it was an early Medieval royal inauguration site, based on wider Scottish and Irish parallels. The footprint's setting, on a rock in a...Hunter, Fraser ; Hunter, J
-
Journal article
Storm-induced community Dynamics in the Fezouata Biota (Lower Ordovician, Morocco)
In the Central Anti-Atlas (Morocco), the lower part of the Fezouata Shale has yielded locally abundant remains of soft-bodied to lightly sclerotized taxa, occurring in low diversity assemblages characterized by strong spatial and taxonomic heterogeneities, and frequently, by the occurrence of small-sized individuals. Size frequency analyses of Celdobolus sp., Wosekella...Saleh, Farid ; Candela, Yves ; Harper, David A T ; Polechová, Marika ; Lefebvre, Bertrand …
-
Journal article
Gold in Prehistoric Scotland
Dr Alison Sheridan introduces a new joint project to explore what we know - and what we have yet to discover - about early gold us in Britain.Sheridan, J A
-
Journal article
Worked shale. In: Savory, Gary, Mike Cressey, Clare Ellis, Mhairi Hastie, Fraser Hunter, Jennifer Thoms, and Graeme Carruthers. 2019. Excavation of a double-ditched enclosure at Winchburgh, West Lothian
A sub-circular double-ditched enclosure, visible as a cropmark on aerial photographs, was excavated by CFA Archaeology Ltd in 2013. The enclosure had an inner ditch with two possible entrances and an intermittent outer ditch. The inner ditch measured up to 4.65m wide and survived to a maximum depth of 1.4m....Hunter, Fraser
Circular enclosure, Jewellery, Ditch, Glass bead, and Animal remains
-
Journal article
Illustrating animals and visualizing Natural History in Chambers’s Encyclopaedias
In the 19th century, there was wide-spread public interest in natural history, as reflected in the high attendance at zoos and travelling menageries, in the market for popular field guides, in fashions for orchid collecting, fossil hunting and aquarium building, and in well-attended popular science lectures. More than 10 years...Roberto, Rose
wood-engraving, natural history illustrations, reference books, Chambers’s Encyclopaedia, Victorian book illustration, and Encyclopaedia Britannica
-
Journal article
Glass. In: Savory, Gary, Mike Cressey, Clare Ellis, Mhairi Hastie, Fraser Hunter, Jennifer Thoms, and Graeme Carruthers. 2019. Excavation of a double-ditched enclosure at Winchburgh, West Lothian
A sub-circular double-ditched enclosure, visible as a cropmark on aerial photographs, was excavated by CFA Archaeology Ltd in 2013. The enclosure had an inner ditch with two possible entrances and an intermittent outer ditch. The inner ditch measured up to 4.65m wide and survived to a maximum depth of 1.4m....Hunter, Fraser
Circular enclosure, Jewellery, Ditch, Glass bead, and Animal remains
-
Journal article
What does the future of museum learning and engagement look like?
The Museums Association is holding a one-day conference, Future of Museums: Learning and Engagement, on 27 March at the National Museum of Scotland, EdinburghAllen, Stephen
-
Journal article
The Blattodea (cockroaches), Mantodea (praying mantises) and Dermaptera (earwigs) of the Insect Limestone (late Eocene), Isle of Wight, including the first record of Mantodea from the UK
The fossil cockroaches (Blattodea), praying mantises (Mantodea) and earwigs (Demaptera) are described from the Insect Limestone (Priabonian) of the Isle of Wight, southern England. Three new species of cockroach are described in the family Ectobiidae – Phyllodromica protosardea sp. nov., Balta protosimilis sp. nov. and Malaccina? wightensis sp. nov. –...Ross, Andrew
-
Journal article
The facial reconstruction of an Ancient Egyptian Queen
The National Museums of Scotland Mummy Project has provided important new information about a burial excavated in Egypt. This has resulted in the facial reconstruction of a woman who was probably a queen at Thebes ca. 1570-1520 BCE. There are strong suggestions from the grave goods and her diet that...Manley, Bill ; Eremin, Katherine ; Shortland, Andrew ; Wilkinson, Caroline M
-
Journal article
Ivory piano keys from Mastodons: Why poor anthropocentic legislation endangers fossils
Palaeontological material and sites have faced a variety of challenges in the last half century, often due to inadequate legislation from poorly informed legislators designed for very different objects. The most common problematic scenario is for material to be assessed on anthropocentic grounds that are more traditionally applied to archaeological...Liston, Jeff
-
Journal article
Non-destructive analysis of nineteenth century Scottish calotype negatives and salt prints
Nineteenth century negatives and positives in the collections of the National Museums of Scotland (NMS) and the National Galleries of Scotland (NGS) were analysed non-destructively to identify the techniques used in their manufacture. Modern positive and negative images prepared using known nineteenth century processes were also analysed for comparison. Air-path...Eremin, Katherine ; Tate, Jim ; Morrison-Low, A D ; Berry, James ; Stevenson, Sara
-
Journal article
The practice of dyeing wool in Scotland c.1790-c.1840
The history of dyeing is complex, even when analysed over a short period of time and in a comparatively small country such as Scotland. There are hundreds of dyes, natural and manufactured; most require the use of further chemicals as mordants to fix the colour; dyes interact with different vegetable...Burnett, John ; Mercer, Katherine ; Quye, Anita
-
Journal article
On the chemistry of John and Robert Adamson’s Salted paper prints and calotype negatives
The chemical processes used by John and Robert Adamson and the possibility that they might have used some special ingredient has long been the subject of speculation. In the early stages of photography in Scotland, the chemical processes used were probably based on William Henry Fox Talbot's, but it is...Eremin, Katherine ; Tate, Jim ; Berry, James
-
Journal article
Ivory Towers of entitlement?: the commercialisation of academic palaeontologists
Palaeontology suffers from divisions amongst its community, along an ostensibly motivational division between acadmic and commercial palaeontologists, the former not being motivated financially, unlike the latter. These divisions are particularly plarised in the United States of America. In order to discuss why this attitude exsists, even when the financial division...Liston, Jeff
-
Journal article
Characterisation of ‘bog butter’ using a combination of molecular and isotopic techniques
The chemical analyses of ‘bog butters’ recovered from peat bogs of Scotland were performed with the aim of determining their origins. Detailed compositional information was obtained from ‘bog butter’ lipids using high temperature gas chromatography (HTGC) and GC-mass spectrometry (GC-MS). The results indicate the degree to which ‘bog butters’ have...Berstan, Robert ; Dudd, Stephanie N ; Copley, Mark S ; Morgan, E David ; Quye, Anita …
-
Journal article
The characterisation of metal soaps
To characterize more fully the metal soaps found in paint films or on metal surfaces, several metal soaps were synthesized and their X-ray diffraction pattern and Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) and Raman spectra measured. Metal soaps were obtained from four different fatty acids found in drying oils — two saturated...Robinet, Lauren ; Corbeil, Marie-Claude
-
Journal article
Exploring East Asia at the National Museum of Scotland
With around 23,000 objects representing the cultures of China, Japan and Korea, the National Museum of Scotland houses the largest collection of East Asian material in the United Kingdom outside London. In February 2019, a new gallery named ‘Exploring East Asia’ will open to showcase works from this collection. Exploring...Buckland, Rosina
-
Journal article
By the mandate of heaven': a kingfisher-feather headdress in the National Museum of Scotland
This article focuses on a kingfisher headdress selected for the new East Asia gallery at the National Museum of Scotland. Dating to the late Qing dynasty and previously thought to be part of an opera costume, new research has revealed that this intricate headdress might instead have been the property...Cao, Qin
-
Journal article
Analytical study of the Middle Kingdom group of gold jewellery from tomb 124 at Riqqa, Egypt
The jewellery from tomb 124 at Riqqa, consisting of one pectoral and one winged beetle in gold and cloisonné work, one gold shell pendant decorated with wires and granulation, and one hollow gold amulet in the form of god Min, was analysed by handheld X‐ray fluorescence and scanning electron microscopy...Troalen, Lore ; Guerra, Maria Filomena ; Maitland, Margaret ; Ponting, M ; Price, C
-
Journal article
A Raman spectroscopic analysis of pigments from Dynastic Egyptian funerary artefacts
As part of a comprehensive analytical survey, Raman spectra were obtained of pigments from ancient Egyptian funerary artefacts dating from the 17th Dynasty to the Graeco‐Roman period, using several laser excitation wavelengths. A wide colour palette has been identified with mineral pigments and pigment mixtures; several variations were detected with...Edwards, Howell G M ; Jorde Villar, S E ; Eremin, Katherine
Egyptian artefacts, mineral pigments, sarcophagi, and micro‐Raman spectroscopy
-
Journal article
The natural constituents of historical textile dyes
The sources and structures of dyes used to colour Western historical textiles are described in this tutorial review. Most blue and purple colours were derived from indigo—obtained either from woad or from the indigo plant—though some other sources (e.g. shellfish and lichens) were used. Reds were often anthraquinone derivatives obtained...Ferreira, Ester S B ; Hulme, Alison N ; McNab, Hamish ; Quye, Anita
-
Journal article
Probing the factors which control degradation in museum collections of cellulose acetate artefacts
Cellulose acetate artefacts in museum collections cover a period from the early 1900's to the present day. Conservators have observed that certain of these objects are showing signs of warping, crazing, cracking, discolouration and shrinkage accompanied by a strong smell of acetic acid. Previous studies on cellulose nitrate artefacts show...Ballany, Jane M ; Littlejohn, D ; Pethrick, R P ; Quye, Anita
-
Journal article
Analytical studies of the degradation of cellulose nitrate plastics in museums
This paper discusses a project which is examining the degradation of cellulose nitrate artefacts. Several analytical techniques including Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy and ion chromatography have been used to investigate the degradation processes occurring and the various factors influencing the rate of degradation. Accelerated ageing of cellulose nitrate has...Stewart, R ; Littlejohn, D ; Pethrick, R P ; Quye, Anita ; Tennent, N H
-
Journal article
Saving our polyesterdays: historical plastics research
Preventing the degradation of materials in museums has always been a challenge. Now plastics in 20th century museum artefacts are presenting a new set of problems.Quye, Anita
-
Journal article
Genetic variation in field voles (Microtus agrestis) from the British Isles: selective sweeps or population bottlenecks?
The Eurasian field vole (Microtus agrestis) comprises three evolutionarily significant units (ESUs). The northern ESU is found at higher latitudes across the western Palaearctic region and includes six, largely allopatric, mitochondrial DNA lineages that were derived from population bottlenecks. One of these lineages is found in southern Britain and nearby...Herman, Jeremy S ; Stojack, Joanna ; Paupério, Joana ; Jaarola, M ; Wojcik, J M …
Y-chromosome, cytochromeb, selection, post-glacial colonization, population bottleneck, and microsatellite
-
Journal article
Burmese (Myanmar) amber checklist and bibliography 2018
A list of all known taxa described or recorded from Burmese amber from the published literature up to the end of 2018 is given, along with a comprehensive bibliography. The history of the study of inclusions is summarised, and demonstrates that the number of species has risen exponentially over the...Ross, Andrew
invertebrates, fungi, plants, Myanmar, Cretaceous, vertebrates, protists, arachnids, Arthropoda, insects, and Burmese amber