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Lecture
War and diplomacy on the northern frontier
Fraser Hunter's talk for our branch is titled "War and Diplomacy on the Northern Frontier" and will focus on the relations between Romans and locals in this area of the Empire.Hunter, Fraser
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Lecture
Ice Age Fauna of Scotland and the Loch Ryan Mammoths
Scotland is renowned today for its rich and varied wildlife but have you ever wondered what lived here in the past? Andrew Kitchener, Principle Curator of Vertebrates at National Museum of Scotland, presents a talk about creatures that lived in Scotland during the Ice Ages. The talk will include a...Kitchener, Andrew
Stranraer, mammoth, Ice age, and Rhins of Galloway
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Journal article
Northern Modernist Jewellery – a museum collecting project
In 2015 National Museums Scotland was awarded an Art Fund New Collecting Award to collect, research and disseminate jewellery designed and created in Britain and the Nordic States between 1945-1978. The project highlighted a legacy of transnational influences and traditions within Northern Europe, particularly shared cultural heritage, the influence of...Rothwell, Sarah
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Lecture
The Fossil Insects of Scotland
Fossil insects are rare in Scotland, though those that are found are significant and are from four periods: Specimens from the Lower Devonian Rhynie Chert of Aberdeenshire are the oldest in the world; a few species are known from the Upper Carboniferous Coal Measures of Ayrshire and Fife; as yet...Ross, Andrew J
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Lecture
Insights into the Dan Klein Collection
The British Museums Object Conservator Stefka Bargazova and National Museums Scotland Senior Curator of Modern & Contemporary Design Sarah Rothwell join us to discuss the Dan Klein Conservation Project, a wonderful collaborative project that they initiated in 2017 that brought conservators, curators, and practitioners together to share their knowledge to...Bargazova, Stefka ; Rothwell, Sarah
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Presentation
Guest Curator at Craft Scotland Conference 2022 - The Power of Glass Symposium at the National Museum of Scotland
Sarah Rothwell is the Senior Curator of Modern & Contemporary Design, in the Department of Global Arts, Cultures and Design at National Museums Scotland (NMS). Where she is responsible for the British, European and other 'Western' glass, ceramics, metalwork, jewellery and industrial design circa 1945-present collections. Her research focuses on...Rothwell, Sarah
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Video
My Job at the Museum - Enabler
Enablers are part of the team who help people learn more about the museum’s collections by delivering workshops, events and activities. This job is all about People and Communication. Would your pupils like to do a job like this? Many face-to-face aspects of the Enabler job role have changed during...Bull, Lucy
Museum, Enablers, Creative Careers Week, Workshops, Learning Team, Programmes, and Education
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Presentation
Directing Museums with Diverse Bio-Cultural Collections
Museums with diverse natural and cultural collections face special challenges – from how to organize seemingly disconnected collections thematically to staff with vastly different scientific or cultural expertise. Speakers from museums with diverse collections report from their institutions on successful or failed conceptual strategies, with an eye to practical solutions....Tindal, Brenda ; Roldán-Alzate, Oscar ; Breward, Chris
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Presentation
Extending the archive of life: Contemporary collecting in Natural Sciences at National Museums Scotland
What objects will tell the stories of 21st-century Scotland? What themes, events, and ideas represent Scotland today? How do we ‘future proof’ our contemporary collecting? National Museums Scotland is hosting a one-day symposium on contemporary collecting. It will explore how we build representative collections for the future, covering Scotland’s present...Kitchener, Andrew C
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Abstract
Application of DESI–MS for dye analysis of historical textiles
One key issue in the dye analysis field is the need to sample culturally significant objects. This issue is amplified when working with more fragile objects, such as historical textiles, where sampling is often impossible without threatening the structural integrity of the object. To circumvent the impact of dye analysis,...Sandström, Edith ; Vettorazzo, Chiara ; Mackay, C Logan ; Troalen, Lore G ; Alison N, Hulme
museum collections, historical textiles, dye analysis, and mass spectrometry
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Presentation
Preparing to Borrow
Brownlee, Yvonne
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Abstract
Artefacts and Advocacy
Technical artefacts have many meanings over the course of their use-life and museum after life. By engaging with audiences thoughtfully and openly, science museums can use their objects' dynamic biographies to address global challenges we face today. Not least of these is human-induced rapid climate change. Take the trusty tractor...Alberti, S J M M
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Conference paper (unpublished)
William Morris and La Vie Seigneuriale: New light on the revival of tapestry weaving in England
The artist and designer William Morris taught himself to weave in 1879 and went on to produce some of the most celebrated tapestries of the 19th century. But how far can Morris’s writings on the revival of Medieval craft be accepted as the ethos behind his tapestries? Previously overlooked evidence...Wyld, Helen
English tapestry, La Vie Seigneuriale , Tapestry, William Morris, Weaving, England, Medieval craft revival, European tapestry, 19th century , and Arts and crafts
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Conference paper (unpublished)
Bodies of power, bodies of chaos: Occupational stereotyping of disability in Middle Kingdom Egypt
This conference brings together an international team of scholars in a collaborative effort to investigate historical bodies in relations of comparisons and negotiations, to engage in dialogue beyond disciplinary boundaries. Participants were asked to explore how four specific concepts – historical bodies, relations, comparisons and negotiations – can be useful...Maitland , Margaret
Middle Kingdom Egypt, Egypt, Disability , Egyptology, Body, and Stereotyping
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Lecture
Social control in Ancient Egypt
This short talk will explore how culture, interactions, and physical experiences shaped how ancient Egyptians saw themselves and their place in society.Maitland, Margaret
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Lecture
An unpublished cartoon fragment from the Triumphs of Scipio, and the role of England in disseminating Italian tapestry design
Convegno internazionale organizzato dai professori Guy Delmarcel e Koenraad Brosens (KU Leuven), in collaborazione con l'Academia Belgica, 25-26 ottobre 2022 Nell'ottobre 2021 ci ha lasciato Nello Forti Grazzini, riconosciuto a livello internazionale per i suoi studi sugli arazzi antichi. Forti Grazzini ha dedicato numerose pubblicazioni fondamentali agli arazzi dei Paesi...Wyld, Helen
Italien tapestry , Tapestry design, Trade, Tapestry cartoons, Weaving, Artistic relations , Triumphs of Scipio, Italy, European tapestry, and Tapestry
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Presentation
The Art of Tapestry: In Conversation
Join Helen Wyld for the launch of her book The Art of Tapestry in conversation with Dovecot Studios Director Celia Joicey Tapestry expert Helen Wyld presents the first accessible publication on the history of tapestry in over two decades. Helen offers a fresh perspective on the history of tapestry across...Wyld, Helen
Craft, English tapestry, Tapestry design, Method, Weaving, English, National Trust, Material culture, Tapestry history, Production, European tapestry, and Tapestry
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Presentation
Leading Change
Key figures in the sector discuss what type of leadership is needed in times of crisis such as this and what leadership might look like going forward. Our speakers share their experiences of the past two years as they reflect on the challenges that their organisations have faced during the...Breward, Christopher ; Heal, Sharon ; Bell, Leonie ; Lowe, Miranda ; Oke, Arike
Challenges, Leadership, Cost of living crisis, Pandemic, Museum, Climate crisis, Anti-racism, and Decolonisation
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Lecture
Inspiring People: Addressing the challenges of our Age – the work of National Museums Scotland
Chris Breward is the Director of National Museums Scotland. He was trained at the Courtauld Institute and the Royal College of Art, London and has previously worked as Director of Collection and Research at the National Galleries of Scotland, Head of Research at the Victoria & Albert Museum, London and...Breward, Christopher
Challenges, Leadership, Museology, Inspiring, Museum, Scottish museum collections, Identity, and Scotland
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Presentation
Welcome to ‘UKMHF 2022’ and Chair of Creative Change: Collections
This year’s UKMHF aims to embrace change head-on, to apply lessons from recent experience and to look forward. Whether you are a senior leader or consultant, a conservator, curator or archivist, a historian or researcher, a specialist in engagement or interpretation, a volunteer or operator of working craft – or...Greiling, Meredith
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Presentation
Radars in Scotland – History and Developments
History of Radar and Its Relevance in Today’s MarketBrown, Ian
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Book chapter
Grande-Bretagne et Irlande
Knight, Matthew G
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Conference paper (unpublished)
Where are all the ‘Elites’? Hallstatt C metalwork from Britain and connections with the Continent
It is well-established that, in contrast to many parts of the Continent, Britain lacks clear evidence of ostentatious funerary practices so, as a result, evidence of elites during the Hallstatt C period is largely circumstantial. Many bronze and a few iron objects of the Llyn Fawr metalwork assemblage remain some...Knight, Matthew ; O'Connor, Brendan
Halstatt C, hoards, metalwork, bronze swords, socketed axeheads, Llyn Fawr , Early Iron Age, rapezoidal razors, and chapes
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Lecture
The gunflint industry in Brandon and beyond: no flash in the pan
Breckland in the east of England has long been synonymous with man's use of knapped (carefully broken and shaped) flint. In the stone age, millions of axe heads and arrowheads were produced from the large flint mine pits at Grime's Graves, near what is now the Breckland town of Brandon....Anderson-Whymark, Hugo
axe heads, arrowheads, gunflints, Grime's Graves, flint mine, and flintknapper
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Lecture
Destruction and Deposition at Duddingston Loch
Dr Matthew Knight is a Senior Curator of Prehistory at the National Museums Scotland, responsible for the Scottish Chalcolithic and Bronze Age collections. Matthew completed his BSc and MA at the University of Exeter between 2009 and 2014, during which he explored links between Bronze Age metalworking evidence, settlement activities...Knight, Matthew
Research, swords, spearheads, Archaeology, and Bronze Age
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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
Ireland, Scandinavia, burials, diaspora, Iceland, Newfoundland, Britain, Viking Age , Dublin, Ringed pins, and Irish Sea trading settlements
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Abstract
Exploring literal and conceptual fragmentation through medieval material culture
This paper will explore meaning-rich fragmentation in a medieval context and suggest that relevant theoretical frameworks may be enriched by thinking about different kinds of deconstruction. The breaking and remaking of Christian reliquaries provide one opportunity – viewing things like the Monymusk reliquary not as one object but as many...Blackwell, Alice
Monymusk reliquary , fragmentation, Christian reliquaries, Archaeology, and deconstruction
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Lecture
The Traprain Treasure – latest research on a remarkable Roman silver hoard
The Roman Treasure from Traprain Law Excavated on Traprain Law in May 1919, this was one of the most spectacular discoveries of Roman silver ever made in Europe – and the biggest hoard found to date of ‘hacksilver’: 23kg, battered, crushed and chopped-up silver vessels. An international team of scholars...Hunter, Fraser
Late Roman Hoard, Traprain Law, East Lothian, hacksilver, elite tableware, and Silver Treasure
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Lecture
Highland Style: Fashioning Highland Dress, c.1745-1845
he period c.1745-1845 was a revolutionary chapter in the history of Highland dress. With the advent of the European Romantic movement, this once regional costume was revived and reinvented to reflect the changing times and preoccupations of its wearers. Associated with the warrior culture of Gaelic society, by the close...Waine, Rosie
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Lecture
Re-framing Mary: audience-focused collecting and display
During the life of the RSE project, and following the acquisition of the Mary Queen of Scots casket, National Museums Scotland re-framed the narrative it tells of Mary in the Chambers Street museum. This talk explores the museum’s role in mediating narratives of Mary’s life and impact, to argue that...Groundwater, Anna
casket, material culture, Mary, Queen of Scots, and museum collecting, interpretation and display
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Lecture
'The Viking-age Reuse of Insular Metalwork From Northern Britain'
The looting of Christian shrines and reliquaries in the Viking Age is so well-documented that it has been reduced to a cartoonish vision of pillaging heathens. A close look at the evidence for such ‘looting’ tells a different story – or rather a number of different stories. A recent reassessment... -
Conference paper (unpublished)
A new approach to volunteer lead digitisation
As part of an AHRC funded research project we are aiming to bridge the gap between in person and online volunteering. Working with a group of Bradford volunteers we are creating an experimental method for giving ownership over to those volunteers in deciding what parts of a collections get catalogued...Belknap, Geof ; Blickhan, Sam
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Lecture
Scotland and the Cold War
For three decades, Scotland was on the frontline in a potential Third World War with the Soviet Union. From the 1960s the west of Scotland was home to Britain’s nuclear deterrent and a key strategic American submarine base. In this talk, Dr Jim Gledhill will examine the Cold War from...Gledhill, Jim
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Doctoral thesis
Understanding colour in Renaissance embroidery: new analytical approaches
Historical objects are often a reflection of the time they were created. Depending on the nature of the object, they can give insight into the necessities, fashion trends and mentality of the time they were used. To expand the information received from historic objects, scientific techniques can be applied, which... -
Presentation
Respect! Caribbean life in Edinburgh – How a community project has changed our museum practice
In 2021 and 2022 Museums & Galleries Edinburgh worked with Edinburgh Caribbean Association (ECA) to develop the exhibition Respect! Caribbean Life in Edinburgh. ECA used the collections of the Museum of Childhood to explore Caribbean culture and childhoods, living in Scotland and Caribbean contributions to British society. The project was...Stevens, Lynn
Museology, Exchange, Caribbean diaspora heritage communities, Museums & Galleries Edinburgh, Colonial Histories And Legacies, and Edinburgh Caribbean Association
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Conference paper (unpublished)
Opening up the Archive: An Approach to Volunteer-led Citizen Science in the Museum and Online
Through Communities and Crowds we aim to address two key challenges: how to open up the museum’s collection to citizen research; and how to make those objects that resonate most strongly with the everyday lives and experiences of our diverse communities easier to search for and discover.Belknap, Geoffrey ; Fitzpatrick, Alex
volunteers, discoverability, diverse communities, museum collections, and citizen research
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Presentation
Provenance Research at National Museums Scotland: Priorities and Challenges, Technical Workshop
Experts en la traçabilitat d’objectes d’origen colonial d’Alemanya i Escòcia han aportat la seva experiència al programa (Tr)african(t)s, amb suport de l’Agència Catalana de Cooperació al Desenvolupament (ACCD).Kingdon, Zachary
African collections, National Museum of Scotland, colonial history, and provenance
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Conference paper (unpublished)
From Art to Craft: Re-thinking Iranian material culture in British museum collections
Within the last twenty years, leading museums in Western Europe and North America have acknowledged the diversity of the Muslim world to a greater degree than previously in their renovated and expanded Islamic art galleries. Often driven by perceived or habitual audience expectations, Western aesthetics (masterpieces or tribal art), concepts...Voigt, Friederike
Iranian collection, Islamic art history, National Museum of Scotland, exhibiting objects, home and garden, and cultural context
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Conference paper (unpublished)
Music, Movement and the Construction of Identity in Rural Southern Tanzania
Social anthropologists began to take a serious interest in cultural institutions involving spirit possession from the beginning of the 1960s. Where the so-called ‘cults of affliction’ were concerned, the dominant approach in many early studies of was to view them as ‘historically sensitive modes of cultural resistance’ (Body 1994: 419)....Kingdon, Zachary
fieldwork, spiritualism, music, social anthropology, Tanzania, and movement, experience and identities
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Abstract
Entangled Knowledges: Kaartdijin, Science and History in the Robert Neill collection
Taking a multidisciplinary cross-museum collection as its starting point the Entangled Knowledges project aims to highlight Menang Nyungar knowledge embedded in a historic collection of fishes, mammals and artefacts held at National Museums Scotland and a portfolio of sketches of fishes held by the Natural History Museum, London, by returning... -
Abstract
In the eye of the beholder
In my current role as an assistant curator at National Museums Scotland, I am interested in what we can learn from repaired objects. Working as a conservator with world cultures collections for many years, it was important to understand earlier repairs to inform contemporary conservation practice. Taking this interdisciplinary practice...Richardson, Heather
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Abstract
The ‘Pre-Disciplinary’ Early African Collections of the National Museums Scotland
The African collection of the National Museums Scotland (NMS) is one of the oldest in Britain, because it contains assemblages from two other Edinburgh institutions that were founded well before NMS’ own launch in 1854 as The Industrial Museum of Scotland. The earliest of these contributing institutions was the University... -
Conference paper (unpublished)
“Endangered Crafts: Documenting Shu Making in Chitral, Northern Pakistan“
This paper is concerned with issues related to the documentation of endangered crafts. It takes as an example an ethnography which aims to understand and record over two years the weaving of shu, a type of woollen cloth characteristic of the region of Chitral in northern Pakistan, for which the... -
Journal article
The correct name for the montane Hydrophorus species (Diptera, Dolichopodidae) occurring in the British Isles
The presence of Hydrophorus pilipes Frey, 1915 is confirmed in the British Isles, the species being previously mis-identified as Hydrophorus rufibarbis Gerstäcker, 1864.MacGowan, Iain ; Drake, C Martin
montane Diptera, olichopodid Hydrophorus rufibarbis, National Museums Scotland collections, and David Horsfield
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Conference paper (unpublished)
Concrete Cairns: Bunker Museums and Cold War Memory on Britain’s Peripheries
This paper will examine two Cold War bunkers in Scotland that have been converted into museums. Both buildings’ ‘cold’ lives and afterlives are integral to the curated stories within and the museums’ multiple meanings contested by communities previously kept out by barbed wire fences.Gledhill, Jim
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Conference paper (unpublished)
Through the Looking Glass War: Museums and exposing Cold War espionage in contemporary Berlin
Gledhill, Jim
material culture , Cold War , museums, exhibitions, and espionage
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Abstract
Presenting a complex hoard deposit – the Galloway Hoard
The Galloway Hoard is the focus of an ongoing research project at National Museums Scotland examining a complex Viking-age deposit composed of multiple parcels, with organic preservation and a variety of materials (gold, silver, copper-alloy, glass, rock crystal, minerals, leather, wood, wool, silk, linen, and animal gut). There may be...Goldberg, Martin
Viking-age hoards, Galloway Hoard , rock crystal, minerals, wool, research project, wood, animal gut, silk, linen, gold, copper-alloy, leather, silver, and glass
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Lecture
Unwrapping the Galloway Hoard
The Galloway Hoard contains an unusual variety of materials and artefact types beyond the silver bullion so often found in Viking-age hoards. The find included heirlooms, ecclesiastical items (one of which names a previously unknown Northumbrian bishop), and the rare preservation of organic materials wrapping parcels and distinct groups. A...Goldberg, Martin
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Lecture
The Galloway Hoard latest findings
Hoards evoke stories and generate questions: Why do people collect things, both now and in the past? How do ordinary things become treasured objects? And why do we find these discoveries so fascinating? Hoards help us imagine particular events – the moment of burial, the moment of discovery – but...Goldberg, Martin
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Exhibition-related event
The Galloway Hoard
Dr Adrian Maldonado, Galloway Hoard Researcher, National Museums Scotland. Dr Adrian Maldonado will unearth the history and stories surrounding the Galloway Hoard, currently on display in Aberdeen Art Gallery. Discover how these stunning objects were assembled 1,100 years ago, and how they are reshaping our understanding of the Viking Age...Maldonado, Adrián
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Conference paper (unpublished)
The material culture of long-distance connections: the evidence from Neolithic Orkney
Anderson-Whymark, Hugo
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Lecture
From Gaul to Galloway: Early Celtic Art and Iron Age Connections
Galloway has produced remarkable treasures of early Celtic art such as the Torrs pony cap, found near Castle Douglas, but their stories are little known. Fraser Hunter, principal curator of prehistoric and Roman archaeology at National Museums Scotland, uses art and archaeology as witnesses to the area’s ancient past. How...Hunter, Fraser
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Conference paper (unpublished)
The Body Beautiful: Addressing Cultural Diversity in Museum Fashion Collections
Collecting as a practice and the collections that result from this practice are crucial for museums. Collecting and collections embody power on many different levels – providing insights and basic knowledge, illustrating specific practices of our work to the widest audiences, and forming a basis for contextualizing our world. How...Ripley, Georgina
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Conference paper (unpublished)
Not So Hidden Messages – an Exploration of Contemporary Artist Jewellers Using Text as Persuasive Statement
Rothwell, Sarah
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Conference paper (unpublished)
Confronting colonial histories and legacies in Egyptian and Sudanese collections at National Museums Scotland
Maitland, Margaret
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Lecture
Diaspora Flows of Cultural Artefacts to and from Africa
In this session we were pleased to welcome keynote speakers who are experts in their specialist research and engagement with Africa’s historic, material culture; architecture, artefacts and their involvement with the curation and presentation of heritage to the public both in the diaspora and in Africa. A key theme of...Kingdon, Zachary ; Chirikure, Shadreck ; Layiwola, Peju ; Aderinto, Saheed ; Lawanson, Taibat …
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Lecture
Dressing the cultural imaginary: whose ‘gypsy’?
Emily Taylor and Benjamin Wild discuss the collector Charles W. Stewart.Tayor, Emily ; Wild, Benjamin Linley
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Lecture
Co-evolution of geological and biology from a mineralogical perspective
• Earth's surface harbours at least 5809 known minerals, but when Earth first formed 4.65 billion years ago, it had about 420. Moreover, what is common on the surface today was uncommon then. Many rocks and minerals have come into being while others have become extinct. • The overall increase...Walcott, Rachel
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Book chapter
13-inch lunar globe, by Räth, East German, c. 1961 Wh.6098 13.5-inch lunar globe, by Lipsky, Russian, 1967 Wh.6683
The forty-year global conflict known as the Cold War had many fronts. Some of them, like proxy wars in Asia and Africa, were hot; others, like the Berlin Wall or the northern North Sea, were indeed cold; but colder still were the battle lines drawn up in space. Famously, the...Alberti, S J M M
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Book chapter
Medals illustrating various scientific subjects, by E. Thomason, English, mid-19th century Wh.4511
This set of sixteen Scientific and Philosophical Medals, each three inches in diameter, were sold with a magnifying glass in a book-shaped leather and velvet case. They were first advertised in 1829 by the Birmingham manufacturer, Edward Thomason. The son of a buckle manufacturer, Thomason had been apprenticed to Boulton...Higgitt, Rebekah
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Conference paper (unpublished)
Smart and Sustainable: Collecting urban transport and mobility innovation in the 2020
Scotland’s cities are experiencing a revolution in smart, sustainable transport and active travel. City centre transformation schemes were radically accelerated by Covid-19, prioritising pedestrians and cyclists over motor vehicles in response to the public health emergency. Concurrently, electric vehicles, cargo bike delivery collectives, bike hire schemes, an extended tram network...Greiling, Meridith
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Presentation
Jacobite material culture
Vullinghs, Georgia
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Book chapter
Compositional data from the Traprain Treasure
Analysis of the Traprain Law Treasure was under-taken in the science laboratory of National Museums Scotland between 2008 and 2018. Ninety-three fragments of the silver were investigated by X-ray fluorescence analysis (XRF) and particle-induced X-ray emission analysis (uPIXE)Troalen, Lore ; Tate, Jim
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Book chapter
A context for the Treasure: Traprain Law and Rome's northern frontier
The discovery of the Traprain Treasure was the most dramatic moment in a spectacular and long-running excavation. While nothing else quite matched the excitement of this find, the results of work at Traprain Law redefined perspectives on the Scottish Iron Age and relations with the Roman world. This chapter will...Hunter, Fraser
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Book chapter
The technology of the Traprain Treasure
When the hoard was first found, according to Alexander Curle, the metal was greyish-brown and 'appeared to be embedded in a purple paste'.Troalen, Lore ; Lang, Janet