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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
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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
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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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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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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,...Gibson, Alex ; Neubauer, Wolfgang ; Flöry, Sebastian ; Schneidhofer, Petra ; Allen, Mike …
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Journal article
The Spearhead of the Pennon …
In 1999, the late Professor Charles Thomas donated a Middle Bronze Age spearhead to the National Museum collection. This spearhead came with a label indicating that it was part of the pennant taken into the Battle of Flodden by Robert Chisholme in 1513. This paper investigates the likelihood that such...Knight, Matthew G ; Sheridan, J A
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Three cists and a possible Roman road at Barbush quarry, Dunblane
Over the past 50 years a number of archaeological discoveries have been made at Barbush Quarry, Dunblane including a coin hoard, Neolithic pottery and several prehistoric funerary features. During the supervised removal of spoil heaps at the quarry a concentration of archaeological features was identified and later excavated. The features...Holden, T ; Sheridan, J A
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The National Museums Scotland ‘Dating cremated bones project’
Results from the ‘Dating Cremated Bones Project’ The second year of what is hoped to be a three-year project has continued to provide interesting new dates from prehistoric Scottish cremated human bone (see DES 2001, 129 for results from year 1). Sampling continued to focus on material with ‘interesting’ artefactual...Sheridan, J A
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Investigating jet and jet-like artefacts from prehistoric Scotland: the National Museums of Scotland project
The black spacer plate necklaces and bracelets of the Early Bronze Age (Figure 1) are among the most technically accomplished prestige items of this period in Britain and Ireland. There has been much debate over the years as to whether these artefacts and other prehistoric black jewellery and dress accessories...Sheridan, J A ; Davis, M ; Clark, Iain ; Redvers-Jones, Hal
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The radiocarbon dating programmes of The National Museums of Scotland
Since 1991, the Archaeology Department of the National Museums of Scotland (NMS) has been undertaking programmes of AMS radiocarbon dating of organic items in its collections, particularly wetland finds. This work was initially stimulated by the success of Caroline Earwood’s research on dating bog butter containers and other wooden vessels...Sheridan, J A
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Journal article
An Early Bronze Age 'dagger grave' from Rameldry Farm, near Kingskettle, Fife
In February 2000, ploughing disturbed the capstone of a cist, located on the side of a prominent knowe at Rameldry Farm, near Kingskettle in central Fife. Excavation by Headland Archaeology Ltd on behalf of Historic Scotland revealed a short cist which contained the crouched inhumation of a man aged 40-50,...Baker, L ; Sheridan, J A ; Cowie, Trevor
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The excavation of a bronze age cemetery at Seafield West, near Inverness, Highland
Excavations in 1996 in advance of a major commercial development at Seafield West revealed a Bronze Age cemetery. Inside a ring-ditch were two adjacent graves with wooden coffins, one a boatshaped hollowed tree-trunk, the other plank-built. Both had probably contained crouched inhumation burials. Grave goods in the former included a...Cressey, M ; Sheridan, J A
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Journal article
Supernatural power dressing
Jewellery from Bronze Age graves is normally interpreted as a symbol of status. Howevr, materials like jet, amber, faience and tin were also worn as talismans, writes Alison Sheridan When archaeologists found the 4,300-year-old burial of an archer and metalworker at Amesbury in Wiltshire last year, they knew at once...Sheridan, J A ; Shortland, A
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Review of R.Cleal and A.MacSween (eds.), Grooved ware in Britain and Ireland
This collection of fourteen papers (plus Introduction and Gazetteer) arose from a Neolithic Studies Group seminar that took place on a memorably eventful and frosty day in February 1994. As one of the speakers and subsequent contributors to the volume, my comments are those of an active participant in the...Sheridan, J A
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Croft Moraig and the chronology of stone circles
The Perthshire stone circle of Croft Moraig was excavated 40 years ago and is usually taken to illustrate the classic sequence at such monuments in Britain. A timber setting, accompanied by a shallow ditch, was replaced by two successive stone settings. The pottery associated with the earliest construction was dated...Bradley, R ; Sheridan, J A
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Review of M.Parker Pearson, N.Sharples, and J.Symonds, South Uist: archaeology and history of a Hebridean island
Two outstanding books have recently been published about the archaeology and history of the Outer Hebrides. Andrew Fleming’s St Kilda and the Wider World is one; Parker Pearson et al's is the other. South Uist presents the results of a major interdisciplinary and collaborative research project undertaken principally by the...Sheridan, J A
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Pifalls and other traps...why it's worth looking at museum artefacts again
Re-examination of old finds can lead to significant gains in understanding past practices. Some of the recent work undertaken by the National Museums of Scotland is showcased here. Recent work on the Loch Glashan codex satchel (p18) persuades us that, archaeologically speaking, silk purses can be made out of sows’...Sheridan, J A
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Radiocarbon dating results from the Beaker People Project: Scottish samples.
The Beaker People Project is a major interdisciplinary five-year research programme, funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council and led by one of the authors (Mike Parker Pearson of Sheffield University). It aims to investigate patterns of diet, mobility and health in British Beaker-associated skeletons (and in contemporaneous non-Beaker...Sheridan, J A ; Parker Pearson, Mike ; Jay, Mandy ; Richards, Mike ; Curtis, Neil
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The re-dating of some Scottish specimens by the Oxford Radiocarbon Accelerator Unit (ORAU)
The purpose of this note is to alert readers to the fact that some AMS dates determined by ORAU on Scottish material between 2000 and 2002 have had to be deleted and re-determined, because of a problem in the ultrafiltration system used to pretreat bone samples during that period (see...Sheridan, J A ; Higham, Tom
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Review of G.Warren, Mesolithic lives in Scotland
This slim but attractively-presented volume sets out to present an account of the lives of Scotland’s earliest inhabitants that is accessible to undergraduates and to those with a general interest in archaeology. Much effort is spent in explaining complicated processes (such as sea-level change) and in demystifying specialist terminology (principally...Sheridan, J A
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The Exloo necklace: new light on an old find
This article presents the results of recent international collaborative research into the Early Bronze Age composite necklace from Exloo, examining its circumstances and location of discovery, the history of its curation and study, its likely date, the provenance of its constituent elements, and its broader significance. The other Dutch Bronze...Haveman, E ; Sheridan, J A
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Radiocarbon dating results from the Beakers and Bodies Project
The Beakers and Bodies Project is a two-year project based in Marischal Museum, University of Aberdeen, funded by the Leverhulme Trust. It is assessing the beaker-related evidence from North-East Scotland (between the Moray Firth and the Firth of Tay), including the dating and stable isotope analyses of some 40 human...Curtis, Neil ; Wilkin, Neil ; Hutchison, Meg ; Jay, Mandy ; Sheridan, J A …
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The age of Stonehenge
Stonehenge is the icon of British prehistory, and continues to inspire ingenious investigations and interpretations. A current campaign of research, being waged by probably the strongest archaeological team ever assembled, is focused not just on the monument, but on its landscape, its hinterland and the monuments within it. The campaign...Parker Pearson, M ; Cleal, R ; Marshall, P ; Needham, S P ; Pollard, J …
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Journal article
Beaker vessel
This report provides an account of the excavations of a cropmark enclosure and other prehistoric remains at Dryburn Bridge, near Innerwick in East Lothian. The excavations were directed over two seasons in 1978 and 1979 by Jon Triscott and David Pollock, and were funded by the Ancient Monuments Branch, Scottish...Sheridan, J A
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Bronze Age pottery. In P R J Duffy, Excavations at Dunure Road, Ayrshire: a Bronze Age cist cemetery and standing stone, 94-100
In March 2005, excavations were undertaken by Glasgow University Archaeological Research Division (GUARD) at the Craig Tara Holiday Park, Dunure Road, Ayr in advance of proposed development. Two main archaeological sites were examined. The first, a flat cist cemetery covered by an earthen mound, comprised 23 separate burial features of...Sheridan, J A
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Review of: I.A.G.Shepherd and G.J.Barclay (eds.). Scotland in ancient Europe
This volume presents the proceedings of a conference held in Edinburgh in March 2003 - one of a series of Society of Antiquaries of Scotland conferences reviewing Scotland’s past within its broader context. The previous, and first, was held in 1999 and was published by the Society in 2004 as...Sheridan, J A
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Review of I Armit, Scotland’s Hidden History
This is an updated version of Ian Armit’s popular guide to Scottish archaeological sites, first published (in paperback and hardback) in 1998. As Armit explains, the revisions have been necessitated by new discoveries and advances in our understanding of Scottish prehistory and early history to around AD 1000, with the...Sheridan, J A
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Green treasures from the magic mountains
A few prehistoric jade axeheads were found in Britain over a century ago. The number grew as the years passed: but where they had come from remained a mystery. Alison Sheridan describes new work by Pierre Pétrequin, Michel Errera and Yvan Pailler that looks finally to have cracked the problemSheridan, J A
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Radiocarbon dates arranged through National Museums Scotland Archaeology Department during 2007/8
The main thrust of NMS Archaeology Department's radiocarbon dating activities this year was on Scottish Bronze Age monuments, with Historic Scotland kindly funding a series of dates for funerary (and other) monuments in mid-Argyll and Morvern, with a special focus on kerb cairns, and NMS funding dates for monuments elsewhere...Sheridan, J A
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Towards a fuller, more nuanced narrative of Chalcolithic and Early Bronze Age Britain 2500-1500 BC
This contribution considers some of the many recent advances in our understanding of Chalcolithic and Bronze Age Britain and uses these to highlight the weak points in our current state of knowledge. Focusing mainly on the period 2500–1500 BC, it concentrates on issues of chronology, human movement, the role of...Sheridan, J A
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In the Copper Age
We divide the ancient past into three ages: stone, bronze and iron. But leading archaeologists are saying Britain also had a copper age, between stone and bronze at around 2500–2200BC. What was it, when did it occur and why? British Archaeology canvassed the views of six archaeologists and scientists.Pitts, Mike ; Needham, S ; Heyd, Volker ; Parker Pearson, Mike ; Jay, Mandy …
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The pottery. In: A Becket & G MacGregor, Forest grazing and seaweed foddering: early Neolithic occupation at Maybole, South Ayrshire, 114-117
Excavation of a well-preserved upstanding roundhouse revetted into a steep hillside at Navidale has revealed a structure with unusually sophisticated architectural traits dated to around 1400–1200 bc. The house was built within an agricultural landscape but its abandonment appears to have been linked to a cessation of agriculture within that...Sheridan, J A
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Everything you always wanted to know about…la néolithisation de la Grande-Bretagne et de l'Irlande
In Great Britain and in Ireland, two conflicting models of neolithisation have been proposed. One, that is based on the assumption that indigenous late Mesolithic groups were in contact with Continental farmers (as in the case of the Ertebølle culture in Denmark), proposes a slow acculturation process; but there is...Pailler, Yves ; Sheridan, J A
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Review of various titles: Neolithic Britain and Ireland: are we nearly there?
Review of several volumes about Neolithic Britain: HILARY K. MURRAY, J. CHARLES MURRAY & SHANNON M. FRASER. A tale of the unknown unknowns: a Mesolithic pit alignment and a Neolithic timber hall at Warren Field, Crathes, Aberdeenshire. Oxford: Oxbow, 2009.978-1-84217-347-3 ANNA RITCHIE. On the fringe of Neolithic Europe: excavation of...Sheridan, J A
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Gristhorpe Man: an Early Bronze Age log-coffin burial scientifically defined
A log-coffin excavated in the early nineteenth century proved to be well enough preserved in the early twenty-first century for the full armoury of modern scientific investigation to give its occupants and contents new identity, new origins and a new date. In many ways the interpretation is much the same... -
Journal article
Excavations at Upper Largie quarry, Argyll & Bute, Scotland: new light on the prehistoric ritual landscape of the Kilmartin Glen
Excavations were carried out intermittently between 1982 and 2005, by various excavators, in advance of quarrying activity at Upper Largie, Kilmartin Glen, Argyll & Bute. They revealed abundant evidence of prehistoric activity, dating from the Mesolithic to the Middle Bronze Age, on a fluvioglacial terrace overlooking the rest of the...Sheridan, J A ; Cook, M ; Ellis, C
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From Mont Viso to Slovakia: the two axeheads of Alpine jade from Golianovo
Two fragments of large jadeitite axeheads were discovered in a Lengyel enclosure at Golianovo (Republic of Slovakia), close to Nitra. Spectroradiometric analysis and macroscopic characteristics indicate that, in all probability, these two artefacts — which are exceptional in this region of Europe — had come from the Neolithic quarries on...Pétrequin, P ; Errera, M ; Cassen, S ; Gauthier, E ; Hovorka, D …
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Excavations at a multi-period site at Greenbogs, Aberdeenshire, Scotland and the four-post timber architecture tradition of Late Neolithic Britain and Ireland.
This report outlines the unexpected discovery of a group of Late Neolithic structures at Greenbogs, Monymusk in Aberdeenshire, along with a series of later prehistoric features in the mid-1990s. Recent radiocarbon dating shows that two four-post timber structures found here date to the period 2890–2490 cal bc. These were found...Noble, Gordon ; Greig, Moira ; Millican, Kirsty ; Anderson, Sue ; Clarke, Ann …
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When the potters make the story...
Salanova, Laure ; Sheridan, J A
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The beads. In: M. Johnson ‘Excavation of two Early Bronze Age short cists and a prehistoric pit at Lindsayfield, near Stonehaven, Aberdeenshire'
Two short cists of Early Bronze Age date, containing prehistoric flint artefacts and shale/cannel coal beads, were discovered during topsoiling operations for the Aberdeen to Lochside Natural Gas Pipeline, to the south of Lindsayfield, near Stonehaven, Aberdeenshire. Cremated human bone from one of the cists was radiocarbon dated to the...Johnson, M ; Sheridan, J A
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Archäologie ohne Aufgaben? Wie die Fortschritte naturwissenschaftlicher Verfahren die moderne archäologische Forschung an Funden beeinflussen und verändern: Scientific archaeology - to what end? How progress in the analytical methods of the natural sciences has influenced and changed modern archaeological research on finds
Modern research on archaeological artefacts has profited considerably from the use of analytical techniques from the natural sciences. Recent research has allowed us to reconstruct considerably more precise "biographies" of artefacts than was the case previously, as illustrated by several examples from the author's own current research. However, as is...Sheridan, J A
Archaeology, Natural Scientic Analysis Methods, and New Findings