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Research report
Scottish Wildcat Action: Final Summary Report
The wildcat, Felis silvestris, is one of our most iconic species. Elusive and rarely seen, it is threatened by a combination of extremely challenging factors, in particular hybridisation with domestic cats. Its secretive nature has made it a difficult animal to study in the wild, making it harder to design...Kitchener, Andrew C
Felis silvestris, ecology , population, and wildcat
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Journal article
Pests or prey? Micromammal species within an ancient anthropic environment at the Norse settlement site of Tuquoy (Westray, Orkney)
Micromammals, like rodents and shrews, adapt rapidly to take advantage of new food sources, habitats and ecological niches, frequently thriving in anthropogenic environments. Their remains, often retrieved during archaeological investigations, can be a valuable source of information about the past environmental conditions as well as interspecies interactions and human activity....Romaniuk, Andrzej A ; Troalen, Lore G ; Bendrey, Robin ; Herman, Jeremy S ; Owen, Olwyn …
commensalism, introductions, Orkney, micromammal, archaeology, and predation
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Journal article
Collecting the nation in the museum of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland, 1832–91
The sixty-year period from 1832 to 1891 was key to the development of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland and its museum, during which time its collection was transferred to national ownership and greater emphasis began to be placed on social and cultural history. This article analyses acquisition data to... -
Research report
Exchange: Community-led Collections Research Recommendations for more equitable participation
The Exchange project funded museum partners around the UK to undertake community-led collections-based research and creative outputs. All Exchange projects used participatory research methodologies, working with African, Caribbean, and South Asian diaspora heritage community members to explore experiences of empire, migration, and life in Britain. The first stage of Exchange... -
Other
The Daniel Wilson Scrapbook Listing
Sir Daniel Wilson (1816-1892) was an archaeologist, author, antiquarian and Secretary of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland from 1845 - 1853). Wilson donated his scrapbook (which he referred to as his "Memorials of Auld Reekie") to the Society. It contains illustrations of Edinburgh and other material, some of which...National Museums Scotland
Archives, Leith, Edinburgh, Library, Memorials of Edinburgh in the olden time , Sir Daniel Wilson FSA (Scot) (January 5, 1816 – August 6, 1892), engravings, and Index
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Other
Alexander Robert Hutchieson – Finding List
Papers of Alexander Robert Hutchieson, Keeper of the Department of Technology, Royal Scottish Museum, from 1934 to 1957National Museums Scotland
Royal Scottish Museum, museum administration, Special Collections, Department of Technology, Staff, Archives, and Library
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Other
Alexander Archer Drawings Index
Alexander Archer was an amateur artist, resident in Edinburgh in the 1820s and 1830s. The library holds a collection of around 160 detailed pencil drawings by Archer of Edinburgh and the surrounding area featuring details such as the typical shops of the time, names of business owners and whole streets...National Museums Scotland
Edinburgh and Leith, Architectural drawing, Index, Alexander Archer, 19th century, artist, and Archive
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Journal article
Molecular fingerprints resolve affinities of Rhynie chert organic fossils
The affinities of extinct organisms are often difficult to resolve using morphological data alone. Chemical analysis of carbonaceous specimens can complement traditional approaches, but the search for taxon-specific signals in ancient, thermally altered organic matter is challenging and controversial, partly because suitable positive controls are lacking. Here, we show that...Loron , C C ; Rodriguez Dzul, E ; Orr, P J ; Gromov, A V ; Fraser, Nicholas C …
Eukaryote , Biogeochemistry, Palaeontology , and Prokaryote
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Journal article
GLASS BANGLES IN THE BRITISH ISLES: A STUDY OF TRADE, RECYCLING AND TECHNOLOGY IN THE FIRST AND SECOND CENTURIES AD
Glass bangles are found in southern England and Wales from the mid-first century and become common in the north of England and southern Scotland in the late first century, before their numbers decline a century later. British bangles develop at a time of change, as Roman glassmaking practices were introduced...Paynter, Sarah ; Crew, Peter ; Campbell, Richard ; Hunter, Fraser ; Jackson, Caroline
Late Iron Age , Roman , glass bangle , artefact and material culture studies , archaeometry , and Britain
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Journal article
Gerhard Bersu in Scotland, and his excavations at Traprain Law in context
Bersu’s excavations on the hillfort of Traprain Law in south-east Scotland are reviewed in the light of his British and Irish digs and other work on the hill itself. It differs from the rest of his British excavations, which mostly focussed on houses, but is entirely in keeping with his...Hunter, Fraser ; Armit, Ian ; Dunwell, Andrew
Scotstarvit, League of Prehistorians, hillfort , O. G. S. Crawford , Traprain Law, Vere Gordon Childe, and roundhouses
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Journal article
Experiment, Experience and Enchant: Knowledge sharing between museums and contemporary practitioners
Knowledge sharing between contemporary practitioners and museum professionals can be more than just investigating how something is made. It is also about working together to understand why an object was created, and by whom; how each artefact has a story to tell, of its journey through time and the places...Maldonado, Adrián ; Rothwell, Sarah
sculpture, knowledge sharing, The Glenmorangie Commission, contemporary practitioners, museums, and Simone ten Hompel
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Journal article
Psittacopedids and zygodactylids: The diverse and species-rich psittacopasserine birds from the early Eocene London Clay of Walton-on-the-Naze (Essex, UK)
The Daniels collection of fossil birds from the early Eocene London Clay of Walton-on-the-Naze (Essex, UK) contains multiple specimens of the Psittacopedidae and Zygodactylidae, which are here for the first time studied in detail. The Psittacopedidae include Parapsittacopes bergdahli, Psittacomimus eos, gen. et sp. nov., ?Psittacopes occidentalis, sp. nov., and...Mayr, Gerald ; Kitchener, Andrew C
Psittacopasseres, evolution, fossil birds, Aves, and systematics
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Journal article
First recorded stranding of a short-finned pilot whale, Globicephala macrorhynchus, in Britain
A male pilot whale, Globicephala sp., was reported as a live stranding on 1st March 2012 at Hazelbeach, near Neyland, Pembrokeshire. It was euthanased and its skull was recovered during an onsite necropsy. Examination of the skull and contemporary photographs of the stranded animal confirm that this is the first...Kitchener, Andrew C ; Hantke, Georg ; Penrose, R S ; Perkins, M W ; Deaville, R
Globicephala melas, Delphinidae, skull, and Globicephala macrorhynchus
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Research report
‘Collecting the New Past: developing representative collections of the present for the future’ National Museums Scotland National Training Programme Report for Contemporary Collecting Symposium, 21 November 2022
This report outlines the discussion and outcomes of the contemporary collecting symposium held by National Museums Scotland in November 2022. The symposium covered three key themes: how contemporary objects represent current issues in Scotland and contribute to expanding representation in museum collections; collecting with communities; and care of short-lifespan material....Vullinghs, Georgia
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Journal article
Textiles in a Viking Age hoard: Identifying ephemeral traces of textiles in metal corrosion products
This paper presents a novel method and terminology to identify and describe textiles from ephemeral traces in metal corrosion products. Since the 1980s, mineralised textiles (positive and negative casts in Janaway’s terminology) have been an important source of archaeological evidence. A major issue now is the identification of textiles in...Davis, Mary ; Harris, Susanna
Textile , Mineralisation, Silver, Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM), Microscopy, Copper corrosion, Viking age, and Anglo-Saxon
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Journal article
Joseph Anderson (1832–1916) and the Scottish historical collection in the Antiquities Museum, 1869 to 1892
Joseph Anderson (1832–1916) was an influential figure within the history of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland and Scottish archaeology during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. But while Anderson is best known for his contribution to the development of Scottish prehistoric and early medieval archaeology, there has been...Holder, Julie
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Journal article
Edmund Jarzembowski at 70: An appreciation
Edmund Aleksander Jarzembowski (BSc PhD FGS FRES) is currently a Leverhulme Emeritus Fellow; Scientific Associate (researcher) at The Natural History Museum London (NHMUK); and Professor at the Nanjing Institute of Geology and Palaeontology, Chinese Academy of Sciences (NIGPAS), Nanjing, specializing in the study of fossil insects (palaeoentomology).Austen, Peter A ; Wang, Bo ; Ross, Andrew J ; Coram, Robert A
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Journal article
‘Is Radioactive Iodine Present Equally in the Cream on Milk as in the Milk Itself?’: Lonely Sources and the Gendered history of Cold War Britain
This article argues that one way to foreground and privilege women's perspectives on the Cold War is by re-interpreting their historical experiences of food and drink. The article develops this argument by analysing one letter, from an unknown woman to the BBC, in the context of nuclear health concerns in...Douthwaite, Jessica
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Book chapter
The King and I: Commemorating the privilege of royal statue dedication in Ramesside Deir El-Medina
It is generally understood that in ancient Egyptian statuary, “a private person is never sculpted together with the king”. However, an unusual small limestone statue in the collections of National Museums Scotland contradicts this understanding, depicting a man kneeling to offer a statue of a king (NMS A.1956.139). Clearly Ramesside...Maitland, Margaret
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Blog post
Collecting contemporary Scottish whisky / A’ cruinneachadh uisge-bheatha Albannach an latha an-diugh
Plenty of people collect whisky, but how many can say that they collect whisky for a museum? PhD student Laura Scobie has the enviable job of expanding our whisky collections. In this blog post, Laura explores the ways that whisky brands adopt a sense of place and explains how collecting...Scobie, Laura
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Journal article
Enigmatic vertebrate trackway from the Scalby Formation (Middle Jurassic) Yorkshire, United Kingdom, with discussion of archosaur and ‘mammal’ trace fossils
We describe a new and unusual vertebrate trackway from the Middle Jurassic Scalby Formation of the Cleveland Basin, Yorkshire, United Kingdom. The Enigmatic Burniston Trackway (EBT) is the first and only example of such a trackway known from this region. The best preserved EBT print, belonging to a pentadactyl tetrapod,...synapsid, Sederipes, Synaptichnium, Ravenscar Group, and Footprint
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Journal article
An optimised small-scale sample preparation workflow for historical dye analysis using UHPLC-PDA applied to Scottish and English Renaissance embroidery
A sample preparation workflow for historical dye analysis based on 96 well plates and filtration by centrifugation was developed. It requires less sample and the introduced error is decreased, making it useful for culturally important objects. A sample preparation workflow for historical dye analysis requiring less sample has been developed....Sandström, Edith ; Wyld, Helen ; Mackay, C Logan ; Troalen, Lore G ; Hulme, Alison N
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Journal article
Hugh’s printing protégé becomes his publisher. The story of Alexander Strachan or Strahan, publisher of The Life and Letters of Hugh Miller
I am researching Hugh Miller’s unusual publishing arrangements, including the frequency with which his firm, Miller & Fairly, printed his books for their Edinburgh publishers before and after his death. The obvious exception is Peter Bayne’s family-approved The Life and Letters of Hugh Miller (1871), printed in London for Strahan...Taylor, Michael A
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Journal article
Professor John Morton Coles
Professor John Coles, who died on 14 October 2020 aged 90, had a long and distinguished career as a prehistorian, experimental archaeologist and wetland archaeologist, and he made substantial contributions to Scottish archaeology, as well as to European and world archaeology more generally.Sheridan, Alison
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Book
Crucible of nations: Scotland from Viking Age to Medieval Kingdom
This third book from The Glenmorangie Company Research Project, following Early Medieval Scotland and Scotland’s Early Silver, will also appeal to readers of The Galloway Hoard. It takes a new look at National Museums Scotland collections covering the period 800-1200: the fall of the Pictish kingdoms and rise of the...Maldonado, Adrián
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Journal article
The Cold War in European museums – filling the ‘empty battlefield’
Recent historical research has analysed the Cold War as an ‘imaginary war’, an interpretation that poses specific challenges for displaying the conflict in museums. In contrast to well-established representations of the First and Second World Wars in exhibitions, we find that the nature of the Cold War in Europe and...Alberti, Samuel J M M ; Nehring, Holger
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Research report
Ancient Egyptian Collections in Scottish Museums
Several reviews of collections have been conducted historically, though they have not been focused in the same manner as that under discussion presently. For example, in 1887 the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland conducted a report on local museums in Scotland, funded by a financial gift. The report, published in...Potter, Daniel M
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Journal article
Collecting COVID-19 at National Museums Scotland
This opinion piece discusses National Museums Scotland’s first responses to collecting COVID-19. Drawing on perspectives from social history, biomedical science and military history, this short paper contextualizes COVID-related collecting within the contexts of the organization’s programme of contemporary collecting and the nation’s ongoing socio-political journey.Laurenson, Sarah ; Robertson, Calum ; Goggins, Sophie
Scotland, Contemporary collecting, social history, military history, and medical history
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Journal article
The Tod Head lighthouse lantern. The conservation-restoration of a technical object that has been continuously modified over the years
This paper presents the conservation and reassembly of the Tod Head lighthouse lantern in the storage area of the National Museums Scotland. The Tod Head lighthouse was located on the Scottish east coast, north of Edinburgh. The lantern was dismantled in 2011 and sent to the National Museums Collection Centre....Grima, Marie
lighthouse, Fresnel, lantern, and Stevenson
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Journal article
Collecting and displaying the decommissioning of North Sea Oil and Gas at the National Museums Scotland
National Museums Scotland (NMS) has a long history of collecting industrial objects. Our predecessor museum, the Industrial Museum of Scotland, was founded with the intention of collecting the materials and processes of manufacture; that is, contemporary technologies and the tacit skills that went with them [1]. For a lot of...Swinbank, Ellie
museum, Scotland, decommissioning, industry, collection, and oil
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Journal article
First record of True’s beaked whale, Mesoplodon mirus, in Britain
A female beaked whale, Family Ziphiidae, was reported as stranded on 29th January 2020 at Kearvaig Bay, Sutherland, Scotland. Examination of its skull confirms that this is the first recorded stranding of True’s beaked whale, Mesoplodon mirus, in Britain.Kitchener, Andrew C ; Georg , Hantke ; Herman, Jeremy S ; ten Doeschate, Mariel ; Brownlow, Andrew C
skull, stranding, Ziphiidae, Mesoplodon mirusy, and pathology
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Journal article
A new Jerusalem ‘at the ends of the earth’: Interpretating Charles Thomas’s Excavations at Iona Abbey 1956–63
Iona was a major European intellectual and artistic centre during the seventh to ninth centuries, with outstanding illustrated manuscripts, sculpture and religious writings produced there, despite its apparently peripheral location ‘at the ends of the earth’. Recent theological discourse has emphasised the leading role of Iona, and particularly its ninth...Campbell, Ewan ; Maldonado, Adrián
early monasticism , Charles Thomas, Christianity , archaeology , ecclesiastical studies , and coenobitic monastery
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Journal article
The Excavation of Neolithic Pits and a Bronze Age Burial Site at Ness Gap, Fortrose
An investigation by Headland Archaeology (UK) Ltd took place in early 2013 in advance of a housing development at Ness Gap, Fortrose, Highland. The excavation revealed domestic activity dating from the Neolithic to the Early Bronze Age. A cluster of Neolithic pits provided insights into the development of agriculture in...Woodley, Nuala C ; Lochrie, Julie ; Sheridan, J A ; Cowie, Trevor ; Christie, Claire
cremation, pits, metalwork , Burial, cinerary urn, cordoned urn, faience, and cist
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Journal article
Skull morphology diverges between urban and rural populations of red foxes mirroring patterns of domestication and macroevolution
Human activity is drastically altering the habitat use of natural populations. This has been documented as a driver of phenotypic divergence in a number of wild animal populations. Here, we show that urban and rural populations of red foxes (Vulpes vulpes) from London and surrounding boroughs are divergent in skull...Parsons, K J ; Rigg, Anders ; Conith, A J ; Kitchener, Andrew C ; Harris, S …
Canidae , domestication, developmental bias , contemporary evolution, morphometrics, and urban ecology
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Audio
The Declaration of Arbroath
2020 marks the 700th anniversary of the Declaration of Arbroath, one of Scotland's most important historical artefacts. To mark the anniversary we spoke to two experts to understand more about how it was created, and why it still resonates today. In this podcast we are joined by National Museums Scotland's...Wylie, Alice ; Blackwell, Alice ; Broun, Dauvit
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Doctoral thesis
Organology of the Queen Mary and Lamont harps Volume 1
The metal strung harp indigenous to Ireland and Scotland from the Medieval period to the end of the 18th century was widely admired throughout its time period, and is now an important part of the cultural and musical heritage of both of these countries. This type of harp, known as...Loomis, Karen Ann
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Journal article
Museum during a crisis
These are strange times. As I write this (16th March 2020), the number of coronavirus or rather Covid-19 infections is rapidly increasing and I am uncertain whether our Museum, the National Museum of Scotland (NMoS), will even be open to the public this time next week. This 160 year old...Walcott, Rachel
Coronavirus, National Museums Scotland, National Museum of Scotland, and Covid-19
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Journal article
Novel track morphotypes from new tracksites indicate increased Middle Jurassic dinosaur diversity on the Isle of Skye, Scotland
Dinosaur fossils from the Middle Jurassic are rare globally, but the Isle of Skye (Scotland, UK) preserves a varied dinosaur record of abundant trace fossils and rare body fossils from this time. Here we describe two new tracksites from Rubha nam Brathairean (Brothers’ Point) near where the first dinosaur footprint...dePolo, Paige E ; Brusatte, Stephen L ; Challands, Thomas J ; Foffa, Davide ; Wilkinson, Mark …
Theropoda, Jurassic period, Shale, Limestone, Sediment, Hip, Dinosaurs, and Toes
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Journal article
Scottish East Coast Transfer Printed Wares
In this paper I will use both extant examples and shards recovered archaeologically to highlight what evidence we have, for production of transfer printed wares, by the potteries situated between Portobello and PrestonpansHaggarty, George R
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Journal article
Italian pottery in Scotland
John Hurst, in his seminal paper on Italian pottery imported into Britain and Ireland, stated that ‘pottery datable between the thirteenth and twentieth centuries, has been found on over one hundred sites in Britain and Ireland but did not reach Scotland' (Hurst 1991, 212). In an attempt to up-date the...Haggarty, George R
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Journal article
Applying genomic data in wildlife monitoring: Development guidelines for genotyping degraded samples with reduced single nucleotide polymorphism panels
The genomic era has led to an unprecedented increase in the availability of genome‐wide data for a broad range of taxa. Wildlife management strives to make use of these vast resources to enable refined genetic assessments that enhance biodiversity conservation. However, as new genomic platforms emerge, problems remain in adapting...von Thaden, Alina ; Nowak , Carsten ; Tiesmeyer, Annika ; Reiners, Tobias E ; Lyons, Leslie A …
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Journal article
Range-wide patterns of human-mediated hybridisation in European wildcats
Hybridisation between wild taxa and their domestic congeners is a significant conservation issue. Domestic species frequently outnumber their wild relatives in population size and distribution and may therefore genetically swamp the native species. The European wildcat (Felis silvestris) has been shown to hybridise with domestic cats (Felis catus). Previously suggested...Tiesmeyer, Annika ; Ramos, Luana ; Lucas, José Manuel ; Steyer, Katharina ; Alves, Paulo C …
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Journal article
The Old State Drawing Room from Hamilton Palace at the National Museum of Scotland, Edinburgh
This article examines one of the most important rooms from Scotland’s largest and greatest private residence, which has been transferred from the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, and installed as a focal point in the centre of one of the ten new galleries in the National Museum of Scotland,...Evans, Godfrey ; Stable, Charles
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Journal article
Additional sauropod dinosaur material from the Callovian Oxford Clay Formation, Peterborough, UK: evidence for higher sauropod diversity
Four isolated sauropod axial elements from the Oxford Clay Formation (Callovian, Middle Jurassic) of Peterborough, UK, are described. Two associated posterior dorsal vertebrae show a dorsoventrally elongated centrum and short neural arch, and nutrient or pneumatic foramina, most likely belonging to a non-neosauropod eusauropod, but showing ambiguous non-neosauropod eusauropod and...Holwerda, Femke M ; Evans, Mark ; Liston, Jeff
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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