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Journal article
Jewellery and Covid-19
Over the last 18 months the pandemic has affected many areas of life, with society witnessing huge changes globally, and museums acquiring artefacts and works of art, design and crat that reflected and responded to the impact of covid-19. In my own organisation, the approach has focused on a range...Rothwell, Sarah
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Journal article
‘Where is the Ship Which From the Ceiling Hung?’ Ghost Ships: The ship models missing from Scotland’s churches
A recent survey of the surviving ship models in Scottish churches has identified an interesting chronological gap, an absence which has created the impression that ship models in Scotland’s churches are a nineteenth-century phenomenon. Existing older models from the seventeenth century have been dismissed as anomalies harking back to pre-Reformation...Greiling, Meredith
Shipmaster , Seafarer societies, ship models, Scottish churches, votive ships, and model-makers
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Lecture
Tools of Knowledge: Exploring the Scientific Instrument Trade with Digital Tools
The second edition of the Neuchâtel Seminar in History of Science and Technology – entitled Scientific Objects: Then and Now – aims to reflect on scientific objects and the problems raised by their study by working on two aspects in particular. On the one hand, the seminar will host retrospective...Higgitt, Rebekah
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Lecture
Nevil Maskelyne and the projects of 18th century astronomy
Focusing on the career and connections of the Fifth Astronomer Royal, Nevil Maskelyne, this talk will look at what astronomy was for in the 18th century. From his early voyage to St Helena to his long years at Greenwich, Maskelyne was an internationally significant figure who was involved with all...Higgitt, Rebekah
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Journal article
Gold in Britain’s auriferous regions, 2450–800 BC
Incorruptible and brilliant, and shining like the sun, gold has always attracted attention. From its earliest known use at Varna around 4500 BC, this metal has been utilised to make some of the finest objects humans have ever possessed. Gold use, and the know-how to work it, arrived in Britain...Knight, Matthew G ; Sheridan, J A ; Horak, Jana
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Conference paper (unpublished)
Roman silver transformed: Hacksilber, its nature, uses and effects
Of the various forms of precious metal in the Roman world, Hacksilber is perhaps the least glamorous. These cut and crushed fragments of silver have received much less attention than intact plate or coinage. Yet they can cast fresh light on the ways in which precious metal was used in...Hunter, Fraser
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Lecture
Re-examining the Rubers Law hoard
In 1863 a hoard of bronze vessels and other items was found on the slopes of the hillfort of Rubers Law, near Hawick. Although it crops up in the literature, it has received only cursory attention. In the course of preparing it for display in the revamped Trimontium Trust museum...Hunter, Fraser
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Lecture
“Piece Offerings”: the Destruction and Deposition of Metalwork in Bronze Age Britain?
The destruction and deposition of Bronze Age metalwork took many forms. Weapons were decommissioned and thrown into rivers; axes were fragmented and piled in hoards; and ornaments were crushed, contorted and placed in certain landscapes. There are many such examples from south-west Britain. But what did these practices mean to...Knight, Matthew G
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Journal article
The Statue of a Sistrum-Player in Montrose and Her Position in an Early Ptolemaic Theban Priestly Family
This article is the publication of an indurated limestone standing statue, now in Montrose Museum (ANGUSalive M1980.4578), identified as a Sistrum-player. The statue was collected in 1834 by Dr James Burnes IV, a relative of the Scottish poet Robert Burns, during a journey from India to Scotland. Stylistic features of...Potter, Daniel M
Karnak, priesthood, Scotland, Thebes, prosopography, and Ptolemaic sculpture
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Journal article
Monumental Record
In 2013 archaeologists uncovered what has since been called ‘the greatest discovery in Egypt in the 21st century’: hundreds of papyrus fragments dating to the last years of King Khufu’s reign (c.2500 BC) at the oldest harbour in Egypt, a site on the Red Sea coast called Wadi al-Jarf.Potter, Daniel M
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Journal article
A short cross hoard from Buchlyvie, Stirlingshire
A hoard of thirty-two Short cross pennies and one cut halfpenny was recovered by metal-detectorists at Buchlyvie, Stirlingshire, in 2019. It is currently being assesses for Treasure Trove purposes, and has the temporary designation TTDB 2019/334. All but three of the coins were English, with just one Scottish penny of...Holmes, N M McQ.
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Journal article
A fifteenth-century hoard from Muthill, Perthshire
A hoard comprising twenty-three Scottish and English groats and half-groats (Plates 7-8) was recovered in 2017 during metal-detecting in the vicinity of Muthill, Perthshire. The coins were claimed as Treasure Trove (TT 39/18) and allocated to National Museums ScotlandHolmes, N M
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Blog post
Concepts have teeth Blackfoot objects at National Museums Scotland
A project exploring Blackfoot quillwork in Scottish museums recently led a remote visit to explore and scan Blackfoot collections held in our collections. Members of the project team tell us about this visit and how digital imaging techniques are allowing for closer engagements with cultural heritage.Minkin, Louisa ; Clark, Christine ; Shouting, Melissa ; Clark, Ali
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Blog post
Joan Faithfull’s Mull pottery
What does it mean for an object to be ‘of’ a place? Joan Fathfull’s pottery in Tormore, Mull, became a fixture for visitors to the Inner Hebrides in the mid-20th century. Ailsa Hutton, Assistant Curator of Modern and Contemporary History, discusses the recent gifting of Joan’s works by her sons,...Hutton, Ailsa
Scottish History, Contemporary Collecting , Mull , and Pottery
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Blog post
Trade, taste and tea bowls: uncovering Chinese ceramics in our collections
Ceramic objects are useful in day-to-day life and may also be put on display, for example in people’s homes, yet they are more than just functional or decorative. They can also tell stories of manufacturing, taste and international trade. National Museums Scotland has a large and important but little-known Chinese...Cao, Qin
World Cultures, Ceramics , and China
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Journal article
A skeleton from the Middle Jurassic of Scotland illuminates an earlier origin of large pterosaurs
Pterosaurs were the first vertebrates to evolve flight1,2 and include the largest flying animals in Earth history.3,4 While some of the last-surviving species were the size of airplanes, pterosaurs were long thought to be restricted to small body sizes (wingspans ca. <1.8–1.6 m) from their Triassic origins through the Jurassic,...Jagielska, Natalia ; O’Sullivan, Michael ; Funston, Gregory F ; Butler, Ian B ; Challands, Thomas J …
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Blog post
Take to the Skye: New pterosaur discovery
A recent spectacular find on the Isle of Skye shines new light on pterosaurs of the Jurassic period. Our Keeper of Natural Sciences Nick Fraser tells us more about this discovery, Skye’s fossil riches and the people bringing them to light, both in the past and today.Fraser, Nicholas C
Fossils , Palaeontology , Skye, and Dinosaurs
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Journal article
Genetic examination of historical North Atlantic right whale (Eubalaena glacialis) bone specimens from the eastern North Atlantic: Insights into species history, transoceanic population structure, and genetic diversity
Species monitoring and conservation is increasingly challenging under current climate change scenarios. For the North Atlantic right whale (Eubalaena glacialis) this challenge is heightened by the added effects of complicated and uncertain past species demography. Right whales once had a much wider distribution across the North Atlantic Ocean, although the...Frasier, Brenna A ; Springate, Leah ; Frasier, Timothy R ; Brewington, Seth ; Carruthers, Martin …
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Book
Fragments of the Bronze Age: the destruction and deposition of metalwork in South-West Britain and its wider context
The destruction and deposition of metalwork is a widely recognised phenomenon across Bronze Age Europe. Weapons were decommissioned and thrown into rivers; axes were fragmented and piled in hoards; and ornaments were crushed, contorted and placed in certain landscapes. Interpretation of this material is often considered in terms of whether...Knight, Matthew G
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Blog post
The Iqbalnama: celebrating the life of Sardar Iqbal Singh
The Iqbalnama is a series of six paintings depicting the life of Sardar Iqbal Singh, a Sikh man from Lahore, India, who moved to Scotland and fostered cross-cultural connections. We mark one year since he passed away with a reflection on his achievements by Elizabeth Guest, as well as a...Guest, Elizabeth
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Journal article
Drug jars from Edinburgh Castle and the associated Burgh
This paper seeks to investigate aspects of the form, manufacture, and possible provenance of drug jars from excavations carried out at Edinburgh Castle, and set them in their wider context by studying comparable jars from other sites across Edinburgh's Old Town, both physically and scientifically, using Plasma spectrometry (ICP). They...Haggarty, George ; Hughes, Mike ; McLaren, Dawn
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Journal article
Abnormal (Hydroxy)proline Deuterium Content Redefines Hydrogen Chemical Mass
Analyzing the δ2H values in individual amino acids of proteins extracted from vertebrates, we unexpectedly found in some samples, notably bone collagen from seals, more than twice as much deuterium in proline and hydroxyproline residues than in seawater. This corresponds to at least 4 times higher δ2H than in any...Gharibi, Hassan ; Chernobrovkin, Alexey L ; Eriksson, Gunilla ; Saei, Amir Ata ; Timmons, Zena …
Biopolymers, Ions, Hydrogen , Peptides , Anatomy, proteins, and isotopes
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Journal article
Holidaying behind the Iron Curtain: The material culture of tourism in Cold War Eastern Europe
During the Twentieth Century, foreign travel underwent a process of democratisation. Increasingly, through the development of package holidays to ever more far-flung destinations, leisure tourism for the first time allowed ordinary people to experience different cultures first hand. With the increased availability and affordability of foreign travel, actively promoted by...Wilkins, Carys
Cold War, Scotland, Eastern Europe, Friendship Society, and Souvenir
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Exhibition-related event
Spotlight On: Audubon’s Birds of America
Discover how Birds of America, one of the world’s rarest and most coveted books, was made, and learn about the ongoing conservation work to preserve these life-size, hand-coloured prints for future generations. Exhibition Curator Mark Glancy will discuss the journey of bringing the stories behind the Birds of America publication...Glancy, Mark ; Cumming, Lisa
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Journal article
An annotated list of Lonchaeidae (Diptera) from China, Cambodia and Vietnam with description of a new species
A preliminary list of 14 species of the family Lonchaeidae recorded from Cambodia, China and Vietnam is given. Silba filamenta sp. n. is described from North-East China. New country records are provided for three species of Lonchaea Fallén, 1820 and two species of Silba Macquart, 1851.MacGowan, Iain ; Barták, M ; Honorary Research Associate, National Museums of Scotland, Collection Centre, 242 West Granton Road, Edinburgh EH5 1JA, United Kingdom
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Journal article
Supplement to the Burmese (Myanmar) amber checklist and bibliography, 2021
This is a supplement to the Burmese (Myanmar) amber checklist and bibliography covering taxa described or recorded during 2021, plus a few earlier records that were missed previously. Up to the end of 2021, 2,198 species were recorded from Kachin amber of which 337 were named in 2021. Five species...Ross, Andrew J
Amber , Burmese , Invertebrates , Myanmar , Plants, Cretaceous, Vertebrates , Arachnids , and Insects
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Journal article
A new genus and species of gall midges the tribe Winnertziini (Diptera, Cecidomyiidae, Porricondylinae) from lower Eocene Fushun amber from China
The new taxon, Fushuniola mai Fedotova & Perkovsky, gen. et sp. nov., is described from a single female from the lower Eocene (Ypresian) Fushun amber from China. This is the second record of Cecidomyiidae known from Fushun amber. The first record is Cecidomyia bujunensis Naora. The new species is characterized... -
Lecture
Insects - The little things that run your Garden
Gardens can support an incredible diversity of insects, but beyond butterflies and bees, how aware are you of these 6-legged neighbours? Do you know what bizarre behaviours and essential services are occurring in the undergrowth? Join Ashleigh as she shares her passion for some of the unconventionally charismatic insects, and...Whiffin, Ashleigh L
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Journal article
Locating Works of Art from Hamilton Palace
I would be most grateful for information about paintings and other items from Hamilton Palace for my major, eighteen-chapter book on Hamilton Palace and the collections of the Dukes of Hamilton and Brandon from about 1600 to the present day, which will be published by National Museums Scotland.Evans, Godfrey
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Journal article
Expediency of photographs to study the distribution of wildcats in South-west Asia
By compiling a wildcat catalogue of georeferenced digital photographs from Southwest Asia, we investigated the plausibility of phenotypically identifying Felis silvestris caucasica (Caucasian wildcat), Felis lybica ornata (Asiatic wildcat) and Felis lybica lybica (African wildcat) through external phenotypic traits, in order to verify their known distribution, and identify any inconsistencies...Wuest, Dina ; Kitchener, Andrew C ; Ghoddousi, Arash ; Gerngross, Peter ; Barashkova, Anna …
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Journal article
The Ann Paludan Archive of Historical Chinese Sculptures
Anna Paludan (1928-2014) was a writer and art historian, who created an exceptional photographic archive of historical sculptures in China, accompanied by extensive research ana analysis embodied in three major books. The archive represents over thirty years of work by Ann in a subject area largely unrecognised at the time,...Cao, Qin ; Frame, Gladys
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Book chapter
Brooches from the Antonine Wall
The discovery of a number of brooches in the course of the excavations in the Falkirk district has prompted a review of the brooches known from the Antonine WallHunter, Fraser
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Book chapter
Copper alloy objects suspected of bronze disease: The Burrell bronzes
Sixty-four copper alloy objects from within the Burrell Collection at Glasgow Museums were separated from the rest of the collection in 2000, due to suspected active ‘bronze disease’ – copper trihydroxychloride corrosion. Analysis of the corrosion products on these objects had indicated that only 20 of the 64 had copper...Bryan, Bethan N
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Lecture
The making of the Typewriter Revolution: a new exhibition on typewriters at the National Museum of Scotland.
The Typewriter Revolution exhibition, which opened at the National Museum of Scotland, Edinburgh in July 2021, examines the social and technological impact of typewriters from the mid-nineteenth century to their continued use and popularity in the twenty-first century. James Inglis, whose PhD research has made up a large part of...Inglis, James
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Journal article
A late Bronze Age carp’s-tongue sword from Swettenham, Cheshire
In 2018 five fragments of an almost complete late Bronze Age copper alloy sword were recovered during metal detecting at Swettenham, Cheshire, and subsequently reported to the Portable Antiquities Scheme. This article outlines the discovery of the sword, its typological features and the nature of its fragmentation, as well as...Knight, Matthew G ; Oakden, Vanessa ; Jones, Ben ; Brandherm, Dirk
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Journal article
Review of: Elizabeth and Mary: Royal Cousins, Rival Queens (London, The British Library, 8 October 2021–20 February 2022). Catalogue: Elizabeth and Mary: Royal Cousins, Rival Queens, ed. Susan Doran. London: The British Library, 2021
Despite the wishful attempts of playwrights and film directors, Elizabeth I and Mary, Queen of Scots never met. Nonetheless, theirs was a close relationship, and it lies at the heart of the exhibition Elizabeth and Mary: Royal Cousins, Rival Queens, and the excellent accompanying book.Groundwater, Anna
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Lecture
Unwrapping the Galloway Hoard
Buried at the beginning of the 10th century in Dumfries and Galloway, the Hoard lay undisturbed for a thousand years before being discovered by a metal detectorist and excavated by an archaeologist in September 2014. Four years of painstaking conservation and research has restored these rare and unique treasures to...Goldberg, Martin ; Maldonado, Adrián
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Lecture
The Galloway Hoard
Goldberg, Martin
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Lecture
The Gold Cups of Eternal Stability and the Celebration of the Chinese New Year
The Gold Cups of Eternal Stability are among the most extraordinary objects in the Wallace Collection. The Qianlong Emperor ordered them especially for the First Stroke Ceremony, performed on the New Year’s Day in the Forbidden City in Beijing. Their surface is covered with kingfisher feathers, a technique also used...Cao, Qin ; de Wit, Ada
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Book chapter
'Artefacts' In: Campbell, E. and Driscoll, S. T. (2020). Royal Forteviot. York: Council for British Archaeology
Only two certain early medieval artefacts are known from the Forteviot cropmark complexes: one from the SERF excavations (Bead 1), and one from fieldwalking by the Dunning Historical Society (Bead 2). Perhaps coincidentally, both came from the northern part of the Dronachy Field. A further bead (Bead 3) was discovered...Blackwell, Alice