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Journal article
Prehistoric Crafts and Identities. Special swords, glittering gold and pots for the people
Next month, National Museums Scotland will be hosting the annual Later Prehistoric Finds Group conference, this year entitled: Crafting Identities.Knight, Matthew G
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Journal article
Pottery. In: Black, S. 'Pathfoot: the lost village of shoemakers'
During July and August 2016, Northlight Heritage undertook archaeological works on behalf of Cala Homes (West) Ltd. In response to a planning condition by Stirling Council, in advance of a housing development at Sheriffmuir Road, Bridge of Allan, It was thought the site could lie on or near the former...Haggarty, George
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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 ; Cowie, Trevor
Spearhead, Heirloom, Battle of Flodden, Bronze Age, and Chisholme
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Journal article
Kinneddar: a major ecclesiastical centre of the Picts
The early Christian sculpture from Kinneddar has long been noted as a major assemblage. New survey work by the University of Aberdeen and AOC Archaeology has identified a large vallum enclosure around the site that was renewed on at least one occasion. The vallum enclosures surrounded an area of up...Noble, Gordon ; Cruickshanks, Gemma ; Dunbar, L ; Evans, N ; Hall, Derek …
Early Christian, Sculpture, Pictish, Early medieval, Church, and vallum
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Journal article
A 4.1.1 Coin. In: Roy, M 'Matter of Life and Death' Trade and Burial around St Giles' Cathedral: Archaeological Investigations at Parliament House, Edinburgh'
Archaeological evaluation of the Southern Courtyard of the Parliament House complex, to the south of St Giles’ Cathedral in Edinburgh’s Old Town, has provided a valuable insight into the lives, health and mortality of the inhabitants of the late medieval city. The evaluation revealed a backland area in the centre...Holmes, Nicholas
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Journal article
Two recent Bronze Age finds in Torquay Museum and their place in South West England
Two pieces of Bronze Age metalwork have recently ben acquired by Torquay Museum: an Early Bronze Age axe and a Middle Bronze Age rapier. Both were found in the Broadsands area, Paignton. The form, function and a rol.e of the objects are analysed, and the landscape context in which they...Knight, Matthew G ; Chandler, Barry
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Journal article
Going to pieces: investigating the deliberate destruction of Late Bronze Age swords and spearheads
The deliberate destruction of Late Bronze Age swords and spearheads has been widely recognised across Europe. This observation has typically relied on the obvious nature of the destruction, such as the bending of blades or the crushing of sockets, and the association of multiple broken pieces. These obvious acts have...Knight, Matthew G
Bronze Age metalwork, spearheads, experimental archaeology, Fragmentation, and swords
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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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Book chapter
The vitrified metal
An archaeological excavation was carried out across an area proposed for re-development at Goosecroft Road, Stirling. The investigations uncovered the foundations of a substantial stone wall in the south-west corner of the site, and another wall further to the south, that probably relate to the nearby location of a medieval...Cruickshanks, Gemma
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Book chapter
The metalwork
An archaeological excavation was carried out across an area proposed for re-development at Goosecroft Road, Stirling. The investigations uncovered the foundations of a substantial stone wall in the south-west corner of the site, and another wall further to the south, that probably relate to the nearby location of a medieval...Cruickshanks, Gemma
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Book chapter
The art and science of replication. Copies and copying in the multi-disciplinary museum
Few institutions are warier of copies than museums. Few fields of knowledge are more prone to denounce copies as fake than the heritage field. Few discourses are as concerned with authenticity, aura, originals and provenance as those concerning exhibiting and collecting. So why is it that these are institutions, fields...Alberti, S J M M ; Blackwell, Alice ; Davidson, Peter ; Goldberg, D Martin ; Swinney, Geoffrey N
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Book chapter
Coping with changing worlds: the roles of Celtic art in central Britain in the Roman period
What happened to the Brigantes when Rome took over? How were they affected by military events? Can we see sub-territories in their material culture? How did they react to the opportunities that Rome offered? Was their way of looking at the world altered? This reasonably-priced book summarises current opinion.Hunter, Fraser
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Book chapter
Objects made of iron and bone
During the late 1st millennium BC into the early 1st millennium AD, the small island of Unst in the far north of the Shetland (and British) Isles was home to well-established and connected farming and fishing communities. The Iron Age settlement at Milla Skerra was occupied for at least 500...Goldberg, D Martin ; Hunter, Fraser
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Book chapter
Intrepreting lipid residues in archaeological ceramics: preliminary results from laboratory simulations of vessel use
During the past four and a half years this group has been involved in a programme of development and testing of methods for the study of organic residues in archaeological ceramics. The analytical approach used is based on solvent extraction of powdered potsherds to release lipids absorbed in the ceramic...Evershed, R P ; Charters, Stephanie ; Quye, Anita
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Book chapter
Appendix 2. The post-1500 BC individuals
Nineteen individuals within the BPP database either produced radiocarbon dates that were later than the 2500-1500 BC core period, or else were attributed a post-1500 BC date on the basis of their find context and their unusual isotopic ratios. They range in date from the Middle Bronze Age to the...Jay, Mandy ; Montgomery, Janet ; Pearson, Mike Parker ; Sheridan, J A
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Conference paper (published)
Constructing narratives of Britain’s (and the whole of Europe’s) prehistoric past: navigating through a sea of data and the choppy waters of contested discourses…and at a time of political madness
Trying to understand the past by constructing ‘big picture’ and more detailed narratives is what we, as archaeologists, do in our own varied ways; it’s what we have always tried to do, and it is something that has featured in a major way in this lecturer’s own career as a...Sheridan, J A
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Conference paper (published)
Mobility and migration among the Beaker people of Britain
The Beaker People Project, recently published in 2019, is a multi-isotope study, combined with human osteology, dental microwear analysis and radiocarbon-dating, carried out on 334 burials of the Beaker period and Early Bronze Age (c.2500-1500 cal BC) in Britain, to explore patterns of mobility, migration, diet and health. Its results...Pearson, Mike Parker ; Sheridan, J A ; Evans, Jane ; Jay, Mandy ; Richards, Mike …
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Conference paper (published)
Creating a research framework and strategy for early gold in Britain's auriferous regions
This presentation outlines a current AHRC-funded initiative that has created an international network of those involved in the study of gold, to create a Research Framework and Strategy relating to gold use in Britain's auriferous regions, 2450-800 BC. This deals with issues of locating and characterising the source areas; of...Sheridan, J A
Bronze, sourcing, goldworking, Chalcolithic, and Gold
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Book chapter
Disc-rings made from Alpine rocks, in the social imagination of Neolithic communities
In France, disc-rings of Alpine jades and of serpentinite circulated over very long distances, as far as the Channel Islands and the coast of Brittany. The authors present a typochronological study for each rock type, along with distribution maps and a general social interpretation. Two origins are identified, of which...Pétrequin, P ; Cassen, S ; Errera, M ; Pailler, Yves ; Pétrequin, A-M …
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Book chapter
Fifty shades of green: the irresistible attraction, use and significance of jadeitite and other green Alpine rock types in Neolithic Europe
This chapter summarizes the results of two major international projects JADE and JADE 2. These examined the exploitation, circulation, use and significance of artefacts made from jadeite and other green rocks from the Western Alps in Neolithic Europe. The most-widely travelled of all the prehistoric materials, these Alpine jades seem...Sheridan, J A ; Pétrequin, Pierre ; Pétrequin, A-M ; Cassen, S ; Errera, M …
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Book chapter
A northern view of Arras: or, we have chariots too
In 1817 a group of East Yorkshire gentry opened barrows in a large Iron Age cemetery on the Yorkshire Wolds at Arras, near Market Weighton, including a remarkable burial accompanied by a chariot with two horses, which became known as the King’s Barrow. This was the third season of excavation...Hunter, Fraser
lithic artefacts, prehistoric structure and pits, Palimpsest site, and prehistoric pottery
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Lecture
Creating Scotland: Assembling a Medieval Kingdom' an in-conversation event
Hamish Torrie FSAScot, The Glenmorangie Company, Dr Adrian Maldonado, National Museums Scotland, and Dr Heather Pulliam, University of Edinburgh, discuss the idea that a medieval kingdom called Scotland was not a predestined or obvious outcome of the politics of the first millennium AD. Even in the twelfth century, Britain north...Torrie, Hamish ; Maldonado, Adrián ; Pulliam, Heather
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Lecture
DNA analysis of ancient individuals found in Scotland
Dr Ange Boyle, University of Edinburgh, presents a short lecture on “DNA analysis of ancient individuals found in Scotland: part of the third great revolution in archaeology” on behalf of Dr Alison Sheridan, National Museums Scotland, and Dr Lisa Brown, Historic Environment Scotland, at the Archaeological Research in Progress (ARP...Sheridan, J A ; Brown, Lisa
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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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Conference paper (unpublished)
Living between walls: Northern responses to the Roman frontier
Any Wall conference needs to look at the people living in the landscape before Rome arrived. The Wall was built “to separate Romans and barbarians”, claims the only ancient reference to its role – but who were these “barbarians”? Other talks at the conference will consider the rural communities 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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Technical report
Lancefield Quay Ceramic Resource Disc 5 (Verreville Pottery)
The ceramic material listed, described, and photographed, on the enclosed ceramic resource disk, comes from an archaeological excavation funded by, and carried out at Lancefield Quay on the banks of the River Clyde and almost certainly a dumping ground in the 1850 for the nearby Verreville pottery and later from...Haggarty, George
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Technical report
Bo'ness Pottery Ceramic Resource Disc 12
Haggarty, George
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Technical report
The industrial pottery. In: Cachart, Ray and Perry, David R. 2019. ‘A little earth above the stone’: Archaeological Investigations 2006–2012 for consolidation work at Moy Castle, Mull, Argyll and Bute
The fifteenth-century Moy Castle tower-house on Mull was altered in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, but was abandoned as a domestic residence in 1752. Conservation works between 2006 and 2012, showed the alterations to have been additional turrets, caphouses and a garderobe. The garret entrance was relocated and the second...Hall, Derek ; Haggarty, George
Tower house, caphouse, Mull, Easdale slate, and Flow Blue pottery
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Doctoral thesis
Contextualising ritual practice in later prehistoric and Roman Britain. PhD thesis
For much of the twentieth century, Romano-Celtic syncretism has been considered an unproblematic fusion of polytheistic belief systems assumed to preserve prehistoric Celtic religion and yet also provide a key form of evidence for the assimilative process of Romanisation. However, given the abrupt disjunction in ritual practice and especially changes...Goldberg, D Martin
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Doctoral thesis
Water in archaeological wood : a critical appraisal of some diagnostic tools for degradation assessment
Waterlogged wood conservation is ultimately directed towards effective drying of artefacts, since through this procedure is the best hope for their stabilisation. This is a much more risky activity for the conservator than it is for the modern timber technologist, because of the extreme chemical and physical changes the material...Ogilvie, Ticca M A
Archaeology, Paper, and Wood
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Doctoral thesis
An assessment of the positive contribution and negative impact of hobbyist metal detecting to sites of conflict in the UK
In the UK sites of conflict, in particular battlefields, are becoming more frequently associated with the label ‘heritage at risk’. As the concept of battlefield and conflict archaeology has evolved, so too has the recognition that battlefields are dynamic, yet fragile, archaeological landscapes in need of protection. The tangible evidence...Ferguson, Natasha
Archaeology, portable antiquities, metal detecting, sites of conflict, battlefield, and heritage management
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Lecture
Beyond Treasure: new findings from fieldwork on Scotland’s prehistoric hoards
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...Freeman, Emily ; Knight, Matthew
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Book chapter
West Highland Sculpture, Scotland – defining a Gaelic Lordship
The graveyards of the West Highland of Scotland contain many commemorative crosses and grave-slabs dating from the 14th to mid 16th century. They are carved in distinctive style from a variety of rock types. Their distribution largely coincides with the Lordship of the Isles, a powerful Gaelic Princedom, often in...Caldwell, David H ; Eremin, Katherine ; Miller, S ; Ruckley, N A
Lordship of the Isles, West Highland Sculpture, petrology, rock types, and magnetic susceptibility
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Book chapter
Investigation of a potentiostatic reduction treatment for leaded copper alloys
The corrosion and conversion of highly leaded copper alloys is a problem for many collections. This was investigated using the Covesea coins as a case study. These coins were actively corroding, producing a white, powdery corrosion product. Some coins were completely disintegrated. Potentiostatic reduction was investigated as a possible technique...Spencer, Helen
conservation, leaded copper alloys, potentiostatic reduction, and Covesea coins
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Book chapter
Introduction
In Great Britain the researches of craniologists have demonstrated that the appearance of bronzeand of the beaker types of ceramic coincides with the advent of a new race characterized by a brachycephalic skull distinctly different from the dolichocephalic head of the earlier neolithic inhabitants...it is therefore necessary to direct our...Pearson, Mike Parker ; Jay, Mandy ; Sheridan, J A
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Book chapter
The Beaker People: project individuals, their funerary practices and their grave goods
This chapter introduces the individuals in the BPP Database, focusing on those dating to the Project's core period of 2500-1500 BC (rather than those found to date earlier or later: see Appendices 1 and 2 for thes), and especially those belonging to the Beaker period, from the 25th century to...Pearson, Mike Parker ; Needham, Stuart ; Sheridan, J A ; Gibson, Alex
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Book chapter
Technical study' In: “Hatshepsut, from Queen to Pharaoh”
Cleopatra may be the most famous woman of ancient Egypt, but far more significant was Hatshepsut, a female pharaoh who reigned for nearly twenty years in the fifteenth century B.C., during the early period of the New Kingdom. After acting as regent for her young nephew-stepson Thutmose III, Hatshepsut assumed...Goring, Elizabeth ; Tate, Jim ; Eremin, Katherine ; Quye, Anita
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Book chapter
FTIR microanalysis of residue on vessel 4
The early medieval crannog in Loch Glashan was excavated in 1960 by Jack Scott, in advance of dam construction. Originally interpreted as a domestic settlement, the crannog produced a rich organic assemblage of wood and leather objects, as well as exotic items such as Continental imported pottery and a brooch...Quye, Anita