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Journal article
Scottish History at National Museums Scotland
Stevenson, Katie
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Conference paper (published)
Changing objects in changing worlds: dragonesque brooches and beaded torcs
Hunter, Fraser
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Journal article
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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Journal article
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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Journal article
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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Journal article
Artefacts In: Croig Cave: a Late Bronze Age ornament deposit and three millennia of fishing and foraging on the north-west coast of Mull, Scotland
Activity within caves provides an important element of the later prehistoric and historic settlement pattern of western Scotland. This contribution reports on a small-scale excavation within Croig Cave, on the coast of north-west Mull, that exposed a 1.95m sequence of middle deposits and cave floors that dated between c1700 BC...Mithen, Steven ; Wicks, Karen
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Journal article
Links of Noltland, Westray, Orkney: radiocarbon dating and chronological modelling
This report contains details of all the publically available radiocarbon determinations obtained on samples dated from the Links of Noltland up to the end of 2016. The chronological modelling of these radiocarbon dates was undertaken as part of The Times of Their Lives Project (European Research Council Advanced Investigator grant...Marshall, P ; Clarke, David V ; Sheridan, J A ; Shepherd, Alexandra N ; Sharples, N …
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Journal article
In memoriam Alan Saville, 31 Dec 1946–19 June 2016
Sheridan, J A
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Journal article
One Theban tomb, 1000 years of burial
A new exhibition at the National Museum of Scotland in Edinburgh, 'The Tomb: Ancient Egyptian Burial', explores changing funerary practices through the story of one Theban tomb, used and reused for over 1000 years, before it became the first to be systematically excavated and recorded 160 years ago, as curator...Maitland, Margaret
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Journal article
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
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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Journal article
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... -
Book chapter
The material culture of Mesolithic Scotland
The fundamental elements of material culture - essentially stone, bone and antler tools - surviving from the Mesolithic period in Scotland are described and discussed in terms of significance and chronologySaville, Alan
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Book chapter
The project
Around AD 800, a superbly carved cross-slab was erected at Hilton of Cadboll in north-east Scotland. The major part of the stone stand now in the National Museum of Scotland, and the story of what happened to it in the intervening centuries is told here.Clarke, David V ; Foster, Sally M
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Book chapter
The construction of narratives for Neolithic Scotland
This volume represents the publication of a highly successful conference held in 2003 to celebrate the contribution to Neolithic and Early Bronze Age studies of one of archaeology's finest synthesisers, Professor Stuart Piggott.Clarke, David V
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Book chapter
Special places for special axes? Early Bronze Age metalwork from Scotland in its landscape setting
This volume represents the publication of a highly successful conference held in 2003 to celebrate the contribution to Neolithic and Early Bronze Age studies of one of archaeology's finest synthesisers, Professor Stuart Piggott.Cowie, Trevor
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Book chapter
Introducing Mesolithic Scotland: the background to a developing field of study
The development of Mesolithic studies in Scotland is reviewed and set in context, Lacaille's Stone Age in Scotland, published in 1954, can be seen to mark the culmination of the first phase of Mesolithic research. Subsequent changing perceptions and the recent intensification of fieldwork are discussed, with a footnote on...Saville, Alan
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Book chapter
Materials and materiality
Sections: 10.1.1 Introdution; 10.1.2 Preservation and recovery; 10.1.3 Phasing and chronology; 10.1.4 Biographies of materials (Crops, consumption and craft at Broxmouth and beyond; Re-use and recycling; Identities and social relationships beyond Broxmouth); 10.1.5 The materiality of Broxmouth.Maxwell, Mhairi
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Book chapter
Worked bone and antler
Sections: 10.3.1 Introduction; 10.3.2 Sources of raw materials; 10.3.3 Working evidence; 10.3.4 Production technology and its development; 10.3.5 Object range (Tools, Ornaments, Weaponry, Fixtures and Fittings, Object Lives); 10.3.6 Decoration; 10.3.7 The assemblage in context; 10.3.8 Catalogue.Hunter, Fraser
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Book chapter
Middle Neolithic pottery
Cowie, Trevor
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Book chapter
Shale and cannel coal
Hunter, Fraser
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Book chapter
Coral bead
Hunter, Fraser
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Book chapter
Iron
Sections: 10.7.1 Introduction; 10.7.2 Discussion; 10.7.3 Catalogue. The 1970s excavations at Broxmouth represent one of the most comprehensive examinations of any Iron Age hillfort. It was also the place where a whole generation of Scottish archaeologists learned their trade. Like many projects of its time, however, Broxmouth remained unpublished, other...Hunter, Fraser
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Book chapter
Introduction [Scotland in later prehistoric Europe]
How did Scotland relate to wider European patterns in later prehistory? This key topic is addressed by the papers in this volume, which review recent work on the Scottish later Bronze Age and Iron Age in the light of its neighbours. Authors use the explosion of recent data to investigate...Hunter, Fraser
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Book chapter
Residue analysis
Sections: 10.1.1 Introdution; 10.1.2 Preservation and recovery; 10.1.3 Phasing and chronology; 10.1.4 Biographies of materials (Crops, consumption and craft at Broxmouth and beyond; Re-use and recycling; Identities and social relationships beyond Broxmouth); 10.1.5 The materiality of Broxmouth.Maxwell, Mhairi ; Heron, Carl
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Book chapter
XRF analysis
Kirk, Susy ; Dungworth, David ; Hunter, Fraser
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Book chapter
The Neolithisation of Britain and Ireland: arrival of immigrant farmers from Continental Europe and its impact on pre-existing lifeways
Britain and Ireland located, in the north-west corner of Europe and separated from the Continent since the 7th millennium BC by the sea (and much longer in the case of Ireland), were among the last areas in Europe where an agricultural - more specifically, agro-pastoral - lifestyle became established. There...Sheridan, J A
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Book chapter
Dating Scotland's Neolithic non-megalithic round mounds: new dates, problems and potential
The purpose of this contribution is to review briefly the non-megalithic round mounds of definite and probable Neolithic date in Scotland, and to draw attention to some accelerator mass spectrometry (AMS) radiocarbon dates, relating to the use of four of these monuments - Midtown of Pitgalssie, one of the cairns...Sheridan, J A
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Book chapter
Ferrous metalworking debris
What would a small island monastery of the seventh or eighth century look like? How would buildings and space within the site be organised? How would the settlement itself relate to its broader landscape? What light can archaeology throw on the day ot day life of its inhabitants and its...McLaren, Dawn ; Heald, Andrew
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Book chapter
Bone and antler toggles of the Bronze Age
McLaren, Dawn
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Book chapter
The vitrified material
McLaren, Dawn ; Heald, Andrew
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Book chapter
Non-ferrous metalworking debris
Heald, Andrew ; Hunter, Fraser
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Book chapter
Copper alloy and iron
Hunter, Fraser
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Book chapter
Ceramic artefacts
MacSween, A ; Hunter, Fraser
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Book chapter
Pottery [from Silgeanach, Cill Donnain]
South Uist in the Outer Hebrides has some of the best preserved archaeological remains within Britain and even further afield. Three distinct ecological zones - grassland machair plain, peaty blackland and mountains - each bear the imprint of human occupation over many millennia. The machair strip, long uninhabited, is filled...Sheridan, J A
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Book chapter
Copper alloy awl [from Silgeanach, Cill Donnain]
South Uist in the Outer Hebrides has some of the best preserved archaeological remains within Britain and even further afield. Three distinct ecological zones - grassland machair plain, peaty blackland and mountains - each bear the imprint of human occupation over many millennia. The machair strip, long uninhabited, is filled...Sharples, N ; Sheridan, J A
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Book chapter
Bone and antler
Hunter, Fraser ; Kitchener, Andrew C
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Book chapter
“…beads which have given rise to so much dogmatism, controversy and rash speculation”: faience in Early Bronze Age Britain and Ireland
This volume represents the publication of a highly successful conference held in 2003 to celebrate the contribution to Neolithic and Early Bronze Age studies of one of archaeology's finest synthesisers, Professor Stuart Piggott. The title is a reference to his famous work, Ancient Europe from the beginnings of agriculture to...Sheridan, J A ; Shortland, A
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Book chapter
The plenary session
The Scottish Wetland Archaeology Project (SWAP) was initiated in 1998 in response to John Coles’ energetic encouragement of the Scottish delegates to the Dublin WARP Conference. Over the following years, SWAP members and others have worked on wetland materials and projects, leading to the hosting of the 11th International WARP...Barber, J ; Clarke, C ; Cressey, M ; Crone, A ; Hale, A …
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Book chapter
Preface
The Mesolithic period (approximately 10,000 - 5000 years ago), from the end of the last Ice Age to the beginnings of agriculture, is now seen as critical in our understanding of all later developments - both in human society and in the natural world - throughout prehistoric northern Europe. The...Saville, Alan
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Book chapter
Old friends, new friends, a long-lost friend and false friends: tales from Project JADE
Our understanding of the production, distribution and use of Neolithic axeheads, adzeheads and chisels made of jadeitite and other rare Alpine rockshas been transformed by a major international French-led research project, Project JADE. This has systematically recorded and mapped all such objects longer than 135 mm across Europe - extending...Sheridan, J A
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Book chapter
Stone battle axehead
Many years ago ‘henge monuments' were identified as a distinctive kind of prehistoric monument but their interpretation still poses problems. When were they first built and how long did they remain important? How were they used and did their roles change during the course of their history? Recent work has...Sheridan, J A
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Book chapter
Burnt stone pendant
Many years ago ‘henge monuments' were identified as a distinctive kind of prehistoric monument but their interpretation still poses problems. When were they first built and how long did they remain important? How were they used and did their roles change during the course of their history? Recent work has...Sheridan, J A
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Book chapter
Bone pin fragment
Many years ago ‘henge monuments' were identified as a distinctive kind of prehistoric monument but their interpretation still poses problems. When were they first built and how long did they remain important? How were they used and did their roles change during the course of their history? Recent work has...Sheridan, J A
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Book chapter
Celtic art in Roman Britain
Hunter, Fraser
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Research report
Finlaggan report 1: introduction and background
Finlaggan, Islay, the centre of the Lordship of the Isles. Excavations and fieldwork 1989-1998. Part two, introduction and background.Caldwell, David H
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Research report
Finlaggan report 2: archaeological survey of area around Loch Finlaggan
Finlaggan, Islay, the centre of the Lordship of the Isles. Excavations and fieldwork 1989-1998. Part three, archaeological survey of area around Loch Finlaggan.Caldwell, David H
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Research report
Finlaggan report 3: Eilean Mor excavations 1.
Finlaggan, Islay, the centre of the Lordship of the Isles. Excavations and fieldwork 1989-1998. Part three, Eilean Mor excavations 1.Caldwell, David H
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Research report
Finlaggan report 6: kitchens and houses by jetty.
Finlaggan, Islay, the centre of the Lordship of the Isles. Excavations and fieldwork 1989-1998. Part six, kitchens and houses by jetty.Caldwell, David H
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Research report
Finlaggan report 4: chapel excavations.
Finlaggan, Islay, the centre of the Lordship of the Isles. Excavations and fieldwork 1989-1998. Part four, Chapel excavations.Caldwell, David H
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Research report
Finlaggan report 7: eilean na comhairle
Finlaggan, Islay, the centre of the Lordship of the Isles. Excavations and fieldwork 1989-1998. Part seven, eilean na comhairle.Caldwell, David H
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Research report
Finlaggan report 5: houses and halls.
Finlaggan, Islay, the centre of the Lordship of the Isles. Excavations and fieldwork 1989-1998. Part five, houses and halls.Caldwell, David H
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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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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
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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Journal article
St Patrick’s footprint – an early Medieval royal inauguration site at Portpatrick?
A rock-cut footprint linked in tradition to St Patrick was recorded and destroyed during harbour works at Portpatrick (Wigtownshire) in the early nineteenth century. This paper argues it was an early Medieval royal inauguration site, based on wider Scottish and Irish parallels. The footprint's setting, on a rock in a...Hunter, Fraser ; Hunter, J
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Journal article
Worked shale. In: Savory, Gary, Mike Cressey, Clare Ellis, Mhairi Hastie, Fraser Hunter, Jennifer Thoms, and Graeme Carruthers. 2019. Excavation of a double-ditched enclosure at Winchburgh, West Lothian
A sub-circular double-ditched enclosure, visible as a cropmark on aerial photographs, was excavated by CFA Archaeology Ltd in 2013. The enclosure had an inner ditch with two possible entrances and an intermittent outer ditch. The inner ditch measured up to 4.65m wide and survived to a maximum depth of 1.4m....Hunter, Fraser
Circular enclosure, Jewellery, Ditch, Glass bead, and Animal remains
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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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Journal article
Glass. In: Savory, Gary, Mike Cressey, Clare Ellis, Mhairi Hastie, Fraser Hunter, Jennifer Thoms, and Graeme Carruthers. 2019. Excavation of a double-ditched enclosure at Winchburgh, West Lothian
A sub-circular double-ditched enclosure, visible as a cropmark on aerial photographs, was excavated by CFA Archaeology Ltd in 2013. The enclosure had an inner ditch with two possible entrances and an intermittent outer ditch. The inner ditch measured up to 4.65m wide and survived to a maximum depth of 1.4m....Hunter, Fraser
Circular enclosure, Jewellery, Ditch, Glass bead, and Animal remains
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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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Journal article
The facial reconstruction of an Ancient Egyptian Queen
The National Museums of Scotland Mummy Project has provided important new information about a burial excavated in Egypt. This has resulted in the facial reconstruction of a woman who was probably a queen at Thebes ca. 1570-1520 BCE. There are strong suggestions from the grave goods and her diet that...Manley, Bill ; Eremin, Katherine ; Shortland, Andrew ; Wilkinson, Caroline M
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Journal article
Ivory piano keys from Mastodons: Why poor anthropocentic legislation endangers fossils
Palaeontological material and sites have faced a variety of challenges in the last half century, often due to inadequate legislation from poorly informed legislators designed for very different objects. The most common problematic scenario is for material to be assessed on anthropocentic grounds that are more traditionally applied to archaeological...Liston, Jeff
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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
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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Journal article
Silver dirhams from the Storr Rock Viking Hoard
A 10th-century hoard found on the Isle of Skye contained 19 dirhams, silver coins from the Islamic emirates of central Asia. These were not exotic curiosities collected by a Viking traveller, but evidence of trade routes connecting Scotland across vast distances at the turn of the first millennium.Maldonado, Adrián
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Book chapter
Technologies of the self: painted pebbles, ornaments and the burial
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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Journal article
Liquid chromatography determination of natural dyes in extracts from historical Scottish textiles excavated from peat bogs
Textiles excavated from Scottish sites belonging now to the collections of the National Museums of Scotland, including seventeenth century textiles from peat bogs in the Scottish Highlands and Islands, were selected for analysis by high performance liquid chromatography with photodiode array detection (PDA HPLC) to detect whether any dyes remained...Surowiec, Izabella ; Trojanowicz, Marek ; Quye, Anita
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Book
The Beaker people: isotopes, mobility and diet in prehistoric Britain
The Beaker People: Isotopes, Mobility and Diet in Prehistoric Britain presents the results of a major project that sought to address a century-old question about the people who were buried with Beakers a – the distinctive pottery of Continental origin that was current, predominantly in equally distinctive burials, in Britain...Pearson, Mike Parker ; Sheridan, J A ; Jay, Mandy ; Chamberlain, A ; Richards, M P …
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Book chapter
Appendix 1. The pre-2500 BC individuals
Some 17 individuals sampled for the BPP can be assigned to the Neolithic period, either on the basis of radiocarbon dating (n=12) or because of their contextual associations (n=5). In some cases (such as Liffs Low, Derbyshire) the selection had been deliberate: they were known to be Neolithic when they...Jay, Mandy ; Montgomery, Janet ; Pearson, Mike Parker ; Sheridan, J A
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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
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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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
Evidence for wax on pottery from the Pithos House'. In: Diane Bolger, Edgar Peltenburg, Anita Quye, Sarah Ritson and F. M. K. Stephen 'Pottery archive report'
An interesting mid-third millennium BC structure, the Pithos House, was uncovered during excavations at Kissonerga-Mosphilia. Circular (c. 10 m Diam) with a central hearth like others at this site, it was somewhat unusual in respect of the extraordinary amount of ceramic debris covering the floor. Although the building had been...Quye, Anita ; Ritson, S
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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