Search Constraints
Search Results
-
Journal article
Nostalgia in the prehistoric archaeological record
Evidence from the prehistoric archaeological record clearly shows that ancient societies had a sense of and engaged with their own histories, be it by reusing, re-appropriating or recreating past material culture. The affective qualities of materials, places and even human remains would have enabled people to remember and connect with...Knight, Matthew G
material culture, human remains, reuse, materials, prehistoric archaeological record, recreation, and re-appropriation
-
Journal article
Newly-discovered pilgrim souvenirs fit for a saintly queen
Lydia Prosser and Robert Webley take a look at the implications of the exciting discovery of a pair of medieval Scottish pilgrim badges. How did these items find their way to Cambridgeshire and what can this tell us about the use of such badges in the Middle Ages?Prosser, Lydia ; Webley, Robert
cult, metal detecting, Medieval Scotland, Fordham, Cambridgeshire, pilgrim badges, Portable Antiquities Scheme, and Saint Margaret of Scotland
-
Journal article
We need to encourage a plurality of voices in collections-based research
Stories have too narrow a perspective, says John Giblin and Phoenix ArcherGiblin, John ; Archer, Phoenix
Exchange, African, Caribbean and South Asian diaspora heritage communities, Museology, Colonial Histories and Legacies, and Collections Research
-
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... -
Journal article
Not so hidden messages
The written word is a powerful and persuasive tool that can inspire and revolt in equal measure. Equally, jewellery has the power to spread messages and has been used for generations to declare an individual’s position of allegiance or defiance. By incorporating a message, slogan or symbol, a jewel becomes...Rothwell, Sarah
-
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
-
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
-
Journal article
Defining role
Geraldine Kendall Adams talks to Christopher Breward about the shift in priorities for National Museums Scotland. Photography by Philip SayerKendall Adams, Geraldine
-
Journal article
“Balure Dun”
The site at Balure, until relatively recently, was unrecognised as a dun structure, although it had been noted by Forestry Commission operatives as an enclosure and/or cairn and recorded as such on the Forestry Commission’s Heritage database for North Knapdale Forest.Regan, Roddy ; Campbell, Ewan ; Ballin, Torben ; Sheridan, J A ; Cressey, Michael
-
Journal article
Reintroducing the Vikings into Scotland’s story
Dr Adrián Maldonado takes another look at the formation of Scotland, to ask whether we should recalibrate our image of the 'Vikings' to include more than just people of Norse decentMaldonado, Adrián
-
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
-
Journal article
Reintroducing the Vikings into Scotland's story
Dr Adrián Maldonado takes anothe rlook at the formation of Scotland, to ask whether we should recalibrate our images of the 'Vikings' to include more than just people of Norse descent.Maldonado, Adrián
-
Journal article
Noninvasive characterization and quantification of anthraquinones in dyed woolen threads by visible diffuse reflectance spectroscopy
The anthraquinone components of the roots of various species of madder (like Rubia tinctorum L. and Rubia peregrina L.) have been used for millennia as red colorants in textiles, carpets, tapestries, and other objects. To understand the selection and preparation of dyestuffs in various cultures and historical periods, these dyes...Chavanne, Clarisse ; Troalen, Lore G ; Fronty, Isabelle Bardies ; Buléon, Pascal ; Walter, Philippe
Dyes and pigments, Optical properties, Extraction, Color, and Liquid chromatography
-
Journal article
Anatomy: A matter of death and life
Dr Tacye Phillipson explores what was behind the demand for a supply of dead bodies in 19th-century Edinburgh - and how and why this grisly practice cam to an end.Phillipson, Tacye
-
Journal article
Noninvasive Characterization and Quantification of Anthraquinones in Dyed Woolen Threads by Visible Diffuse Reflectance Spectroscopy
The anthraquinone components of the roots of various species of madder (like Rubia tinctorum L. and Rubia peregrina L.) have been used for millennia as red colorants in textiles, carpets, tapestries, and other objects. To understand the selection and preparation of dyestuffs in various cultures and historical periods, these dyes...Chavanne, Clarisse ; Troalen, Lore G ; Fronty, Isabelle Bardies ; Buléon, Pascal ; Walter, Philippe
Dyes and pigments, Optical properties, Color, Extraction, and Liquid chromatography
-
Journal article
African Queen: an intact royal burial from Egypt reveals new insights into cultural connections
The identity of the ancient Egyptian ‘Qurna Queen’ remains a mystery over 100 years after the excavation of her intact burial. However, new research on her burial assemblage is revealing historic biases in interpretation and shedding light on Egypt’s place within African culture, as Margaret Maitland explains.Maitland, Margaret
-
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
-
Journal article
'Polished stone axehead' In: Claire Christie, Magnar Dalland. The excavation of a prehistoric settlement at Lower Slackbuie, Inverness
The expansion of Inverness southwards has led to the uncovering of a landscape rich in archaeological activity, dating from the Neolithic period onwards. The abundance of archaeological evidence as been interpreted as indicating that the area was a hub for prehistoric activity (Hatherley & Murray 2021). The excavation of an...Anderson-Whymark, Hugo
Grooved Ware, axe, linseed, scraper, flax, palisade, roundhouse, Carinated Bowl, and bangle
-
Journal article
Framing colonial war loot: The ‘captured’ spolia opima of Kunwar Singh
This article investigates the provenance of four artefacts associated with the military commander Kunwar Singh (1777–1858), who fought a guerrilla campaign against the British during the Indian Uprising of 1857–8. By analysing how these objects were documented and inscribed, it can be shown that, through the invocation of what is... -
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
-
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
-
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
-
Journal article
A previously unrecorded 'British Victory' type for Septimius Severus
Most people with an interest in the history of the Roman period in Britain will be aware of the series of coins struck in the names of the emperor Septimius Severus and his sons, Caracalla and Geta, following military campaigns carried out against native tribes in present-day Scotland during the...Holmes, N M McQ.
coins, Rome mint, military campaigns in Scotland, and Septimius Severus
-
Journal article
Iona in the Viking Age: laying a ‘zombie narrative’ to rest
The traditional story of Iona’s early medieval monastery ends in tragedy and bloodshed, with the religious community wiped out by vicious Viking raiders. Increasingly, though, the archaeological and historical evidence does not support this persistent narrative, as Adrián Maldonado, Ewan Campbell, Thomas Owen Clancy, and Katherine Forsyth report.Maldonado, Adrián ; Campbell, Ewan ; Thomas Owen, Clancy ; Forsyth, Katherine
-
Journal article
Review of: Alejandro Jiménez-Serrano and Juan Carlos Sánchez-León: Le Premier Nome du sud de l’Égypte au Moyen Empire, Fouilles de la mission espagnole à Qoubbet el-Haoua (Assouan) 2008–2018
At the First Cataract of the Nile in southern Egypt, the sandstone hill of Qubbet el-Hawa is the site of a large necropolis, most notably home to the tombs of local ruling officials (c. 2345–1795 BCE), as well as other burials dating up to the Roman period, a Coptic church...Maitland, Margaret
-
Journal article
Peelhill Farm: a possible Late Bronze Age weapon sacrifice in Lanarkshire
The hoard of bronze weapons found in 1961 at Peelhill Farm in South Lanarkshire remains one of the most remarkable discoveries of Late Bronze Age metalwork from Scotland, its importance reflected in the detailed account of the find published by John Coles and Jack Scott in 1963. In the present...Mörtz, Tobias ; Knight, Matthew G ; Cowie, Trevor ; Flint, Jane
Late Bronze Age, Hoard, Conflict, Ritual, and Weapons
-
Journal article
Unusual Roman Iron Age burials on the Links of Pierowall, Westray, Orkney
Antiquarian accounts and surviving finds allow two Iron Age cist-burials found in the late 18th century on the Links of Pierowall on Westray, Orkney, to be reconstructed, although no details of the bodies survive (but both were most probably inhumations); the unusual finds have not previously received full attention. One...Graham-Campbell, James ; Hunter, Fraser
-
Journal article
An Iron Age burial with a polished stone disc from Baledgarno, Perth and Kinross
A polished stone disc which has long lurked in Dundee Museum’s collections is identified as a rare example associated with an Iron Age burial. This was an occasional but recurrent rite during the Roman Iron Age, with parallels further up the E coast as far as Shetland. Where the burial...Hunter, Fraser
-
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
-
Journal article
Scientists, collectors and illustrators: the roles of women in the Palaeontographical Society
Women have taken on a range of roles in scientific societies since the early twentieth century. The oldest society dedicated to palaeontology, the Palaeontographical Society, was established in 1847 principally for the publication of monographs on British fossils. Since its foundation, women have been involved, initially as collectors and illustrators,... -
Journal article
Fit for a Queen: The Material and Visual Culture of Maria Clementina Sobieska, Jacobite Queen in Exile
Tracing its manifestation across three phases in her biography — marriage, separation and funeral — this article considers the image of Maria Clementina Sobieska (1702–35). Examining the objects and portraits which surrounded Clementina’s life and death offers a new historiography for the Jacobite queen in exile. It reinstates her place...Vullinghs, Georgia
queenship, Jacobites, Stuarts, royal image, and material culture
-
Journal article
Incest uncovered at the elite prehistoric Newgrange monument in Ireland
The huge, elaborate, 5,000-year-old tomb at Newgrange, Ireland, is thought to have been built for a powerful elite. DNA of a man buried there reveals a case of incest. Was this a strategy to maintain a dynastic bloodline?Sheridan, Alison J
-
Journal article
A decorated carved stone ball and associated lithic scatter from the Blackford Estate, Sheriffmuir, Perthshire
A comparatively small number of carved stone balls have precise findspots and exceptionally few have been recovered from secure archaeological contexts. The discovery of a carved stone ball in pristine condition at Sheriffmuir during tree-planting in 2017 provided the opportunity to examine an accurate findspot and explore its archaeological and...Anderson-Whymark, Hugo ; Hall, Mark
later Neolithic, carved stone ball , lithic scatter , and pitchstone
-
Journal article
Combined visual and biochemical analyses confirm depositor and diet for Neolithic coprolites from Skara Brae
Coprolites (fossilized faeces) can provide valuable insights into species’ diet and related habits. In archaeozoological contexts, they are a potential source of information on human-animal interactions as well as human and animal subsistence. However, despite a broad discussion on coprolites in archaeology, such finds are rarely subject to detailed examination... -
Journal article
Torwood Broch: the reassessment of a Complex Atlantic Roundhouse near Falkirk
This paper presents the first modern account of Torwood’s artefact assemblage and the most accurate survey of the site to date. These are combined with the results of a small-scale excavation on a newly discovered outer rampart and the publication for the first time of a reused concentric ring-marked stone... -
Journal article
‘Tuesday Morning’, the schoolboy and Mann early medieval burials at Holm Park near Ballantrae, Ayrshire, Scotland
The rediscovery of human remains, correspondence and other unpublished excavation archival material in the Glasgow Museums collection of Ludovic McLellan Mann prompted the reappraisal of a short archaeological investigation undertaken in April 1931 at Holm Park, near Ballantrae, Ayrshire, by a schoolboy, Eric French and his biology teacher, William Hoyland....Finlay , Nyree ; Duffy , Paul ; Dene, Wright ; Maldonado, Adrián ; Cerón-Carrasco, Ruby
Inhumation burial, Mesolithic, Dog whelk shells, and Historiography
-
Journal article
Poolewe: The last Bronze Age hoard in Scotland?
In 1877, a hoard of nine copper alloy objects was recovered from a peat bog at Poolewe, Scotland, including axeheads, rings and an ornament. For the first time since its discovery, this article publishes the hoard in its entirety, including an assessment of typological features, full illustration and metallurgical analysis....Knight, Matthew G ; Boughton, Dot ; Northover, J Peter
-
Journal article
Ancient DNA in Ireland: isolation, migration and elite incest
Ten thousand years ago, Ireland, Britain and the adjacent continent were already sharing connections while developing separate histories and identities. Ancient DNA has brought poweful new ways of exploring these worlds, as Lara Cassidy shows with a new genomic study of hunters and early farmers.Cassidy, Lara ; Sheridan, J A
-
Journal article
Social hierarchy and the choice of metal recycling at Anyang, the last capital of Bronze Age Shang China
Anyang, the last capital of the Chinese Shang dynasty, became one of the largest metal consumers in Eurasia during the second millennium BCE. However, it remains unclear how Anyang people managed to sustain such a large supply of metal. By considering the chemical analysis of bronze objects within archaeological contexts,...Liu, Ruiliang ; Pollard, A Mark ; Cao, Qin ; Liu, Cheng ; Sainsbury, Victoria …
-
Journal article
Round robins: Scotland's Neolithic carved stone balls
Hugo Anderson-Whymark has published digital 3D models of 60 carved stone balls in the collections of National Museums Scotland. He considers these eternally puzzling Neolithic objects.Anderson-Whymark, Hugo
-
Journal article
Dismantling the master’s house: thoughts on representing empire and decolonising museums and public spaces in practice an introduction
Museums were both produced by and producers of the ideals that drove the growth of European empires. As such, many of the collections made during and since the colonial era are unique and powerful reflections of this history. Despite this potential, with few exceptions, object-focused critical histories of empire in...Giblin, John ; Ramos, Imma
-
Journal article
Thai ceramics
Among the museum's collection are a group of ceramics excavated from the ruins of ancient kilns at Sawankhalok in Thailand.Nicolson, Rosanna
-
Journal article
Solving a silver jigsaw: a new hoard of Roman hacksilver from Fife
Recently discovered in Fife, the Dairsie Hoard represents the earliest-known evidence found outside the empire for Roman use of hacksilver to secure their frontiers.Hunter, Fraser
-
Journal article
Population replacement in Early Neolithic Britain
The roles of migration, admixture and acculturation in the European transition to farming have been debated for over 100 years. Genome-wide ancient DNA studies indicate predominantly Anatolian ancestry for continental Neolithic farmers, but also variable admixture with local Mesolithic hunter-gatherers. Neolithic cultures first appear in Britain c. 6000 years ago...Brace, Selina ; Diekmann, Yoan ; Booth, Thomas J ; Faltyskova, Zuzana ; Rohland, Nadin …
-
Journal article
The Beaker phenomenon and the genomic transformation of northwest Europe
From around 2750 to 2500 bc, Bell Beaker pottery became widespread across western and central Europe, before it disappeared between 2200 and 1800 bc. The forces that propelled its expansion are a matter of long-standing debate, and there is support for both cultural diffusion and migration having a role in...Olalde, Iñigo ; Brace, Selina ; Allentoft, Morten E ; Armit, Ian ; Kristiansen, Kristian …
-
Journal article
Contributions. In: MacLeod Rivett, M A 2018 'Barabhas Machair: surveys of an eroding sandscape'. Scottish Archaeology Internet Report 76
The townships of Barabhas are on the west coast of the Isle of Lewis, in the Outer Hebrides between the blanket bog of Barabhas Moor to the east, and machair and the Atlantic Ocean to the west. The Barabhas Machair (centre NB 351 513) has been eroding for at least...Cowie, Trevor
-
Journal article
Dirt, purity, and spatial control: anthropological perspectives on Ancient Egyptian Society and Culture in the Middle Kingdom
The concepts of purity and pollution were central to the maintenance of social boundaries in ancient Egyptian culture. Anthropological approaches, in particular the work of Mary Douglas, are useful in examining their impact on social structure and individual lived experience. Cleanliness and dirtiness were represented as defining characteristics of the...Maitland, Margaret
-
-
Journal article
The ceramic assemblage. In: Lowther, J 2018 ‘The Excavation of a Medieval Burgh Ditch at East Market Street, Edinburgh: Around the Town’, Scottish Archaeological Internet Reports 78
In 2015 excavation works undertaken in preparation for a new hotel development at East Market Street, Edinburgh, encountered the remains of a substantial ditch feature likely relating to previously excavated ditches in the medieval burghs of Edinburgh and Canongate. A substantial stratified artefact assemblage including both animal bone and ceramics...Haggarty, George
-
Journal article
Final word: Glenmorangie Research Project
Dr Adrián Maldondo, the new Glenmorangie Research Fellow at National Museums Scotland, talks to History Scotland about the future of the project, which was established in 2008 and has uncovered many new insights into Scotland's medieval past.Maldonado, Adrián
-
Journal article
Personality in fashion: case studies of localism in Eighteenth-century Scotland
Is it obvious to state that a wearer’s fashion choices result from a complex mixture of personal, local–social and international influences? What if I say the same was true for consumers in rural eighteenth-century Scotland? Contemporary fashion communities sometimes idealize and demonize their past: the idyllic time before mass consumption,...Taylor, Emily
Scotland, fashion, localism, eighteenth-century, and dress
-
Journal article
The complexities of Metal Detecting Policy and Practice: a response to Samuel Hardy, ‘Quantitative Analysis of Open-Source Data on Metal Detecting for Cultural Property’ (Cogent Social Sciences 3, 2017)
In his paper ‘Quantitative analysis of open-source data on metal detecting for cultural property’, Samuel Hardy suggested that permissive policy is ineffective in minimizing the damage done to cultural heritage by non-professional metal detecting. This response paper contests the basic assumptions upon which this analysis is based. While Hardy‘s comparative,... -
Journal article
When ivory came from the seas. On some traits of the trade of raw and carved sea-mammal ivories in the Middle Ages
Even if it played a part, it is not so much the lesser availability of elephant ivory as the Norse expansion in the Northern Atlantic that brought the success of walrus ivory throughout Western Europe and far beyond. The strength of demand did not only bring the extinction of the...Dectot, Xavier
trade, walrus, Middle Ages, Iceland, narwhal, Ivory, Greenland, unicorn, and khutū
-
Journal article
2. Scotland.
Hunter, Fraser
-
Journal article
Embroidered stories
Helen Wyld introduces an extraordinary collection of Scottish needlework which records lives that would otherwise have been forgotten.Wyld, Helen
-
Journal article
‘Ava’: a Beaker-associated woman from a cist at Achavanich, Highland, and the story of her (re-)discovery and subsequent study
This contribution describes the discovery and subsequent investigation of a cist in a rock-cut pit at Achavanich, Highland. Discovered and excavated in 1987, the cist was found to contain the tightly contracted skeletal remains of a young woman, accompanied by a Beaker, three flint artefacts and a cattle scapula. Initial...Hoole, M ; Sheridan, J A ; Boyle, A ; Booth, T ; Brace, S …
-
Journal article
Scotland's Early Silver: the most precious metal for 1,000 years
Alice Blackwell takes a look at some of the valuable and beautiful items which form part of National Museum of Scotland's winter exhibition of 1,000 years of silver in ScotlandBlackwell, Alice
-
Journal article
Denarii diplomacy: exploring Scotland’s silver age
Silver was introduced to the inhabitants of Iron Age Scotland by the Roman army. An exhibition currently running in Edinburgh reveals the impact of this exotic material throughout the 1st millennium AD.Blackwell, Alice
-
Journal article
Uncovering stories of military collecting
Nicole Hartwell tells the story of a delicately embroidered Italian textile whose appearance is at odds with the tumultuous and bloody period of British Indian history to which it is connected.Hartwell, Nicole M
-
Journal article
Doughty Donald Ross - fighter for cleared Highlanders: Donald Ross [1813-1882], critic of the Highland Clearances and contemporary of Hugh Miller
Much has already been written about the Highland Clearances, then and since, foremost among them Hugh Miller in the Editor’s chair at The Witness, with such still famous leading articles as “Sutherland as it was and is” (1843), and by Donald Macleod and other eyewitnesses, to the savage cruelties of...Ross, Andrew
evictions, Donald Ross (1813-1882), emigration, Highland Clearances, and biography
-
Journal article
Twenty-first century sofa: conserving an eighteenth century object for modern museum display
This article describes the upholstery conservation treatment of a mid-eighteenth century sofa made for Spencer House, one of London's finest private houses. The sofa is now in the collection of National Museums Scotland. Details are given about the object's history, the approach taken to the complex treatment options, and the...McClean, Lynn ; Porter, Heather ; Jackson, Stephen
collaboration, conservation, sofa, Ethafoam™, upholstery, and digital
-
Journal article
National Museums Scotland
Next of Kin's flexible design allowed it to tour Scotland and unearth stories about the first world warSohn-Rethel, Jo
-
Journal article
Panjab Connections: a Young Roots Heritage Project at National Museums Scotland
The Panjab Connections project focused on the fascinating story of Maharaja Duleep Singh, widely regarded as the first Sikh resident in Scotland. He was a Maharaja aged five, but by the age of fifteen Duleep Singh was deposed and exiled to Britain, where he spent his teenage years in Perthshire....Voigt, Friederike ; Nicolson, Rosanna ; Bennison, Laura
-
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
-
Journal article
A dark and mysterious place: excavations of an Iron Age settlement at Auchrannie, Brodick
An extension to the accommodation of the Spa Resort at Auchrannie, Brodick, required the excavation of the remaining elements of a roundhouse and souterrain which had been partially excavated prior to the construction of the Spa Resort itself. These follow-up excavations revealed that the retained southern half of the roundhouse...Williamson, Claire
metalworking, roundhouse, Iron Age, Arran, and souterrain
-
Journal article
The Beaker phenomenon and the genomic transformation of northwest Europe
Bell Beaker pottery spread across western and central Europe beginning around 2750 BCE before disappearing between 2200-1800 BCE. The mechanism of its expansion is a topic of long-standing debate, with support for both cultural diffusion and human migration. We present new genome-wide ancient DNA data from 170 Neolithic, Copper Age...Olalde, Iñigo ; Brace, Selina ; Allentoft, Morten E ; Armit, Ian ; Kristiansen, Kristian …
-
Journal article
Barkcloth dance masks from Papua New Guinea
Three dramatic barkcloth masks offer an insight into the traditional beliefs and celebrations of the Elema people from the Gulf of Papua, Papua New Guinea, at the turn of the 20th century.Adams, Victoria
-
Journal article
How silver became Scotland's precious metal of choice
Silver - not gold - was the most powerful material in the formative history of Scotland in the first millennium AD, yet none was mined here. How did silver become Scotland's precious metal of choice?Blackwell, Alice
-
Journal article
Cremation practices and the creation of monument complexes: the Neolithic cremation cemetery at Forteviot, Strathearn, Perth & Kinross, Scotland, and its comparanda
Around the beginning of the 3rd millennium cal bc a cremation cemetery was established at Forteviot, central Scotland. This place went on to become one of the largest monument complexes identified in Mainland Scotland, with the construction of a palisaded enclosure, timber structures, and a series of henge monuments and... -
Journal article
Hacked up pieces of silver are helping to unravel the story of Early Medieval Scotland
They will feature in Scotland's Early Silver exhibition at the National Museum of Scotland this autumnBlackwell, Alice
-
Journal article
The deliberate destruction of Late Bronze Age socketed axeheads in Cornwall
The deliberate destruction of socketed axeheads is a common feature among Late Bronze Age finds. It is particularly noticeable in the numerous single finds and hoards that have been recovered from Cornwall recently. Interpretations have tended to focus on why these objects were damaged, with little understanding of how this...Knight, Matthew G
-
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 …
-
Journal article
Expand to contract
McLean, Christine
-
Journal article
The end of the world, or just ‘goodbye to all that’? Contextualising the red deer heap from Links of Noltland, Westray, within late 3rd-millennium cal bc Orkney
As part of a major international research project, The Times of Their Lives, a programme of radiocarbon dating and Bayesian modelling was undertaken to refine the chronology of activities in one small but important part of the extensive Late Neolithic and Bronze Age settlement in Links of Notland on the...Clarke, David V ; Sheridan, J A ; Shepherd, Alexandra N ; Sharples, N M ; Armour-Chelu, Miranda Jane …
-
Journal article
Lost in translation: discussing the positive contribution of hobbyist metal detecting
This paper will consider the positive contribution from hobbyist metal detecting from both the perspective of the archaeological and metal detecting community. Are we currently opting for a path of least resistance with a ‘better than nothing’ approach to encourage reporting and to maintain good working relationships, even if it... -
Journal article
From Stromness to Sulufou: John Renton's seven years in the Solomon Islands
Chantal Knowles studies three artefacts which tell the story of an Orkney adventurer who was shipwrecked and taken under the protection of a powerful island chieftain at a time when European visitors to this Pacific region were regularly captured and killedKnowles, Chantal
-
Journal article
The land before symbol stones
Gondek, Meggen ; Noble, Gordon
-
Journal article
An Iron Age burial with weapons, on a site with evidence of medieval and post-medieval occupation from Dunbar, East Lothian
In September and October 2015, an archaeological excavation was undertaken on the site of the former Empire Cinema on Dunbar High Street. In addition to late medieval and post-medieval remains, a cist grave of pre-Roman or Roman Iron Age date was excavated and recorded. Two adult males occupied the cist...Roy, Mike
-
Journal article
Co-curating with young adults
The Scotland Creates: A Sense of Place partnership project between National Museums Scotland and four other museums aimed to engage teenagers and young adults with local and national collections, by enabling them to co-curate exhibitions and events at their local museums.McLean, Christine
-
Journal article
Comment: Exhibition honours Commonwealth Scots
It is appropriate that Scotland’s links to the Commonwealth are in the public consciousness as the centenary of the outbreak of the First World War is marked.Allan, Stuart
-
Journal article
The Scottish Life Archive
Kidd, Dorothy
-
Journal article
The analysis and conservation of a Chinese silk birthday hanging of the Qing dynasty
It is a traditional etiquette in China to congratulate an elder on his/her birthday. A birthday hanging was one of the popular gifts to present auspicious wishes to a celebrity on his/her birthday in former times, especially in the Ming (1368–1644) and Qing dynasties (1644–1911). The hanging was commissioned by...Messerschmidt, Lydia
-
Journal article
Black Watch alliances in Seven Years War revealed
This summer a group of historians, anthropologists and First Nation community members assembled at the Woodlands Cultural Centre in Brantford, Ontario. They met to share knowledge and discuss research into the civilisations and arts of the Great Lakes region. Part of their discussion revolved around an object from the collections...Lidchi, Henrietta ; Allan, Stuart
-
-
Journal article
Preserving memories of the Antarctic whaling industry
Cox, Elsa
-
Journal article
Post-medieval settlement in the Isle of Lewis: a study in adaptability or change?
The work of historical geographers has produced a rich literature concerning medieval and later rural settlement in Scotland. This work has frequently been used in an uncritical manner by archaeologists studying this period, often to the exclusion of developing a suitable theoretical and methodological basis for archaeological research. These models...Campbell, Stuart
-
Journal article
(Re)discovering the Gaulcross Hoard and other early medieval silver
Modern excavations can sometimes provide surprising new insights on antiquarian finds of metalwork. The Pictish silver hoard from Gaulcross in north-eastern Scotland provides an excellent example. Recent fieldwork, including metal-detecting, has clarified the size and composition of the hoard, and uncovered 100 new silver items, including coins, fragments of brooches...Noble, Gordon ; Goldberg, D Martin ; McPherson, Alistair ; Sveinbjarnarson, Oskar
late Roman, Hacksilber, Scotland, metal-detecting, Pictish, silver hoard, and early medieval
-
Journal article
The development of the Pictish symbol system: inscribing identity beyond the edges of Empire
The date of unique symbolic carvings, from various contexts across north and east Scotland, has been debated for over a century. Excavations at key sites and direct dating of engraved bone artefacts have allowed for a more precise chronology, extending from the third/fourth centuries AD, broadly contemporaneous with other non-vernacular...Noble, Gordon ; Goldberg, D Martin ; Hamilton, Derek
language, Scotland, Pictish, writing, carving, and symbolism
-
Journal article
Art treasures were sold as palace vanished from sight
The demolition of Hamilton Palace at Hamilton in South Lanarkshire in the 1920s and the dispersal of its treasures in two sales in 1882 and 1919 was a national tragedy.Evans, Godfrey
Scotland, mausoleum, Hamilton, Duke of Hamilton, Hamilton Palace, and Scottish
-
Journal article
What does the future of museum learning and engagement look like?
The Museums Association is holding a one-day conference, Future of Museums: Learning and Engagement, on 27 March at the National Museum of Scotland, EdinburghAllen, Stephen
-
Journal article
The practice of dyeing wool in Scotland c.1790-c.1840
The history of dyeing is complex, even when analysed over a short period of time and in a comparatively small country such as Scotland. There are hundreds of dyes, natural and manufactured; most require the use of further chemicals as mordants to fix the colour; dyes interact with different vegetable...Burnett, John ; Mercer, Katherine ; Quye, Anita
-
Journal article
Exploring East Asia at the National Museum of Scotland
With around 23,000 objects representing the cultures of China, Japan and Korea, the National Museum of Scotland houses the largest collection of East Asian material in the United Kingdom outside London. In February 2019, a new gallery named ‘Exploring East Asia’ will open to showcase works from this collection. Exploring...Buckland, Rosina
-
Journal article
By the mandate of heaven': a kingfisher-feather headdress in the National Museum of Scotland
This article focuses on a kingfisher headdress selected for the new East Asia gallery at the National Museum of Scotland. Dating to the late Qing dynasty and previously thought to be part of an opera costume, new research has revealed that this intricate headdress might instead have been the property...Cao, Qin
-
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