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Book chapter
Foreword
The period c.1745-1845 was a revolutionary chapter in the history of Highland dress. With the advent of the European Romantic movement, this once regional costume was revived and reinvented to reflect the changing times and preoccupations of its wearers. Associated with the warrior culture of Gaelic society, by the close...Breward, Christopher
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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
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Blog post
Dedicated collector: Michael Daniels and his Eocene birds
A stunning collection of over 700 bird fossils has been bequeathed to National Museums Scotland. Collected in Essex by Michael Daniels, the fossils date from 54-56 million years ago, the beginning of the Eocene period. They represent the early stages in the evolution of modern birds and contain many species...Kitchener, Andrew C
Conservation , Fossil Hunters , Palaeontology, Birds , Collections, Fossils , and Natural Sciences
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Book
Hugh Miller: stonemason, geologist, writer
Hugh Miller was born in 1802 in Cromarty, Ross-shire. He started his working life as a stonemason’s apprentice; he later became a social commentator and crusader. He also inspired in others an interest in fossils. His was a household name in his lifetime, not only in Scotland but across the...Taylor, Michael A
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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
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Lecture
The Ballachulish Goddess
Come along to Glencoe Folk Museum to learn about the mysterious Ballachulish Goddess from an expert in the field.Hunter, Fraser
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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
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Presentation
Ancient African Queens: New Perspectives on Black History
See our panel discuss how reassessing 19th and 20th century colonial attitudes can bring new perspectives to fascinating aspects of ancient Egyptian culture and its place in African history. In the 19th and 20th centuries European and American Egyptologists appropriated ancient Egypt into an idea of ‘Western civilisation’ and set... -
Podcast
Iona and the Vikings: how raids on Iona introduced a new age
In this week’s episode of the podcast, Jackie discovers what brought the invaders from the north to Scotland, and what encouraged them to stay. Joined by Dr Adrián Maldonado, the Glenmorangie Research Fellow at National Museums Scotland and an expert in the Scottish Viking Age, Jackie looks at how the...Bird, Jackie ; Maldonado, Adrián
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Journal article
‘Is Radioactive Iodine Present Equally in the Cream on Milk as in the Milk Itself?’: Lonely Sources and the Gendered history of Cold War Britain
This article argues that one way to foreground and privilege women's perspectives on the Cold War is by re-interpreting their historical experiences of food and drink. The article develops this argument by analysing one letter, from an unknown woman to the BBC, in the context of nuclear health concerns in...Douthwaite, Jessica
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Blog post
Air Personnel of Colour: Recovering their experiences in Scottish wartime aviation
A new project looks to recover and reconstruct the presence of personnel of colour within the RAF in Scotland during the two world wars. PhD researcher Isobel Westbury will explore the diversity of people connected to flying in Scotland during this period and talks us through the aims, and her...Westbury, Isobel
Wartime Experience , War , World War Two, Aircraft , World War One , Black History Month , Research , and Colonial Histories And Legacies
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Newspaper article
We’re revisiting our stories of Empire in museums and galleries - Dr John Giblin and Dr Yahya Barry
Across the UK, galleries, museums, libraries and archives hold collections which tell many millions of stories. Some of these are better known than others, while some are yet to be properly explored.Giblin, John ; Barry, Yahya
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Presentation
Loyal Exchange: the material and visual culture of Jacobite exile, c.1716 - c.1760
‘Exile’ was fundamental to shaping the experience of Jacobitism – loyalty to the Stuart dynasty – during the eighteenth century. This talk considers how the Stuarts and their supporters used material and visual culture to negotiate exile and absence. Expanding on the work of Edward Corp, it explores the physical...Vullinghs, Georgia
exile, network of exchange, Stuarts , Jacobitism, and material culture
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Newspaper article
Taking another look at the past
There are over 12 million objects in Scotland’s National Collection, ranging across natural sciences, Scottish history and archaeology, art, design, science, technology and ancient and living cultures from around the world.Giblin, John
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Book
The late Roman silver treasure from Traprain Law
Excavated from Traprain Law, East Lothian, Scotland, in May 1919, was one of the most spectacular discoveries of Roman silver ever made in Europe - and the biggest hoard of `hacksilver': 23kg, battered, crushed and chopped up. Blame for the destruction has hitherto been laid at the door of `barbarians'...Hunter, Fraser ; Kaufmann-Heinimann, Annemarie ; Painter, Kenneth
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Blog post
Dressed to kill? A 16th century doublet in historical context
A dazzling Renaissance silk doublet is now on display in the Fashion and Style gallery at National Museums Scotland. In this blog Helen Wyld, Senior Curator of Historic Textiles, and Calum Robertson, Curator of Modern and Military History, take a deep dive into the history of the doublet, and its...Wyld, Helen ; Robertson, Calum
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Podcast
The Galloway Hoard
Listen in as Dr Adrián Maldonado and Dr Tim Carlisle discuss: ‘What is a hoard?’ and ‘what makes The Galloway Hoard so unique?’Maldonado, Adrián ; Carlisle, Tim
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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
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Book chapter
Ancient DNA and modelling the Mesolithic-Neolithic transition in Britain and Ireland
The current paradigm-changing ancient DNA revolution is offering unparalleled insights into central problems within archaeology relating to the movement of populations and individuals, patterns of descent, relationships and aspects of identity – at many scales and of many different kinds. The impact of recent ancient DNA results can be seen...Sheridan, J A ; Whittle, Alasdair
Neolithic Studies Group, Britain, DNA, Ireland, and human migration
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Lecture
Viking Panic? Looking for the 9-12th centuries in Argyll
The story of early medieval Argyll is told through overarching narratives: the arrival of the Scots of Dál Riata; incoming missionaries in the age of saints; and the invasions of the Vikings. A recent reassessment of the National Museums Scotland collections from this period emphasises how material culture tells a... -
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... -
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
Objects in Place: The Eildon Hills, Scottish Borders
The might of the Roman Empire is often likened to a shadow looming over the peoples along its ever-expanding frontiers. Yet, there is one place where this metaphor is inverted. As the winter sun sets behind the three peaks of the Eildon Hills in the Scottish Borders, it is the...Weinczok, David C
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Book chapter
Lithics
A total of seven flaked lithic artefacts and a flaked and ground stone axehead were recovered during the excavations at Morley Hill (Table 2.1).Anderson-Whymark, Hugo
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Video
Book of Hours inscribed by Mary, Queen of Scots
Delve into the pages of an exquisitely illuminated Book of Hours in which Mary, Queen of Scots, inscribed an affectionate verse in French to her great-aunt, Louise de Bourbon. Presented by Dr Anna Groundwater, Principal Curator of Renaissance and Early Modern History. The verse sits within a manuscript 'Book of...Groundwater, Anna
Mary, Queen of Scots, prayers and psalms, vellum, Book of Hours, and Louise de Bourbon
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Book chapter
Practices of metal deposition in Late Bronze Age Scotland
One of Eugène Warmenbol's many contributions has been to provide cross-contextual and nuanced perspectives on Bronze Age metalwork deposition in Europe. It is in this spirit that this contribution approaches metalwork from Late Bronze Age Scotland (1100-800BC), with focus on single finds, hoards and settlements. The ways in which objects...Knight, Matthew G
Scotland , settlements, hoards, Late Bronze Age , Eugène Warmenbol, finds, and metalwork deposition
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Journal article
Gerhard Bersu in Scotland, and his excavations at Traprain Law in context
Bersu’s excavations on the hillfort of Traprain Law in south-east Scotland are reviewed in the light of his British and Irish digs and other work on the hill itself. It differs from the rest of his British excavations, which mostly focussed on houses, but is entirely in keeping with his...Hunter, Fraser ; Armit, Ian ; Dunwell, Andrew
Scotstarvit, League of Prehistorians, hillfort , O. G. S. Crawford , Traprain Law, Vere Gordon Childe, and roundhouses
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Journal article
Experiment, Experience and Enchant: Knowledge sharing between museums and contemporary practitioners
Knowledge sharing between contemporary practitioners and museum professionals can be more than just investigating how something is made. It is also about working together to understand why an object was created, and by whom; how each artefact has a story to tell, of its journey through time and the places...Maldonado, Adrián ; Rothwell, Sarah
sculpture, knowledge sharing, The Glenmorangie Commission, contemporary practitioners, museums, and Simone ten Hompel
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Journal article
GLASS BANGLES IN THE BRITISH ISLES: A STUDY OF TRADE, RECYCLING AND TECHNOLOGY IN THE FIRST AND SECOND CENTURIES AD
Glass bangles are found in southern England and Wales from the mid-first century and become common in the north of England and southern Scotland in the late first century, before their numbers decline a century later. British bangles develop at a time of change, as Roman glassmaking practices were introduced...Paynter, Sarah ; Crew, Peter ; Campbell, Richard ; Hunter, Fraser ; Jackson, Caroline
Late Iron Age , Roman , glass bangle , artefact and material culture studies , archaeometry , and Britain
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Journal article
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
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Blog post
Visiting the ancient dead: Pictish reuse of a Bronze Age grave at Golspie, Highland
This blog is from a series produced as part of the AHRC funded Boundary Objects Project , a partnership between Historic Environment Scotland , National Museums Scotland and the Universities of Manchester and Reading. We often think of the graves of the dead lying undisturbed and untouched until they are...Knight, Matthew G ; Maldonado, Adrián
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Blog post
Collecting contemporary Scottish whisky / A’ cruinneachadh uisge-bheatha Albannach an latha an-diugh
Plenty of people collect whisky, but how many can say that they collect whisky for a museum? PhD student Laura Scobie has the enviable job of expanding our whisky collections. In this blog post, Laura explores the ways that whisky brands adopt a sense of place and explains how collecting...Scobie, Laura
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Blog post
‘Woman’s dress of dark blue cotton, Ukraine, c.1880’: the complex reality behind a simple description
Alongside the human cost of conflict, the nihilistic destruction of centuries of historic heritage in Ukraine has provoked alarm, outrage and offers of support across the international museum sector. At the outset of hostilities, we looked to provide practical support where we could. For example, in the supply of wooden...Breward, Christopher
Dress , Russia , Ukraine, Embroidery , and Textiles
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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Book chapter
'Discussion' In: Hatherley, Catherine & Murray, Ross 'Culduthel: an Iron Age craftworking centre in North-East Scotland'
The Iron Age settlement at Culduthel is one of the most significant later prehistoric sites identified in mainland Scotland. Archaeological excavation in 2005 revealed a craftworking centre which had specialised in the production of iron, bronze and glass objects between the late 1st Millennium BC and early 1st Millennium AD....Hatherley, Candy ; Dungworth, David ; Hunter, Fraser ; Mclaren, Dawn
prehistory, northern Scotland, material culture, Prehistoric archaeology, and Highlands & Islands
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Book chapter
'The Stone Artefacts' In: Hatherley, Catherine & Murray, Ross 'Culduthel: an Iron Age craftworking centre in North-East Scotland'
The Iron Age settlement at Culduthel is one of the most significant later prehistoric sites identified in mainland Scotland. Archaeological excavation in 2005 revealed a craftworking centre which had specialised in the production of iron, bronze and glass objects between the late 1st Millennium BC and early 1st Millennium AD....McLaren, Dawn ; Hunter, Fraser ; McGibbon, Fiona
prehistory, Highlands & Islands, material culture, Prehistoric archaeology, and northern Scotland
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Book chapter
'The glass artefacts and glass-working debris from Culduthel: typology, discussion and catalogue' In: Hatherley, Catherine & Murray, Ross 'Culduthel: an Iron Age craftworking centre in North-East Scotland'
The Iron Age settlement at Culduthel is one of the most significant later prehistoric sites identified in mainland Scotland. Archaeological excavation in 2005 revealed a craftworking centre which had specialised in the production of iron, bronze and glass objects between the late 1st Millennium BC and early 1st Millennium AD....Hunter, Fraser
prehistory, Highlands & Islands, material culture, Prehistoric archaeology, and northern Scotland
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Book chapter
'Iron artefacts' In: Hatherley, Catherine & Murray, Ross 'Culduthel: an Iron Age craftworking centre in North-East Scotland'
The Iron Age settlement at Culduthel is one of the most significant later prehistoric sites identified in mainland Scotland. Archaeological excavation in 2005 revealed a craftworking centre which had specialised in the production of iron, bronze and glass objects between the late 1st Millennium BC and early 1st Millennium AD....Hunter, Fraser
prehistory, Highlands & Islands, Prehistoric archaeology, material culture , and northern Scotland
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Book chapter
'Analysis of the glass objects' In: Hatherley, Catherine & Murray, Ross 'Culduthel: an Iron Age craftworking centre in North-East Scotland'
The Iron Age settlement at Culduthel is one of the most significant later prehistoric sites identified in mainland Scotland. Archaeological excavation in 2005 revealed a craftworking centre which had specialised in the production of iron, bronze and glass objects between the late 1st Millennium BC and early 1st Millennium AD....Davis, Mary ; Freestone, Ian
prehistory, Highlands & Islands, material culture, Prehistoric archaeology, and northern Scotland
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Book chapter
Foreward [Crucible of nations: Scotland from Viking Age to Medieval Kingdom]
Crucible of Nations presents the findings of the latest phase of the long-standing relationship between National museums Scotland and Glenmorangie, a partnership which has changed understandings of early medieval Scotland through innovative research into the national collections.Breward, Christopher
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Book chapter
Introduction [Crucible of nations: Scotland from Viking Age to Medieval Kingdom]
Horns blaring, hounds yelping, deer panting, the drum of horse's hooves galloping - the sound of the hunt brought to life on an enormous stone slab. Above the hunt scene the endless meander in and out of interlace-decorated circles, symmetrical, rhythmic and infinite in their perfection, are understandable art.Goldberg, Martin
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Lecture
The Viking Age in the Borders: an archaeology of the 9-11th centuries
A recent reconsideration of old and new finds in the collections of National Museums Scotland has revealed an important seam of evidence for the Viking Age (9-11th centuries) from the Scottish borderlands. The Tweed may seem a world away from the boat burials of the Northern and Western Isles, but...Maldonado , Adrián
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Lecture
Rediscovering Viking-age Scotland with Michael Wood
Acclaimed historian and broadcaster Michael Wood joins Dr Adrián Maldonado, Glenmorangie Research Fellow, to discuss Adrián’s new book, Crucible of Nations: Viking Age to Medieval Scotland. The book reassesses the museum’s 9—12th century collections, uncovering an exciting new vision of Scotland’s diverse and creative past. Join Adrián and Michael as...Wood, Michael ; Maldonado , Adrián