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Journal article
Simulation experiments for determining the use of ancient pottery vessels: the behaviour of epicuticular leaf wax during boiling of a leafy vegetable
Laboratory experiments were performed using replica ceramic jars to simulate ancient pottery vessel use. The aim of the study was to investigate the behaviour of lipids, specifically, epicuticular leaf wax components during the processing of foodstuffs in unglazed ceramic vessels to determine if the pattern of lipid accumulation in a... -
Journal article
‘Dragon’s Blood’ I—characterization of an Ancient resin using Fourier transform Raman spectroscopy
Several resins generically known as ‘dragon’s blood’ from different botanical and geographical sources were characterised non‐destructively using Fourier transform Raman spectroscopy. Genuine ‘dragon’s blood’ resin (Dracaena spp.) as found on Socotra Island was the probable source in antiquity. The spectra of recently collected Socotran resins from different sites were compared...Quye, Anita ; Edwards, Howell G M ; Farwell, D W
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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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Journal article
Negative ion electrospray mass spectrometry of neoflavonoids
The electrospray ionisation mass spectra of the neoflavanoids brazilin and hematoxylin are reported in both their reduced (1 and 2, respectively) and their oxidised forms (3 and 4, respectively). In the reduced forms, breakdown pathways under collision induced decomposition (CID) conditions produce fragments characteristic of rings A and C; in...Hulme, Alison N ; McNab, Hamish ; Peggie, David A ; Quye, Anita
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Journal article
2',4',6'-Trihydroxy-1-methoxyacetophenone monohydrate at 150 K
The geometry of the title compound, 2-methoxy-1-(2,4,6-trihydroxyphenyl)ethanone, C9H10O5·H2O, is determined by the presence of an intramolecular hydrogen bond; the geometry of the benzene ring is distorted by a flanking carbonyl group.Ferreira, Ester S B ; Hulme, Alison N ; McNab, Hamish ; Quye, Anita ; Parsons, S
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Journal article
Democratising 19th-century Science and Technology
Rose Roberto discusses the impact of a Special Projects Grant awarded by the BSHSRoberto, Rose
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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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Journal article
Burmese (Myanmar) amber checklist and bibliography 2018
A list of all known taxa described or recorded from Burmese amber from the published literature up to the end of 2018 is given, along with a comprehensive bibliography. The history of the study of inclusions is summarised, and demonstrates that the number of species has risen exponentially over the...Ross, Andrew
invertebrates, fungi, plants, Myanmar, Cretaceous, vertebrates, protists, arachnids, Arthropoda, insects, and Burmese amber
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Journal article
Genetic variation in field voles (Microtus agrestis) from the British Isles: selective sweeps or population bottlenecks?
The Eurasian field vole (Microtus agrestis) comprises three evolutionarily significant units (ESUs). The northern ESU is found at higher latitudes across the western Palaearctic region and includes six, largely allopatric, mitochondrial DNA lineages that were derived from population bottlenecks. One of these lineages is found in southern Britain and nearby...Herman, Jeremy S ; Stojack, Joanna ; Paupério, Joana ; Jaarola, M ; Wojcik, J M …
Y-chromosome, cytochromeb, selection, post-glacial colonization, population bottleneck, and microsatellite
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Journal article
Saving our polyesterdays: historical plastics research
Preventing the degradation of materials in museums has always been a challenge. Now plastics in 20th century museum artefacts are presenting a new set of problems.Quye, Anita
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Journal article
Probing the factors which control degradation in museum collections of cellulose acetate artefacts
Cellulose acetate artefacts in museum collections cover a period from the early 1900's to the present day. Conservators have observed that certain of these objects are showing signs of warping, crazing, cracking, discolouration and shrinkage accompanied by a strong smell of acetic acid. Previous studies on cellulose nitrate artefacts show...Ballany, Jane M ; Littlejohn, D ; Pethrick, R P ; Quye, Anita
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Journal article
Analytical studies of the degradation of cellulose nitrate plastics in museums
This paper discusses a project which is examining the degradation of cellulose nitrate artefacts. Several analytical techniques including Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy and ion chromatography have been used to investigate the degradation processes occurring and the various factors influencing the rate of degradation. Accelerated ageing of cellulose nitrate has...Stewart, R ; Littlejohn, D ; Pethrick, R P ; Quye, Anita ; Tennent, N H
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Journal article
Analytical study of the Middle Kingdom group of gold jewellery from tomb 124 at Riqqa, Egypt
The jewellery from tomb 124 at Riqqa, consisting of one pectoral and one winged beetle in gold and cloisonné work, one gold shell pendant decorated with wires and granulation, and one hollow gold amulet in the form of god Min, was analysed by handheld X‐ray fluorescence and scanning electron microscopy...Troalen, Lore ; Guerra, Maria Filomena ; Maitland, Margaret ; Ponting, M ; Price, C
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Journal article
A Raman spectroscopic study of pollution-induced glass deterioration
White crystalline deposits were present on a large number of 19th and 20th century British glass artefacts in the National Museums of Scotland collections. Analysis of these deposits by ion chromatography showed that sodium and formate were the dominant ions. Raman spectroscopy identified sodium formate anhydrate phase II as the...Robinet, L ; Eremin, Katherine ; Cobo del Arco, B ; Gibson, L T
sodium formate, glass corrosion, ion chromatography, pollutant gas, and micro‐Raman spectroscopy
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Journal article
A Raman spectroscopic analysis of pigments from Dynastic Egyptian funerary artefacts
As part of a comprehensive analytical survey, Raman spectra were obtained of pigments from ancient Egyptian funerary artefacts dating from the 17th Dynasty to the Graeco‐Roman period, using several laser excitation wavelengths. A wide colour palette has been identified with mineral pigments and pigment mixtures; several variations were detected with...Edwards, Howell G M ; Jorde Villar, S E ; Eremin, Katherine
Egyptian artefacts, mineral pigments, sarcophagi, and micro‐Raman spectroscopy
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Journal article
The natural constituents of historical textile dyes
The sources and structures of dyes used to colour Western historical textiles are described in this tutorial review. Most blue and purple colours were derived from indigo—obtained either from woad or from the indigo plant—though some other sources (e.g. shellfish and lichens) were used. Reds were often anthraquinone derivatives obtained...Ferreira, Ester S B ; Hulme, Alison N ; McNab, Hamish ; Quye, Anita
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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
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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
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Journal article
Characterisation of ‘bog butter’ using a combination of molecular and isotopic techniques
The chemical analyses of ‘bog butters’ recovered from peat bogs of Scotland were performed with the aim of determining their origins. Detailed compositional information was obtained from ‘bog butter’ lipids using high temperature gas chromatography (HTGC) and GC-mass spectrometry (GC-MS). The results indicate the degree to which ‘bog butters’ have...Berstan, Robert ; Dudd, Stephanie N ; Copley, Mark S ; Morgan, E David ; Quye, Anita …
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Journal article
The characterisation of metal soaps
To characterize more fully the metal soaps found in paint films or on metal surfaces, several metal soaps were synthesized and their X-ray diffraction pattern and Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) and Raman spectra measured. Metal soaps were obtained from four different fatty acids found in drying oils — two saturated...Robinet, Lauren ; Corbeil, Marie-Claude
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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
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Journal article
On the chemistry of John and Robert Adamson’s Salted paper prints and calotype negatives
The chemical processes used by John and Robert Adamson and the possibility that they might have used some special ingredient has long been the subject of speculation. In the early stages of photography in Scotland, the chemical processes used were probably based on William Henry Fox Talbot's, but it is...Eremin, Katherine ; Tate, Jim ; Berry, James
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Journal article
Ivory Towers of entitlement?: the commercialisation of academic palaeontologists
Palaeontology suffers from divisions amongst its community, along an ostensibly motivational division between acadmic and commercial palaeontologists, the former not being motivated financially, unlike the latter. These divisions are particularly plarised in the United States of America. In order to discuss why this attitude exsists, even when the financial division...Liston, Jeff
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Journal article
Non-destructive analysis of nineteenth century Scottish calotype negatives and salt prints
Nineteenth century negatives and positives in the collections of the National Museums of Scotland (NMS) and the National Galleries of Scotland (NGS) were analysed non-destructively to identify the techniques used in their manufacture. Modern positive and negative images prepared using known nineteenth century processes were also analysed for comparison. Air-path...Eremin, Katherine ; Tate, Jim ; Morrison-Low, A D ; Berry, James ; Stevenson, Sara
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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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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
Contributions. In: Ritchie, Georgina 'Pictures worth 1,00 words: capturing Orkney's chambered cairns'
What can cutting-edge photographic technology add to our understanding of Orkney's Neolithic chambered tombs? Georgina Ritchie explores the possibilities of photogrammetry with contributions from Steve Farrar and Hugo Anderson-WhymarkAnderson-Whymark, Hugo
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Journal article
The Blattodea (cockroaches), Mantodea (praying mantises) and Dermaptera (earwigs) of the Insect Limestone (late Eocene), Isle of Wight, including the first record of Mantodea from the UK
The fossil cockroaches (Blattodea), praying mantises (Mantodea) and earwigs (Demaptera) are described from the Insect Limestone (Priabonian) of the Isle of Wight, southern England. Three new species of cockroach are described in the family Ectobiidae – Phyllodromica protosardea sp. nov., Balta protosimilis sp. nov. and Malaccina? wightensis sp. nov. –...Ross, Andrew
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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
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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
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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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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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Journal article
Illustrating animals and visualizing Natural History in Chambers’s Encyclopaedias
In the 19th century, there was wide-spread public interest in natural history, as reflected in the high attendance at zoos and travelling menageries, in the market for popular field guides, in fashions for orchid collecting, fossil hunting and aquarium building, and in well-attended popular science lectures. More than 10 years...Roberto, Rose
wood-engraving, natural history illustrations, reference books, Chambers’s Encyclopaedia, Victorian book illustration, and Encyclopaedia Britannica
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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
Storm-induced community Dynamics in the Fezouata Biota (Lower Ordovician, Morocco)
In the Central Anti-Atlas (Morocco), the lower part of the Fezouata Shale has yielded locally abundant remains of soft-bodied to lightly sclerotized taxa, occurring in low diversity assemblages characterized by strong spatial and taxonomic heterogeneities, and frequently, by the occurrence of small-sized individuals. Size frequency analyses of Celdobolus sp., Wosekella...Saleh, Farid ; Candela, Yves ; Harper, David A T ; Polechová, Marika ; Lefebvre, Bertrand …
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Journal article
Gold in Prehistoric Scotland
Dr Alison Sheridan introduces a new joint project to explore what we know - and what we have yet to discover - about early gold us in Britain.Sheridan, J A
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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
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Journal article
Cyprus as an ancient hub for house mice and humans
Aim The distribution of the western house mouse (Mus musculus domesticus) around the world has been strongly influenced by the movement of humans. The close association between the house mouse and human phylogeography has been primarily studied in the peripheral distribution of the species. Here, we inferred the complex colonization...García‐Rodríguez, Oxala ; Andreou, Demetra ; Herman, Jeremy S ; Mitsainas, George P ; Searle, Jeremy B …
house mouse, phylogeography, mtDNA, human, bioproxy, and Cyprus
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Journal article
Distinguishing the victim from the threat: SNP‐based methods reveal the extent of introgressive hybridization between wildcats and domestic cats in Scotland and inform future in situ and ex situ management options for species restoration
The degree of introgressive hybridization between the Scottish wildcat and domestic cat has long been suspected to be advanced. Here, we use a 35‐SNP‐marker test, designed to assess hybridization between wildcat and domestic cat populations in Scotland, to assess a database of 295 wild‐living and captive cat samples, and test...Senn, Helen ; Ghazali, Muhammad ; Kaden, Jennifer ; Barclay, David ; Harrower, Ben …
carnivores, captive populations, conservation management, and invasive species
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Journal article
The polaris subspecies of Little Auk Alle alle on the British List
This paper describes the analysis of a number of Little Auk Alle alle specimens collected in Scotland that show biometrics of the subspecies A.a. polaris which breeds in the eastern part of the species' Arctic range. Wing length measurements confirmed that two specimens are A.a. polaris. This conclusion has been...McInerney, C J ; McGowan, R Y
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Journal article
The mandible and dentition of Borealestes serendipitus (Docodonta) from the Middle Jurassic of Skye, Scotland
The Middle Jurassic docodont Borealestes serendipitus was the first Mesozoic mammal found in Scotland over 40 years ago. Its affinities and morphology have remained poorly understood. Although multiple dentary fragments and isolated teeth have been recovered from Scotland and England, they have not yet been described in sufficient detail. We...Panciroli, Elsa
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Blair Drummond metal detector find and excavation
Hunter, Fraser
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Ardesier. Metal detector find
Hunter, Fraser
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Photography of amber inclusions in the collections of National Museums Scotland
The collections of the Department of Natural Sciences, National Museums Scotland, at present hold around 130 specimens of amber, the earliest acquired in 1832. Mainly from the Baltic area and Mexico, they also include examples from Italy, Africa, Japan and New Zealand. Recently a number have been added, originating from...Crichton, William R. B. ; Carrió, Vicen
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Journal article
Location, location, location
Morrison-Low, A D
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Journal article
Recent fieldwork in Argyll
Jackson, Stephen
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Tombstone of a Roman cavalry trooper discovered
Hunter, Fraser ; Keppie, L
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Malmgrenia McIntosh, 1874 (Annelida, Polychaeta, POLYNOIDAE): proposed conservation of usage by designation of Malmgrenia andreapolis McIntosh, 1874 as the type species
The purpose of this application, under Article 81.1 of the Code, is to conserve the current usage of the widely used name Malmgrenia McIntosh, 1874 (a polynoid worm genus from the northern North Atlantic) by designation of Malmgrenia andreapolis McIntosh, 1874 as the type species of Malmgrenia. The type species...Muir, A I ; Chambers, Susan
Malmgreniella, Malmgrenia whiteavesii, scale worm, northern North Atlantic, Malmgrenia, Malmgrenia andreapolis, Nomenclature, taxonomy, Polychaeta, and POLYNOIDAE
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Journal article
The Dorset Yellow Bittern
Melling, T ; McGowan, R Y
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Journal article
A Pictish brooch mould from North Uist: implications for the organisation of non-ferrous metalworking in the later 1st Millenium A.D.
During analysis of the National Museum of Scotland’s collections, one of us (AH) discovered a previously unrecognised mould for the production of a ‘Pictish’ penannular brooch. The context of the mould, from an undefended and isolated low-status settlement site, at Cnoc a’ Comhdhalach, North Uist (Western Isles),is unusual for an...Campbell, Ewan ; Heald, Andrew
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Journal article
An Anglo-Saxon figure-decorated plaque from Ayton (Scottish Borders), its parallels and implications
An Anglo-Saxon plaque decorated with a human figure was found by a metal detectorist in the vicinity of the village of Ayton in 2003 (NGR: NT 92 61),1 and is now in the National Museums of Scotland, Edinburgh (NMS, X.IG 22). The complete human form is rare within early Anglo-Saxon...Blackwell, Alice
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Journal article
Reading the multiple lives of Pictish symbol stones
A small number of Pictish symbol stones demonstrate evidence for multiple lives within the Early Historic Period. These stones are reviewed together with their implications for how we view the wider corpus of Pictish stones. The idea that the stones are burial markers is rejected. Instead, it is suggested that...Clarke, David V
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Journal article
Howburn, Near Biggar, South Lanarkshire: Preliminary Notice of a Scottish Inland Early Holocene Lithic Assemblage
This paper draws preliminary attention to the recent discovery of evidence for early Holocene human presence at Howburn, near Biggar, in the interior of southern Scotland. Implement types invite comparison with so-called Star Carr type Early Mesolithic assemblages of the 10th millennium BP, or possibly with even earlier technological traditions.Saville, Alan ; Ballin, Torben Bjarke ; Ward, T
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Various entries
Cowie, Trevor ; Heald, Andrew ; Hunter, Fraser ; Saville, Alan
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Journal article
Museum Appeal
Grant, Katarina