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Poster (unpublished)
Mining the minerals, data, and other resources of the National Museums Scotland Collection
National Museums Scotland has a hugely diverse, historical, and well-curated mineral collection. Five kilometres from here at the National Museums Collections Centre, over 70,000 mineral and rock specimens are housed in one of the best storage facilities in Europe. There are over 2000 mineral species represented, with examples from a...Walcott, Rachel ; Brown, Emily ; Davidson, Peter
National Museums Scotland Collection , mineral species, National Museums Collection Centre, mineral specimens, and data mining
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Lecture
Beyond the Bubble: Taking Taxonomy Outside the Museum
Ashleigh Wiffen from the National Museums Scotland gave us brilliant examples of how we can take #taxonomy out of the museum and engage with a wider audience.Whiffin, Ashleigh
taxonomy , keynote talk, invertebrate collection, audience development, and external engagement
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Lecture
Radar and air defence of Scotland during the Second World War
This talk will look at the growth of the air defences and their unknown achievements in defending the skies over Scotland. Much has been written about the role of radar and how, as part of an integrated air defence system, it helped win the Battle of Britain in 1940. However,...Brown, Ian
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Journal article
Dinocephalosaurus orientalis Li, 2003: a remarkable marine archosauromorph from the Middle Triassic of southwestern China
The non-archosauriform archosauromorph Dinocephalosaurus orientalis was first described from the Upper Member of the Guanling Formation (late Anisian, Middle Triassic) of Guizhou Province by Li in 2003 on the basis of a complete articulated skull and the first three cervical vertebrae exposed in dorsal to right lateral view. Since then,...Spiekman, Stephan N F ; Wang, Wei ; Zhao , Lijun ; Rieppel , Olivier ; Fraser, Nicholas C …
non-archosauriform , marine reptile , southern China, and late Anisian
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Book chapter
Introduction: decoding jewels in Renaissance Scotland
The classic Roman god Mercury strides purposefully from left to right across a gold locket, but his specific intention is not immediately clear (fig.1). However, to the sixteenth-century maker, buyer and recipient of this locket, now known as the Fettercairn jewel, the significance of Mercury's journey will have been understood....Groundwater, Anna
Renaissance , Mary Queen of Scots, material culture , Scottish history , jewellery history , Stuarts, art history, and objects
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Book chapter
Foreword
At National Museums Scotland we have a small but stellar collection of Renaissance jewellery associated with Scotland in the sixteenth century. Highlights of this collection include the pearl- encrusted gold locket and fillgree bead necklace of the Penicuk Jewels, associated with Mary, Queen of Scots, and the finely enamelled Fettercairn...Alberti, S J M M
Scottish history, jewellery history, Stuarts, and Renaissance
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Book chapter
The Mystery of the Fettercairn Jewel
When the Fettercairn Jewel was discovered wrapped in paper at the back of a drawer at Fettercairn House, Aberdeenshire, in 2017. It was quickly recognised as an astounding piece of late sixteenth-century jewellery. But with little recorded provenance, and no obvious clues to its early history, it posed many questions.Wyld, Helen
Renaissance, material culture, Scottish history, art history, and jewellery history
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Book chapter
Tracing royal Stewart jewels in the archives
Imagine the impact of Mary Queen of Scots walking into the room. At nearly six feet tall, and dressed into the finest jewels, fashion and fabrics available, she will have impressed. That, after all, was the intended effect: Mary used the way she appeared to command respect, denote her regal...Groundwater, Anna
Renaissance , material culture , Scottish history , jewellery history , Mary Queen of Scots , art history, objects, and Stuarts
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Book chapter
Analysis of the Fettercairn Jewel and comparative Scottish Renaissance jewellery
Renaissance jewellery pieces often demonstrate highly developed artistic and technological skills and combine precious gemstones, pearls, gold, translucent and opaque enamels to reflect an individual's wealth, social status or political loyalties.1 Although there has been significant research published on Renaissance jewellery from an art historical point of view, the amount...Troalen, Lore
Scottish history, Renaissance,, jewellery history, material culture, and analytical data
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Book chapter
An Early Medieval and prehistoric nexus: the Strathearn Environs and Royal Forteviot project
This edited volume explores how (what is today) Scotland can be compared with, contrasted to, or was connected with other parts of Early Medieval Europe. Far from a ‘dark age’, Early Medieval Scotland (AD 300–900) was a crucible of different languages and cultures, the world of the Picts, Scots, Britons...Maldonado, Adrián ; Campbell, Ewan ; Driscoll, Stephen ; Gondek, Meggen
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Book chapter
Collaboration. In: Y. Pailler, M. Errera, J. Rolet 'L’outillage poli et les objets de parure'
The polished material discovered during the excavations of the site is limited to twenty-two objects. Their petrographic and spectroradiometric allows us to define exploited rocks and in some cases to provide the source of raw materials. Polished stone axes are highly fragmented and exclusively made of fibrolites. Two continental sources...Troalen, Lore
megaliths, Molène Archipelago, households, domestic architecture, Bronze Age, Brittany, prehistoric subsistence, multidisciplinary research, Bretagne, and Neolithic archaeology
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Book chapter
Disc-rings of Alpine rock in western Europe: typology, chronology, distribution and social significance
In France, disc-rings made from Alpine jades and from serpentinite circulated over very long distances, as far as the Channel coast and that of Brittany. The authors offer here a typo-chronological study of these and other stone bangles, according to the types of rock used, and consider their distribution and...Pétrequin, P ; Cassen, S ; Errera, M ; Pailler, Yves ; Prodéo, F …
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Book chapter
Early Medieval burial in European context: log coffins in Scotland
This edited volume explores how (what is today) Scotland can be compared with, contrasted to, or was connected with other parts of Early Medieval Europe. Far from a ‘dark age’, Early Medieval Scotland (AD 300–900) was a crucible of different languages and cultures, the world of the Picts, Scots, Britons...Maldonado, Adrián
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Book
Scotland in Early Medieval Europe
This edited volume explores how (what is today) Scotland can be compared with, contrasted to, or was connected with other parts of Early Medieval Europe. Far from a ‘dark age’, Early Medieval Scotland (AD 300–900) was a crucible of different languages and cultures, the world of the Picts, Scots, Britons...Blackwell, Alice
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Book chapter
Norrie's Law, Gaulcross and beyond: widening the context of hacksilver hoarding in Scotland
This edited volume explores how (what is today) Scotland can be compared with, contrasted to, or was connected with other parts of Early Medieval Europe. Far from a ‘dark age’, Early Medieval Scotland (AD 300–900) was a crucible of different languages and cultures, the world of the Picts, Scots, Britons...Blackwell, Alice ; Goldberg, D Martin
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Book chapter
Introduction
This edited volume explores how (what is today) Scotland can be compared with, contrasted to, or was connected with other parts of Early Medieval Europe. Far from a ‘dark age’, Early Medieval Scotland (AD 300–900) was a crucible of different languages and cultures, the world of the Picts, Scots, Britons...Blackwell, Alice
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Journal article
2. SCOTLAND
NORTH OF THE ANTONINE WALL: Tap o'Noth and Longforgan THE ANTONINE WALL: Seabegs Wood, Milnquarter, Bonnyside East, Rough Castle, Mumrills and Bo'ness SOUTH OF THE ANTONINE WALL: Castle GregHunter, Fraser
Roman Scotland, industrial activity, Military Way, hillforts, Antonine Wall, fortlet, archaeological excavations , and camps
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Book chapter
Material worlds
This chapter considers material culture themes beyond any single region or country in order to look at recurring problems and possibilities across the European Iron Age. Often these are analogies (such as problems of taphonomic bias) rather than direct linkages, but large-scale issues in European prehistory are also considered, such...Hunter, Fraser
technological innovation, material culture, taphonomic bias, decoration, and Mediterranean links
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Book chapter
'Items that are likely to date to the Late Iron Age/Romano-British period' In: Boughey, Keith, A Tale of Two Collectors: The Lithic Collections of Geoffrey Taylor and David Heys (with particular reference to the county of Yorkshire)
The book begins with brief biographies of the two collectors and outlines the areas in which they collected, principally the North York Moors, and their method of working, before attempting to set their work into its wider prehistoric context. It then explains how the over 18,000 worked pieces in the...Hunter, Fraser ; Sheridan, J A
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Book chapter
Selective fragmentation. Exploring the treatment of metalwork across time and space in Bronze Age Britain
During the Bronze Age (BA), thousands of metal tools, weapons and ornaments were buried across Europe in graves, settlements, single finds and hoards in the natural landscape. Many show evidence of deliberate treatment and structured and selective deposition. The concept of selective deposition (i.e. the decision to deposit objects in...Knight, Matthew G
Bronze Age, metal deposition, selective fragmentation practice, and Britain
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Lecture
The Peebles Hoard: A Late Bronze Age discovery from the Scottish Borders
In June 2020, a metal detectorist found several peculiar bronze fittings near Peebles in the Scottish Borders. Subsequent excavation by the Treasure Trove Unit and National Museums Scotland revealed these to be part of a substantial Late Bronze Age hoard comprising unique bronze fittings and equipment with surviving organic material,...Freeman, Emily ; Knight, Matthew G
scabbard, metal detecting , bronze fittings , Late Brown Age, organic material, Treasure Trove, Peebles Hoard, and sword
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Book chapter
Making sense of Scottish Neolithic funerary monuments: tracing trajectories and understanding their rationale
This contribution offers an overview of the appearance , spread and regionally specific developmental trajectories of funerary monuments in Neolithic Scotland, setting these within the broader context of the arrival of farming groups from Brittany and northern France in the early centuries of the 4th millennium, and the subsequent expansion...Sheridan, J A
funerary monuments , Bayesian models , migration, Neolithic Scotland, passage tombs, cairns, and farming practices
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Book chapter
A view from north of the border
In 2021, Alasdair Whittle and his colleagues published a map showing their model of the Neolithisation of Britain and Ireland featuring, a northwards and westwards spread, from the south-east corner of England, of farming as a subsistence strategy and of other novel, associated, 'things and practices' - to borrow one...Sheridan, J A
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Presentation
Hosted, chaired and delivered the 'TARTAN: Exploding the Grid’ conference with V&A Dundee
Tartan: Exploring the Grid was an international conference expanding the thinking from our now closed exhibition, Tartan. This event was kindly supported by the University of Southampton. Recognising tartan as an inspiration for design as well as a powerful cultural symbol, the conference provided an opportunity for international researchers, artists,...Maxwell, Mhairi
cultural symbol, knowledge exchange, design inspiration , and tartan
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Conference paper (unpublished)
Crafting Colour Worlds in Scottish Stones
During the 18th and 19th centuries, Scottish jewellers used colourful stones – including agates and Cairngorm quartz – to craft luxury goods. This talk explores how the colours of these materials played a key role in shaping the design and making of jewellery objects, and in fostering new ways of...Laurenson, Sarah
jewellers, rocks, lapidaries, Scottish jewellers , Cairngorm quartz , mountain, geology, and colourful stones
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Conference paper (unpublished)
More than a spring clean: painting the house to welcome a king
Embedded in the roof of the Renaissance gallery at National Museum of Scotland are the painted rafters from a ceiling at Rossend Castle, Burntisland, Fife. These were probably commissioned by Sir Robert Melville of Murdochcairnie, first Lord Melville, and are thought to have been decorated in anticipation of a visit... -
Book chapter
'The worked shale and related materials' In: Strachan, David, Cook, Martin and McLaren, Dawn 'Three Forts on the Tay: Excavations at Moncreiffe, Moredun and Abernethy, Perth and Kinross 2014–17'
Two items in black organic-rich stone were recovered from Moncreiffe, while a larger assemblage of 21 items was recovered from Moredun (Chapter 4.7). Both assemblages include a range of unfinished objects, indicating elements of craft production at both sites. A more detailed discussion of the sources of the raw material,...Hunter, Fraser
craft production, archaeological excavations, Montcrieffe fort, worked shale, bangle fragment, and bead
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Book chapter
'The zoomorphic ring-headed pin' In: Strachan, David, Cook, Martin and McLaren, Dawn 'Three Forts on the Tay: Excavations at Moncreiffe, Moredun and Abernethy, Perth and Kinross 2014–17'
The most remarkable find from the Moredun excavations was a copper-alloy bird-headed pin (Figures 4.7, 4.8 and 4.9), unique and yet readily placed into a wider context. It is a miniature masterpiece of early Celtic art dating to the 3rd century BC. A summary of the find and its wider...Hunter, Fraser
copper-alloy bird-headed pin, chamfrain, archaeological excavations, Bronze mask , and Moredun excavations
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Book chapter
'The worked shale and related materials' In: Strachan, David, Cook, Martin and McLaren, Dawn 'Three Forts on the Tay: Excavations at Moncreiffe, Moredun and Abernethy, Perth and Kinross 2014–17'
Excavations recovered a comprehensive assemblage of 21 items from Moredun, including a range of unfinished material, indicating elements of craft production, while in addition, an unfinished bangle fragment was previously recovered from the hilltop as a stray find.Hunter, Fraser
craft production, archaeological excavations , assemblage, Moredun excavations, and bangle fragment
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Book
Curious devices and mighty machines: Exploring Science Museums: (Chinese translation)
本书以策展人和科学器物作为线索,通过介绍西欧和北美的众多科学博物馆,系统地阐释了科学博物馆从创建、收集藏品到布展、宣传的各个方面。书中内含94张图片,以文字与图片生动结合的方式,让读者直观地领略到世界著名科学博物馆及其藏品的魅力。Alberti, S J M M
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Lecture
Street House in the Context of Early Neolithic Britain
A conference will be held in the autumn of 2024 to present the evidence for the Early Neolithic salt production site at Street House, near Loftus. The site was discovered in 2014 during a programme of excavations. It is the only currently known salt ‘factory’ in Britain and the earliest...Sheridan, J A
archaeological excavations, salt production, Street House, saltern, and Early Neolithic Britain
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Lecture
The Neolithic Pottery from Street House
A conference will be held in the autumn of 2024 to present the evidence for the Early Neolithic salt production site at Street House, near Loftus. The site was discovered in 2014 during a programme of excavations. It is the only currently known salt ‘factory’ in Britain and the earliest...Sheridan, J A
Neolithic Pottery, Early Neolithic Britain, Analysis, archaeological excavations, and Street House
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Newspaper article
Following the map to a time and place
A staggering 34.2 million maps were made by the British Armed Forces during the Second World War. A new display at the National War Museum in Edinburgh Castle traces their vital role in the war effort, the evolving technology used to produce them and their post war place as mementos...Gibb, Julie
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Still image
Field work images - 28 Group Observed Dundee May 2022
Photographs(s) from fieldwork undertaken at museums and other Cold War heritage sites in Scotland and beyond as part of the ‘Materialising the Cold War’ research project.Gledhill, Jim
building restoration project, UKWMO Caledonian Sector HQ bunker, Royal Observer Corps’ 28 (Dundee) Group, photographs, and fieldwork
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Book chapter
“A Crown of Everlasting Glory”: The Afterlife of Maria Clementina Sobieska in Material and Visual Culture
Maria Clementina Sobieska was the last widely recognised Stuart queen, albeit in exile, and mother to the final generation of the Stuart dynasty. Examining the material and visual culture surrounding her funeral and afterlife, this chapter reinstates Clementina in Jacobite and Stuart history. It also considers the papal role in...Vullinghs, Georgia
Jacobites, visual culture, material culture, Royal funerals, Queenship, and Stuarts
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Journal article
The tale of a Mesolithic harpoon head from Arisaig
This is a remarkable tale about a remarkable artifact that would have been lost to Scottish archaeology had it not been for a brave decision by a schoolgirl to disregard the views of her teachers over 50 years ago!Sheridan, J A
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Book chapter
Measurement Standards and Double Standards Reassessing Charles Piazzi Smyth’s Egyptological Reputation
In 1864–5, the Astronomer Royal for Scotland, Charles Piazzi Smyth (1819–1900),3 his wife Jessie (1812–1896),4 and a small team of Egyptian archaeological workers conducted an extensive survey of the Great Pyramid of Giza. Smyth had become interested in the structure as he read John Taylor’s The Great Pyramid: Why Was... -
Still image
IMG_5844.JPG
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Book chapter
Figures in museum display: the creation and use of a little person mannequin at National Museums Scotland
In 2019, National Museums Scotland (NMS) presented the temporary exhibition Body Beautiful: Diversity on the Cat walk. It addressed broad issues of diversity and inclusivity in the fashion industry, organized around five categories: ‘Age’, ‘Disability’, ‘LGBTQIA+’, ‘Race’ and ‘Size’. Integral to the mannequin brief was challenging perceptions of the body...McLeod, Miriam ; Ripley, Georgina
mannequin, representation, Body Beautiful: Diversity on the Catwalk, inclusivity, fashion industry, exhibition, and diversity
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Conference paper (unpublished)
Rematriation of the Ni’isjoohl Memorial Pole
A case study on the rematriation of the Ni’isjoohl Memorial Pole from National Museums Scotland to the Nisga’a Nation indigenous community in Canada.Brownlee, Yvonne
Nisga Nation, Scotland to Canada, rematriation , Ni’isjoohl Memorial Pole , Hli G̱oothl Wilp-Adoḵshl Nisg̱a’a , colonial histories, and National Museums Scotland
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Conference paper (unpublished)
The National Museum of Flight & the work of the conservators
This illustrated talk will provide and overview of the National Museum of Flight - focusing on the work of the conservators, including a summary of East Fortune Airfield, and news of site development.Burgel, Thilo
aircraft conservation, maintenance, East Fortune Airfield, National Museum of Flight, and technology conservation
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Book chapter
Global History in the History of Fashion
Over the twentieth century, multi-disciplinary academic studies addressed dress practice and bodily adornment from a variety of perspectives, assessing the question of fashion, though few communities outside the West were awarded this term until the past generation. Anthropologists took an ethnographic stance, with works that from the late 1980s became...Breward, Christopher ; Lemire, Beverly ; Riello, Giorgio
dress practice , ethnographic approach, fashion history, bodily adornment , global, and clothing
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Presentation
Rising Tide: Art and Environment in Oceania talks
Presentation of eight talks on Rising Tide: Art and Environment in Oceania including a contribution to ‘Storytelling for the Planet: a place-based approach for museum audiences’, a sector event as part of the Natural History Museum’s Our Broken Planet Community of Practice programme, National Museum of ScotlandClark, Alison