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Book chapter
Valorizing the ordinary – documenting the vernacular heritage of Shutb village
'The British Museum Asyut Region Project' aims at reconstructing and preserving the deep history of the Asyut region in Middle Egypt through survey and documentation of its pharaonic and post-pharaonic heritage, including the varied responses of local communities living atop the layers of history below. The village of Shutb, 5...Shama, Heba ; Ibrahim, Kareem ; Regulski, Ilona
urban fabric, Middle Egypt, and Asyut
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Journal article
Desert dust and city smoke: investigating the impact of urbanisation and aridification on the prevalence of pulmonary/pleural inflammation in the Middle Nile Valley (2500 BC to AD 1500)
This study investigates the impact of urbanization and aridification on prevalence rates of lower respiratory tract disease in archaeological populations from the Middle Nile Valley. Evidence for pulmonary/pleural inflammation, in the form of inflammatory periosteal reaction (IPR) on the visceral surfaces of the ribs, was recorded in humanskeletal remains (452...Davies-Barrett, Anna ; Antoine, Daniel ; Roberts, Charlotte
environmental change, air quality , infectious disease, Sudan, pleurisy, and lower respiratory tract disease
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Journal article
Designs for coins and medals by William Wyon (1795–1851) and his circle
In 2020 the British Museum acquired two folios of drawings consisting of designs for coins, medals, seals and decorations as well as portrait and life studies. Numbering more than 150 separate drawings, they feature works attributed to leading British sculptural artists and designers of the first half of the 19th...Hockenhull, Tom
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Book chapter
Lives that bind: three stories from the World of Stonehenge
This chapter introduces some of the key themes of The world of Stonehenge exhibition through objects designed to forefront the humanity of the period.Wilkin, Neil
prehistory, exhibition, and Stonehenge
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Book
Greek and Roman Medicine at the British Museum: The Instruments and Accoutrements of Ancient Medicine
Greek and Roman Medicine at the British Museum is an authoritative and up-to-date study of Greek and Roman medicine and surgery. This book is the first full, and fully illustrated, publication of the Museum’s important collection. Strategies for the preservation of health and for the prevention and treatment of illness...Jackson, Ralph
History of collecting, History of medicine, and Classical world
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Book
Late Hokusai: Society, Thought, Technique, Legacy
This publication has been developed from ideas first presented at the international symposium Late Hokusai: Thought, Technique, Society, held at the British Museum in May 2017. The symposium was organised to enable specialists in a range of disciplines relating to early modern Japan to view and consider the critically acclaimed...Clark, Timothy
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Book
Recent Discoveries of Tetrarchic Hoards from Roman Britain and their Wider Context
This volume was prompted by the recent discovery in Britain of two large coin hoards dating from the first decade of the fourth century AD – Wold Newton and Rauceby. Coins of this early Tetrarchic period are relatively uncommon finds in Britain and elsewhere, due mainly to the brevity of...Ghey, Eleanor
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Journal article
An introduction and recent advances in the analytical study of early synthetic dyes and organic pigments in cultural heritage
This article reviews the research recently undertaken to characterise and identify early synthetic dyes (ESDs) and synthetic organic pigments (SOPs) as well as study their degradation pathways with a focus on cultural heritage applications. Since the invention of the first fully synthetic dye in 1856, these materials have been used...Tamburini, Diego ; Sabatini, Francesca ; Berbers, Sanne ; van Bommel, Maarten ; Degano, Ilaria
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Journal article
Bretford, Warwickshire: new insights into a medieval new town
This article investigates the town of Bretford, Warwickshire, identified as a new medieval town, through new documentary and archaeological evidence, notably from the Bretford Deed Collection, and finds recorded through the Portable Antiquities Scheme, including a unique gold brooch.Dyer, Christopher ; Lewis, Michael
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Journal article
Courtly experiments: early portrait etchings by Lucas van Leyden and Jan Gossart
For a brief moment in the early sixteenth-century Low Countries, etching became a significant technique for elite commissions. I examine the two earliest etchings made in the Low Countries as a case study: the portrait of Maximilian I by Lucas van Leyden and the portrait of Charles V by Jan...Horbatsch, Olenka
Lucas van Leyden , etching, and Jan Gossart
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Journal article
Enlightenment architectures: the reconstruction of Sir Hans Sloane’s cabinets of ‘Miscellanies’
Focusing on Sir Hans Sloane’s catalogue of ‘Miscellanies’, now in the British Museum, this paper asks firstly how Sloane described objects and secondly whether the original contents of the cabinets can be reconstructed from his catalogue. Drawing on a sustained, digitally augmented analysis – the first of its kind –...Sloan, Kim ; Nyhan, Julianne
British Museum, digitization, collections, cabinets, Sir Hans Sloane, catalogues, and digital humanities
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Journal article
Everyday Protection: Learning from United Nations Protection of Civilians Sites
‘Protection of Civilians’ (PoC) has been a dominant focus of United Nations (UN) peacekeeping missions in recent decades. At the same time, ‘Protection of Civilians’ is a contested and ambiguous concept, with its practical meanings often established in the realities of implementation. The introduction to this special issue argues that...Cormack, Zoe ; Pendle, Naomi
South Sudan, Protection of Civilians, United Nations , humanitarian protection, and peacekeeping
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Journal article
From Jemdet Nasr origins to an early Muslim town in the wetlands: second preliminary report on excavations at Kobeba (Dhi Qar governorate), southern Iraq
In 2022, targeted excavations were carried out as part of a study season at the site of Kobeba, near the town of al-Rifa’i, in Dhi Qar governorate, southern Iraq. The results were very successful and clarified a number of outstanding questions over the dating and phasing. One sounding has confirmed...Simpson, St John
Kobeba and Jemdet Nasr
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Book
The Assyrian Rock Relief at Yaǧmur (Evrihan) in the Tur Abdin
The Assyrian Rock Relief at Yaǧmur in the Tur Abdin publishes a newly discovered rock relief in the Mazıdağı Plain, at the western end of the Tur Abdin in southeastern Turkey. The preserved remains include an image of an Assyrian king, divine symbols and traces of three panels of cuneiform...Bülent, Genç ; John, MacGinnis
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Journal article
The Western European Acheulean: Reading variability at a regional scale
In the context of the Western European Acheulean Project, this study aims to characterize Acheulean technology in Western Europe through the analysis of handaxes and cleavers from 10 key sites (Britain 4, France 4, and Spain 2) to acquire a regional view of the occupation. The historically different systems used...García-Medrano, Paula ; Moncel, Marie-Hélène ; Maldonado-Garrido, Elías ; Ollé, Andreu ; Ashton, Nick
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Journal article
Did our ancestors nearly die out?
Genetic analyses suggest an ancient human population crash 900,000 years ago Earth’s climate system began to change during the Middle Pleistocene transition, which is associated with a severe cooling phase about 900,000 years ago. How this change might have affected human populations is difficult to determine, because the human fossil...Ashton, Nick ; Stringer, Chris
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Book
Amara West: The Pottery from Cemeteries C and D
The two cemeteries of Amara West in Sudan, a town founded in around 1300 BC as a new centre for the colonial pharaonic administration of Kush (Upper Nubia), were excavated by the British Museum’s Amara West Research Project between 2009 and 2016. This book focused on the ceramic vessels placed...Gasperini, Valentina
Sudan, Amara West, and ceramics
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Book
Gematon: Living and Dying in a Kushite Town on the Nile, Volume I: Excavations at Kawa, 1997-2018
The first of a set of three volumes publishing the excavations at the site of Kawa, Northern Dongola Reach, between 1997 and 2018 by the Sudan Archaeological Research Society. Volume I contains a detailed study of the excavations carried out in Areas A, B, C, and F, as well as...Welsby, Derek A.
archaeology, Sudan, and Kawa
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Journal article
Giants of the sands: the giraffe and its place in symbolic vocabulary in the Kingdom of Kush, Sudan
The image of a giraffe was added to both wheelmade and handmade pottery, faience plaques, temple walls and rock art in the Meroitic period of the Kingdom of Kush ( 570 – 550), located in modern-day Sudan. However, giraffes do not appear in contemporary royal and elite art and architecture....Kilroe, Loretta
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Journal article
Preliminary investigation of the chaîne opératoire of Meroitic potsherds from the cemetery of Faras, northern Nubia (Sudan)
Handmade, black-burnished pottery had a significant presence in Meroitic contexts across Sudan, from Jebel Moya in central Sudan to Seyala in Lower Nubia, suggesting the production and exchange of handmade vessels was a key industry in the Meroitic kingdom. The macroscopic identification of examples with no discernible organic temper, in...Kilroe, Loretta ; Spataro, Michela
Meroitic ceramics, polarised light microscopy, and chaîne opératoire
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Book chapter
Sampling inorganic materials for chemical (elemental and isotopic) analysis
This Handbook aims to help bridge this gap in the daily practice of archaeological fieldwork and lab-based researchDegryse, Patrick ; Rademakers, Frederik
inorganic materials, isotope analysis, and archaeological science
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Book chapter
Interpersonal violence in the Late Pleistocene: a comprehensive reanalysis of the Nile Valley cemetery of Jebel Sahaba
The Late Pleistocene and Early Holocene period are punctuated by major climatic changes whose effects on human populations remain poorly understood. In the Nile Valley, possible refuge areas during the periods of high climatic constraints, hyper-arid environmental conditions are documented until the onset of the Holocene. Dated to the terminal...Crevecoeur, Isabelle ; Dias-Meirinho, Marie-Hélène ; Zazzo, Antoine ; Antoine, Daniel ; Bon, Francis
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Journal article
Applicability and efficacy of an enhanced nanolime consolidation technique for British Museum limestone objects
Stone consolidation is one of the most important and complex treatment actions performed in museums. However, products routinely applied on limestone objects are often chemically incompatible with the treated substrate. Despites the established efficiency of nanolime for outdoor conservation and its chemical compatibility with the carbonate mineral matrix, its performance...Maucourant, Cyril ; O'Flaherty, Fin ; Drago, Amy
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Book chapter
Tupaia and the Heva Tupapa'u: voyages past, present and future
Centring priest and navigator Tupaia and Pacific worldviews, this richly illustrated volume weaves a new set of cultural histories in the Pacific, between local islanders and the crew of the Endeavour on James Cook's first 'voyage of discovery' (1768-1771). Contributors consider material collections brought back from the voyage, paying particular...Reynolds, Pauline ; Adams, Julie
Pacific, anthropology, and encounters
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Journal article
Dating ancient canal systems using radiocarbon dating and archaeological evidence at Tello/Girsu, southern Mesopotamia, Iraq
Mesopotamia is often regarded the “cradle of civilization.” The development of water management practices in the region is thought to have played a key role in the emergence of these early civilizations. We present the first direct dating of a palaeo-canal system at the ancient city of Girsu, Mesopotamia (modern...Egberts, Ella ; Jotheri, Jaafar ; Di Michele, Angelo ; Baxter, Antony ; Rey, Sebastien
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Book chapter
Gold of Peter the Great: Scythian goldsmithing techniques
The Siberian Collection of Peter the Great is the earliest archaeological collection of any kind in Russia and contains around 240 gold artefacts from the ancient Scythian and Sarmatian nomadic cultures of Eurasia. This unique collection of pairs of symmetrical buckles, torcs, bracelets and other items of personal adornment provides...Mongiatti, Aude ; Korolkova, Elena
digital microscopy, metalworking technologies, and Peter the Great
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Book
Masters of the Steppe: the Impact of the Scythians and Later Nomad Societies of Eurasia
Masters of the Steppe: the impact of the Scythians and later nomad societies of Eurasia consists of 45 papers presented at a major international conference held at the British Museum in 2017 on the occasion of the BP exhibition Scythians: warriors of ancient Siberia, both conference and exhibition being jointly...Pankova, Svetlana V. ; Simpson, St John
archaeology, steppe, and Scythians
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Journal article
Rediscovering famous assemblages: A rare Bronze Age crucible from El Argar, Spain
A rare open shallow crucible from the British Museum collection, excavated at the Bronze Age site of El Argar in south‐east Spain by Louis and Henri Siret, was studied using X‐radiography and scanning electron microscopy. The crucible has relatively thick walls, a spout and a non‐refractory fabric. It was used...Mongiatti, A. ; Montero‐Ruiz, I.
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Journal article
Analysis and conservation of a Bronze Age linen textile from Suffolk, UK
A rare Bronze Age linen textile was found inside a socketed axe, part of a bronze age hoard dating to circa 800 BCE, discovered in Somerleyton, Suffolk, in the 1920s. The recent loan of the objects from the hoard provided the opportunity for a collaborative study of the fragmentary textile...Harrison, Anna ; Cartwright, Caroline ; Harris, Susanna ; Shearman, Fleur ; Wilkin, Neil
Bronze Age, conservation, and textiles
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Book chapter
The colophons of Ashurbanipal, King of the World
Colophons mark the constituents of what may have been the first attempt to assemble all significant written scholarly knowledge in one place. The 7th century BC cuneiform collection of Ashurbanipal of Assyria lets us understand intellectual life in the ancient Middle East. More than twenty different, apparently standardised, colophon texts...Taylor, Jon ; Jiménez, Enrique ; Schnitzlein, Babette ; Cohen, Sophie
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Book
Repeopling La Manche: New Perspectives on Neanderthal Archaeology and Landscapes from La Cotte de St Brelade
The current geography of north-west Europe, from the perspective of long-term Pleistocene climate change, is temporary. The seaways that separate southern Britain from northern France comprise a flooded landscape open to occupation by hunter-gatherers for large parts of the 0.5 million years since the English Channel’s formation. While much of...Scott, Beccy ; Shaw, Andrew ; Scott, Katharine ; Pope, Matt
climate change, La Cotte de St Brelade, ecology, and Middle Palaeolithic
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Book chapter
Dynamism and scale in Western Asian Bronze Age trade networks
Cultural contacts and exchange are constituents of human behavior – ancient and modern. Within archaeology, particularly in that of Western Asia, the topic and related phenomena have been intensively studied during the last decades, leading to a re-evaluation of the cultural and economic, as well as physical landscapes throughout the...D’Alfonso , Lorenzo ; Highcock, Nancy A.
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Book chapter
The Western Nile Delta Project: Reappraising the American Survey in 1977–1983
An extensive survey conducted by W.D.E. Coulson and A. Leonard Jr. between 1977 and 1983 explored more than 30 ancient sites in an area of about 800 km2 in the western Nile Delta. The project focused on the direct hinterland of Naukratis, investigating a previously (largely) unstudied area using modern...Masson-Berghoff, Aurelia ; Thomas, Ross
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Journal article
Analysis and conservation of a Bronze Age linen textile from Suffolk, UK
A rare Bronze Age linen textile was found inside a socketed axe, part of a bronze age hoard dating to circa 800 BCE, discovered in Somerleyton, Suffolk, in the 1920s. The recent loan of the objects from the hoard provided the opportunity for a collaborative study of the fragmentary textile...Harrison ; Cartwright, Caroline ; Harris, Susanna ; Shearman, Fleur ; Wilkin, Neil
Bronze age, metalwork, linen, and textile
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Journal article
‘A lost chapter of ancient art’: archaeometric examinations of panel paintings from Roman Egypt
Ancient panel paintings on wood are, with the exception of the mesmerising mummy portraits, extremely rare. However, a small corpus of other types of Romano-Egyptian panel paintings is preserved in collections worldwide. The aim of this study is to explore the technical histories of these rare and intriguing artefacts. We...Brøns, Cecilie ; Stenger, Jens ; Newman, Richard ; Cartwright, Caroline ; Di Gianvincenzo, Fabiana …
radiocarbon dating, panel paintings, multi-spectral imaging, wood identification, and Roman Egypt
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Book chapter
Japanese bindings
Conservation of Books is the highly anticipated reference work on global book structures and their conservation, offering the first modern, comprehensive overview on this subject. This chapter looks at the subject of Japanese bindings.Kusunoki, Kyoko ; Matsumaru, Mito
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Journal article
Understanding the transport networks complex between South Asia, Southeast Asia and China during the late Neolithic and Bronze Age
The emergence and intensification of transcontinental exchange during both the Late Neolithic and Bronze Age profoundly influenced the social history of Eurasia. While scholars have intensively discussed east-west long-distance communication along the proto-Silk Road, the north-south transport networks that connected China to South and Southeast Asia during the Late Neolithic...Ma, Minmin ; Lu, Yongxiu ; Dong, Guanghui ; Ren, Lele ; Min, Rui …
Late Neolithic, Southeast Asia, transport networks, Bronze Age, South Asia, and China
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Journal article
Predicting bronze casting recipes in ancient China: ternary copper-lead–tin alloys and the “unit sum problem”
This paper explores the relationship between trends in the observed composition of ternary copper-lead–tin alloys and the recreation of “recipes” used for the casting of bronze objects, and in particular, to ask if the recipe can be reconstructed from the chemical data. The archaeological context is specifically the manufacture of...Pollard, A. M. ; Liu, Ruiliang
Bronze casting recipes , Chinese bronze coins, and Unit sum problem
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Journal article
From diversity to monopoly: major economic policy change in the Western Han Dynasty revealed by lead isotopic analysis
The relationship between the flow of metal and the state political and economic structures of the Qin and Han empires has thus far received inadequate scientific investigation. In this study, lead isotopic analysis was conducted on 54 bronzes unearthed from multiple sites of Eastern China dated to WHD (Western Han...Yang, Dongyi ; Wu, Xiaotong ; Liu, Ruiliang ; Wang, Qing ; Shi, Benheng …
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Book chapter
The use of kernel density estimates on chemical and isotopic data in archaeology
Kernel Density Estimates (KDEs) have found wide application in archaeological spatial analysis, where they have been integrated into geographical information systems with various user-friendly packages to explore the spatial distribution of archaeological finds. The creation of a KDE provides a non-parametric way of converting continuous data such as histograms or...Pollard, A.M. ; Ma, Qian ; Bidegaray, A.‐I. ; Liu, Ruiliang
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Journal article
Bronze alloying recipes at Anyang during the Shang Dynasty
We present a detailed analysis of the chemical alloying data (Cu, Sn, Pb) on the bronzes recovered from the Late Shang capital at Yinxu, revealing a complex pattern which varies by social status and object typology, and which also changes over time. The preference for higher tin in the bronze...Pollard, A. Mark ; Zhang, Yun ; Liu, Ruiliang
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Journal article
Human migration in the eastern Tianshan Mountains between the 7th and 12th centuries
Mid- to late-Holocene large-scale population migration profoundly impacted the interaction of ethnic groups and cultures across Eurasia, notably in Central Asia. However, due to a lack of thorough historical documents, distinctive burial items, and human remains, the process of population migration during this historical era in the area is still...He, Letian ; Cao, Huihui ; Wang, Yongqiang ; Liu, Ruiliang ; Qiu, Menghan …
geopolitical pattern, isotopic analysis, cultural interaction, and ancient silk road
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Journal article
Forager-farmer transition at the crossroads of East and Southeast Asia 4900 years ago
The southward expansion of East Asian farmers profoundly influenced the social evolution of Southeast Asia by introducing cereal agriculture. However, the timing and routes of cereal expansion in key regions are unclear due to limited empirical evidence. Here we report macrofossil, microfossil, multiple isotopic (C/N/Sr/O) and paleoproteomic data directly from...Ma, Minmin ; Lu, Minxia ; Sun, Rui ; Zhu, Zhonghua ; Fuller, Dorian Q. …
proteomics, isotopes, agricultural origins, Yunnan, and millet