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Journal article
Relations between Archaeologists and the Military in the case of Iraq
In this short paper, I want to consider the controversial question of whether archaeologists should work with the military, principally in Iraq. During the course of 2008, the British Museum and the British Army collaborated in a project to inspect archaeological sites in the south of Iraq and to develop...Curtis, John
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Journal article
Architectural Conservation of an Amun Temple in Sudan
Excavation of a 2000 year old Amun Temple at Dangeil in Sudan. Under the directorship of Drs Salah Mohammed Ahmed of the National Corporation for Antiquities and Museums, Khartoum and Julie R Anderson of the British Museum, London an excavation of the temple commenced in 2000. Dangeil is located to...Sweek, Tracey ; Anderson, Julie R ; Tanimoto, Satoko
conservation, Amun Temple, Sudan, and Dangeil
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Journal article
Discoveries from La Manche: Five Years of Early Prehistoric Research in the Channel Island of Jersey
Since 2010 a new field project drawn from major UK institutions including the UCL Institute of Archaeology, has focused research on the Palaeolithic and Mesolithic record of the Channel Island of Jersey. In this retrospective of five years of research the history of the project to date, its focus on...Pope, Matt ; Scott, Beccy ; Mills, Josie ; Bates, Martin ; Bates, Richard …
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Journal article
Report of the Archaeological Survey of Chamak and its Surroundings, District Amaravati, Maharashtra
This report presents the results of a short programme of fieldwork targeted towards the investigation of the archaeological and geographical setting of the Chamak copperplate charter. This inscription, unearthed in the modern village of Chamak in 1868, records the grant of land to a group of Brahmins living in the...Hawkes, Jason D ; Abbas, Riza ; Willis, Michael
Vidarbha, survey, Vakatakas, archaeology, and inscription
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Journal article
The Performance of International Diplomacy at Kigali Memorial Centre, Rwanda
Every year in Rwanda, a week of national mourning commemorates the Genocide of Tutsi, a brutal episode that began on April the 7th 1994 and resulted in the murder of up to one million people in 100 days. The genocide was returned to the global stage in 2014 when world...Giblin, John
memorialisation, Rwanda, genocide, international diplomacy, performance, and heritage
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Journal article
A canon for the Bronze Age?
Catalogues and databases which are easily accessible to all interested parties regardless of their geographical location, occupation, background or purpose, provide a level playing field for research, publication and debate in the archaeology of the bronze age. The establishment of a canon of reliable, illustrated documentation of as many facets...Brindley, A. L.
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Journal article
Information, Interaction and Society
In reviewing the future of Bronze Age research in the final chapter of his immense pan-European survey, Anthony Harding (2000, 435) commented that the sheer scale and density of available data did little to encourage younger scholars. In Britain, the rapid growth of developer funded excavations with PPG 16 since...Roberts, Ben
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Journal article
Bronze Age pottery and settlements in southern England
Pottery is often treated as a poor relation in Bronze Age studies. However ceramics have much to offer. During the last forty years a fairly esoteric subject, dominated mainly by detailed analyses of decorative motifs and the construction of elaborate chronological schemes, has been transformed into a powerful source of...Woodward, Ann
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Journal article
Towards a fuller, more nuanced narrative of Chalcolithic and Early Bronze Age Britain 2500-1500 BC
This contribution considers some of the many recent advances in our understanding of Chalcolithic and Bronze Age Britain and uses these to highlight the weak points in our current state of knowledge. Focusing mainly on the period 2500–1500 BC, it concentrates on issues of chronology, human movement, the role of...Sheridan, Alison
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Journal article
Prospects and potential in the archaeology of Bronze Age Britain
This paper argues that although our discipline focuses increasingly on thematic research programmes, period-based approaches remain a valuable way of understanding the particularities of the social practices we study. Different aspects of the archaeological record - including settlement, burial, landscape and material culture - are examined in turn to identify...Brück, Joanna
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Journal article
The Bronze Age climate and environment of Britain
Over the last twenty years there have been tremendous advances in our knowledge of climate change in later British prehistory from a wide variety of proxy-climate sources. This chapter will summarise our present understanding for the period 2000-500 BC and highlight the areas in which further research is required. A...Brown, Tony
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Journal article
The Agenda Gap? Approaches to the Bronze Age in current research frameworks
It is now 60 years since the first formal consideration of future research directions for the British Bronze Age (and other periods) was published. Its purpose was to ensure archaeologists were 'taking the best advantage of all our opportunities, whether for deliberate field-work or excavation, or for turning chance discoveries...Last, Jonathan
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Journal article
'Museological Approaches to the Management of Digital Research and Engagement: The African Rock Art Image Project
The African Rock Art Image Project at the British Museum has documented and disseminated c. 24,000 digital images of rock art from throughout the continent, donated by the Trust for African Rock Art (TARA). The images were registered into the British Museum’s permanent collection and treated as objects in their...Anderson, Helen ; Galvin, Lisa ; de Torres, Jorge
rock art, Africa, archaeology, and Museum studies
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Journal article
Landscapes, environments and societies: The development of culture in Lower Palaeolithic Europe
Identification of cultural groups is rare in the early Palaeolithic due to site formation processes including taphonomy and the effect of raw material and site function. This paper reviews a critical period in Europe at about 400 ka (MIS 11) when we may be able to identify such groups. This period,...Davis, Rob ; Ashton, Nick
Middle Pleistocene; Europe; Lower Palaeolithic culture; Acheulean; handaxes; fire
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Journal article
Hominin footprints from Early Pleistocene deposits at Happisburgh, UK
Investigations at Happisburgh, UK, have revealed the oldest known hominin footprint surface outside Africa at between ca. 1 million and 0.78 million years ago. The site has long been recognised for the preservation of sediments containing Early Pleistocene fauna and flora, but since 2005 has also yielded humanly made flint...Ashton, Nick ; Lewis, Simon G. ; De Groote, Isabelle ; Duffy, Sarah M. ; Bates, Martin …
Happisburgh; human footprints; Lower Paleolithic; Early Pleistocene; Britain; Europe
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Journal article
Coastal curios? An analysis of ex situ beach finds for mapping new Palaeolithic sites at Happisburgh, UK
Recent archaeological discoveries from exposures of the Cromer Forest-bed Formation at Happisburgh, UK, have radically changed interpretations of the nature and timing of early hominin occupation of northern latitudes, but this in situ archaeology is only one part of the picture. Surface finds of Pleistocene mammalian remains have been found...Bynoe, Rachel ; Ashton, Nick ; Grimmer, Tim ; Hoare, Peter ; Leonard, Joanne …
Happisburgh; human footprints; Lower Paleolithic; Early Pleistocene; Britain; Europe
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Journal article
Human occupation of northern Europe in MIS 13: Happisburgh Site 1 (Norfolk, UK) and its European context
The timing, environmental setting and archaeological signatures of an early human presence in northern Europe have been longstanding themes of Palaeolithic research. In the space of 20 years, the earliest record of human occupation in Britain has been pushed back from 500 ka (Boxgrove) to 700 ka (Pakefield) and then...Lewis, Simon ; Ashton, Nick ; Field, Michael H. ; Hoare, Peter G. ; Kamermans, Hans …
Happisburgh; human footprints; Lower Paleolithic; Early Pleistocene; Britain; Europe
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Journal article
Early Pleistocene human occupation at the edge of the boreal zone in northwest Europe
The dispersal of early humans from Africa by 1.75 Myr ago led to a marked expansion of their range, from the island of Flores in the east to the Iberian peninsula in the west. This range encompassed tropical forest, savannah and Mediterranean habitats, but has hitherto not been demonstrated beyond 45°...Parfitt, Simon ; Ashton, Nick ; Lewis, Simon ; Abel, Richard L. ; Coope, G. Russell …
Happisburgh; human footprints; Lower Paleolithic; Early Pleistocene; Britain; Europe
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Journal article
Rediscovering Nestawedjat: Embalming residue analyses reunite the mummified remains of an ancient Egyptian woman with her coffins
Long held museum collections can sometimes lack a clear provenance or context. Here, an ancient Egyptian mummified individual in the British Museum collection was reconnected with a set of three coffins in an interdisciplinary study using bioarchaeological, scientific and Egyptological analyses. Previously assigned as male, based on earlier X-rays due...Vandenbeusch, Marie ; Stacey, Rebecca ; Antoine, Daniel
Ancient Egypt; mummification; embalming; FTIRGC–MS; 25th Dynasty; British Museum; CT scanning
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Journal article
Investigating the Potential of the Er:YAG Laser for the Removal of Cemented Dust from Limestone and Painted Plaster
A successful application of Er:YAG laser for the cleaning of a restored Assyrian relief sculpture from the British Museum collection is presented. Displayed in the gallery, the sculpture has darkened over time due to the natural deposition of dirt, in particular on restored parts. Since traditional cleaning methods have demonstrated...Melita, Lucia Noor ; Węgłowska, Katarzyna ; Tamburini, Diego ; Korenberg, Capucine
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Journal article
The use of erbium lasers for the conservation of cultural heritage. A review
The characteristics of erbium lasers (Er:YAG) make them a promising tool for the conservation of cultural heritage, and yet they still remain less widespread than other lasers in this field. This review aims to summarise, compare and evaluate the results of case studies and experiments published so far about Er:YAG...Pereira-Pardo, Lucía ; Korenberg, Capucine
Erbium laser cleaning; paintings; stone varnishes; overpainting crusts
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Journal article
Molecular analysis of black coatings and anointing fluids from ancient Egyptian coffins, mummy cases, and funerary objects
Black organic coatings and ritual deposits on ancient Egyptian coffins and cartonnage cases are important and understudied sources of evidence about the rituals of funerary practice. Sometimes, the coatings were applied extensively over the surface of the coffin, resembling paint; in other cases, they were poured over the mummy case...Fulcher, Kate ; Serpico, Margaret ; Taylor, John H. ; Stacey, Rebecca
archaeology; ancient Egypt; coffins; mass spectrometry; chromatography
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Journal article
Discerning differences: Ion beam analysis of ancient faience from Naukratis and Rhodes
Faience technology was known in Egypt since the Predynastic Period and practiced for a period also in Bronze Age Greece, but, having been lost, was reintroduced to the Greek world only in the fi rst half of the fi rst millennium BC. The Greek island of Rhodes and the Greek-Egyptian...Meek, Andrew ; Bouquillon, Anne ; Lehuédé, Patrice ; Masson, Aurélia ; Villing, Alexandra …
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Journal article
Cultural mosaics, social structure, and identity: The Acheulean threshold in Europe
The period between 600 and 400 ka is a critical phase for human evolution in Europe. The south and northwest saw a dramatic increase in sites, the spread of handaxe technology alongside bone and wooden tool manufacture, efficient hunting techniques, and the use of fire. Lithic assemblages show considerable variation,...Ashton, Nick ; Davis, Rob
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Journal article
(Re)sources: Origins of metals in Late Period Egypt
Metal trade and access to raw materials during the Late Bronze Age—roughly covering the New Kingdom in Egypt—have received substantial attention from past and present scholarship. Despite copper and lead remaining essential commodities afterwards, our knowledge about their supply during the Iron Age and later periods, in contrast, remains limited,...Masson-Berghoff, Aurélia ; Pernicka, Ernst ; Hook, Duncan ; Meek, Andrew
faience, Late Period, lead isotopes, metal, and Egypt
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Journal article
Paleoenvironmental surveys at Naukratis and the Canopic branch of the Nile
Thirty-five auger cores (covering an area of c. 1 km2) were undertaken at the ancient site of Naukratis in the Nile Delta, an important trading port from c. 620 BCE until 650 CE, supplemented by an Electrical Resistivity Tomography (ERT) profile. These data inform on the location and navigability of...Pennington, Benjamin T. ; Thomas, Ross I.
Naukratis, Auger, Canopic, Paleolandscape, Nile, Channel geometry, and Navigation
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Journal article
Four unpublished marble sculptures of Hellenistic date from Cyprus in the British Museum
A study of four previously unpublished marble statues of Hellenistic date from Cyprus in the British MuseumHiggs, Peter ; Kiely, Thomas
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Journal article
Charles Newton and the archaeology of Cyprus
An article discussing Charles Newton's role in the development of Cypriot archaeology in the 19th centuryKiely, Thomas
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Journal article
The archaeological interests of Samuel Brown, Government Engineer, and his circle of acquaintances in late 19th century Cyprus
An overview of the archaeological interests of Samuel Brown, a government engineer and private collector of Cypriote artefacts in late 19th-century Cyprus.Kiely, Thomas ; Merrillees, Robert
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Journal article
Excavations at Kition-Bamboula 1879. Finds in the British Museum
A full account of the 1879 excavations at the site of Kition-Bamboula in Cyprus and the finds that were subsequently given to the British Museum.Kiely, Thomas ; Fourrier, Sabine
Cyprus and archaeology
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Journal article
Britain and the archaeology of Cyprus I. The long 19th century
The first part of a two-part survey of British contributions to the archaeology of Cyprus from the 18th century to the present day.Kiely, Thomas ; Ulbrich, Anja
Cyprus and archaeology
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Journal article
Interactive visualization of 3d scanned mummies at public venues
Article revealing how a full-body virtual autopsy of an ancient Egyptian mummy showed museum visitors he was likely murdered.Ynnerman, Anders ; Rydell, Thomas ; Antoine, Daniel ; Hughes, David ; Persson, Anders …
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Journal article
On the Antiquity of Cancer: Evidence for Metastatic Carcinoma in a Young Man from Ancient Nubia (c. 1200BC)
Cancer, one of the world's leading causes of death today, remains almost absent relative to other pathological conditions, in the archaeological record, giving rise to the conclusion that the disease is mainly a product of modern living and increased longevity. This paper presents a male, young-adult individual from the archaeological...Binder, Michaela ; Roberts, Charlotte ; Spencer, Neal ; Antoine, Daniel ; Cartwright, Caroline
Cancer and ancient Nubia
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Journal article
Bordering on Asian paintings: dye analysis of textile borders and mount elements to complement research on Asian pictorial art
Mount components and textile borders represent important elements of Asian paintings. However, they are often side-lined or not considered an integral part of the original piece, as they may be later additions or may have been replaced during historic conservation or mounting interventions. Nevertheless, evidence is sometimes present that textile...Tamburini, Diego ; Dyer, Joanne ; Heady, Teresa ; Derham, Alice ; Kim-Marandet, Meejung …
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Journal article
Weathering climate change in archaeology: conceptual challenges and an East African case study
Research on the social dimensions of climate change is increasingly focused on people's experiences, values and relations to the environment as a means to understand how people interpret and adapt to changes. However, a particular challenge has been making seemingly temporally and geographically distant climate change more immediate and local...Petek-Sargeant, Nik ; Lane, Paul J.
Weather, Climate change, Kenya, Environmental humanities, East Africa, and Ilchamus
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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
Use of 3D laser scanning for monitoring the dimensional stability of a Byzantine ivory panel
The British Museum has in its collections a magnificent Byzantine ivory panel. However, the panel has become warped over time and there is a join on the left side, where it has suffered a break in the past. It has been connected with two metal pins and adhesive in a...Hess, Mona ; Korenberg, Capucine ; Ward, Clare ; Robson, Stuart ; Entwistle, Chris
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Journal article
Early evidence for cancer in Sudan: an advanced example of bone metastases from ancient Nubia (circa 2500–2050 BCE)
WHO reports that cancer is currently a leading cause of death worldwide. An increasing body of bioarchaeological research offers new insights into the past prevalence, epidemiology, and evolution of cancer. An archaeological example from the Northern Dongola Reach in Upper Nubia, Sudan, is presented in this Perspectives piece.Whiting, Rebecca ; Phillips, Emma L. W. ; O'Flynn, Daniel ; Antoine, Daniel
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Journal article
Igbo-Ukwu textiles: AMS dating and fiber analysis
Thurstan Shaw’s excavations at Igbo-Ukwu revealed many artifacts and technologies that remain astonishing, unique, and incompletely understood, both within Africa and more broadly, even after 50 years. Among these are the textiles recovered primarily from Igbo Isaiah, where fragments were preserved by contact with the bronze artifacts gathered in what...McIntosh, Susan Keech ; Cartwright, Caroline R.
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Journal article
The transmission of pottery technology among prehistoric European hunter-gatherers
Human history has been shaped by global dispersals of technologies, although understanding of what enabled these processes is limited. Here, we explore the behavioural mechanisms that led to the emergence of pottery among hunter-gatherer communities in Europe during the mid-Holocene. Through radiocarbon dating, we propose this dispersal occurred at a...Dolbunova, Ekaterina ; Lucquin, Alexandre ; McLaughlin, T. Rowan ; Bondetti, Manon ; Courel, Blandine …
pottery, dispersal, hunter-gatherer communities, and chemical analysis
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Journal article
Polysaccharide Paint Binding Media at Two Pharaonic Settlements in Nubia
Paints and plasters from two pharaonic settlement sites in Nubia (northern Sudan) were analysed to investigate the presence and origin of organic binding materials. The town of Sai was founded around the time of the pharaonic conquest of Kush (Upper Nubia) around 1500 BC, with Amara West created as a...Fulcher, Kate ; Spencer, Neal ; Budka, Julia ; Stacey, Rebecca J.
archaeology, urbanism, Nubia, Egypt, technology, colonialism, pigment, botany, and gums
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Journal article
Investigating the potential of the Nd:YAG and Er:YAG lasers for the cleaning of feathers: a pilot study
A dual-wavelength Q-switched Nd:YAG laser emitting at 1064 nm and 532 nm and an Er:YAG laser were tested on a range of feathers containing melanin, carotenoids and psittacofulvins. Dyed, white and iridescent feathers, as well as down feathers, were also included in the study. First, the damage threshold fluence was...Bertasa, Moira ; Korenberg, Capucine
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Journal article
Neutron tomography of sealed copper alloy animal coffins from ancient Egypt
Animal mummification was commonplace in ancient Egypt, with the remains of many animals placed inside statues or votive boxes with representations of animals or hybrid human–animal creatures. Votive boxes were made from a variety of materials and often sealed; some boxes are still preserved in this state in museum collections....O’Flynn, Daniel ; Fedrigo, Anna ; Perucchetti, Laura ; Masson-Berghoff, Aurélia
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Journal article
Middle Palaeolithic occupation of the southern North Sea Basin: evidence from the sandscaping sediments emplaced on the beach between Bacton and Walcott, Norfolk, UK
During the summer of 2019, the Bacton to Walcott Coastal Management Scheme involved the emplacement on to the foreshore of 1.8 million cubic metres of sand and gravel dredged from the submerged sediments of the Palaeo-Yare in the southern North Sea 11 km off Great Yarmouth. During the following 2-year...Davis, Rob ; Ashton, Nick ; Bynoe, Rachel ; Craven, John ; Ferguson, Rob …
Norfolk, Middle Palaeolithic , lithics, and artefacts
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Journal article
Will my boomerang come back? New insights into Aboriginal material culture of early Sydney and affiliated coastal zone from British collections
Aboriginal material culture of the Sydney region has been analysed extensively by Australian archaeologists, notably Vincent Megaw and Val Attenbrow, yet many new insights can be obtained through the examination of hitherto unidentified and unexamined museum objects and dispersed archival documentation in Britain and Ireland. Close engagement with these sources...Sculthorpe, Gaye ; Simpson, Daniel
collecting, museums, boomerang, Sydney, provenance, Britain, and repatriation
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Journal article
Evaluating transformations in small metal finds following the Black Death
This paper seeks to evaluate transformations in portable material culture following the Black Death in England (1348–1349), specifically through an analysis of small metal finds data recorded with the Portable Antiquities Scheme (PAS). It will discuss the use of Geographic Information Systems and other computational methods in archaeological research, and...Oksanen, Eljas ; Lewis, Michael
Black Death, material culture, and Portable Antiquities Scheme
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Journal article
Earliest systematic coal exploitation for fuel extended to ~3600 B.P.
Coal has long fueled human civilizations. The history of systematic coal fuel exploitation has been traced back to the late third millennium before present (post-2500 B.P.). Although sporadic combustion of coal for fuel was reported in some prehistoric archaeological sites, evidence for the systematic exploitation of coal for fuel before...Qiu, Menghan ; Liu, Ruiliang ; Li, Xingyuan ; Du, Linyao ; Ruan, Qiurong …
China, metallurgy, and coal
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Journal article
Changes in the production materials of Burmese textiles in the nineteenth century - dyes, mordants and fibres of Karen garments from the British Museum’s collection
The materials of six Karen textiles from the British Museum’s collection were investigated with the main aim of studying the production changes over the course of the nineteenth century and how these changes related to local and colonial trade networks. The textiles span chronologically from the 1830s to the early...Tamburini, Diego ; Dyer, Joanne ; Cartwright, Caroline ; Green, Alexandra
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Journal article
Human-environment interaction systems between regional and continental scales in mid-latitude Eurasia during 6000–3000 years ago
The Late Neolithic and Bronze Ages witnessed the extensive expansion of human settlements, along with the dispersal of crops and livestock originating from West and East Asia. These events profoundly reshaped the human-environment relationship in mid-latitude Eurasia and the underlying trans-Eurasian exchange. While the processes and factors that underpin the...Dong, Guanghui ; Du, Linyao ; Liu, Ruiliang ; Li , Yuejiao ; Chen, Fahu
Environment, Climate change, and Eurasia