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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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Book
The Hay Archive of Coptic Spells on Leather: A Multidisciplinary Approach to the Materiality of Magical Practice
The Hay archive of Coptic manuscripts consists of seven fragmentary sheets of leather bearing spells for divination, protection, healing, personal advancement, cursing and the satisfaction of sexual desire. Purchased from the heir of the Scottish Egyptologist and draftsman, Robert Hay (1799–1863), the manuscripts arrived at the British Museum in 1869....O'Connell, Elisabeth
Egyptology, papyrology, Coptic studies, and religious studies
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Journal article
Light production by ceramic using hunter-gatherer-fishers of the Circum-Baltic
Artificial illumination is a fundamental human need. Burning wood and other materials usually in hearths and fireplaces extended daylight hours, whilst the use of flammable substances in torches offered light on the move. It is increasingly understood that pottery played a role in light production. In this study, we focus... -
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
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
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
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
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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Book
Precious Treasures from the Diamond Throne: Finds from the Site of the Buddha’s Enlightenment
The Mahābodhi temple at Bodhgayā in eastern India has long been recognised as the place where the Buddha sat in meditation and attained enlightenment. The site, soon identified as the ‘Diamond Throne’ or vajrāsana, became a destination for pilgrims and a focus of religious attention for more than two thousand...Willis, Michael
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Book
Charles Masson: Collections from Begram and Kabul Bazaar, Afghanistan, 1833–1838
From 1833–8, Charles Masson (1800–1853) was employed by the British East India Company to explore the ancient sites in south-east Afghanistan. In return for funding his exploration of the ancient sites of Afghanistan, the British East India Company received all of Masson’s finds. These were sent to the India Museum...Errington, Elizabeth
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Book
Pots, Prints and Politics: Ceramics with an Agenda, from the 14th to the 20th Century
From the introduction of woodblock printing in China to the development of copper-plate engraving in Europe, the print medium has been used around the world to circulate knowledge. Ceramic artists across time and cultures have adapted these graphic sources as painted or transfer-printed images applied onto glazed or unglazed surfaces...Ferguson, Patricia F.
European art, Asian art, and Ceramics
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Book
Imagining the Divine: Art in Religions of Late Antiquity Across Eurasia
This groundbreaking volume brings together scholars of the art and archaeology of late antiquity (c. 200−1000), across cultures and regions reaching from India to Iberia, to discuss how objects can inform our understanding of religions. During this period major transformations are visible in the production of religious art and in...Elsner, Jaś ; Wood, Rachel
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Book
Objects as Insights: R.H. Codrington’s Ethnographic Collections from Melanesia
R.H. Codrington (1830–1922) graduated from Oxford University in 1856 and was ordained in 1857. He volunteered to work in Nelson, New Zealand, from 1860–4 and was appointed as headmaster of the Melanesian Mission training school on Norfolk Island in 1867. He spent the next twenty years in this post and...Stanley, Nick
material culture, Melanesia, Codrington, collecting history, anthropology, and Pacific studies
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Journal article
New insights on interpersonal violence in the Late Pleistocene based on the Nile valley cemetery of Jebel Sahaba
The remains of 61 individuals buried in the cemetery of Jebel Sahaba (site 117) offer unique and substantial evidence to the emergence of violence in the Nile Valley at the end of the Late Pleistocene. Excavated and assessed in the 1960s, some of the original findings and interpretations are disputed....Crevecoeur, Isabelle ; Dias-Meirinho, Marie-Hélène ; Zazzo, Antoine ; Antoine, Daniel ; Bon, François
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Journal article
Ancient anomalies: Twinned and supernumerary incisors in a medieval Nubian
During the analysis of a skeletal assemblage from a medieval cemetery in Nubia (c. AD 500–1550), a young adult female with abnormally developed maxillary incisors was discovered. The possible causes of the two dental anomalies found in this individual and their archaeological context are discussed. The remains are from a...Phillips, Emma L.W. ; Irish, Joel D. ; Antoine, Daniel
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Book
Ceramic Exchange and the Indian Ocean Economy (AD 400–1275) Volume I: Analysis
From AD 500–1000, the Indian Ocean emerged as a global commercial centre, and by around 750–800 a sophisticated trade network had been established involving the movement of goods from Japan and China in the east, to southern Africa and Spain in the west. However, the Indian Ocean’s commercial system has...Priestman, Seth M.N.
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Book
Ceramic Exchange and Indian Ocean Economy (AD 400–1275). Volume II: Indian Ocean Pottery Classification
From AD 500–1000, the Indian Ocean emerged as a global commercial centre, and by around 750–800 a sophisticated trade network had been established involving the movement of goods from Japan and China in the east, to southern Africa and Spain in the west. However, the Indian Ocean’s commercial system has...Priestman, Seth M.N.
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Book
A Royal Renaissance Treasure and its Afterlives: The Royal Clock Salt
At centre stage in this volume is the Royal Clock Salt, an exceptional national treasure from the courtly culture of the Renaissance. Most probably made in Paris around 1530 by Pierre Mangot, the royal goldsmith to Francis I, the Clock Salt is somewhere between a jewel and a table ornament....Schroder, Timothy ; Thornton, Dora
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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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Book
A Riverine Site Near York: A Possible Viking Camp?
The location known as ‘A Riverine Site Near York (ARSNY)’ represents a category of Viking site known from the historical record but one that until recently had remained largely undetected archaeologically: the Viking camp. The published investigations at Repton, Derbyshire, although undoubtedly important, created a false paradigm for the scale...Williams, Gareth
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Book
Ceremonial Living in the Third Millennium BC: Excavations at Ringlemere Site M1, Kent, 2002–2006
The discovery in 2001 of an exquisite Early Bronze Age gold cup at Ringlemere Farm in Kent prompted an extensive survey and excavation of the site from 2002–2006. Excavation revealed a site with a long history of use, the most striking evidence being for intensive activity in the third millennium...Needham, Stuart ; Parfitt, Keith
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Journal article
Variable Ovicaprid Diet and Faecal Spherulite Production at Amara West, Sudan
This paper presents the results of integrated geoarchaeological and archaeobotanical analyses of desiccated and charred ovicaprid dung pellets from the New Kingdom pharaonic settlement of Amara West (Sudan). These analyses reveal diagnostic phytolithic evidence for considerable variations in plant diet amongst the site’s ovicaprid population. These data shed light on...Dalton, Matthew ; Ryan, Philippa
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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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Book
Inscriptions of the Aulikaras and Their Associates
The Aulikaras were the rulers of western Malwa (the northwest of Central India) in the heyday of the Imperial Guptas in the fifth century CE, and rose briefly to sovereignty at the beginning of the sixth century before disappearing from the spotlight of history. This book gathers all the epigraphic...Balogh, Dániel
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Book
A Buddhist Ritual Manual on Agriculture: Vajratuṇḍasamayakalparāja - Critical Edition and Translation
This volume is the first in-depth study of a recently discovered Sanskrit dharani spell text from around the 5th century CE surviving in two palm-leaf and three paper manuscript compendia from Nepal. This rare Buddhist scripture focuses on the ritual practice of thaumaturgic weather control for successful agriculture through overpowering...Hidas, Gergely
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Book chapter
The use of an Er:YAG laser in the removal of biological growth from polychrome archaeological terracotta figurines from Cyprus
The British Museum preserves a large and archaeologically important collection of painted terracotta and limestone figurines from ancient Cyprus. These were the subject of a collaborative conservation and study programme as part of the Cyprus Digitisation Project. The figurines were covered by dark and ingrained speckles of biological growth, possibly...Pereira-Pardo, Lucía ; Camurcuoglu, Duygu ; Orsini, Miriam ; Weglowska, Katarzyna ; Kiely, Thomas …
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Other
British Museum Studies in Ancient Egypt and Sudan (BMSAES) Issue 24
Editorial This special issue of BMSAES publishes papers and additional reflections arising from two workshops organised at the British Museum in 2011 and 2013 as part of the British Museum’s Naukratis Project. Contributions by archaeologists, Classicists, Egyptologists and other specialists explore the diverse and sometimes contrasting narratives of the different...British Museum
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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
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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Book
Sicily: Heritage of the World
The island of Sicily is at the heart of the Mediterranean and from ancient times to the present day it has been a hub of migration and settlement. Following on from the British Museum’s critically acclaimed 2016 exhibition Sicily: culture and conquest, this volume considers the history and material culture...Booms, Dirk ; Higgs, Peter John
Sicily, Norman history, ancient history, medieval history, and archaeology
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Journal article
Periodontal disease and ‘oral health’ in the past: new insights from ancient Sudan on a very modern problem
As one of today’s major oral health issues, periodontal disease affects populations worldwide. Here, methods used to record its past prevalence are reviewed, including the problems associated with the use of measurements to record bone loss. Clinical and bioarchaeological research offers strong support for the Kerr method that records interdental...Whiting, Rebecca ; Antoine, Daniel ; Hillson, Simon
bioarchaeology, interdental septum, Periodontal disease , Sudan, and Kerr method
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Journal article
Inflammatory periosteal reaction on ribs associated with lower respiratory tract disease: A method for recording prevalence from sites with differing preservation
Objectives: Inflammatory periosteal reaction (IPR) on the visceral surfaces of the ribs has been used in bioarchaeology as an indicator of lower respiratory tract disease. This article presents a detailed method for recording IPR on the ribs, even those in severely fragmented states, with the objectives of increasing the consistency...Davies-Barrett, Anna M. ; Antoine, Daniel ; Roberts, Charlotte A.
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Other
A Tale of Shutb
A Tale of Shutb is a fictional story including accurate historical facts within the narration of the events. It is an initiative to present the recent discoveries of the British Museum’s expedition to Shutb to the local audience in a brief and interesting way. This story was written in Arabic...Keshk, Fatma
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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
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
(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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Book
Relics and Relic Worship in Early Buddhism: India, Afghanistan, Sri Lanka and Burma
Among the world religions, only Buddhism and Christianity attach a central significance to the role of relics. These two traditions however, are different in both conceptual and material terms. In Buddhism, the most sacred relics are those considered parts of the cremated remains of the Buddha: a hair, a tooth,...Stargardt, Janice ; Willis, Michael
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Book
Seals and Status: Power of Objects
For 7,000 years, seals have functioned as signs of authority. This publication deals specifically with aspects of status in the history of seals, exploring this theme across a diverse range of cultural contexts – from the 9th century through the Early Modern period and across the world, looking at Byzantine,...Cherry, John ; Berenbeim, Jessica ; de Beer, Lloyd
art history and History
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Book
Dea Senuna: Treasure, Cult and Ritual at Ashwell, Hertfordshire
The hoard of Romano-British temple treasure discovered at Ashwell, Hertfordshire, in 2002, was a unique and sensational find. Comprised of some 27 gold and silver objects, it appears to have been buried in the later 3rd or 4th century AD. It includes an important silver-gilt figurine, a splendid suite of...Jackson, Ralph ; Burleigh, Gilbert
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Book
Late Neolithic and Early Chalcolithic Glyphs and Stamp Seals in the British Museum
Stamp seals were used in a similar way to modern signet rings: a negative object used to impress a design into another material, often clay. They appeared around 7000 BC and have remained in use in parts of the world continuously until the present day. This volume focuses on the...Denham, Simon
material culture, Neolithic, Middle Eastern archaeology, and stamp seals
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Book
An Etruscan Affair: The Impact of Early Etruscan Discoveries on European Culture
This volume considers how the discovery of Etruscan sites and artefacts has inspired artists, architects, statesmen, collectors, scholars and travellers to Italy from the 16th through to the 20th century, from Ferdinando de' Medici to Piranesi and Federico Fellini. Subjects include the reclaiming of Etruscan identity and its influence on...Swaddling, Judith
Italy, Etruscans, and archaeology
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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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Book
Charles Masson and the Buddhist Sites of Afghanistan: Explorations, Excavations, Collections 1832−1835
From 1833–8, Charles Masson (1800–1853) was employed by the British East India Company to explore the ancient sites in south-east Afghanistan. During this period, he surveyed over a hundred sites around Kabul, Jalalabad and Wardak, making numerous drawings of the sites, together with maps, compass readings, sections of the stupas...Errington, Elizabeth
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Book
Excavations at the British Museum: An Archaeological and Social History of Bloomsbury
In 1999 and 2007 respectively, the central courtyard and the northwest corner of the British Museum estate were redeveloped in order to create two iconic additions to the institution: the Great Court and the World Conservation and Exhibitions Centre. The execution of these projects provided the opportunity to investigate the...Haslam, Rebecca ; Ridgeway, Victoria
London, British Museum, and archaeology
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Book
The Charles Masson Archive: British Library, British Museum and Other Documents Relating to the 1832–1838 Masson Collection from Afghanistan
Since its inception in 1993, the Masson Project has worked towards reconstructing the archaeological history of south-eastern Afghanistan through an early 19th-century collection of its antiquities now in the British Museum, in conjunction with comprehensive related manuscript records in the British Library. This is the collection and archive created by...Errington, Elizabeth
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Book
A Celtic Feast: The Iron Age Cauldrons from Chiseldon, Wiltshire
This volume presents for the first time the results of the excavation and scientific analysis between 2005 and 2013 of seventeen Iron Age cauldrons discovered in a large pit on farmland in the parish of Chiseldon, Wiltshire, and consequently acquired by the British Museum. The assemblage is unprecedented in many...Joy, Jody ; Baldwin, Alexandra
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Book
A Rothschild Renaissance A New Look at the Waddesdon Bequest in the British Museum
In 1898, Baron Ferdinand Rothschild bequeathed to the British Museum the contents from the New Smoking Room at his home at Waddesdon Manor, a collection of nearly 300 objects to be known as the Waddesdon Bequest. The Bequest contains some of the most beautiful examples of medieval and Renaissance craftsmanship,...Shirley, Pippa ; Thornton, Dora
history of collecting, Art history, Renaissance art, and Decorative arts
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Book
Pudding Pan: A Roman Shipwreck and its Cargo in Context
For more than 300 years commercial fishermen working in the outer Thames estuary have recovered Roman pottery in their oyster dredgers and fishing nets from the seabed in the vicinity of Pudding Pan. However, despite numerous attempts to locate the source of the material, this elusive site has remained undiscovered...Walsh, Michael
Roman Britain, Roman material culture, and Roman maritime trade
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Book
Bejewelled: Men and Jewellery in Tudor and Jacobean England
Jewellery is often viewed as a feminine preoccupation, but in Tudor and Jacobean England men wore just as much (if not more) jewellery as their female counterparts. Jewels themselves were valued not merely for their intrinsic monetary worth, but also for their ability to reflect status and lineage, as well...Awais-Dean, Natasha
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Journal article
How is museum lighting selected? An insight into current practice in UK museums
The results of a series of interviews with museum professionals on the subject of museum lighting specification and selection are reported, with the aim that this report should provide an insight into current practice. Specific attention is given to the usage of industry parameters (lux, CIE-Ra, CCT), and to investigating...Garside, Daniel ; Curran, Katherine ; Korenberg, Capucine ; MacDonald, Lindsay ; Teunissen, Kees …