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Book
Making Change: The Decimalisation of Britain’s Currency
On a grey, drizzly Monday, 15 February 1971, Britain went decimal. Ten years in the planning, ‘D-Day’ upended a currency system that had been unchanged for more than a millennium. A national effort requiring cooperation at every level of society, many expected decimalisation to be a disaster. This is the...Hockenhull, Tom
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Book chapter
The coffin of Takabuti
Description of coffin belonging to ancient Egyptian mummy of a woman named Takabuti, dating to the 25th Dynasty.Taylor, John
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Book chapter
A technical study of the Royal Clock Salt
The cameo heads on the base of the Clock Salt were examined using digital microscopy. . It was possible to take high-magnification images of the heads and use them for investigating potential materials from which they might have been created. The aim was to discover whether they were made from...Meek, Andrew ; Cooke, Oliver ; Shearman, Fleur ; Ling, Denise ; Cartwright, Caroline …
digital microscopy, marine shell cameos, and scientific research
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Book chapter
The Macabi Island wooden sculptures
Scientific identification using scanning electron microscopy revealed that wood from the algarrobo tree had been selected for making the iconic Macabi Island sculpturesCartwright, Caroline
scanning electron microscopy, Macabi Island, and wood anatomy
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Book chapter
Egyptian and Cypriot stone statuettes in context at Late Period Naukratis
Naukratis held a privileged position as a controlled port of trade and base for traders from its founding at the end of the seventh century BC until the establishment of Alexandria. This study will focus on the Cypriot and Egyptian stone statuettes that dominate the figurine assemblage during this important...Thomas, Ross
Greek religion, Egyptian religion, Statuettes, ARCHAEOLOGY: Naukratis, Greek temples, Domestic religion, Figurines, and Terracottas
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Journal article
Conserving, analysing and studying the ‘Hay cookbook’: Revelations from ancient ‘magical’ texts on leather
Seven early medieval leather documents were conserved and studied as part of a small British Museum Research project. Thought to be from the Theban Necropolis (Upper Egypt) and dating to c. 740-810AD, they are written in Coptic. The largest extant manuscript is known today as the ‘Hay Cookbook’, which, together...Wills, Barbara ; Zellmann-Rohrer, Michael ; Skinner, Lucy ; O'Connell, Elisabeth R. ; Stacey, Rebecca …
Manuscript, Leather, and Conservation
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Book chapter
The ancient and early medieval coins from the Triconch Palace, c. 2nd century BC to c. AD 600
This report covers the ancient and early Byzantine coins found at the Butrint Foundation's excavations of the Triconch Palace (Butrint / Buthrotum Albania) in the 1990s-early 2000s. The British Museum was represented on the excavations by Sam Moorhead, Richard Abdy and Pippa Pearce MBE (who carried out much conservation). The...Moorhead, Sam
early medieval, Buthrotum, Moorhead, numismatics, Albania, Roman, Byzantine, coins, and Butrint
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Book chapter
Divine depictions: first representations of gods in Egypt
Ancient Egyptian iconography is characterised by the depictions of gods and goddesses. The number of deities appearing on tomb and temple walls and in religious literature grew steadily throughout the Pharaonic period. As foreign influences shaped, consolidated and altered the Egyptian identity, assimilations and comparisons with foreign gods enriched the...Regulski, Ilona
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Book chapter
The Rosetta Stone. Copying an ancient copy
Epigraphy and palaeography are ways of recording, analyzing, and interpreting texts and images. This Handbook discusses technical issues about recording text and art and interpretive questions about what we do with those records and why we do it. The Handbook aims to • discuss current theories with regard to the...Regulski, Ilona
Egypt, Rosetta Stone, and Epigraphy
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Journal article
Developing a systematic approach to determine the sequence of impressions of Japanese woodblock prints: the case of Hokusai’s ‘Red Fuji’
Ukiyo-e Japanese woodblock prints were mass-produced in the Edo Period and early impressions of a given print are generally of higher quality and more sought after by connoisseurs than late impressions. The present publication presents an innovative approach that combines the classical method of examining line quality with a systematic... -
Journal article
Using analytical pyrolysis and scanning electron microscopy to evaluate charcoal formation of four wood taxa from the caatinga of north-east Brazil
People in north-east Brazil mostly rely on fuelwood and charcoal for domestic energy consumption. Traditionally, four local wood taxa (Mimosa tenuiflora, Mimosa ophthalmocentra, Croton sonderianus and Cenostigma pyramidale) from the caatinga have been selected for this purpose. As the final quality of charcoal is directly related to the charring conditions,... -
Book chapter
The new mint under Nicomedes I (c. 278-255 BC)
This paper examines the foundation of the royal Bithynian mint under Nicomedes I (c. 278-255 BC). It analyses the silver and bronze coinages produced through die studies and metrology, and considers the evidence for the location of the mint and the date of first production.Dowler, Amelia
numismatics, Nicomedes I, and Bithynia
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Journal article
Spicing wine at the symposion: fact or fiction? Some critical thoughts on material aspects of commensality in the Early Iron Age and Archaic Mediterranean world
Interpretations of metal graters and pottery tripod bowls as Leitfossils of a trans-Mediterranean ‘orientalizing’ culture of spiced-wine consumption have of late become a staple of scholarship on sympotic banqueting, shaping our perception of ancient wine-drinking and its role in cross-cultural interaction in the first half of the first millennium BC....Villing, Alexandra
Archaic Greece, Symposion, and Foodways
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Book chapter
Use of decorated silver plate in Imperial Rome and Sasanian Iran
This chapter explores the production of silver plate in the late Roman and Sasanian Empires as luxury tablewares for both secular and religious use and suggests that parallels between forms and decoration may provide clues for links (e.g. trading and diplomacy) between the two respective imperial courts during late Antiquity.Hobbs, Richard
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Journal article
The Hallaton Ingot: silver in Iron Age Britain
This article is a case study of the detailed contextual and scientific analysis of a single object, moving beyond a conventional object biography to consider flows of materials and shifts in meaning and value. The object is a simple triangular silver ingot from the Late Iron Age shrine site at...Farley, Julia
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Book
Museum, Magic, Memory: Curating Paul Denys Montague
An investigation of the work of curation and of reactivating a colonial era collection by working with communities of origin, told through the lens of a particular collection made by Paul Montague in New Caledonia in 1914.Adams, Julie
Curation, Museum, and Anthropology
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Exhibition catalogue
Ancient Greeks: Athletes, Warriors and Heroes
This is the catalogue to accompany the British Museum's International Touring exhibition Ancient Greeks: Athletes, Warriors and Heroes currently in Australia, moving to Auckland, New Zealand next year. It features text by Dr Peter John Higgs, Curator, British Museum, with an introductory essay by Professor Alastair Blanshard, University of Queensland,...Blanshard, Alastair ; Burton, Diana ; Higgs, Peter John
Sport, Greeks, and Competition
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Book chapter
The Roman coins from Exeter and its hinterland
An analysis of Roman coins finds from Exeter, set against the context of other Roman towns and Roman Devon and the South-WestMoorhead, Sam ; Brown, Andrew
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Book chapter
Buried archaeological materials
Ceramics, stones, metallic objects, bones, leather, wood and textiles are among the most important categories of archaeological remains. The information carried by these materials is often invaluable, as they represent precious and sometimes unique windows into past civilizations and into the evolution of humankind. Scientific research has the aim of...Tamburini, Diego
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Journal article
The wood charcoals from Sheri Khan Tarakai: a case study in environmental archaeology and palaeoecology
The wood charcoals from the early village site of Sheri Khan Tarakai (c. 3800 – 2900 cal. BC) in the west of Bannu District (Pakistan) are the principal focus of this paper. Twenty six taxa of woody plants (trees and shrubs) were identified and their spatial, contextual and temporal distributions... -
Book chapter
The Ashurbanipal Library project at the British Museum
It was a remarkable stroke of luck that the first large corpus of cuneiform texts to be rediscovered in Mesopotamia was the Library of Ashurbanipal, King of Assyria (668–c. 630 BC). It quickly became the foundation stone on which the modern study of Assyriology was built. The Library remains a...Taylor, Jonathan
cuneiform, library, and digitisation
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Journal article
Evidence of an Ancient Archive? The Papyrus British Museum EA 9961
Used on both sides, the papyrus British Museum EA 9961 reproduces a marsh scene on the recto and a copy of the myth of Isis and her seven scorpions in cursive hieroglyphs on the verso. Although the high quality of the illustration is the most striking feature, the text has...Vandenbeusch, Marie
tomb decoration, papyrology, papyrus gathering, British Museum EA 9961, magic, Bird hunting, and Isis and the seven scorpions
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Journal article
Pigments, incense, and bitumen from the New Kingdom town and cemetery on Sai Island in Nubia
An analysis of paints found in ceramic sherd palettes from the 18th Dynasty (1548-1302 BCE) Pharaonic town on Sai Island in Upper Nubia using polarised light microscopy and infrared spectroscopy revealed pigments from the standard Egyptian repertoire: red and yellow ochres, Egyptian blue, calcite, gypsum, anhydrite, and the bright white...Fulcher, Kate ; Budka, Julia
Egyptian blue, Canopic jars, Incense, Ancient Nubia, Pigments, Pistacia resin, and Bitumen
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Book chapter
The Early Islamic Trans-Saharan market towns of West Africa
In the early Islamic period, trade across the Sahara escalated to new levels as West African resources, including most significantly gold, were imported on camel caravans to the markets of North Africa and the wider Islamic world trade system, these goods being exchanged for products from North Africa such as...Nixon, Sam
early Islamic, trade, gold trade, West Africa, Sahel, Trans-Saharan, and urbanism
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Book chapter
Visitors to the rainforest: Engagements with environments and outsiders in far north Queensland.
The chapter discusses a series of objects in UK museums (including the British Museum) from the Queensland tropical rainforest region. The discussions are linked by ideas of visitors to the rainforest, both European and Pacific Islander. The chapter proposes that the barkcloth made in the region may have been introduced...Bolton, Lissant
bark blanket, bicornual basket, sword club, fire drill (bagu), painted shell. and Anthropology, material culture. Queensland, Vanuatu.
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Journal article
Layer by layer: the manufacture of Graeco-Roman funerary masks
Ptolemaic cartonnage masks were produced by layering textiles – or reused papyrus sheets – with plaster and glue. Despite the use of the same basic components, the process of manufacture could vary depending on shape, size, time and place. This article aims to clarify the production methods and the different...Vandenbeusch, Marie ; O'Flynn, Daniel ; Moreno, Benjamin
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Journal article
Pilgrim Badges of St Edmund of East Anglia
It was common for medieval pilgrims visiting holy sites to purchase souvenirs celebrating the cults of local saints and then touch these upon associated relics. Such items not only became signs of the places journeyed to, but also – it was believed – took on mystical properties that might cure...Lewis, Michael
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Journal article
The Early Bronze Age at Kınık Höyük (Niğde): a preliminary analysis
A preliminary analysis of the Early Bronze Age at of Kınık Höyük-NiğdeHighcock, Nancy ; Matessi, Alvise
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Journal article
The coin
The article is one of a series on the history of objects and covers the origins and adoption of the coin in ancient and modern societies.Ghey, Eleanor
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Book
Repurposing Ritual. Pap. Berlin P. 10480-82: A Case Study from Middle Kingdom Asyut
Repurposing Ritual is the editio princeps of a group of papyrus fragments from ancient Asyut in Middle Egypt currently kept in the Ägyptisches Museum und Papyrussammlung in Berlin. The papyri are significant for the study of ancient Egyptian religious and funerary culture because they contain in a neat hieratic handwriting...Regulski, Ilona
Egyptology, text transmission, mortuary ritual, and written culture
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Conference paper (published)
Remote monitoring for museum pests ‐ a 21st century approach
Monitoring insects is a fundamental element of Integrated Pest Management, and advanced planning is crucial to enable staff suitable time to replace monitors, identify insects and respond to concerns. As is fairly standard in Museum and other heritage collections, the British Museum, undertakes quarterly monitoring and teams of trained collections...Austin Gonzalez, Carlos ; Marasco, Tatiana ; Portoni, Fabiana ; Kelley, Patrick ; Doyle, Adrian
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Book
Abydos: The Sacred Land of the Western Horizon. Proceedings of the Annual Egyptological Colloquium at the British Museum ‘Abydos: the sacred land at the western horizon
This volume is the first of two complementary volumes that explore Abydos through the lenses of the latest archaeological, archival and collections research, building upon a colloquium and workshop held at the British Museum in 2015. A second volume (Abydos in the First Millennium AD, BMPES 9) presents a focussed...Regulski, Ilona
Archaeology, Egypt, and Abydos
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Book
Nero: the man behind the myth
One of the best known figures from Roman history, Nero (r. AD 54–68) is most often characterised as a tyrannical and ineffectual ruler, who fiddled while Rome burnt. Such a reputation has, however, been shaped by ancient literary sources written by his adversaries and enemies and, in light of new...Opper, Thorsten
Nero, Roman empire, and history
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Book
Peru: a journey in time
The accompanying catalogue to the British Museum exhibition Peru: a journey in time. The environments of the Central Andean region in Peru, South America, are some of the most geographically rich and diverse in the world. This publication highlights the history, beliefs and cultural achievements of the different peoples who...Cooper, Jago ; Pardo, Cecilia
archaeology, Peru, and material culture
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Book
Catalogue of Punic Stelae in the British Museum
This catalogue discusses some aspects of Carthaginian or 'Punic' culture as shown by the inscribed and carved stones, or stelae, in the British Museum's collections. The majority of the North African, mainly Tunisian, stelae have votive or dedicatory inscriptions in Punic and some of them are thought to come from...Mendleson, Carole
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Book
A Collector's Life: William Burrell
In 1944, Glasgow received one of the greatest gifts ever made to any city in the world: a collection of over 6,000 artworks of many types spanning centuries and civilisations. The benefactors were Glasgow-born shipping magnate Sir William Burrell and Constance, Lady Burrell. Burrell’s success in business allowed him to...Bellamy, Martin ; MacDonald, Isobel
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Book chapter
Scanning Sobek. Mummy of the Crocodile God
Ancient Egyptians always had an intense and complex relationship with animals in daily life as well as in religion. Despite the fact that research on this relationship has been a topic of study, gaps in our knowledge still remain. In a volume with over 30 contributions that explore Human-Animal relationships...Anderson, Julie ; Antoine, Daniel
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Book chapter
Respiratory disease in the Middle Nile Valley: the impact of environment and aridification
Particulate air pollution—smoke, chemicals, pollens, molds, animal waste, sand, and other particles—is a serious health issue today, causing irritation and inflammation of the respiratory tract, directly resulting in respiratory conditions such as maxillary sinusitis and increased susceptibility to infectious diseases. This chapter explores bony changes within the maxillary sinuses and...Davies-Barrett, Anna M. ; Antonie, Daniel ; Roberts, Charlotte
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Journal article
Natural mummies from Predynastic Egypt reveal the world's earliest figural tattoos
The application of tattoos to the human body has enjoyed a long and diverse history in many ancient cultures. At present, the oldest surviving examples are the mainly geometric tattoos on the individual known as Ötzi, dating to the late 4th millennium BCE, whose skin was preserved by the ice... -
Book chapter
Mummified human remains from Ancient Egypt and Nubia: an overview and new insights from the British Museum collection
An overview of the mummified human remains from Ancient Egypt and Nubia in the British Museum collection as well as a summary of new insights.Vandenbeusch, Marie ; Antoine, Daniel