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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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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
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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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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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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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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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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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
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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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
Diversification of faunal exploitation strategy and human-climate interaction in Southern China and Southeast Asia during the last deglaciation
Southern China and Southeast Asia were favourable habitats for foragers during the Last Glacial Maximum (∼25–18 ka BP) and the Last Deglaciation (∼18–11.7 ka BP), despite various climate fluctuation. However, the underlying subsistence strategies in these areas remains unclear, due to the lack of systematic chronological and archaeological data. The...Lu, Yongxiu ; Gao, Feng ; Wang, Yiren ; Ma, Minmin ; Zhou, Aifeng …
foragers, Southeast Asia, Southern China, and Late Paleolithic
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Journal article
A 'Scheme of My Protection': Rosalind Birnie Philip and the history of the James McNeill and Beatrix Whistler Collection at the University of Glasgow
The Whistler Collection, held at the University of Glasgow, is one of the most important collections related to the nineteenth-century American artist James McNeill Whistler (1834-1903) in the world. It was established in the mid-1930s by the artist's sister in-law Rosalind Birnie Philip (1873-1958) who donated the Whistler Estate to...Hughes, Alicia
James McNeill Whistler, University of Glasgow, history of collecting, and museum of studies
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Journal article
A linchpin cap from Portstewart, Co. Antrim, and a harness ring from Kilrea, Co. Londonderry
Article about a linchpin cap from Portstewart, Co. Antrim, and a harness ring from Kilrea, Co. LondonderryMaguire, Rena ; Scott, Brian G. ; Perucchetti, Laura
Ireland and archaeology
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Journal article
Manufacturing variations in ISO Blue Wool fading standards under microfading exposure conditions
As is the case for other accelerated light-ageing methods, microfade test results are usually rated against the responses of the International Standards Organisation’s Blue Wool Fading Standards, the production of which is regulated by the International Standards Organisation. The suitability and convenience of the ISO Blue Wools for this purpose...Ford, Bruce ; Korenberg, Capucine
ISO Blue Wool Standards, Microfade testing, MFT, accelerated fade testing, and blue wool standard manufacturing
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Journal article
Diversified pottery use across 5th and 4th millennium cal BC Neolithic coastal communities along the Strait of Gibraltar
The region around the Strait of Gibraltar offered Neolithic societies a bridge connecting Iberia and North Africa. Using the sea for access to additional resources, Neolithic groups in the area developed close links with this territory as evidenced by its burial rites and storage practices. Nonetheless, the role pottery and...Breu-Barcons, Adrià ; Vijande-Vila, Eduardo ; Cantillo-Duarte, Jesús ; Comes, Pau ; Heron, Carl …
Strait of Gibraltar, pottery use, Neolithic, and organic residue analysis
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Journal article
On the reliability of historic books as sources of reference samples of early synthetic dyes – The case of “The Coal Tar Colours of the Farbwerke vorm. Meister, Lucius & Brüning, Höchst on the Main, Germany – A General Part” (1896)
The swatches present in the popular book “The Coal Tar Colours of the Farbwerke vorm. Meister Lucius & Brüning, Höchst on the Main, Germany – A General Part”, published in 1896, were analysed by high performance liquid chromatography coupled to diode array detector and high-resolution tandem mass spectrometry (HPLC-DAD-MS/MS) with...Tamburini, Diego
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Journal article
New insights into the dyes of Central Asian ikat textiles
Central Asian ikat textiles are characterised by their bold and large abstract patterns, made up of vibrant colours with a characteristic “blurred edge” effect, which makes them some of the most recognisable fabrics worldwide. Eleven ikats from the collection of the National Museum of Asian Art, Smithsonian Institution (Washington, DC,...Tamburini, Diego ; Klink-Hoppe, Zeina ; McCarthy, Blythe
Central Asia, Dye analysis, Ikat textiles, Synthetic dyes, Mass spectrometry, Liquid chromatography, and 19th century
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Journal article
Shattered glass of Beirut: collaboration between the Archaeological Museum (American University of Beirut) and international partners following the 2020 port explosion
The Archaeological Museum at the American University of Beirut (AUB) lies approximately 3 km west of the main port of Beirut, the site of the massive explosion that sent a catastrophic shockwave through the city on 4 August 2020. A display case containing Classical and early Islamic period glass vessels was...Panayot, Nadine ; Rizk, Aimée Bou ; Çamurcuoglu, Duygu ; Cuyaubère, Claire ; Dyer, Joanne …
Beirut port explosion, heritage management, and glass conservation
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Journal article
The Carolingian cup from the Vale of York Viking hoard: origin of its form and decorative features
In 2007, near Harrogate, in North Yorkshire, a Viking-period hoard was discovered with a Carolingian silver-gilt cup. This article examines this cup, highlighting Oriental, Central Asian and classical parallels in both metal and pottery for the cup’s form and decoration. The overall significance of the cup’s iconography has already been...Ager, Barry
Sasanian, Byzantine, and silverware
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Journal article
The date of Kanishka since 1960
The 1960 London Conference on the Date of Kanishka involved many leading scholars of Central and South Asian studies and had a profound impact on the field. This article examines the historiography of the central problem posed at the conference: In what year did the era of Kanishka commence? It...Bracey, Robert
Kushan, numismatics, Kanishka, and epigraphy
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Journal article
Acquisition, duplicates and exchange: C. P. de Bosset’s collections from Cephalonia, Ithaca and Delphi in the British Museum
Charles Philippe de Bosset (1773–1845) was a Swiss soldier and British imperial official who established an extensive archaeological and numismatic collection from the Mediterranean region, particularly the Ionian Islands. His collections are now in the British Museum, the Laténium in Neuchâtel and the Musée d’Art et d’Histoire de Neuchâtel. This...Dowler, Amelia
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Journal article
Money on the Silk Road - research at the British Museum
This paper was originally prepared for the international workshop ‘Chinese Civilization on the Silk Road’ hosted by Professor Rong Xinjiang at Peking University, 9–10 November 2019. The proceedings were published in Rong Xinjiang (ed.-in-chief), Sichou zhi lu shang de Zhonghua wenming (Chinese Civilization on the Silk Road), Beijing, The Commercial...Wang, Helen ; Cribb, Joe ; Errington, Elizabeth ; Curtis, Vesta ; Bracey, Robert
numismatics and Silk Road
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Journal article
First evidence and characterisation of rare chrome-based colourants used on 19th-century textiles from Myanmar
First evidence for the use of the chrome yellow dyeing method was obtained on late 19th-century Karen textiles from Myanmar. Non-invasive observations obtained by digital microscopy and fibre optic reflectance spectroscopy (FORS) provided hints of the possible presence of non-conventional organic colourants in yellow, orange and green threads used to...Tamburini, Diego ; Dyer, Joanne ; Cartwright, Caroline
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Journal article
Time to be nosy: Evaluating the impact of environmental and sociocultural changes on maxillary sinusitis in the Middle Nile Valley (Neolithic to Medieval periods)
Objective To investigate the prevalence of maxillary sinusitis in people who lived in the Middle Nile Valley across different periods, cultures, and environmental conditions. Materials 481 skeletons from 13 sites, curated at the British Museum, London, were analysed. The sites ranged in date from the Neolithic to Medieval periods (c....Davies-Barrett, Anna M. ; Roberts, Charlotte A. ; Antoine, Daniel
Particulate matter, Upper respiratory tract disease, Air quality, and Sudan
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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... -
Journal article
Early Islamic torpedo jars from Siraf: scientific analyses of the clay fabric and source of Indian Ocean transport containers
This paper concerns Sasanian to Early Islamic period transport containers, usually lined with bitumen, known as Torpedo jars. Widely distributed throughout the western Indian Ocean, with outliers as far west as Egypt and to the east in Indonesia, they are an important marker of maritime exchange. Their area of production...Tomber, Roberta ; Spataro, Michela ; Priestman, Seth
Torpedo jar; Siraf (Iran); scientific analyses; bitumen; Early Islamic
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Journal article
Report of the Portable Antiquities Scheme 2020
An annual report on finds reported to the Portable Antiquities Scheme from the Post-Medieval period, featuring overall statistics and highlighted objects.Richardson, Ian ; Wyatt, Stuart
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Journal article
Nubian agricultural practices, crops and foods: changes in living memory on Ernetta Island, Northern Sudan
Agricultural practices in northern Sudan have been changing rapidly but remain little documented. In this paper we aim to investigate changes to crops grown in living memory and their uses through interviews with Nubian farmers on the island of Ernetta. By exploring cultivation and crop processing practices, together with associated...Ryan, Philippa ; Kordofani, Maha ; Saad, Mohamed ; Hassan, Mohammed ; Dalton, Matthew …
agricultural heritage, crop diversity , and traditional ecological knowledge
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Journal article
A technological study of Assyrian clay tablets from Nineveh, Tell Halaf and Nimrud: a pilot case study
Ancient Middle Eastern clay tablets inscribed with cuneiform writing have traditionally been studied more as textual documents than as archaeological objects per se. In contrast to previous analytical studies which, with few exceptions, focused on provenance and palaeo-environmental reconstruction, the current study aims to describe the tablet makers’ technological choices,...Spataro, Michela ; Taylor, Jonathan ; O’Flynn, Daniel
cuneiform tablets, optical microscopy, SEM-EDX, and x-ray CT
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Journal article
Authorship, image-making, and excess: William Hunter's Anatomia uteri humani gravidi tabulis illustrata (1774)
In 1774, the physician-anatomist William Hunter (1718–1783) published Anatomia uteri humani gravidi tabulis illustrata/The Anatomy of the Human Gravid Uterus, Exhibited in Figures (1774). Issued as an elephant folio, the book is the culmination of twenty-four years of work and includes thirty-four plates with life-size hyper-naturalistic engravings by artists such...Hughes, Alicia
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Journal article
Hobby metal-detecting as citizen science. Background, challenges and opportunities of collaborative archeological finds recording schemes
This paper discusses five digital archeological finds recording schemes from England and Wales, Denmark, Finland, Flanders (Belgium), and the Netherlands; countries and areas where members of the public can search for archeological material, usually by metal-detecting. These schemes are a part of the European Public Finds Recording Network. The authors...Wessma, Anna ; Thomas, Suzie ; Deckers, Pieterjan ; Doba, Andres S. ; Heeren , Stijn …
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Journal article
A text of Shalmaneser I from Üçtepe and the location of Šinamu
This article presents a newly discovered cuneiform text from the site of Üçtepe in Diyarbakır province in southeastern Turkey. The text bears a previously unknown inscription of the Assyrian king Shalmaneser I. While incomplete, it never-theless gives the most extensive lists of the conquests of Shalmaneser I yet known, including...Genç, Bülent ; MacGinnis, John
Shalmaneser I, Assyria, and archaeology
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Journal article
Dangerous perfection’ and an old puzzle resolved: a ‘new’ Apulian krater inspired by Euripides
An Apulian calyx krater attributed to the Underworld Painter that entered the British Museum in 1867 as part of the collection of the Duc de Blacas (GR 1867,0508.1335, Vase F270) has long puzzled scholars on account of its enigmatic iconography, seemingly representing Orpheus and Cerberus in the Underworld. Yet cleaning... -
Journal article
A Soter (re)connection. Five fragments of shrouds from Roman Egypt at the British Museum
Five fragments of shrouds, held at the British Museum, were rediscovered in the storerooms of the museum in the late 1970s. The style of their decoration suggests that they were produced in the Theban necropolis during the first or second century AD and that they are probably to be associated... -
Journal article
Ein Leben mit dem Schiff. Nachruf auf Karin Hornig (2.8.1963-23.11.2020)
Obituary for Dr Karin Hornig, expert on ancient seafaring, cross-cultural exchange and the history of animals in antiquity.Ebbinghaus, Susanne
Ancient seafaring, Underwater archaeology, and Animals in ancient society
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Journal article
Dental insights into the biological affinities of the inhabitants of Gabati over a period of cultural transition
Gabati is located below the 5th Cataract of the Nile 40km north of Meroe, the capital of the Nubian empire from circa 300 BC–350 AD (Edwards, 2004). The cemetery at Gabati contains graves dating to the late Meroitic (c. 200BC – 200 AD), post-Meroitic (c. 550 - 700 AD), and...Phillips, Emma L.W. ; Irish, Joel D. ;
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Journal article
The Frome Hoard: chemical and lead isotope analysis of three silver-alloy denarii of Carausius
This article presents and discusses the metallurgical analysis of three silver denarii of the Roman emperor Carausius (AD 286-93) found in the Frome Hoard (2010).Ponting, Matthew ; Minnitt, Stephen ;
numismatics, Roman, and Carausius
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Journal article
Roman coin hoards from Wiltshire
This paper considers a corpus of 127 Roman coin hoards from Wiltshire discovered between 1653 and 2019.Henry, Richard ;
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Journal article
Searching for silphium: an updated review
From luxury spice to medical cure-all, silphium was a product coveted throughout the ancient world and occupied an essential place in the export economy of ancient Cyrene. The mysterious extinction of the silphium plant in the 1st century CE leaves us with little evidence as to the exact nature of...Briggs, Lisa ; Jakobsson, Jens
archaeobotany, Cyrene, silphium, and shipwrecks
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Journal article
There’s more to a vessel than meets the eye: organic residue analysis of ‘wine’ containers from shipwrecks and settlements of ancient Cyprus (4th–1st century )
Despite growing evidence to the contrary, wine remains the assumed content of many types of ancient pottery. Vessels from the Kyrenia and Mazotos shipwrecks, and Yeronisos island presumed to have contained wine were subjected to three different extraction protocols to test the assumption that these vessels were used to import...Briggs, Lisa ; Demesticha, Stella ; Katzev, Susan ; Wylde Swiny, Helena ; Craig, Oliver E. …
pottery, shipwrecks, and organic residue
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Journal article
Clues to the presence of an Assyrian administration in the Mahidasht Plain, Kermanshah, Iran
Large sculpted circular door sockets are a characteristic feature of Neo-Assyrian monumental architecture and have been found in palaces, temples, and admin- istrative centers both at core imperial sites such as Khorsabad and Nimrud and at provincial capitals such as Till-Barsib, Arslan-Tash, and Ziyaret Tepe. In the case of Iran,...Alibaigi, Sajjad ; MacGinnis, John