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Rounded With a Sleep: The Transitional Role of Grave Goods in the Archaeology of Ritual and Emotion
(2026)
Wilkin, Neil
Although grave goods have been a major concern in archaeology since its inception, the question of what objects buried with the dead actually do—in both ritual and emotional terms—has remained relatively opaque and understudied. This paper addresses the issue directly, illuminating the ways graves goods served to unstitch the dead from the ‘objective’ quotidian life of the ‘self’ and enter into ‘subjective’ communities of the dead; how objects buried in graves can simultaneously belong to the dead and the living, playing an importantly paradoxical role in navigating journeys between the needs and identities of the living, dying and the dead and the role of grave goods in addressing and transforming the anxieties caused by death and the creation of positive psychological emotional benefits, community cohesion and solidarity. To develop these ideas, I draw attention to the similarities between the concept of ‘transitional objects’, which serve to bridge subjectivity and objectivity (inner and outer worlds), and grave goods, both of which can be understood in terms of ritual processes and ritualized acts.
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'Satyros Saved by Sarapis’: Ptolemaic Elephant- Hunter Dedications in the Temple of Seti i at Abydos
(2026)
Timothy Moller
This paper examines a series of Ptolemaic secondary inscriptions found within the temple of Seti I at Abydos. By contextualising their spatial placement and analysing the information conveyed by the texts, it argues that their positioning was not incidental, but instead constituted a deliberate engagement with the architectural fabric of this millennium-old monument.
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Medieval Europe Research Community Papers Vol.2: proceedings of the postgraduate and early career conference in medieval archaeology (Wroclaw 2024)
(2026)
Jacob Sawicki
;
Lewis Michael John
;
Vargha, Mária
The Medieval Europe Research Community Papers Vol. 2 contains the proceedings from the Postgraduate and Early Career Conference in Medieval Archaeology held in Wrocław in 2024
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Plain yet significant: The making of a new typology of unglazed pottery from Takht-e Suleiman
(2026)
Bangsborg Thuesen Mette
New Research on Old Collections in Southwest Asian Archaeology presents a compilation of papers by early career researchers exploring the potential and challenges of working with legacy collections which often remain overlooked in museum and archival stores. These papers stem from a workshop held at the British Museum over three consecutive days in July and August 2023 and offer different approaches to object biographies, provenance research, and the reinterpretation of well-known sites and archival material. By (re-)engaging with these overlooked materials, the volume positions research on legacy collections as a meaningful, sustainable research practice in archaeology of ancient Southwest Asia.
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Gaining clarity from old glass: Some surprising results from heritage collections at the British Museum
(2026)
Nash-pye Charlotte
New Research on Old Collections in Southwest Asian Archaeology presents a compilation of papers by early career researchers exploring the potential and challenges of working with legacy collections which often remain overlooked in museum and archival stores. These papers stem from a workshop held at the British Museum over three consecutive days in July and August 2023 and offer different approaches to object biographies, provenance research, and the reinterpretation of well-known sites and archival material. By (re-)engaging with these overlooked materials, the volume positions research on legacy collections as a meaningful, sustainable research practice in archaeology of ancient Southwest Asia.
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A multidisciplinary approach to the study of zoomorphic figurines from Ur
(2026)
Enrica Inversi
New Research on Old Collections in Southwest Asian Archaeology presents a compilation of papers by early career researchers exploring the potential and challenges of working with legacy collections which often remain overlooked in museum and archival stores. These papers stem from a workshop held at the British Museum over three consecutive days in July and August 2023 and offer different approaches to object biographies, provenance research, and the reinterpretation of well-known sites and archival material. By (re-)engaging with these overlooked materials, the volume positions research on legacy collections as a meaningful, sustainable research practice in archaeology of ancient Southwest Asia.
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New Research on Old Collections in Southwest Asian Archaeology: Proceedings of the Workshop Held at the British Museum, London, 31 July – 2 August, 2023
(2026)
Bangsborg Thuesen Mette
;
Giulia Russo
New Research on Old Collections in Southwest Asian Archaeology presents a compilation of papers by early career researchers exploring the potential and challenges of working with legacy collections which often remain overlooked in museum and archival stores. These papers stem from a workshop held at the British Museum over three consecutive days in July and August 2023 and offer different approaches to object biographies, provenance research, and the reinterpretation of well-known sites and archival material. By (re-)engaging with these overlooked materials, the volume positions research on legacy collections as a meaningful, sustainable research practice in archaeology of ancient Southwest Asia.
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Sumeromania: The History of the British Museum’s Girsu Collection
(2026)
Rey, Sebastien
Sumeromania uncovers the dramatic and complex story behind one of the British Museum’s most important holdings: its vast collection of objects from the ancient Sumerian city of Girsu (modern Tello, Iraq). From statues of rulers to thousands of cuneiform tablets, these artifacts entered the museum during a period of fierce competition among empires, archaeologists, and dealers. Drawing on an extraordinary archive of correspondence, reports, and trustees’ minutes, the book reconstructs how these objects were unearthed, purchased, and transported between the mid-nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. It reveals the entanglements of Ottoman authorities, French excavators, British officials, and an international network of antiquities dealers, while also tracing the museum’s evolving accession practices. By linking archival documents with objects in the collection, Sumeromania not only provides a reassessment of provenance but also resituates these materials within their archaeological and geopolitical contexts. In doing so, the book offers a major contribution to the study of the history of archaeology, museum collecting, and imperialism. It reconfigures our understanding of how modern institutions came to shape—and distort—the material record of ancient Mesopotamia. Specialists in ancient Near Eastern studies, Assyriology, and archaeology will find new insights into Girsu’s recovery, while scholars of museum studies, the history of collecting, and British imperial history will discover a case study rich in archival detail and contemporary resonance.
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The Western Nile Delta: ARCE Fieldwork in the Region of Kom Firin and Naukratis (1977-1983) Revisited
(2026)
Masson-berghoff Aurélia
;
Thomas, Ross
Between 1977 and 1983 a team led by William D.E. Coulson, Albert Leonard Jr and Nancy Wilkie undertook a major survey and excavation project in the central-western Nile Delta, in the area around Kom Firin and Naukratis. They examined over thirty sites, spanning the 3rd millennium BC to the late 1st millennium AD. This was the most significant in-depth archaeological exploration of this important border region, yet it remained largely unknown with only the site of Naukratis published but misunderstood. Their work is presented, re-evaluated and contextualised here from a present-day perspective and with all new data, including results from the Egyptian excavation of a major Old Kingdom to Roman period cemetery at Silvagou near Kom Firin. Offering a key synthesis of this region, the volume sheds new light on settlement patterns, environment and historical development by bringing together data from different disciplines. Many sites hitherto identified as Ptolemaic or Roman foundations now emerge as settled in the Pharaonic period. This research also provides glimpses of a time before the rapid urban expansion and agricultural development since the late 20th century.
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Navigating the Customs House, Then and Now: A Synthesis of British Colonial Collecting in Australia, 1788–1823
(2023)
Simpson, Daniel
Amid growing public and academic interest in the identification and return of Aboriginal objects acquired by Britain from Australia after 1788, enquiries into the disputed origins of the British Museum’s ‘Gweagal shield’ have highlighted the need for new and better forms of provenance research. This article explores a novel methodology and source of information: British Treasury and customs records detailing the descriptions, values, and duties paid upon a vast number of colonial collections of Aboriginal objects, human remains, and natural history specimens known to have disembarked in Britain between 1788 and 1823. By positing a new provenance for the ‘Gweagal shield’ – namely, that it may have accompanied Bennelong, Yemmerrawanne and Arthur Phillip on their passage to England in 1793 – the article explores the potential of such records for highlighting what, when, how, and from whom Australian collections arrived in Britain in this early and hitherto little-understood period.
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