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When in 1820 consul Henry Salt offered to sell Egyptian antiquities, including the Seti sarcophagus, to the British Museum, the British government was unprepared for the substantial investment required. The subsequent acquisition of the sarcophagus by John Soane was the catalyst in changing the government attitude to collecting antiquities for the national museum. The acceptance of a proposal made in 1835 by Giovanni D’Athanasi to excavate in Egypt turned the government from a passive recipient into an active collector of antiquities for its museum. These episodes provide insights into the mechanisms by which the British Museum’s collection was established. They also illuminate how collecting by a national museum established an object habit that linked antiquities acquisitions, nationalism, and restitution demands in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The article discusses archaeological discoveries made by the Portable Antiquities Scheme (PAS) in medieval Britain and Ireland. Topics include features of early medieval coins circulated in England in the 5th century, the excavation of a bronze bowl, ceramic vessel, and coin pendants from a 7th century female burial in Norfolk, England, and the analysis of medieval commercial locations such as Saltfleetby and Skidbrooke.

El artículo discurre sobre las piedras del Sitio Rollright en Inglaterra. El autor comenta sobre las antigüedades prehistóricas, el filósofo y psicoanalista francés Jacques Lacan y el folclor y la historia oral de Gran Bretaña. Otros temas incluyen la arqueología y el periodo neolítico.

This article reports the discovery of colour-decorated pottery dating to the third millennium bc from the Isle of Man, the earliest yet known from the British Isles. Scientific studies of the vessel highlight technical aspects of its manufacture which are then used to situate the vessel in a wider social and cultural context through a brief review of its wider biography. The choice of colours — white, black and red — and their arrangement on the vessel walls are linked to wider north European symbolic schemes reflected also in contemporary pottery, mobiliary and rock art. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The article discusses medieval ivory carvings from Wales, including in regard to their depiction of the crucifixion of Jesus Christ and the Virgin Mary. The article often references archaeology from Wales so as to analyze its antiquities, including diptychs, combs comprised of walrus ivory, belt fittings and beads.

This section of the journal comprises two core sets of reports linked to work in 2012: on finds and analyses relating to the Portable Antiquities Scheme (PAS) and on site-specific discoveries and reports in medieval Britain and Ireland (MB&I), with a selection of highlighted projects. For the PAS report, reviews on coin and non-coin finds and on specific research angles are presented. For MB&I, the Society is most grateful to all contributors (of field units, museums, universities, developers, specialist groups and individuals) who have provided reports on finds, excavations, field-surveys and building analyses for 2012. Note that while we can advise on content, we are not able to abstract from interim reports. Please also note that in certain cases the National Grid Reference has been omitted from reports to protect sites; do notify the compilers if this information is to be withheld. For MB&I, see below for the format and content of the Fieldwork Highlights section and for the contact details of the compilers. The annual Specialist Groups Reports now appear in the Society's Newsletter. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article reports on the activities of Great Britain's Portable Antiquities Scheme in 2010, established to record the public's archaeological finds in England and Wales, focusing especially on noteworthy post-Medieval finds. Notable finds detailed include a mask dating from the 16th or early 17th century found in Northamptonshire, a copper-alloy prosthetic nose dating from the 16th or 17th century found in East Sussex, and a gold crown of the double rose, a coin featuring the likenesses of Henry VIII and Katherine of Aragon, dating from the first half of the 16th century found in Wiltshire.

The eolith debate mirrors the development and demise of evolutionist anthropology in Britain between 1880 and 1940. This paper traces the connections between some of the key protagonists in the controversy, especially those associated with the Pitt-Rivers Museum at Oxford. The evolutionist pre-occupation of early Oxford anthropology with the continuity between archaeology and ethnology is shown to be linked to an interest in the Eolithic controversy, and these concerns persisted into a second generation as evolutionism was marginalized and prehistoric archaeology matured. Although the eolith debate finally floundered in the debris of the “epistemic rupture” between the world of Victorian evolutionism and late twentieth-century anthropology, some of its technical pre-occupations—particularly in relation to what we would now call ethnographic analogies and in terms of the techniques for distinguishing artefacts from geofacts—persist and are very much current issues. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Archaeology, and in particular the study of ceramics, lies at the heart of the interpretive schemes that underpin Framing the Early Middle Ages. While this is to be welcomed, it is proposed that even more extensive use of archaeological evidence - especially that generated through the excavation of prehistoric burial-mounds and rural settlements, as well as the study of early medieval coins - would have produced a rather more dynamic and nuanced picture of the transformations in social and political structures that marked the passage from late Roman Britain to Anglo-Saxon England. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The author comments on two boxes of materials relating to the archaeological work of Hamo Sassoon in east Africa that were donated to the British Institute in Eastern Africa by his widow Jean Brown. Examples of materials contained in the collection include photographs, field notes, sketch plans and drafts of several articles and guides. These materials related to the work undertaken by Sassoon when he was Conservator of Antiquities for Uganda, Curator of the Fort Jesus Museum, and the Coastal Archaeologist for Kenya.

Visits to archaeological sites, within school, a history or archaeology club, or a family group, are the main means for young people to engage with the archaeological historic environment. The majority of archaeological sites easily accessible for such groups are those that have been 'sanitized' for public consumption. These are often devoid of explanation of the archaeological process which made them accessible. This paper looks at the contribution that working archaeological sites can make to young people's understanding of archaeology, with particular reference to visits made by branches of the Young Archaeologists' Club, based in the UK. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite historical and linguistic connections, archaeology in North America and archaeology in Britain are alienated by a curious mixture of provincialism and mutual indifference. This estrangement is part of a larger cultural alienation that was decades in the making. Field methods and practice and academic organization of the discipline differ in ways that variously favor both regions. Yet, in other respects, British and North American archaeology share a cosmopolitan attraction to glamorous foreign places, a fondness that converged in recent years on China. Ironically, this shared worldliness does not extend to each one's serious contemplation of the other. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Bolsover Castle is a 17th-century mock-medieval castle built for the Cavendish family. First impressions suggest that its Pillar Parlour has survived with little alteration for nearly four centuries. In reality, there have been minor but telling changes to its fabric. The 18-century Cavendishes venerated the castle as a shrine to their ancestors. Bolsover's 19th-century tenants recreated a romantic Olden Time appearance. The public bodies responsible for the castle in the 20th century used archaeology to reconstruct its 17th-century form. In each case, these custodians aimed to present the site 'authentically', but their work reveals their own contemporary readings of the castle's history. This evidence, gathered for a Conservation Plan, allowed English Heritage's re-display of the castle (1996-2001) to take a more reflective and positive approach to creating new meanings. This use of history to create local important meanings should give good cheer to those managing similar small but significant sites across the world. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Summary. British historical archaeology has seen new theoretical engagement in recent years. A diverse and distinctive body of theory has developed in this increasingly vibrant and international area of study, testing disciplinary boundaries, especially with history, social anthropology and material culture studies. This paper takes stock of three distinct processes within the new historical archaeology: the birth of material history, the loss of antiquity, and the loss of isolation. The implications of these processes for the wider discipline are explored with reference to landscape archaeology, using the example of the Ironbridge Gorge, Shropshire. In a consideration of future directions, it is argued that historical archaeology provides particular insights to the need across the discipline for archaeology to respond with self-confidence to complexity by drawing out and celebrating diversity in theory and practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents a 17th-century view of the antiquities trade. Sir Thomas Browne was considered as one of the leading intellectuals of Stuart England. He was famous for his philosophical disquisition, "Religio Medici." Browne was also one of the first Fellows of the Royal Society and had long been interested in antiquarian matters. Browne examines the practice of cremation in the ancient, oriental and New Worlds, citing Classical, Biblical and other authorities. His examination was stimulated by the unearthing of some cinerary urns near Walsingham.