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This paper will examine the process taken to review current collection environment practices and the stakeholder management processes applied to various departments across the British Museum. The paper will provide key details on the parameters and controls considered for temperature, relative humidity, and light in the new guidance document, and consider successes and obstacles encountered throughout the project. Two case studies are included to show how the review has impacted on projects and collection environment since the new guidance has been authorised and brought into use. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Curated by the artist Barbara Jones (1912–1978) for the Whitechapel Gallery in London in 1951, Blackeyes and Lemonade was an exhibition of popular art or, what Jones defined as, "the things people make for themselves, or that are manufactured in their taste." The exhibits, which included a tiled fireplace in the shape of an Airedale dog, a giant anthropomorphic lemon, pub beer pulls, advertising posters, and industrially manufactured confectionary, posed a challenge to a codified and class-based conception of taste, fine art, and high culture that was prevalent in the post-war British museum. Through an analysis of the production and reception of Blackeyes and Lemonade, this paper charts the intellectual and practical battles Jones had to engage in to defend her selection and interpretation of objects, while simultaneously defining an unfamiliar branch of esthetic impulse and attempting to redirect what she called the "museum eye." Finally, the paper explores the role of the temporary exhibition in re-opening discussions about taste, class, and gender in the museum. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

THE ARTS Frieze Frames When Lord Elgin called dibs John Geddes The Parthenon Marbles Dispute: Heritage, Law, Politics Alexander Herman Bloomsbury Publishing 224 pages, hardcover, softcover, and ebook A FEW [...]

This article reviews the recent publications concerning the centuries-old dispute over the Parthenon Marbles. The discussion focuses on the application of international law to the question of the return of the Parthenon Marbles to Greece, and reviews Professor Catharine Titi’s book The Parthenon Marbles and International Law, with reference to and comparison with Alexander Herman’s book The Parthenon Marbles Dispute. This review specifically evaluates the question of whether there is a customary international law on the return of unlawfully removed cultural heritage, which would require States, and specifically the United Kingdom, to be bound to such a rule. The existence of this rule would strengthen the efforts of Greece to argue for the return of the Marbles, which Titi argues is best resolved through diplomacy, and not recourse to the European Court of Human Rights or the International Court of Justice. Despite a growing global discussion about the need for repatriation of colonial-looted cultural objects, it remains to be seen whether it will have any impact, or indeed put pressure on, the Trustees of the British Museum or the UK Parliament which must pass an act to deaccession the Marbles from the national collection. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To evaluate the effect of Microbial Induced Calcium Carbonate Precipitation (MICP) on the enhancement of early resistance to sulfate attack of cementitious materials. In this paper, firstly, the effect of Bacillus subtilis (BM) on the carbonation depth as well as the carbonation rate of standard as well as carbonation-conditioned cementitious sand specimens was investigated. Secondly, the compressive strength and volumetric deformation of the specimens at different ages of immersion in sulfate solution were investigated. Finally, the changes of hydration products before and after the addition of BM were analyzed by X-ray diffraction analysis (XRD), and the microscopic pore structure of the specimens after erosion was analyzed by low-field nuclear magnetic resonance (LF-NMR) and scanning electron microscope (SEM), which revealed the mechanism of the improvement of BM on the resistance to sulfate erosion of the cementitious materials. The results showed that the initial compressive strength of BM carbonised curing specimens, ordinary carbonised curing specimens and BM standard curing specimens were increased by 42.0%, 34.0% and 4.0%, respectively, compared with the ordinary standard curing specimens, respectively, compared with the control group, and the loss of the final compressive strength was reduced by 37.4%, 25.4%, and 14.5%, and the expansion rate was reduced by 31.3%, 22.0%, after sulfate erosion for 6 months, 5.2%, and porosity decreased by 24.2%, 13.6%, and 9.9%. Microbial mineralization accelerated the reaction between Ca2+ in the pore solution and atmospheric CO2, and the calcite formed filled the pores to make the structure denser, increasing the initial compressive strength of the specimens and reducing the loss of properties when exposed to sulfate solution. Therefore, the application of MICP technology in cementitious materials provides a new direction for the development of durable and sustainable cementitious materials. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article presents new tablets and fragments from the British Museum that belong to the collection of Early Dynastic and Sargonic tablets discovered at Ur. Having been overlooked for almost a century, the tablets offer new insights into Early Dynastic and Sargonic archives from Ur. Most significant among the contributions are the names of several months demonstrating that the Early Semitic calendar was in use in Ur during the Early Dynastic IIIa period. Second, the tablets contribute a new month name to the calendar of pre-Sargonic Ur and permit a possible reconstruction of the order of the months of the calendar. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Whenever twentieth-century modern art or new contemporary artworks are included amongst displays of ancient Egypt, press statements often assert that such juxtapositions are 'surprising', 'innovative', and 'fresh', celebrating the external perspective they bring to such collections. But contemporary art's relationship with museums and other disciplines needs to be understood in a longer-term perspective. Pairings of twentieth- and twenty-first-century artistic works with objects of antiquity is an activity that has been undertaken for more than a century in what has been a relatively long period of mutually reinforcing influences between modern/contemporary art, museum display, the art market, and Egyptian heritage. Together, they have decontextualised ancient Egyptian culture and shaped the language and perspectives of scholars, curators, and artists. In this paper, rather than considering how artists have been inspired by ancient Egypt, I will give a few examples of how more recent art practices from the late nineteenth century onwards have impacted the language and discourse of Egyptology and its museum representation. Then, using more recent artist engagements with the British Museum, I argue for greater interdisciplinary dialogues between artists and Egyptologists, as both take more critical stances towards research that recontextualises the power and agency of collections, representation, and knowledge production. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Visualizing the internal structure of museum objects is a crucial step in acquiring knowledge about the origin, state, and composition of cultural heritage artifacts. Among the most powerful techniques for exposing the interior of museum objects is computed tomography (CT), a technique that computationally forms a 3D image using hundreds of radiographs acquired in a full circular range. However, the lack of affordable and versatile CT equipment in museums, combined with the challenge of transporting precious collection objects, currently keeps this technique out of reach for most cultural heritage applications. We propose an approach for creating accurate CT reconstructions using only standard 2D radiography equipment already available in most larger museums. Specifically, we demonstrate that a combination of basic X-ray imaging equipment, a tailored marker-based image acquisition protocol, and sophisticated data-processing algorithms, can achieve 3D imaging of collection objects without the need for a costly CT imaging system. We implemented this approach in the British Museum (London), the J. Paul Getty Museum (Los Angeles), and the Rijksmuseum (Amsterdam). Our work paves the way for broad facilitation and adoption of CT technology across museums worldwide. Visualising the structure of museum objects is a crucial step in understanding the origin, state, and composition of cultural heritage artifacts. Here the authors present an approach for creating computed tomography reconstructions using only standard 2D radiography equipment already available in most larger museums. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Knowledge gaps exist regarding optimal silver diammine fluoride (SDF) regimens and the efficacy of new products for arresting dental caries in young children. We evaluated the effectiveness of 38%-SDF (SDI-RivaStar), Tiefenfluorid (TF) comparing with Placebo (P), all in conjunction with behavioural modification (BM), in preventing major complications (endodontic/extractions/pain)—a patient-centred outcome—due to early childhood caries over 12 months in children under 71-months. A six-arm, patient/parent-blinded, superiority, placebo-controlled randomised control trial at the university clinic in Riga, Latvia, from 1/9/20-31/8/22 (Protocol registration ISRCTN17005348). The trial tested six protocols, using three compounds (P/SDF/TF) under two regimes: annual and biannual (P1/P2/TF1/TF2/SDF1/SDF2) for major complications. Secondary outcomes included minor complications and parental satisfaction. All groups received BM. 373/427 randomised children (87.3%) completed the study. SDF2 had a significantly lower rate and risk of major (21.5%, OR = 0.28, 95%CI [0.11, 0.72], p < 0.05) and minor complications (OR = 0.16 (95%CI [0.05, 0.50], p = 0.002). Overall satisfaction was 96% (p > 0.05). SDF biannual application with BM effectively prevented major complications of early childhood caries and was well accepted by children and their parents. Trial registration number: ISRCTN17005348, principal investigator: Ilze Maldupa, registration date: 30/06/2021. Clinical trial registration number: ISRCTN registry: ISRCTN17005348, https://doi.org/10.1186/ISRCTN17005348, registration date: 30/06/2021. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the midst of recent protests and antiracism movements following the death of George Floyd in May of 2020 and other Black, Indigenous, and people of Color (BIPOC) murdered in the United States by police violence, protestors and advocates around the world recognized the need for Western governments and other institutions to reckon with their own imperial history—to acknowledge the linkage between the slave trade, colonialism, and racism in their countries. This recognition led to the tearing down of statues depicting racist colonial leaders and calling for museums who have perpetuated imperialism and racism through their acceptance and display of looted artifacts to return them. This article sought to answer the question posed in the call for papers, can the many manifestations of racism be effectively dealt with in our society if the status quo is unwilling to engage with the issues, address them, and relinquish power. Further the author argues that cultural looting has its roots in colonialism and racism and discusses implications of the linkage between one's stolen cultural heritage and individual and community well‐being. Answers to the question include both yes, manifestations of racism can be addressed, and no, they cannot be addressed when institutions and governments refuse to engage, address the issue and do not relinquish power. The article also includes the author's thoughts on using a living heritage approach to preserve cultural heritage and offers suggestions that community psychologists, advocates and activists can help to decolonize museums as part of the broader social and racial justice movement. Highlights: Preserving cultural heritage is important for identityMuseums should be held accountable for stolen artifactsStolen artifacts of any type should be repatriated [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using a discourse approach, this study examines online news and opinion pieces about calls for the British Museum to return Chinese artefacts. We examine the interpersonal meanings conveyed by the linguistic choices made in these texts. This study uses the appraisal system in the systemic functional linguistic (SFL) framework to examine how news discourse addresses the issue and constructs interpersonal meanings. Graduation resources, as a subcategory of appraisal system, can underpin the degree of meanings and perspectives, allowing writers to adjust the gradability of attitudinal meanings conveyed to readers. This research first examines how the writer's voice is embedded in graduation resources, and later, how these graduation resources are used in online news articles calling for the return of the artefacts. This study also examines how online newspapers covered a short film by vloggers called "Escape from the British Museum", which sparked massive social media reactions, offering new perspectives on how social media and traditional news organisations interact to construct meanings through language. The results show that quantification and fulfilment (completion) resources are the two most common subcategories of graduation resources. The findings shed light on the language strategies used in news and social media discourse, as well as the interpersonal meanings behind such requests for cultural heritage repatriation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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 article establishes the circumstances of the British Museum's acquisition in the early nineteenth century of its part of the de Bosset collection of coins, two bas-reliefs and a bronze. It then considers the process of removing duplicate coins from the British Museum collection through sales and exchanges by an examination of the de Bosset acquisition. Finally, it uses de Bosset's own publication in 1815 of the coins of Cephalonia, Ithaca and Delphi as a case-study to restore archaeological provenance and a catalogue of that part of de Bosset's collection. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this article, we examine the organization of the British diplomatic service in the Ottoman Empire and analyse its transition from a prestigious, privately financed, highly individualized public office to a state-funded, but fragmented and poorly paid body. We survey the idiosyncratic character of the diplomatic apparatus set up by the Levant Company to serve its business pursuits, infiltrate local society and obtain political favours. In 1825 the Foreign Office replaced the Levant Company officers with public servants who had no ties or affinities with Levantine society. However, to obtain antiquities for the British Museum, the Foreign Office had to turn once again to British Levantines. Based on our earlier published work, 1 as well as recent unpublished archival research, this paper explains how the collecting of antiquities in the Ottoman Empire relied entirely on the British diplomatic service and its Levantine connection. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Los relieves en bronce de las puertas de Salmanasar III (858-824 a.C.) de Imgur-Enlil (actual Balawat, Irak) llegaron al British Museum de Londres en 1878, el mismo año de su hallazgo. A partir de ese momento pasaron por un complejo proceso de restauración, dirigido por Robert Cooper Walpole Ready (1811-1903). En este artículo nos fijamos en las decisiones que tomaron fideicomisarios, conservadores y varios miembros de la familia Ready, todos ellos actores vinculados al British Museum, acerca de la restauración y publicación de los bronces de Balawat, así como de la comercialización de sus reproducciones entre 1878 y 1915. Todas estas decisiones condicionaron tanto el estudio como la difusión de los bronces, también a nivel internacional, tal y como ejemplificamos a partir del caso de estudio del Museo de Reproducciones Artísticas de Madrid, que en la década de 1880 pudo adquirir fotografías de los mismos, pero no en cambio vaciados en yeso.

White marble sculpture is a cornerstone of Western art history. Archaeological inquiry, however, has demonstrated that Classical sculpture and its associated architecture were once coloured. The authors examine the Parthenon Sculptures at the British Museum to identify traces of colour and carving on their surfaces. Using close examination and archaeometric techniques, the study shows that the sculptors finished surfaces with textures that reflected specific elements (e.g. skin, wool, linen) and these were then enhanced through the application of colour, including a purple colourant and Egyptian blue. The latter was used extensively to paint elaborate figurative designs on the carved textiles. Despite the complexity of the carved drapery, elaborate ornament was applied to the finish. The findings encourage a reconsideration of the appearance of the Parthenon in the fifth century BC. Keywords: Classical Athens, Parthenon, visible-induced luminescence, XRF, carving, sculpture, colour, Introduction In Ancient Greece, marble sculpture, like architecture, was painted. Although studies of ancient polychromy began at least a couple of centuries ago, the exact appearance of ancient sculpture and [...]

Using a discourse approach, this study examines online news and opinion pieces about calls for the British Museum to return Chinese artefacts. We examine the interpersonal meanings conveyed by the linguistic choices made in these texts. This study uses the appraisal system in the systemic functional linguistic (SFL) framework to examine how news discourse addresses the issue and constructs interpersonal meanings. Graduation resources, as a subcategory of appraisal system, can underpin the degree of meanings and perspectives, allowing writers to adjust the gradability of attitudinal meanings conveyed to readers. This research first examines how the writer’s voice is embedded in graduation resources, and later, how these graduation resources are used in online news articles calling for the return of the artefacts. This study also examines how online newspapers covered a short film by vloggers called “Escape from the British Museum”, which sparked massive social media reactions, offering new perspectives on how social media and traditional news organisations interact to construct meanings through language. The results show that quantification and fulfilment (completion) resources are the two most common subcategories of graduation resources. The findings shed light on the language strategies used in news and social media discourse, as well as the interpersonal meanings behind such requests for cultural heritage repatriation.

In 2000, the permanent Korean gallery space, named the Korea Foundation Gallery, officially opened in the British Museum. The establishment of the Korean gallery helped advance the universality of the British Museum and fulfilled an institutional goal of South Korean cultural diplomatic institutions. This article aims to draw out the ways in which this Korean gallery demonstrates and characterises South Korean cultural diplomacy in the 1990s. It articulates the cultural diplomatic policy and the processes of the foundation of the Korean gallery by investigating the cooperation between South Korean cultural diplomatic institutions (the Korea Foundation and the National Museum of Korea) and the British Museum. Conclusively, I argue that the purpose, procedure, and outcome of the formation of the Korea Foundation Gallery in the "universal" British Museum exemplarily evidences the characteristics of South Korean cultural diplomacy in the 1990s through museum space. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Beginning in the late 13th century, literary manuscript collecting became immensely popular with British bibliophiles. Later, as British citizens settled in what is now the United States, literary manuscript collecting became a prestigious and costly pastime. In a concentrated effort made by individual and institutional collectors between the late 19th and mid 20th centuries, the United States came to hold an extensive accumulation of contemporary British literary manuscripts. This was largely due to British reluctance to collect works written after 1900, because they were not sure how valuable an author’s collection would be until the author had passed away.1 In the 1960s, a call to invest in preserving contemporary British literature was made by Philip Larkin, and a group formed from the British Museum and Society of College, National and University Libraries (called SCONUL, founded in 1950) that selected several British and Irish manuscript collections to display in their buildings. Their efforts were met with wide success, and more British institutions began requesting unpublished manuscripts from contemporary British and Irish authors. Though some collectors and authors still preferred to send their works to the United States, British authors finally gained the respect that they deserved from their universities and libraries. This paper will delve into two transfers of British literature to American universities, the Tolkien collection at Marquette University in the 1950s, and Raymond Danowski’s sizable poetry collection donated to Emory University in 2004, to examine the trends of classical and contemporary literature acquisition and the use of these donations over the past seventy years. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article presents a first edition of four clay tablets inscribed with omens arising from eclipses of the moon. As products of the middle and late Old Babylonian periods they represent the oldest examples of compendia of lunar-eclipse omens yet discovered and thus provide important new information about celestial divination among the peoples of southern Mesopotamia in the early second millennium BCE. The tablets are edited with appended philological apparatus. They are all found to bear witness to a single text, which organizes the omens of lunar eclipse by time of night, movement of shadow, duration, and date. A composite translation also takes account of two other early versions of the text published eleven years ago. The article is concluded by discussions of variants and scribal annotations in the text. The cuneiform texts are illustrated by scale drawings of the tablets. 1 [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Spal: Revista de Prehistoria y Arqueologia de la Universidad de Sevilla is the property of Spal. Revista de Prehistoria y Arqueologia de la Universidad de Sevilla and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Gerion: Revista de Historia Antigua is the property of Universidad Complutense de Madrid and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Revista Internacional de la Imagen is the property of Common Ground Research Networks and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Gridshell nodes are key elements regarding structural performance, visual appearance and assembly of any gridshell that have been given little attention in recent research. This paper explores aluminium as a material for timber gridshell nodes. First, existing gridshell nodes are categorised regarding bulk materials, gripper types and connection methods and based on this, a set of novel node principles in aluminium are deducted and proposed for a timber gridshell on the geometry of the British Museum Great Court. A finite element analysis is done on the proposals to increase the understanding of the node principles' structural behaviour and feasibility. Together, the set of node principles, their evaluation and the utilised procedure can provide new options in the future design of gridshells and gridshell nodes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The income gap is the negative margin between earned income and operating expenses: this is the main financial concern for not-for-profit entities (both public sector and nongovernmental organizations). Despite this, all over the world these entities are forced to use the standard profit-centered income statements format, with its focus on net income generation (the bottom line). This paper proposes an income statement format that uses the income gap to understand/discuss/present the financial viability of a not-for-profit entity in the arts sector, specifically a museum. We apply the framework to the British Museum's income statements from 1999–2000 to 2018–2019. This allows us to analyze institutional narratives in the context of the evolution of the museum's financial viability over two decades, and to assess the performance of the museum's neoliberal reform agenda from the end of the 1990s. Enlarging the perspective, ad hoc adaptations of the framework can allow a better understanding of the financial viability of not-for-profit organizations, in the arts sector and possibly more broadly in public services and not-for-profit sector. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Iraq (00210889) is the property of Cambridge University Press and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The gold coin found in 1978 among the many treasures of the Tillya Tepe burials in northwestern Afghanistan by the Russian archaeologist Viktor Sarianidi and his team has provoked much debate. Suggestions have been made that it depicts the first representation of the Buddha. This article shows that it does not show the Buddha, but Heracles, representing the Buddha's guardian Vajrapani. The coin also throws into doubt the early first century CE date of the burials, placing them in the late first century to early second century CE. The coin also draws attention to the connection between many objects in the burials and Gandhara, particularly the site of Sirkap at Taxila., The Tillya Tepe burials excavated by Viktor Sarianidi and a Soviet-Afghan team in 1978 in northern Afghanistan have been the subject of much debate, particularly about their Greek and nomad [...]