SCIENTIFIC INVESTIGATION OF FAIENCE FRAGMENTS ATTRIBUTED TO THE TOWN MOSAIC AT KNOSSOS*

We analysed a faience fragment from Bristol Museum and Art Gallery, to determine whether it belonged to the Town Mosaic, excavated at Knossos. Three Town Mosaic fragments from the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford were also examined. The objects were analysed using non‐destructive variable‐pressure scanning electron microscopy with energy‐dispersive X‐ray spectrometry. The Bristol object's composition and microstructures are similar to those of the Town Mosaic samples. Our results are also comparable to those from polished samples of Minoan faience (Tite et al. 2009 ), showing that VP SEM–EDX gives reliable results without invasive sampling. Silicaceous, copper‐rich microspheres were identified for the first time in two of the Ashmolean objects.     

TWO IBERIAN TORCS IN THE ASHMOLEAN MUSEUM, OXFORD

Summary. The main objective of this paper is to describe two Iberian Iron Age gold tores from the collection of the Ashmolean Museum. Their study, mostly based on typological aspects, is used to determine the origin of the two ornaments, which is concluded to be the Iberian northwest, thus corroborating the information in the Ashmolean Museum records. An integration of the two tores within the existing typological groups of Northwestern Castros tores is attempted, as a means of determining their geographical origin accurately. Other aspects, such as the significance of this kind of ornament in the Iron Age, are also considered.     

ARCHAEOLOGICAL SCIENCE - PAST ACHIEVEMENTS AND FUTURE PROSPECTS

This paper is the text of the inaugural lecture given by the author in the Ashmolean Museum Lecture Theatre on 23 October 1990 following his appointment in October 1989 to the Edward Hall Chair of Archaeological Science, at the University of Oxford     

New light on old pumice: the origins of Mediterranean volcanic material from ancient Egypt

This paper presents and discusses the Neutron Activation Analysis (NAA) results newly obtained from pumice pieces found decades ago at the Egyptian sites of Maiyana, Sedment, Kahun, and Amarna – now in the collections of the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford, and the Petrie Museum of Egyptian Archaeology, London – which could be successfully related to several volcanic eruptions in the Mediterranean. The work contributes to the constant accumulation of knowledge concerning the first appearance of pumice from the so-called Minoan eruption of the Santorini volcano. In addition, it unexpectedly sheds more light on the long-distance trade of Mediterranean volcanic material in the Bronze Age world by disclosing another connection between Lipari and the Eastern Mediterranean.     

A GROUP OF BYZANTINE BOWLS FROM SKOPELOS

Summary. Twenty glazed bowls of the late twelfth century A.D. from the Ashmolean Museum are published here. They probably come from a shipwreck off the island of Skopelos in the north-west Aegean and are of intrinsic interest in expanding the already known categories of Middle Byzantine Incised Wares.     

X-RAY FLUORESCENT ANALYSIS OF ANGLO SAXON JEWELLERY

X-ray fluorescence analysis of 30 pieces of Anglo Saxon jewellery, from the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford, is followed by a comparison with similar results obtained from contemporary coinage. The standards of fineness for the coinage are applied to the jewellery and used to date its manufacture. An appendix describes repeatanalyses of some coins which, at first, had widely differing results from XRF and specific gravity methods.     

COPPER AND COPPER ALLOYS IN ANCIENT TURKEY: SOME NEW ANALYSES

This note presents some new analyses for 13 early copper and bronze artefacts from Turkey in the Collection of the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford. They were not included in a small programme of early copper and bronze objects from Iraq, Syria and Palestine (Moorey and Schweizer 1972, Archaeometry 14 (2), 177–198) and conclude this pilot-project.     

THE ORIGIN OF BLACK‐FIGURE GREEK CERAMICS FOUND IN NAUCRATIS (NILE DELTA)*

At the site of the Greek trading port of Naucratis, located on the Canopic mouth of the Nile inland from Alexandria, Flinders Petrie and later archaeologists encountered sherds of Classical Greek black‐figure pottery. We have characterized the pastes of 14 of these specimens, drawn from the collections of the British Museum and the Ashmolean Museum at Oxford, by neutron activation analysis and numerical taxonomy. The ceramics agree in composition with a reference group centred on Athens. We also investigated a small number of additional black‐figure sherds from other sites. One specimen, from Ruvo di Puglia (Italy), actually originated in or near Marseilles. There was no evidence for local manufacture of black‐figure pottery at Naucratis.     

The 'Ring of Nestor'

In the past the authenticity of the so-called Ring of Nestor has been debated mostly in terms of iconography. Arguments against its ancient origin rest chiefly on the presence or absence of certain motifs elsewhere in the surviving repertoire. Most if not all of these arguments can be countered; and we must remember that our knowledge of Minoan-Mycenaean iconography remains limited. Here new technical observations are presented which serve to support the authenticity of the Ring of Nestor. In 1995 the ring was once again placed on display in the Ashmolean Museum.     

‘[A]ll Sorts of Stiches’: Looking at Detail in a Proclamation of Solomon Embroidery

This object lesson considers a mid- to late seventeenth-century embroidery, now held by the Ashmolean Museum, University of Oxford, which portrays the proclamation of Solomon. It assesses how viewers’ attention was directed by the application of materials, textures and stitches, examining tensions between modes of viewing concerned with narrative, individual motifs, material content, skill and realism. It considers how these various forms of attention would have complemented or competed with one another, and how they may have appealed to different viewers in different contexts.     

MYCENAEAN POTTERY FROM CILICIA IN OXFORD

Summary. The Ashmolean Museum possesses a small group of Late Mycenaean (Late Helladic IIIC) sherds from Kazanli in Southern Cilicia, which it acquired in 1930. These are of interest since, although similar pottery is known from nearby Tarsus, they appear to be slightly later in date than most of the other pottery from Kazanli recovered by excavation or surface survey. One of them has a pictorial representation of an unusual nature.
The appearance of Mycenaean pottery in Cilicia has often been associated with the arrival of Mycenaean settlers (particularly refugee settlers) around 1200 B.C. However, it is doubtful whether the pottery really justifies this interpretation. Where identifiable, the Cilician Mycenaean seems to display closer links with Cyprus and the East Aegean than with the Greek Mainland; and, when other evidence is taken into account, there seems little reason to suppose that it is necessarily the result of colonisation from Mycenaean Greece.     

COPPER AND COPPER ALLOYS IN ANCIENT IRAQ,SYRIA AND PALESTINE: SOME NEW ANALYSES

In a pilot-programme to increase evidence for the history of copper-alloying in ancient Iraq, Syria and Palestine 128 objects in the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford, were tested with a point-source linear X-ray spectrometer for tin, arsenic and antimony. These analyses showed the gradual introduction of tin-copper alloys into Iraq after ca. 2750 b.c. (Early Dynastic IIIA), into Syria a little later and into Palestine by the end of the third millennium b.c. , though numerous artefacts continue to be of copper or arsenical-copper until well into the second millennium b.c. at least. With the appearance of tin-copper alloys the percentage of arsenic in the copper objects noticeably declines indicating that the earlier arsenical-coppers were deliberately produced under controlled conditions.     

‘Comradeship’ and ‘Friendship’: Masculinity and Militarisation in Germany's Homosexual Emancipation Movement after the First World War

This article analyses the impact of the First World War on Germany's homosexual emancipation movement. I argue that the war was a turning point for the nation's gay movement, as it provided a central ideal – comradeship – which altered the ways in which homosexual rights organisations defined homosexuality and masculinity. A militarised rhetoric permeated the language of gay rights groups in the 1920s, providing a vision of a spiritually and politically emancipated hypermasculine gay man who fought to legitimise ‘friendship’ and secure civil rights. The article relies on the publications of three major homosexual rights organisations recently collected at the Schwules Archiv und Museum in Berlin.     

Mediating legacies of empire in the post-imperial museum

ABSTRACT

Throughout the Balkans, the history museum remains a crucial site where memories of an imperial past are molded, rationalized, and integrated into the wider arc of nationalist narratives about a country and its people. The legacy of the Ottoman Empire is particularly fraught in Greece, where this period is almost always classified as ‘post-Byzantine’ within the context of government institutions. In this paper, I set out to trace the legacy of the Ottoman Empire as it has been mediated in multiple museum sites throughout the country. I will primarily focus on two case studies: The National Historical Museum in Athens and the Museum of Ali Pasha and the Period of Revolution in Ioannina. Comparing these two sites and their practices of display bring into sharper focus the dynamics of how historical memory plays out in a central versus regional sphere of belonging and identity.     

PRELIMINARY TECHNICAL OBSERVATIONS ON KNOSSIAN FAIENCE

Summary This preliminary study of a large number of Knossian/Minoan faience objects in the Heraklion (HM) and the Ashmolean (AM) Museums presents observations about the technological development of Knossian faience throughout the life of the Palace. In earlier deposits, such as the Vat Room, simple inlays, beads, and a figure appear; faience became more complex in the succeeding period (Loomweight Basements) and reached its culmination in the Temple Repositories period, where complex inlays and vases and large-scale figures appear.     

南京博物院藏曾昭燏师友书札考略（上）

曾昭燏是一位勤于书翰的人,无论是在建国之前,还是在建国后。她每天都要处理各方面来函,也写了大量的书信给各方面人士。可惜的是因为十年动乱等原因,她写给各方面的书信要收集起来,也不是件易事。幸好南京博物院图书馆,珍藏了一批曾昭烯师友们写给她的书信,这些信对研究她的生平思想是颇有帮助的。这里刊发一部分,略做考订。     

南京博物院藏曾昭炳师友书札考略（下）

之七：安志敏来函曾院长：承问及拙稿所引用洛阳烧沟墓1058A面的藻井图案问题,因为记得不甚清楚,曾立即去信问洛阳的河南文物工作队第二队,因为原始记录存在那里,但到现在一直没有回信。据我的记忆,大约是网形,如果以后有回信的话,必立即奉上不误。     

Morphological comparisons of metacarpal I for Australovenator wintonensis and Rapator ornitholestoides: implications for their taxonomic relationships

WHITE, M.A., FALKINGHAM, P.L., COOK, A.G., HOCKNULL, S.A. & ELLIOTT, D.A., 2013. Morphological comparisons of metacarpal I for Australovenator wintonensis and Rapator ornitholestoides: implications for their taxonomic relationships. Alcheringa 37, 1 - 7. ISSN 0311-5518.

Various comparisons of left metacarpal I of the Australovenator wintonensis holotype have been made with Rapator ornitholestoides. These specimens were identified as being morphologically more similar than either was to that of the neovenatorid Megaraptor namunhuaiquii. Owing to the poor preservation of A. wintonensis and R. ornitholestoides, distinct morphological separation between the two appeared minimal. The recent discovery of a near perfectly preserved right metacarpal I of A. wintonensis enables a direct and accurate comparison with R. ornitholestoides. Distinct morphological differences exist between the metacarpals of the two species. A re-evaluation of the age of the A. wintonensis holotype site (AODL 85 ‘Matilda Site’) with zircon dating reveals a maximum age of 95 Ma, 10 Ma younger than the Griman Creek Formation at Lightning Ridge, from which R. ornitholestoides was recovered. This age difference detracts from the probability that the specimens belong to the same genus.

Matt A. White? [fossilised@hotmail.com], School of Engineering, The University of Newcastle, Callaghan, New South Wales 2308, Australia; Peter L. Falkingham? [pfalkingham@rvc.ac.uk], Department of Comparative Biomedical Sciences, Structure and Motion Laboratory, Royal Veterinary College, London, UK; Alex G. Cook [alex.cook@y7mail.com] and Scott A. Hocknull [scott.hocknull@qm.qld.gov.au], Ancient environments, Queensland Museum, Hendra, Queensland, 4011, Australia; David A. Elliott [david.elliott@aaod.com.au], Australian Age of Dinosaurs Museum of Natural History, The Jump Up, Winton, Queensland, 4735, Australia. ?Also affiliated with Australian Age of Dinosaurs Museum of Natural History, The Jump Up, Winton, Queensland 4735, Australia. ?Also affiliated with Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Division of Biology and Medicine, Brown University, USA. Received 22.9.2012; revised 13.1.2013; accepted 17.1.2013.