Neil Wilkin | The British Museum (original) (raw)

Museum studies by Neil Wilkin

Collecting Ancient Europe. National Museums and the search for European Antiquities in the 19th-early 20th century Edited by Luc W.S.W. Amkreutz , 2020

Die Kunde: Zeitschrift für niedersächsische Archäologie N. F. 67, 2016, S. 37–52, 2016

This paper considers the reasons why the British Museum (under the Keepership of Sir Charles Herc... more This paper considers the reasons why the British Museum (under the Keepership of Sir Charles Hercules Read) chose to turn down the opportunity to acquire the Moordorf disc in 1920. The decision is explored in relation to the museum's collecting policy and acquisition history, the attitudes of key members of staff, and the terms and conditions of the offer. Particular use is made of the British Museum's correspondence archive. The rejection of the Moordorf disc provides the opportunity for a reflection on the outlook and ambition of the British Museum's staff with particular reference to Bronze Age galleries and the impact of World War I.

Over the past 30 years, Britain’s large archaeological museums and collections have shifted their... more Over the past 30 years, Britain’s large archaeological museums and collections have shifted their focus away from academic visitors exploring their stores and collections and toward the dynamic presentation of permanent and temporary displays. These are arranged to emphasize compelling and relevant interpretative narratives over the presentation of large numbers of objects. The shift to digitization and the online presentation of collections is a major feature of public engagement activities at many museums but also might open older and less accessible collections up to research. In this article, we consider what role digital platforms may have in the future of British museum-based archaeology, with special reference to initiatives at the British Museum. We suggest that online collections have the potential to mediate between engaging the public and allowing professional archaeologists to develop sophisticated research programs, since these platforms can present multiple narratives aimed at different audiences.

JOURNAL OF CONTEMPORARY ARCHAEOLOGY, 2015

This paper will look at the ‘media’ used to record and store archaeological data over the last ce... more This paper will look at the ‘media’ used to record and store archaeological data over the last century, in particular reference to the National Bronze Age Index (NBAI) housed at the British Museum now being digitized as part of the MicroPasts Project (http://micropasts.org). Developed in 1913 as one of the first catalogues to document British and European prehistory on a large scale, this corpus took the form of an illustrated card catalogue containing around 30,000 double-sided cards, serving as a sort of proxy for the objects they recorded. While wide-scale dispersal of archaeological archives has not been generally possible, new forms of media and digital engagement perhaps now offer us some innovative inroads into some of these issues. This paper will examine how we can ‘excavate’ these antiquated media sources to both draw meaning and data from these overlooked archives as well as how by employing new technologies, such as the open-source crowd-sourcing platform utilized by MicroPasts (http://crowdsourced.micropasts.org), we can open up new avenues of research and public engagement to make these collections relevant to modern communities.

British Museum magazine, Winter 2015

This paper was the result of a presentation given at the Society of Museum Archaeologists confere... more This paper was the result of a presentation given at the Society of Museum Archaeologists conference in Colchester. It focuses on the application of the MicroPasts crowd-sourcing platform for the study of the British Bronze Age.

Human Computation 1.2: 183-197, 2014

Archaeology has a long tradition of volunteer involvement but also faces considerable challenges ... more Archaeology has a long tradition of volunteer involvement but also faces considerable challenges in protecting and understanding a geographically widespread, rapidly dwindling and ever threatened cultural resource. This paper considers a newly launched, multi-application crowdsourcing project called MicroPasts that enables both community-led and massive online contributions to high quality research in archaeology, history and heritage. We reflect on preliminary results from this initiative with a focus on the technical challenges, quality control issues and contributors motivations.

Archaeology International 17: 61-68

British Archaeology, Oct 2014

Archaeology has always attracted enthusiastic volunteers, who have participated in excavations, s... more Archaeology has always attracted enthusiastic volunteers, who have participated in excavations, surveys, site recording or artefact handling, as well as museum-related tasks such as engaging with visitors or helping with curatorial duties. However, most data have been produced by specialists. More often than not the knowledge remains in academic or professional domains. Poorly known evidence and objects fill museum storage rooms and university archives. Traditional methods and resources do not seem sufficient to give these assets the public attention they deserve.

Archaeology International 17: 61-68, Oct 23, 2014

This paper offers a brief introduction to MicroPasts, a web-enabled crowd-sourcing and crowd-fund... more This paper offers a brief introduction to MicroPasts, a web-enabled crowd-sourcing and crowd-funding project whose overall goal is to promote the collection and use of high quality research data via institutional and community collaborations, both on- and off-line. In addition to introducing this initiative, the discussion below is a reflection of its lead author’s core contribution to the project and will dwell in more detail on one particular aspect of MicroPasts: its relevance to research and practice in public archaeology, cultural policy and heritage studies.

Neolithic, Chalcolithic and Bronze Age archaeology by Neil Wilkin

The Beaker People: Isotopes, Mobility and Diet in Prehistoric Britain, 2019

Wilkin, N. 2017, 'Combination, composition and context: readdressing British Middle Bronze Age or... more Wilkin, N. 2017, 'Combination, composition and context: readdressing British Middle Bronze Age ornament hoards (c.1400-1100 cal. BC)', in Martin, T.F. & R. Weetch (eds) Dress and Society: Contributions from Archaeology, Oxford

Continental connections: exploring cross-channel relationships from the Mesolithic to the Iron Age, , 2015

Fowler, C. & Wilkin, N. 2016, ‘Early Bronze Age mortuary practices in north-east England and sout... more Fowler, C. & Wilkin, N. 2016, ‘Early Bronze Age mortuary practices in north-east England and south-east Scotland: using relational typologies to trace social networks’, In Crellin, R., Fowler, C., & Tipping, R. (eds), Prehistory without Borders: Prehistoric Archaeology of the Tyne-Forth Region, Oxford: Oxbow Books, 112-35

The Neolithic of Mainland Scotland

In Kenneth Brophy, Gavin MacGregor and Ian B. M. Ralston (eds) The Neolithic of Mainland Scotlan... more In Kenneth Brophy, Gavin MacGregor and Ian B. M. Ralston (eds) The Neolithic of Mainland Scotland, 2016, pp. 261-318

This contribution is concerned with the deposition of Beaker pottery in funerary and non-funerary contexts at Neolithic monuments in Scotland during the Chalcolithic (c.2500/2400-2200 cal BC) and Early Bronze Age (c.2200-1900/1800 cal BC). It offers an analysis of the phenomenon based on a dataset that has been significantly enhanced in recent decades by research and commercial excavation and by radiocarbon dating programmes. Patterns are identified in the decoration, morphology and the character of deposition and are then contextualised with reference to the wider Beaker style tradition and regional variability. Three broad types of deposit with chronological ranges are identified and are related to the changing relevance of Neolithic monuments in the context of highly formalised Beaker funerary practices, the character of regional identities and inter-regional relations. Monolithic and decontextualised interpretations of the Beaker phenomenon in Scotland are therefore challenged.

This paper includes an appendix of sites.

Bulletin de l’APRAB n° 14 – 2016, pp. 39-43

Curtis, N., N. Wilkin, M. Hutchison, M. Jay, A. Sheridan, and M. Wright 2007 ‘Radiocarbon da... more Curtis, N., N. Wilkin, M. Hutchison, M. Jay, A. Sheridan, and M. Wright 2007 ‘Radiocarbon dating results from the Beakers and Bodies Project’ In Discovery and Excavation in Scotland 2007, New Series, Vol. 8

Wilkin, N., Curtis, N., Hutchison, M, and Wright, M., 2009. Further radiocarbon dating results f... more Wilkin, N., Curtis, N., Hutchison, M, and Wright, M., 2009. Further radiocarbon dating results from the Beakers and Bodies Project. Discovery and Excavation in Scotland , New Series10, 218-20

Collecting Ancient Europe. National Museums and the search for European Antiquities in the 19th-early 20th century Edited by Luc W.S.W. Amkreutz , 2020

Die Kunde: Zeitschrift für niedersächsische Archäologie N. F. 67, 2016, S. 37–52, 2016

JOURNAL OF CONTEMPORARY ARCHAEOLOGY, 2015

British Museum magazine, Winter 2015

Human Computation 1.2: 183-197, 2014

Archaeology International 17: 61-68

British Archaeology, Oct 2014

Archaeology International 17: 61-68, Oct 23, 2014

The Beaker People: Isotopes, Mobility and Diet in Prehistoric Britain, 2019

Continental connections: exploring cross-channel relationships from the Mesolithic to the Iron Age, , 2015

The Neolithic of Mainland Scotland

This paper includes an appendix of sites.

Bulletin de l’APRAB n° 14 – 2016, pp. 39-43

Scottish Archaeological Journal, 2011

This paper proposes that a contextual approach is required to make the most of the rich and diver... more This paper proposes that a contextual approach is required to make the most of the rich and diverse evidence for Early Bronze Age funerary practices in Scotland. It reviews the spatial patterning of the principal funerary traditions and identifies significant regional differences in their popularity by region. The chronological relationship between Beaker and Food Vessel burials is then reviewed in the light of new radiocarbon dates. Both distributional and chronological factors then contribute to a refined, regional and contextual approach to Beaker typology. The paper concludes by bringing these various strands together within the geographical and historical context of North-East and East-Central Scotland, in order to provide two regional 'narratives' of social organisation and identity.

Neil Curtis, Marischal Museum, University of Aberdeen; Dr Ljiljana Popovic, School of Natural & C... more Neil Curtis, Marischal Museum, University of
Aberdeen; Dr Ljiljana Popovic, School of Natural &
Computing Sciences, University of Aberdeen; Neil Wilkin, Research Assistant, Beakers and Bodies Project, and PhD student, University of Birmingham; Margot Wright, Marischal Museum, University of Aberdeen

British Museum Magazine Spring/Summer 2017

In light of recent political developments in Britain, the pan-European issues at the heart of deb... more In light of recent political developments in Britain, the pan-European issues at the heart of debates over the Bell Beaker phenomenon (BBP) have rarely been more topical. Scholars pursuing a cultural phenomenon with such a large-scale geographical distribution are justified in needing to contrast and compare findings and theories with colleagues across Europe on a regular basis (eg, Nicolis 2001; Fokkens & Nicolis 2012; Czebreszuk 2014). The Bell Beaker Transition in Europe represents the most comprehensive attempt to do so since Nicolis's two-volume Bell Beakers Today (2001). Those volumes contain 37 papers and 30 poster presentations drawn from across Europe but readers must navigate different languages and methodological and theoretical approaches, without a sense of conclusion or synthesis to the body of information. In the book under review, Prieto Martínez & Salanova have assembled 17 papers (based on a conference held in Poio, Spain in 2011) to produce an impressive (and reasonably priced) cross-section of the European BBP evidence. An earlier volume (Prieto Martínez & Salanova 2013) covered new excavations and analysis of artefacts associated with the BBP, with this latest volume serving as a series of regional syntheses. In contrast to Bell Beakers Today, the contributors pursue a set of fairly well defined themes (straying only occasionally from their brief): covering issues of mobility, migration and social factors such as the integration of Bell Beaker and indigenous groups, hierarchy and the expression and construction of identities, all of which serve to explore the process of transition and adoption associated with the origins of the BBP. Furthermore, this book is topped and tailed by prefacing and concluding chapters penned by Martínez and Salanova, both (especially the conclusion) serve to pull together patterns in the approaches adopted by the contributing authors. This is essential in pursuing the loftiest goal of any pan-European Bell Beaker study: a sense of what is similar and different through both space and time. The overall geographical coverage of this volume is a strength, with papers covering Poland (2), Central Europe (1), Germany (1), France (2), Britain (1), Scandinavia (2), Atlantic Europe (1) and Iberia (5). It is ironic (but perhaps fitting) that, given the pan-European nature of this volume, one of its strengths is that it is written entirely in English, allowing access to sites, behaviours and datasets that may otherwise have been inaccessible to (often) stubbornly monolingual, English speaking scholars (your reviewer sadly included). Unfortunately, some clarity, meaning and nuance to the language has been lost in the translation and composition process of some contributions, a feature that is especially regrettable in chapters where complex methodological and theoretical approaches are deployed, causing one or two of the finer points of some contributor's discussion to be difficult to fully grasp. In the opening chapter, Falileyev provides an overview of complex debates surrounding the possible connection between the BBP and the spread of new language(s). This is particularly useful for those unfamiliar with the thorny issues of relationships between BBP, the Celts (and the Celts from the West theory) and the plausible importance of multi-or bilingualism in the transmission of the new ideas and technologies. Ultimately Falileyev is downbeat about the potential of linguistics and BBP to come together in meaningful and productive fashion, at least in their current guises.

15 minute slot -c.2,000 words

A short paper that was presented for the British Museum Collections Online seminar, November 20th... more A short paper that was presented for the British Museum Collections Online seminar, November 20th 2014

Archaeology International, 2014

In: Crellin, R; Fowler, C; Tipping, R, ed. Prehistory without borders: the prehistoric archaeology of the Tyne-Forth region. Oxford: Oxbow Books, 112-135, 2016

Identifiers: LCCN 2016020382 (print) | LCCN 2016017933 (ebook) | ISBN 9781785702006 (epub) | ISBN... more Identifiers: LCCN 2016020382 (print) | LCCN 2016017933 (ebook) | ISBN 9781785702006 (epub) | ISBN 9781785702013 (mobi) | ISBN 9781785702020 (pdf) | ISBN 9781785701993 (hardcover) | ISBN 9781785702006 (ePub) Subjects: LCSH: Prehistoric peoples--Scotland--Tyne, River, Region. | Prehistoric peoples--Scotland--Forth, River, Region. | Prehistoric peoples--Scottish Borders (England and Scotland) | Excavations (Archaeology)--Scotland--Tyne, River, Region. | Excavations (Archaeology)--Scotland--Forth, River, Region. | Social archaeology--Scotland--Tyne, River, Region. | Social archaeology--Scotland--Forth, River, Region. | Tyne, River, Region (Scotland)--Antiquities. | Forth, River, Region (Scotland)--Antiquities. | Scottish Borders (England and Scotland)--Antiquities. Classification: LCC GN806.T85 (print) | LCC GN806.T85 P74 2016 (ebook) | DDC 936.1/1--dc23 LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2016020382

Oxford Journal of Archaeology, 2019

In 1937 a large barrow in north-east Yorkshire was excavated by Mrs H. W. and Dr F. Elgee. A prim... more In 1937 a large barrow in north-east Yorkshire was excavated by
Mrs H. W. and Dr F. Elgee. A primary deposit comprising a ‘canoe’-shaped log coffin and what were described as two ‘log boats’ or ‘canoes’ was uncovered beneath the mound. The burial did not survive; however, the ‘canoe’-shaped coffin was found to contain an Early Bronze Age Merthyr Mawr-type dagger, flints and some hazelnuts. Subsequently, a cremation was inserted into the top of the mound. This was accompanied by a Camerton-Snowshill-type dagger, a stone battle axe, a copper alloy pin, an accessory vessel and fragments from a Collared Urn.
As part of a log coffin radiocarbon-dating project, one of the hazelnuts was radiocarbon-dated to 2008–1772 cal BC (95.4%) and a fragment of cremated bone from the secondary burial was dated to 1890–1741 cal BC (93.2%). This paper discusses the dating results and reconsiders the interpretation of the log coffin as a boat.

British Archaeology n°164, 2019

Greaney S., Mathias F. and Wilkin N. (2019) - "The Sun Also Rises", British Archaeology 164, pp. ... more Greaney S., Mathias F. and Wilkin N. (2019) - "The Sun Also Rises", British Archaeology 164, pp. 52-57

First noted in 1854 when it entered the collections of the British Museum, a decorated Bronze Age disc had long been forgotten. Susan Greaney, Florent Mathias & Neil Wilkin hail a potentially transformative rediscovery.

The seabed site of a probable Bronze Age shipwreck off the coast of Salcombe in southwest England... more The seabed site of a probable Bronze Age shipwreck off the coast of Salcombe in southwest England was explored between 1977 and 2013. Nearly 400 objects including copper and tin ingots, bronze artefacts/ fragments and gold ornaments were found. The Salcombe tin ingots provided a wonderful opportunity for the technical study of prehistoric tin, which has been scarce. The chemical compositions of all the tin ingots were analysed using inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS) and inductively coupled plasma atomic emission spectroscopy (ICP-AES). Following the compositional analysis, micro-structural study was carried out on eight Salcombe ingots selected to cover those with different sizes, shapes and variable impurity levels and also on the two Erme Estuary ingots using metallography and scanning electron microscopy coupled with energy dispersive X-ray spectrometry (SEM-EDS). An extensive overview of archaeological tin in Europe is also provided. All the Salcombe tin ingots analysed appeared to be quite pure with little variation in composition between them. Only two samples were found to contain over 0.1% iron and one contains over 0.1% copper. The compositions of the Salcombe tin ingots have been compared to the very few compositional analyses of tin objects found elsewhere such as the Late Bronze Age shipwreck of Uluburun but do not seem to have any connection between them. Further studies including lead and tin isotope analysis are needed to answer the question of provenance of the tin ingots, so as to contribute to the study of metal trading.

Refs: Wilkin, N., Vander Linden, M. 2015. What was and what would never be: changing patterns of ... more Refs:
Wilkin, N., Vander Linden, M. 2015. What was and what would never be: changing patterns of interaction and archaeological visibility across north-west Europe from 2,500 to 1,500 cal BC. In : Anderson-Whymark, H., Garrow, D., Sturt, F. (eds)Continental connections. Exploring cross -Channel relationships from the Mesolithic to the Iron Age. Oxford: Oxbow: 99-121.