More Addenda from Toprak Kale.

1972 ◽  
Vol 22 ◽  
pp. 163-178 ◽  
Author(s):  
R. D. Barnett
Keyword(s):  
Preliminary Report ◽  
Model Building ◽  
British Museum ◽  
Present Writer ◽  
Wall Panel ◽  
Made In ◽  
Museum Conservation

Over twenty years have passed since the present writer first drew attention to the remarkable but completely forgotten archaeological discoveries made at the Urartian site of Toprak Kale, discoveries made in 1880 by Rassam and his associates, Dr. Raynolds and Captain Clayton, acting for the British Museum. I also summarised the results of the work in 1898 at the same site done by Lehmann (afterwards Lehmann-Haupt) and Belck; these finds are now all well-known. Since then, modern museum conservation work and study has resulted in several new achievements, such as in a fresh publication of the candelabrum at Hamburg Museum, the discovery and publication by Professor G. R. Meyer of a small silver pectoral at Berlin with a presentation scene and á detailed study by him also of the large bronze figure of a “eunuch” in the same museum. Professor Meyer also mentions a fine bronze palmette forming part of a wall panel of bronze plate made up of 17 fragments, also part of a bronze model building similar to that in the British Museum. Lastly, a brief preliminary report of the fruitful excavations of Professors Afif Erzen and Emin Bilgiç, in 1959–61, has been published. One of their most notable finds was another shield similar to those found by Rassam and Lehmann-Haupt with concentric friezes of lions and bulls and a dedicatory inscription of Rusas III.

III.—A Portable Dial in the form of a book, with Figures derived from Raymond Lul

Archaeologia ◽  
1925 ◽  
Vol 74 ◽  
pp. 89-102 ◽  
Author(s):  
O. M. Dalton
Keyword(s):  
British Museum ◽  
Society Of Jesus ◽  
The North ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Lower Cover ◽  
Made In

The dial forming the subject of this paper, acquired by the British Museum in 1923, is of gilt copper, made in the form of a book, along the edges of which are inscribed in capitals the words: Lucerna instrumentalis | intellectus directiva | sive instrumentum sciendi. The dial-plate which is fixed in the interior has a compass and two very short gnomons. It is for use in the latitudes of 42 and 45, and would serve for Rome and one of the large towns in the North Italian plain, perhaps Milan or Venice. It was made at Rome in the year 1593, as shown by the inscription on the dial-plate. On the cover is a shield of arms, barry, and in chief the letters I H S surmounted by a cross, a feature perhaps indicating that the owner was a member of the Society of Jesus; a fuller device, in which the three nails of the Passion are seen below the sacred monogram and cross, occupies the centre of the figure on the outside of the lower cover. The identification of the arms presents difficulties. They might be those of the Caraffa (gules, three bars argent), a member of which family, Vincenzio Caraffa, was general of the Jesuits in 1645.

III.—A Synopsis of the Remains of Ganoid Fishes from the Cambridge Greensand

1895 ◽  
Vol 2 (5) ◽  
pp. 207-214 ◽  
Author(s):  
Arthur Smith Woodward
Keyword(s):  
Natural History ◽  
British Museum ◽  
Detailed Comparison ◽  
Present Writer ◽  
The Past ◽  
Private Collection ◽  
Definition Of

The remains of fishes discovered in the Cambridge Greensand are all very fragmentary, and have not hitherto been subjected to the detailed comparison with other Cretaceous Ichthyolites which their interesting stratigraphical position renders desirable. Many specimens, however, are capable of at least generic determination, while many others are sufficiently characteristic fragments for the definition of the species. The present writer has thus been much interested during the past few years in studying collections of these fossils, and the following notes embody some of the results in reference to the ganoid fishes. The British Museum (Natural History) having recently acquired the collection made from the Cambridge Greensand by Mr. Thomas Jesson, F.G.S., nearly all the known species are now represented here; but the writer has also availed himself of the privilege of making use of the fine series in the Woodwardian Museum, Cambridge, and the Philosophical Society's Museum, York, thanks to the kindness of Professor McKenny Hughes, Mr. Henry Woods, and Mr. H. M. Platnauer. Mr. James Carter, M.R.C.S., has also kindly lent some Pycnodont jaws from his private collection

VI.—Researches at Rickmansworth: Report on Excavations made in 1914 on behalf of the British Museum

Archaeologia ◽  
1915 ◽  
Vol 66 ◽  
pp. 195-224 ◽  
Author(s):  
Reginald A. Smith ◽  
Henry Dewey
Keyword(s):  
British Museum ◽  
Vice President ◽  
Geological Survey ◽  
Leave Of Absence ◽  
High Terrace ◽  
Made In ◽  
At Home

After two short seasons spent in investigating the high terrace of the lower Thames, it was considered desirable to examine the gravel of a tributary, in order to equate if possible the various deposits in the two valleys, and to confirm or correct the sequence deduced from former excavatións at home and abroad. Two sites near Rickmansworth, at and just below the junction of the Gade and Colne rivers, have been known for years as productive of palaeoliths, and every facility was readily afforded for examining the gravel in pits at Croxley Green and Mill End by the respective owners, Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge, and Lord Rendlesham, and the lessees, the RickmansworthGravel Co., Ltd., and Messrs. Horwood Bros. Leave of absence was granted by the Trustees of the British Museum, and nine days were devoted to the work in October, the means being provided from a fund under the control of our Vice-President, Sir Hercules Read, Keeper of the Department concerned. Assistance from the geological side was given unofficially by Mr. Dewey, of H.M. Geological Survey, who has read through the paper in manuscript, and contributes an appendix dealing with some of the geological problems involved.

The use and distribution of Faience in the Ancient East and Prehistoric Europe

1957 ◽  
Vol 22 ◽  
pp. 37-84 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. F. S. Stone ◽  
L. C. Thomas
Keyword(s):  
Sudden Death ◽  
Special Reference ◽  
Morphological Characters ◽  
Present Writer ◽  
British Isles ◽  
Eighteenth Dynasty ◽  
Post War ◽  
Made In ◽  
Complex Subject

Twenty years have elapsed since H. C. Beck and the present writer published a preliminary paper on the origin of British faience beads with special reference to those of the segmented variety and, except for the discovery and recognition of many new specimens over much wider areas it may be said that nothing has emerged to alter materially the general conclusions there enunciated that an Egyptian origin was the most likely for a number of the beads and that their dissemination to the British Isles took place during the Eighteenth Dynasty around about 1400 B.C.At the time of writing we not unnaturally concentrated on British specimens, as European analogues appeared to be conspicuously absent, and confined our attention primarily to morphological characters. We had, however, projected a wider study to embrace faience objects in general and, if possible, to adduce spectrographic evidence as further proof of identity or otherwise. Unfortunately the sudden death of Mr Beck in 1939 and the intervention of the war years greatly retarded progress in this direction. But the rapid recognition of old finds and the accumulation of new ones, mostly in Europe, in post-war years, coupled with a number of spectrographic analyses that have since been carried out with the help of Mr L. C. Thomas, now renders it desirable to review such progress as has been made in this most difficult and complex subject.

Preliminary Report on Stone Age Reconnaissance in north-eastern Iran

1964 ◽  
Vol 30 ◽  
pp. 382-399 ◽  
Author(s):  
C. B. M. McBurney
Keyword(s):  
Preliminary Report ◽  
British Museum ◽  
Primary Objective ◽  
Climatic Data ◽  
Middle Palaeolithic ◽  
Upper Palaeolithic ◽  
Upper Pleistocene ◽  
Eastern Iran ◽  
North Eastern ◽  
The One

The following is a preliminary report on the results achieved during approximately six weeks' archaeological fieldwork in north-eastern Iran in July and August 1963. The primary objective was to explore the area for traces of the local Upper Pleistocene cultural sequence, and in particular to establish if possible the date and character of the local Upper Palaeolithic. In the event no traces of Upper Palaeolithic were obtained. However, a start was made towards defining the problem by the discovery of two well-stratified deposits, the one yielding a Middle Palaeolithic (Mousterian) industry with distinctive regional affinities, and the other an early Post-glacial Mesolithic industry. Reliable samples were obtained for defining the statistical properties of both, together with carbon samples, traces of vertebrate fauna, and some other climatic data.Representative collections were lodged with the Musée Iran Bastan at Teheran; and the expedition's share is to be offered in part to the Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology in Cambridge and in part to the British Museum. The expedition was financed mainly by a grant from the British Academy, supplemented by further grants from the Crowther-Beynon Fund and the British Museum.

The Ancient Cart-tracks of Malta

Antiquity ◽  
1954 ◽  
Vol 28 (110) ◽  
pp. 91-98 ◽  
Author(s):  
H. S. Gracie
Keyword(s):  
Agricultural Soil ◽  
Field Work ◽  
Present Writer ◽  
Small Scale ◽  
Far North ◽  
South Eastern ◽  
Close Proximity ◽  
Made In

The barren hill-tops of Malta are scored in many places by ancient ruts cut deeply into the rock. They can be seen also on the slopes and on the lower plains, but less frequently because these areas are normally under agricultural soil. They always occur in pairs from 52 to 58 inches apart and were quite clearly used by vehicles. They have been discussed in print for 300 years but no agreement has been reached on how, when or why they were made or what vehicles used them. In fact, there are as many theories as there are authors. Of these writers only Captain E. G. Fenton and Professor Sir T. Zammit appear to have done any serious field work, and none has published a map. The present writer, therefore, decided to attempt the laborious task of plotting them, making such other observations and measurements as he could. Zammit, in the paper cited, reproduced some excellent photographs from both the ground and the air, to which the reader is referred.Time did not permit an examination of the whole island and few observations were made in the low-lying south-eastern part. A fairly intensive survey was made of the high ground as far north as the Baida Ridge, which joins the northern shores of Ghain Tuffieha Bay and St. Paul’s Bay. Two portions of the map are reproduced here. Where there are a number of parallel tracks in close proximity they are shown on the map as one on account of the necessarily small scale used. The gaps in the routes are mainly due to cultivated patches, and no attempt has been made to bridge them by conjecture.

Art. XXI.—The Babylonian Chronicle

1887 ◽  
Vol 19 (4) ◽  
pp. 655-681
Author(s):  
Theo. G. Pinches
Keyword(s):  
British Museum ◽  
Present Writer ◽  
Ancient Times ◽  
The Subject

Among the tablets acquired by the British Museum in 1884, is one of peculiar interest. It is a tablet of unbaked clay, 6⅛ in. by 7¾ in., inscribed, on both sides, with two columns of writing in the Cuneiform or wedge-character. This tablet is one of a series which must have contained, when entire, a complete chronicle of all the important events which had taken place in Babylonia, Assyria, Elam, etc., in ancient times. The text (of which a paraphrase has already been published by the present writer) begins with the reign of Nabonassar (747 B.C.), and ends with the accession of Šamas-šum-ukîn or Saosduchinos, brother of Aššur-banî-âpli (667 B.C.). The subject of this tablet was continued on others of the series, a part of one of the tablets, referring to the reign of Nabonidus and relating the capture of Babylon by Cyrus, having been acquired in 1878.

Art. III.—Preliminary Notice of the Tibetan Manuscripts in the Stein Collection

1903 ◽  
Vol 35 (1) ◽  
pp. 109-114
Author(s):  
L. D. Barnett
Keyword(s):  
Preliminary Report ◽  
British Museum ◽  
Eighth Century ◽  
A Site

Among the treasures brought to light by Dr. Stein in his excavations in Chinese Turkestan and lodged by him last summer in the British Museum, not the least interesting was a collection of fragmentary Tibetan manuscripts. These were found in the ruins of a Buddhist shrine buried in a site beyond the Endere stream, at the extreme eastern limit of the region explored, under circumstances which have already been detailed in Dr. Stein's “Preliminary Report,” pp. 55—56. It suffices here to say that the conditions under which the fragments were discovered were such as to make it practically impossible to date them later than the eighth century; and the evidence of a Chinese sgraffito in the same building has since proved this conclusion to be right. Hence they came to us as the earliest known relics of Tibetan literature.

An Inscribed Lead Plaque from Korkyra

1971 ◽  
Vol 66 ◽  
pp. 79-93 ◽  
Author(s):  
P. Calligas
Keyword(s):  
British Museum ◽  
Lower Edge ◽  
The Right ◽  
Made In

In the store-rooms of the British Museum is kept a fragment belonging to a lead plaque which bears the traces of an inscription written boustrophedon in the Corinthian alphabet. This lead plaque was part of the collection of J. Woodhouse, which was made in Corfu, and following the death of the collector in 1866 was bequeathed to the British Museum.In 1868 the plaque was catalogued and described in the Museum's Register. According to a sketch, also included, it is clear that at that time more of it was preserved and that besides the upper and lower edge possibly the right end was also retained. It was described as containing seven lines of a boustrophedon inscription, of which only the first, second, and seventh lines were transcribed. The inscription was incomprehensible, and that may have been the reason for its not being published hitherto.

scholarly journals XIX. On the photographic arc spectrum of iron meteorites

1894 ◽  
Vol 185 ◽  
pp. 1023-1028
Keyword(s):  
Royal Society ◽  
Solar Spectrum ◽  
British Museum ◽  
Iron Meteorites ◽  
Electrolytic Iron ◽  
Comparison Spectrum ◽  
Size And Shape ◽  
Previous Communication ◽  
Oxyhydrogen Flame ◽  
Made In

In a communication to the Royal Society in 1887, I gave an account of certain experiments which I had made in connection with the spectra of various meteorites at various temperatures. The spectra were observed at the temperature of the oxyhydrogen flame and the electric spark without jar, and when glowed in vacuum tubes. Some larger specimens of the iron meteorites, Nejed and Obernkirchen, cut so that they were of a size and shape suitable for forming the poles of an arc lamp, having afterwards been kindly placed at my disposal by the Trustees of the British Museum, it became possible to study the arc spectra of these meteorites under very favourable conditions, all impurities introduced by the use of the carbon poles being thus avoided. The region of the spectrum photographed extends from K to D, in the case of each meteorite, and in addition to the solar spectrum, that of electrolytic iron, prepared by Professor Roberts-Austen, referred to in a previous communication, has been used as a comparison spectrum in one case.

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