Search results for ""British Museum Press""

Netsuke have once again come to the fore in the popular imagination of the public. In part this is due to the phenomenal success of Edmund De Waal’s 2010 book, Hare with the Amber Eyes, which highlights a treasured netsuke collection that was challenged by war and the vicissitudes of time. Intricately carved from various materials including ivory, wood and metal, these small toggles served a practical purpose in Japan: a netsuke was used to fasten a man’s sash, an integral part of Japanese costume. Up until the seventeenth century netsuke were relatively insignificant objects that were rarely of artistic interest, but as time passed they evolved in terms of both materials and workmanship, and were then used by men to flaunt their wealth or as an expression of status. Today netsuke are considered an art form in their own right and are prized by collectors around the world. They are found in a variety of forms and depict a wide range of subjects – including figures of human and legendary form, ghosts, animals, botanical subjects and masks. Skilfully worked, these miniature carvings are of great artistic value, but they also provide a window into Japanese culture and society. This book brings together one hundred of the most beautiful and interesting netsuke from the extensive collection of the British Museum, each of which has its own special charm and story to tell. Uncovering the stories behind these netsuke and coupling them with stunning new photography, this book reveals why these tiny objects have captivated so many, the meaning they have held for those who wore them, and what they can tell us about Japanese everyday life.

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Discover Japanese art like no other. Originally created by the artists of the ukiyo-e ‘school of the floating world’ to advertise brothels in 17th-century Yoshiwara, these popular ‘spring pictures’ (shunga) transcended class and gender in Japan for almost 300 years. These tender, humorous and brightly coloured pieces celebrate sexual pleasure in all its forms, culminating in the beautiful, yet graphic, work of iconic artists Utamaro, Hokusai and Kunisada. This catalogue of a major international exhibition aims to answer some key questions about what shunga is and why was it produced. Erotic Japanese art was heavily suppressed in Japan from the 1870s onwards as part of a process of cultural ‘modernisation’ that imported many contemporary western moral values. Only in the last twenty years or so has it been possible to publish unexpurgated examples in Japan and this ground-breaking publication presents this fascinating art in its historical and cultural context for the first time. Within Japan, shunga has continued to influence modern forms of art, including manga, anime and Japanese tattoo art. Drawing on the latest scholarship and featuring over 400 images of works from major public and private collections, this landmark book sheds new light on this unique art form within Japanese social and cultural history. Shunga: sex and pleasure in Japanese art is published to accompany an exhibition at the British Museum from October 2013 to January 2014.

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‘The Great Wave’ is a colour woodblock print designed by Japanese artist Hokusai in around 1830. The print, of which numerous multiples were made, shows a monster of a wave rearing up and about to come crashing down on three fishing boats and their crews. One of a monumental series known as ‘Thirty-six views of Mount Fuji’, Hokusai’s Great Wave – with the graceful snow-clad Mount Fuji on the horizon, unperturbed but wittily dwarfed by the towering strength of the wave that threatens to engulf the struggling boats – has become an iconic image of the power of nature and the relative smallness of man. One of the most famous pieces of Japanese art, this extraordinary artwork has had a huge impact worldwide and has served as a source of inspiration to artists, both past and present. This beautifully illustrated book explores the meaning behind Hokusai’s Great Wave, in the context of the Mount Fuji series and Japanese art as a whole. Taking an intimate look at the Wave’s artistic and historical significance and its influence on popular culture, this concise introduction explains why Hokusai’s modern masterpiece had such an impact after its creation in 1830 and why it continues to fascinate, inspire and challenge today.

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This book presents and explores the Waddesdon Bequest, the name given to the Kunstkammer or cabinet collection of Renaissance treasures which was bequeathed to the British Museum by Baron Ferdinand de Rothschild, MP in 1898. The Bequest is named after Waddesdon Manor in Buckinghamshire, a fairy tale French chateau built by Baron Ferdinand from 1874 – 83, where the collection was housed during his lifetime. As a major Jewish banking family, the Rothschilds were the greatest collectors of the nineteenth century, seeking not only the finest craftsmanship in their treasures, but also demonstrating great discernment and a keen sense of historical importance in selecting them. Baron Ferdinand’s aim, often working in rivalry with his cousins, was to possess a special room filled with splendid, precious and intricate objects in the tradition of European courts of the Renaissance and Baroque periods. It was understood at the time that a collection of this quality could never be formed again, given the rarity and expense of the pieces, and the problems of faking and forgery of just this kind of material. The book will unlock the history and romance of this glorious collection through its exploration of some of its greatest treasures and the stories they tell. It will introduce makers and patrons, virtuoso craftsmanship, faking and the history of collecting from the late medieval to modern periods, as told through the objects. Treasures discussed will include masterpieces of goldsmiths’ work in silver; jewellery; hardstones and engraved rock crystal; astonishing microcarvings in boxwood, painted enamel, ceramic and glass; arms and armour and ‘curosities’: exotic treasures incorporating ostrich eggs, Seychelles nut, amber or nautilus shell. Scholarly catalogues have appeared for parts of this splendid collection but this book will open up the Bequest for the general reader. By looking at individual objects in detail, and drawing on new photography and research, the book will enable readers to see and understand the objects in a completely different light.

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Discover the real story behind The Dig, streaming now on Netflix, starring Carey Mulligan and Ralph Fiennes A warrior’s face – the strong brows inlaid with red garnets, the nose and mouth gilded and its surface tinned a silvery colour – this is how the Sutton Hoo helmet once appeared to those who saw it. Beautifully crafted and visually stunning, it would have inspired awe. But it was also fully capable of protecting its wearer in battle. This book explains how it was discovered together with other priceless treasures including a ship in the great mound at Sutton Hoo, Suffolk, by the archaeologist Basil Brown in the late 1930s. He was employed by the owner of the estate, Mrs Edith Pretty, who generously donated the whole find to the British Museum. After painstaking reconstruction, experts were able to compare this very rare helmet to the few others dating to the same period, and also to speculate for whom it might have been created. Today, some 1,400 years after it was buried, it is the centrepiece for the Sutton Hoo burial exhibit in the British Museum – a remarkable testament to Anglo- Saxon power and artistic skill.

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Latin inscriptions can appear daunting – a jumble of letters without any structure or meaning. However, once you know how, most are easy to read as they follow strict rules of grammar and abbreviation. This book will teach readers how to ‘decipher’ them and will highlight how even the smallest piece of information that an inscription may provide can help classicists and archaeologists to reconstruct the daily life of ordinary Romans. While surviving literature often only relates to the lives of the elite (who could afford books), inscriptions were texts used by all and meant to be seen by all. Thus, they shed light on the lives of those classes of people less visible in the archaeological record – the poor, slaves and women. Illustrated with the best examples of inscriptions from the British Museum’s Roman collection, this book will explore the meaning of putting up public inscriptions and the standardised system of abbreviation that was used to ensure Romans from all areas of the Empire could read them. Written in the simple everyday-life Latin, they also reflect linguistic changes within society, allowing the modern day scholar to uncover the introduction of slang words and new spellings of Latin words. We may also stumble across spelling mistakes, for not everyone knew how to write Latin fluently, and often we find that words had been written phonetically. If the text of the inscriptions can give us one part of the information, often the style of decoration around the inscription, the accompanying images, or the original location can tell us even more. Every aspect of an inscribed monument was carefully chosen by the person commissioning the inscription, and thus carried specific meaning, and so combined with the texts of the inscriptions, it is possible to reconstruct pieces of the lives of everyday Romans that were thought most valuable to be remembered.

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The Greeks and Romans were not shy about sex. Drinking cups, oil-lamps and walls were decorated with scenes of seduction and sexual intercourse which make the modern viewer blush; models of penises were worn around the neck or hung from doorways. In classical Greece, statues of erect penises served as boundary-stones and signposts. In Rome, marble satyrs and nymphs grappled in gardens. How are we to make sense of this abundance of sexual imagery? Were these images seductive, shocking, humorous? Were they about sex or love? And what and how do we learn from them? Sex on Show answers these questions by embracing ancient attitudes to religion, politics, sex and gender to examine how the ancient saw themselves and their world. Covering the sixth century BC to the fourth century AD, as well as some Neoclassical art from the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, Sex on Show uses detailed visual analysis to bring new insights to Greek and Roman culture and to the meaning of erotic imagery, past and present. This is not simply a book about sexual practice or social history. It is a visual history – about what it meant and still means to stare sex in the face.

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The Portland Vase is thought to have been crafted during the reign of the Roman Emperor Augustus (27 BC-14 AD). A work of outstanding technical skill, it is decorated with scenes of love and marriage, the precise meaning of which has been the cause of much debate and interpretation. This book offers an exciting new reading of the vase, setting it in the context of the dramatic relationships between Octavia, Anthony and Cleopatra. It also explores the lively history of the vase, from the earliest records in Italy to its purchase by Sir William Hamilton and the Dukes of Portland, and its abiding influence on British craftsmen such as Josiah Wedgwood.

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Authoritative, surprising, evocative and original, Shakespeare: staging the world offers a completely new approach to one of the most exceptional creative imaginations in history. While matters of religion, trade and war were being contested, the role of the playwright developed to inform, persuade and provoke debate on the concerns of the day. This richly illustrated book presents an extraordinary collection of objects from the British Museum's unrivalled collection, as well as key pieces from Britain and elsewhere. Simon Forman's diary of 1611 gives a vivid account of attending a contemporary performance of A Winter's Tale; a dagger fished from the Thames gives new resonance to the gang violence of Romeo and Juliet; while Guy Fawkes's lantern illustrates the Catholic counterculture revealed through the failed Gunpowder Plot, which was later to prove the inspiration for Macbeth. Shakespeare: staging the world is a fascinating view of the early modern world through the eyes of Shakespeare, his players and audiences. "A fascinating account of Shakespeare's cosmopolitan world, illustrated with breathtaking images that bring to life the rich material culture that shaped Shakespeare's writings and his age. This is a superb volume, one that will have pride of place on my bookshelf." -Professor James Shapiro, author of 1599 and Contested Wil

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Haiku poems about the natural world and the seasons are well known, but many poets have used the genre to capture the evocations of love. Combining elegant and restrained haiku with lively senryu poems, all aspects of romantic love are explored here with humour, satire, wit and compassion. Poems by both men and women from the 1600s to the present day are beautifully illustrated with images from the unrivalled collection of Japanese paintings and prints in the British Museum. From the tender and the melancholy to the witty and the ribald, the poems and images in Haiku: Love comment on the most universal of human emotions.

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The Hay archive of Coptic manuscripts consists of seven fragmentary sheets of leather bearing spells for divination, protection, healing, personal advancement, cursing and the satisfaction of sexual desire. Purchased from the heir of the Scottish Egyptologist and draughtsman, Robert Hay (1799–1863), the manuscripts arrived at the British Museum in 1868. Since they were first published in the 1930s, they were understood to be the work of a single copyist writing around AD 600 in the Theban region of Upper Egypt. The present volume has confirmed, nuanced or challenged these assessments on the basis of scientific analysis and close study of the manuscripts.Prompted by the urgent conservation needs of the corpus, this study seeks to provide a model, integrated approach to the publication of ancient texts as archaeological objects by providing a full record of provenance and collection history; scientific analysis; conservation approach and treatment; a new complete edition and translation of the Coptic texts; and an extended discussion of the cultural context of production. Written on poorly processed calf, sheep and goat skin, the manuscripts were copied by multiple non-professional writers in the 8th–9th centuries. Employing a striking combination of ancient Egyptian, Graeco-Roman, biblical and extra-biblical motifs, their contents represent a Christian milieu making use of the mechanics of earlier ‘magical’ practice in a period well after the arrival of Islam.

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In ancient Colombia, people did not use gold as currency or desire it for its economic value. Gold was revered instead for its symbolic association and transformative properties. This sacred metal was used to create some of the most visually dramatic and technically sophisticated works of art found anywhere in the Americas before European contact. Drawing on the spectacular collections of the Museum del Oro in Bogota and the British Museum, this beautiful book features over 100 masterpieces fashioned exquisitely in gold and its alloy tumbaga, including small votive figures, decorative nose rings and earrings, vessels, pectorals and masks. These are presented alongside an array of other highly valued objects – textiles, ceramic figurines, shells, colourful stone beads – which also played a significant part in daily and ritual contexts. Focusing on the artistic production of six of the many chiefdoms that populated pre-Hispanic Colombia, the author explores the fascinating truth behind the myth and ritual of El Dorado (the gilded one), the use of gold objects by spiritual leaders in their dangerous mystical ‘soul journey’; the role played by gold in the public expression of identity and rank by chiefs and community spiritual leaders; and the importance of gold in accompanying the deceased on the final journey to the afterlife. Beyond El Dorado: power and gold in ancient Colombia was published to complement a major exhibition at the British Museum from October 2013 to March 2014.

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The British Museum’s collection is one of the world’s finest and broadest, ranging from prehistoric times to the present in ancient and modern cultures around the globe. This new and updated edition includes many recent acquisitions and new discoveries, such as Picasso’s stunning Vollard Suite and the intriguing Vale of York Viking hoard, and showcases a selection of more than 250 of the most beautiful and important objects drawn from across the Museum. Each object is presented with its own fascinating story and is strikingly illustrated in full colour. From the Warren Cup to Dürer’s Rhinoceros, the Lewis Chessmen to the Aztec turquoise serpent and the Gayer-Anderson Cat, the iconic objects of the British Museum are here presented in an exciting and accessible new way, highlighting the superb craftsmanship and ingenuity of those who created each of these splendid pieces. Grouped into sections based on cross-cultural themes, such as rulers, mythical beasts, dress and the human form, the resulting juxtapositions offer intriguing new insights into these widely varied masterpieces. Introduced by Neil MacGregor, former Director of the British Museum, this is a stunning overview of artistic and cultural achievement around the world.

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This panoramic illustrated history explores the varied styles, techniques and materials used to make jewellery throughout the world since earliest times. Egyptian necklaces, Celtic torcs, South American gold masks, Renaissance pendants and Art Nouveau buckles are among the range of masterpieces described by a team of experts from the British Museum and illustrated with 400 superb photographs. This reissue includes images of major acquisitions made in the last ten years, particularly from Europe since 1700 and from Asia.

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Chinese script is one of the oldest forms of writing in existence. Its origins can traced back to at least the second millennium BC and it is still in use today, over 3000 years later. Calligraphy, the creation of the written characters on paper with brush and ink, has traditionally been revered as one of the highest forms of Chinese art. Standard style or regular script (kaishu), with its own distinct combination of legibility and elegance, has been fundamental to the calligrapher’s art since the end of the Han dynasty in the third century AD. Building on his wide experience of running workshops and demonstrations for beginners, Qu Lei Lei has distilled the basics into an easy-to-follow, teach-yourself guide.

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Beautifully illustrated with an array of Chinese art, this book offers a closer look at the rich variety of styles, decoration, motifs and patterns – and the sheer craftsmanship – of Chinese culture. The book is arranged thematically and opens by taking a look at the essential nature and meaning of Chinese art. Chapters that follow place the objects and designs into their cultural context. Each of the intriguing and beautiful artworks is then explored further with amazing close-up views, allowing the reader to get even closer than a behind-the-scenes museum or gallery tour. By showing the complete artwork alongside a detail, the authors provide a fresh view of each object which often allows intriguing comparisons between seemingly unrelated objects and media. The selection of art and details evoke the hand and eye of the most talented Chinese craftsmen past and present. Ideal as a spur to creative inspiration or as souvenir or introduction to a museum visit, this stunning book offers an alternative view of the wide range of Chinese art. The book highlights in close-up and gorgeous colour the most breathtaking aspects of workmanship, materials and design found in stunning ceramics, lacquer, jade, metalwork, brush painting and woodblock printing.

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‘A simply outstanding book’ ‘Astonishing’ ‘[A] rich treasure-trove of photographs of objects’ ‘The book truly is a delight, and is a ‘book of the ancestors’ in a very real sense.’ ‘Highly recommended.’ - Sacred Hoop Magazine, March 2022 Stonehenge is one of the best known, but most misunderstood, monuments in the world. Contrary to common belief, it was not a static, unchanging structure built by shadowy figures or druids. Rather it represents the cumulative achievement of numerous generations who were woven into a complex and widespread network of cultural interactions, environmental change and belief systems. This publication, which accompanies the first exhibition about Stonehenge ever staged in London, uses the monument as a gateway to explore the communities and civilisations active at the time of its construction and beyond, between 4,000 and 1,000 BCE. Recent archaeological findings regarding the origin of Stonehenge’s striking ‘bluestones’ have reignited interest in this ancient wonder, the people who built it and the beliefs they held. Through the ‘iconic’ structure, spectacular objects of precious and exotic material and more humble, personal objects, authors Duncan Garrow and Neil Wilkin examine the dramatic cultural and societal shifts that characterised the world of Stonehenge, including the introduction of farming and development of metalworking. Covering a period of thousands of years, the publication traces the appearance of the first monuments in the landscape of Britain around 4,000 BCE, the arrival of the bluestones from the Preseli Hills in Pembrokeshire 1,000 years later, all the way up to a remarkable era of cross-Channel connectivity and trade between 1,500 and 800 BCE. Through a new study of the enigmatic and beautiful objects made and circulated during the age of Stonehenge, connections are charted in the shared religious practices and beliefs of communities from across Britain, Ireland and continental Europe. The presence of other stone and wooden circles hundreds of miles from Salisbury Plain – including Seahenge, discovered on a beach in Norfolk in 1998 – is further evidence of these shared ways of thinking. At a critical moment in the narrative of Stonehenge, around 2,500 BCE, the significance of the cosmos and the heavens expressed through the construction of stone circles and megalithic passage tombs began to wane and portable objects gained increasing importance. This key transformation is demonstrated by a highlight object from Germany: the Nebra Sky Disc, a bronze disc inlaid with gold symbols believed to represent the sun, a crescent moon and the Pleiades constellation. More modest items found in tombs, burials and settlements are no less important in shedding light on the development of ideas relating to identity, religious practices, and relationships between the living and dead. Monuments such as Stonehenge cannot be understood in isolation. Stonehenge was not always a static, monolithic structure: over generations it was adapted and added to by communities that changed and developed the landscape on which it still stands today.

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The Parthenon is one of the world’s most iconic buildings: today, its silhouette symbolizes Greece. Built on the rocky acropolis of Athens in the aftermath of the devastating invasion of Xerxes, the Parthenon was part temple to Athene, part war memorial, part treasure trove of some of the most outstanding art of its age. Parthenon: Power and Politics on the Acropolis takes the reader through the dramatic story of the conception and creation of the Parthenon, setting it against a turbule nt historical background and rooting the building firmly in the real and mythological landscape of Athens. Written as a pacy, narrative history, the text features a cast of memorable characters, including Themistocles, the general whose decision to eva cuat e Athens led to the Persian sack of the acropolis; Pericl es, visionary statesman and mastermind of the Athens’ building project; and Pheidi as, who created the cult statue of Athene, and narrowly escaped impeachment for embezzlement. Beautifully illustrated with evocative site photography, details from the Parthenon sculptures and other related artworks from the superb collection of the British Museum, this book explores the Parthenon as the spiritual heart of a network of commanding buildings, de vised by Pericles and continued by his successors to promote the power of Athens as leader of the Greek world.

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The first stroke-by-stroke guide ever produced for learning to write Naskh, one of the six major cursive Arabic scripts. Its origins can be traced back to the late eighth century AD and it is still in use today, over 1300 years later. The Ottoman Turks considered Naskh the script most suited for copying the Qur'an and today more Qur'ans are copied in Naskh throughout the Islamic world than in all other Arabic scripts combined. This introductory workbook makes it possible for everyone to learn and enjoy the beauty of Arabic calligraphy. Based on his experience of running workshops and demonstrations at The British Museum and other cultural institutions around the UK, Mustafa Ja'far has created an easy-to-follow, teach-yourself guide.

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Between the ninth and seventh centuries BC the small kingdom of Assyria in northern Iraq expanded through conquest to dominate the region from Egypt to Iran. The power of the Assyrian kings was reflected in the creation of a series of magnificent palaces in which the walls of principal rooms and courtyards were lined with huge panels of alabaster carved with images of the monarch as priest, victorious warrior and hunter. Together, the sculptures constitute some of the most impressive and eloquent witnesses of the ancient Middle East. This book serves as a superb visual introduction to what are undoubtedly some of the greatest works of art from the ancient world, showcasing a series of specially taken photographs of the British Museum's unrivalled collection of Assyrian sculptures. These stunning images capture the majesty of the Assyrian king, his magnificent court and its protecting divinities, through individual panels or extraordinary, often overlooked details, such as incised embroidery on robes, the contours of flesh and musculature, the turn of a horse's head or the order within the apparent chaos of battle. An introduction sets the sculptures in their cultural and art-historical context. A brief history of Assyria and the royal palaces is followed by an overview of their discovery, reception and understanding. These are the earliest examples of complex narrative art, and their multilayered meanings occupied entire rooms in which the raw emotion and energy of animals and humans was captured with remarkable vitality. Many of these exceptional carvings rank among the greatest achievements in the history of art.

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For more than 300 years commercial fishermen working in the outer Thames estuary have recovered Roman pottery in their oyster dredgers and fishing nets from the seabed in the vicinity of Pudding Pan. However, despite numerous attempts to locate the source of the material, this elusive site has remained undiscovered beneath the waves. This book assesses the recovered assemblage from Pudding Pan to determine the nature and location of the site. Almost 700 artefacts have been retrieved from this area to date, the majority of which are complete plain samian wares, one of the key indicators of the widespread cultural reception of Rome, which were undoubtedly transported throughout the Empire in huge quantities. The exhaustive research presented in this book convincingly argues that the material represents an unknown proportion of a cargo from a Roman trading ship en route from northern France to London that was deposited on the seabed between AD 175 and 195; it is not yet clear whether the deposit represents a shipwreck or a jettisoned cargo. Such a site is extremely rare throughout the Roman Empire, particularly so in northern Europe, and its discovery could play a crucial role in our understanding of Roman trade. The search for the site continues, but this publication offers the first detailed study of a seemingly predominantly samian cargo in British waters and contributes a new perspective on the organisation of trade and consumption in the Roman era.

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In 1999 and 2007 respectively, the central courtyard and the northwest corner of the British Museum estate were redeveloped in order to create two iconic additions to the institution: the Great Court and the World Conservation and Exhibitions Centre. The execution of these projects provided the opportunity to investigate the archaeology and history of the Bloomsbury area and the museum itself through excavation and archival research. This volume presents the results of the ensuing studies undertaken by Pre-Construct Archaeology and in so doing details the evolution of this area of London from the Roman period into modern times. The book charts the impact that the growth of the Museum and its collection has had on the surrounding area of Bloomsbury, as well as focusing on two of the key finds of the excavation: the discovery of the hitherto elusive Civil War defences of London and the intriguing assemblage of dead cows recovered from an early 18th-century collection of graves buried underneath the site. The book presents an overview of the wider urban landscape in which the British Museum is situated and discusses multiple interconnected themes from urban development and housing to domestic material culture and urban garden design. The result is a fascinating study of one of the most iconic areas of London and provides a fresh insight into the history of the British Museum.

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Malaita traces the history and culture of a Pacific island from the 19th to 21st centuries through over 600 images drawn from the archives of the British Museum and public and private photographic collections around the world. This book explores Malaita as it was represented to the wider world through photographs, artefacts, maps and drawings over a period of 150 years. Malaitans have been portrayed as exotic natives and migrant workers, as Christian converts and colonial subjects, and as ordinary people leading a distinctive way of life in a rapidly changing society. The colonisation of Malaita through the work of missions, government and business in the early twentieth century, the upheavals of the Second World War and the economic and political developments that followed were documented in thousands of photos. Thousands more were made by anthropologists researching detailed studies of local culture in the second half of the 20th century. As Malaitans migrated to neighbouring Guadalcanal to participate in the commercial development of Solomon Islands, a civil conflict in the early 21st century was followed by renewed efforts to build upon their ancestral culture for the peaceful development of their island. This book is an image-led and accessible narrative that provides fascinating new insights into the history of a Pacific island and will be an essential reference for researchers, students and general readers with an interest in the anthropology and history of Melanesia and the Pacific Islands.

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A comprehensive re-evaluation of the objects discovered in the 1886 excavation at Tell Dafana and a new assessment of the site’s significance from the seventh to the fifth century BC.

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The British Museum holds approximately 6,000 human remains, the majority of which were recovered in the past century. Regarding the Dead addresses the British Museum’s approach to the ethical issues surrounding the inclusion of human remains in the Museum’s collection and presents solutions to the dilemmas relating to their curation, storage, access management and display. The holding of human remains in museums has long been a matter of academic and public discourse. The issues surrounding the rightful ownership, proper care, research and display of human remains are strongly debated, both within the museums and heritage sector and in the media on an international scale. Using case studies from the British Museum, Regarding the Dead examines these issues and explains how the availability of human remains for study has many benefits. Human remains provide the most direct and insightful sources of information on different cultural approaches to death, burial practices and belief systems. Their study also helps to advance important research concerning the history of disease, changing epidemiological patterns, forensics and human biology. The book draws together diverse strands of research concerning human remains and reflects the great variety of challenges and discoveries associated with this work as well as the sensitivities involved.

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Following on the British Museum’s critically acclaimed exhibition Hajj: journey to the heart of Islam, this volume provides over thirty papers on the history and significance of the Hajj, spanning history, politics, archaeology, pilgrims’ journeys, art, architecture, photography and material culture. This is a major multi-disciplinary study and a key reference work for anyone with an academic or personal interest in the Hajj.

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The individual contributors to these papers tell the story of the dedicated and detailed efforts to understand the work of previous generations on the Acropolis and then to restore the buildings as nearly as possible to their original architectural state. The result is a story of engagement with the extraordinary problems associated with these world heritage monuments and the challenges to preserve and present them for future generations. This book represents a milestone in the history of the collaboration and friendship between the Acropolis Restoration Service and the British Museum.

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The catalogue focuses on the entire non-numismatic contents of the Cuerdale hoard (discovered in 1840), together with all the other hoards and single-finds of gold and silver artefacts (ornaments and ingots) of Viking character in the British Museum, found in Britain and Ireland, up to the end of the year 2000, with each piece individually catalogued and illustrated. There is also a full chapter discussing the coins from Cuerdale, together with summary descriptions. Written by the leading authority on the subject, James Graham-Campbell is Emeritus Professor of Medieval Archaeology, University College London and a Fellow of the British Academy. This catalogue complements both that by D. M. Wilson on the Anglo-Saxon Ornamental Metalwork, 700-1100, in the British Museum (London, 1964) and that by James Graham-Campbell on The Viking-Age Gold and Silver of Scotland (AD 850-1100) (Edinburgh, 1995).

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The ancient Cypriot collections of the British Museum have inspired the essays in this volume in honour of Veronica Tatton-Brown, who for many years was their curator. Written by her academic colleagues and friends, the themes covered range from funeral rites at Late Bronze Age Enkomi to sculptured portraits of parents and children in the 5th and 4th centuries BC, along with the reconstruction of the Persian siege ramp at Palaipaphos and the history of Cypriot archaeology as revealed in the Museum's archives. The focus on individual objects ranges from the superb craftsmanship of an ivory gaming-box to an intriguing clay model of a dagger and its sheath, in a volume that highlights key points of interest in this rich and varied collection. Thomas Kiely is the Cyprus Curator in the Greek and Roman department of the British Museum.

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A study of the Torajan ricebarn, a traditional Indonesian structure where the rice crop is stored, and where the main social life of the village takes place. This paper was stimulated by the construction of a ricebarn for the Museum of Mankind at the British Museum in 1987.

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10,000 years ago, late Ice Age and early post-glacial communities moved through the Kennet Valley to the Thames, following game and taking advantage of sheltered positions to make their camps. Favourable geological conditions in the neighbourhood of Newbury have preserved several of these camp sites in situ. One of these, Avington VI, has revealed evidence of structures which are, so far, unique in Britain. The remarkable concentrations of Long Blade artefacts provide insights into the daily activities of the hunters who lived there. Other sites fill in the details about ecological conditions during this period of climate change and how humans adapted to them.

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In 1978, chance discoveries at Cliffe in Kent indicated the presence of a Bronze Age cemetery. Further extensive excavations by the British Museum revealed a large Iron Age assemblage. The reports presented in this volume provide a detailed discussion of the findings.

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This catalogue is the third in a series publishing the whole collection of Babylonian and Sumerian tablets in the British Museum. In this volume over 7,000 tablets acquired in the years 1898-9 are described. They include Sumerian tablets from the administrative archives of the district of Lagash of the time of the Third Dynasty of Ur, Old Babylonian tablets from the cities of Kisurra, Larsa, Sippar and Uruk, and tablets of the Neo-Babylonian and Achaemenid periods from Babylon and Borsippa. There is also a small number of literary and historical texts.

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From late antiquity through to the early middle ages, people across north-western Europe were inscribing runes on a range of different objects. Once identified and interpreted by experts, runes provide us with invaluable evidence for the early ‘Germanic’ languages – including English, Dutch, German and the Scandinavian languages – and reveal a wealth of information about our early civilisations. Runes employ many techniques from informal scratchings to sophisticated inlaid designs on weapons, or the exquisite relief carvings of the Franks Casket. The task of reading and understanding them involves a good deal of detective-work, calling on expertise from a number of academic disciplines: archaeology, art history, linguistics, and even forensic science. This book tells the story of runes from their mysterious origins, their development as a script, to their use and meaning in the modern world. Illustrated with a range of beautiful objects from jewellery to tools and weapons, Runes will reveal memorials for the dead, business messages, charms and curses, insults and prayers, giving us a glimpse into the languages and cultures of Europeans over a thousand years ago.

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An exciting, wide-ranging exploration of the power and diversity of female figures of worship in world cultures and belief systems, from the ancient world to today. ---------- ‘Written in plain and accessible language, without losing academic rigor... Crerar, who, like a contemporary Virgil, introduces us to sublime and terrifying entities, guiding us all the way through the complex and fascinating meanings of femininity and faith.’ – María Pinal Villanueva, The Journal of Folklore Research Reviews ‘An excellent catalogue’ – Waldemar Januszczak, The Sunday Times ‘A lucidly argued and richly illustrated catalogue’ – Marina Warner, The Guardian ---------- Divine women – in many guises – have featured in every world faith from deep history until the present day, inspiring people and cultures across the world. In a cross-cultural and global approach, this book discusses Eve alongside Inanna, Radha and Aphrodite in the context of sex and desire, while in the chapter on evil, witches and Hecate are compared with other deities, like Lamaštu and the Cihuateotl, as well as monstrous women such as Taraka, Medusa, Rangda, and Lilith. Ideas of justice and defence are explored in the figures of Athena, Sekhmet and Kali, and the final chapter on compassion and salvation uncovers links between Isis, Mary, Tara and Guanyin. The publication concludes with a discussion of contemporary feminism and modern interpretations of goddesses. Until the mid-twentieth century, the disciplines of theology, archaeology and history were heavily dominated by male academics, resulting in the under-representation of women’s experience and fewer studies on female divinity. This timely book, which is packed with fascinating insights into different cultures and beliefs, seeks to redress that balance.

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Published on the 250th anniversary of Captain James Cook’s extraordinary voyages of exploration, this publication reflects on and charts the enduring legacies of his encounters with Pacific peoples. Objects collected and images made on or associated with the voyages are explored alongside artworks created by contemporary artists from the Pacific region. Together, they reveal that understandings of history are rarely agreed and always shifting, while Cook and the impacts of his voyages are reimagined as complex, contentious and unresolved.

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The British Museum’s vast collections include wonderful images of birds from all over the world. Some are primarily decorative, whereas Thomas Bewick and the Japanese artist Kitagawa Utamaro chose to show birds in realistic detail, going about their daily lives. Other artists concentrate on scientific accuracy. The endless variety of birds, their freedom of sky, land and water, and especially their song have also inspired writers through the ages. Each striking image in this beautiful anthology is matched with a poem about the same species. Some were composed by our best-loved writers – including Shakespeare, Chaucer and Tennyson – and others have been selected from less familiar or even anonymous voices around the world. Now in a fresh new paperback format, this is an irresistible gift for anyone who loves birds.

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A survey of the cat and its 7,000-year relationship with mankind. Using illustrations drawn mainly from the British and Natural History Museums, this book looks at the different roles cats have played in human life and how modern breeds have evolved from the original wild cat.

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How old is the oldest chat-up line between men? Who was the first ‘lesbian’? Were ancient Greek men who had sex together necessarily ‘gay’? And what did Shakespeare think about cross-dressing? A Little Gay History takes objects ranging from Ancient Egyptian papyri and the erotic scenes on the Roman Warren Cup to images by modern artists including David Hockney and Bhupen Khakhar to consider questions such as these. Explored are the issues behind forty artefacts from ancient times to the present, and from cultures across the world, to ask a question that concerns us all: how easily can we recognize love in history?

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In 1942, while ploughing a field near Mildenhall in Suffolk, eastern England, Gordon Butcher stumbled upon a hoard of 34 silver objects that he turned over to his boss and owner of the land, Sydney Ford. Dating back to Roman Britain, fourth century AD, and of outstanding artistic and technical quality, the hoard was declared a Treasure Trove in 1946.

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For nearly four centuries Britain was a province on the outer edge of the Roman Empire and developed a distinctively Romano-British culture and way of life. Using the archaeological evidence, ancient written sources and the latest research on surviving artefacts – from a child’s leather shoe to fascinating letters, from the monumental bronze head of the emperor Hadrian to hoards of stunning gold and silver – a picture of Roman Britain is brought vividly to life. Whether for a Roman soldier on the northern frontier or a native British farmer; for a pagan British king or a Christian Roman lady living in a villa, the diversity of lifestyles, experiences and cultures is revealed. Native British traditions of trade and craftsmanship merged with the imported Roman styles and practices to create a unique cultural synthesis, the legacy of which is still visible today in British landscapes, architecture, art and society. The authors Ralph Jackson and Richard Hobbs are curators of Romano-British antiquities in the British Museum. Ralph Jackson is also author of British Museum Research Publication 181: Cosmetic Sets of Late Iron Age and Roman Britain, which published in 2010.

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The Enlightenment was a period of intense activity devoted to discovery and learning about the natural world, the past and other civilisations. Classification, collecting and deciphering were all important stages on the way to understanding of the world. The King’s Library was built to house the books donated from the royal libraries of King George II and King George III, and they epitomise the interest in the late 18th and 19th centuries in scholarship and study. Aimed at the general reader and relevant to many academic disciplines, this book explores the ways people acquired new information, organised their ideas and reached their conclusions.

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The whalebone box known as the Franks Casket has intrigued and puzzled viewers since its rediscovery in the nineteenth century. Made in northern England in the eighth century AD, the sides and lids of the rectangular casket carry some of the richest and most intricate carvings known from Anglo-Saxon times. The lively scenes depicted are drawn from a variety of sources, including Germanic and Roman legends and Jewish and Christian stories. They are accompanied by texts in both Old English and Latin, written in both the runic and Roman alphabets. At some point in its mysterious history the casket was dismantled. One of the end panels is in the Bargello in Florence; the rest of the box is in the British Museum, with the missing piece represented by a cast. This book explores the meaning, function and history of this extraordinary icon of Anglo-Saxon culture, describing and explaining the significance of the stories depicted in its magnificent carvings.

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