Neil Curtis

A fragment of wood from the Great Pyramid was recently dated by the University of Aberdeen to 3341-3094 CalBC. This paper considers the implications of this date for the dating of the Great Pyramid, highlighting the possibility that it was 'old wood' at the time of deposition, but confirming that it sets a terminus post quem for the construction of the pyramid. It also discusses how the wood was collected, as part of an investigation by Waynman Dixon and James Grant of the Great Pyramid on behalf of Charles Piazzi Smyth, which led to the discovery of two narrow shafts from the 'Queen's Chamber' containing items that became known as the 'Dixon Relics'. This work is considered in the context of the campaign against the introduction of the metric system to the UK and the search for the Imperial inch in the measurements of ancient Egypt within the contemporary contexts of pyramidology and racism. The paper also highlights the importance of James Grant in late...

This chapter aims to show that ideas of the sacred, the numinous, and the contested, rather than of the rational, are most important in understanding how the meanings of material culture are formed and the role of museums. It considers how museums have offered rich contexts in which the changing, conflicting, and multiple meanings of material culture have developed. Scottish national identity, contested and unsettled, is shown in the contribution of museums and objects to discussions about a link between the Classical past and Scottish history in the early nineteenth century, the creation of a national museum in the second half of the nineteenth century, a temporary exhibition of Scottish history as part of a Great Exhibition in 1911, and two repatriation cases at the beginning of the twenty-first century. Recent developments in museum practice are discussed, including the impact of both growing professionalism and the recognition of the rights of groups in museums. The chapter conc...

The provenance of two Roman bronze vessels in the collections of Marischal Museum has recently been discovered in the journal of Rev John Skinner's 1825 Northern Tour. The reliability of this source is discussed, alongside a consideration of the antiquarian networks of the time. The vessels comprise a dipper and strainer set: unusually, the strainer is unfinished, and possible implications of this are considered. An Appendix catalogues other, mostly unpublished, Roman material from north-east Scotland in the Marischal Museum.

The 1911 Scottish Exhibition of National History, Art and Industry in Glasgow was one of the most successful events of its kind, attracting over nine million visits and resulting in profits which were used to endow a chair in Scottish History in the University of Glasgow. Alongside a popular entertainment section, it included a reconstruction of a Highland village and a Palace of History which housed thousands of items borrowed from public and private collections throughout Scotland. A number of historical aspects were highlighted, notably the importance of Protestant Christianity, the 1707 Acts of Union, commerce, aristocracy and great men, whereas the history of the Highlands, Catholicism, the working class and Scotland’s relationships with Ireland were ignored. The influence of Sir Walter Scott was profound, with the ‘Great Literary Period’ of the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries providing the main narrative and marking the end of a distinctive Scottish history. The...

This paper discusses the contribution of the 2003 ‘Declaration on the Importance and Value of Universal Museums’ to the debate on repatriation. The ‘Universalist’ approach taken by the Declaration is first considered, noting the implications of its emphasis on art, the heritage of museums and objects, along with its focus on the sculpture of ancient Greece and the enlightenment origin

... Curtis, Neil, Wilkin, Neil, Hutchison, Meg, Jay, Mandy, Sheridan, JA and Wright, Margot (2007) Radiocarbon dating results from the Beakers and ... The project builds on the North-East dates resulting from the Beaker People Project (Parker Pearson, 2006; Sheridan et al., 2006 ...

The treatment of human remains has become a very contentious issue, with a range of legal, moral and political pressures now weighing on archaeologists and museum curators. Attempts to respond to this changing cultural context have often tried to show an increased respect ...