Yorkshire Museum Research Articles

A MULTIDISCIPLINARY ANALYSIS OF AN ANTIQUARIAN DISCOVERY: THE KNARESBOROUGH 1864 HOARD OF LATE ROMAN VESSELS

This is the first comprehensive publication of the Knaresborough 1864 hoard of copper-alloy vessels and tools. A consideration of the circumstances of the hoard’s discovery, along with a biographical account of Thomas Gott (the man who deposited the hoard in the Yorkshire Museum), for the first time enables a case to be made for a findspot. A consideration of the vessels and other objects establishes the hoard as one of the most unusual assemblages of its kind from late Roman Britain. pXRF analysis of the vessels sheds light on their composition. Finally, a discussion of the hoard places it within the international context of late Roman deposition practices.

A Roman Lead Vessel from Rudston, East Riding of Yorkshire

A circular lead tank was discovered in 2020 by metal detector users near Rudston, East Yorkshire, within the area of cropmarks of a ladder settlement complex. Emergency excavation revealed the tank to be associated with Roman potsherds and quern fragments and a possible flue. The tank had been nailed to a wooden vessel as an external basal lining which was damaged by heating from below. The subsequent decay of the wooden vessel promoted collapse of its setting. The finds and archive are deposited with the East Riding of Yorkshire Museum Service.

(2791–2792) Proposals to conserve the name Williamsonia with a conserved type and W. gigas T.M. Harris against W. gigas (Lindl. & Hutton) Carruth. (fossil Cycadophyta: Bennettitales)

(2791–2792) Proposals to conserve the name <i>Williamsonia</i> with a conserved type and <i>W. gigas</i> T.M. Harris against <i>W. gigas</i> (Lindl. &amp; Hutton) Carruth. (fossil <i>Cycadophyta</i>: <i>Bennettitales</i>)

A revision of Temnodontosaurus crassimanus (Reptilia: Ichthyosauria) from the Lower Jurassic (Toarcian) of Whitby, Yorkshire, UK

ABSTRACT While the holotype of Temnodontosaurus crassimanus still remains on display at the Yorkshire Museum, it has remained largely understudied and the validity of the species has long been questioned. Through re-examination, this study highlights several morphological features of the postcranial skeleton and determines that T. crassimanus is a valid species of the genus and includes several distinct characters that can be used to distinguish it from T. trigonodon, to which it was once assigned. These include a large, robust humerus that is proximodistally longer than the scapula (scapula length vs humerus length ratio: ~0.68); forefins which are significantly longer but less than twice the length of the hindfin (forefin length vs hindfin length ratio: ~1.51); the relative size of the forefins compared with the total body length; along with several other characters that may prove to be unique, such as humerus distal width almost equal to humerus length; presence of notching in at least five leading edge elements of both the fore- and hindfins; and anteroposteriorly wider fore- and hindfins compared with T. trigonodon. Additional specimens, previously tentatively assigned to T. crassimanus, were located and examined, but none could confidently be assigned to the species.

A medieval dual-sided jet pendant from Poppleton, York

A jet pendant discovered in Poppleton, York, in 2007 is dual-sided and depicts a Crucifixion scene and a Virgin and Child on the two opposing faces. The pendant, now in the Yorkshire Museum, was unstratified and remains unpublished. It is here considered in terms of its material and form in relation to similar examples from both Yorkshire and Britain. A discussion of the imagery on both sides suggests that the Crucifixion scene could depict the Descent from the Cross and connects the object to the strong comparable evidence linking medieval ecclesiastical jet objects to funerary practices.

Danelaw Centre for Living History at the Yorkshire Museum of Farming, Murton Park, York

This Communication draws attention to the implications of the proposed changes to the National Curriculum for the teaching of History in primary schools, which will become statutory from 2011. It then draws attention to the need for museums and heritage sites to respond to this, and outlines the facilities offered for learning outside the classroom by the award-winning Danelaw Centre for Living History at the Yorkshire Museum of Farming, Murton Park, near York.

17th Annual General Meeting

6 December 1990 at the Yorkshire Museum, York 1. Apologies for absence Alison Armstrong, Michael Boyd, John Crosling, Tony Cross, David Devenish, Dorothy Hardy, Di Hawkes, John Martin and Ian Rolfe. 2. Minutes of the 16th Annual General Meeting 1989 They were approved and signed by the Chairman. 3. Matters arising There were none. 4. Chairman's Report - from John Cooper 'In this my first year as Chairman of the Group I am humbled by the continuing success achieved in our various endeavours by the Officers of the Group and its Committee members. I must single out the untiring efforts of the previous Chairman, Mick Stanley, who will doubtless be a role model for us all to...

Perpetual Excitement: The Heroic Age of British Geology

This paper is derived from a talk delivered to the annual meeting of the Geological Curators' Group held in the Yorkshire Museum, York, on 6 December 1990. That meeting attempted to examine why geology had lost ground to archaeology in the popular imagination and how museum geologists might help geology to re-capture the initiative. I was invited to review briefly the heroic age of British geology and the nature of curatorship at that time to see what could be learned from the past which might interest curators trying now to promote geology against the competing attractions of archaeology. The talk was accordingly divided into two parts. Firstly, it tried to analyse the attractions of geology in Britain in the so-called 'Heroic Age' which was adorned by such brethren of the hammer as William Smith, Greenough, Buckland, Sedgwick, Murchison, Lyell and Darwin. Secondly, given the location of the meeting, it seemed worth while to look at the aims of curatorship pursued by one of those heroic geologists, John Phillips, Keeper of the Yorkshire Museum from 1826 to 1840 and its leading spirit until 1853 when he left York for Oxford. Parts of the talk leaned on my current research towards a biography of Phillips and on my recent analysis of his geological work in the 1820s (Morrell 1989).

Medieval Pottery in the Yorkshire Museum. By SarahJennings

Medieval Pottery in the Yorkshire Museum. By S<scp>arah</scp>J<scp>ennings</scp>

Taxonomy and taphonomy of Rhomaleosaurus zetlandicus (Plesiosauria, Reptilia) from the Toarcian (Lower Jurassic) of the Yorkshire coast

SUMMARY The holotype skeleton of the large-headed, short-necked plesiosaur Plesiosaurus zetlandicus Phillips, in Anon., 1854 comes from the Toarcian of the Yorkshire coast and has been housed in the Yorkshire Museum since 1852. It is a pliosauroid of the genus Rhomaleosaurus. Rhomaleosaurus zetlandicus (Phillips, in Anon., 1854) is the earliest named valid species of any Toarcian pliosauroid. The skeleton is preserved in a pyritous nodule requiring mechanical preparation using tungsten carbide percussion tools, including electric engravers holding specially fabricated tungsten carbide needles. This technique is useful for similar material. The animal probably floated at the surface of the sea after death until rupture of the body cavity by decay or scavenging released the gases of putrefaction and the corpse sank upside down to the sea floor.

Lost &amp; Found: 206. Cambridge Greensand vertebrate fossils

Paul Ensom (Keeper of Geology, Yorkshire Museum, Museum Gardens, York Yd 2DR) writes; 'The Yorkshire Museum has an extensive collection of material from this horizon running to several hundred specimens. Our collection contains the remains of fish and reptiles amongst which there is a considerable quantity of pterosaur material which is currently being worked on by David Unwin.'...

Lost &amp; Found: 202. Orford Castle Crag fossils, Suffolk

In reply to Philip Cambridge's request for information (Geol. Curator, 5, p. 158) on collections from the Pleistocene Crag at Orford Castle, Suffolk, and Bridlington, Yorkshire, Tim Riley (Principal Keeper of Natural Sciences, City Museum, Weston Park, Sheffield SIO 2TP) writes: ' We have Orford Castle specimens from two collections: 1, we purchased 38 specimen sets from Edward Charlesworth in 1875; 2, we have a few Orford Castle specimens in a collection from Sir S. F. Harmer. We have about 26 species sets from the Bridlington Crag in our H. C. Sorby fossil collection.' Paul Ensom (Keeper of Geology, Yorkshire Museum, Museums Gardens, York YO12DR) has also written to say that the Yorkshire Museum...

The Roman Body Found on Grewelthorpe Moor in 1850: A Reappraisal

In the spring of 1850, a remarkably well-preserved male bog-body was found on Grewelthorpe Moor, near Ripon, North Yorkshire. The body was clad in brightly-coloured woollen garments and a pair of leather ‘sandals’, the style of which induced two late nineteenth-century writers to conclude that it was that of an ‘ancient Roman’ (see below). More recently, Tinsley recognized the importance of this find and suggested that the body may have been a ‘Roman soldier’. In the absence of adequate supporting evidence, one of the present authors (J.P.W.) previously expressed skepticism concerning the body's supposed Roman date. Two woollen fragments which survive in the Yorkshire Museum in themselves provide insufficient dating evidence. Fortunately, the surviving shoe-sole is of a distinctive Roman-British regional type. This article presents the dating evidence, reappraises the clothing in the light of its confirmed Romano-British origin, and re-assesses the circumstances behind the death in the light of comparable finds.

Lost &amp; Found: 186. Rev. Thomas T[aylor] Lewis (1801-1858)

Lewis': 'The application of his leisure hours to the cultivation of the natural history of his neighbourhood may one day enable Mr Lewis to confer upon Aymestry the celebrity which White has bequeathed to Selborne' (p.201). Cleevely recorded that the Lewis collection of fossils was divided between several institutions. The BM(NH) purchased a small remnant in 1898, the BGS has a large part of the Palaeozoic collection presented to the Geological Society between 1834 and 1842, and the Yorkshire Museum, York, has Palaeozoic fossils donated 1830-1836. A single donation of fossil remains of Silurian fish was made to the Shropshire and North Wales Natural History Society in 1836 (GCG, 2(6), 364). T.T. Lewis's important work in connection...

Museum file 4: Yorkshire Museum Geology Department

Geology TodayVolume 1, Issue 5 p. 154-155 Museum file 4: Yorkshire Museum Geology Department First published: September 1985 https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1365-2451.1985.tb00320.xAboutPDF ToolsRequest permissionExport citationAdd to favoritesTrack citation ShareShare Give accessShare full text accessShare full-text accessPlease review our Terms and Conditions of Use and check box below to share full-text version of article.I have read and accept the Wiley Online Library Terms and Conditions of UseShareable LinkUse the link below to share a full-text version of this article with your friends and colleagues. Learn more.Copy URL Share a linkShare onFacebookTwitterLinked InRedditWechat No abstract is available for this article. Volume1, Issue5September 1985Pages 154-155 RelatedInformation

Aspects of Scandinavian Settlement in Northern England: a Review

THELASTTWENTYEARShave seen considerable revision of traditional interpretations of the role of the Vikings in the history of European civilization. Increasingly, it is recognized that they were settlers and traders as well as raiders, and that variety in their local roles is to be expected. That such a change could have come about, is in no small measure due to the work of people who have forced a reassessment of the period. Professor Peter Sawyer's justly-famous heterodox work The Age of the Vikings (Sawyer 1962/1971), perhaps more than most has been instrumental in this from an historical viewpoint (also see Sawyer 1982a & b). Debate has, of course, continued (see Wormald 1982). There is, now, more discussion of the nature of the Viking age, and assessment of the culture of the Scandinavians both in their homelands as in The Viking Achievement (Foote & Wilson 1970/1980) and in the different parts of the known world in which they raided, settled, and traded. Archaeological material has been brought to the fore in asserting a positive role (as well as a negative one) for the Vikings in the history of European civilization. This has, in recent years, been emphasized in both major exhibitions held in Britain, at the British Museum (GrahamCampbell & Kidd 1980; Graham-Campbell 1980) and the Yorkshire Museum (Pearson et al. 1981). It has also been translated into more popular terms in a recent television series and accompanying book (Magnusson 1980). As a practising archaeologist, concerned particularly

The Seasons in Romano-British Mosaic Pavements

N the course of examining the charioteer mosaic discovered at Rudston (Yorks.) in 1971 it struck me that certain aspects of the iconography had been either misunderstood or overlooked in the first publications.' In particular the idea that the bust of a Season holding a rake must be identified as Winter seems to rest on a misconception. It is much more likely that the Season in question, both here and in other similar representations, is Autumn. This proposition can best be justified by reviewing first the known examples of Seasons with rakes, then all the sets of identifiable Seasons in British mosaics. There are four sites which have yielded pavements containing a Season with a rake: Pitney (Somerset), Spoonley Wood (Gloucestershire), Rudston and York.2 Of these the Pitney example, known only from a nineteenth-century lithograph by S. Hasell, is one of a series of Seasons represented in the form of running or flying Cupids, three of which survived when the pavement was drawn (No. 10 in the table below: PL. IIA). That from Spoonley Wood (now lost?) was a male bust whose three companions did not survive (No. 12: PL. IIB). The remaining two belong to series of female busts: at York (No. 14: PL. III) all four busts survive, and at Rudston (No. I1: PL. I) only three (of which one, the rake-bearer, is incomplete). Fuller details are given in the table below. It is a logical assumption, and indeed an essential premise for any interpretation, that such a distinctive attribute as a rake always refers to one specific season; but a review of previous interpretations will show that commentators have found difficulties in applying this principle and have sometimes been forced into inconsistency. On the York mosaic (PL. Ill) it is difficult to identify the bust with a rake as Winter, because there is another candidate for that season: a bust with the conventional wintry attribute of a dead branch. A late nineteenth-century handbook to the Yorkshire Museum, followed by the investigators of the Royal Commission on Historical Monuments and Professor J. M. C. Toynbee, accepted the latter as Winter and called the figure with a rake Summer.3 Mrs Anne Rainey goes further and defines the rake more precisely as a 'harvest rake'.' Dr David Smith,

Lost &amp; Found: 95. Hudleston, Wilfrid (1828-1909)

BCG Newsletter (vol 2 no 3 p. 39k - 5, 1930) Included a useful note about Hudleston's life and ornithological activities by Peter Davis. Barbara Pyrah of the Yorkshire Museum also contributes the following information about Hudleston's connection with that Museum. "He was of course born in York as Wilfrid Simpson, and educated here at St. Peter's, and although he resided in London he owned lands in Yorkshire, and was associated with the Yorkshire Naturalists Union. He held the position of Honorary Keeper cf Mineralogy at the Yorkshire Museum from 1376 until his death in 1909, and although he was obviously not involved in the day to day running of...

Comments on some type and figured brachiopods and bivalves in the Yorkshire Museum.

Comments on some type and figured brachiopods and bivalves in the Yorkshire Museum.

The history of the geology department of the Yorkshire Museum

The history of the geology department of the Yorkshire Museum