This paper uses evidence from a previously unresearched ecclesiastical textile associated with Archbishop John Morton ( c 1420−1500) to generate new insights into the material culture of the Roman Catholic faith before, during and after the penal period in England ( c 1558−1829). This composite textile was initially thought to be made up of fragments of a late 1400s cope bearing Morton’s rebus, reconfigured as an altar frontal, which had survived in the house of an important Roman Catholic family. The embroidered motifs include a unique Lily Crucifix. The textile’s complex biography is ‘unpicked’ using physical and textual evidence to understand its changing forms, roles and significance. Analysis of the material and construction, combined with evidence gained through X-radiography, showed the frontal to be composed of parts of a cope and at least one other vestment, with a now missing image of the Annunciation. Mapping the stages of fragmentation, removal and re-modelling demonstrates the transformation of significant mainstream vestments into other forms. The paper illuminates aspects of Morton’s faith and provides new insights into the practices of recusant Roman Catholics.

THE YARM HELMET, unearthed in the 1950s by workmen at Yarm (North Yorkshire, England), is a composite construction ‘crested’ helmet of riveted, undecorated, thin iron plates. Without close parallel at the time it was found, it could not be confidently attributed to a specific date or culture. This paper records, analyses and reassesses the helmet, demonstrating that it is not a later copy, but an original 9th–11th-century helmet, comparable with the helmet at Gjermundbu (Norway). Its materials and construction speak to the growing pragmatism of arms and armour production, which was necessary to supply the increasing numbers of armed warriors present in this period.

This book has emerged from the symposium held in October 2016 to celebrate 50 years since the opening of the conservation laboratories of the University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and An...

This article outlines a cost-effective proposal for the effective identification of potential iron artefacts from the range of iron concretions recovered from archaeological sites. The high cost of film-based X-radiography has biased archaeologists to pre-select objects, rather than X-radiograph all ironwork, and consequently inevitably discard potential artefacts in need of preservation. Recent improvements in digital X-radiography provide a quick and potentially cheaper alternative to film. The article introduces valuation processes, usually only discussed in relation to large building conservation projects, and applies them to evaluate the conservation potential of individual iron concretions. Factors such as form, completeness and archaeological context are seen to be crucial and exploring this as an analytic-deliberative decision-making process is beneficial to both those practising and learning archaeological conservation. The extent of conservation and research applied to iron objects is invariably related to their means of production, whether bespoke, crafted or mass produced, and the high cost of ironwork storage means that mass produced and some crafted items appear likely only to be retained in digital X-radiograph image form or not at all.

Excavations in the summer of 2011 at Nevern Castle (Castell Nanhyfer) revealed a previously unknown southern entrance to the castle constructed of clay mortared slate in the final quarter of the twelfth century. The threshold was formed of vertically seated slates, imitating the natural bedrock. Thirteen of these slates had designs inscribed into one or both faces. Their location, the absence of such inscribed slates from the rest of the site and the nature of the symbols, which could not normally be seen, suggests that they were apotropaic in nature. This paper presents a record and interpretation of this unusual in situ apotropaic-symbolled threshold deposit.

Ancestor artefacts (objects of an earlier period, valued for their age and associations, which are retained into a later period) are normally identified by archaeologists owing to the difference between the date of the object and its context. These valued artefacts often demonstrate evidence of veneration (collection, cleaning and care). Recently, the importance of fragments in referencing an earlier object and its associations has been recognized (Chapman 2000), though the detection of such fragments, even when in significant contexts, presents a challenge to archaeologists. The first example of an ancestor object which no longer exists, even as fragments, but as remelted metal, is presented in this paper. This suggests that the material of which an artefact is composed may have significantly greater cultural meaning than previously proposed. Distinguishing such ancestor material from material recycled for economic benefit or its desirable physical characteristics presents a significant challenge to the archaeologist and archaeological scientist.

(2007). Analytical Chemistry in Archaeology, Cambridge Manuals in Archaeology. By Mark Pollard, Catherine Batt, Ben Stern and Suzanne M. M. Young. Archaeological Journal: Vol. 164, No. 1, pp. 300-300.

(2007). Wetland Archaeology and Environments: Regional Issues, Global Perspectives. Edited by Malcolm Lillie and Stephen Ellis. Archaeological Journal: Vol. 164, No. 1, pp. 297-298.