Working with the Public: How an Unusual Museum Enquiry Turned into Travels Through Time and Space

Freedman, Jan; Evans, Jane

doi:10.5334/oq.ah

Cited by 3 publications

(1 citation statement)

References 38 publications

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“…Currant and R. Jacobi (NOTNH FS4308). Conclusive remains of British Pleistocene leopards are restricted to southern England (Diedrich 2013), so their remains could have been brought in by Palaeolithic man from mainland Europe (Freedman and Evans 2015), or could have been misidentified.…”

Section: Comparison With 1870s Excavationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Creswell Crags fossil material in the Nottingham Natural History Museum, Wollaton Hall, UK

Bestwick¹,

Smith²

2015

Geol Cur

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The Creswell Crags gorge on the Nottinghamshire-Derbyshire border contains a series of caves in which Holocene and Late Pleistocene deposits accumulated. Fossils from these deposits were acquired by the Nottingham Natural History Museum, Wollaton Hall (NOTNH), during the late 19th century and early 20th century. This study provides the first published review of the entire NOTNH Creswell Crags collection. Overall, there are 274 fossil specimens from Creswell Crags consisting of 466 individual elements. However, only 11.7% of specimens can be attributed to specific caves and none retain any detailed stratigraphic data. This compromises the scientific value of the collection. The collection contains a total of 160 attached labels (on 146 individual elements) comprising ten different types. An assessment of the faunal abundances was conducted to compare with historical excavations. 61% of the NOTNH elements have been identified to genus level and the collection consists of 17 genera from six orders: Carnivora, Artiodactyla, Perissodactyla, Proboscidea, Lagomorpha and Primates. The NOTNH collection contains proportionately more woolly rhinoceros (Coelodonta) elements than the 1870s excavations but fewer hyaena (Crocuta), reindeer (Rangifer), and woolly mammoth (Mammuthus). We attribute these discrepancies to a possible 'donation bias'.

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Section: Comparison With 1870s Excavationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Creswell Crags fossil material in the Nottingham Natural History Museum, Wollaton Hall, UK

Bestwick¹,

Smith²

2015

Geol Cur

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Museum Collections: Importance as a Research Tool

Freedman¹

2021

The International Encyclopedia of Anthropology

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Museums hold millions of objects from all over the globe, offering a unique, unparalleled resource for researchers. They provide historical snapshots of data both geographically and through time, giving researchers rare access to huge amounts of information. Recent advances in analytical techniques have allowed for even more information to be obtained from collections, from radiocarbon dating to genetic sequencing. This entry provides some background on museums and their collections, along with key examples of research that has been undertaken using both nondestructive and destructive sampling methods. It also outlines details on how collections can be used, limitations in sampling, and how to search for objects in museums across Britain. The potential for collections to assist with research is enormous, and this applies not only to national museums but also to smaller regional museums.

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Correction: Working with the Public: How an Unusual Museum Enquiry Turned into Travels Through Time and Space

2015

Open Quaternary

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The article 'Working with the Public: How an unusual museum enquiry turned into travels through time and space' (Freedman and Evans 2015) contains factual errors about radiocarbon dating, and a radiocarbon result that has not been correctly reported. The second paragraph of the section 'The Dating Game' states that 'This method examines the ratio of 14 C to 13 C, which equal when an organism is alive, but 14 C begins to decay to 13 C after death.' This should read: 'This method examines the ratio of 14 C to 13 C, which is equal when an organism is alive, but 14 C begins to decay to 14 N after death, whereas 12 C is a stable isotope and does not decay.' The radiocarbon result reported in the abstract and the section 'Radiocarbon results' does not represent a date range of AD 1739-1787. This confusion arose due to the measurements returned by the Radiocarbon date lab being given as 187 ± 24, as shown on the table below (Table 1). C14 measurements within the last 300 years cannot be as accurate as that stated above. Radiocarbon dates are calculated by knowing the half life of 14 C, and knowing the amount of 14 C and 12 C in a sample. However, due to anthropogenic increase of carbon within the last 300 years, the result can be precise but can have

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Working with the Public: How an Unusual Museum Enquiry Turned into Travels Through Time and Space

Cited by 3 publications

References 38 publications

Creswell Crags fossil material in the Nottingham Natural History Museum, Wollaton Hall, UK

Creswell Crags fossil material in the Nottingham Natural History Museum, Wollaton Hall, UK

Museum Collections: Importance as a Research Tool

Correction: Working with the Public: How an Unusual Museum Enquiry Turned into Travels Through Time and Space

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