British Museum Technical
Research Bulletin

The Technical Research Bulletin publishes the results of collaborative work by the British Museum's curators, conservators and scientists covering a broad range of objects and materials from across the Museum’s collection.

Published once a year, each issue aims to encompass objects from different continents, historical periods and material types. The Bulletin is designed to appeal both to those with a general interest in the Museum’s collections and those with a specialist interest who wish to broaden their horizons.

Volume 1

Technical Research Bulletin - Volume 1 Examines some of the different material aspects of objects in the Museum collection.

Volume 2

Technical Research Bulletin - Volume 2Detailing the assessment, examination, treatment and analysis of objects from across the Museum’s collections and beyond.

Volume 3

Technical Research Bulletin - Volume 3Shedding light on cultures from the ancient civilisations of the world.


Volume 4

Technical Research Bulletin - Volume 3Papers on exploring the evidence for cultural transmission and trade to questions of object attribution and authenticity.


Volume 5

Available now in hard copy and online in Autumn 2012:

  • Beauty and belief: the endangered tradition of Omani silver jewellery
  • Evidence for shield construction from the early Anglo-Saxon cemetery site of Tranmer House, Bromeswell, Suffolk
  • The Noli me Tangere: study and conservation of a Cretan icon
  • Grimes Graves revisited: a new light on chalk ‘lamps’
  • Portrait mummies from Roman Egypt: ongoing collaborative research on wood identification
  • A Chinese bronze gui vessel: genuine Western Zhou object or fake?
  • Investigating technological and environmental evidence from plant remains and molluscs in cuneiform tablets
  • Defence and decoration: new findings on a late fourteenth-century ‘kettle-hat’ helmet found in London
  • Assessing the potential of historic archaeological collections: a pilot study of the British Museum’s Swiss lake dwelling textiles
  • The history and conservation of the papyrus of Tuy

For more information contact science@britishmuseum.org

To order a hard copy of the Technical Research Bulletin contact Archetype Publications: info@archetype.co.uk

British Museum Technical Research Bulletin

Shell ewer from Gujarat, India