Peter Northover
Biographic Data
| ID | 1016383 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Peter Northover |
| GIVEN NAMES | Peter |
| FAMILY NAME | Northover |
| SIGNATURE | NORTHOVER P |
| AFFILIATIONS | University of Oxford |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-0656-5091 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 16 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 42 |
| WORKS AS AUTHOR | 16 |
| WORKS AS EDITOR | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 1982 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 4 |
The Naked Truth
In 1967, pieces of crumpled copper hull sheathing were found at Tajarnirřuaq (O’Reilly Island), in the Kitikmeot Region of Nunavut, Canada. This area is where 19th century Inuit reported the sinking of either HMS Erebus or HMS Terror from Sir John Franklin’s 1845 expedition. It remained a tantalizing question for almost 50 years thereafter if the sheathing came from either ship and pointed to the presence of a nearby wreck. While Franklin’s ships…
The Archaeology of Ocean, a 19th-Century Merchant Schooner Wrecked in the Solent 1865
Everyday merchant schooners in the 19th century were essential to Britain’s industrial and imperial systems. This paper explores the shipwreck of the schooner Ocean. This site is an opportunity to set out an approach to a ship’s assemblage and show how an identity can be established for an unknown wreck. The ship’s life is reconstructed from the results of metallurgical analysis, GPS survey, archival research, and photogrammetric modelling. The r…
A Catalogue of British Bronze Age Axes, Including Basic Typology, Compositional Analyses and Associated Radiocarbon Dates
This archive lists ~8000 Bronze Age British axeheads, alongside associated compositional analyses, isotopic measurements and radiocarbon dates. It integrates several major existing data collection efforts and published catalogues, whilst also providing a self-consistent basic typology. It is archived as four related flat-sheet text files and could be reused to support quantitative assessment of geographic and temporal patterns in metalwork style,…
Style and Substance
The silver bust presented here may be the only extant portrait bust of a Sasanian royal woman. Art historical analyses complemented by metallurgical analyses date the piece to the late Sasanian or early Islamic era, fitting it into the known corpus of Sasanian and related metalwork based on stylistic and iconographic analysis. While an exact identification of the woman in this unique bust remains elusive, the portrait can be associated with the f…
Gristhorpe Man
A log-coffin excavated in the early nineteenth century proved to be well enough preserved in the early twenty-first century for the full armoury of modern scientific investigation to give its occupants and contents new identity, new origins and a new date. In many ways the interpretation is much the same as before: a local big man buried looking out to sea. Modern analytical techniques can create a person more real, more human and more securely a…
The Winchester Moot Horn
The Winchester Moot Horn was found in a chest in the late 19th century when the Westgate was cleared out in advance of its conversion to a museum. Although generally believed to be of late-12th- or early-13th-century date on stylistic grounds, and a civic horn appears in local documentary sources, its excellent state of preservation has always raised some doubt as to its antiquity. Recent study and scientific analyses have now confirmed its early…
The excavation of a Bronze Age cemetery at Seafield West, near Inverness, Highland
Excavations in 1996 in advance of a major commercial development at Seafield West revealed a Bronze Age cemetery. Inside a ring-ditch were two adjacent graves with wooden coffins, one a boat-shaped hollowed tree-trunk, the other plank-built. Both had probably contained crouched inhumation burials. Grave goods in the former included a bronze dagger of ‘Butterwick’ type whose scabbard of wood and cattle hide produced a date of 3385 ± 45 BP (1870–15…
An Early Bronze Age 'dagger grave' from Rameldry Farm, near Kingskettle, Fife
In February 2000, ploughing disturbed the capstone of a cist, located on the side of a prominent knowe at Rameldry Farm, near Kingskettle in central Fife. Excavation by Headland Archaeology Ltd on behalf of Historic Scotland revealed a short cist which contained the crouched inhumation of a man aged 40–50, who had suffered from arthritis, some tooth loss and possibly Paget’s Disease. He had been buried wearing a garment adorned with six V-perfora…
Incorporation of laser ablation into a proton probe system to study laser ablation of corrosion products, and enhance the probe's analytical capabilities
Short Reviews
Towards an appreciation of Minoan metallurgical techniques
A group of ten copper and copper alloy Minoan tools from the Ashmolean Museum's Cretan collection is analysed. Though the component elements are recorded, the emphasis is on metallographic aspects of the objects. By considering these sets of information together we can learn how craftsmen treated the types of metal available in order to suit the requirements of the intended products. Many details of the stages undergone by the metal in its transf…
Excavations in the Neolithic and Bronze Age Complex at Dorchester-on-Thames, Oxfordshire, 1947–1952 and 1981
From 1946 to 1952. excavations were undertaken in advance of destruction by gravel workings of a series of Neolithic and Early Bronze Age monuments at Dorchester-on-Thames, Oxon. These included a long enclosure, a cursus, a double ditched henge, pit circles and ring ditches with primary and secondary cremation burials and a notable Beaker burial. Sites I, II, IV, V and VI, all pit circles or ring ditches, were published in 1951. This report descr…
A Decorated Late Iron Age Torc from Dinnington, South Yorkshire
In August 1984 Mr James Rickett, using a metal detector adjacent to a public footpath in a wood near Dinnington, South Yorkshire, found a bronze torc. Recognizing it as an important find he promptly took it into Sheffield City Museum, Weston Park. Subsequently the landowners, Mr and Mrs J. H. Morrell, generously donated the torc to the Museum (Accession no. SHEFM:1984.515). Later a careful survey was made of the wood by staff of Sheffield City Mu…
A Cast Bronze Door Hinge from Tel Lachish
A Cast Bronze Door Hinge from Tel Lachish
The Metallurgy of the Wilburton Hoards
The results to date of a programme of research into the metallurgy of the Wilburton hoards of the British Late Bronze Age are described and some interpretations presented. Possible origins for the metal are discussed. the associated technical advances are discussed and an attempt is made to provide a realistic metallurgical context for the hoards. I would like to thank the British Museum, London; the National Museum of Wales, Cardiff; Cambridge M…
Excavations in the Neolithic and Bronze Age Complex at Dorchester-on-Thames, Oxfordshire, 1947–1952 and 1981
From 1946 to 1952. excavations were undertaken in advance of destruction by gravel workings of a series of Neolithic and Early Bronze Age monuments at Dorchester-on-Thames, Oxon. These included a long enclosure, a cursus, a double ditched henge, pit circles and ring ditches with primary and secondary cremation burials and a notable Beaker burial. Sites I, II, IV, V and VI, all pit circles or ring ditches, were published in 1951. This report descr…
Gristhorpe Man
A log-coffin excavated in the early nineteenth century proved to be well enough preserved in the early twenty-first century for the full armoury of modern scientific investigation to give its occupants and contents new identity, new origins and a new date. In many ways the interpretation is much the same as before: a local big man buried looking out to sea. Modern analytical techniques can create a person more real, more human and more securely a…
The Metallurgy of the Wilburton Hoards
The results to date of a programme of research into the metallurgy of the Wilburton hoards of the British Late Bronze Age are described and some interpretations presented. Possible origins for the metal are discussed. the associated technical advances are discussed and an attempt is made to provide a realistic metallurgical context for the hoards. I would like to thank the British Museum, London; the National Museum of Wales, Cardiff; Cambridge M…
An Early Bronze Age 'dagger grave' from Rameldry Farm, near Kingskettle, Fife
In February 2000, ploughing disturbed the capstone of a cist, located on the side of a prominent knowe at Rameldry Farm, near Kingskettle in central Fife. Excavation by Headland Archaeology Ltd on behalf of Historic Scotland revealed a short cist which contained the crouched inhumation of a man aged 40–50, who had suffered from arthritis, some tooth loss and possibly Paget’s Disease. He had been buried wearing a garment adorned with six V-perfora…
A Decorated Late Iron Age Torc from Dinnington, South Yorkshire
In August 1984 Mr James Rickett, using a metal detector adjacent to a public footpath in a wood near Dinnington, South Yorkshire, found a bronze torc. Recognizing it as an important find he promptly took it into Sheffield City Museum, Weston Park. Subsequently the landowners, Mr and Mrs J. H. Morrell, generously donated the torc to the Museum (Accession no. SHEFM:1984.515). Later a careful survey was made of the wood by staff of Sheffield City Mu…
The excavation of a Bronze Age cemetery at Seafield West, near Inverness, Highland
Excavations in 1996 in advance of a major commercial development at Seafield West revealed a Bronze Age cemetery. Inside a ring-ditch were two adjacent graves with wooden coffins, one a boat-shaped hollowed tree-trunk, the other plank-built. Both had probably contained crouched inhumation burials. Grave goods in the former included a bronze dagger of ‘Butterwick’ type whose scabbard of wood and cattle hide produced a date of 3385 ± 45 BP (1870–15…
Towards an appreciation of Minoan metallurgical techniques
A group of ten copper and copper alloy Minoan tools from the Ashmolean Museum's Cretan collection is analysed. Though the component elements are recorded, the emphasis is on metallographic aspects of the objects. By considering these sets of information together we can learn how craftsmen treated the types of metal available in order to suit the requirements of the intended products. Many details of the stages undergone by the metal in its transf…
The Metallurgy of the Wilburton Hoards
The results to date of a programme of research into the metallurgy of the Wilburton hoards of the British Late Bronze Age are described and some interpretations presented. Possible origins for the metal are discussed. the associated technical advances are discussed and an attempt is made to provide a realistic metallurgical context for the hoards. I would like to thank the British Museum, London; the National Museum of Wales, Cardiff; Cambridge M…
A Cast Bronze Door Hinge from Tel Lachish
A Cast Bronze Door Hinge from Tel Lachish
A Decorated Late Iron Age Torc from Dinnington, South Yorkshire
In August 1984 Mr James Rickett, using a metal detector adjacent to a public footpath in a wood near Dinnington, South Yorkshire, found a bronze torc. Recognizing it as an important find he promptly took it into Sheffield City Museum, Weston Park. Subsequently the landowners, Mr and Mrs J. H. Morrell, generously donated the torc to the Museum (Accession no. SHEFM:1984.515). Later a careful survey was made of the wood by staff of Sheffield City Mu…
Excavations in the Neolithic and Bronze Age Complex at Dorchester-on-Thames, Oxfordshire, 1947–1952 and 1981
From 1946 to 1952. excavations were undertaken in advance of destruction by gravel workings of a series of Neolithic and Early Bronze Age monuments at Dorchester-on-Thames, Oxon. These included a long enclosure, a cursus, a double ditched henge, pit circles and ring ditches with primary and secondary cremation burials and a notable Beaker burial. Sites I, II, IV, V and VI, all pit circles or ring ditches, were published in 1951. This report descr…
Short Reviews
Towards an appreciation of Minoan metallurgical techniques
A group of ten copper and copper alloy Minoan tools from the Ashmolean Museum's Cretan collection is analysed. Though the component elements are recorded, the emphasis is on metallographic aspects of the objects. By considering these sets of information together we can learn how craftsmen treated the types of metal available in order to suit the requirements of the intended products. Many details of the stages undergone by the metal in its transf…
Incorporation of laser ablation into a proton probe system to study laser ablation of corrosion products, and enhance the probe's analytical capabilities
The excavation of a Bronze Age cemetery at Seafield West, near Inverness, Highland
Excavations in 1996 in advance of a major commercial development at Seafield West revealed a Bronze Age cemetery. Inside a ring-ditch were two adjacent graves with wooden coffins, one a boat-shaped hollowed tree-trunk, the other plank-built. Both had probably contained crouched inhumation burials. Grave goods in the former included a bronze dagger of ‘Butterwick’ type whose scabbard of wood and cattle hide produced a date of 3385 ± 45 BP (1870–15…
An Early Bronze Age 'dagger grave' from Rameldry Farm, near Kingskettle, Fife
In February 2000, ploughing disturbed the capstone of a cist, located on the side of a prominent knowe at Rameldry Farm, near Kingskettle in central Fife. Excavation by Headland Archaeology Ltd on behalf of Historic Scotland revealed a short cist which contained the crouched inhumation of a man aged 40–50, who had suffered from arthritis, some tooth loss and possibly Paget’s Disease. He had been buried wearing a garment adorned with six V-perfora…
The Winchester Moot Horn
The Winchester Moot Horn was found in a chest in the late 19th century when the Westgate was cleared out in advance of its conversion to a museum. Although generally believed to be of late-12th- or early-13th-century date on stylistic grounds, and a civic horn appears in local documentary sources, its excellent state of preservation has always raised some doubt as to its antiquity. Recent study and scientific analyses have now confirmed its early…
Gristhorpe Man
A log-coffin excavated in the early nineteenth century proved to be well enough preserved in the early twenty-first century for the full armoury of modern scientific investigation to give its occupants and contents new identity, new origins and a new date. In many ways the interpretation is much the same as before: a local big man buried looking out to sea. Modern analytical techniques can create a person more real, more human and more securely a…
Style and Substance
The silver bust presented here may be the only extant portrait bust of a Sasanian royal woman. Art historical analyses complemented by metallurgical analyses date the piece to the late Sasanian or early Islamic era, fitting it into the known corpus of Sasanian and related metalwork based on stylistic and iconographic analysis. While an exact identification of the woman in this unique bust remains elusive, the portrait can be associated with the f…
A Catalogue of British Bronze Age Axes, Including Basic Typology, Compositional Analyses and Associated Radiocarbon Dates
This archive lists ~8000 Bronze Age British axeheads, alongside associated compositional analyses, isotopic measurements and radiocarbon dates. It integrates several major existing data collection efforts and published catalogues, whilst also providing a self-consistent basic typology. It is archived as four related flat-sheet text files and could be reused to support quantitative assessment of geographic and temporal patterns in metalwork style,…
The Naked Truth
In 1967, pieces of crumpled copper hull sheathing were found at Tajarnirřuaq (O’Reilly Island), in the Kitikmeot Region of Nunavut, Canada. This area is where 19th century Inuit reported the sinking of either HMS Erebus or HMS Terror from Sir John Franklin’s 1845 expedition. It remained a tantalizing question for almost 50 years thereafter if the sheathing came from either ship and pointed to the presence of a nearby wreck. While Franklin’s ships…
The Archaeology of Ocean, a 19th-Century Merchant Schooner Wrecked in the Solent 1865
Everyday merchant schooners in the 19th century were essential to Britain’s industrial and imperial systems. This paper explores the shipwreck of the schooner Ocean. This site is an opportunity to set out an approach to a ship’s assemblage and show how an identity can be established for an unknown wreck. The ship’s life is reconstructed from the results of metallurgical analysis, GPS survey, archival research, and photogrammetric modelling. The r…
History (12 works) · Archaeology (10 works) · History (10 works) · Ancient history (8 works) · Archaeology and ancient environmental studies (8 works) · Art (7 works) · Bronze Age (6 works) · Metallurgy and Cultural Artifacts (6 works) · Bronze (5 works) · Engineering (5 works)