Our curatorial departments conduct research programmes across the broad range of collections disciplines.

Research in our collections directorate fits broadly under three major themes – Scotland's Material Heritage, Identities and Cultural Contacts, and Sustainability.

Man sitting on a corrugated metal roof rolling a length of brown fabric. There are large, snowcapped mountains in the background.

Chitrali Shu

The mountainous region of Chitral in northern Pakistan is home to a pure woollen fabric called 'shu' or 'patti'. This project will document this living tradition through film and interviews.

Entangled Knowledges

Entangled Knowledges aims to highlight Menang Nyungar knowledge embedded in a historical fish collection held at National Museums Scotland and return this knowledge to the Menang community in Western Australia.

close-up of beadwork with a pattern of red and blue horizontal stripes and one white vertical crossing them all.

Reveal and Connect

Our collaborative project will publish a national review of African and Caribbean collections held in museums across Scotland, and establish a network of interests to encourage engagement with these collections.

A lacquer plaque of lots of different people waving small red books in the air gathering around Chairman Mao.

Materialising the Cold War

Three decades since the fall of the Berlin Wall, our collaborative project explores how the Cold War is represented in museums.

A variety of small Ancient Egyptian statues of humans with arms crossed.

Egypt's Dispersed Heritage

Explore the legacies of the British archaeology in Egypt and the dialogue being created around these collections.

Unwrapping the Galloway Hoard

This 3-year project aims to challenge current understanding of the process of hoarding through an interdisciplinary study of one of the best-preserved hoards found in Britain to date.

A leopard sitting with it's front paws draped over a branch and green leaves in the background.

Do Not Feed the Animals

This collaborative project looks at the roots of animal feeding, to establish the benefits and risk to humans, animals, and the environment.

People and Plants

People and Plants will investigate the interplay between natural history and ethnography collections in museums, emphasising their value as material archives of indigenous ecological knowledge.

A stone carving of an Egyptian figure's head wearing a headdress viewed from the side.

Buying Power: British Archaeology and the Antiquities Market in Egypt and Sudan 1880 - 1939

This research project will investigate how archaeologists involved in British-led excavations in Egypt and Sudan engaged with the antiquities market between 1880 - 1939.

Research themes

Research in our collections directorate fits broadly under the following three major themes:

Scotland's Material Heritage

2021 – Materialising the Cold War

2021 – Unwrapping the Galloway Hoard

2021 – Exchange

2019 – Egypt’s Dispersed Heritage

2019 – WITH Coastal Style

2018 – Prehistoric Gold in Britain

2018 – Reclaiming Romance

2017 – The Fabric of Life: Early Polynesian barkcloth in context

2017 – Baggage and Belonging: Collecting practices of the British Army

2016 – Scottish collectors in central Africa

2016 – African Barkcloth

2016 – African Commemorative Textiles project

2015 – Revealing the Layers: the Umbrian Madonna and Child

2015 – Silver, Status and Society

2013 – ReINVENT & ReCREATE

2012 – Wha' bears a blade for Scotland?

2011 – Colouring the Nation

2008 – Glenmorangie Research Project into Early Medieval Scotland

Identities and Cultural Contacts

2019 – WITH Coastal Style

2018 – The Matter of Slavery in Scotland

2017 – Baggage and Belonging: Collecting practices of the British Army

2017 – Trading Places

2017 – The Fabric of Life: Early Polynesian barkcloth in context

2016 – African Barkcloth

2016 – Scottish collectors in central Africa

2011 – Colouring the Nation

Sustainability

2021 – Rocks and the Rise of Ordovician Life

2020 – Do Not Feed the Animals

2018 – CryoArks

2015 – The TWeed project: Evolution’s Missing Chapter

1994 – Virginia Solite Quarry

Site Menu.

Research and knowledge exchange projects