SCOTLAND

Around the World January 1, 2011

Talk about Old World craftsmanship. This pocket watch was found in the 1990s on the wreck of the Swan, a ship that sank in 1653 during the English Civil War.
SHARE:

SCOTLAND: Talk about Old World craftsmanship. This pocket watch was found in the 1990s on the wreck of the Swan, a ship that sank in 1653 during the English Civil War. It is covered with rock-like encrustations, but X-ray computed tomography—the same process used to peer into the famous Antikythera Mechanism—has now revealed a beautifully preserved interior. Steel parts corroded away, but the intact brass holds remarkable details, including a maker's mark. Nice work, "Niccholas Higginson of Westminster." 

  • Features January/February 2026

    The Cost of Doing Business

    Piecing together the Roman empire’s longest known inscription—a peculiarly precise inventory of prices

    Read Article
    A digital reconstruction shows how the Civil Basilica in the city of Aphrodisias in southwestern Anatolia would have appeared with the Edict of Maximum Prices inscribed on its facade.
    Ece Savaş and Philip Stinson
  • Features January/February 2026

    The Birds of Amarna

    An Egyptian princess seeks sanctuary in her private palace

    Read Article
    The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York/ Rogers Fund, 1930
  • Features January/February 2026

    Taking the Measure of Mesoamerica

    Archaeologists decode the sacred mathematics embedded in an ancient city’s architecture

    Read Article
    Courtesy Claudia I. Alvarado-León
  • Features January/February 2026

    Stone Gods and Monsters

    3,000 years ago, an intoxicating new religion beckoned pilgrims to temples high in the Andes

    Read Article
    The ritual center of Chavín de Huántar flourished in northern Peru.
    Courtesy John Rick