Description (Labels & Markings)
Small old handwriitten brown paper luggage style label notes in pencil 'Aconite/ Arrow Poison'.
Event Date
Author: Rachel Hand

Description (Labels & Markings)
Small, oval, handwritten brown paper label notes '24/aconite poison' and on the other side 'Ningpo/ 1913', suggesting date and place of collection
Event Date
Author: Rachel Hand

Context (Field collection)
Collected by Capt. Lever in Ningpo in 1913
Event Date 1913
Author: Rachel Hand

Description (Physical description)
Catalogue card 1 notes 'Aconite, used as arrow poison.'
Catalogue card 2 notes 'Bundles of ?acmite [sic] poison for arrows.'
Event Date 1926
Author: maa

Context (Related Documents)
Note on catalogue card: "Original card is missing and catalogue is not clear on provenance" (C. Steele, October 1982)
Event Date 1982
Author: maa

Context (Amendments / updates)
Previously two records for this object, one was noted in the place field only as 'Unprovenanced', but the other record notes '?East Asia.' The box list is filed as 'Oriental Unprovenanced'.


Event Date 25/2/2014
Author: Rachel Hand

Context (Analysis)
Swabbed by Valentina Borgia, Marie Curie Fellow, McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research and tested by forensic chemist Michelle Carlin (Northumbria University).
Carlin's analysis confirmed the presence of aconite.
Event Date 4/6/2014
Author: Rachel Hand

Context (CMS Context)
Illustrated in Quaternary International, 'Poison, plants and Palaeolithic hunters. An analytical method to investigate the presence of plant poison on archaeological artefacts' by Valentina Borgia, Michelle G. Carlin, Jacopo Crezzini.

Also available online on the University of Canbridge Research News as 'Poisons, plants and Palaeolithic hunters' https://www.cam.ac.uk/research/news/poisons-plants-and-palaeolithic-hunters (published March 2015)



Event Date 7/9/2016
Author: Rachel Hand

Description (Physical description)
Glazed cylindrical ceramic pot with short neck and everted rim. Printed with blue and white floral designs, With angled wooden stopper, wrapped with cotton cloth. Used to contain aconite, used as an arrow poison. Three sections of twisted fibre plant cord secure the lid to the pot.

Previously protectively wrapped in newspaper the Daily Sketch from 13 July 1926, with the headline 'A King and Queen at Miss Guest's wedding'.
Event Date 15/7/2025
Author: Rachel Hand

Description (Labels & Markings)
Rectangular paper label pasted to newspaper wrapping notes in pencil' Poison for arrows'
Event Date 16/7/2025
Author: Rachel Hand