The Norfolk graffiti survey is the gift that keeps on giving!

A survey of graffiti in churches in Norfolk has uncovered hundreds of "medieval selfies", hidden for centuries under limewash. They were found by volunteers with the Norfolk Medieval Graffiti Survey ( Read more... )

Happy International Archives Day today!

Something my brother linked me to tonight. 10 of the most unusual historical sites in London - I thought I'd already know most of these but I was (happily) wrong :)

A really incredible story I saw today on twitter!

A lead coffin housing the remarkably well-preserved body of a 17th century noblewoman - still wearing her shoes and cap - has been unearthed in the north-western French city of Rennes ( Read more... )

Some news from Russia!

The “once-in-a-century” discovery of a set of solid gold bongs has offered a glimpse into the little-understood lives of Scythians, who ruled vast areas of Eurasia for a thousand years 2,400 years ago ( Read more... )

Excavations at an Oxfordshire convent has revealed some darker aspects of medieval religious life.

The excavation of the Littlemore Priory, which was founded in 1110 and dissolved in 1525, has revealed nearly 100 skeletons of men, women and children ( Read more... )

An incredible find in Kenya!

Scientists working in the desert badlands of northwestern Kenya have found stone tools dating back 3.3 million years, long before the advent of modern humans, and by far the oldest such artifacts yet discovered. The tools, whose makers may or may not have been some sort of human ancestor, push the known date of such ( Read more... )

This sounds like a wonderful and original exhibition and I kind of wish I could teleport across the ocean and go to it :)

Three decades ago, Indiana Jones’s swashbuckling brand of archaeology inspired a generation of moviegoers. Now a new exhibit at the National Geographic Museum pays homage to the actual artifacts and archaeologists that inspired ( Read more... )

I finally went to look round York Minster yesterday and I think my favourite thing was the beautiful 'York Gospels,' the oldest book owned by the Minster and the only one to pre-date the Norman Conquest. It was written c.1020.


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The Codex Gigas is all over the news today so here is a handy guide to just what it is and why people are talking about it. I admit I only knew it as 'that huge medieval book.'

Gigas is Latin for giant, so the translation of the Codex Gigas is "giant book." An apt name, as this codex is the largest single volume religious text surviving from 13th ( Read more... )

The Hereford Cathedral work is continuing to turn up interesting, if sad, finds.

The remains of a Saxon child estimated to have been between the ages of ten and 12 at the time of death were unearthed at Hereford Cathedral as part of an excavation funded by the Heritage Lottery. At the time of the burial, a Saxon palace is thought to have stood on ( Read more... )