About Us | The Past

The Past is a brand new website that brings together the most exciting stories and the very best writing from the worlds of history, archaeology, ancient art and heritage.

The site is powered by our unique stable of accessible specialist magazines, each of which is a leader in its field, and by our global network of writers and editors. Day by day, we promise to bring you up-to-the minute news and the latest research, plus in-depth features, exclusive interviews, guest editorials, an unmissable weekly podcast and our fiendish Friday quiz.

The result is a new essential destination for anyone interested in any aspect of the past, all packaged in a beautifully designed website and mobile app – authoritative, easy to read and navigate, beautifully illustrated, and with no annoying adverts, pop-ups and clickbait.

So whether you’re an armchair historian, a budding archaeologist or a heritage enthusiast, if you really care about the past, you need a subscription to The Past.

Who are we?

Laurence Earle

Executive Editor

Laurence has held a series of senior roles on some of the UK’s most prestigious newspapers and magazines.

He spent more than 20 years as Executive Editor and an award-winning Magazine and Features Editor for The Independent and Independent on Sunday newspapers.

He was also launch COO of HistoryHit TV, the unique digital subscription video-on-demand service, fronted by the historian Dan Snow and described by The Times as the ‘Netflix for history’.

Most recently he was Executive Editor of The Week – one of the most popular and respected weekly news magazines.

Calum Henderson

Senior Writer

Calum read History at the University of Strathclyde, Glasgow, where he developed interests in revolutionary and modern political history. He continued his studies at the University of Glasgow with an MA in Modern History, writing a thesis on 21st century American interventions in the Middle East.

After some work as an online journalist, Calum joined MHM as Assistant Editor.

Florence Chilver

Junior Writer

Florence is a recent prize-winning graduate from The University of Edinburgh where she received a first class degree in Archaeology.

She specialises in the Black Death, but has also dug extensively in the UK and Romania.

Editorial

Carly Hilts

Archaeology Editor (UK)

Carly studied Anglo-Saxon, Norse, and Celtic at St John’s College, Cambridge, before becoming a journalist at Masons News Service, where she helped to cover eight counties in the east of England for the national papers.

Quickly realising that she preferred covering history and archaeology stories above all others, she then joined Time Team as a researcher, later working for the Horrible Histories TV series; providing background information for educational history videos; helping with the development of an ancient Egyptian-themed computer game; and assisting with research for the recently-published The Bones of a King: Richard III Rediscovered.

She is editor of Current Archaeology Magazine.

Matthew Symonds

Archaeology Editor (World)

Matt studied archaeology at Nottingham University, and then at Christ Church, Oxford. He is a visiting fellow at Newcastle University, has co-edited three volumes on Roman frontiers, and is particularly interested in Roman fortlets. He has excavated in Bulgaria, Sicily, Italy, and Britain, but is most at home on Hadrian’s Wall.

He is editor of Current World Archaeology magazine.

† Neil Faulkner (1958-2022)

History Editor

We are deeply saddened by the death of our long-standing colleague and dear friend Neil Faulkner. Neil has been working with us since 2000 writing across all of our magazines and editing Military History Monthly since it’s first issue. He was a wonderful man, and will be sorely missed by all at Current Publishing.

He was the Editor of Military History Matters from issues 1 to 127.

For more about Neil, please visit: https://currentpublishing.com/neilfaulkner.htm

Lucia Marchini

Ancient World Editor

Lucia studied Spanish and Classics at King’s College London. She then decided to devote more of her time to the ancient world and read for an MA in Classics at UCL. She has worked as a researcher on a number of history-related book, radio, and film projects and as a journalist, writing on archaeological discoveries, exhibitions, and travel.

She is editor of Minerva magazine.

Kathryn Krakowka

Science Editor

Kathryn received her DPhil in Archaeology from the University of Oxford in 2017, where she specialised in human osteology. For her doctoral thesis she focused on identifying the prevalence and patterns of violence-related trauma in medieval London and has continued to publish on the topic. She has also worked as a research associate at the Oxford University Museum of Natural History, working to record and analyse their extensive human remains collections, most of which originated from the medical and anatomical museum at Christ Church College, Oxford.

She is Deputy Editor of Current Archaeology magazine.

Amy Brunskill

News & Reviews Editor

Amy studied Archaeology and Anthropology at Durham University before deciding that archaeology was her preferred subject. She then went on to read for an MA Archaeology at Durham, focusing on art in Palaeolithic Europe.

She is also interested in the presentation of archaeology and heritage to the public, having worked in a number of museums including the British Museum, Museum of London, and the Foundling Museum, and led a heritage project studying the economic impact of Durham Castle on the surrounding area for the UNESCO World Heritage Site management plan.

Chris Catling

Contributing Editor

Chris has been digging since he was 16, and is currently co-Director with Tim Darvill of an excavation near Cirencester looking at a linked Neolithic long barrow and causewayed enclosure.

He is a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries and the best-selling author of travel guides to Venice, Florence, Amsterdam, Madeira, London and Crete, and countless popular articles on British archaeology.

Andrew Selkirk

Founding Editor

Andrew Selkirk founded Current Archaeology in 1967, and is now Editor-in-Chief.

Andrew Selkirk is a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries, and was Vice-President of the Royal Archaeological Institute, and has served on the councils of the Prehistoric Society, and the Roman Society.

He is currently writing a book, Barbarism and Civilisation, extracts of which can be read on the website www.civilization.org.uk

Joe Flatman

Contributing Editor

Since 2012 Joe has been Head of Listing Programmes at Historic England. He has published widely on matters of heritage policy, law and management, including the books Prehistoric Archaeology of the Continental Shelf (2014), Archaeology in Society: Its Relevance in the Modern World (2012) and Becoming an Archaeologist: A Guide to Professional Pathways (2011). You can follow him on Twitter @joeflatman.

Charles Higham

Asia Correspondent

Charles Higham is Professor of Otago University in New Zealand, and an authority on Cambodia’s Angkor civilisation and Ban Non Wat in Thailand.

Richard Hodges

Europe Correspondent

Richard Hodges OBE is president of The American University of Rome, and former professor and director of the Institute of World Archaeology at the University of East Anglia and the former Williams Director of the University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology in Philadelphia.

He has also dug extensively at Butrint in Albania.

Dalu Jones

Contributor

Dalu Jones is an internationally well known Islamic art historian, former founder and director of the scientific journal AARP (Art and Archaeology Research Papers).