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Excavating Cambridgeshire

Meanwhile, at Yaxley, Current Archaeology reported on work examining the archaeology of the ‘second’ English Civil War, during which the village church of St Peter’s was the scene of an extraordinary bombardment.…

Reading between the runes

The British Museum’s Portable Antiquities Scheme (PAS) recently passed the milestone of one million records generated since the project’s foundation in 1997. Among the highlights announced at the launch of the latest PAS annual report (for 2020) is this gold cross pendant dated to c.AD 700-900. The 26mm-long object (found…

The Society for Landscape Studies

When The Making of the English Landscape by W G Hoskins was published in 1954, its author claimed that ‘no book exists to describe the manner in which the various landscapes of this country came to assume the shape and appearance they now have’. In fact, landscape-level study was far…

Gold coin of Elizabeth I

This coin, found near Shrewsbury, Shropshire, is one of a series of high denomination gold coins issued during the reign of Elizabeth I (1558-1603). Elizabethan coins are among the objects most frequently reported to the Portable Antiquities Scheme (PAS). Gold half-pound coins like this one, however, are exceptionally rare: to-date,…

Stonehenge Quiz

Which 12th-century chronicler suggested that Stonehenge had originally been transported from Ireland to Salisbury Plain with help from the wizard Merlin?…

Norway: secrets of the ice

Over the last decade, 64 glaciers and ice patches in the Innlandet region have produced over 3,500 archaeological finds, from hunting tools and textiles to zoological material...…

Roman mosaic in Rutland

The mosaic, which measures 11m by almost 7m, once formed the floor of a dining or entertaining room within a large villa complex occupied during the late Roman period.…

Palmyra Quiz

An oasis city surrounded by Syrian desert, Palmyra was an important stop on which trade route?…

Cage cup

What is it? This cage cup, or vas diatretum, dates to the 4th century AD. The intricate, colourless glass bowl is 12.6cm tall and 15cm in diameter and has a flared rim. A Latin inscription in the central part of the vessel reads ‘vivas feliciter’ (‘live in bliss’) in large…

Military History Book Awards 2022

Military History Matters has curated a list of 2021’s best military history titles: the nominees for this year’s MHM Book Awards. Our selection includes some of the best-researched, most-insightful, and most-readable titles reviewed and featured in the magazine over the last year. But we need your help to select the…

The Junkers 322 Mammut and the Messerschmitt 321/323 Gigant

All three of these aircraft originated with a 1940 requirement for a large assault glider in preparation for Operation Sealion, the projected invasion of Britain. Although Operation Sealion had effectively been cancelled by the time the requirement was issued in October 1940, there was still an urgent need for this…

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The wartime art of Laura Knight

Laura Knight was blessed with some of the essential qualities of any great artist: a broadness of outlook and a fascination with the riches of ordinary life. A new exhibition of her work at the MK Gallery in Milton Keynes is subtitled ‘a panoramic view’. It brings together more than…

War of words – ‘ovation’

Marcus Claudius Marcellus asked the Senate to grant him a triumph. He was refused because the fighting in his former province of Sicily was still ongoing, and his army was not with him to support his claim. Instead, he was given only an ovation.…

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