A39 Tortoise Heavy Assault Tank

The Tortoise was to be a well-armoured assault vehicle that could break through heavily defended areas. But Its sheer bulk and weight meant that rail transportation was impossible, and it far exceeded the capacity of any landing craft or standard Bailey bridges.…

The Lutyens Trust

If you aspire to owning a Lutyens house and have very deep pockets, the Trust’s property column will alert you to houses for sale.…

Finds Tray – Iron Age terminal mount

This is an Iron Age terminal mount in the shape of a bull’s head. It was found by a metal-detectorist near Scarning, Norfolk, back in 2015, but recent research has suggested it may represent a rare example of the plastic style of La Tène art – which is characterised by…

Kerma, 1913

The sands of ancient Nubia, a region over-lapping southern Egypt and northern Sudan, are home to remains of cities, forts, and numerous pyramids. It was to these archaeologically rich sands that the Harvard University–Boston Museum of Fine Arts Expedition headed in 1913. The team, led by George A Reisner, had…

Jacques Francis

He was not, Jacques Francis insisted as prosecution witnesses tried repeatedly to have his testimony thrown out, a slave. They called him ‘blackamoor’ and ‘infidel-born’, but he called himself famulus rather than servus – a member of the household, a worker alongside free servants. At this historical distance, it seems…

The Fairground Heritage Trust

Fed up with being locked down? You could do worse than escape for an hour into the brightly lit and colourful world of the fair, courtesy of the richly illustrated website of the Fairground Heritage Trust (FHT). Browsing the ‘Learning’ pages, you will be reminded that fairs have a long…

Finds tray – Iron Age swan neck pin

This is a complete copper-alloy ‘swan’s neck’ pin, a kind of artefact generally dated to the Iron Age. It comprises a circular flathead, which appears sub-rectangular in cross-section with rounded edges. Each flat side of the pinhead is decorated with a central ring-and-dot motif, while one of the rounded sides…

Amelia Edwards

This major figure in Egyptian archaeology was also a novelist, journalist, artist, erstwhile musician, and dauntless travel writer.…

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Deir el-Bahri, 1894

The exquisite results can be seen in Paget’s watercolour of bulls from one wall, and Howards Carter’s reproduction of a scene in which Thutmosis I and his mother Seniseneb make offerings to the god Anubis.…

Statue of Ramesses VI

What is it? This granite statue depicts Pharaoh Ramesses VI, who reigned 1144-1137 BC. On the back is a hieroglyphic inscription that reads: ‘May [he] live, [the] good god, son of [the god] Amun, the protector, bull of Thebes, king of Upper and Lower Egypt, lord of the two lands,…

HMS Glatton

Sometimes poor quality-control can be as lethal as bad design – this was certainly true in the case of HMS Glatton. On the outbreak of war in August 1914, the Admiralty began buying warships that British shipyards were building for foreign navies. The purchases included two coast-defence battleships under construction…

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