Prestonpans, 1745: the forgotten Jacobite victory
Overshadowed by Culloden the following year – the battle that finally terminated the century-old Jacobite cause – Prestonpans is little known. Chris Bambery researches the story.
Post-Medieval & Industrial
‘A roof o’er their heads’: exploring the archaeology of Achtriachtan township in Glencoe
The Highland valley of Glencoe is notorious as the location of a brutal 1692 massacre, but until recently little was known about what remained of the settlement that existed at this time. Now, though, archaeological fieldwork by the National Trust for Scotland has shed new light on 17th- and 18th-century remains within the glen, as Derek Alexander reports.
Remains of Tudor and Jacobean gardens discovered at Belhus Park, Essex
Between 1753 and 1763, renowned architect Lancelot ‘Capability’ Brown remodelled the gardens into a landscape park.
World News
• Glass beads shed light on Pre-Columbian trade
• X-ray of a pregnant mummy
• Constantine the Great reunited with a messing finger
17th-century bridge uncovered in Belfast
Excavations revealed old foundations, as well as bricks and pottery, dating to the late 18th century.
New discoveries on Rat Island
These new discoveries could indicate that the harsh treatment on these prison ships was not a punishment solely reserved for men.
Investigations resume at Jersey’s Elizabeth Castle
The work is a continuation of investigations started in 2017 by the University of York to deepen our understanding of the castle’s history.
The return of nature
Medieval people had a rather gloomy outlook: life was hard, the main thing was to avoid disaster, the future would probably be worse than the past.
Venetian beads found in arctic Alaska
Eight of the ten beads were found at Punyik Point, a site in the Brooks Range, located on ancient trade routes from the Bering Strait to the Arctic Ocean.
The Battlefields of England
I headed for the battlefield monument to get my bearings – an obelisk erected in 1740 to mark the spot where Warwick the Kingmaker, the greatest figure of the Wars of the Roses, was supposedly cut down...
Nelson Quiz
In 1793, Nelson was appointed to command HMS Agamemnon, reputedly his favourite ship. By what nickname was the vessel known to its crew?
Breaking Seas, Broken Ships: people, shipwrecks, and Britain, 1854-2007
Broken Seas, Broken Ships is Ian Friel’s latest book on the history of ships and shipwrecks in Britain, and is the ‘sequel’ to Britain and the Open Road (2020), which covered British maritime history starting in the medieval period and…
National Library of Scotland acquires important 16th-century manuscript
Its contents are written in Latin, Scots, and Gaelic, and include contemporary annals, poetry, lists of Scottish kings and battles, and chronicles recording the deaths of prominent members of Highland society.
This week: Feasts
Britain pulled out the red carpet last weekend, as world leaders arrived in Cornwall for this year's G7 summit. It wasn't the first time in history that power and pleasure have been so mixed, however. Indeed, last week's gathering would have seemed strangely familar to the 6,000 Englishmen and women who 501 years earlier accompanied their king, Henry VIII, as he crossed the Channel to join his French counterpart, Francis I, at the lavish three-week summit-cum-carnival known as the Field for the Cloth of Gold.
Artemisia Gentileschi artwork on view in Los Angeles
This dramatic work has been acquired by the J Paul Getty Museum in Los Angeles, where it is now on view. Artemisia trained with her father Orazio Gentileschi, and her Lucretia joins two of his works in the Getty collection.
James ‘Athenian’ Stuart
The first volume of The Antiquities of Athens and Other Monuments of Greece (1762) had an impressive 500 subscribers, but its influence was most strongly felt only in the early 19th century, when Greek Revival became the dominant style of British architecture.
Major conservation work on Hardwick Hall Tudor tapestries nears completion
The project began in 2001 and has now carefully restored 12 of the 13 tapestries, which have lined the walls of the Long Gallery at Hardwick Hall since 1562.
Marble skull is lost Bernini masterpiece for Pope Alexander VII, research reveals
For many years, a life-sized, anatomically accurate and skilfully carved skull of white Carrara marble was on display at Schloss Pillnitz, a castle in Germany. Its artist was unknown.
The Church Recording Society
Church Recorders work in groups of 10-15 people, supported by a skilled photographer. They research and document the memorials, stonework, flooring, woodwork, metalwork, windows, textiles, paintings, organ, books, and historical records.
Greenwich at Work: people and industries through the years
Situated on the bank of the Thames near central London, Greenwich was once a hub of industrial activity, with bustling docks and hundreds of manufacturing, maritime, and riverside trades. The waterway itself is relatively quiet now, and while the area’s…
Oldest surviving synagogue in Wales recorded
This work was deemed particularly important, as the building had been identified as one of the 16 most important synagogues at risk in Europe.
Mary, Queen of Scots’ rosary among treasures stolen from Arundel Castle
‘The rosary is of little intrinsic value as metal, but as a piece of the Howard family history and the nation’s heritage it is irreplaceable.’
Bringing back the Birdman: restoring colour to the sacred cult of Easter Island
Early visitors to Easter Island recorded strange designs of a mysterious being. Now, using the latest technology and ancient records, Paul Horley, Georgia Lee, and Paul Bahn have restored glorious colour to the sacred site of Orongo, home of the mystical birdman.
This week: Hawaii and Polynesia
It is a matter of debate as to whether Captain James Cook was really the first European adventurer to set eyes on the Hawaiian archipelago. According to some historians, the 1778 arrival of the British seafarer's ship, HMS Resolution, in the waters of the North Pacific island chain may have been preceded by a visit from the Spanish explorer Ruy López de Villalobos in 1542 – more than 200 years earlier. What is more clear-cut is the effect Cook's arrival would have on the islands' original inhabitants, who had themselves crossed the Pacific to reach these shores many centuries before. With colonisation rapidly taking hold, large numbers of immigrants from Europe and America introduced new diseases to which the locals had no resistance. This lead to a calamitous fall in the native Hawaiian population, from approximately 300,000 in the 1770s to fewer than 40,000 in the 1890s, barely a century later.
Understanding Hawaiian temples: a new angle on the role of ritual sites
The temples of Hawaii are renowned for their varied forms and orientations, but could it be that this veneer of irregularity masks a pattern that sheds fresh light on these monuments? Patrick Kirch and Clive Ruggles told Current World Archaeology's Matthew Symonds what systematic study of the temple sites reveals.
Bid launched to secure Culloden battlefield as world heritage site
To coincide with the battle’s 275th anniversary, which fell earlier this year, the National Trust of Scotland (NTS) has published a manifesto, which it hopes the Scottish parliament will back, to grant the site UNESCO World Heritage Site status.
Fishguard, February 1797: the last French invasion of Britain
Patrick Mercer begins an occasional series looking at some of history’s less well-known battles.
The Unicorn Preservation Society
Now approaching her 200th anniversary, HMS Unicorn is the third oldest ship still afloat in the entire world.
Stuart-era mourning ring declared Treasure
The ring may have commemorated James Stanley, 7th Earl of Derby and Lord of Man, who was executed by the Parliamentarians in 1651.
Contractors bid to deliver Hull’s new maritime visitor centre
The North End Shipyard is a surviving reminder of Hull's 800 years of maritime history.
Athanasius Kircher (c.1601-1680)
'In 1638, Kircher was lowered into an awakening Vesuvius to advance his geological knowledge.'
Art and Curiosity Cabinets of the Late Renaissance: A Contribution to the History of Collecting
When, in 1908, Julius von Schlosser published Art and Curiosity Cabinets of the Late Renaissance (originally Die Kunst- und Wunderkammern der Spätrenaissance), he had been working for more than 15 years in what is now the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna,…
This Week – The Mary Rose
Almost four decades have elapsed since the Mary Rose was raised and an astonishing array of new research techniques have revolutionised our thinking about the ship’s make-up, her calamitous final moments, and perhaps most poignantly, the skeletal remains of her 500-strong crew.
The Mary Rose Museum
The Mary Rose museum at Portsmouth Historic Dockyard was reopened 471 years to the day since the sinking of Henry VIII’s flagship – for the first time giving the public a clear view of her hull
A shot at conservation: Saving the Mary Rose’s cannonballs
The arsenal of iron shot that was carried aboard Henry VIII’s flagship, the Mary Rose, may have once struck fear into the hearts of the French fleet, but today they are somewhat more delicate. How do you stop the rot?
Tudor seapower: When Britannia first ruled the waves
Thirty years ago, the wreck of the Mary Rose, pride of Henry VIII’s navy, rose from the seabed to the gasps of a live TV audience of millions. Neil Faulkner takes the opportunity to review the rise of English seapower in the early 16th century.