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Binchester altar on display
A late 3rd-century Roman altar dedicated to the goddess Fortuna Redux has gone on display at the Faith Museum in Bishop Auckland, just down the road from Binchester Roman Fort where the altar was originally discovered.
Carved with an inscription on one side and an image of a bull on the other, with a hollow in the top to receive offerings of wine, spices, or food, the altar had once stood in a dedicated niche within the changing room of the bathhouse belonging to the fort’s civilian settlement. Its text reveals that it was commissioned by Eltaominus, a retired military architect from the ala Vettonum unit based at Binchester. The deity that it names, also known as Fortuna the Home-Bringer, suggests he was giving thanks for safe return from a dangerous journey.
The altar can now be seen in the Faith Museum at Auckland Palace, where it joins the Binchester Ring, an item that attests that early Christians were present in the fort community, and around 250 other items exploring 6,000 years of religious history in Britain; see https://aucklandproject.org/attraction/faith-museum.
Image: John Castling & The Auckland Project.
A Tapestry tour
A hand-painted plaster cast showing three details from the Bayeux Tapestry is currently touring venues in England, Wales, and Scotland in a British Museum Spotlight Loan that forms part of ‘Bayeux around Britain’ (supported by WorldQuant), a national programme devised by the museum to help share the famous embroidery’s story and significance as possible while the Tapestry itself is on display in London (see here).
The images were created in 1816 by artist Charles Alfred Stothard, who applied wax directly to the Tapestry’s surface (a technique that would not be considered today!) and used this to create a series of plaster casts. One of these, alongside a 3D replica and hand-embroidered reproductions of parts of the Tapestry, is at Hastings Museum & Art Gallery until 8 November 2026; they will then travel to Norwich Castle Museum & Art Gallery (12 November 2026-10 January 2027), before heading to the National Library of Wales, Rievaulx Abbey, the Great Tapestry of Scotland, and Rochester Cathedral (dates tbc); see http://www.britishmuseum.org/our-work/national/bayeux-around-britain.
Bicentennial exhibition at UCL
A new, multi-space exhibition is celebrating 200 years of groundbreaking scientific research, historical discoveries, artistic innovation, and educational impact at University College London (UCL), which was founded in 1826.
Two Centuries Here draws together photography, artefacts, paintings, and storytelling, and includes objects from the Petrie Museum of Egyptian and Sudanese Archaeology and the UCL Grant Museum of Zoology, alongside work from the UCL Art Museum, and rare items from UCL’s historic and scientific collections (which are not usually open to the public).
Highlights include the Grant Museum’s famous Jar of Moles; the Crookes tube that led to the UK’s first clinical X-ray; original test tubes used by William Ramsay, winner of Britain’s first Nobel Prize in Chemistry, in his discovery of the noble gases; and the shabti of King Taharqa, who ruled ancient Egypt c.690-664 BC. There are more challenging objects, too, such as the Rudolf Martin Eye Colour Scale, which encourages viewers of the exhibition to consider the legacy of eugenics.
The exhibition runs across UCL’s Bloomsbury campus until July 2027; see http://www.ucl.ac.uk/about/events/2026/feb/two-centuries-here-ucl200 exhibition.
New exhibition
Aphrodite: the making of a goddess
Ashmolean Museum, Oxford
8 October 2026-11 April 2027
http://www.ashmolean.org/exhibition/aphrodite-the-making-of-a-goddess
Last chance to see
A Somali Village in Lister Park: weaving together industry, culture and empire
Cartwright Hall Art Gallery, Bradford
Until 1 November 2026
https://bradfordmuseums.org/event/a-somali-village-in-lister-park-weaving-together-industry-culture-and-empire
On the Line: 100 years of strikes & solidarity
People’s History Museum, Manchester
Until 2 November 2026
https://phm.org.uk/exhibitions/on-the-line
Cornish Myths & Legends
Cornwall Museum & Art Gallery, Truro
Until 1 November 2026
https://cornwallmuseum.org/exhibition/cornish-myths-legends
Genghis Khan: how the Mongols changed the world
Royal Armouries Museum, Leeds
Until 1 November 2026
https://royalarmouries.org/leeds/whats-on/genghis-khan
The Saxons
Discover Bucks, Aylesbury
Until 1 November 2026
http://www.discoverbucksmuseum.org/whats-on/the-saxons-an-immersive-exhibition-in-buckinghamshire
