history

Recent analysis of the remains of two children who were buried in the same grave in 7th-century Gloucestershire has revealed them to be brother and sister. CA reports.

A new exhibition at Discover Bucks Museum in Aylesbury draws together antiquarian excavations and very recent finds to illuminate life and death at different levels of early medieval society. Carly Hilts visited the displays and spoke to their curator Brett Thorn.

Hidden behind stone for 20,000 years, this cave holds images that shouldn’t have survived. What scientists uncovered inside is remarkable, yet one key question still has no clear answer: who made them?

Zohran Mamdani’s suggestion King Charles should return diamond to India has reopened old wounds It may not be the biggest or most precious jewel ensconced in the Tower of London, but few diamonds have a legacy to rival that of the Koh-i-noor. Likely to have originated in southern India, the diamond’s history is that of a great disruptor across the subcontinent, exchanging hands over centuries thr…

In December 1982, South African Rodney Wilkinson walked four bombs into Koeberg power station – the crown jewel of the apartheid state – pulled the pins and then left on his bicycle. How did he do it? At 21, Rodney Wilkinson was the best fencer in South Africa: national champion in foil and sabre, second in epee. He had toured Europe and Argentina. He had not stood on the Olympic podium, because …

DNA from 258 ancient skeletons rewrite the history of the Roman Empire and the Dark Ages

This is another follow up in my campaign to have a separate forum for history of science. Similar to my on-going thread Interesting anecdotes in the history of physics? this one would be about specific quotes. What are some of the memorable quotes said by physicists? [I will allow... Read more

A long-overlooked writing system from 5000 years ago is still largely undeciphered, but could mark the moment humans first represented their speech with written words

Humanities and Social Sciences Communications, Published online: 04 May 2026; doi:10.1057/s41599-026-07302-z The Herodian Heroon above the cave of the Patriarchs: sources of architectural inspiration

Die Zeit’s online database of individuals’ Nazi membership is prompting a reckoning as people uncover ties to regime Olaf Köndgen is 64 years old, a German citizen and a senior European human rights expert who has lived and worked in France for several years. Last month, Köndgen learned that he is also the son of a Nazi. Despite a strong interest in history and its lessons, Köndgen is typical of …

The elaborately decorated Book of Kells takes its name from the eponymous abbey in Co. Meath where it was kept for centuries, but it has been previously suggested that the early medieval

Beneath a quiet Russian town, a routine excavation revealed a long-forgotten cache of gold coins buried for over a century.

Here's something archaeologists don't see every day, or indeed ever: An ancient Egyptian mummy with...

A small, newly uncovered document from ancient Dongola is reshaping what historians know about a little-understood period in Sudan’s past. A small Arabic document found in the ruins of Old Dongola is helping confirm the existence of King Qashqash, a ruler long treated as legendary. The study, published in Azania: Archaeological Research in Africa, examines [...]

Researchers discovered an Iliad fragment in a mummy, marking the first literary papyrus used in embalming and offering new evidence of cultural practices in Roman Egypt. More than 1,600 years after it was written, one of the most famous stories in human history has resurfaced in an unexpected place — wrapped around the dead. Archaeologists [...]

The ornately decorated metal bowl was found as part of a hoard containing dozens of pieces of ancient Roman tableware.

A landmark new account of the 1979 revolution sets current events in context As Wordsworth found in Paris after 1789, revolutions are deeply enthralling. There is nothing so bold, so self-sacrificing, so brave, so cruel as a revolutionary crowd. What’s more, revolutions have shaped the modern world. The European Union has been transformed by the overthrow of Marxism-Leninism in eastern Europe, wh…

Both nations are tarred by irreconcilable crises that could unravel democracy itself – sanity and stability have never felt further from reach A feature of living at the end of an era is that some events in the present already feel like future artefacts – things you expect to see in a school history book, or a documentary many years from now. Here is King Charles’s 2026 state visit to the United …

Archaeologists have unearthed an artificial timber platform older than Stonehenge, concealed beneath what appears to be an artificial stone island. Researchers from the University of Southampton made the discovery in Loch Bhorgastail on the Isle of Lewis, Scotland. The crannog, a type of artificial island found throughout Scottish lochs, was originally constructed more than 5,000 years ago, maki…