Are there any descendants of William Shakespeare today? The answer is no. It is known that the family endures through another line, that of his younger sister Joan, but the famous playwright’s line has died out. This is because, despite having three children with his wife Anne Hathaway, two were girls and thus took their […]
United Kingdom
Posted inMiddle Ages, Modern Era
Sweating Sickness, the Enigmatic and Lethal Disease that Ravaged England between the 15th and 16th Centuries and Disappeared as Mysteriously as it Arrived
It seemed like flu, but it was much faster and deadlier because it killed the patient within a few hours; it has been compared to relapsing fever, but that, caused by tick or louse bites, causes a local black crust that was not present in this case; there is speculation about an infection by hantavirus, […]
Posted inMiddle Ages
Edgar Atheling, the Lost King of England Who Was Born in Hungary and Joined the First Crusade
In his work Gesta Regum Anglorum (“Deeds of the Kings of the English”), the medieval historian William of Malmesbury gives the last and endearing known detail of one of the most curious characters in British history: Now he grows old in the country, in privacy and quietness. He refers to the last male representative of […]
Posted inMedieval Archaeology
Medieval Grave Slabs Recovered from England’s Oldest Historic Shipwreck
Underwater archaeologists from Bournemouth University have recovered two medieval grave slabs that lay on the seabed of Studland Bay for nearly 800 years. These slabs, carved from Purbeck marble, were part of the cargo of England’s oldest recorded shipwreck, which sank off the coast of Dorset during the reign of Henry III in the 13th […]
Posted inBronze Age Archaeology
Seahenge was Created in the Bronze Age for Rituals to Extend Summer and Return of a Warmer Climate
Recent research on an ancient wooden circle uncovered on a Norfolk beach, known as Seahenge, suggests it was created during the Bronze Age in response to severe climatic deterioration at the end of the third millennium BCE. Dr. David Nance from the University of Aberdeen has published new findings in GeoJournal on Holme I, a […]
Posted inMiddle Ages
The Enigmatic Ring Forts of Ireland and Great Britain, Home to the Fairies and Giants from Legends
Scattered across the landscapes of Ireland, Great Britain, parts of Scandinavia, and northern Europe are enigmatic fortified structures known as ringforts. These circular or oval enclosures, bounded by earth walls and ditches, mostly date from between 500 and 900 AD, a period that spans the late Bronze Age to the early Middle Ages in these […]
Posted inSecond World War
SS Richard Montgomery, a Ship Filled with Explosives, Wrecked Since 1944 in the Thames Estuary
If any reader is a boating enthusiast and owns a boat, they will know that there are some places where it’s dangerous to sail. One of them is the Thames Estuary, near the town of Sheerness. There’s a sandbank called the Nore that has quite a bad reputation, as we’ll see. But what’s really concerning […]
Posted inClassical Archaeology
First Ever Solid Fragment of Tyrian Purple, the Expensive Pigment Associated with Roman Emperors, Found
A significant archaeological discovery was made during the 2023 excavation at the site of an ancient Roman bathhouse in Carlisle, England. The dig, conducted by the Wardell Armstrong company, unearthed a small, mysterious piece of purple-colored substance, which later was identified as a fragment of Tyrian purple—the highly prized pigment once associated with Roman emperors. […]
Posted inArchaeology
Paleontologists Find a Marine Reptile More than 25 Meters Long, the Largest Known Ichthyosaur
A team of researchers, led by Dean R. Lomax from the University of Bristol and the University of Manchester in the UK, recently published a study in the open-access journal PLOS ONE. They discovered a new species of ichthyosaur, a type of ancient marine reptile, that was likely the largest marine reptile ever formally described. […]
Posted inMedieval Archaeology
Mystery of Abundance of Silver Coins in Medieval England Solved: they came from Byzantine Empire
Between 660-750 AD, Anglo-Saxon England saw a major revival of trade and commerce. This led to a huge increase in the use of silver coins, moving away from just gold. Archaeologists have found around 7,000 of these old “pennies” made of silver. That’s a massive number, almost as many as from the entire Anglo-Saxon period […]
