Tomorrow, a happy collection of hippies, druids and general revellers will climb up Calton Hill in Edinburgh to celebrate the ancient festival of Beltane. In my experience, the festival is a positive, celebratory, and quite spectacular event with near-naked hippies sporting all-over body paint and leaves and dancing around fires,…
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New Evidence Suggests Silchester Burned to the Ground by Boudicca
Boudicca’srampaging Celts tore through Calleva Atrebatum, now Silchester, killing thousands of Romans and leaving the town a smouldering wasteland. That’s what 13 years of excavations at the Berkshire town suggest, say a leading expert. Professor Michael Fulford of the University of Reading claims Silchester bears all the scars of the…
May Day’s Pagan Roots (and why Anti-Capitalist Protesters Have Got it all Wrong)
It’s May Day this Saturday. And while to most of us all it means is an extra day off work, to some it’s one of the year’s biggest dates. A menagerie of anarchists, anticapitalists and fairweather philosophers will descend on London intent on burning down burger bars and breaking the…
Roman Makeovers, Sword Fighting and Horse Show at Leeds Royal Armouries this Bank Holiday Weekend
The Royal Armouries in Leeds is holding a series of Roman events this bank holiday weekend and, with the emphasis on arms, there is plenty of action for children and adults. The activities to get involved with include workshops on gladiatorial sword fighting, a chance to meet two Roman legionaries…
Bonhams Withdraws Roman Sculptures with Possible Medici Link from Auction
A collection of Roman sculptures that was due to be sold at Bonhams auction house in London yesterday has been withdrawn amid concerns that the statues may have originally been illegally excavated. The concerns were raised by Cambridge researcher and archaeologist, Christos Tsirogiannis and Dr David Gill, reader in ancient…
Raos Excavation on Santorini Reveals Frescoes and Gold Ring
The story of Bronze Age Santorini (Thera) is one that has become a legend. Located between Crete and mainland Greece, this island supported a thriving civilization that reached its peak between 2000 1600 BC. Its main city, Akrotiri, had its own naval fleet and had trade connections throughout the Aegean…
Lost World of Old Europe to be found at Ashmolean Museum starting May
The discovery of the 7,000-year-old Varna Necropolis in 1972 send a shock through the archaeological world.Dated to the fifth millennium BC, the 264 graves and funerary gifts show that when the ancient Egyptians just started to settle the Nile Delta and long before the invention of the wheel, in modern…
‘Noah’s Ark’ Discovery: Views from the Blogosphere
‘Evangelist explorers’ called Noah’s Ark Ministries International, (a name half-Orwell, half Playdays), search for the legendary vessel. Said explorers then ‘discover’ the ark up a Turkish mountain. Naturally not everyone welcomes the news without a hint of skepticism, and the blogosphere’s been buzzing with hoax stories, images, background info and…
Replica Iron Age Roundhouse Will Bring Archaeology Alive For Chester’s Kids
A replica Iron Age roundhouse is to be built in Chester, England, to teach local people about how people lived over two thousand years ago. Cities all over the country hold fascinating Iron Age secrets – watch our Ancient World in London video below to learn about pre-Roman London. The…
Noah’s Ark Discovered on Mount Ararat in Turkey?
A Chinese-Turkish group of explorers have announced their discovery of Noah’s Ark, 4,000 metres up a mountain in eastern Turkey. The team, named Noah’s Ark Ministries International (NAMI), claim to have taken photographic and physical evidence of the remains on Mount Ararat, near the Turkish-Armenian border. The ‘evangelical explorers’ even…