As the 100th anniversary of the First World War approaches, and no doubt grandparents all over are recalling their experiences, there has been renewed interest in tracing your family tree. Handily the BBC has posted a few useful tips for anyone just getting started.
Dutch artist Niels Meulman, aka Shoe (named for a picture of a shoe he drew aged 11), has been commissioned to paint six pieces of graffiti inspired by the medieval Lindisfarne Gospels. This is to celebrate the return of the book to north-east England.
The medieval era is often romanticised, so it’s easy to forget about how different the people living back then were from now. This article on the medieval birth of a royal baby really shows this, especially with all the commotion around royal babies lately.
With ten babies in 14 years, this was a process Elizabeth Woodville would have been very familiar with!
Dead bodies seem to be popular this week, with a bid having been submitted to analyse the remains of an unmarked grave to see if they belong to King Alfred the Great. They were removed from St Bartholomew’s Church in Winchester in March, due to the publicity that came with the discovery of Richard III’s remains.
It’s easy to let your attic get cluttered, but can you really forget about a dead body up there? A 10-year-old German boy has found what appears to be a mummy in his grandmother’s attic. It could be a replica, or it could date back to the trend in mummy unwrapping parties. Only time will tell.
That’s not the only find in an unexpected place to be found this week though. Byzantine coins and gold have turned up in a mysterious garbage dump, many dating to the fifth-seventh centuries AD.
Speaking of discoveries, on Monday it was announced that a huge building has been discovered in the heart of Jerusalem. It was the largest hospital in the Middle East during the Crusader period and features massive pillars and ceilings as high as 20ft.
As a culture we can’t seem to get enough of detective fiction. At The History Press we certainly love it! Could it be a form of comfort – knowing that through the bad the good guy always wins – in a world dominated by vast forces out of our control? Here Ian Sansom examines why.
Fifty years ago thieves held up a Royal Mail train and made up with some £2.6 million in used bank notes. This interesting article takes a look back at the Great Train Robbery, and some of its key participants. And here a policeman describes the breakthrough in the case.
The money they would have stolen would be very different to now though, especially if other writers start popping up on our money.
Do you fancy that you know a lot about Paris? Here are six things you may not know about the Louvre.
And to finish up, let’s go back to the dinosaurs as this article examines some of the strangest explanations for their extinction.