archaeology
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Oh, is there no end to the groanworthiness of TV documentaries? I found myself watching Blowing-up History, series 8, episode 5, about the Tower of London. (My hand is cupped to my shell-like ear, and yes, I can hear your soaring chorus of groans!) You’re right, yet again it was Richard wot dunnit to…
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A VISIT TO KING’S LANGLEY
Anne Mortimer, camels, Cecily Neville, Christmas, Clarendon Palace, clocks, Dominican friaries, Edmund of Langley, Edward II, Edward III, Eleanor of Castile, fire, Henry III, Henry IV, Isabel of Castile, Joan of Navarre, John of Wheathampstead, King’s Langley, palaces, Piers Gaveston, Reformation, Richard Earl of Cambridge, Richard II, royal tombsKing’s Langley was once home to a massive Plantagenet palace, built out of the remnants of a hunting lodge of Henry III for Edward I’s Queen, Eleanor of Castile. She furnished it lavishly, with carpets and baths. There were shields decorating the hall and a painted picture of four knights going to a tournament, while…
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The phenomenal Philippa Langley, finder of lost monarchs, is at it again! If you go here you’ll read that she has now discovered Henry I, and guess what? He too is under a car park. In his case it isn’t Greyfriars but the much grander Reading Abbey….albeit in a part that is now the car…
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William Rufus died because of a tree? But which tree? And where was it….?
“Princes”, Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, Cernunnos, Charles II, Earl de la Warr, executions, Gundestrop Cauldron, Malmesbury Chronicle, Margaret Murray, New Forest, pagan rituals, propaganda, Richard III, royal hunting estates, Rufus Stone, Sir James Tyrrell, trees, Walter Tirel, Westminster Abbey, William IICharles IIeems to have specialised in “supposed” records. We all know he’s responsible for That Urn, the contents of which are “supposedly” those of Richard III’s nephews. The fact that there are animal bones in there as well as human is always passed very quickly. So quickly the point has become a blur! As a…
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We never know what will turn up at the bottom of the sea, from the gigantic Titanic to the smallest rowing boat, but one of the best seas of all (so to speak) for finding well preserved wrecks appears to be the Baltic, where the cold water preserves wrecks in wonderful condition. And as there…
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Well, once again the archaeologists of Leicester University are busy with their gleaming trowels. This time they’re scratching and scraping the ground beneath the Highcross Shopping Centre in search of Leicester’s Roman and medieval past. See here. I wish them well, truly, but can’t help noticing that complete omission of any mention of the finding…
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“….Ancient Murders Unearthed travels back in time to iconic epochs and cultures to re-tell the stories of infamous and little-known murders, from the Rosemarkie Man, a Pictish man who was killed and ritualistically buried in a Black Isle cave, to Otzi, the ice man who was murdered 5,000 years ago….” “….The series is hosted by Louisiana…
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Here is the urn in Westminster Abbey, purporting to contain the remains of the “Princes” as found in 1672, although we don’t know whether they were discovered a few decades earlier and reburied soon afterwards. We also don’t know how many individuals are in the urn and whether they are related, which species they are,…
The New Murrey and Blue blog 