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British History

Medieval women viewed birthing girdles, or long pieces of parchment inscribed with religious invocations and drawings, as protective talismans.

A Medieval Woman Wore This ‘Birthing Girdle’ to Protect Herself During Labor

Researchers found traces of bodily fluids, as well as milk and other materials associated with pregnancy, on the ten-foot long parchment

Can You Dig It volunteers took part in excavation work at Little Wood Hill in 2019.

Cool Finds

Hazelnut Shell Sheds Light on Life in Scotland More Than 10,000 Years Ago

Amateur archaeologists discovered the shell, along with evidence from an Iron Age structure, in 2019

Wreckage uncovered in Thorpeness, along England's Suffolk coast, may belong to an 18th-century collier, or coal-carrying vessel.

Cool Finds

Storms Reveal Two Historic Shipwrecks on England’s Eastern Coast

Archaeologists have only gotten a “tantalizing glimpse” of the vessels, which are currently inaccessible due to Covid-19 restrictions

Emilio Sanchez, who had come to the U.S. in his youth, was an ideal informant. Clockwise from top left: 1865 bird's eye view of New York and environs, capture of a slave ship off the African coast in 1859, silhouette representing Sanchez, and page from Sanchez's notes

How a Cuban Spy Sabotaged New York’s Thriving, Illicit Slave Trade

Emilio Sanchez and the British government fought the lucrative business as American authorities looked the other way

The bomb may date to the spring of 1942, when the German Luftwaffe heavily bombarded Exeter and other historic English cities.

An Unexploded WWII Bomb Was (Safely) Detonated in England

Routine construction work near the University of Exeter unearthed the 2,204-pound device in late February

Theodore Roosevelt scholar and historian Clay Jenkinson tells the story of Roosevelt’s beloved west and the national park that bears his name in a Smithsonian Associates Streaming program on March 4.

Smithsonian Voices

Theodore Roosevelt’s North Dakota and 27 Other Smithsonian Programs Streaming in March

Multi-part courses, studio arts classes and virtual study tours produced by the world’s largest museum-based educational program

Snow-covered outline of the Roman villa's foundations

Cool Finds

Remnants of Iron Age Settlement, Roman Villa Found in England

Excavations in Oxfordshire revealed traces of at least 15 ancient roundhouses and a dwelling dated to the third or fourth century A.D.

Blickling Hall is listed in Britain’s earliest public record, the Domesday Book, which was written in the 11th century. The house was at one point the home of Geoffrey Boleyn, grandfather of Anne Boleyn, who may have been born there around 1507.

Historic British Mansion Fights Moths With Tiny Parasitic Wasps

The moths eat wool and silk, putting historic artifacts—like a tapestry gifted to the house by Catherine the Great—at risk

The bronze Cupid figurine carries a flaming torch.

Cool Finds

2,000-Year-Old Figurine of Roman Love God Cupid Found in England

Archaeologists say the petite statue, discovered ahead of construction of highway, may have been a religious offering

The Bayeux Tapestry dramatizes William the Conqueror's victory over Harold Godwinson in 1066.

Explore Every Stitch of the Famed Bayeux Tapestry Online

Viewers can peruse a high-resolution image of the 224-foot medieval masterpiece, which chronicles the 1066 conquest of England

Researchers recorded striking similarities between Stonehenge and a razed stone circle at the Waun Mawn archaeological site in Wales.

Cool Finds

How a Stone Circle in Wales Paved the Way for Stonehenge

New research suggests early Britons used megaliths from a dismantled Welsh monument to construct the iconic ring of standing stones

Archaeologists are conducting excavations ahead of a controversial tunnel plan set to move this highway, the busy A303, underground.

Newly Unearthed Bronze Age Graves Underscore Stonehenge Tunnel’s Potential Threat to Heritage

A critic of the controversial project points out that construction could lead to the loss of half a million artifacts

Netflix's The Dig dramatizes the excavation of an elaborate Anglo-Saxon ship burial.

Based on a True Story

The True History Behind Netflix’s ‘The Dig’ and Sutton Hoo

One of the greatest archaeological finds in British history, the Anglo-Saxon burial changed historians’ view of the Dark Ages

Paul Delaroche's 1831 depiction of the princes in the Tower, Edward V and Richard, Duke of York

New Research

Did Richard III Order the Deaths of His Nephews as They Slept in the Tower of London?

New research outlines evidence pointing to the English king’s guilt

Archaeologists discovered the graveyard beneath 1930s housing at Cambridge University.

Cool Finds

Anglo-Saxon Cemetery Found Beneath Demolished University Housing

The find may shed light on life in Britain after the withdrawal of Roman forces in the fifth century A.D.

The gold figurine stands just 2.5 inches tall.

Cool Finds

Amateur Treasure Hunter Unearths Missing Centerpiece of Henry VIII’s Crown

The gold figurine, valued at roughly £2 million, depicts 15th-century English king Henry VI

A fragment of 1,500-year-old cloth is still attached to a metal brooch found at the site.

Cool Finds

Rare Scraps of Mineralized Anglo-Saxon Textiles Found in England

Archaeologists unearthed the cloth, as well as 3,000 grave goods and assorted ancient structures, ahead of construction

“The scale of preservation at this site is really exceptional and is adding considerably to our knowledge of English gardens around 1600,” says historian Paul Stamper.

Cool Finds

Stunningly Well-Preserved Elizabethan Garden Discovered in England

The Tudor manor’s grounds were organized in a geometric pattern of gravel paths, planting beds and pavilions

The remains of an individual buried at the Augustinian friary, pictured during excavations in 2016

New Research

Medieval Britons’ Remains Record the ‘Skeletal Trauma’ Inflicted by Inequality

New study reveals the horrific injuries sustained by lower-class members of English society

Last June, protesters threw a statue of British slave trader Edward Colston into Bristol Harbor. A salvage team recovered the sculpture the following day.

Proposed Legislation Seeks to ‘Protect’ the U.K.’s Controversial Monuments

If passed, the new measure would make it more difficult for local councils to remove statues of polarizing historical figures

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