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England

A modern-day view of Stirling Castle, the Scottish stronghold where the skeleton was found in 1997

A Medieval Man’s Injuries Reminded One Archaeologist of Modern-Day Car Crash Victims. They Turned Out to Be the Work of an English Trebuchet

A skeleton unearthed in Scotland likely belongs to a soldier struck by a high-speed projectile during Edward I’s 1304 siege of Stirling Castle. The man suffered more than 160 fractures

A John Trumbull painting of George Washington's capture of Hessian soldiers in Trenton, New Jersey, in December 1776

America's 250th Anniversary

The Hessians Were Supposed to Quickly End the American Revolution. Instead, They Endured Years of Battles and Suffered Thousands of Casualties

Some 30,000 German soldiers fought for the British during the war. Contrary to popular belief, they weren’t mercenaries, and not all were actually Hessians

The sealed Guinness bottle was found at the shipwreck of the Mindoro.

Shipwreck Divers Discovered a 162-Year-Old Bottle of Guinness Brewed During the Reign of Queen Victoria—and They Want to Take a Swig

The beer was preserved in a sealed glass bottle and may be safe to sample. The team is also hoping to sequence the DNA of the yeast to recreate what the stout would have tasted like in the 19th century

George Box put the stolen kneecap and floor tile fragment in this box he designed for their long journey home to Glastonbury Abbey.

A ‘Scallywag’ Schoolboy Swiped an Abbot’s Kneecap 70 Years Ago. His Widow Just Returned It to Glastonbury Abbey

George Box kept the knee bone, along with a piece of tile from the same site, throughout his entire life. He confessed the origins of their acquisition to his wife in his later years

Andy Crammond and Alan Daniels discovered the three gold armbands while surveying a field near the Scottish-English border.

Cool Finds

Metal Detectorists Thought They’d Hit the Jackpot When They Discovered a Gold Bracelet Dating to the Bronze Age. Then They Dug Up Two More

At first, Andy Crammond thought the object was a bull’s nose ring. Other artifacts unearthed nearby include a Viking brooch, a Roman coin hoard and a Bronze Age ax head

Visitors with regular admission tickets are not usually allowed inside the monument.

Want to Spend Some Alone Time With Stonehenge? This August, Lucky Visitors Get the Chance to Enter the Stone Circle Before the Site Opens to Tourists

Almost every day next month, management of the prehistoric landmark in England will draw a winning ticket and offer a unique experience to a visitor before the daily bustle begins

Students and volunteers have been excavating the Roman mosaic from a field near near Halberton, Devon.

Cool Finds

A Metal Detectorist Discovered Tiny Tiles in a Farmer’s Field. A Spectacular Ancient Roman Mosaic Was Buried Beneath the Surface

The polychrome mosaic once decorated a small room in a lavish villa complex. Researchers, students and volunteers have been working together to excavate the rare site in southwestern England

A man discovered the wreckage while picking berries.

Cool Finds

A Man Picking Berries in the Forest in Poland Might Have Stumbled Upon the Wreckage of an Allied Airplane From World War II

Experts are still investigating but note that an earlier discovery nearby identified part of the wing of a British Lancaster bomber

Katherine Read’s self-portrait

Cool Finds

Art Sleuths Discovered a Lost and ‘Enormously Important’ Portrait of an Elite Indian Woman by This Pioneering Scottish Painter

Katherine Read was one of the most fashionable portrait creators in London before she moved to India. She found success portraying women and children

Kids learned about historical laundry tasks on the museum’s reopening day.

Kids Can Try Out the ‘Oliver Twist’ Lifestyle at This English Museum Revealing Conditions for Poor People in a Victorian Workhouse

After a restoration, the Ripon Workhouse Museum reopened to the public, showcasing the sights, sounds and rules of England’s 19th-century “solution to poverty”

The secret listeners recorded conversations onto acetate discs.

British Intelligence Turned This Mansion Into a Bugged Spy Trap for Nazi Prisoners of War During World War II

Visitors can now tour the house, where German generals relaxed and gabbed upstairs while Jewish refugees working as spies and translators for the British government listened in from the basement

Before this document was discovered, only ten copies of the Exeter Declaration were known to exist.

A Volunteer Stumbled Upon a Strange Document in the U.K. National Archives. It Turned Out to Be a Rare Copy of the Declaration of Independence Printed in July 1776

Michael Scurr, a retired insurance broker, found the text while cataloging boxes of 18th-century correspondence housed at the London archives. It’s the only known copy of its kind outside the United States

Located on the River Thames in London, the Tower of London has stood for nearly 1,000 years.

The Tower of London Plans to Turn Its Moat Into a ‘Green Classroom’ and Show Off Its Architecture Archives in a Major Renovation

The landmark, nearly a millennium old, has housed kings, hosted royal executions and safeguarded Britain’s crown jewels. New education centers aim to invite more people to learn about that history

Minted by Carausius, this silver denarius is dated to 287 C.E.

Cool Finds

Railway Construction Reveals a Coin Minted by a Roman Officer Who Proclaimed Himself ‘Emperor of the North’ in Britain 1,700 Years Ago

Archaeologists in Bedfordshire and Cambridgeshire unearthed a silver denarius bearing the name of Carausius, who ruled the breakaway state of Britannia between 286 and 293

Curators put the finishing touches to Johan Zoffany’s The Tribuna of the Uffizi in the Picture Gallery at Buckingham Palace.

Buckingham Palace’s Royal Picture Gallery Revives the Salon-Style Hang, Doubling the Number of Masterpieces on View

Charles III reportedly had a say in the stylistic switch, which rearranged and added artworks by the likes of Rembrandt, Rubens, Vermeer and Van Dyck

The S.S. Great Britain was the world’s largest passenger ship upon its launch.

Once the World’s Biggest Passenger Ship, This Metal Marvel That Crossed the Atlantic and Took Immigrants to Australia Has a New Museum Home

A new museum dedicated to stories surrounding the S.S. “Great Britain” is about to open in Bristol, where the ship is permanently dry-docked

A 19th-century portrait of Alfred the Great, whose remains may be located under a parking lot in Winchester

An English King’s Bones Were Moved Over Centuries and Eventually Lost. One Researcher Claims He Discovered Their Location—Under a Parking Lot

Alfred the Great defended Wessex from the Vikings. Researchers have been searching for his remains for years after their resting place in an abbey was disturbed

The church was built around 1300.

Cool Finds

This 700-Year-Old English Church Nearly Closed—but Then the Vicar Discovered a Stash of Gold Coins Under the Altar

Just before Easter, a box of gold bullion minted in the 1990s changed the outlook for a tiny congregation struggling to cover costly repairs

Archaeologist Andrew Birley found the relief carving while excavating a fourth-century barrack at Vindolanda, a Roman fort near Hadrian's Wall in northern England.

Cool Finds

Ancient Romans Put Their Faith in Guardian Spirits. Archaeologists Just Found a Rare 1,600-Year-Old Carving of One in Northern England

Known as a “genius,” the protective spirit or deity was believed to bring good fortune and prosperity to a particular person, household or place. Archaeologists haven’t found many depictions of them across Roman Britain

The 3D-printed board based on scans of the original game board discovered at Vindolanda

3D Printing Gives New Life to an Ancient Game Board Discovered at a Roman Fort Near Hadrian’s Wall in England

Soldiers and civilians alike enjoyed the strategy game Ludus Latrunculorum in the Roman Empire, especially in Roman Britain

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