For the six centuries between the end of Roman occupation and the Battle of Hastings in 1066, Britain was not a united kingdom. It was, instead, a mishmash of tribal domains, petty kings and infighting. Chief amongst these were the seven Anglo Saxon kingdoms of the Heptarchy. Five of them crowded round the south east
In 79 AD the Roman towns of Pompeii and Herculaneum were destroyed by an enormous volcanic eruption. The devastation caused by the eruption of Vesuvius went on for two days, burying the two towns under superheated ash and mud. The destructive power of Vesuvius was estimated to be some 100,000 times greater than the atomic
An ancient timber circle with a similar arrangement to the famous Stonehenge in England has been discovered in Denmark. The circle, consisting of some 45 wooden posts driven into the ground, was found at a site in Aars, North Jutland. This so-called “wood henge” is in fact the second to be found in the area,
The Huns, according to ancient sources, came out of nowhere. But then, these ancient sources were largely Roman and, as far as the Romans were concerned, the Huns really did. They first appear around the middle of the 4th century AD, harassing the northeastern frontiers of the Roman Empire. In 370 AD they suddenly appeared
The main problem in understanding the Bronze Age Collapse is that we don’t really know what happened. This may look like an oversimplification but it is not. It is, instead, the simple truth. Of the four great civilizations that faced disaster in this 12th century BC collapse: the Mycenaean Greeks, the Hittites, the Assyrians and
Remember last week when we reported that the first Egyptian Royal Tomb in a century had been discovered? Well, the team who found the tomb of Thutmose II may just have done it again. Last week Piers Litherland, leader of a team of archaeologists exploring the mountains near the famous Valley of the Kings close