The Cucking Stool at Wootton Bassett
While browsing through the contents of archive.org I came across a copy of The Wiltshire Archaeological and Natural History Magazine, Volume I, 1854, and my eye was drawn to a chapter … Continue reading
Anglo-Saxon Easter
Easter, as for all Christians, was the most important ceremony in the Anglo-Saxon liturgical year. For monastic communities abstinence and penitential repentance began on Septuagesima, the ninth Sunday before Easter … Continue reading
Devizes Pie
Devizes is a market town in Wiltshire, England, and the place of my birth. Its unusual name comes from the description of the castle that was built there by Osmund, … Continue reading
Hic:Est:Wadard
I am perhaps absurdly pleased by the fact that there is a link between the Bayeux Tapestry and my home town of Swindon in Wiltshire, England. The knight Wadard appears … Continue reading
The ætheling Æthelstan’s deathbed will of 1014
On the Friday after the feast of midsummer in 1014 Ælfgar, the son of Æffa, brought the reply of King Æthelred Unræd to his son, the ætheling Æthelstan. The ailing prince … Continue reading
Skuldelev 3: Viking merchant shipping in the 11th Century
At some point between 1070 and 1090 AD, five ships were loaded with stones and scuttled to form a defensive barrier in the Peberrenden channel of Roskilde Fjord. These medieval … Continue reading
Danish flint daggers: Technology and society in late Neolithic and early Bronze Age Denmark
Finds of flint daggers from Late Neolithic and early Bronze Age Denmark represent what many archaeologists regard as the pinnacle of flint knapping technology in the Stone Age, surpassing the … Continue reading
