Category Archives: Heritage

Anglo-Saxons may have fought in northern Syrian wars, say experts

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Warriors from Britain joined far-flung Byzantine military campaigns in sixth century, grave goods suggest

Sixth-century Anglo-Saxon people may have travelled from Britain to the eastern Mediterranean and northern Syria to fight in wars, researchers have suggested, casting fresh light on their princely burials.

St John Simpson, a senior British Museum curator, and Helen Gittos, an Oxford scholar, have concluded that some of the exotic items excavated at Sutton Hoo, Taplow and Prittlewell, among other sites, originated in the eastern Mediterranean and north Syria and cannot have been conventional trade goods, as others have suggested.

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Archaeological survey detects Roman villas and iron age farmsteads in Shropshire

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National Trust ground-scanning technology maps new features close to site of Roman city of Wroxeter

An archaeological survey of more than 1,000 hectares (2,471 acres) in Shropshire has identified a wealth of previously unknown features, including two grand Roman villas and multiple earlier iron age farmsteads.

The geophysical survey, the largest ever conducted by the National Trust, used ground-scanning technology to map undetected features close to the site of the Roman city of Wroxeter, just south of modern day Shrewsbury.

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Elvis Presley’s blue suede shoes could sell for £120,000 at auction

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Singer wore footwear on and off stage during 1950s before giving them to a friend when called up to US army

Well it’s one for the money … a lot of money actually.

The blue suede shoes worn by Elvis Presley during the early part of his career are expected to fetch £120,000 at auction on Friday.

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Stonehenge likely to be put on world heritage danger list over tunnel plan

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Unesco officials recommend adding Wiltshire stone circle amid fears road scheme would compromise its integrity

Stonehenge is likely to be put on a list of world heritage sites that are in danger because of the plan to build a tunnel under the precious landscape.

Unesco officials have recommended adding the Wiltshire stone circle and the area around it to the list because of concerns that the tunnel would “compromise the integrity” of one of the Earth’s great prehistoric sites.

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Wreck of Shackleton’s ship Quest found, last link to ‘heroic age of Antarctic exploration’

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The vessel, which sank off the coast of Canada in 1962, was used by the explorer on his final voyage to the continent

The wreck of the ship on which renowned Antarctic explorer Sir Ernest Shackleton died has been found off the coast of Labrador, Canada, searchers have announced.

Locating the Quest – a schooner-rigged steamship which sank on a 1962 seal hunting voyage – represents a last link to the “heroic age of Antarctic exploration”, said search leader John Geiger.

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Silk Road leads from Uzbekistan to London for landmark exhibition

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British Museum will host treasures from Samarkand in a bid to dispel cliches of camels, spices and bazaars

A monumental six-metre-long wall painting created in the 7th century, and 8th-century ivory figures carved for one of the world’s oldest surviving chess sets, are among treasures set to be seen in Britain for the first time.

The items will travel from the ancient city of Samarkand to the UK for an exhibition opening in September, as part of the first-ever loan from museums in Uzbekistan to the British Museum.

Silk Roads will be at the British Museum from September 26 2024 to February 23 2025. Tickets go on sale on Monday.

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Campaign launched to save ‘boringly ugly’ 1980s BT phone boxes

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The KX100 design caused controversy when it replaced the classic red phone box – but now a handful may be given listed status

Campaigners are trying to secure listed status for the “boringly ugly” telephone boxes that BT controversially used to replace thousands of red phone boxes in the 1980s.

The Twentieth Century Society, which champions outstanding examples of modern design, has applied for listed status for one KX100 box each in England, Scotland and Wales before they are removed next year.

In England, the 100,000th box to be installed in the country, located at Dunsop Bridge in Lancashire, which sits at the geographic centre of Great Britain and its 401 associated islands.

In Scotland, a contender for the country’s most remote and scenic payphone near Maaruig, on the Isle of Harris. It is believed to be the only example still bearing the full original yellow British Telecom livery.

In Wales, an experimental model at the Centre for Alternative Technology in Machynlleth, which is uniquely powered by a solar panel atop the kiosk and an adjacent 18ft-high wind turbine.

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‘We are disappearing’: chef Fadi Kattan aims to keep Palestinian heritage alive through food

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Palestinian restauranteur speaks from Bethlehem, where food stalls are sparse as farmlands are under attack

Fadi Kattan looked forlornly at the stalls inside the Bethlehem vegetable market bearing small quantities of oranges, watermelons and cauliflowers. “This stall should be heaped with products, he said. “And over there should be piles of aubergines and courgettes.”

The watermelons from Jenin looked too small for the season, while he wasn’t sure where the boxes of oranges were from. They would normally be from Gaza. At Um Nabil’s stall in the West Bank market where Kattan is a regular customer, she told him she could no longer afford to bring in the best small local cucumbers or piles of green cherries from her village of Artas.

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Mount Fuji view to be blocked as tourists overcrowd popular photo spot

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Fujikawaguchiko town official says choice to erect huge barrier is ‘regrettable’ and last resort

A huge barrier to block views of Mount Fuji will be installed at a popular photo spot by Japanese authorities exasperated by crowds of badly behaved foreign tourists.

Construction of the mesh net – 2.5 metres (8ft) high and the length of a cricket pitch at 20 metres – will begin as early as next week, an official from Fujikawaguchiko town said on Friday.

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‘Are we joking?’: Venice residents protest as city starts charging visitors to enter

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Day-trippers will have to pay €5 to visit Italian city under scheme designed to protect it from excess tourism

Authorities in Venice have been accused of transforming the famous lagoon city into a “theme park” as a long-mooted entrance fee for day trippers comes into force.

Venice is the first major city in the world to enact such a scheme. The €5 (£4.30) charge, which comes into force today, is aimed at protecting the Unesco world heritage site from the effects of excessive tourism by deterring day trippers and, according to the mayor, Luigi Brugnaro, making the city “livable” again.

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Lost orchards and blossom flourish in placenames across England and Wales

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Doubling of related street, house and farm names since 1900 gives glimpse of flower ‘ghosts’, says National Trust

Over the last century orchards and blossom trees have been slipping out of the British landscape at an alarming rate but the “ghosts” of lost flowers are glimpsed in an increasing number of placenames recalling the vanished pinks and whites, researchers have found.

A National Trust study has discovered that the number of street, house and farm names relating to orchards and blossom has doubled across England and Wales since the turn of the 20th century, a period in which more than half of traditional orchards have disappeared.

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Artworks carried to safety as fire blazes at Copenhagen’s old stock exchange

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Spire collapses as fire engulfs Danish landmark, which houses one of country’s most valuable art collections

Firefighters at Copenhagen’s historic former stock exchange have been battling a huge blaze that has engulfed the 17th-century building’s roof, toppled its distinctive spire and threatened one of Denmark’s most valuable art collections.

“We are witnessing a terrible spectacle. The Bourse is on fire,” the Chamber of Commerce, which occupies the building next to Christiansborg Palace, the seat of the Danish parliament, wrote on X. “Everyone is asked to stay away.”

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Tory mayoral candidate promises to return Scarborough Grand to former glory

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In unusual election pledge, Keane Duncan says he will use public money to buy 1867 hotel, forcibly if necessary

Built for wealthy Victorian holidaymakers as the biggest hotel in Europe, Scarborough’s iconic Grand has stood proud since 1867, perched high on the seafront, just metres above the sandy South Bay beach.

So for many in the town, it has been embarrassing to watch the Grade II-listed building suffer a sad reversal of fortunes in recent decades, becoming the “shame of Scarborough”.

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Fox bones at ancient burial site suggest animal may have been kept as pet

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Clues at Argentina site raise possibility mammal was buried with human owners about 1,500 years ago

The remains of a fox unearthed at a human burial site in Argentina dating back 1,500 years has raised the possibility the animal may have been kept as a pet, research suggests.

Experts say the remains predate the arrival of domestic dogs in Patagonia, which occurred about 700–900 years ago, with a number of clues suggesting the fox was seen as valuable, and may even have been a companion to the hunter-gatherers it lived with.

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British Museum investigated over Ethiopian artefacts hidden from view for 150 years

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Watchdog examining claims key details have not been disclosed about altar tablets it is facing calls to return

The British Museum is being investigated by the information watchdog over claims it has been overly secretive about some of the most sensitive items in its collection – a group of sacred Ethiopian altar tablets that have been hidden from view at the museum for more than 150 years.

The 11 wood and stone tabots, which the museum acknowledges were looted by British soldiers after the Battle of Maqdala in 1868, have never been on public display and are considered to be so sacred that even the institution’s own curators and trustees are forbidden from examining them.

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‘Longing for home’: letters of Irish emigrants to US reveal 400 years of trials and triumphs

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A collection of more than 7,000 letters will form a publicly accessible digital archive that offers a window to the past

In the week that Ireland turns ­everything green and celebrates its diaspora, a new online archive has given voice to the human cost paid by generations of emigrants.

More than 7,000 letters from emigrants to North America spanning four centuries have been collected and digitised, giving poignant insight into the homesickness, tribulations, and occasional triumphs, of those who crossed the Atlantic.

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Fate of precious Henry VIII stained glass in dispute as ‘haunted house’ auction halted at last minute

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Intervention by conservationists halts sale of 1530s roundel from Grade-I listed manor, created to celebrate king’s union with Anne Boleyn

The fate of precious Tudor stained glass marking the union of Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn is in dispute after its last-minute withdrawal from a private auction, the Observer has learned.

Urgent intervention by conservationists prevented the sale of English glasswork “of exceptional importance”, including a window made in the 1530s as well as older ­medieval glass. The windows were hanging in a 16th-century Dorset manor and were destined for a private contents auction until spotted listed alongside vintage furniture and china.

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Descendants of King William II’s killer want to donate triptych depicting death to UK museum

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Latin-inscribed artwork tells story of Walter Tirel, whose son killed British monarch

The Italian descendants of King William II’s killer want to donate a work of art partly depicting William’s death to a British museum.

The three-slab triptych is owned by the Tirelli family, whose aristocratic origins can be traced back to France, for over 400 years. They have said they believe it was made by a Norman artist in 1100.

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‘Extraordinary’: Islamic and Jewish science merge in 11th-century astrolabe

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Instrument was adapted, translated and corrected by Muslim and Jewish users in Spain, north Africa and Italy

Almost exactly a year ago, Federica Gigante was preparing a lecture and searching the internet for a portrait of the 17th-century Italian nobleman and collector Ludovico Moscardo when an altogether different image caught her eye.

The historian’s gaze soon snagged on a photo of a metal disc with a ring at the top that was kept in the same Verona museum as Moscardo’s picture.

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Long-buried Atlas statue raised to guard Temple of Zeus in Sicily once more

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Eight-metre statue dating from fifth century BC restored and assembled piece-by-piece to be displayed in Valley of the Temples

A colossal statue of Atlas that lay buried for centuries among ancient ruins has been reconstructed to take its rightful place among the Greek temples of Agrigento in Sicily, after a 20-year research and restoration project.

The statue, standing at 8 metres (26ft) tall and dating back to the fifth century BC, was one of nearly 38 that adorned the Temple of Zeus, considered the largest Doric temple ever built despite never being completed.

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