A landmark year in Egyptology, 2022 marks 200 years since the decipherment of hieroglyphs and 100 years since the discovery of the tomb of Tutankhamun. Now, new research on another intact royal burial group from Egypt, dating to about 275 years before the burial of Tutankhamun, is demonstrating the importance of reassessing historic museum collections. The burial group of the ‘Qurna Queen’ (c.1600 BC), now at National Museums Scotland in Edinburgh, dates to a less well understood period of Egyptian history, a time of political turmoil. 

On this episode of The PastCast, Margaret Maitland – Principal Curator of the Ancient Mediterranean at National Museums Scotland – explains why recent analyses of the objects are offering new perspectives on Egypt’s relationship with its southern neighbour, Nubia, in what is now northern Sudan and the southernmost area of Egypt. This dimension, Maitland explains, helps us to move on from an understanding of Egypt’s ancient past that has been coloured by colonial-era biases, in particular the misrepresentation of Egypt’s African context.

Maitland is also the author of an article on the Qurna Queen in the latest issue of Current World Archaeology magazine, which is out now in the UK. It is also available to read in full on The Past website. On this episode, she spoke with regular PastCast presenter Calum Henderson. Meanwhile, Current World Archaeology editor Matthew Symonds tells us what else readers can look forward to in the latest issue of the magazine.

The Past brings together the most exciting stories and the very best writing from the realms of history, archaeology, heritage, and the ancient world. You can subscribe to The Past today for just £7.99. If you enjoyed this podcast, please consider liking it, subscribing, and sharing it around.

The ‘miracle of Dunkirk’ is lauded in British history, celebrated each year with a profusion of TV documentary veteran accounts and memorial services. German soldiers, too, constantly referred to the ‘wunder’, or ‘miracle’, of reaching Dunkirk in wartime letters back home. But there the resemblance ends. For the British, it was a miracle of survival and deliverance; for the Germans, it was one of achievement. They had reached the sea in May 1940 in fewer weeks than it took years for their fathers not to succeed in 1914-18.

Historian Robert Kershaw argues that the lack of a German perspective means we have only a partial understanding of the ‘miracle of Dunkirk’. On this episode of The PastCast, he explains what new research tells us about a battle that changed the tide of the Second World War.

Dunkirk is also the subject of an article by Kershaw in the latest issue of Military History Matters magazine, which is out now in the UK and in early December in the US. It is also available to read in full on The Past website. On this episode, Robert spoke with regular PastCast presenter Calum Henderson.

The Past brings together the most exciting stories and the very best writing from the realms of history, archaeology, heritage, and the ancient world. You can subscribe to The Past today for just £7.99. If you enjoyed this podcast, please consider liking it, subscribing, and sharing it around.

Robert Kershaw’s latest book is called Dünkirchen 1940: The German View of Dunkirk and is published by Osprey Publishing. You can buy a copy here.

Archaeology is the study of people and their actions, preserved through the physical traces they left behind. How, then, could we not appreciate the detailed insights into individuals, communities, and populations provided by their very DNA?

On this episode of The PastCast, Professor Duncan Sayer explains how, by combining excavated evidence from early medieval burials with genetic information, we can gain powerful insights into patterns of population movement, and ideas of identity and integration.

Professor Sayer is the author of an article on the study of ancient DNA in the most recent issue of Current Archaeology magazine, itself a special edition delving into a new research study centred on migration and genetic evidence for early medieval England. You can access the article (and the full magazine) on The Past website. On this episode, Professor Sayer spoke with Current Archaeology editor Carly Hilts and regular PastCast presenter Calum Henderson.

The Past brings together the most exciting stories and the very best writing from the realms of history, archaeology, heritage, and the ancient world. You can subscribe to The Past today for just £7.99. If you enjoyed this podcast, please consider liking it, subscribing, and sharing it around.

For over 700 years between c.1196 and 1848, public executions were an inescapable part of the experiences of anyone living in London. Hangings, burnings, boilings, and beheadings were wielded as a way to protect the city’s ever-expanding population, to deter crime and rebellion, and to show justice being viscerally, visually done – but they also hammered home the power of the crown, church, and state over the lives and deaths of ordinary citizens.

On this episode of The PastCast, Carly Hilts – editor of Current Archaeology magazine – reports on a new exhibition at the Museum of London Docklands which provides poignant and powerful insights into the seven centuries when London hosted more public executions that anywhere else in Britain and acquired the nickname the ‘City of Gallows’.

As well as discussing what else readers can look forward to in the latest issue of Current Archaeology, Carly also shares her thoughts on the new film The Lost King, which dramatizes the discovery of the remains of King Richard III under a Leicester carpark in 2012. On this episode she spoke with regular PastCast presenter Calum Henderson.

The Past brings together the most exciting stories and the very best writing from the realms of history, archaeology, heritage, and the ancient world. You can subscribe to The Past today for just £7.99. If you enjoyed this podcast, please consider liking it, subscribing, and sharing it around.

The Jomon peoples of northern Japan were unusual among foraging societies for being great monument builders. They constructed a range of such sites, including stone circles, settings of wooden pillars, shell middens, and bank-enclosed cemeteries or embankments containing large quantities of material remains, all of which represented an ability to undertake significant investments in labour and probably also a high degree of forward planning.

But how and why were these monuments built? On this episode of The PastCast, Simon Kaner examines what these enigmatic structures can tell us about a key period of Japanese prehistory.

The Jomon stone circles are also the subject of an article in the latest issue of Current World Archaeology magazine, which is out now in the UK and next month in the US. It is also available to read in full on The Past website. On this episode, Simon spoke with regular PastCast presenter Calum Henderson.

The Past brings together the most exciting stories and the very best writing from the realms of history, archaeology, heritage, and the ancient world. You can subscribe to The Past today for just £7.99. If you enjoyed this podcast, please consider liking it, subscribing, and sharing it around.

The exhibition, Circles of Stone: Stonehenge and Prehistoric Japan is at the Stonehenge Visitor Centre until August 2023. More information about Jomon archaeology is included in An Illustrated Companion to Japanese Archaeology edited by Werner Steinhaus, Simon Kaner, Shinya Shoda, and Megumi Jinno. Details about the Jomon Sites of Northern Japan UNESCO World Heritage designation can be found here.

The Armada – and in English history there is only one – set sail from Lisbon on 28 May 1588, tasked with eliminating the Protestant Queen Elizabeth and restoring Catholic worship throughout England. Its creator, Philip II, ruler of Spain and Portugal, had at his disposal ‘the greatest and strongest combination that was ever gathered in all Christendom’. The fleet consisted of 130 ships, 2,431 guns, and 30,000 men.

And yet the Armada's story was one of almost constant misfortune. On this episode of The PastCast, historian Geoffrey Parker, co-author of a major new history on the doomed campaign, explains what really happened in 1588.

The Armada is also the subject of an article in the latest issue of Military History Matters magazine, which is out now in the UK and in early October in the US. It is also available to read in full on The Past website. On this episode, Geoffrey spoke with regular PastCast presenter Calum Henderson.

The Past brings together the most exciting stories and the very best writing from the realms of history, archaeology, heritage, and the ancient world. You can subscribe to The Past today for just £7.99. If you enjoyed this podcast, please consider liking it, subscribing, and sharing it around.

Geoffrey Parker’s book (co-authored by Colin Martin) is called The Spanish Armada: England’s deliverance in 1588 and is published by Yale University Press. It will be available to buy in the UK from December 2022. You can pre-order a copy here.

Twenty-five years ago, a cargo of millions of pieces of Lego was washed off the ship Tokio during a storm off Land’s End. The cargo was en route from the company’s factory in Billund, Denmark, to North America, where it was to be made-up into sets. To this day, tiny pieces of plastic are still being found on Cornish beaches – and by a strange quirk of fate, much of this Lego is sea-themed.

On this episode of The PastCast, Tracey Williams, whose fascination with collecting the Lego washed up on her local beaches has driven her to publish a book, discusses the story of the lost cargo, the subsequent recovery efforts, and the environmental implications of the phenomenon.

Her book on the Lego lost at sea formed the basis of an article by Joe Flatman in the latest issue of Current Archaeology magazine, which is also available to read in full on The Past website. On this episode, Tracey and Joe spoke with Current Archaeology editor Carly Hilts and regular PastCast presenter Calum Henderson. Carly also explains what readers can look forward to in the latest issue.

The Past brings together the most exciting stories and the very best writing from the realms of history, archaeology, heritage, and the ancient world. You can subscribe to The Past today for just £7.99. If you enjoyed this podcast, please consider liking it, subscribing, and sharing it around.

Tracey's book, Adrift: the curious tale of the Lego lost at sea, is published by Unicorn and is available to buy here. You can follow the project online by searching for @LegoLostAtSea on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook. A related paper on drift matter/drift archaeology by Þóra Pétursdóttir is available to read here.

It is 1,900 years since the Roman emperor Hadrian made landfall in Britain. His presence marks a departure from business as usual, as the island was not a standard destination for imperial inspections. The sparse surviving Roman accounts tell us little about Hadrian’s activities in Britain, and nothing at all about his motive for visiting in 122. It is certain, though, that the island was convulsed by unrest during his tenure.

On this episode of The PastCast, Matt Symonds discusses the context and construction of the emperor’s most significant legacy in the British Isles, Hadrian's Wall, and the enduring mystery of its true purpose. Could the extraordinary scale of this fortification be explained by the contemporary military situation in Britain?

Hadrian’s Wall is the subject of a special article in the latest issue of Military History Matters magazine, which is out in the UK on 14 July and the following month in the US. It is also available to read in full on The Past website. On this episode, Matt spoke with regular PastCast presenter Calum Henderson.

The Past brings together the most exciting stories and the very best writing from the realms of history, archaeology, heritage, and the ancient world. You can subscribe to The Past today for just £7.99. If you enjoyed this podcast, please consider liking it, subscribing, and sharing it around.

Matt’s book, Hadrian’s Wall: creating division, was published by Bloomsbury Books in 2021 and is available to buy here.

Just as the Titanic’s ‘unsinkable’ nickname proved to be somewhat hubristic, naming a ship Invincible might be seen as similarly tempting fate. This latter designation was intended to intimidate, however, as it described a mighty warship that was among the most technically advanced of her day. And although she sank off Portsmouth in 1758, Invincible remains the best-preserved 18th-century warship known in UK waters.

On this episode of The PastCast, Dr Daniel Pascoe, who headed recent excavations of the wreck, describes her history up until her unfortunate sinking, the subsequent recovery efforts, and a new exhibition at Chatham Historic Dockyard which brings together some of the ship’s most fascinating artefacts.

The wreck and the exhibition are the subject of an article in the latest issue of Current Archaeology magazine, which is out in the UK on 7 July, and is also available to read in full on The Past website. On this episode, Dan spoke with Current Archaeology editor Carly Hilts and regular PastCast presenter Calum Henderson. Carly also explains what else readers can look forward to in the latest issue, including articles on Canterbury’s history, Cissbury Ring, Butser Ancient Farm, and the Society of Antiquaries of London's new affiliate membership scheme.

The Past brings together the most exciting stories and the very best writing from the realms of history, archaeology, heritage, and the ancient world. You can subscribe to The Past today for just £7.99. If you enjoyed this podcast, please consider liking it, subscribing, and sharing it around.

And you can keep up with Dr Daniel Pascoe’s work by following him on Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube. A video on his current project – on the 70-gun Northumberland sunk off the Goodwin Sands – is available here.

When Henrietta Howard (née Hobart) built her Thames-side country house in Twickenham in the 1720s, it represented so much more than a fashionable escape from the bustle of court life: it was a refuge from her abusive marriage, and a sign of hard-won independence.

With the house and its grounds now restored to their Georgian glory, and the site reopening to the public, Carly Hilts, editor of Current Archaeology magazine, visited to find out more. Carly joined this latest episode of The PastCast to discuss the life of Howard, her beautiful home, and the many achievements of the restoration project. Carly spoke with regular PastCast presenter, Calum Henderson.

As well as Marble Hill, Carly also explains what other fascinating British archaeological sites and projects are featured in the latest issue of Current Archaeology. The magazine is on sale in the UK from 2 June and is also available to read in full on The Past website.

The Past brings together the most exciting stories and the very best writing from the realms of history, archaeology, heritage, and the ancient world. You can subscribe to The Past today for just £7.99. If you enjoyed this podcast, please consider liking it, subscribing, and sharing it around.