The newly released, star-studded British movie Operation Mincemeat tells the remarkable story of a Second World War deception plan. A dead body disguised as a naval officer would be floated off the Spanish coast, in the hope that the Axis powers would come across fake documents on the body and accept misleading information about the impending Allied invasion of Sicily. It was a daring plan full of risks that could go wrong at several points. As indeed it did.

On this episode of The PastCast, broadcaster and author Taylor Downing discusses his thoughts on the film, its cast, and previous on-screen depictions of the Mincemeat story. He has also reviewed the new film in the latest issue of Military History Matters magazine, which is also available in full on The Past website. On this episode, he 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.

Taylor’s latest book, 1942: Britain at the Brink, has recently been published by Little, Brown. You can read an exclusive extract from it here.

Just to the south of Hadrian’s Wall, and at around the same time as the frontier fortifications were being built, the Romans constructed a fort on high ground overlooking the Solway estuary. Then, the site was known as Alauna Carvetiorum – today we call it Maryport – and it formed part of a chain of forts safeguarding the Cumbrian coast, which also represented an important communications and supply network.

Perhaps the most famous finds from the fort are a collection of freestanding stone altars dedicated to the god Jupiter, which were found buried in a series of large pits on the highest point of the local landscape. Between 2011 and 2015 these enigmatic objects formed one of the key foci of investigations on the site by Professor Ian Haynes and Tony Wilmott, but the story of their discovery actually dates back centuries earlier.

On this episode of The PastCast, Tony and Ian discuss their research in more detail with regular PastCast presenter Calum Henderson. Their article on Maryport in the latest issue of Current Archaeology, as well as the entirety of the magazine (and exclusive related archive features), are also available 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.

First airing in 1994, Time Team went from humble roots to become a celebrated British institution, with over 230 episodes and countless spin-offs and specials produced during its original 20-year run. And while the recent pandemic posed serious problems for archaeological fieldwork, it sparked a global renaissance for Time Time, as locked-down fans began to reconnect with old episodes or discover them anew on YouTube.

Now, thanks to the support of thousands of fans, Time Team has premiered two brand new, three-part episodes on the internet. And that’s just the start, with two partnerships set to shed light on Sutton Hoo, and more potential sites currently in development for excavations this year.

On this episode of The PastCast, Time Team’s ‘geophys whizz’ John Gater discusses the return of the show – what’s changed and what’s stayed the same, some of the highlights of the newest digs, and the vital role of the pub in the show’s production schedule. Gater spoke with Current Archaeology editor (and former Time Team researcher) Carly Hilts and regular PastCast presenter Calum Henderson.

There is also an article by Felix Rowe on Time Team’s return in the latest issue of Current Archaeology magazine, out in the UK on 7 April. The article and magazine are also available in full on The Past website, as well as exclusive related archive features. And make sure to check out Time Team’s YouTube and Patreon pages to enjoy episodes old and new.

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 Greek city of Apollonia, founded in 650 BC, today lies on the sea floor between the mainland of Libya and a chain of offshore islands, 200km east of Bengazi. In 1958, an archaeological team set out to undertake a trailblazing survey of the submerged ruins. It was led by Dr Nicholas Flemming, whose experiences shaped his career as a marine archaeologist.

On this episode of The PastCast, Nic Flemming describes the history behind the survey, why Apollonia is such a unique site, and how his experiences in the Special Boat Service (SBS) assisted with the reconnaissance. Flemming has written an article on Apollonia in the latest issue of Current World Archaeology magazine, which is also available in full on The Past website. On this episode, he 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.

Nic Flemming’s book, Apollonia on my Mind, has also recently been published and is available to buy from his website. And make sure to also check out the Dive & Dig Podcast from the Honor Frost Foundation, on which Nic is also appearing as a guest this week.

The Caucasus mountains have had, for millennia, a legendary association with gold. According to the myths recounted by Greek and Roman writers, the legendary hero Jason was sent there on an impossible quest to seek the Golden Fleece, a task so difficult that it was assumed he would never return.

But despite an association between gold and the mountains that became so strong it was woven into mythology, gold artefacts more or less disappeared from a large part of the region for a period of some seven centuries. Nathaniel Erb-Satullo, a Lecturer in Archaeological Science at Cranfield Forensic Institute, has been investigating why.

Nathaniel has written about his research and findings in the latest issue of Current World Archaeology magazine, which is also available in full on The Past website. On the latest episode of The PastCast, he spoke with regular presenter Calum Henderson about his research.

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.

Waterloo Uncovered, a registered charity, has combined the archaeological exploration of the site of Napoleon’s final defeat with a support programme for Veteran and Serving Military Personnel (VSMPs). Every summer, the charity assembles an international team of archaeologists, students, and VSMPs to survey and excavate various sections of the site in modern-day Belgium. In 2019, the team focused their attention on three farms which played a key role in the fighting.

The results of the 2019 excavations are the subject of an article in the latest issue of Military History Matters magazine. Author Euan Loarridge, a PhD student at the University of Glasgow who has been involved in Waterloo Uncovered’s work, explains what was found, and how archaeology can be surprisingly therapeutic for serving military personnel and veterans. On this episode, Euan spoke with regular PastCast presenter, Calum Henderson.

You can keep up to date with the work of Waterloo Uncovered via their website and through their social media platforms (such as their Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram pages). The article, and the full magazine, as well as exclusive related archive features, are available 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.

The British photographer Anthony Kersting was the most prolific and widely travelled architectural photographer of his generation. He travelled extensively across the Middle East throughout the 1940s and 1950s to document the architecture and people of the region. And upon his death in 2008, he donated his archive – containing some 42,000 photographic prints and negatives – to the Conway Library at the Courtauld Gallery in London.

On this episode of the PastCast, Tom Bilson, Head of Digital Media at the Courtauld, discusses a new exhibition showcasing a selection of Kersting’s photography from Kurdistan. He also describes the digitisation project currently being undertaken to preserve the Conway Library’s extensive archive for future generations. Bilson spoke with regular PastCast presenter, Calum Henderson.

Kersting’s work is the subject of a short article in the latest issue of Minerva magazine, out now in the UK, and which is also available 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.

Located in the Caucasus, a meeting point between Europe and Asia, Armenia boasts of being the first state to have adopted Christianity around the year AD 314, followed by its neighbour Georgia twenty years later. Various encounters between this region’s indigenous peoples and many other groups led to centuries of church building across the landscape of narrow mountain valleys that stretch between the Black Sea and the Caspian Sea.

On this episode of The PastCast, Christoph Baumer describes how the faith spread in the region, separating the myths – such as of a king who had been saved after being turned into a boar – from the facts. Baumer is the author of an article on the subject in the latest issue of Minerva magazine, which is also available in full on The Past website. On this episode he 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.

Christoph’s book, The history of the Caucasus, volume 1: at the crossroads of empires has been published by Bloomsbury and is available to buy on their website.

What might a pigsty, a chimneybreast, a rock garden, and a font all have in common? An obvious answer would, of course, be that they can all be made of stone – but for a special few there is a particular claim to distinction.

Over the last three years, members of the British Academy/Leverhulme Trust-funded Elusive Sculptures team have been looking beyond the obvious in their quest to locate and interpret Romano-British art preserved in unlikely – and, at times, somewhat precarious – places in the North of England, and important examples have been recorded at these sites and more.

On this episode of The PastCast, Elusive Sculptures team member Professor Ian Haynes discusses the project’s background and findings. Ian is the co-author of an article on the subject in the latest issue of Current Archaeology magazine, which is also available in full on The Past website. On this episode he 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.

An immense communal effort, continental connections, and exotic materials travelling long distances for people to gather and marvel at: this could be a summary of the story of Stonehenge, but it also describes the creation of a new exhibition opening at the British Museum this month, and the challenges of organising hundreds of international loans during a pandemic.

On this episode of The PastCast, Dr Jennifer Wexler, project curator of ‘The World of Stonehenge’, describes how the exhibition puts the famous monument in its wider context, exploring the natural and material landscapes that its builders would have known; the transformative technological, cultural, and social changes that the celebrated stones witnessed over the course of 1,500 years; and the ideas and identities it was intended to express.

Wexler contributed to article on the exhibition in the latest issue of Current Archaeology magazine, which is out now, and which is also available in full on The Past website. On this episode she spoke with Current Archaeology editor Carly Hilts and regular PastCast presenter Calum Henderson. Carly also told Calum what else 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.