As the COP26 climate change conference takes place in Glasgow, we ask if studying past coastal change can help us to ameliorate the climate crisis facing us today. A project undertaken by the Coastal and Intertidal Zone Archaeological Network (CITiZAN) and focusing on Mersea Island in Essex may have the answer, as three members of the network’s team explain.

Oliver Hutchinson, Danielle Newman, and Lawrence Northall wrote about their findings in the latest issue of Current Archaeology magazine, which is out now. Their article is also available online at The Past website. On this episode, they spoke with 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 traditional story of Iona’s early medieval monastery ends in tragedy and bloodshed, with the religious community essentially wiped out by vicious Viking raiders. Increasingly, though, the archaeological and historical evidence does not support this persistent ‘zombie narrative'.

On this episode of the PastCast, Adrián Maldonado discusses an article he has co-authored for the latest issue of Current Archaeology magazine (also available on The Past website), in which this new evidence is examined in detail. Maldonado spoke with Current Archaeology editor Carly Hilts and regular PastCast presenter, Calum Henderson.

Calum also caught up with Carly to discuss 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.

On this episode of the PastCast, two curators from the Fitzwilliam Museum in Cambridge discuss its recently opened exhibition, Gold and the Great Steppe. The exhibition looks at the history of the Saka, a nomadic people from Eastern Kazakhstan who lived around 2,500 years ago.

To accompany the exhibition, curators Rebecca Roberts and Saltanat Amir have written an article in the latest issue of Minerva magazine, which comes out in the UK on 21 October. You can also read it online at The Past website. Rebecca and Saltanat spoke with 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.

In the 8th century, Cookham Abbey was the focus of a decades-long power struggle between early medieval kingdoms, but over time the religious community’s location faded from memory, despite its association with a powerful Anglo-Saxon queen. Now, excavations in Berkshire are thought to have brought its remains to light once more.

On this episode of the PastCast, Dr Gabor Thomas discusses his write-up of the excavations in the latest issue of Current Archaeology magazine (also available on The Past website). Thomas spoke with PastCast presenter, Calum Henderson.

Also on this episode, curator Kate Clements discusses the new Second World War and Holocaust galleries at London’s Imperial War Museum, which open to the public on 20 October.

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 a visitor to a late 18th-century country seat, the most striking feature of the landscape, apart from the house, would have been the lake. For that reason, it is all the more surprising these bodies of water have had such little attention from garden historians and archaeologists.

On this episode of the PastCast, Christopher Catling discusses his article in the latest issue of Current Archaeology magazine (also available on The Past website), in which he takes a look into why ornamental lakes have received such little recognition. He spoke with PastCast presenter, Calum Henderson.

Calum also spoke with Current Archaeology editor Carly Hilts about 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.

On this episode of the PastCast, Derek Alexander discusses the notorious Glencoe Massacre of 1692 and how recent archaeological fieldwork has shed new light on the 17th and 18th century remains in the area. Alexander is the Head of Archaeology at the National Trust for Scotland. He spoke with PastCast presenter, Calum Henderson.

Glencoe is one of the most famous and beautiful valleys in Scotland but is also notorious for an episode of extreme violence in 1692, when dozens of members and associates of the Glencoe MacDonalds were killed by Scottish Government forces. While the area's history has been studied in detail, the physical remains of the early settlements have only just begun to be investigated.

Alexander has written about the massacre and the recent fieldwork in the latest issue of Current Archaeology magazine, which is out now. His article is also available online at The Past website, along with exclusive extra content from our archives.

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.

On this episode of the PastCast, archaeologists Hella Eckardt and Philippa Walton discuss Roman finds made at Piercebridge, on the River Tees near Darlington. Between the mid-1980s and 2018, two divers excavated more than 3,600 objects from the site, before passing them on to Walton. Now, thanks to a two-year project funded by the Leverhulme Trust, the entire assemblage of finds will be published.

Eckardt and Walton are the authors of Bridge over troubled water: the Roman finds from the River Tees at Piercebridge in context, which is available to buy from the Roman Society. An Open Access version is also available here, while all the items from Piercebridge are catalogued on the Portable Antiquities Scheme database.

Be sure to check out their article on Piercebridge in the latest issue of Current Archaeology. It is also available online at The Past website, along with exclusive extra content from our archives.

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.

On this episode of the PastCast, archaeologist Wouter Vos discusses his involvement in recent excavations at Valkenburg in the Netherlands. Valkenburg is already renowned for its Roman archaeology, thanks to an auxiliary camp excavated there after the Second World War.

But now, new research has uncovered evidence of a larger and more significant legionary fortress, which may have played a role in the Roman invasion of Britain. Vos shared these findings with PastCast presenter, Calum Henderson.

Vos is co-author of an article in the latest issue of Current World Archaeology magazine, in which the findings at Valkenburg are discussed in-depth. The magazine is out now in the UK and in the rest of the world in August. It is also accessible online at 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.

A seemingly unassuming lump of corroded bronze has confounded investigators for more than century, ever since it proved to contain precision gear wheels that simply should not have existed in the Ancient Greek world. Now, a new study into the Antikythera Mechanism, named after the island off which it was found, has used cutting-edge techniques to reveal what this machine could do, and how it did it.

On this episode of the PastCast, Professor Tony Freeth discusses his involvement in this study, as well as what researchers made of the mechanism when it was first uncovered, and what it tells us about the technology of the Ancient Greek world. Freeth is joined by PastCast presenter Calum Henderson.

You can read more about the Antikythera Mechanism and the recent research in the latest issue of Current World Archaeology, out on 22 July in the UK and in the rest of the world the following month, as well as online at 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.

On this episode of the PastCast, Dr Graham Goodlad discusses how Horatio Nelson cemented his status as a British naval hero in October 1805 when the fleet he commanded defeated the combined forces of the French and Spanish navies at the Battle of Trafalgar, at the height of the Napoleonic Wars. Graham spoke with PastCast presenter, Calum Henderson.

Nelson’s tactic was to ‘break the line’, which involved cutting through and manoeuvring his fleet as close to the enemy’s as possible and destroying their ships one by one. This devastating strategy was developed by previous generations of British admirals, but was used most decisively at Trafalgar, the event which also claimed Nelson’s life.

In the latest issue of Military History Matters magazine, out now in the UK and in the United States and Canada in August, we have a special feature on Nelson exploring his upbringing, his early successes, and the key factors that made Trafalgar the victory it is still remembered as today. You can also read the entire special feature online at 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.