* Archaeology sheds unexpected light on 17th-century Cornwall, with the discovery of a series of pits lined with swan pelts revealing a previously unknown folk tradition/religious practice. I’m calling it that rather than The Times’s “witchcraft”, because who knows how the practitioners saw it… One of the fascinating things about it, however, is how late this tradition survived without making any impact on the historical record.
* One of Ramses’ sons has been revealed as having what would surely have been in his terms a miserable afterlife – mistaken for a female temple dancer.
* From my inbox, an exploration of just how much use a Viking’s shield would be to him (or perhaps her) – tested out in fun, if slightly frightening, detail. What would it have been like were you fighting in a real-life epic?
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