Britain’s ‘oldest house’ is discovered

It’s been an exciting week in history news after archaeologists claimed to have discovered Britain’s oldest house at a site near Scarborough in North Yorkshire. The circular structure, which measures 3.5 metres in diameter, has been dated to around 8,500 BC and is thought to have been home to some of Britain's first settlers.

Elsewhere, several large buildings have been discovered in fields outside the Roman fortress of Caerleon in south Wales. Archaeologists believe that the site may have had markets, bath halls, store buildings, and possibly temples. The discovery was made by students learning to use geophysical equipment.

Welsh history was in the news again this week after a website featuring 4,000 ballads chronicling issues affecting people in 18th and 19th century Wales was launched by Cardiff University and the National Library of Wales in Aberystwyth. Around 15,000 pages of rare Welsh and English language songs are now available online.

In Scotland, researchers examining Pictish carvings thought to have been carved between the fourth and ninth centuries AD have described the symbols as ‘words’ rather than images. The team used a mathematical method to quantify patterns within the symbols, but their conclusions have raised criticism from French linguist Arnaud Fournet.

Japan made the headlines recently after it promised to return cultural records to South Korea “in the near future”, including records of an ancient Korean dynasty. The announcement was accompanied by an apology to South Korea for Japan’s war-time colonisation of the Korean peninsula.

Meanwhile, a legal struggle is underway in the Czech Republic after officials in Prague announced their intention to move 20 paintings by Alphonse Mucha, entitled The Slav Epic, from their current home in the small town of Moravsky Krumlov, to the country's capital. The paintings, which were painted over two decades and completed in 1928, each measure up to six metres tall and eight metres wide. Mucha was an influential figure in the art noueveau movement.

Back in England, a robotics team based at Leeds University is working with Egypt’s Supreme Council to create a machine to explore two chambers within the Great Pyramid of Giza. The 4,500-year-old monument, known as the Pyramid of Khufu, is last wonder of the ancient world still standing.

In other history news, a record of more than six million Victorian and early 20th-century wills have been made public for the first time, revealing the final wishes of personalities such as Charles Dickens, Karl Marx and Charles Darwin. The documents date from 1861 to 1941 and are available online.

Staying online, a new digital version of Domesday Book has been launched allowing people to discover who owned what in Norman Britain. Once a user has typed in the name of the area they wish to learn about, the findings will be presented in map or table form.