HistoryExtra
type: channel
link: https://www.historyextra.com
description: Home of Britain’s bestselling history magazine and award-winning podcast
date: 2026-04-17T13:13:28.000Z
update period: hourly
update frequency: 1
update base: 2000-01-01T12:00+00:00
items: 40,000 years ago, our ancestors left these strange symbols behind. What do they really mean?
items: Politics and the Bayeux Tapestry: the inside story of the blockbuster loan to the British Museum
items: What did Anne Boleyn REALLY look like? Our new research could change everything
items: Is the Bayeux Tapestry in "mortal danger"? I think that's the wrong question to ask
items: 10 children and 12,000 pieces of art: the remarkable life of Lady Charlotte Schreiber
items: Surrealism and the legacy of caricature | Alice Loxton on the world of the Georgians
items: Fashion and folly | Alice Loxton on the world of the Georgians
items: Health and medicine | Alice Loxton on the world of the Georgians
items: Napoleon: hero or “Little Boney”? | Alice Loxton on the world of the Georgians
items: High society | Alice Loxton on the world of the Georgians

40,000 years ago, our ancestors left these strange symbols behind. What do they really mean?
type: item
date: 2026-04-17T13:13:28.000Z
creator: Colin Barras
subject: General prehistory
subject: Membership
subject: Period
subject: Discover / Apple News
description: Research has unveiled a 43,000-year-old system of symbols – but is it evidence of a forerunner of writing systems, or something altogether different?
encoded: Writing is a tool for documenting ideas and events, and its invention transformed human history. It’s widely accepted that this world-changing technology was invented independently in at least four places: Mesopotamia, Egypt, China and Mesoamerica. Of these four great centres of innovation, it was in Mesopotamia and Egypt that the technology first emerged. Both ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs and Mesopotamian cuneiform are roughly 5,200 years old. Thanks to archaeology, it’s also possible to trace the technological innovations that preceded writing, eventually evolving into it. In Mesopotamia, about 9,500 years ago, traders were using small lumps of clay as numerical tokens to help calculate the value of goods. They soon began encapsulating these tokens in hollow clay balls, perhaps to signify trade transactions that were considered settled and permanent. These clay balls were opaque, so administrators made impressions on the outer surface to represent the tokens held inside. An important third step occurred roughly 5,500 years ago, when traders dispensed entirely with the tokens and flattened out the clay balls. These were still marked with impressions representing the now-abandoned tokens, producing the first clay tablets bearing symbols – a clear forerunner of cuneiform: the world's oldest writing system, marked onto clay tablets. All the steps in this technological journey took place within the past 10,000 years. But in early 2026, one team of researchers made a striking claim. According to them, there is evidence that humans associated with the Aurignacian culture (which existed in Palaeolithic Europe between around 43,000 and 26,000 years ago) developed a system of signs and markings that shared features in common with a forerunner of cuneiform writing. The announcement was interpreted by some as proof that the roots of writing are far older than had been thought – by an order of tens of thousands of years. A Stone Age script? Archaeologists have known for a cent…

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Politics and the Bayeux Tapestry: the inside story of the blockbuster loan to the British Museum
type: item
date: 2026-04-16T10:44:00.000Z
creator: Dr David Musgrove, FSA
subject: Medieval
subject: Norman
subject: Period
subject: Exhibitions
subject: Historical events
subject: Trends-News
description: History’s most famous embroidery has sparked endless fascination and controversy over the circa 950 years since its creation. In the run-up to its arrival in London, David Musgrove spoke to the UK Government’s Envoy for the Bayeux Tapestry Loan, Lord Peter Ricketts
encoded: Not many 11th-century embroideries get plastered across the vast billboards on Piccadilly Circus. In fact, I can think of only one – the Bayeux Tapestry. On 26 February this year, the British Museum managed to secure a full 15 minutes of primetime advertising overlooking Eros to announce details of its blockbuster Tapestry exhibition, kicking off in September. I went along to witness this event at London’s landmark traffic junction. It’s hard to judge whether people walking past were more surprised to see the Tapestry flashing across the big screens, or former chancellor (and now British Museum chair of trustees) George Osborne standing on the street staring up at it. The Tapestry has been living rent-free in my head since January 2018, when I got a wake-up call from Radio 4’s Today programme asking me on to discuss the impending announcement of the loan of the Tapestry to the UK by France’s President Emmanuel Macron. They had my number because I’d written an article for BBC History Magazine (now renamed HistoryExtra Magazine) some years earlier canvassing experts on whether a loan like this could ever come to pass. Overexcited by that turn of events, I partnered up with the British Museum’s in-house Tapestry expert, Michael Lewis – curator of the forthcoming major exhibition, scheduled to open in September – to write The Story of the Bayeux Tapestry. Leaping into action, we had the book written and on sale by spring of 2021, just in time for… nothing much at all to happen. For several years, the proposed loan was challenged and delayed, the idea being eclipsed by bigger geopolitical trends, according to Lord Peter Ricketts, the UK government’s Bayeux Tapestry Envoy. When I interviewed him for the HistoryExtra podcast, he explained that period of radio silence. <img src="https://images.immediate.co.uk/production/volatile/sites/7/2026/04/23DWB86G-6994025-e1776266960920.jpg" width="1500" height="1000" alt="Four officials stand in Piccadilly Circus at the 26 February 2…

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What did Anne Boleyn REALLY look like? Our new research could change everything
type: item
date: 2026-03-13T17:30:55.000Z
creator: Dr Owen Emmerson
subject: Membership
subject: Period
subject: Tudor
subject: British queens
subject: Henry VIII's wives
subject: Royal weddings
subject: Tudor kings and queens
description: Dark or brunette? Fair or swarthy? A paragon of beauty or a refined charmer? Our picture of Henry VIII’s ill-fated second queen has become distorted over five centuries – but new research by Owen Emmerson and others comes closer to revealing her true appearance
encoded: Close your eyes and picture Anne Boleyn. Chances are you can conjure up a pretty clear and detailed image in your imagination – because few figures in English history seem as visually familiar as Henry VIII’s second queen. Representations of her face appear everywhere: in films, television dramas and novels, in museum gift shops and digital reconstructions. She is often depicted in popular culture as an elegant brunette whose sophistication distinguishes her from others at court. Over time, this image has hardened into something close to fact. Anne Boleyn, we are told, was devastatingly beautiful. Yet this certainty is built on fragile foundations, and surviving evidence provides a less concrete understanding of Anne’s appearance. No formal painted portraits from life survive today, though images in a number of smaller, more intimate formats – particularly miniatures – are candidates for having captured her true likeness based on contemporary encounters. The more-familiar portraits featuring the now-iconic ‘B’ pendant necklace, meanwhile, were likely created decades later, influenced by politics, artistic convention and hindsight. <img src="https://images.immediate.co.uk/production/volatile/sites/7/2026/03/DXFXNM-38bec64-e1773309603951.jpg" width="1500" height="1000" alt="A woman with long dark braids, wearing a white period-style gown, sits on a cushioned bed and gently holds a baby wrapped in richly patterned blue and gold fabric. Dark wooden furniture and white bedding frame the intimate, historical-feeling scene" title="Natalie Dormer played Anne Boleyn in the television series The Tudors, which perpetuated modern ideas of the ill-fated queen as a dark-haired beauty (Image by Alamy)" /> For generations, historians assumed that any accurate representations created during Anne’s life had been lost altogether, erased after her execution in 1536 on the orders of Henry VIII. That story is compelling, but it is wrong. My research – which underpins Capturing a Queen: T…

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Is the Bayeux Tapestry in "mortal danger"? I think that's the wrong question to ask
type: item
date: 2026-02-26T17:24:25.000Z
creator: Dr David Musgrove, FSA
subject: Medieval
subject: Norman
subject: Period
subject: Exhibitions
subject: Historical events
subject: Trends-News
description: Rather than focusing on the risk to the Bayeux Tapestry in its forthcoming loan to the British Museum, David Musgrove argues that we should be talking about how the massive media interest in the exhibition will surely be a huge reward for the venerable embroidery – and guarantee its long-term survival
encoded: It’s not often that a medieval embroidery gets broadcast across the huge electronic billboards at Piccadilly Circus. But that’s what happened on the morning of 26 February, as the British Museum made its first big splash to announce details of its forthcoming blockbuster Bayeux Tapestry exhibition (tickets go on sale 1 July). I was there to enjoy the experience, and it was a delight to see an artefact that I’ve spent a long time thinking about getting the full film-star treatment (I’m co-author of The Story of the Bayeux Tapestry). The exhibition is not without controversy. Questions have been raised by French campaigners and one celebrated English artist (David Hockney) on how fit the Bayeux Tapestry is to travel, and whether it’s right to subject this venerable artefact to the rigours of a trip from Normandy to London. These are reasonable concerns, but they miss the point. Yes, there is risk, but what about the reward? What does the Tapestry gain from being transported and displayed in such a high-profile way? I’d argue that, rather than putting the Tapestry at mortal danger of destruction, the loan guarantees its long-term survival and will be a boon for the tourist business in Bayeux to boot. What other medieval artwork or contemporary documentary source could hope to receive the wall-to-wall media exposure that the Tapestry is currently receiving? <img src="https://images.immediate.co.uk/production/volatile/sites/7/2026/02/20260226090016-92f3207-rotated-e1772119755759.jpg" width="1500" height="1000" alt="A busy city street with pedestrians and vehicles passes beneath a large digital billboard mounted on the side of a modern building. The billboard displays an advertisement for the British Museum, featuring a scene from the Bayeux Tapestry, with figures in period clothing and the words “REX,” “HAROLD,” and “The British Museum – From Egypt to…”. Surrounding buildings include shops with street‑level storefronts, and a white truck and van are visible in the foregr…

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10 children and 12,000 pieces of art: the remarkable life of Lady Charlotte Schreiber
type: item
date: 2026-02-20T15:30:55.000Z
subject: Georgian
subject: Membership
subject: Period
subject: Victorian
subject: Amazing lives
description: She was a headstrong scholar who contributed hugely to the study of medieval literature and challenged the societal norms of the 19th century. So why isn’t she better known? Caroline McCaffrey-Howarth traces the adventures of an unsung heroine
encoded: While hunting for antiques in the Netherlands in the 1880s, the esteemed art dealer Joseph Joel Duveen received a tip-off that some “wonderful pieces of china” had come up for sale in a remote village. Getting there would involve a tediously long journey but, undeterred, Duveen set out. Several hours later, however, he spotted a carriage speeding past in the opposite direction, and was able to make out its passenger. Recognising the face of his great rival, Duveen promptly turned around, empty-handed, ruefully realising that she had beaten him to the village and “snatched the prize”. The victor on this occasion was Lady Charlotte Schreiber. Surprisingly, given her long life – she was 82 when she died, in 1895 – which included two marriages, 10 children, scandalous affairs and a celebrated translation of the medieval Welsh Mabinogion, Lady Charlotte remains relatively unknown today. Often erroneously dismissed as a mere magpie obsessed with trinkets, for decades her second husband and sons were credited for accumulating her great collection. Yet, shortly before her death, she donated a trove of some 5,000 pieces to the South Kensington Museum (now the V&A) and the British Museum. Defiance and scandal Charlotte endured a difficult childhood. Born Lady Charlotte Elizabeth Bertie in 1812, she lost her father, the 9th Earl of Lindsey, when she was only six years old. Her mother remarried, and her new stepfather, the Reverend Peter Pegus, turned out to be a violent alcoholic; he once drank a whole mug of lamp oil, mistaking it for beer. Read more | 5 things you (probably) didn't know about Victorian Britain At the age of 10, Charlotte started keeping a diary, in which she wrote almost every day until she lost her eyesight in her late seventies. A true polymath, she gave herself “a man’s education”, studying history and literature, and learning Arabic and Farsi (Persian) as well as Greek, Latin, French, German, Italian and even Hebrew. She dedicated hours to her “oriental …

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Surrealism and the legacy of caricature | Alice Loxton on the world of the Georgians
type: item
date: 2026-02-02T09:06:25.000Z
subject: Georgian
subject: Membership
subject: Period
subject: HistoryExtra Academy
subject: The world of the Georgians
description: In the final episode of the World of the Georgians, Alice Loxton examines the life, work and lasting legacy of satirist James Gillray – and his influence on modern visual culture
encoded: To conclude the series, Alice Loxton turns the spotlight on the artist who shaped Georgian satire more than any other: James Gillray. This episode explores Gillray’s life, his fearless approach to power, and the increasingly surreal and grotesque style that made his work so influential. From terrifying politicians to distorted bodies and absurd scenes, Gillray pushed caricature beyond realism, laying the groundwork for later artistic movements. View Green Video on the source website Want more from Alice? Find more episodes of the World of the Georgians here Alice Loxton is a historian, presenter and Sunday Times bestselling author with over three million followers on social media.

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Fashion and folly | Alice Loxton on the world of the Georgians
type: item
date: 2026-02-02T09:05:32.000Z
subject: Georgian
subject: Membership
subject: Period
subject: HistoryExtra Academy
subject: The world of the Georgians
description: In episode five of the World of the Georgians, Alice Loxton explores Georgian fashion, celebrity and excess – and how caricature delighted in cutting vanity down to size
encoded: In Georgian Britain, clothing was never just about style – it was a public performance of wealth, status and ambition. In this episode, Alice Loxton examines the extravagant fashions of the 18th century, from towering wigs and vast hoop skirts to the scandalously sheer dresses of the Regency era. She also explores early celebrity culture through figures such as opera singer Elizabeth Billington, whose fame made her a magnet for gossip and, of course, satire. View Green Video on the source website Want more from Alice? Find more episodes of the World of the Georgians. Alice Loxton is a historian, presenter and Sunday Times bestselling author with over three million followers on social media.

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Health and medicine | Alice Loxton on the world of the Georgians
type: item
date: 2026-02-02T09:04:12.000Z
subject: Georgian
subject: Membership
subject: Period
subject: HistoryExtra Academy
subject: The world of the Georgians
description: In episode four of the World of the Georgians, Alice Loxton investigates Georgian healthcare, where cutting-edge science sat uneasily alongside quack cures and medical scams
encoded: Medicine in Georgian Britain was as ripe for ridicule as it was for reform. In this episode, Alice Loxton explores how satirical artists such as James Gillray mocked the confusion of 18th-century healthcare, where miracle cures, medical quacks and genuine scientific breakthroughs existed side by side. From dubious treatments to the controversy surrounding early vaccination, this episode reveals how caricature captured public anxieties about illness, science and the body. View Green Video on the source website Want more from Alice? Find more episodes of the World of the Georgians. Alice Loxton is a historian, presenter and Sunday Times bestselling author with over three million followers on social media.

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Napoleon: hero or “Little Boney”? | Alice Loxton on the world of the Georgians
type: item
date: 2026-02-02T09:03:09.000Z
subject: Georgian
subject: Membership
subject: Period
subject: HistoryExtra Academy
subject: The world of the Georgians
description: In episode three of the World of the Georgians, Alice Loxton explores how British caricature turned Napoleon Bonaparte from feared enemy into a figure of ridicule
encoded: For Georgians in Britain, Napoleon Bonaparte loomed large as both a military threat and a propaganda obsession. In this episode, Alice Loxton examines how satirical artists helped shape public perceptions of Britain’s greatest enemy during the Napoleonic Wars. From heroic self-fashioning in France to the British invention of “Little Boney”, caricature became a powerful weapon of war, shrinking Napoleon’s image and undermining his authority through humour. View Green Video on the source website Want more from Alice? Find more episodes of the World of the Georgians. Alice Loxton is a historian, presenter and Sunday Times bestselling author with over three million followers on social media.

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High society | Alice Loxton on the world of the Georgians
type: item
date: 2026-02-02T09:02:16.000Z
subject: Georgian
subject: Membership
subject: Period
subject: HistoryExtra Academy
subject: The world of the Georgians
description: In episode two of the World of the Georgians, Alice Loxton turns her attention from the monarchy to high society, revealing how etiquette, marriage and reputation became prime targets for Georgian satire.
encoded: After skewering the royal family, Georgian satirists eagerly turned their pens on the elite. In this episode, Alice Loxton explores the rigid social codes that governed Georgian high society, where a misplaced laugh, an awkward gesture or a poorly judged marriage could spell social disaster. Using caricatures by satirist James Gillray, she examines courtship, matchmaking and the intense pressure to marry well, revealing a world where appearances mattered deeply – and where artists delighted in exposing the absurdities behind polite manners. View Green Video on the source website Want more from Alice? Find more episodes of the World of the Georgians. Alice Loxton is a historian, presenter and Sunday Times bestselling author with over three million followers on social media.

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