Culture

Three medieval carol singers, image dated 1911

Christmas carols: the history behind 9 festive favourites

HEX_Voices_Michael Wood

Michael Wood on James Bond “Bond’s role grew out of proportion to Britain’s standing in the world”

A 14th-century illustration of a farmer leading a pack animal through the ice and snow

The surprisingly modern Middle Ages

Progressive potter: Josiah Wedgwood (1730–95). As well as pioneering new types of pottery, he also imbued his work with political radicalism. (Photo by DeAgostini/Getty Images)

Josiah Wedgwood: the radical father of English pottery

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3 curious medieval ghost stories

Ira Aldridge. (Granger, NYC/Alamy Stock Photo)

Ira Aldridge: Shakespeare’s black Othello

Tourists at Stonehenge. We have no better idea today than 200 years ago what the people who erected these sarsens truly believed. (Getty Images)

General prehistory

Prehistoric religion: a pagan riddle we will never solve?

Victorian singer, performer and entrepreneur Emily Soldene

Adventures of a Victorian actor

This red-figure pottery depicts a story involving Helen of Troy. Greek tragedies posed their audiences an awkward question: what would you do if you were in a similar situation? Meanwhile, comedy gave satirists a channel through which to cut Athens' political heavies down to size. (DEA/G.NIMATALLAH/De Agostini/Getty Images)

Ancient Greek theatre and the Athenian identity

Adolf Hitler stands with his back to a statue of Discobolos, the Discus Thrower

The classics and racial hatred: how the far right hijacked the ancient world

Historian Alex Von Tunzelmann. (Photographed by Fran Monks for BBC History Magazine)

Alex Von Tunzelmann “Debates about statues are often posed in simplistic primary colours”

The Statue of Liberty against a blue sky

Q&A Was the Statue of Liberty designed specifically for the United States?

Ornate water gardens of the ancient fortress of Sigiriya in Sri Lanka

General ancient history

From Nan Madol to Karakorum: 7 cities that history forgot

A plaque which decorated the palace of the Benin Obas, The Obas butchers sacrificing a cow, the most prestigious animal sacrifice

Benin: a kingdom cast in bronze, brought to ruin by Britain

A phantasmagoria by Belgian entertainer Etienne-Gaspard Robert, whose stage name was Etienne Robertson, 1797. (Photo by Kean Collection/Archive Photos/Getty Images)

Phantasmagoria: creating the ‘ghosts’ of the Enlightenment