Happy new year! Here’s your monthly round-up of landscape discoveries, archaeological news and folkloric curiosities, brought to you by Northern Earth magazine.
Issue 182 (Winter 2025) of Northern Earth is still available but will sell out soon. If you don’t have a subscription (from only £12) do get one now! Inside, we encounter a Neolithic polishing stone, explore intriguing geoglyphs and alignments, meet author Peter Ross, and more.
Subscribe to the printed journal
New at the website: Between a rook and a thin place: spirit paths of the corvids, an article by former editor John Billingsley (updated from issue 154).
Also: selected books reviewed in our pages are now available through our online bookshop – some of them at 10% off!
And now on with the regulars…
(Other recent news can be found in the printed magazine.)
‘Long-Lost’ Troy Story Depicted on Roman Mosaic in Rutland [Ancient Pages]
Shells found in Spain could be among oldest known musical instruments [The Guardian]
Archaeologists uncover vast Neolithic pit circle surrounding Durrington Walls near Stonehenge [Archaeology News]
Hunter-gatherer groups are much less egalitarian than they seem [New Scientist]
Hidden Chambers Found in Menkaure Pyramid: Researchers Uncover Two Mysterious Void Spaces [SciTech Daily]
Neanderthals mastered fire – in Suffolk, 400,000 years ago [Nature]
Anglo-Saxon settlement among new discoveries in large-scale Suffolk excavation [Heritage Daily]
7,000-Year-Old Underwater Wall Discovered off French Coast – Has the Mythical Submerged City of Ys Been Found? [Ancient Pages]
2,400-year-old ‘sacrificial complex’ uncovered in Russia is the richest site of its kind ever discovered [Live Science]
Archaeologists uncover Bronze Age mystery in Scotland [The National – see picture below]
Mysterious ‘demon monolith’ adorned with screaming faces and twisted bodies appears in California desert [Daily Mail]
And finally… ‘Black-eyed ghost child’ caught on camera ‘haunting UK forest’ [Express]
January 6 Haxey Hood procession, Lincolnshire.
January 12 & 15 Wassail film screenings by OffBeat Folk Film Club. Walthamstow Trades Hall (12th) and SET Social, Peckham (15th).
January 13 Simon Young: The Mystery of Changelings: Origins, Geography, and Nature. Online talk from The Folklore Society.
January 14 Life on the Lake: The prehistory and history of Skipsea, Holderness. Royal Archaeological Institute, Burlington House, London.
January 21 Archaeological evidence for past flooding and flood management in England. An East Yorkshire case study. East Riding Archaeological Society. Wilberforce Building, University of Hull.
January 22 Recent excavations on Neolithic and Bronze Age sites at Street House. Forest of Galtres Society. Church Hall, Easingwold.
January 27 The Art of English Dialect Literature. Online talk from The Folklore Society.
January 27 Victorian Mummymania. London Fortean Society, The Bell, Middlesex Street, London.
January 27 Up Helly Aa, Lerwick, Shetland.
January 30–31 The Watchers: two screenings of this short 1969 film made near Todmorden, and screening in the town’s Hippodrome Theatre, accompanied by multimedia from Folklore Tapes.
Wassail events also take place around the country throughout January. Many are listed here.
Until January 18 Egypt: Influencing British Design 1775–2025. Sir John Soane’s Museum, London.
Until January 24 Downland: art and the archaeological imagination in Wiltshire. Wiltshire Museum, Devizes.
Until February 9 Every Step of the Way – artists respond to the South Downs Way. Weald and Downland Museum, Singleton, Chichester.
Until February 22 The Shelter of Stories: Ways of Telling, Ways of Dwelling. Compton Verney, Warwickshire.
Until February 27 Elective Affinities: 100 years at Swedenborg House, London.
Until February 28 Starr Carr: Life after the ice. Yorkshire Museum, York.
Until March 1 Secrets of the Thames: Mudlarking London’s lost treasures. London Museum Docklands.
Until mid March Exhibition of archaeological finds at Buckler’s Hard, Hampshire.
Until 19 April ‘Don’t Let’s Ask for the Moon...’: Nocturnes and Atkinson Grimshaw. Leeds Art Gallery.
Until 2027 Viking North, showcase of best collection of finds outside London. Yorkshire Museum, York.
[Picture story] Inside the story behind mysterious carved labyrinths in Cornwall [Cornwall Live]
[Picture story] Ancient rock art revealed in all its glory in stunning photographs [New Scientist]
[Society] If you’re drawn to ghost stories, why not join A Ghostly Company…
[Website] Northern Earth contributor Bob Trubshaw has compiled a guide to the sepulchral effigies of Leicestershire and Rutland.
And for further regular recommendations, do sign up to the Gnome newsletter from the excellent folk at Weird Walk.
Thanks to various readers for the tipoffs! Do reply to this newsletter or email Northern Earth if you have useful links to share. (If your suggestion hasn’t appeared yet, it may well next time!)
Finally, do sign up to our new sibling newsletter…
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