Your monthly round-up of landscape discoveries, archaeological news, historical mysteries and folkloric curiosities, brought to you by Northern Earth magazine.
Last chance to catch Issue 182 (Winter 2025) of Northern Earth: only 19 copies left! 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 (including a surprise celebrity appearance).
Subscribe to the printed journal
And a reminder: 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.)
New study suggests the mysterious Voynich Manuscript may be a medieval cipher [Archaeology Mag]
Cremation pyre in Africa thought to be world’s oldest containing adult remains [Guardian]
Detectorist amazed to find Bronze Age treasure in Lewes [The Argus]
Massive Roman grave revealed in A66 excavation near Penrith [BBC]
Remarkable Iron Age hoard with 2,000-year-old instrument unearthed in Norfolk [Ancient Pages]
Wicklow hillfort designated Ireland’s earliest proto-town [RTE]
Evidence of advanced Neolithic civilisation found in Turkey [Ancient Origins]
Hand shape in Indonesian cave may be world’s oldest known rock art [The Guardian; research paper: Nature]
Northumberland National Park dig uncovers Bronze Age settlement [Chronicle Live]
Mysterious hum haunts American town, disturbed residents say [Times of India]
‘We haven’t cracked it yet’: Plea for help to explain origins of mystery lines in Kent field [Kent Online]
Mysterious big cat sightings reported in part of Wales [Wales Online]
And finally… ‘Disturbing occult paraphernalia’ found at David Hume mausoleum [Scotsman]
February 3 Investigating the Origin of the Stonehenge Bluestones and Population Migration. Online talk from Bedale Archaeology & History Society by Dr Daisy Spencer. Details via bedale.arch@gmail.com
February 4 Ann Morgan: the Shropshire Witch, with Amy Boucher. Online talk from The Folklore Centre.
February 6 East Anglian Folklore Centre Fundraiser: storytelling, ritual and song. Colchester Arts Centre.
February 7 The Memory of Things. Archaeology and storytelling workshop run by the Folklore Centre, Todmorden.
February 10 A Landscape that can come and go: How twentieth-century modernity gave Avebury its missing folklore. Online talk from The Folklore Society.
February 11 Witchcraft in the 16th and 17th century, with Dave Weldrake at Shadwell Library. Leeds. Book via Denise, denise.trickett@btinternet.com
February 11 The evidence for early Homo sapiens in Britain: historical review and new opportunities. Royal Archaeological Institute, Burlington House, London.
February 13 Hex and the City: theatrical walking tour exploring London’s witch-ridden past. Starts at Farringdon.
February 14 Lovers Lore Folkwalk with Sonia Overall. Sandwich Medieval Centre, Kent.
February 15 Sinners, Saints and Saviours theatrical walking tour of Southwark.
February 16 The History of Mermaids, Sea Spirits & Women. The Wardrobe, Leeds.
February 23 Terminalia Festival of Psychogeography (theme: ‘Rock’). Events worldwide.
February 24 Folklore in the Computer Age. Online talk from The Folklore Society.
February 27 Magic, Mystics and Martyrs. Theatrical walking tour exploring London’s lesser known female mystics, witches and rebels.
February 28 Current Archaeology Live! 2026. UCL, London.
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.
[Article] The island where human remains rise to the surface [BBC]
[Article] 10 things we learned about Neanderthals in 2025 [Live Science]
[Article] Inside the quest for the origin of Stonehenge’s Altar Stone [Independent]
[Film] Welsh folklore horror comes to the big screen in Rabbit Trap (but… filmed in Yotkshire) – on general release (trailer here)
[Database] Every archaeological record from the discovery of Tutankhamun’s tomb [The Griffith Institute, Oxford]
[Video] Slightly excitable YouTuber visits Scotland’s ‘anthrax island’ and other mysterious sites.
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!)
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