Topic description and stories

Prof. Rory Naismith holding a silver Byzantine coin in the Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge. Photo: Adam Page

An early medieval money mystery is solved

09 Apr 2024

Byzantine bullion fuelled Europe’s revolutionary adoption of silver coins in the mid-7th century, only to be overtaken by silver from a mine in...

Read more
Facial reconstruction of the Trumpington Cross burial woman by Hew Morrison

Face of Anglo-Saxon teen VIP revealed with new evidence about her life

20 Jun 2023

The face of a 16-year-old woman buried near Cambridge in the 7th century with the ‘Trumpington Cross’ has been reconstructed following analysis of...

Read more

Anglo-Saxon kings were mostly veggie but peasants treated them to huge BBQs

21 Apr 2022

Very few people in England ate large amounts of meat before the Vikings settled, and there is no evidence that elites ate more meat than other people...

Read more

The skeleton of the teenage girl, and the remnants of her burial, as discovered by Cambridge University archaeologists in 2011.

Trumpington Cross goes on display for the first time

01 Feb 2018

Extremely rare, early Christian gold cross, gifted to Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology

Read more

Æthelred the Unready, King of the English: 1,000 years of bad press

21 Apr 2016

He was just a boy when he became King of the English and his reign was marked by repeated attacks by the Danes. Æthelred, who died 1,000 years ago on...

Read more
The Vikings are coming

Opinion: From Medieval kings to modern politics: the origins of England’s North-South divide

26 Feb 2016

Fiona Edmonds (Department of Anglo-Saxon, Norse and Celtic) discusses devolution and the medieval kingdoms of England.

Read more

Tin toys from the 1930s–1950s.

The archaeology of childhood

30 Jan 2016

A sledge made from a horse’s jaw, the remains of a medieval puppet, the coffin of a one-year-old Roman child, and the skeleton of an Anglo-Saxon girl...

Read more
Derge iron water bottle.

Where to find a dragon in Cambridge

24 Jun 2015

The Cambridge Animal Alphabet series celebrates Cambridge's connections with animals through literature, art, science and society. Here, D is for...

Read more
Matthew Paris OSB, Chronica maiora 1CCCC, MS 26, f.127v (Parker Library)

"And the girl he immersed in the font he took out as a boy"

02 May 2014

A conference taking place today in the Department of Anglo-Saxon, Norse and Celtic is the first step in an ambitious graduate-led project to create...

Read more

Furness Abbey

Headland history

31 Jan 2014

The medieval monk Jocelin of Furness has been little studied by historians - now a project investigating his work and its context is transforming...

Read more
Illustration from the Saga of St Olaf, Flateyjarbók, Reykjavik, Iceland

Explore the scary stories of early cultures

31 Oct 2012

Don’t miss the chance to learn about the rich cultures of the early British Isles in a series of free talks and readings at the Faculty of English...

Read more
Anglo-Saxon bed burial with gold cross

Mystery of Anglo-Saxon teen buried in bed with gold cross

16 Mar 2012

Extraordinary 7th century discovery on outskirts of Cambridge offers unique insights into the origins of English Christianity.

Read more

Pages