There are several defining features of Santa Claus, a large pot belly, a soft red suit with fluffy white trimming, big black boots. However, the most iconic of all is his ample white beard. Facial hair has a long history, reflected in the abundance of whiskers on the PAS database. To get in the festive …more
What’s that vibrating through the airwaves? Listen closely enough and you’ll hear those familiar words… “it’s coming home.” To celebrate the beginning of the World Cup, we’ve brought together some suitably sporty objects. While football has been played in England since the Medieval period, football as we know it emerged in the 19th century, following the …more
Calling all stargazers, it’s World Space Week! Here on the PAS County Pages blog, we’ve been shooting through the database to find some stellar objects. Observations of the night sky have been made throughout human history. The stars have been used to situate our lives – in time by calendars, navigationally on earth, and within …more
By Emma Mills and Denise Wilding Ever wondered what goes on behind the scenes of the Portable Antiquities Scheme? A new display at the British Museum explores the work of the PAS and unpicks some of the key processes used to identify treasure. Read on to get a taste of the Treasure Case and the …more
It’s August 6th 1848, on-board the massive warship HMS Daedalus. You’re standing on deck as the vessel creaks and heaves its way around the Cape of Good Hope. Peering into the mist, you see a strange shape emerge. Four feet of smooth neck pokes out of the water – the creature moves rapidly through the waves. …more
This month on the PAS blog we’re celebrating the fantastic Festival of British Archaeology, organised by the Council for British Archaeology. From the 16th to the 31st of July, the Festival will be hosting hundreds of in-person and virtual events. Delivered by local groups, these events are designed to get more people involved in local archaeology. The …more
This week, our spotlight is on the small but historically mighty Avon. This area encompasses the City of Bristol, as well as northern parts of Somerset. The river Avon and its luscious surrounding areas have attracted human habitation for thousands of years. For example, this fantastic Middle Bronze Age hoard (GLO-6535E4) was found in the …more
This week we’re travelling through the database to the county of Bedfordshire. The fertile land around the River Great Ouse has been inhabited since the Lower Palaeolithic. This period dates from around the earliest evidence of human habitation in Britain 950,000 years ago, to the beginning of the Middle Palaeolithic period approximately 300,000 years ago. …more
Hello and welcome back to the PAS blog. All around the United Kingdom, this weekend marked the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee. You may have noticed an increase in Queen-themed paraphernalia – commemorative mugs, postcards featuring the monarch with her family/horses/corgis, Union Jack bunting. The Queen is one of the most photographed people in the world and …more
Hello again readers of the PAS blog. In preparation for the blog post this month, I began my usual trawl through the database. A certain class of objects struck me immediately. Keys are something we all have rattling around – they hang off lanyards and on novelty keychains, in jumbles of bronze and silver. The …more
