The latest exhibition at the British Museum offers an overview of South African art from manuports to Mandela and beyond. Lucia Marchini finds out more. Between 1948 and 1994, when the ruling National Party was enforcing apartheid legislation, the official version of South African history portrayed the country as a terra nullius before European settlement […]

A selection of the most luxurious of English embroideries, much desired by the rich and powerful of medieval Europe, have been brought together for a new exhibition at the V&A. Lucia Marchini takes a look. The Latin term opus anglicanum has been used in English to describe grand embroideries since the 13th century, and it gives much […]

The Mary Rose museum at Portsmouth Historic Dockyard was reopened 471 years to the day since the sinking of Henry VIII’s flagship – for the first time giving the public a clear view of her hull. Lucia Marchini went along to find out what else is new. When the new Mary Rose museum first opened […]

Today (Friday 9 September) is MOLA’s Time Truck’s last day at Bishops Square. Surrounded by tall commercial buildings, behind the high-end cosmetics shops of Old Spitalfields Market, the pop-up exhibition offers a chance to explore everyday life in east London in the 17th-19th centuries. With staff from MOLA on hand to explain the selection of […]

Nestled in the green, wooded hills of the North York Moors lie the ruins of Rievaulx Abbey. English Heritage has recently opened a new museum on the site, more than doubling the number of artefacts on show. Lucia Marchini discovered how the state-of-the-art displays explore over 400 years of Cistercian abbey life. Founded in 1132 […]

The new Wessex Gallery of Archaeology showcases Salisbury Museum’s spectacular collection of artefacts from Stonehenge and the surrounding area. The area around Salisbury boasts an almost incredible wealth of archaeological sites, from immediately recognisable monuments such as Stonehenge, to spots like the Blick Mead Mesolithic homebase (CA 293), where ongoing research is still revealing their exciting potential. […]

A new exhibition at Waddesdon Manor in Buckinghamshire, entitled Predators and Prey: a Roman mosaic from Lod, Israel, showcases one of the world’s most dazzling mosaics. Richard Hodges, director of the Roman site of Butrint in Albania, was invited to the launch. Waddesdon Manor, like the Lod Mosaic, which is now on display in its […]

A major new visitor centre, exploring the life, death, and rediscovery of Richard III, has just opened on Leicester’s Grey Friars site. But what is to be seen? CA went along in advance of the grand opening. On 26 July 2014, Leicester’s £4 million King Richard III Visitor Centre opened, the centrepiece of a series […]

Marking the 75th anniversary of a watershed discovery In May 1939, Suffolk archaeologist Basil Brown made a discovery that would change perceptions of Anglo-Saxon England forever: a spectacular 7th-century ship burial, overlooking the River Deben at Sutton Hoo. Seventy-five years on, its contents form the centrepiece of the British Museum’s recently reopened Early Medieval Europe […]

The jets dowsing the Mary Rose in polyethylene glycol have finally been shut off. As work begins on drying her timbers, the finishing touches have just been made to a new state-of-the-art museum showcasing the former pride of Henry VIII’s King’s Ships. Matthew Symonds was given a sneak preview of the custom-built display space for […]