In 793CE, monks recorded sightings of dragons in the skies above northern England. While the streaks of fire they witnessed were likely to be a meteor shower, they weren’t the first or the last to see dragons in the night sky. Dr Elizabeth Stanway looks at some of the other legends, myths and stories linking dragons and space.
There are some amazing myths and legends associated with one particularly interesting constellation: the Pleiades star cluster.
You may know that every four years February gets an extra day and we have what’s called a “leap year”. But how are leap years calculated and who worked it out? Dr James McCormac, an expert in astrophysics from the University of Warwick’s Physics Department explains.
Professor Michael Scott shares five ways modern technology is helping us to expand the ancient world.
Professor Michael Scott wants to dispense with one of the greatest misnomers about the study of the ancient world – that it is a subject which is no longer relevant.
On St Valentine’s Day, modern tradition dictates that we really ought to treat our loved one to a romantic meal, a bunch of flowers or watch a ‘rom-com’. At the very least we should buy a card. But that is modern tradition. What was love before it became a supermarket meal deal for two?
There are names from Greek and Roman history that you’re no doubt familiar with, be they emperors, philosophers or physicians, but Bryson Arabus is probably not a character you’ve come across. Professor Simon Swain talks about his new translation and study of Management of the Estate, an economic treatise penned by the little-known Roman writer Bryson.
Dr Clare Rowan discusses the ancient coins, produced in Syracuse, that inspired the Spring/Summer 2013 catwalk show of the fashion house Dolce & Gabbana. What's the history behind these coins?
Archaic and classical Greek culture was steeped in spirit. Drinking parties for the elite were a ritual that eventually filtered down to the man in the street. What went on at these gatherings and how were inebriation and public displays of drunkenness justified in cultural terms? Professor James Davidson and Dr David Fearn from the Department of Classics and Ancient History discuss bards and their booze in this revealing podcast showing how drunken gangs on the streets of ancient Athens weren’t too far removed from their twenty-first century counterparts.
