Although usually portrayed as a failure, contemporary reports on the Crimean War ignored British successes. The treatment of Britain’s wounded soldiers, initially a scandal, was soon re-organised, a feat no other country achieved. Nurses such as Florence Nightingale and Mary Seacole became national heroines.

As spectacle wearers and costumed interpreters, we wondered where and when these corrective optical devices were invented.

On this day, in the early hours of October 12th, 1915, a British national, still wearing her nurses’ uniform, was led out into a yard at Belgium’s national rifle range in Brussels. Alongside her was Phillipe Bancq, a Brussels-based architect. Shortly after dawn, two German firing-squads, each of eight men, were paraded in front of the pair. When ordered, the soldiers fired executing both Bancq and the British nurse - Edith Louisa Cavell.

Asked to imagine or portray a pirate, most people undoubtedly will have a certain look in mind. But the pop culture version was created by fiction writers and movies-makers. So, what did pirates look like? Dispelling some myths about Pirates.

The widely accepted view is that Cleopatra, Queen of the Nile, was ethnically an olive-skinned Macedonian Greek. Some argue, however, that the 'African' queen was a black woman. Who's right? What evidence is there to know how the enigmatic queen looked?

It's a story that's lasted over 900 years but what is the truth behind Lady Godiva's naked ride through the streets of Anglo-Saxon Coventry?

The Forme of Cury (‘The Method of Cooking’ is an extensive 14th-century collection of medieval English recipes.

Isabella Mary Beeton was an English journalist, editor and writer who is most associated with her first book, the 1861 work "Mrs Beeton's Book of Household Management".

Statecraft requires intelligence to determine the potential threats to a nation. It should be no surprise, given Rome’s highly organised military and civil bureaucracy, that the army provided the means to gather the necessary information. What follows is an attempt to unravel the "who’s who" and discover what roles, tasks, and functions Rome’s "secret agents" performed.

Introducing Eliza Acton a cookery pioneer who is far too often forgotten. She established the format for written recipes still used to this day that includes a description of the process, a list of ingredients, and the cooking time. Before her, cook's relied on just a list of ingredients and their own skill to create dishes. Eliza's innovative style allowed anyone to reproduce a recipe from scratch.

"Kitchenalia" introduces objects from different historical periods, discovers a bit about their history and how each was made. We look at how, through our practical experiments, we have learnt to best use them, and offer some recipes for you to try at home. Today's objects are "fish eaters". which became popular in the Victorian period.

Explaining the difference between the historical punishments known as pillories and stocks, which are often confused.

This article questions the oft quoted parallels between Mithraism and Christianity that have led to so much deliberation on whether Christianity is a re-branded version of Mithraic beliefs.

In an earlier article, we challenged the idea that Roman soldiers cooked farinata, a type of unleavened bread made from chickpea flour, on their shields (link here). Given that Roman shields (Latin scutae; sing. scuta) were typically made of wood this is highly unlikely and at best a myth. So, if not using their shields, then what utensils might the average Roman soldier carry to cook with?

The first Europeans to settle in the Americas were the Vikings. Perhaps we should call it 'Norse America'.

History is not only the study of past events, particularly in human affairs, but it is most uniquely, also a continuous, typically chronological, record of such events. This teaching resource is a simple guide to how history has been recorded.

It may seem strange to us today but why did the ancient Greeks exercise, train and compete naked? This simple teaching resource explains why and aims to dispel the myths.

Continuing the series "Ludi", and following on from ancient Egypt, here are selection of board games played by the ancient Greeks and Romans.

In the Palazzo Massimo alle Terme in Roma there is a mosaic, dating from the early 1st-century AD, depicting various food items including a basket of fruit brimming with figs, grapes, pomegranates, and one curious object. Some viewers see a pineapple and this has led others to postulate this as clear evidence that the ancient Romans had contact with South America. Find out why it's a myth.

What's in a name? Where barbarians really just uncouth savages or is there more to the original meaning behind this term?