The Jomon peoples of northern Japan were unusual among foraging societies for being great monument builders. They constructed a range of such sites, including stone circles, settings of wooden pillars, shell middens, and bank-enclosed cemeteries or embankments containing large quantities of material remains, all of which represented an ability to undertake significant investments in labour and probably also a high degree of forward planning. But how and why were these monuments built? On this episode of The PastCast, Simon Kaner examines what these enigmatic structures can tell us about a key period of Japanese prehistory. The Jomon stone circles are also the subject of an article in the latest issue of Current World Archaeology magazine, which is out now in the UK and next month in the US. It is also available to read in full on The Past website. On this episode, Simon spoke with regular PastCast presenter Calum Henderson. The Past brings together the most exciting stories and the very best writing from the realms of history, archaeology, heritage, and the ancient world. You can subscribe to The Past today for just £7.99. If you enjoyed this podcast, please consider liking it, subscribing, and sharing it around. The exhibition, Circles of Stone: Stonehenge and Prehistoric Japan is at the Stonehenge Visitor Centre until August 2023. More information about Jomon archaeology is included in An Illustrated Companion to Japanese Archaeology edited by Werner Steinhaus, Simon Kaner, Shinya Shoda, and Megumi Jinno. Details about the Jomon Sites of Northern Japan UNESCO World Heritage designation can be found here.

The Armada – and in English history there is only one – set sail from Lisbon on 28 May 1588, tasked with eliminating the Protestant Queen Elizabeth and restoring Catholic worship throughout England. Its creator, Philip II, ruler of Spain and Portugal, had at his disposal ‘the greatest and strongest combination that was ever gathered in all Christendom’. The fleet consisted of 130 ships, 2,431 guns, and 30,000 men. And yet the Armada's story was one of almost constant misfortune. On this episode of The PastCast, historian Geoffrey Parker, co-author of a major new history on the doomed campaign, explains what really happened in 1588. The Armada is also the subject of an article in the latest issue of Military History Matters magazine, which is out now in the UK and in early October in the US. It is also available to read in full on The Past website. On this episode, Geoffrey spoke with regular PastCast presenter Calum Henderson. The Past brings together the most exciting stories and the very best writing from the realms of history, archaeology, heritage, and the ancient world. You can subscribe to The Past today for just £7.99. If you enjoyed this podcast, please consider liking it, subscribing, and sharing it around. Geoffrey Parker’s book (co-authored by Colin Martin) is called The Spanish Armada: England’s deliverance in 1588 and is published by Yale University Press. It will be available to buy in the UK from December 2022. You can pre-order a copy here.

Twenty-five years ago, a cargo of millions of pieces of Lego was washed off the ship Tokio during a storm off Land’s End. The cargo was en route from the company’s factory in Billund, Denmark, to North America, where it was to be made-up into sets. To this day, tiny pieces of plastic are still being found on Cornish beaches – and by a strange quirk of fate, much of this Lego is sea-themed. On this episode of The PastCast, Tracey Williams, whose fascination with collecting the Lego washed up on her local beaches has driven her to publish a book, discusses the story of the lost cargo, the subsequent recovery efforts, and the environmental implications of the phenomenon. Her book on the Lego lost at sea formed the basis of an article by Joe Flatman in the latest issue of Current Archaeology magazine, which is also available to read in full on The Past website. On this episode, Tracey and Joe spoke with Current Archaeology editor Carly Hilts and regular PastCast presenter Calum Henderson. Carly also explains what readers can look forward to in the latest issue. The Past brings together the most exciting stories and the very best writing from the realms of history, archaeology, heritage, and the ancient world. You can subscribe to The Past today for just £7.99. If you enjoyed this podcast, please consider liking it, subscribing, and sharing it around. Tracey's book, Adrift: the curious tale of the Lego lost at sea, is published by Unicorn and is available to buy here. You can follow the project online by searching for @LegoLostAtSea on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook. A related paper on drift matter/drift archaeology by Þóra Pétursdóttir is available to read here.

It is 1,900 years since the Roman emperor Hadrian made landfall in Britain. His presence marks a departure from business as usual, as the island was not a standard destination for imperial inspections. The sparse surviving Roman accounts tell us little about Hadrian’s activities in Britain, and nothing at all about his motive for visiting in 122. It is certain, though, that the island was convulsed by unrest during his tenure. On this episode of The PastCast, Matt Symonds discusses the context and construction of the emperor’s most significant legacy in the British Isles, Hadrian's Wall, and the enduring mystery of its true purpose. Could the extraordinary scale of this fortification be explained by the contemporary military situation in Britain? Hadrian’s Wall is the subject of a special article in the latest issue of Military History Matters magazine, which is out in the UK on 14 July and the following month in the US. It is also available to read in full on The Past website. On this episode, Matt spoke with regular PastCast presenter Calum Henderson. The Past brings together the most exciting stories and the very best writing from the realms of history, archaeology, heritage, and the ancient world. You can subscribe to The Past today for just £7.99. If you enjoyed this podcast, please consider liking it, subscribing, and sharing it around. Matt’s book, Hadrian’s Wall: creating division, was published by Bloomsbury Books in 2021 and is available to buy here.

Just as the Titanic’s ‘unsinkable’ nickname proved to be somewhat hubristic, naming a ship Invincible might be seen as similarly tempting fate. This latter designation was intended to intimidate, however, as it described a mighty warship that was among the most technically advanced of her day. And although she sank off Portsmouth in 1758, Invincible remains the best-preserved 18th-century warship known in UK waters. On this episode of The PastCast, Dr Daniel Pascoe, who headed recent excavations of the wreck, describes her history up until her unfortunate sinking, the subsequent recovery efforts, and a new exhibition at Chatham Historic Dockyard which brings together some of the ship’s most fascinating artefacts. The wreck and the exhibition are the subject of an article in the latest issue of Current Archaeology magazine, which is out in the UK on 7 July, and is also available to read in full on The Past website. On this episode, Dan spoke with Current Archaeology editor Carly Hilts and regular PastCast presenter Calum Henderson. Carly also explains what else readers can look forward to in the latest issue, including articles on Canterbury’s history, Cissbury Ring, Butser Ancient Farm, and the Society of Antiquaries of London's new affiliate membership scheme. The Past brings together the most exciting stories and the very best writing from the realms of history, archaeology, heritage, and the ancient world. You can subscribe to The Past today for just £7.99. If you enjoyed this podcast, please consider liking it, subscribing, and sharing it around. And you can keep up with Dr Daniel Pascoe’s work by following him on Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube. A video on his current project – on the 70-gun Northumberland sunk off the Goodwin Sands – is available here.

When Henrietta Howard (née Hobart) built her Thames-side country house in Twickenham in the 1720s, it represented so much more than a fashionable escape from the bustle of court life: it was a refuge from her abusive marriage, and a sign of hard-won independence. With the house and its grounds now restored to their Georgian glory, and the site reopening to the public, Carly Hilts, editor of Current Archaeology magazine, visited to find out more. Carly joined this latest episode of The PastCast to discuss the life of Howard, her beautiful home, and the many achievements of the restoration project. Carly spoke with regular PastCast presenter, Calum Henderson. As well as Marble Hill, Carly also explains what other fascinating British archaeological sites and projects are featured in the latest issue of Current Archaeology. The magazine is on sale in the UK from 2 June and is also available to read in full on The Past website. The Past brings together the most exciting stories and the very best writing from the realms of history, archaeology, heritage, and the ancient world. You can subscribe to The Past today for just £7.99. If you enjoyed this podcast, please consider liking it, subscribing, and sharing it around.

The newly released, star-studded British movie Operation Mincemeat tells the remarkable story of a Second World War deception plan. A dead body disguised as a naval officer would be floated off the Spanish coast, in the hope that the Axis powers would come across fake documents on the body and accept misleading information about the impending Allied invasion of Sicily. It was a daring plan full of risks that could go wrong at several points. As indeed it did. On this episode of The PastCast, broadcaster and author Taylor Downing discusses his thoughts on the film, its cast, and previous on-screen depictions of the Mincemeat story. He has also reviewed the new film in the latest issue of Military History Matters magazine, which is also available in full on The Past website. On this episode, he spoke with regular PastCast presenter, Calum Henderson. The Past brings together the most exciting stories and the very best writing from the realms of history, archaeology, heritage, and the ancient world. You can subscribe to The Past today for just £7.99. If you enjoyed this podcast, please consider liking it, subscribing, and sharing it around. Taylor’s latest book, 1942: Britain at the Brink, has recently been published by Little, Brown. You can read an exclusive extract from it here.

Just to the south of Hadrian’s Wall, and at around the same time as the frontier fortifications were being built, the Romans constructed a fort on high ground overlooking the Solway estuary. Then, the site was known as Alauna Carvetiorum – today we call it Maryport – and it formed part of a chain of forts safeguarding the Cumbrian coast, which also represented an important communications and supply network. Perhaps the most famous finds from the fort are a collection of freestanding stone altars dedicated to the god Jupiter, which were found buried in a series of large pits on the highest point of the local landscape. Between 2011 and 2015 these enigmatic objects formed one of the key foci of investigations on the site by Professor Ian Haynes and Tony Wilmott, but the story of their discovery actually dates back centuries earlier. On this episode of The PastCast, Tony and Ian discuss their research in more detail with regular PastCast presenter Calum Henderson. Their article on Maryport in the latest issue of Current Archaeology, as well as the entirety of the magazine (and exclusive related archive features), are also available in full on The Past website. The Past brings together the most exciting stories and the very best writing from the realms of history, archaeology, heritage, and the ancient world. You can subscribe to The Past today for just £7.99. If you enjoyed this podcast, please consider liking it, subscribing, and sharing it around.

First airing in 1994, Time Team went from humble roots to become a celebrated British institution, with over 230 episodes and countless spin-offs and specials produced during its original 20-year run. And while the recent pandemic posed serious problems for archaeological fieldwork, it sparked a global renaissance for Time Time, as locked-down fans began to reconnect with old episodes or discover them anew on YouTube. Now, thanks to the support of thousands of fans, Time Team has premiered two brand new, three-part episodes on the internet. And that’s just the start, with two partnerships set to shed light on Sutton Hoo, and more potential sites currently in development for excavations this year. On this episode of The PastCast, Time Team’s ‘geophys whizz’ John Gater discusses the return of the show – what’s changed and what’s stayed the same, some of the highlights of the newest digs, and the vital role of the pub in the show’s production schedule. Gater spoke with Current Archaeology editor (and former Time Team researcher) Carly Hilts and regular PastCast presenter Calum Henderson. There is also an article by Felix Rowe on Time Team’s return in the latest issue of Current Archaeology magazine, out in the UK on 7 April. The article and magazine are also available in full on The Past website, as well as exclusive related archive features. And make sure to check out Time Team’s YouTube and Patreon pages to enjoy episodes old and new. The Past brings together the most exciting stories and the very best writing from the realms of history, archaeology, heritage, and the ancient world. You can subscribe to The Past today for just £7.99. If you enjoyed this podcast, please consider liking it, subscribing, and sharing it around.

The Greek city of Apollonia, founded in 650 BC, today lies on the sea floor between the mainland of Libya and a chain of offshore islands, 200km east of Bengazi. In 1958, an archaeological team set out to undertake a trailblazing survey of the submerged ruins. It was led by Dr Nicholas Flemming, whose experiences shaped his career as a marine archaeologist. On this episode of The PastCast, Nic Flemming describes the history behind the survey, why Apollonia is such a unique site, and how his experiences in the Special Boat Service (SBS) assisted with the reconnaissance. Flemming has written an article on Apollonia in the latest issue of Current World Archaeology magazine, which is also available in full on The Past website. On this episode, he spoke with regular PastCast presenter, Calum Henderson. The Past brings together the most exciting stories and the very best writing from the realms of history, archaeology, heritage, and the ancient world. You can subscribe to The Past today for just £7.99. If you enjoyed this podcast, please consider liking it, subscribing, and sharing it around. Nic Flemming’s book, Apollonia on my Mind, has also recently been published and is available to buy from his website. And make sure to also check out the Dive & Dig Podcast from the Honor Frost Foundation, on which Nic is also appearing as a guest this week.