British Isles

The most famous Anglo-Saxon bling may be the Sutton Hoo Ship Burial treasures, but the largest hoard of Anglo-Saxon goldwork is the Staffordshire Hoard. Discovered in 2009 in western England, the Staffordshire Hoard is a jaw-dropping, eye-dazzling collection of intricately crafted works of armorial art.

It's easy to pidgeonhole medieval "science" as a mishmash of superstition and ignorance. (Alchemy? Astrology? Ptolematic cosmos?) But a team of physicists, Latinists, and philosophers at the University of Durham are suggesting otherwise. They've taken the scientific writings of Robert Grosseteste -- thirteenth-century English bishop and mathematical luminary -- and analyzed them through both medieval and contemporary understandings of science, and found that Grossetesete's methods and conclusions aren't that different from contemporary science's understanding of the universe.

Scholars of sport have long known that football -- or soccer, for you Americans -- was played in the fifteenth century. However, local historians in easetern England recently discovered an account of a 1320 football game (known as "campyng" or "campball") that may have ended rather nastily. The court document reported

You stick a brick in its mouth, of course. Or you bury its head between its legs. Or perhaps you skewer its corpse with an iron rod.