Matt Lodder is the world's leading expert on the history of tattoos. He has found evidence of people using ink or charcoal on their bodies stretching back thousands of years. He explodes myths at every turn. Tattoos were common long before Captain Cook allegedly imported them back from the Pacific in the 18th century, and he demonstrates that they were never the exclusive preserve of marginalised subcultures, but actually adorned the bodies of royalty.
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Mudlarking
Dan joins author and mudlark expert Lara Maiklem for a spot of mudlarking.
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West Africa Before the Europeans
Toby Green has been fascinated by the history of West Africa for decades after he visited as a student and heard whispers of history that didn’t appear in text books. Years later he wrote ‘Fistful of Shells,’ a survey of West Africa and West-Central Africa before the slave trade, and the effect t...
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Science in the Middle Ages
Seb Falk, a historian of medieval science at Cambridge University and the author of The Light Ages, tackles the big questions about science in the Middle Ages.
