HistoryExtra
type: channel
link: https://www.historyextra.com
description: The official website for BBC History Magazine
date: 2025-12-10T09:01:06.000Z
update period: hourly
update frequency: 1
update base: 2000-01-01T12:00+00:00
items: AI: good or bad for history? Our experts weigh in
items: From goat eyelids to bread: history's 12 strangest sex toys
items: Star witness: how the Royal Observatory transformed our understanding of astronomy and time
items: Did Hitler have a secret Jewish grandfather? Our DNA research has solved the mystery
items: The place where TIME began | A history of GMT
items: Love learning like Æthelstan
items: My history hero: Katya Adler chooses Rita Levi-Montalcini (1909–2012)
items: My history hero: Dame Stephanie Shirley chooses Tommy Flowers (1905–98)
items: Reshaping narratives, repatriation and Richard III : 25 lessons we've learnt from history in the last 25 years
items: Nikola Tesla: life of the week

AI: good or bad for history? Our experts weigh in
type: item
date: 2025-12-10T09:00:39.000Z
subject: General History
subject: Membership
subject: Period
subject: Column
subject: Debate
subject: Holocaust
description: As artificial intelligence penetrates almost every aspect of our lives, six historians debate whether the opportunities it offers to the discipline outweigh the threats
encoded: “We must experiment thoughtfully, push back critically, and make the case that slow, humanistic thinking still matters” Artificial intelligence isn’t inherently good or bad. Like the printing press or the written word itself, AI is a force – and whether it enhances or undermines historical practice will depend on who uses it, how, and why. AI’s most obvious advantage is that it can process vast amounts of data much faster than your regular historian, which turns it into an incredible asset. The trick here is to use it as it was originally meant to be used – not to replace human interpretation but to identify patterns that humans might not notice and, thus, to enable us to come up with better, more nuanced questions. But it goes beyond that. AI is forcing historians to rethink what constitutes evidence, authorship and interpretation. In doing so, it is not just supporting existing historical methods, it’s helping evolve them. Though I am not worried that historians will be replaced by AI any time soon, there is a risk that indiscriminate use might flatten out the practice. Good history requires doubt, contradiction, ambivalence, even uncertainty, but AI models are designed to produce smooth answers even when the data is messy or the past is unknowable. Moreover, history isn’t just knowledge – it’s a method of knowing. If AI shortcuts the method, it threatens the discipline’s integrity. There is little doubt that AI will be part of historical research, but it is crucial that historians shape its use to enhance rather than undermine our craft. We should resist the urge to scale for scale’s sake, and instead use AI to deepen, not dilute, historical understanding. If we do that, and embed AI within the discipline’s values – critical thinking, reflexivity, contextual awareness – then historians will become central in answering the question of whether AI is good or bad for history. We must experiment thoughtfully, push back critically, and make the case that slow, humanist…

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From goat eyelids to bread: history's 12 strangest sex toys
type: item
date: 2025-11-29T18:00:37.000Z
creator: Hilary Mitchell
subject: General History
subject: Membership
subject: Period
subject: Historical people
description: Our ancestors weren’t quite as prudish as we like to think they were. Hilary Mitchell looks at some of the tools past generations have used in the pursuit of sexual pleasure – from steam-powered vibrators to goat eyelids
encoded: This article contains explicit descriptions of sex and sexual practices throughout – please use discretion 1. The Hohle Fels phallus Around 28,000 years ago, an effigy of a human penis was left inside Hohle Fels cave, southwestern Germany. Made from fine-grained siltstone, the object was meticulously ground, polished and etched with grooves at both ends. Given its polished surface and true-to-life size, some researchers have suggested it may well have been an early masturbatory aid – or the first-ever dildo, to put it bluntly. However, that was not the artefact’s only possible purpose. When University of Tübingen archaeologist Nicholas J Conard first announced the find in 2005, he suggested that it was also used for knapping flints. <img src="https://images.immediate.co.uk/production/volatile/sites/7/2025/11/1D3GB1X-3e0e6f1-e1764240558215.jpg" width="1500" height="1000" alt="A man holds a phallus-shaped object in his hands, while a woman points to it. In the background, a group of people are working on excavating the floor of a cave" title="Archaeologists Nicholas Conrad and Petra Kieselbach pose with the Hohle Fels phallus shortly after its discovery in 2005" /> 2. Bread Yes, that’s right. As well as being a staple food in ancient times, bread may also have been used for less salubrious purposes. A passage from the Babylonian Talmud, for instance, contains a description of what should be done to treat a man afflicted by a puncture in his penis. The suggested solution is that a piece of warm barley bread should be placed on the man’s anus to induce ejaculation, proving whether or not the perforation has properly healed. Notably, the ancient Greeks are also said to have used makeshift sex toys known as olisbokollikes: batons of stale bread that were inserted into the anus, using olive oil as lubrication. It may sound far-fetched (and could have just been a rude joke), but the practice is mentioned in the lexicon of Hesychius of Alexandria, compiled in the fifth or si…

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Star witness: how the Royal Observatory transformed our understanding of astronomy and time
type: item
date: 2025-11-26T09:00:37.000Z
subject: General History
subject: Membership
subject: Period
subject: Education
subject: Historical events
subject: Space
subject: The Restoration
description: From the moment it was founded 350 years ago, the Royal Observatory in Greenwich drove our understanding of astronomy, navigation and time. Louise Devoy explores eight milestones in the history of this pioneering scientific institution
encoded: The big bang moment 1675: Charles II sparks a star-gazing revolution In the 17th century, the great maritime nations were vying to solve a puzzle that had confounded philosophers for many centuries: how to determine exact positions on the Earth’s surface. And in Britain, Charles II took a major step to ensure his realm’s position at the head of the pack. On 4 March 1675, the king signed a royal warrant appointing John Flamsteed as the first “astronomical observator”, tasked with “perfecting the art of navigation”. Flamsteed’s specific objective was to devise a method by which sailors could establish their longitude (east–west position) at sea – which involved measuring the positions of celestial bodies – and of knowing the time at a ship’s local position. And Flamsteed would get to carry out this vital research from the surroundings of the country’s first state-funded, purpose-built scientific institution: the Royal Observatory. It was urgent work, because England’s great rival, France, had stolen a march: Louis XIV had established an observatory in Paris nearly a decade earlier. Flamsteed was, in effect, playing catch-up. <img src="https://images.immediate.co.uk/production/volatile/sites/7/2025/11/T809MT-CMYKWeb-Ready-7606aa3.jpg" width="2663" height="1775" alt="an illustration showing a large crowd looking at several artefacts including a globe, a map, and a satellite dish" title="King Louis XIV visits the Royal Academy of Sciences in Paris in 1671. The creation of an observatory in the French capital had left England playing catch-up (Image by Alamy)" /> The size of the task facing the astronomer clearly wasn’t lost on Charles II, for the king appointed none other than the celebrated architect Christopher Wren to design the observatory. Wren’s chosen site was the hilltop ruins of Greenwich Castle – and it was here that the foundation stone was laid on 10 August 1675. With its lofty windows, royal portraits and accurate pendulum clocks, the octagonal ‘star chamber…

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Did Hitler have a secret Jewish grandfather? Our DNA research has solved the mystery
type: item
date: 2025-11-22T22:00:41.000Z
subject: Membership
subject: Period
subject: Second World War
subject: Fascism
subject: Holocaust
subject: Trends-News
description: Geneticist Turi King and historian Alex J Kay are in the spotlight after their research into Hitler’s DNA was featured in a new Channel 4 series. Shortly after the first episode aired, Matt Elton spoke to them about the complex ethical dimensions of this work and some of the stunning revelations that have emerged from it
encoded: Matt Elton, HistoryExtra: How did you get involved in this project and did you have any concerns? Alex J Kay: I got involved in the project in March 2023. I was contacted by Dan Chambers from Blink Films, who had already been working on this project for quite some time. I knew that Turi was already involved and they were looking for a lead historian for the programme. My big concern – because there’s so much out there about Hitler, so many documentaries, so many studies, so many books – was that this was going to be done in a serious way. Not sensationally, but really following the science, and very much based on research and evidence. Everybody who was involved with the project was clearly following science and really wanted to do a good job, and make sure it was as ironclad as possible in terms of the research and the evidence, so that reassured me. Turi King: I was brought on almost exactly four years ago. My first question was around not wanting to be involved if this was going to be done in a sensationalist way. And I did agonise [over doing it] because of who it is. But then, as an ancient DNA specialist, there have been thousands of individuals, archaeological and historical specimens, who have had their whole genome sequenced – including Beethoven. And I was thinking: “Well, why should Hitler be seen as this kind of mystical figure whom we could never do this DNA analysis on? And who is it who makes those kinds of decisions?” As Alex has said, Hitler has been the subject of so many books and articles and television programmes and so on, but this would add a new layer of information that hasn’t been available before. The other thing was that, because the swatch [a small sample of material] was being made available for DNA analysis, somebody was going to do this at some point, so let’s make sure it’s done in an absolutely rigorous way. My first question was: “Is this actually Hitler’s DNA?” My first role in this was to go through the entire process around auth…

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The place where TIME began | A history of GMT
type: item
date: 2025-10-25T15:27:20.000Z
creator: Elinor Evans
subject: General History
subject: Membership
subject: Period
description: On location at Royal Observatory, Greenwich in southeast London, HistoryExtra's Elinor Evans unpacks how astronomers, mathematicians, and global powers collaborated to create Greenwich Mean Time (GMT).
encoded: Long before smartphones and digital clocks, time was a local affair, creating chaos, confusion and even danger. On location at Royal Observatory, Greenwich in southeast London, HistoryExtra's Elinor Evans unpacks how astronomers, mathematicians, and global powers collaborated to create Greenwich Mean Time (GMT). Joined by Louise Devoy, Senior Curator of the Royal Observatory, Greenwich, we investigate the milestone innovations in this story, including the story of the Observatory Time Ball, the Shepherd Motor Clock, and George Biddell Airy's meridian Prime Meridian. From solving longitude at sea to defining timezones for the entire planet, this is the story of how we learned to master time. View Green Video on the source website Find out more about the history of time, space and navigation and plan a visit to the Royal Observatory

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Love learning like Æthelstan
type: item
date: 2025-09-22T08:00:48.000Z
creator: Dr David Musgrove
subject: Anglo-Saxon
subject: Membership
subject: Period
subject: Historical people
subject: Medieval kings and queens
description: The first king of the English can teach us valuable lessons about how to navigate a world revolutionised by AI, says Professor David Woodman
encoded: Are we losing the need to learn? That’s one of the things that people are worrying about with the advent of AI. Feels like a fair concern to me. Rather than learning something yourself, you can ask AI to tell you the answer, translate something for you, tell you how to fix something, even transcribe a medieval manuscript, if that’s your bag. It’s all a bit too easy, isn’t it, and humans, like water, tend to seek out the easiest route, the path of least resistance. So that’s potentially a pretty big problem. If we don’t need to learn, will we bother to learn, and if we don’t bother to learn, are our minds going to atrophy? Academics talk about ‘digital dementia’, and researchers are looking at whether AI is going to cause a general downturn in our cognitive abilities. Unless something changes, and with AI’s rapid development, chances are that we won’t actually need to learn in the future, or at least not in the same way that we do today. So maybe we need to learn to love learning, if we’re going to avoid falling victim to brain rot. And that, perhaps surprisingly, is where Æthelstan, first king of England, comes into the mix. Creator of the kingdom Æthelstan, to remind you, was the grandson of King Alfred the Great, son of King Edward the Elder. Crowned in 925 in Kingston-upon-Thames (an event marked to this day by a tooth-shaped stone ringed by Victorian railings on the side of the road), Æthelstan went on to create the kingdom of England as we recognise it today. Famously he won a substantial victory over an alliance of his adversaries at the battle of Brunanburh in the year 937. Read more | King Æthelstan: England's colossus Professor David Woodman, from Cambridge University, is Æthelstan’s most recent biographer, and he is a keen observer of the apparently contradictory sides of the character of the man: “One of the great paradoxes of early medieval history is that Æthelstan absolutely was a great military figure. He was somebody who secured his position by milit…

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My history hero: Katya Adler chooses Rita Levi-Montalcini (1909–2012)
type: item
date: 2025-09-12T07:30:07.000Z
creator: York Membery
subject: 20th Century
subject: Membership
subject: Period
subject: History hero
description: Journalist and broadcaster Katya Adler chooses Rita Levi-Montalcini as her history hero
encoded: In profile Rita Levi-Montalcini was a renowned neurobiologist who was a joint winner of the 1986 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for the discovery of nerve growth factor. Born in Turin to Italian Jewish parents, her early career was hindered by Mussolini’s Racial Laws and she had to go into hiding during the Nazi occupation of Italy. In 1992, she established a foundation to boost girls’ science education in Africa, and 10 years later she set up the European Brain Research Institute. When did you first hear about Rita Levi-Montalcini? When I had to help my daughter find an inspirational woman in history for a school research project. Rita, who achieved such amazing things against the odds, really struck a chord with me and my daughter. Her life story also provides a new lens on a fascinating period in history. What kind of woman was she? Rita was a strong, determined, intelligent woman, but was born in the early 20th century – still a sexist time. Initially wanting to be a writer, she went into medicine after a close family friend died of stomach cancer. She was an outstanding student but, as a Jew in Fascist Italy, she was barred from working at a university. Headstrong Rita set up a laboratory in her bedroom instead. When the Germans invaded Italy in 1943, she was hidden by non-Jewish Italians to save her from a concentration or death camp, and continued her research in an ‘underground’ laboratory. What made her a hero? First and foremost, her medical research, which is key to our understanding of Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s diseases. She’s one of only 25 women to have won a Nobel prize for science, so that was a massive triumph. I also love the fact that, despite the difficulties she faced, Rita never gave up. She always kept hope alive – continuing with her scientific research until she died, aged 103. Another thing I admire is the way she championed both the young and the elderly. Her motto was “add life to your years” – make the best of things and live li…

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My history hero: Dame Stephanie Shirley chooses Tommy Flowers (1905–98)
type: item
date: 2025-08-22T06:00:00.000Z
creator: York Membery
subject: 20th Century
subject: Period
subject: History hero
description: The late tech pioneer and philanthropist Dame Stephanie Shirley, who died in August 2025 aged 91, chose Tommy Flowers as a history hero
encoded: In profile Tommy Flowers was a British engineer with the Post Office. He’s best known for designing and building Colossus, the world’s first programmable electronic computer, which helped decrypt German messages during the Second World War. After the end of the conflict, Flowers continued to work for the Post Office, where he was involved in developing ERNIE, the random number generator used to pick Premium Bond winners. When did you first hear about Flowers? I had the privilege of working as a member of his team (on the first electronic telephone exchange, and later ERNIE) at the Post Office Research Station in Dollis Hill in the 1950s, when it was one of the leading research institutions in the world. However, he was a very senior figure in the organisation so my interaction with him was limited. I understood that he’d done something remarkable during the war, but the Official Secrets Act was taken very seriously in those days, and the story of Colossus didn’t really emerge until the 1970s. What kind of man was he? He was born in London’s East End, the son of a bricklayer and the grandson of a charlady. Growing up, money was tight and he was taught to be frugal. While doing an engineering apprenticeship, he took evening classes, gained a degree in electrical engineering and went on to have a distinguished career. I always found him polite, unassuming, and never sexist. What made him a hero? Because he changed the course of history, not once but twice. First, with his Colossus computer, which decrypted a huge number of high-level German messages during the Second World War, part of work estimated to have curtailed the conflict by up to two years. Second, with his pioneering work on early computers that paved the way for the modern digital world. He was also inspirational to me personally, as the sort of manager I wanted to become: he listened to his staff, got quality work out of them and attracted great loyalty. He was the nearest thing to a mentor to me. What was…

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Reshaping narratives, repatriation and Richard III : 25 lessons we've learnt from history in the last 25 years
type: item
date: 2025-06-18T08:00:37.000Z
subject: 21st Century
subject: Membership
subject: Period
subject: Debate
subject: Historical events
subject: Historical people
description: To celebrate a quarter-century of BBC History Magazine, we asked 25 expert contributors to nominate the most important historical discoveries and revelations since the publication launched in 2000
encoded: 1. Women played major roles in the Viking Age Just 25 years ago, there seemed to be little new to say about the Vikings – and that was particularly the case for Viking women. The centuries-old consensus was that Viking wives and daughters stayed at home, passively watching as the Viking Age unfolded around them. New technologies have forced a rethink, though, completely revolutionising what we know about Viking women. The first significant discovery came from a systematic survey of a nationwide database of metal-detected female dress jewellery. This demonstrated for the first time that Scandinavian women migrated to England in substantial numbers. Next, isotope analysis of teeth from the graves of Viking women showed that they had formed a key part of the migration process elsewhere, too, moving across the Viking world alongside their families. The most dramatic and most debated discovery, however, came through analysis of ancient DNA. In Birka, Sweden, an individual buried in a high-status warrior grave turned out to be biologically female. This led to a worldwide discussion of the roles of Viking women: we now agree that, though many certainly did stay at home, some played active roles in trade, craft and manufacturing processes, and even held military positions. Cat Jarman is an archaeologist, author and TV presenter. Her books include The Bone Chests: Unlocking the Secrets of the Anglo-Saxons (William Collins, 2023) 2. Britain has been culturally diverse for far longer than most believed The murder of George Floyd by white police officer Derek Chauvin in 2020 signalled a turning point in the way the histories of people of African descent were taught and perceived across Europe. From that moment, the British press and institutions felt that they had to engage better with narratives about minority ethnic communities. <img src="https://images.immediate.co.uk/production/volatile/sites/7/2025/06/GettyImages-1292414316-CMYK-6ff23f7.jpg" width="1451" height="967" alt="…

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Nikola Tesla: life of the week
type: item
date: 2025-05-06T06:30:16.000Z
creator: Ellie Cawthorne
subject: Membership
subject: Period
subject: Victorian
subject: Life of the week (podcast series)
description: Iwan Morus revisits the life – and myth – of the enigmatic pioneer of electrical power
encoded: Nikola Tesla is remembered as an enigmatic, eccentric genius who harnessed the power of electricity. But if we strip away some of this myth, what can we really say about the inventor's life and legacy? For this Life of the Week episode, Iwan Morus joins Ellie Cawthorne to reveal how Tesla believed he could invent a death ray, whether he was really a recluse, and how he would feel about Elon Musk's company using his name today.

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