Coping with washday blues Washday has always been at best a trial, and at worst a curse, as the great Restoration diarist Samuel Pepys makes clear in his terse entry for April 4, 1666: 'Home, and being

Clay was molded into the records of the ancient world, as well as its bricks, tiles and pots. From before 3000 BC, the Sumerians of ancient Mesopotamia kept records by drawing pictures on soft clay tablets

The Great Escape At the tunnel face, a young RAF officer drenched in perspiration lay on his side, chipping at the sandy earth inches from his nose, while a second officer heaped the excavated earth into

The Emperor Trajan was annoyed with Gaius Plinius Caecilius Secundus, governor of the Roman province of Bithynia in Northern Turkey. Why did he trouble him with petty problems? Trajan had enough on his

A Book of Wounds The ancient Egyptian medical manual, written around 1600 BC, describes treatment for fractures, dislocations, wounds, tumours and other surgical disorders. The Greek historian Herodotus,

A marriage on trial (Egypt) The wedding procession of the 12-year old tamit moves joyfully through the streets of Thebes. Resplendent in a sparkling white dress and matching shawl. Tamit shyly acknowledges

To honor Zeus The athletes marched slowly down the great way to the grove of Altis at Olympia, the most sacred site of Zeus, the ruler or gods. In to days the Olympic Games would start. So important was

Lying in wait for food The group of silent hunters squatted patiently in the bushes and tall grasses near a herd of grazing bison. At a signal, the men jumped to their feet, hurling stones, waving branches,

Shrine to a goddess of wisdom The Goddess' ivory skin glowed softly in the half-light of the temple's inner room. Her magnificent frame stood 33 ft tall, the masterpiece of the Greek sculptor Pheidias.

The huge stone on the ground was 20 ft long and weighed 50 tons. At its foot lay a pit 8 ft deep, three sides help up by wooden stakes and the fourth- nearest to the base of the stone- shaped as a ramp.

The wealthy Egyptian lawyer turned to his wife and asked her to check that his eye shadow was even. Although he was well practised in the art of applying make-up, he wanted to be absolutely confident that

They were hard put to complete the journey in 3 and a half years, because of snow and rain and flooded rivers and violent storms in the countries through which they had to pass, and because they could

THE WIND WHISTLING THROUGH THE RIGGING HAD TO BE A WIND FROM THE GODS. It was freakish, blowing Eric the Red ever westward further into exile. For days now, he had been sailing into the unknown and had

This is a blog for everyone who has ever looked with wonder at the world around them. This tells how people have overcome what often appear to be impossible odds to help to create that world. There are