07/01/2014

Available for over a year

Tom Holland and a cast of leading historians, together with listeners, discuss the latest historical research from across the UK including, this week, the religion of the Picts. Tom is joined by Professor Martin Carver from the University of York and Dr Gareth Williams from the British Museum in a programme that shines a light on the people of the Dark Ages and also tackles an increasingly thorny issue about how to handle rare artefacts and documents. Dr Fiona Watson is joined by Dr Alex Woolf from the University of St Andrews on a journey to a Pictish monastery in the remote coastal village of Portmahomack, north of Inverness. It's a site which, thanks largely to the work on Martin Carver, tells us a lot about the reach of Christianity and how the east coast of Britain lost its economic and political advantage after the fall of Rome. Oddly, it was Portmahomack's links to the west through the Great Glen which helped its monastery become established during this period. And at the British Library, the gloves are off as Helen Castor responds to listener's concerns about the way in which she handled rare documents in her recent TV series for BBC 4. Contact the programme: [email protected] Produced by Nick Patrick A Pier production for BBC Radio 4.