Dark History Tours & Experiences

28/08/2026

https://www.theguardian.com/culture/2026/aug/27/thieves-steal-bronze-age-treasure-of-villena-in-four-minute-heist

Gold collection known as Treasure of Villena, worth at least €1.7m, is target of ‘very well planned’ raid

28/08/2026

Dear friends, I've received a request from a lady who took my tour recently; can you help?

"Hey Taff, hope all is well!

Shot in the dark here, do you know any good tour guides or companies in Edinburgh or Inverness? We are visiting Scotland in October. "

Any experiences of touring in Scotland?

28/08/2026

Back in 2022, a story was in the news about a "Vampire" burial in Poland. A recently published paper reveals that that female, buried with very unusual rituals was but one "inhabitant" of what looks like what we would term a "deviant cemetery": https://notesfrompoland.com/2026/08/28/polish-vampire-burial-sheds-light-on-17th-century-efforts-to-keep-the-dead-in-their-graves/?fbclid=IwY2xjawT-ryFwZG9mAWV4dG4DYWVtAjEwAGJyaWQRMWlDNnZaZjEyMW9tQkVuN0tzcnRjBmFwcF9pZBAyMjIwMzkxNzg4MjAwODkyAAEesazd4bqO_8TrkaDHneJ_FiZywB3u97gW-h73iyTn1YpJUwI82f4gbFr-NTQ_aem_bAPVnmKNZ7zUOn5nE2qjMw

Polish “vampire” burial sheds light on 17th-century efforts to keep the dead in their graves Aug 28, 2026 | Education, History Keep our news free from ads and paywalls by making a donation to support our work! Notes from Poland is run by a small editorial team and is published by an independent,...

26/08/2026

Holocaust deniers: all the footage shot by the Allies in 1945 is AI. You can tell apparently because the AI got the boots wrong: the boots they are wearing did not exist in 1945.

The boots:

25/08/2026

If you are going to tell a fib, tell a whopper:

This “ancient Greek” stadium in northern Italy was charging locals €40. An investigation into it took only a day to conclude it was a scam.

23/08/2026

Went to a b**r festival in Bamberg yesterday. I always wear the pith helmet when I am at these places; just a bit of fun and a bit different from Lederhosen like everyone else wears.

The hat is a real conversation opener; I think a lot just think I'm a crazy eccentric Brit.

Anyway, made the local newspaper :-)

19/08/2026

Cool story concerning some peeps just down the road from me and my fav b**r (you might need to translate it):
www.merkur.de/lokales/star... **r

18/08/2026

In my time as an archaeologist, I've mainly been down in the dirt or surveying with a Total Station Theodolite (those gadgets on tripods that you've probably seen when you your car is in a traffic jam due to roadworks).

Surveying and taking measurements is just as an important part of he work as actually putting trenches down - and in fact, without some sort of survey, we would not know where to dig.

On the TV, you've maybe seen or heard about "Geophysical Survey or just "Geo fizz"; this is where we shoot radar into the soil and then can plot an image of what is underneath (I'm keeping it simple here - but yes, there are other approaches to such surveys, such as Magnetometry). Sure, I learned how to use this stuff when I was a student but I've never been asked to do it; often such jobs get sub-contracted out to specialist firms.

This year - due to the Iran War pushing up fuel prices and low water levels on the Danube - the tour business, has to be blunt, been hit very hard. Not just in Munich either, just as we were making good after Covid too! I don't really want to return to digging holes - my upper neck is a bit screwed up due to 20+ years of what is essentially hard labour - but if I did, then maybe that sort of survey work is what I would pursue.

Where is this post going? Well, the link below gives you an idea of just what Geophysical Survey can deliver:

The 13th-century remnants of St. Clare’s are hidden beneath a soccer field in Roskilde.

15/08/2026

August 15th, 1945. V-J Day.

The Second World War was over; a new one was just on the horizon.

A Cold War: it turning hot would have unimaginable consequences.