Magic beakers & Roman helmets: artefacts that shaped history

Welcome to the History Extra podcast, fascinating historical conversations from the makers of BBC History magazine. Metal detectorists and members of the public have contributed hugely to our understanding of Britain's past through the artifacts that they've found hidden in the ground. Michael Lewis and Ian Richardson from the British Museum have written a new book Beneath Our Feet which explores some of the everyday discoveries that have reshaped history. From a Bronze Age cup with magical properties to a Roman cavalry helmet that would have been very hard to see out of. They spoke to David Musgrove, and the first voice you'll hear is Michael explaining what their book is all about, with Ian appearing later on when we get to the Roman helmet.

And if you hear anyone say PAS, that stands for the Portable Antiquities Scheme, the scheme managed by the British Museum that records archaeological finds discovered by the public. Well, the idea is, essentially, that we wanted to tell the stories of finds found by everyday people, most of them found by the metal detecting community, but essentially finds that aren't made by professional archaeologists. We wanted to tell the story of the find itself, the circumstances of discovery, and then also what the kind of wider importance of those objects is as well. All right, let's talk about a few of the objects and finds that you talk about in the book.

And we'll kind of go chronologically and we'll start with the Ringlemere Cup. What's that? Well, I mean, it is a an amazing object. I was very, very, very lucky to be the Fein Ziaison officer in Kent whom this object was reported to. So it's pretty dear to my heart, if you like.

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