Categorised links to favourite websites
Friends
Around Hitchin, my partner Bahkti’s photographic blog.
Archaeology
Portals
The Council for British Archaeology’s website, hosted by the British Academy
ArchNet, the WWW Virtual Library of Archaeology, hosted by the Archaeological Research Institute at Arizona State University, which has worldwide coverage
ARGE, the Archaeological Resource Guide for Europe
An online “companion” to Kevin Greene’s Archaeology: an introduction, but beware: some of the links are out of date and no longer work!
A great page of links from Paul Mullins of the Indiana University/Purdue University Indianapolis Department of Anthropology and Archaeology
Magazines and journals
Material culture
UCL’s Anthropology Department has a Material Culture section
The Topics in Material Culture module at the University of Toronto, including examples of student work
Local organisations (Hertfordshire)
Government, trusts etc.
North Hertfordshire District Council’s Archaeological Service. This is the organisation I work for…
Hertfordshire County Council: the place for planning advice, Sites and Monuments Record enquiries and much more.
Letchworth Garden City Heritage Foundation, which runs a museum dedicated to Ebenezer Howard’s vision and its first realisation in Letchworth Garden City.
Royston Museum, run by the Town Council.
Companies
The Heritage Network, a local “a multidisciplinary practice specialising in archaeology and the historic environment”.
Societies
North Hertfordshire Archaeological Society, the local group for amateur enthusiasts.
East Herts Archaeological Society: contact details only, as the society does not seem to have a homepage.
Baldock Local History Society, which also runs the town’s museum.
Codicote Local History Society list of activities.
Hitchin Historical Society: contact details only, as the society does not seem to have a homepage.
The Hitchin Society, “formed in the early 1960s to protect the character and charm of Hitchin against the threats of inappropriate modern development”.
The Letchworth Garden City Society, “for everyone interested in the town – its buildings, architecture, amenities and social history – as well as the principles on which it was founded”.
Royston and District Local History Society, “a non-profit making organisation, whose objectives are to safeguard, record and preserve the local history of Royston and the local area for future generations, increase the level of interest and awareness of local history amongst the towns residents, contribute to the growth of the museum and to maintain and preserve the Royston cave for the benefit of the town”.
Fringe archaeology
The New Age of Australian archaeology. A site dissecting the suite of New Age beliefs popular in Australia.
The Bat Creek Stone by Lowell Kirk.
In the Hall of Ma‘at: a site by Katherine Reece, Michael Brass, Duncan Edlin, Garrett Fagan and John Wall. Formerly hosted on Ian Blease’s site, these authors left when he became more open to Hancock’s ideas in the summer of 2001.
Why Hancock is wrong - debunking the Lost Civilisation. A site by Ian Blease dealing with the various problems raised by Graham Hancock’s rewriting of early Egyptian history; during 2001, this site became less sceptical of Hancock’s ideas, leading to the withdrawal of most of his guest authors, who set up In the Hall of Ma’at (in the link above).
Zecharia Sitchin's ancient astronaut theories - a skeptical archive culled from USENET, BITNET, the ANE archive and personal correspondence by Royston Paynter.
The disappointing but profitable mysteries of Erich von Daniken from Investigator magazine.
The Antikythera astrolabe by Rupert Russell.
The Coso Artifact: mystery from the depths of time. This article by Pierre Stromberg and Paul Heinrich of the Pacific Northwest Skeptics solves the ‘mystery’ once and for all. No doubt about it! Here’s their own (too modest) description: The Coso Artifact has been touted by creationists and UFO proponents as evidence of an extremely advanced civilization from thousands of years ago. In the course of investigating this artifact, we made a stunning discovery.
Unofficial histories. More out-of-place artefacts and human remains.
The Turin Shroud. Not exactly out-of-place, but it’s an artefact and, according to this site, it’s the most studied artefact in the world. I wonder…
Archaeological forgeries… and forgeries paleontological, historical, et cetera
History
Kemble, the British Academy/Royal Historical Society Joint Committee on Anglo-Saxon Charters.
Arthurian resources, by Tom Green.
ArthurNet, a discussion group moderated by medievalist Judy Shoaf.
De Imperatoribus Romanis, an online encyclopedia of Roman rulers and their families.
Complete texts of hsitorical documents
Bibliotheca Augustana, a collection of Latin texts from the earliest examples to the present day.
The Online Books Page, search by authors.
CELT, The Corpus of Irish Electronic Texts.
Corpus Scriptorum Latinorum, a collaborative project among scholars from a variety of disciplines with the main purpose of creating a digital library of Latin literature, spanning from the earliest epigraphic remains to the Neo-Latinists of the eighteenth century.
Monumenta Germaniae Historia, the complete collection of scholarly texts relating to the post-Roman Germanic world.
Religion and atheism
Adrian Barnett’s religion pages
Ebon Musings: the forces of religious fanaticism have made shocking gains worldwide… This evil needs to be confronted.
Atheism Central for Secondary School Students: Help and general support for atheist students attending religious studies courses in secondary schools in the United Kingdom.
Atheists.com: a group of atheists, freethinkers, rationalists, agnostics, skeptics, scientists, humanists, archaeologists, techies, gurus, teachers, lawyers, doctors, realists or whatever you’d like to call us (actually, we’re just concerned human beings) that prefer the camaraderie of like minded freethinking people.
The Epic of Gilgamesh. Contains an account of a flood that is too similar to the account of Noah’s flood in Genesis to be coincidence.
Creationism
The TalkOrigins archive, a collection of articles and essays… to provide mainstream scientific responses to the many frequently asked questions (FAQs) that appear in the talk.origins newsgroup and the frequently rebutted assertions of those advocating intelligent design or other creationist pseudosciences.
The Scopes Trial home page. An academic site examining the characters, the arguments and the law in the so-called ‘Monkey Trial’ of 1925. This was the first great legal battle between the creationists (in this case the State of Tennessee) and science (in this case a biology teacher who wasn’t even called to give evidence at his own trial).
Wyatt Archaeological Research fraud documentation. A Christian page exposing Ron Wyatt’s discoveries as a fraud.
Scepticism
The View from Number 80: Ross Sargent’s website is a fascinating dissection of just about everything that’s wrong with the world today.
TonyYouens.com, articles, investigations and commentary about paranormal claims.
The Skeptic’s Dictionary: by philosopher Robert Todd Carroll - essential reading!
Jim Lippard’s Skeptical Information and blog.
UFOs
Mostly Sceptics’ resources
Jan Adrich’s Project 1947
Billy Booth’s megalinks on About.com
British UFO Research Association
Flying Saucery by David Clarke and Andy Roberts
David Clarke, Paul Fuller, Jenny Randles, Andy Roberts & Martin Shough: The Lakenheath Connection
Bernard Haisch’s UFO Skeptic
John Hayes’s UFOINFO
Royce Myers: UFO Watchdog
Royston Paynter’s Scientific skepticism, UFOs and the flying saucer myth
Tim Printy’s UFOs: a skeptical view
Ian Ridpath’s Ufo Skeptic Pages
Robert Sheaffer’s The UFO skeptic’s page
Mostly Believers’ resources
B J Booth’s UFO Casebook
Larry Hatch’s UFO database
The J Allen Hynek Center for UFO Studies
Nathan’s UK-UFO
Aerial Phenomena Research Agency
NICAP, the (US) National Investigations Committee on Aerial Phenomena
E-zines
James Moseley’s Saucer Smear
Abduction
No links yet…
Incident or site specific
Martin Kottmeyer’s Resolving Arnold (Part 1) from The REALL News 5 (6) (June 1997), with Part 2 in the next issue, here
Erling Strand’s Project Hessdalen
Dave Thomas’s The Roswell Incident and Project Mogul from Skeptical Inquirer 19 (4) (July/August 1995)
Reports and documents
The USA National Security Agency’s UFO files released under the Freedom of Information Act
NICAP’s Official (USA Government) UFO Documents
UK-UFO’s Released (UK) Government UFO Documents
Local groups (Hertfordshire/Bedfordshire)
Hertfordshire UFO Research Team
Sexuality
General
NASA’s Astronomy Picture of the Day, an unparalleled resource of pictures and information about the universe.
Bad Astronomy, analysing misconceptions about the universe, by astronomer Phil Plait.
Moon Base Clavius, an organisation of amateurs and professionals devoted to the Apollo program and its manned exploration of the moon. Our special mission is to debunk the so-called conspiracy theories that state such a landing may never have occurred. This site is named after the Clavius Moon Base in Arthur C Clarke’s novel 2001: a Space Odyssey.
Disinformation, the gateway to the underground - news, politics, conspiracy and weirdness.
The Cook’s Thesaurus, a cooking encyclopedia that covers thousands of ingredients and kitchen tools.