The ancient slice of decorative oak, which was carved 2,000 years before Stonehenge and more than 4,000 years before the Romans set foot on the British Isles, is believed to be the oldest piece of carved wood in Britain.

The wood, which measures just about three-feet-long, one-and-a-half feet wide, and half-an-inch thick, was found snuggly underground in a thick layer of peat, which impeccably preserved the wood. 

Since its discovery, the Mesolithic piece of wood has undergone scientific analysis by experts at Historic England in partnership with scientists from the Nottingham tree-ring dating laboratory, and the Centre for Isotope Research at the university of Groningen. 

Radiocarbon and tree ring dating on the slab give a 95% chance probability that the wood was carved between 4,640 BC and 4,605 BC, at the tail end of the Middle Stone Age when inhabitants of England roamed in hunter-gatherer communities and began using stone tools. 

While the meaning behind the carvings on the wood remain a mystery, experts say they are similar to the decorations on the Shigir Idol – a 12,500-year-old wooden sculpture that was discovered in the Ural Mountains of Russia and is thought to be the oldest example of carved wood in the world.

Derek Fawcett, the owner of the land where the carved wood was found, will donate the artifact to the to the West Berkshire Museum in Newbury once scientific analysis is complete, Historic England said in a press release. The donation coincides with England’s Museum Week which this year runs from June 5-11.

“This is a really brilliant find…and a tangible link to humans who lived in this area long before any towns and villages had been created,” Janine Fox, curator at West Berkshire Museum, told Historic England.

On Micklegate, a street in the ancient northern England city of York, contractors uncovered a biblically themed fresco behind a wall while installing new cupboards in an apartment as part of a renovation project, according to CNN.

Then they did what any responsible contractor would do—snap a picture, call their client, and say, “did you know there’s a painting behind here?” And of course, install the new cupboards.

The apartments owner, Luke Budworth, was “disappointed” that the contractors recovered the mysterious painting, the report said, but “suspected that a similar ‘bit of paneling’ on the other side of the open plan living area may be hiding something too.” 

He was right. Behind that paneling was a matching fresco that measured 9 feet by 4 feet, though the topmost section was cut off by the ceiling.

The scene features a man in a cage which is being dragged by an angel and another man in a white cart who “looks like he’s riding to the kingdom of heaven,” Budworth told CNN. Following the discovery, Budworth contacted Historic England, a public institution that, according to their website, “looks after England’s historic environment.”

“This was a total and complete surprise,” Budworth told ARTnews. “I knew we lived in an old building (ca. 1747) on an old street (ca. roman era) and within the city walls of an ancient city, so it is not totally unprecedented, but to have history like that inside the flat was a massive shock.”

Historic England visited the apartment to survey and document the paintings, then passed the images on to the Conservation of Wall Painting department at London’s Courtauld Institute of Art. They also advised Budworth and his partner, Hazel Mooney, to recover the fresco “in order to preserve it,” and gave the couple a life-sized photographic replica of the work.

Budworth, who works as a research data analyst at the University of Leeds, decided to do some digging and learned that the both works featured scenes from Emblems, a book first published in 1635, written by the poet Francis Quarles.

Budworth told CNN that through internet research he learned that the artwork had been executed on the wall of a building that was once connected to his, but that no longer exists. According to Historic England, the works were made between 1635 when Emblems was first published and 1700, “when such artwork fell out of fashion.”

According to Budworth, since the story was first reported, an “expert conservator” from University College London has reached out with a tentative offer to assist in writing a report about the newly discovered paintings and provide further advice on next steps.

“University College London – one of the UK’s best universities, and I’m not just saying that because I did masters there,” Budworth told ARTnews.

While on a walk on his friend’s property in Warwickshire, England, Charlie Clarke’s metal detector, which he had bought only six months prior, began to emit “unusually loud” bleeping. About one foot into the ground Clarke unearthed a treasure: a 500-year-old heart-shaped pendant decorated with symbols connected to Henry VIII and his first wife, Catherine of Aragon.

On one side, the pendant was decorated with Catherine of Aragon’s emblem, the pomegranate bush. Interlaced with the bush, there is a double-headed rose, a symbol used by the House of Tudor since the late 1400s. On the reverse, the letters H and K were written in ornate script and tied together by a ribbon.

Clarke thought for a moment that the pendant was a piece of costume jewelry, but its weight convinced him “it was special,” as he told the Times. He was right. 

Specialists and researchers have been shocked by Clarke’s discovery. An expert in Birmingham to whom Clarke brought the pendant after finding it in 2019 was described as “shaking when she held it, her jaw was on the floor.” Rachel King, curator of Renaissance Europe for the British Museum, told the Times that researchers at the museum could hardly believe the pendant was real.

While the pendant has been authenticated, why it was made and how it wound up buried in a field in Warwickshire are not yet understood by experts. According to King, there are no portraits from the era of people wearing a similar pendant. She speculates that perhaps the pendant could have been the prize for a jousting tournament. She said it was “hastily crafted.”

This pendant is especially rare since, since not many items connected to Catherine of Aragon still exist.

When the pendant is eventually sold, its inevitably high sum will be split evenly between Clarke and his friend, on whose property it was found, according to British law. Clarke said the money could prove life-changing for him and his four-year-old son.

Metal detecting has become an increasingly popular hobby in the UK, according to the Guardian, and a success story like Clarke’s will surely attract more than a few new treasure hunters (or THs, as some enthusiasts call themselves). For those interested, Warwickshire might be a good place to start. The Guardian reports that there have been 9,499 finds in the county in the last 10 years, 156 of which were recorded as treasures. 

“There is an increase in [membership] every time something comes on the TV or in the press,” Alan Tamblyn, of the National Council for Metal Detecting (NCMD), the organization that is formally recognized by the UK government and represents the hobby when it comes to legislation, told the Guardian.

However, it is important that treasure hunting hobbyists know the law, he added, reminding the public that they have to receive permission from the landowner before it can be searched.

Around 30 intricately carved semiprecious stones were found. Known as intaglios, the stones had slipped down the drains of the pools and saunas two millennia ago.

The vegetable glue that secured the stones in ring settings likely deteriorated in the steamy air, leaving the gems to their watery fate, Frank Giecco, an expert on Roman Britain who is leading the bathhouse excavation, told the Guardian.

The tradition of carving intaglios began in Mesopotamia around 5,000 years ago. Often, they were used to “sign” documents by pressing the engraving into soft clay. Across the millennia, intaglios spread throughout the ancient world, eventually becoming fashion pieces for the wealthy. The Roman statesman and author Cicero wrote that some Romans wore portraits of their favorite philosophers on their rings.

Among the gems was one made of amethyst that was decorated with an image of the goddess Venus. Another in red-brown jasper was engraved with an image of a satyr seated on rocks next to a sacred column.

“Some of the intaglios are minuscule, around 5mm; 16mm is the largest intaglio. The craftsmanship to engrave such tiny things is incredible,” Geicco told the Guardian. Similar stones recently sold at a Christie’s London auction of antiquities for between £7,560 and £30,000. 

The bathhouse in which the stones were found was just behind the most important fort at Hadrian’s Wall. The fort housed an elite cavalry unit and was decorated with imperial stamped tiles, which suggests the complex was once “monumental and complex,” according to the Guardian.

International art-dealing powerhouse Hauser & Wirth will soon add the rural Somerset, England, to its growing list of locations. The unconventionally sited gallery—principals Manuela and Iwan Wirth have had a home in the area for some years—will combine the typical exhibiting and selling functions of a commercial gallery with a restaurant and extensive public programming.

Founded in Zurich in 1992, Hauser & Wirth has since expanded to London and New York, and will debut a Los Angeles outpost in 2015. A show of new works by British sculptor Phyllida Barlow, created for the new space, will inaugurate the Somerset venue, which opens July 15. Exhibitions at Hauser & Wirth Somerset will feature the gallery’s entire roster, which ranges from young artists like Rashid Johnson and Jakub Julian Ziolkowski to veterans such as Isa Genzken and Dan Graham.

The new gallery will occupy five buildings on as many acres of land at Durslade Farm, whose original three structures date from about 1760. Somerset is approximately two hours’ train ride from London, in Southwest England; the farm lies on the edge of a town called Bruton, with a population of fewer than 3,000.

“There’s a lot of history to the countryside-the writer John Steinbeck spent time in Bruton, which was one of his favorite places to write,” Alice Workman, the director of the new venue, told A.i.A. in a phone interview. “The history of King Arthur is located quite nearby, and Stonehenge isn’t far.” Workman has been with Hauser & Wirth since 2012. Previously she worked at Southampton City Art Gallery as head of exhibitions.

Three of Hauser & Wirth Somerset’s five gallery spaces will be in former barns, Workman said, and two will be in newly built gallery spaces conceived by Paris architect Laplace & Co. and built by Somerset-based architects Benjamin + Beauchamp.

While very much a commercial gallery, Hauser & Wirth Somerset will have a profile something more like that of a public arts center, Workman said, with an education program, artists’ residencies and public events. Programming will range from artists’ talks and director and curator tours to poetry readings and musical and theatrical performances.

The new venue will be supported by a staff of about 30, divided evenly between the restaurant and the gallery.

The space will allow Hauser & Wirth Somerset to do simultaneous exhibitions. For example, Phyllida Barlow’s show will use four buildings, and the fifth will house an exhibition devoted to the drawings of the gallery’s landscape architect, Piet Oudolf, also known for his work on New York’s High Line.

Asked whether the locals are concerned about increased traffic, Workman told A.i.A. that on the contrary, “They want it to open tomorrow, they’re so excited. We’ve made every effort to make sure they are part of the project. We always look to our neighbors for suppliers and services.”