People have advanced several reasons for the premature death of Jane Austen, but the most widely accepted is that she suffered from Addison's disease, a problem with the adrenal glands which eventually killed her. Now Katherine White has written in the journal 'Medical Humanities' that a close analysis of Austen's papers suggest the cause is something else. Addison's sufferers, of whom White is one, go through extreme difficulties in concentrating, if not outright delirium, before their death. In contrast, Austen was able to focus enough to dictate lucidly until just before her death. According to an article I saw in the print edition of Britain's Telegraph newspaper, Austen was missing other Addison symptoms as well. White has advanced another theory, that Austen in fact died from tuberculosis, a very common illness for the time.

Graeme Mackenzie, who lives on the Isle of Skye as a crofter, was digging a drain to allow him to grow potatoes when he discovered a corroded piece of metal. Further digging - this time by hand and not excavator - revealed a four foot tall anchor. He explained his immediate reaction to the BBC "When I dug it up I immediately knew it was old. I used to be a skipper and I therefore have some knowledge on anchors. And this one felt different. The metalwork is totally different from the modern anchors. It felt like a blacksmith had hammered it." Scientists are conducting tests, but their initial judgement is that the anchor is a thousand years old, and originally part of a Viking ship. If this is confirmed, it may be further evidence of Viking settlement on Skye. The BBC also has a good picture.

Family history website Ancestry.co.uk has placed online the First World War records of one and a half million Bavarian soldiers. These include name, ranks and details of their service, and have been collected from the Bavarian State Archives, which is working with the website. If you're descended from Bavarians who emigrated during the last century, or are even a Bavarian yourself, your ancestors may be in there. However, that's not the angle the media have chosen to report on. Oh no, they've picked up on the First World War record of a 'Catholic artist' called Lance Corporal Adolf Hitler. Yes, -that- Adolf Hitler. He'd been born in Austria and avoided military service there, but enrolled in a Bavarian regiment when war broke out in 1914. His records detail his injuries, including some from a gas attack, and his medals, including some for bravery. In a way, this acts as an example of the sort of material family history researchers can find.

The Picts were an ancient people from Scotland, and key in their royal and religious ceremonies were wooden thrones. While stone carvings depicting these thrones survive, none of the actual wooden examples do, so the National Museum of Scotland has taken part in a reconstruction. A year of work went into fashioning one, as part of a larger project sponsored by a Scottish whiskey company. The Scotsman has a picture - although there is a researcher sitting in it obscuring the view - and more detail on the source material.