Crecganford follows folklore, stories of myth, legend, and folktale, back through the evidence — historical linguistics, archaeogenetics, archaeology and the phylogenetics of narrative — to ask how far our stories really reach, and what they remember.
Wessex Archaeology has identified a c. 5,000-year-old structure of two large wooden posts near Stonehenge, aligned to the summer and winter solstices, predating the famous stone alignment by around 500 years.
Read articleHeidelberg University researchers deciphered a 2nd-century CE lead defixio from the Netherlands, an unusual find written in ancient Greek in the Egyptian style rather than Latin, invoking deities and demons to harm an enemy.
Read articleGenomic analysis of Siberian cemeteries shows Yersinia pestis was killing mobile hunter-gatherers millennia before cities or agriculture, with a 39% infection rate and a virulence-enhancing superantigen.
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A copper-alloy die stamp found by a metal detectorist at Lynsted in Kent has been identified as a rare Anglo-Saxon artefact. Analysis by the British Museum and Kent County Council suggests it was used to make decorative foils for elite helmets and may bear on the origins of the Sutton Hoo helmet.
Read articleA Nature research highlight reports that an individual buried around 2,000 years ago in what is now Scotland probably had her brain removed after death and some of her limb bones shaped into sharp tools.
Read articleAn interdisciplinary team has documented a prehistoric painted cave in Malatya's Tohma Canyon containing close to 100 human and animal figures, with a cautious preliminary assessment placing it in the Neolithic.
Read articleExcavations ahead of a solar park in Hesse's Taunus region uncovered a mid-first-millennium BCE Celtic elite burial with gold rings, a two-wheeled wagon and an imported Etruscan bronze jug, the first of its kind in the area.
Read articleThe Folklore Database unites the Berezkin Analytical Catalogue, the ATU index, and hundreds of thousands of folktales and primary source religious/mythological texts into a single research instrument. It delivers semantic and geospatial search on narratives, allowing the full database to be searchable by meaning as well as by word, and mapped across the globe.
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Crecganford is the name the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle gives to Crayford, where in AD 457 history and legend meet on the banks of the Cray — a fitting name for a project that works exactly at that boundary.
Run by an independent researcher in comparative mythology and folklore, Crecganford brings academic rigour to questions usually left to speculation: where stories come from, how they travel, and how deep in time their roots may run. The work draws on the published literature in folkloristics, historical linguistics, archaeogenetics and archaeology, and is shared through the YouTube channel, this site, and the Folklore Database.
If you value careful, evidenced storytelling about storytelling itself, the best ways to support the project are to subscribe, share, and join the community on Patreon.