Two weeks ago, while working through a collection of 250 medieval spearheads dredged out of the River Thames near London (trying to identify when and where they came from), I encountered a really unusual style that I wasn't able to identify initially. I photographed it, and told myself I would research it later.

Today, I found one that is almost identical, in the Musee d'Armee, Paris. The label said it was discovered in southern Italy.

Is it just chance that they resemble each other so strongly (but, they're very distinctive and unusual)? Or did someone drag one from Italy to London (or vice versa)?

The plot thickens!

I'm looking for some opinions. My mother is really into the show Vikings and is interested in some further reading on Vikings, preferably something that looks at their day-to-day life and whatnot. Anything really would be good, though something closer to pop history than a serious academic work would be better as she's by no means an academic.

Someone here a while back asked if I had read (now) former Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper's book A Great Game: The Forgotten Leafs & the Rise of Professional Hockey. Well I have now, and was quite pleasantly surprised with it. Harper is known to be a major hockey fan, and really into the history of the sport, and has probably been working on this book since he took office in 2006. It was a serious academic work, reading like it was someone's PhD dissertation, complete with endnotes and historiography and everything, and he even left out his political leanings (on one point even conceding on one point that some economic thing of the era, while it clashed with his opinions, was backed by the historic record, so he didn't argue it).

It was this academic-level or writing, however, that makes it funny to recall places like Wal-Mart sold the book. Reading reviews on Amazon show a lot of people were disappointed, as they surely didn't expect an academic work like this, one that has no serious connection to the Maple Leafs (at least not one as apparent as the sub-heading implies). But I think it's great, and if Harper is looking for something to do post-prime ministership, he should seriously consider a career in academia, or at least one where he can continue to write things of this calibre; the (limited) hockey history community would only benefit, and not just because of the stereotype of a Canadian prime minister writing a book on hockey.

Note: A much more in-depth review was nearly completed here before my browser crashed; in frustration I wrote this much-truncated version instead.

Does anyone have a good book on the diet of people in medieval France and/or England?

Any suggestions for a decent historical overview of the South China Sea (ideally but not necessarily building up to a calm and levelheaded discussion of the present disagreement between the regional powers)?

Most of what is 'popular' in Amazon etc seems to be amateurish military war gaming and sensationalism.

Does anyone have a good book on the the Cold War during the period of detente or afterwards?