ESSEX, ENGLAND—According to a report in The Independent, a mercantile house dating to the 1520s was revealed in southeast England’s historic village of Dedham after a gang of thieves drove a car into the wall of a supermarket in an effort to break into an automatic cash machine. Archaeologists from Colchester Archaeological Trust who examined the structure and excavated under its current floor found a timber-framed Tudor building and medieval-era hearth, a rare internal porch near one of the building’s original entrances, and an intact two-handled tripod cauldron. The researchers think the cauldron, which may have been placed by the entrance to ward off evil spirits or bad luck, could date from the late sixteenth century to the early eighteenth century. For more, go to “The Many Lives of an English Manor House.”