Coronation treasures: from the stone of destiny to the sovereign’s orb

An art installation depicting the St Edward's crown in central London. Photograph: Vadim Ghirdă/AP

Unlike some British royal rituals, which may be no more than a few centuries old, the coronation is genuinely very ancient, still following the structure of the ceremony used to crown kings of England before 1066.

For that reason, many of the highly symbolic elements of the ceremony are very old – and, to contemporary viewers, very strange.