Digging for Britain (2010) s02e01 Episode Script

1
We might be a small island
but we've got a big history.
Everywhere you stand, there
are worlds beneath your feet.
And so every year,
hundreds of archeologists
across Britain go looking for
more clues into our story.
Who lived here, when, and how?
So the blade went here, here.
So he's being attacked
from all angles.
Archeology is
a complex jigsaw puzzle,
drawing everything together
from skeletons to swords,
temples to treasure.
He's biting his shield.
Biting his shield, yeah.
From Orkney to Devon,
we're joining this year's
question on sea, land, and air.
We share all of the questions
and find some of the
answers as we join the teams
in the field,
digging for britain.
We know that the Romans
invaded and occupied our land
for nearly four centuries,
covering it with
roads and cities,
but this year, archeologists
are uncovering
surprising new evidence
which challenges
our preconceptions
and offers us a fresh
perspective on Roman Britain,
revealing a vanished landscape.
Even today, astonishing finds
are still emerging
from the soil,
bringing us face to face
with the people of Britannia.
A newly-discovered
town in rural Devon
turns history on its head.
The mystery of the 97
dead babies thickens.
And the Roman god buried for
1700 years beneath a fort.
The Roman military
occupation probably began
on the southeast
corner of England
where the Romans are thought
to have first landed.
In the story of Roman Britain,
the mighty legions are famed
while its fleet, the
Classis Britannica,
is practically unknown.
For nearly four
centuries though,
hundreds of wooden
ships, all long vanished,
patrolled the channel.
But I'm on my way to a dig
that I'm hoping will
take me straight
to the control room
of Britain's first major navy,
bringing me closer to the man
who ruled Britannia's waves.
There's been a
suggestion of a connection
between the Roman navy
and very particular site
up here on the
cliffs at Folkestone.
So this year, archeologists
are excavating that site,
hoping to uncover new evidence
and test that
possible connection.
On the edge of these cliffs,
volunteers are
helping to unearth
the magnificent Roman
villa in Folkestone, Kent.
First discovered in 1923,
the site was reopened last year.
Those digging know they are
probably close to the spot
where the Romans first
landed in Britain
and to Emperor
Claudius in 43 AD.
The excavation of this villa
on the edge of Folkestone
is being directed by
professional archeologists
but depends on an army
on local volunteers
who are all passionate about
the history of their area
and this site occupies
such an amazing place
with a spectacular view
looking out over the channel.
Its location and the
size of this villa
makes archeologists
think it belonged
to somebody important.
I'm meeting Andrew Richardson,
site supervisor since
it reopened last year.
The building itself looks so.
It is.
This looks almost
palatial in its construction.
Well this is only
a small part of it.
This is one wing of
two wings projecting
from the front of a long,
rectangular building.
Then you've got further blocks
beyond the fence over there
and then a third block which
would've been a bath block
and quite a lot of that has
actually gone over the cliff,
has been lost to erosion.
The extraordinary size
and prime location suggest
that the inhabitant
was well connected.
So what sort of
person would've lived
in a villa like this
with its own bathhouse?
Obviously somebody
either an individual
or a family of immense
wealth and power.
Somebody who's come
from the empire,
said I like this spot,
and I'm going to build myself
a proper Roman residence.
But something
more concrete is needed
to pinpoint the individual's
actual identity.
Dozens of trademarked roof tiles
have come up from the soil,
linking the former
inhabitant to the Roman navy,
the Classis Britannica.
These are two very special tiles
because they're stamped
with a circular stamp
and the letters CLBR.
So what does this stand for?
This stands for
Classis Britannica.
So this is the stamp of
the Roman fleet in Britain?
Yes, and we do know
that the fleet was
commanded by prefects.
So this position, the
prefect of Classis Britannica,
that's kind of
equivalent to an admiral.
Equivalent to an admiral, yeah,
and perhaps commanding 30
ships and several thousand men.
Probably its primary
role was transport
for the army but it
certainly also had a role
in both patrolling the seas
and also exploration,
establishing just how big this island
the Romans had come to was.
In the island of Britannia,
whoever commanded the
sea controlled the land.
Seven possible Roman
fortified harbors
cluster around
the Kent peninsula
with Folkestone in the
center, facing Boulogne.
The quantity of the
tiles found here
and the villa's
geographical position,
raises the tantalizing
possibility
that this villa once housed
the commander of the fleet.
One suggestion is
it's the admiral's,
the prefect's house.
It looks straight
out to Boulogne
which is the headquarters
of their main fleet base,
a large fort.
Further along the coast at
Dover, they've got a fort
and they've got another
fort at Lymm to the west
and this is almost halfway
between Dover and Lymm.
You can imagine that,
you know, the commander
of what is effectively
the most powerful
military organization
in the region at the time
is the sort of person
who would have the clout to
live at a place like this.
The idea that this was the home
of one of Britain's first
and most important naval
commanders is incredibly exciting.
The volunteers are
rediscovering the layout
of this once luxurious home.
It is amazing just to
touch a piece of archeology,
something that you know
that you're the first person
that has touched it
in 2000 years or more.
So Ian, we heard
you just found something.
That's right, yes, a
coin, probably Roman.
A minnim.
- Has this just come up?
- Yep.
So Ian you've just found this?
Yep.
Can I have a look?
Yeah.
What is it, Keith?
I should guess it's late third
or fourth century Roman.
Oh I'm amazed you
managed to find that Ian,
it's absolutely tiny.
Ian's coin adds
to the hundreds found here,
suggesting the site existed
for most of the Roman period,
stretching from the
Claudian invasion in 43 AD
right into the 360s,
50 years before the end
of Roman Britain.
It was forgotten for
nearly 1500 years more
and now it faces destruction.
There is a particular
sense of urgency
to the excavations
here at Folkestone
because this villa is slowly
but surely slipping down
the cliffs into the sea.
The bathhouse has already
disappeared and this is partly
why so many local people
have volunteered here
because they know that
it will soon be too late.
Project
director Leslie Hardy knows
that this is, in every sense,
archeology on the edge.
This really is a rescue
excavation, isn't it?
Because this villa
is under threat.
Yes, you can see.
This is a photograph
that was taken in 1924
and here what we've done is
we've superimposed a line
which shows the
current cliff edge
and you can see how much
has already been lost.
So it looks like part
of the Roman buildings
have actually been lost.
Which area is this?
Okay, this is the
bathhouse area of that block
and it's gone, it's
largely gone now
over the edge of the cliff.
It tends to go in
clumps and big bites.
It's just sliding down,
sliding down constantly.
Bringing all the
archeology with it.
The sea is waiting to
claim this unique site.
In this face against time,
the archeologists must get
there first, salvaging
material forgotten
for one and a half millennia,
in search of more evidence
that this was indeed the
home of the commander
of the Roman Navy.
But often in archeology,
the discovery of objects
is merely page one, chapter one,
in the reappraisal of history.
For the finds themselves
frequently baffle us.
I'm traveling towards
Buckinghamshire
where last year we discovered
a truly shocking mystery,
the bones of 97 babies
which had been buried beneath
a Roman villa called Yewdon,
just outside the
village of Hambleden.
There's something
very strange going
on there, isn't there?
97 babies in one rural site,
all about the same age.
Horrifying conclusions
were unavoidable.
What we're dealing
with is infants
that died around time of birth
and that made us
think that perhaps
these individuals are
being deliberately killed.
But why?
The only explanation
you keep going back to
is it's got to have
been a brothel.
The case of the 97 dead babies
at Yewden Roman
villa was, I think,
the most disturbing story
that we covered last year
and it caught the
imagination of people
not just in Britain
but around the world.
It really is a mystery.
Were those babies murdered?
And if so, why?
Well, when I looked at
the bones more closely
when we'd finished
filming I noticed
what I thought was probably
a cut mark on one of them
so it all sounds
even more sinister
and I had to
investigate further.
I asked two other experts
in human bones, Simon Mays
and Kate Robson Brown,
to help me find out
if those cut marks were ancient
or if they could've been made
by an archeologist's trowel.
What do you think of those Kate?
You can't quite
tell how deep they go.
So can we look
at these underneath
the light microscope?
Yes.
Just to see what
those cuts look like.
I think that would
help, have a look and see
if there's any sediment in them.
If these cuts got
sediment in them
then that suggests that
they're genuine old Roman cuts.
The microscopic image suggests
that a knife was indeed
taken to this baby,
cutting the flesh
right down to the bone.
Now I think you can
see that one does look like
there's sediments in it
and you can almost see
the mineral sparkle
of the soil there so
there's definitely soil
inside those cut marks.
Right, that does
suggest then that we're looking
at something that's
ancient rather than recent.
So that's really intriguing.
The presence of the soil
that they were buried in,
embedded deep inside the cuts,
strongly suggests that
the cuts are very old.
They could've been made around
the time of the baby's death.
But why might these
babies have been killed?
Romans sometimes limited
family size by killing babies,
especially female ones.
The appearance of these
bones can't tell us
if the babies were
male or female,
but their DNA can.
Wrapped up to prevent
contamination,
Keri Brown, and expert
in ancient human DNA
chose 10 of the skeletons
but extracting ancient
DNA is a painstaking task.
The results, however, are clear.
Five girls and five boys.
It's only a tiny
sample but now we know
it wasn't just
female infanticide.
But can the artifacts
found at the villa
tell us if the deaths
were close enough in time
to justify the grim
conclusion of murder?
I met the archeologist
Jill Eyers to find out
when the objects were produced.
We were absolutely
blessed with a wealth,
about 34 kilograms of material
that is very dateable.
Just as an example, that
little vessel is a cup.
I've got Crobiso,
it's Crobiso, M.
Which M is short for man
Manufactured by the
hand of Crobiso.
So this is a potter
between 135 and 180
so I can say absolutely the
babies we have the dates for
are 150 to 200 AD.
So many infant
deaths over just 50 years
in one rural site.
It seems too many to be the
result of natural causes.
It points to foul play.
Now, when I spoke to
you about this last year,
you suggest the
idea of a brothel
as a potential explanation for
a lot of unwanted children.
Where are you now with
your brothel theory?
Do you think that this is
the most likely explanation?
Well, to tell you the truth,
I didn't want to favor it.
I put it forward as a
suggestion to get people going.
Now, studying all the
artifacts, all the data,
every alternative for
natural explanations
that I can think of, I'm
back with the brothel.
First of all, we've got
a lot of females on site
as shown by female artifacts.
So are these some
of the female artifacts?
Yeah, I've just brought
a couple of little things
- just to see you.
- What's that?
- Beautiful little hair pins.
- Oh lovely, yeah.
Beautiful carved items.
A whole range of these on site
Jill has further
evidence that she believes
may bolster her theory
that this was a brothel.
A fragment of
pornographic pottery.
Oh that is quite naughty.
I can see what they're doing.
So there's one
person standing here,
there's another person
standing behind them
and something unmentionable
is going on just there.
So a suggestive clue.
But where would the
customers have come from?
Hambleden is in the
middle of nowhere.
That was my biggest problem
when I tentatively suggested it
because where are the
clientele coming from?
It's a rural location.
Then we discovered
some of the track ways.
Track ways that
lead from the river,
the major arterial route
in the Roman world.
We've got a track
leading from the river
right past Yewden and goes
directly to Dorchester.
Jill also believes
that there might once
have been a ford
near Yewden villa.
Divers have told her
that the Thames is
unusually shallow here.
I'm going to see for myself.
The river really does
seem shallow enough
that in Roman times, it
might've been a ford.
Perhaps passing trade
had to unload here
and then turned to Yewden
brothel for some refreshment.
Over the last year, Jill
has been looking again
at the finds from Yewden
and the wider landscape
and exploring her brothel idea.
I'm intrigued by Jill's theory
about Yewden being a brothel
but I'm not at all
convinced by it.
It seems to be based
on almost entirely
circumstantial evidence.
Well, now I'm hoping to
look at some hard evidence
in the form of artifacts
from the villa excavations
and they're held at
Buckinghamshire County Museum
where I'm going to
meet the curator.
His name is Brett Thorn.
Brett, what do you
think of Jill's theory
about the villa being a brothel?
I'm not convinced,
I have to say.
It's too far from any
major population centers.
What we have here
are some objects
from the excavation.
These
finely-crafted objects suggest
something other than the
cold-blooded murder of babies,
a far more benign explanation.
One that's been
suggested involves
the cult of the mother goddess.
There are, from thousands
of objects on the site,
three which relate to the mother
goddess cult, potentially.
A beautiful
piece pottery bears signs
of this cult.
This is wonderful.
This is a mortarium.
It's a grinding bowl
and what's special
about this one
is the decoration, you can see.
It's got peacocks on it.
Exactly, so the peacock
is the symbol of Juno,
a Roman goddess who is
involved with childbirth.
In one of their-
Well, the top Roman goddess.
Exactly, the queen of the gods.
Yeah, the queen of gods, yeah.
There's more evidence as well,
a scarab beetle evoking the
Egyptian mother goddess Isis
and an intriguing
sherd of pottery.
This one is a favorite.
And it's only a tiny
fragment of a statuette.
What you've got here is
an arm holding a baby.
I can see the little baby there
in the crook of her arm.
Yes, yeah, and
this is the side of a chair.
It's a woman holding, usually,
a baby on each breast, nursing.
And this is called the Dea
Nutrix, the nursing goddess.
It looks almost
like a Madonna and child.
You know, this looks
like iconography
which happens in
Christian times.
Exactly, it's the
mother and child.
It's an eternal
symbol, isn't it?
So you have a Roman mother cult,
you have a Gallic or
Celtic mother cult
and then you have this,
carved stone scarab beetle.
Isis is the Egyptian
mother goddess.
If you've got a cult of
the mother goddess there
then it could be someone to go
for protection, for help
during times of birth.
So perhaps, women
used Yewden villa
as a birth center
with a doctor present.
Could this explain
those cut marks I saw
on one of the baby's bones.
One of the possible
explanations for this
that Simon Mays and I discussed
was that they might've
been cut marks
that were made
during an embryotomy
in order to save
the mother's life
if this was a dead baby.
To deliver a dead baby, yeah.
Then that could
be an explanation
so maybe there was
something going on
in terms of obstetrics
at Yewden villa.
Somebody at least was
trying to help, yeah,
be it the priestesses
of the cult
or the local midwives or whoever
but if you've got women
regularly coming to give birth,
somebody's going
to know what to do.
If women
from the region did come
to Yewden to give birth,
the large number
of infant deaths
could be explained
without citing murder.
Yet, the evidence
for Brett's idea
is no less circumstantial
than Jill's.
So what we've got here at
Yewden is an infant cemetery
with ages at death that
strongly suggest infanticide.
But are we looking at something
which is simply an
extreme of what was normal
for Roman society?
Because we know that the
Romans did practice infanticide
or is there something
else going on here
to explain all of
those dead babies.
Could this have been
a birthing center
or a brothel?
Well the evidence, as it stands,
is I think inconclusive.
I'm going to sit on
the fence on this one
and wait for more
evidence to come to light
so at the moment, Yewden
remains a bit of mystery.
At times,
archeology merely tantalizes us.
But I'm on my way to an
entire lost Roman town
that promises to radically
rewrite the history books.
It lies beyond a supposed
boundary of Roman rule, Exeter,
in an area where mighty
legions once feared to tread,
or did they?
In 2009, two metal
detectorists, Jim Wills
and Dennis Hughings made
an unexpected discovery
in a field outside a tiny
village in South Devon,
30 miles west of
Exeter, a Roman coin.
Then they found
another and another.
They carried on finding them.
Soon they had dozens.
An extraordinary
story was beginning.
But this doesn't
seem to make any sense.
There aren't really meant to be
any Roman settlements
west of Exeter.
The metal detectorists contacted
the Portable Antiquities Scheme,
the organization that
manages finds like these
made by the general public,
right across the U.K.
And the people at
the PAS realized
that this was potentially
a very important discovery.
This March, Danielle Wootton,
Devon's PAS officer, began
leading the excavations.
Yet more coins began to appear
suggesting an astonishing story.
This was probably a
missing Roman town
in a region they were never
supposed to have settled.
Danielle took me to
the top of the hill
to look over the fields
where an entire town lies
waiting to be unearthed.
This large field
here is the field
that we can see over
there with the trench in,
that's where we've put
one of the trenches.
There's features in
all these fields.
We got 13 fields
worth of features.
And that's over
a huge area then?
Over a massive area, absolutely.
What has been
discovered of this town
already covers many acres of
land and there may be more.
Danielle knows that
these now tranquil fields
were once bustling with life.
What an amazing site, you know,
sites like this
always astound me
because what you're
looking at now
is just a rural landscape
with lots of fields.
I know, that's
the amazing thing.
I mean, it's very, very
quiet and rural now
but what we've gotta
try and imagine actually
are houses, round houses,
set within enclosures,
little paddocks where there's
perhaps horses, cows, sheep,
children running
around playing games,
smoke coming up from
the roofs of the houses.
Just amazing to look
out on this landscape
and just imagine that
life here 2000 years ago.
The digging
resumed in June with the help
of dozens of eager
local volunteers.
Hundreds of objects,
rare pieces of pottery,
and scores of coins started
to come up out of the ground.
We've got a large
selection of coins.
Our earliest coin is a
Roman Republican coin.
It's the coin of Acilius
which dates back to 49 BC.
Oh right so this is,
how is this getting
to Britain then?
Britain's not part of the
Roman Empire at that point.
No, absolutely not,
and we think what's
happening here
is because the silver's
such good quality,
that is stayin' in
circulation much later on,
in later centuries so it's
kind of the equivalent
of having some
Victorian change on you
when you come over to Britain.
So this is a coin that was
minted in the first century BC
but probably came over here
in the first century AD.
Absolutely.
That's lovely.
The coins suggest
a long life for this town.
From the first years
after the invasion
until the last
century of occupation.
This was no passing encampment
but a substantial
Romano-British settlement
of almost 400 years.
These discoveries are
building a picture
of a thriving town
but in an area
always thought too
dangerous to occupy
and the clincher is the
discovery of a Roman road,
connecting the town
to the wider world.
Well, Danielle,
this is very exciting.
Did you expect to find this?
This is something that came up
as a result of doing
the geophysics.
We could see that there was
something traipsing along
through the site,
through the settlement
and what you can see
here is a section of it.
So we're actually
standing on top
of a 2000-year-old road here.
So from the
orientation of this road,
where do you think
it goes from and to?
I suspect part of
it is going to Exeter.
Probably heading out
towards the coast
so perhaps we've got some
kind of trade route here.
Given that we've got all
this imported pottery,
it would make sense.
So far, archeologists
have found 97 coins,
hundreds of artifacts and
even a buried Roman road
but towns house people.
While I was on site,
Danielle's team
was uncovering
the first evidence
of the town's
forgotten inhabitants.
You can just see the top.
We have some human remains.
We have part of a skeleton just
coming up through the soil.
Can I get down there?
Yeah, sure.
So this is, well,
the outline of a skull
so the top half or the side of
the skull's been taking away.
I think we've got
some teeth down here
and then we're just seeing
the outline of the skull
coming around here.
The people who lived,
worked, and died
in this forgotten town are
coming up out of the ground,
revealed by the
archeologists' trowel,
unearthing a possible
burial ground.
Is that another one over there?
And there's another one here.
So here you can see we
have the top of a skull
and so this is
kind of throwing up
even more questions than
we were expecting, really.
We were just
looking for the road
and now it looks like
we've got possibly
some kind of cemetery.
If this chance
find is a cemetery,
we will one day know much more
about the long-vanished
town and its people.
It's so exciting being here
at the beginning of
something which I imagine
is going to turn out to be a
massive archeological story.
I can imagine that in
10 or 20 years time,
people will be
writing history books
and will be talking
about this site
as the one that revolutionized
our understanding
of the Romans in the southwest.
I'm traveling from
Exeter to Wales,
to Caerleon, in the tracks
of the mighty Second
Legion Augusta
which abandoned Exeter in 75 AD.
This amphitheater is part
of the massive
Caerleon Fort Complex,
also started in 75 AD
by General Frontinus.
It was first dug in 1909
but more than a century later,
it is throwing up objects
that breathe new life
into the legions' long-dead men.
Caerleon Roman Amphitheater
is one of the great symbols
of Roman Britain, up
there with Hadrian's Wall
and for many local children,
it's their first real
experience with the Romans.
I certainly remember coming here
on a primary school field trip
and it had a big impact
on me but just last year,
new excavations unearthed
something extraordinary.
A warehouse full of objects
which give us an insight
into the Romans' private lives.
The archeologist in charge
of the dig is Peter Guest.
Peter, this is an extraordinary
collection of finds
to come from one excavation.
And what you see in front of you
is just a selection of the 1200
or so metal and other objects
that were recovered over
six weeks last year.
And I've never seen
such a beautiful assortment
of Roman artifacts
from one site.
Amongst them, these
fish brooches.
Originally, they would've
had enamel in the eye.
Very beautiful
examples of their type
and to find three together
is extremely rare.
These exquisite
brooches probably once belonged
to long-dead legionnaires
and their wives.
So too did this head
of the goddess Minerva.
And then this
extremely nice fitting
which is a, you can see
the lion's head there.
- He's fantastic.
- In bronze.
What would that have been?
That would've been part of
a piece of furniture then?
Probably part of a
piece of furniture.
You can see the iron tang
that would've gone into
the side of a wooden object.
This lovely lion's
head was perhaps intended
for a funerary casket, breaking
before it could be used
and ending up in the warehouse
instead with everything else.
It seems like such a motley
collection of objects.
It's almost like a junk shop.
Or possibly a lock up
kind of store, you know,
like the things
that we use today
where if you've got too
many things in your house,
you hire a small unit and
you put all the things
you don't really need
immediately away there.
Amongst those objects destined
for Caerleon's
Roman Legion Museum
was something mysterious
and utterly unique.
Pieces of a Roman garment.
They are being painstakingly
conserved in Cardiff.
Penny, what have you got here?
Well this is one of the lumps
that we actually
excavated from Caerleon
and basically it
came to me like this.
We had to sort of
wrap it up carefully
so it could be transported
but when the top was taken off,
we seem to have this
extremely interesting
sort of fish scale effect
which has been created
through very tiny sort
of flat-headed pins.
I mean, it almost
looks like sequins, doesn't it?
Yes, they are, and they've
been laid on top of each other
in such a way to move
and create a sort
of shimmering effect.
Penny thinks she
has a garment here
unlike anything
previously discovered.
So this is unique.
There's nothing like
it across the whole
of the known Roman Empire.
I've never seen
anything like this before
and as far as I
know, the curators
are not aware of anything
like this before,
from the Roman Empire.
Is it some kind of armor?
Possibly part of it.
A decorative part of it.
Another piece
of this garment provides
one more clue to the
owner's identity,
suggesting this could
indeed have been armor.
There was another.
That's, oh that's
got a little face on it.
So this is part of it?
That was, and it's
got a solid head
of Mithras attached.
So this is quite an
extraordinary garment.
I mean, it would've
been wonderful
with the fish scales glimmering
and then you've also got
these little details
like the head of Mithras.
And he is a god, I think
he's particularly associated
with the Roman Army.
Very much, yes.
This tiny little
head brings me closer
to the person who once
wore this garment,
to the soldiers
from every corner
of the empire who
came to Caerleon Fort
and adopted the weird, male-only
warrior cult of Mithras,
bathing themselves
in bull's blood.
This garment is a one off
with all the
individuality of a person.
We may never know who owned this
or exactly when he wore it.
When this armor is
finally restored,
it will present cryptic clues
to the crumbling of
Roman power in Caerleon.
It's thought that by the
early fourth century here,
the Roman military presence had,
if not completely disappeared,
at least been
significantly reduced.
So you can imagine the
people staying on struggling
to maintain what had once
been a great fortress.
As buildings fell
into ruins about them
and in a corner of a
crumbling warehouse,
that forgotten suit of armor.
Well, those objects that
were missed by people
all those centuries
ago were preserved
for archeologists to find
so after 1700 years of oblivion,
they've gained a new life.
The once-glittering armor,
adorned with the head of
the warrior god Mithras
brings us face to face with
the Roman soldiers of Caerleon
and how they worshiped.
And 70 miles away
in rural Dorset,
deep inside Roman Britain,
a site is throwing
up exciting clues
to a complex pattern of
belief across Britannia.
Most people know that
the Romans were capable
of religious intolerance,
doing things like
throwing Christians
to the lions, for instance.
But returning to Bere Regis,
a site I visited last year,
they're now finding
evidence that life here
was much more harmonious
and even curiously modern.
More than 200 students work here
on what is one of the
country's largest digs.
My day here is, I'm
told, the rainiest day
in its three year history
and as the day progresses,
it becomes a mud fest
worthy of Glastonbury.
Trowels dredging up a
mud-spattered Roman Britain.
For the Romans, Bere Regis
was probably an ideal colony.
A profitable farmstead made
rich by grain and pottery
with a compliant ruling class.
By 350, Britannia was part
of an officially
Christian empire
but the truth, as site
director Miles Russell knows,
is much more complicated.
Miles, where are we
standing right now?
Well we're standing
at the moment
in the remains of
a very late Roman,
probably not a villa as such
but it is very Romanized
building and this, I think,
is probably our most
impressive find to date.
It's a little pendant.
You can see it's pierced
in the middle there.
This is actually a reused coin.
It's actually of the Emperor
Magnentius in the 350s AD.
And from our point of
view, the key interest
is that it's a Christian symbol.
That it's a Chi Rho, yeah,
so you can see the
rho and the chi
so that's the first two
letters of Christ's name.
Exactly.
So someone's taken that coin
and has obviously
turned it into a pendant
to identify themselves
as an adherent to Christ,
to the Christian God.
But Christianity
was only one religion
in Dorset in rainy
Britannia at this time.
So have you got evidence
of other religions
or other faiths
still being practiced
at the same time
as Christianity?
Yes indeed, we've got
this nice little bone handle
and you can see
this female figure
with a very ornate headdress
and then a series of eagles
and birds around the outer side.
Oh they're lovely, wow.
This is an image of Medusa.
I can't see any
snakes round her head though.
No, no, I mean it's actually her
being shown as a healer,
as associated with animals
but the key thing is
is this is being used
at the same time that
someone is wearing
this Christian pendant.
If Christianity has
become the state faith
whereby all other faiths
have to be rejected,
then this is exactly
the kind of object
that shouldn't be used
but it's quite clear from this
and from other material that
people are still accepting
of the non-Christian gods.
It's interesting that towards
the end of the Roman period
on this site, we're seeing a
spirit of religious tolerance,
with different faiths being
practiced alongside each other.
And in fact, there's a similar
story right at the beginning
of the Roman period.
We don't see an
abrupt transition
from one lifestyle and
set of rituals to another
and we're seeing that very
clearly from the burial practices
on this site.
The archeologists
think they've found
a cemetery for the elite.
Dated to the late first century,
these people would've interacted
with the earliest
Roman officials
and each is buried in a
strangely contorted position,
alongside symbols
of wealth, pots.
This is evidence
of a local religion
which you might've expected
the roman conquerors
to stamp out.
Miles, look at these
two burials here,
there seem to be a
lot of similarities.
They're obviously both
in crouched position.
All the burials that we get here
and across this part of
Dorset, they're all the same,
they're all crouched or
sort of the knees are up
towards the chest, they're
all lying on their right side
and the head is always at the
eastern end of the grave cut
so the face is facing north
and I think these burials
show that the impact
of Rome wasn't that
extreme to begin with.
That people are still
carrying on their practices.
They're still
worshiping their gods.
And in terms of these
particular burials
that we're looking at just here,
do you think these are the
elite that we're looking at?
I think they probably are.
These are the
well-to-do elements,
possibly these are
the last set of people
who are harking back
to an earlier age.
To a more sort of
British culture.
So it seems that
some people living here
were doing very well indeed
out of being part
of the Roman Empire
but what we have to remember
is that those crouched
burials are high status.
That's the wealthy
elite we're looking at.
Life wasn't nearly so
rosy for everyone else
as their bones reveal.
Dozens of other
skeletons from the dig
have been brought to
the mobile unit on site
where bone expert Martin
Smith is examining them
for telltale signs of
their lives and deaths.
Martin, we've got some clues
about what was going on
with this population as they
became part of the Roman world
but what do their bones tell us?
Yeah, this individual has
a few things going on here.
This is someone who is in,
sort of moving into
later adolescence,
as far as we can tell from
looking at their bones.
We've seen in some
individuals' teeth
these horizontal lines
running across the teeth
and what these are showing up
is episodes of
arrested development
when this person was very young
so the enamel's
stopped developing
and then restarted again
and so these are telling
us about specific episodes
of either severe illness
or of malnourishment.
The long bones seem
to support this dark picture
of widespread starvation, of
lives blighted by poverty.
This is from a child
aged about nine or 10.
If we look here, this is
an X-ray of that one there.
Of this actual bone?
Absolutely, so that's
an X-ray of the tibia.
And I can see the,
I can see the problem
there immediately.
I can see these
tide lines in it.
Each of these little lines,
similar to what we were
seeing in the teeth,
each of these represent
a specific episode
of arrested growth
in that individual
so this person was
either severely ill
or really quite
badly malnourished.
So would you say that
there was an unusual level
of physiological stress
in this population
during Roman times?
That's a good question
and it may be the case
that the people who
were owning the villa
may have been doing
very well for themselves
but the people who were
actually working on the land,
who possibly may actually
have been slaves,
may not have had the same
kind of access to resources
and the same kind of access to
interesting diets and so on.
Martin's examination of
these young peoples' bones
provides us with a stark
reminder of a brutal world.
A world that only
archeology can recapture.
Along Hadrian's Wall alone,
there were four huge Roman
excavations this year.
Just south along the
Roman road of Dere Street,
I'm on my way to a
dig that has thrown up
astonishing evidence
about what happened
inside the forts after the
Romans left Britain in 410 AD.
So what do we know about the
Roman occupation of Britain?
Well, they arrived
here in 43 AD,
they ruled here, they built
here for nearly four centuries,
then they packed
up and left in 410,
snuffing out the
flame of civilization
and plunging Britain
into the Dark Ages.
But what if the Romans
never actually left?
What they're finding now
at Binchester raises
that very possibility.
The last days of Roman
Britain are emerging
from the dark mud.
I mean, it almost looks
like there was some kind
of floor surface
that's been laid down,
reusing other stone and then
this bit's been rubbed out.
It has long been assumed
that when the Roman Empire
stopped paying their troops,
the soldiers were
forced to leave
in search of a new
living but excavations
in Binchester's barracks
are illustrating
an untold story in which
the soldiers stay on
and go native and
the tale starts
somewhere quite unremarkable.
A hole filled with animal bones.
So what are we standing in here?
We're standing in a
very big stone-lined pit.
We're almost certain
that what we've got here
is evidence for a
tanning industry,
turning cowhides into leather
and it's quite a
complicated process
which involves soaking
the hides in a variety
of different noxious substances,
scraping all the
fat off the cowhide.
This hole is
certainly large enough
to soak a few cowhides but
David Petts has other evidence
to support his theory.
The first thing is these
are big holes, big pits,
and the other thing is we've
got lots of animal bone
out of these pits.
Skull fragments and the
fragments of the feet.
And you've got some bones here.
And we've got a
range of the kind of things
we've been finding.
We found this-
- So part of a cow skull.
Cow skull which
is out of this pit.
We've got lots of
other, jaws, fragments
of horn, fragments of skull.
And these are exactly the
kind of things you get
with a tannery because
when you skin the cow,
the skull and the
feet come with it.
David thinks he's
discovered evidence
of an industry that grew
up after Rome stopped
its soldiers' wages
and perhaps the Romans
never really left.
So you actually think
it's the Roman soldiers
who stayed here?
Absolutely when governments
go, the people don't.
The people are still there
and they've still got to
kind of find a way of living
and find a way of going
on, no matter what happens.
And how remarkable
that you've actually managed
to identify the industry that
they were engaged in here.
Binchester is the largest
Roman fort in County Durham
and only a tiny part of it
has been excavated so far.
The discovery of objects
revising our understanding
of the Roman withdrawal
makes it an important site.
More evidence is
emerging out of the soil,
not just of a tanning industry
but something even
more unexpected,
jewelry workshops continuing
when civilization was thought
to have collapsed.
We also think we're
getting evidence
for either very late or immediately
post-Roman jet working.
We've actually got
lumps or raw jet.
Lovely.
So that's must've
actually come up from Whitby
and we've also got
things like this.
It's a fragment of a jet bangle
which is still unfinished.
It hasn't been polished off
and it must've been broken
when it was being produced.
So clearly it's being
used by the local people.
Specialist craftwork
and a trade in jewelry
after the collapse
of civilization.
Could these really have
emerged from the shadows
of the Dark Ages?
In order to see some better
preserved small finds,
I'm visiting what was
once the commander's house
and custodian Rob Collins.
Rob, you've got some
wonderful finds here.
Binchester has produced
a load of material, really,
in just the two and a
half seasons we've done.
I love these beads.
Yes, we have a number
of different beads
- so they're segmented beads.
- Oh they're nice.
Is what we call them.
And have they actually
drilled through?
They actually do
drill through them
and you'll get strings of them.
That's really beautiful.
And some necklaces.
Jet is very friable so it
breaks and splits quite easily
if you don't know how
to work it properly
and that's quite interesting
that we've got specialist
craft workers on site
in probably the years after
the end of the Roman empire.
Right.
Some of this jewelry
looks significantly
more Roman than others.
Officers and magistrates
would've worn
these crossbow brooches to
proclaim their importance
in the Roman hierarchy
but after 410 AD, the crossbow
brooch vanishes from the dig
and the Romans who stay on
here adopt a style of brooch
from times before the
army ever set foot
on Britannia's shores,
a penannular brooch,
shaped like a broke circle.
This is a terminal
of a penannular brooch.
So, it would be C-shaped
in its full form
and that's just the
tiny end of it there.
But that's much more of
British type of object
and what is quite
interesting is that
the crossbow brooches,
those very large,
honking Roman symbols of power
don't continue on in
the post-Roman years
but penannular brooches do.
Why do you think they didn't
carry on making brooches
in the Roman style?
I suspect that the
frontier is a dangerous place
and I think as Roman
power is withdrawing,
the people who are here are
needing to make new alliances
so perhaps it's better to
display your Britishness
rather than your Romanness.
So life is changing.
Life is changing very much.
As the archeology
at Binchester shows,
it's much too simplistic
to imagine one epoch,
Roman Britain, suddenly
ending as another,
the Dark Ages, begins.
In truth, one period always
bleeds slowly into the next.
People don't abandon their
beliefs and lifestyles overnight.
And in our material culture,
the past often lives on
into the present.
This church just a few miles
away from Binchester Roman Fort
is one of the
earliest in England.
It was built by the Anglo-Saxons
using stone from the fort.
And it represents the endless
recycling of materials
but subsequent
generations and cultures
and here those Roman
stones are part
of a building which
is still in use today.
From this church built
after the Roman withdrawal
to the magnificent
villa near the place
they probably first landed,
the Romans are still
very much with us, even in
the soil beneath our feet.
It always surprises me that
during this period of history,
the Roman occupation of Britain,
spanning nearly four centuries,
we are still learning
new information
from archeology
like the discovery
of an unexpected
Romano-British settlement
to the west of Exeter
and here at Binchester,
what seem to be Romans staying
on long after their army
has packed up and left.
It brings it home to me
that there are still many
discoveries to be made
and so even as I speak,
the digging continues.