Digging for Britain (2010) s02e03 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?
There was a blade in here, here,
so he's been 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 years quest
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.
Our written history doesn't
begin until the Roman Invasion
but, for about two and a half
thousand years before that
the people of Britain
living through
the Bronze and the Iron Ages
were producing
beautiful, intricate
pieces of metal work, like
this fantastic gold torque,
which does suggest that the
culture of prehistoric Britain
was more sophisticated than
we might sometimes imagine.
Metal is at the heart of
the ages of Bronze and Iron,
but there's much more to
Pre-Roman Britain than that.
This years archeology gives
us incredible glimpses
into a world that's
unfamiliar, complex
and sometimes very strange,
like the Bronze Age skeletons,
changing our understanding
of prehistoric death rituals.
This is starting to look
very strange indeed.
And the mysterious monument
emerging from the mud
where it's lain
for two millennia.
That's just amazing.
The Britain we
know is not a place
our Bronze Age ancestors
would recognize.
When the era began
in around 2300 BC,
much of this land was
covered in forest.
Bronze Age people
changed the landscape.
They used the first metal
tools, cleared forests
and lived in
settled communities.
The population rose to
around half a million people.
Their lives are still
mysterious to us,
but each year archeology reveals
more surprising evidence.
This years revelations
begin at a site uncovered
between 1989 and 2002.
The University of
Sheffield were digging
on the Hebridean
Island of South Uist.
They were excavating a
terrace of Bronze Age houses.
Under the floors they discovered
something quite unexpected.
Human remains.
They were buried with
their arms and legs
bent and drawn up,
in a recognized early Bronze Age style
known as a crouched burial.
Complete Bronze Age
skeletons are rare,
so this was already
the find of a lifetime.
The bones were brought to
Sheffield for examination.
This was the beginning
of a long investigation
that now suggests Bronze
Age attitudes to death
were far stranger
and more complex
than we had ever imagined.
Now this might not
look quite as exciting
as visiting a dig, but so
much of the information
that we can glean
from archeology
comes not just from
the excavation itself,
but from looking at
artifacts and bones
later on in the laboratory
and, as a human bone
expert, I'm really excited
about looking at this particular
collection of skeletons,
which have the potential for
revolutionizing our ideas
about life and death
in the Bronze Age.
I think I press this button.
I'm in.
Osteoarchaeologist,
Christie Willis
has been part of the Cladh
Hallan project since 2004.
So, this is your lab?
Yeah, in here we have
the two main skeletons
from Cladh Hallan laid
out on the table for us.
We're starting with the male.
He looks nicely preserved.
He's nicely preserved.
This appears to
be a normal adult skeleton,
but a closer look reveals
it's anything but.
Take a look at this jaw.
What we can see is the
occlusal surface itself,
which is the top
part of the teeth.
It's actually quite worn down.
Yeah, okay, so the grinding
surface of the teeth is,
yeah, I'd agree with that.
It's certainly quite worn.
But if we look at his top teeth,
they're actually all missing.
All the molars are gone
and not only have they gone,
they went a long time ago.
Yes, 'cause of
all the anti molars.
Tooth loss, exactly.
The upper and lower jaws
seem to be a mismatch.
It's hard to see
how the lower teeth
would have become so worn down,
if the upper teeth were missing.
Christie suspects that this
skeleton is more than one man.
To see if this strange
discovery was a one off,
she turned her
attention to the female.
This is beautifully
female pelvis, isn't it?
It is, it's really
nice, it has a very wide,
obtuse sciatic notch there,
typical female traits,
but the skull,
osteologically, is male.
How very strange.
It has a very large
occipital protuberance
at the back here.
But, that to me, wouldn't
immediately make me think
this was from a
different skeleton.
I think, okay this is a female,
'cause we'd go with the
pelvis as the main indicator,
but a woman who looked
a bit manly, perhaps.
That's exactly right,
but in this instance,
because I knew what we had
with the skeleton behind us,
I felt more research
was necessary.
In the case
of the second skeleton,
just looking at the
bones wasn't enough.
To investigate whether
it too was made up
of more than one person,
Christie arranged
for some of the bones
to be tested for DNA.
And what were the results?
We have three individuals here.
This is starting to
look very strange indeed.
Exactly.
So, if there are
three individuals,
which bones belong
to each individual?
All right, so we
have the male skull
and then we have a female pelvis
and then we have a, the
humerus here has been tested
and that's different
individual again.
That's giving a different
DNA haplotype reading.
Right.
Close examinations suggest
that both these skeletons
are made up of the bones
of at least three
different people.
As far as the team knows,
these are the first examples
of complete British
Bronze Age skeletons
constructed from the remains
of multiple individuals,
but this extraordinary
discovery is only part
of the Cladh Hallan mystery.
For the next stage
of the investigation,
I've come to meet Professor
Mike Parker Pearson.
He's one of Britain's
foremost experts
on both the Bronze Age
and on burial archeology,
so I'm delighted
to be meeting him
to talk about those very
odd Cladh Hallan burials.
Mike asked his team
to take their examination
inside the bones.
Normally, once
bacteria have moved in,
decay spreads
through the skeleton.
Sections of the Cladh
Hallan bones though
revealed that this process
has suddenly halted.
So, what we've got is
actually decay starting,
but instead of reaching
out through the whole bone,
it's been stopped and that's
the really exciting thing
because that's one
of the key indicators
that we're looking at
preservation of soft tissue
at sometime soon after death.
The evidence suggested
that the Cladh Hallan bodies
had not decayed normally.
The bones were found
buried in shell sand,
but looked as though they'd been
in a much more
acidic environment.
The environment of South Uist
includes acidic peat bogs.
The preservative
qualities of peat
prevent decay in organic
material, like human tissue.
Mike's final conclusion
was extraordinary.
The Cladh Hallan bodies had
been deliberately put into peat
for long enough to mummify them.
His team had discovered
Britain's first Bronze Age mummies.
So you were surprised?
To put it mildly.
If anyone had asked me, I
would have just dismissed
and said complete fantasy
and even when we came up
with our results initially,
some people were very skeptical,
but the great thing is,
we've had many years now
to actually work on this and
demonstrate it beyond doubt.
Mike doesn't believe the mummies
were buried immediately,
but rather kept above ground
to play a part in society.
The whole point
is that you mummify
because you actually want
the mummies to continue
to play a role among the living.
The mummies may have been made
into composites of
different individuals,
either long before or
immediately prior to burial.
Mike thinks they could have
been used as ancestor figures,
perhaps to provide the
community with advice.
This is actually
them figuring out
what happens when you die.
It isn't the end,
there's something beyond,
but it's also a series
of quite complicated
states of being.
Alive, not quite alive
and finally, fully dead.
This investigation
is still unfolding.
It seems unlikely that
the people of South Uist
were alone in making mummies.
So, Mike's asked his
team to being to examine
bone sections from
some of Britain's
other crouched burials.
One of the first comes
from Cambridgeshire,
far from the Hebrides.
Analysis of the bones interior
revealed that decay had
started and then stopped,
a very similar pattern to
the Cladh Hallan mummies.
This stage of the project
is still in it's infancy.
The aim is to discover
if the evidence
from other crouched burials
suggests they were
also mummified
and whether mummies
were part of life
across Bronze Age Britain.
I have always been intrigued
by these Bronze Age
crouched burials
and it now seems that
we have real evidence
that at least some of them
may have been mummified.
This is like a forensic case,
you've found a body and
you have to work out
how it's got there.
You have to work out the
processes it's gone through
before it was buried in
the ground and you found it
and how extraordinary
that we can use
these modern scientific
techniques to unlock secrets
from bodies that have been
buried for thousands of years.
Bronze Age people
altered their landscape
by building permanent
settlements,
but their Britain was still
much wilder than ours.
In one corner of the country,
archeology is
helping to recreate
an environment they
would recognize.
This might look like
the surface of Mars,
but in fact, I'm in the middle
of the Cambridgeshire
countryside
and this is a massive quarry,
providing gravel for the
construction industry.
Not long ago, this was farmland,
but before that this landscape
was part of the
Cambridgeshire wetlands.
In prehistory, these
wetlands supported
both people and wildlife.
Quarrying began in 1997.
Once the quarrying is over,
the level of the land here
will really be too low to make
it useful for agriculture,
but that is very good
news for the wildlife
because this whole area
will be returned to wetland,
so a very similar environment
to what was here
in the Bronze Age.
The work of the Cambridge
Archeological Unit
is enforming the recreation
of these wetlands.
Working ahead of the quarry,
the archeologists have
now surveyed and excavated
one thousand acres of land.
The evidence they've uncovered
shows us how our
prehistoric ancestors
used their environment
to survive.
Well, it's nice
that the material
we've been getting
out from the lake,
I mean, we're getting a
nice kind of residence,
in terms of what we're
finding on the sites.
It's still early days, but
one of the nicest finds
is this piece of wood
has actually been
gnawed by beavers.
You can tell, their tooth
marks are quite distinct.
One could almost relate
then in this case,
this is one of the beaver jaws,
so we know the beavers were
here in Willingham Mere
in the later Bronze
Age and Iron Age
and we know they're
being exploited.
Lots of arrow heads like this
from the early Bronze Age.
They were hunting, there's
no doubt about that.
Here at the
Ouse Fen Nature Reserve,
the quarrying has
ended and the process
of rebuilding the wetlands
has already begun,
managed by The Royal Society
for the Protection of Birds.
Further archeological
discoveries show
that beavers shared
this landscape
with creatures so exotic,
we'd never imagine
them living in Britain.
This is a Dalmatian
pelican bone.
Wow, massive.
This was a huge bird,
it had a wing span
of about three meters overall.
You can see that,
where the feathers
were fixed along the bone there.
Oh, that's just extraordinary,
there are these bumps all
along the surface of the bone.
This is absolutely massive.
I mean, that's so much longer
than my ulna in my forearm.
In Europe, Dalmatian pelicans
only survive today
in large wetlands,
like Romania's Danube Delta,
but by reinstating the
reed beds at Ouse Fen,
the RSPB has already
attracted back
some of the smaller birds
that once lived here.
Do you think a
Bronze Age person,
sitting right where
we are right now
would recognize this landscape?
I think they would.
I think they would, absolutely
because we've actually
produced a diversity.
We've got grassan,
we've got reed here,
we've got cattle grazing,
we've got birdsong
in the backgrounds.
I feel we've almost made it.
We're back in the Bronze Age.
The Cambridge team
will be digging
ahead of the quarry
for many more years.
Their excavations have produced
tens of thousands of finds,
helping to build up
a detailed picture
of everyday life, right
back through the Bronze Age.
Each object has to be carefully
cleaned and cataloged.
This huge task belongs
to Finds Supervisor,
Dr. Jason Hawkes.
It's simply a matter of
just very gently probing
any obvious areas
of surface dirt.
So, there we are.
It's a very slow,
painstaking process.
Oh, there's little bits of it.
Yeah, there we go, little
bits of soil coming off there.
It's quite nerve racking.
No, it is.
Bronze axes like this
were more resilient and
better for wood working
than the stone tools
that went before.
The finds here aren't
just practical though,
they include personal objects
that connect us directly
to prehistoric people.
Well, these are
quite interesting.
You can see that
all of these shells
have been perforated,
all in exactly the same
place on the shell on this.
So, I mean presumably,
they were strung,
they were suspended and they
might have been jewelry.
They might have been a necklace.
I still go to beaches
today and pick up shells
and try and make
necklaces out of them.
It seems extraordinary
that so much concrete evidence
of our ancestors lives
has been preserved and
painstakingly identified.
Now, what about
these little lumps of,
is it lumps of clay
you've got there?
And why are these important?
Well, these are really,
really very intriguing.
If you look carefully,
you can actually see
the faintest of
impressions of textile
on the original surface
of that piece of clay.
That's amazing, I
mean, that almost looks
like hessian sacking, it's
that kind of appearance.
This imprint is the ghost
of a Bronze Age fabric,
perhaps even clothing,
preserved for millennia.
It's these traces, these
amorphous, lasting traces
of somebody going about
their day to day life
that I think really does
just make you sit back
and think, wow, you know,
that's such a real
point of connection
with somebody that was living
four thousand years ago.
It makes all those hours
of cataloging worth it.
It does, it does, almost.
The excavations here
revealed evidence,
not only of the
people who lived here
during prehistoric times, but
of an entire vanished world.
Just imagine, pelicans flying
over these wetlands
in a landscape
that our Bronze Age
ancestors would recognize.
The Bronze Age began
with the arrival of metal
from Continental Europe, by sea.
European metal has been
discovered in East Anglia,
so the Waveney River may have
been one of the early routes
by which goods were
brought into Britain.
The trade in metal
and other commodities
would continue
into the Iron Age.
For the past five years,
a team from the
University of Birmingham
has dug alongside
the Waveney River.
What they're uncovering
is not metal,
but a series of vast and
mysterious timber structures.
It's likely these
structures were built
partly because of the
importance of the river trade,
but they also give us an
insight into the complex beliefs
of our ancestors.
What makes this
excavation so exciting
is that this is a wetlands site,
so we have organic
remains preserved here.
The sort of things that
just wouldn't stick around
in any dry land
archeological site
and crucially, the
team are finding wood
that has been preserved
for thousands of years
and today, they're hoping
to actually extract
some of that wood.
Prehistoric people
built trackways
across Britain, but
rivers were an easier way
to move goods around.
Dr. Henry Chapman is
taking me to the site
by this ancient route.
We're getting evidence
now of quite complex boats.
We also have evidence
for quite basic boats,
so the way I imagine
it is you've got people
sort of bobbing around on
everything from coracles,
to dug outs and then you
have your posh person
who's got their lovely
sewn plank wonder boat.
So, yeah, I think a real
variety I think has populated.
You see a landscape like this
and there are people here
and you would know it.
The structures appear to
date from the Iron Ages,
when this land lay
within the territory
of the Iceni Tribe.
The evidence that's emerging
shows they put enormous effort
into building these
ostentatious constructions
to impress traders
and other travelers.
So, what would a trader
in prehistoric times
have seen as they
came up this river?
That would be
weird, wouldn't it?
If you imagine your first,
first time you come up,
it's bad lands as you're
coming up the river
and occasionally, there would
be gaps in the vegetation
and you'd be seeing
these long lines
of very unnatural timbers.
Huge posts standing
above the ground,
probably two or three
meters above ground,
which is a massive
statement really.
It's completely over engineered,
it's far too much effort
for anything which is
vaguely practical alone.
So yeah, it would've
been quite strange,
you would know that you
had arrived somewhere.
This is what the
traders might have seen.
Tracks that ran for up
to a third of a mile,
planked by rows of
massive oak posts.
As you'd expect, these
were probably pathways
across boggy land,
but in prehistory, manmade
structures like this
would also have been
an extraordinary
and impressive sight.
There is no written
record of their existence.
Without archeology, we
wouldn't know they were here.
Dr. Ben Guerry is in charge
of lifting the posts.
So as you can see, we've
got some highly technical
and very expensive equipment
to lift this post out.
There's nothing very glamorous
about getting one of these
posts out of the ground,
as you're gonna see.
The timber has only survived
because it was sealed
in water logged peat.
On other sites, it
would've rotted away.
It's certainly wobbling,
it's like a tooth that
wants to come out.
Let me grab the rope.
That's not budging.
This is no easy task.
The builders carved the posts
into sharp pencil points.
It's exciting and nerve
wracking at the same time.
Then drove them
deep into the mud.
Is it moving, is it moving?
Is that coming, Chris?
Yep, it is.
Oh my goodness.
Look at that, you can see
where it's been shaped.
That's beautiful.
Oh, that's just amazing
and that's hard timber.
Often, the only evidence
of prehistoric metal work
is the tools themselves,
but through this
unusual preservation,
we can see how our
ancestors used metal
to build these
remarkable constructions
around two thousand years ago.
It's just amazing
how fresh this looks
and because it's worked
in a fairly crude way,
you can identify
individual ax marks on it.
Yeah, I mean you
can see, if you like,
sort of individual
moments in time,
you know, that process you
can see in your minds eye,
or I can see in my
minds eye at least.
You know, you can see
someone sort of crouched
over the wood, you know,
working away with a tool
and that's why wetlands
sites are really so important
'cause you see that human detail
in the nature of the tool
marks and the woodworking.
The evidence the
team have uncovered
suggests that these
structures were made up
of hundreds of posts
and it tells us how our
ancestors used metal tools
to transform the
natural landscape
into a manmade environment,
that was a statement of
territory and identity,
I can just imagine this field
as a prehistoric
construction site.
They would've cleared any
trees that were in their way
and then hauled in these
massive pieces of timber.
You can imagine the sounds
of the metal axes ringing out
and instructions being shouted.
So, this was a
massive undertaking,
it would've required the
efforts of the entire community.
Many different goods were
traded in prehistory,
but metal had a
particular importance.
To gain a deeper understanding
of our ancestors mind's,
we need to know why
metal was so much more
than just a material
for making tools.
Norwich Museum have lent us
some Bronze Age metal objects,
discovered in East Anglia.
One of my favorites
here is this lovely ax.
This is an early Bronze
Age ax, which was,
it's not a native design.
So, where might
that have come from?
It's from Germany,
so it's imported.
So, we know there's
trade going on
and we know that people who
were living in this area
were, from the early
Bronze Age at least,
trading with Continental Europe.
In the Bronze Age,
people used metal
to express status.
It's value was as much
symbolic as practical.
Look at this, this
beautiful torque.
This material, the actual gold,
probably comes from Ireland.
It could be imported
as a raw material
or it could be as
a finished object.
That's beautiful.
There is something weird
going on with metal
during this time, isn't there?
Well, a lot of things
are being traded,
but metal's just really special.
It requires a weird
understanding of technology
and, sort of alchemy almost,
to actually create
something from a rock.
It must have seemed
like such a magical thing,
to be able to
extract this kind of,
very different
material from stone.
Absolutely and I think
it's also unlike anything
you can create naturally.
It seems that
Bronze and Iron Age people
believed that metal had
otherworldly qualities.
They used metal
objects like these
to make religious offerings,
often burying them near water
or placing them directly in it.
Henry thinks that water was
spiritually significant.
Water is special,
it's neither this world
or a different world and
the surface of the water,
is kind of a metaphor for it.
So, you can see
through it, sort of
and as you deposit something,
you can sort of see it
go into this other world
and become hidden
beneath the peat
and I think that's
probably quite,
a sort of magical process.
Metal had multiple values.
Henry believes the same is true
for those vast timber monuments.
They were stunning structures
to impress traders,
practical pathways and
spiritual gathering places
by the river.
Water was really important
to those prehistoric people
in a way that it's really
difficult to get at
and properly understand.
We know that they put offerings
very deliberately into water
and here we are as
modern archeologists,
looking at a site where
water is helping us
get in touch with our ancestors.
It's the very nature of the
water logged peaty soil,
which preserves their wooden
constructions so brilliantly.
The Bronze Age became the
Iron Age in about 700 BC.
Iron was stronger than bronze.
With iron tipped plows, heavy
soil could be cultivated.
Our ancestors used this new
metal to create more farmland,
turning Britain into an
increasingly manmade landscape.
Archeology shows there were
three big sources of iron,
the Forest of Dean
in Gloucestershire,
The Weald in Kent and the
Jurassic Ridge of Leicestershire.
Excavations at Burrough
Hill Fort, near Leicester,
are producing evidence that
tells us how iron changed
the lives of ordinary people.
Antiquarians and archeologists
have been studying
hill forts for at
least 150 years,
but in the past, people
have tended to concentrate
on the great earth ramparts,
the earthworks
around the outside.
Whereas now, archeologists
are starting to focus
on what's going on
inside the hill forts,
trying to work out
what Iron Age people
actually used them for.
There were over three
thousand hill forts
of different types
across Britain.
Burrough was built
in around 500 BC,
it served a farming community
of up to five thousand people.
It's a chance to find
out something more
about these massive
features in our landscape,
which are at once so
familiar, but so enigmatic.
The excavation is being run by
the University of Leicester.
John Thomas is digging what's
been called a guards chamber,
perhaps used to control
access to the fort entrance.
In the Iron Age, it would've
looked very different.
You've got
two massive stone built
walls coming all the way in,
so it would've been a very
imposing entrance passage.
What we've found here
So this is the wall here?
The very base of the wall
and you see really nice facing
stones here, dry stone wall,
but originally, we think
that this wall would've stood
at least as high as this.
Right up there?
If not higher,
then with a timber
palisade on top.
It's just fantastic
revealing it, isn't it?
Because you suddenly
realize that underneath
all these smoothed contours,
when this was new it would've
been much more angular,
it would've looked
like a medieval castle.
Yeah, upright
imposing and very showy.
Just like a medieval castle,
Burrough would've towered
over the landscape,
a safe haven in
times of trouble,
but the artifacts John and
the team have uncovered
make it clear that the hill
fort played a much wider role
for the community
than just this.
We're getting some idea
of the types of things
that happened in here.
What we've got mostly
is evidence of weaving
and there's these
interesting worked bones,
they've been perforated,
presumably for
suspension at some point,
but they're also highly
polished at one end.
They're probably big
bodkin type needles
or something like that.
Oh, that's lovely.
We've also got evidence for
different craft activities
and the main other
activity that seems
to have been taking
place is metalworking.
They've got this
fantastic punch here,
somebody would've been
hammering the ends
to punch holes through sheet
metal, that kind of thing.
Well, I think that would've
been pretty effective.
I reckon so.
You don't expect
to find metalworking
in a guards chamber, but
this new evidence suggests
that in times of peace,
this was a workshop,
providing tools
for the community.
Right, so what are we
doing just cleaning?
Yeah, just sort of
troweling back gently.
This excavation will run
every summer for five years,
allowing the archeologists to
build a more complete picture
of how our ancestors
used hill forts.
Just outside the ramparts,
they're digging a
group of roundhouses
where some of Burroughs farming
families may have lived.
This would've been a big
roundhouse, wouldn't it?
Oh yeah, I mean the
interior of this building
is about eight and a half,
nearly nine meters across.
How many people do
you think would've lived
in a building like this?
We're probably
looking at the situation
of a single, extended family,
so anywhere between half a dozen
and perhaps 15 people
could quite easily
live in a house of this size.
With Iron tools, Britain
could produce more food.
By the end of the Iron
Age, archeologists believe
the population had grown
to around one million.
The team have discovered
several rotary quern stones
for grinding flour.
Iron helped make
them more efficient
than simple Bronze Age querns.
So, this is an absolutely
wonderful thing
and a great bit of technology.
This spigot is the key.
Hole drilled in the
bottom stone, iron spike,
which centers the
top stone over it.
Absolutely crucial
because if you try and use
a rotary quern
without it of course,
it will off center very quickly
and you simply couldn't use it.
They've also
discovered an iron blade.
Simple tools like this
transformed agriculture.
It's a very nice piece.
So, what might the
handle have been made of?
Possibly a wooden handle,
bone, but also antler.
The idea with the blade is
of course, you can then sit
the handle in that and then
it holds it into place.
It almost feels
like it's some kind of
industrial revolution
that, you know,
they've discovered this
fantastic new hard metal
and then they're just thinking,
what on earth could
we do with it?
That certainly
seems to be the case,
although it certainly
didn't happen overnight.
This is really more about
increasing and improving
agriculture in the nation's
associated with animal harvest
and with feeding that ever
increasing population.
I think that by the time
we get to the Iron Age,
we still see some
aspects of life
that seem very foreign to us,
but on the other
hand, there are things
and particularly the
objects they were using
on a day to day basis,
that seem very familiar
and that's because they
have this new material
that we know from our lives.
Here's an iron knife blade.
Now, this is a
familiar object to us,
it's not a world away from
the knife you're using
to eat your dinner with.
When hill forts were built,
between 900 and 100 BC,
Britain had no sense of
itself as a united island,
but strong regional identities
and tribal groups
began to emerge.
Some experts believe
that population growth
put pressure on resources,
which led to violent raids
between these communities.
70 miles north west of Burrough,
a dig at another important
hill fort called Fin Cop
has revealed powerful
evidence for this.
The fort lies in the bucolic
Peak District of Derbyshire.
Fin Cop hill fort is a
much loved beauty spot,
but archeologists and locals
wanted to find out more
about it's history, so
an application was made
to dig through
part of it's ditch.
It's sort of wedged in there.
Yeah.
Excavations began in 2009,
led by Dr. Clive Woodington.
What he discovered was
shocking in the extreme,
evidence of an
Iron Age massacre.
Now, we found the
first body about here,
their head was
twisted to one side.
One arm was behind,
one arm in front.
Just over here, we got
another adult woman.
We opened a second trench
and we found evidence
of another five bodies.
In total, Clive
and his team unearthed
the remains of nine people.
To piece together
a fuller picture
of what happened at Fin Cop,
the next stage was a
thorough examination
of those skeletons.
These are the bones of a
teenager, probably a boy.
Analysis has revealed
that his skull
was cut by a sharp
blade, like a sword.
The wound had never healed,
so it must've happened
around the time of his death.
Other members of the
group also show signs
of similar injuries.
This is the body
of an adult woman
and she's about
20 to 30 years old
and she's quite interesting
because on her left cuneiform,
which is a foot bone,
we can see this really
quite clear cut mark,
caused by a sharp
bladed instrument.
So, this would've been from
the inside of the foot,
quite an unusual injury,
but it's possible that
she was running away
with her leg trailing and
that they've caught her
on the back of
her foot, or well,
the inside of the foot
as she's been running.
After the
group came under attack,
their bodies were hurled
into the ditch of the fort
and the stone ramparts
thrown down on top of them.
The group includes
four tiny babies,
two so young they may have
still been in the womb.
The others aged
eight to 11 months.
So, this is one of the
collarbones we can see here
to give you some
sense of size of it.
So, really very
small individuals
and these would've been
dispatched as well,
along with the adults.
These people and their fort
date to around 400 BC, about
the middle of the Iron Age.
Results from the excavation
suggest the fort was attacked
whilst still being built
and was never completed.
The motivation for
building this fort
is something that we
can only guess at,
but the fact that
it was unfinished
and that the fort was attacked,
really quite quickly after
they'd started building it
does suggest that it was
being thrown up quickly
in advance of a threat
that they perceived
was coming their way.
The dig only covered a
small section of the ditch.
Clive thinks further excavation
would reveal more skeletons.
Hill forts played multiple roles
as expressions of prestige
and as gathering places
for the community,
but the evidence for
a place like Fin Cop
also reminds us that
they were defensive
and that violence was a
part of Iron Age life.
In 43 AD the Romans invaded,
sweeping through
tribal territories
and taking many into
their vast empire.
Now, excavations at
Calleva, near Reading
are changing our
perception of life
in Britain before
the Romans came.
These are amongst the most
complete Roman town walls
that we have in Britain
and today I'm looking
out over green fields,
but had I been here
in the Roman period,
all of that would've been
a busy, bustling town.
The archeologists
here are digging down
through the Roman layers,
to find the Iron Age town
that lies beneath them
and they may also have
uncovered evidence
of British resistance
to the Roman occupation.
Calleva was built in
the 1st century BC,
perhaps 100 years before
the Roman invasion.
The University of Reading
has been excavating here
since the 1970s.
This year, 250 archeologists,
students and volunteers
are on site for six weeks.
This is excavation
on a grand scale,
but some of the most exciting
finds are absolutely tiny.
Lisa Lodwick runs the
team that processes
all of the samples coming
out of Calleva's wells.
We're ready to go,
so now we just need
to turn the pump on.
This flotation tank is designed
to pick up minuscule organic
remains, like plant seeds,
which would never be spotted
in normal excavation.
Now as we break up the sample,
hopefully more bits will
come to the surface.
What's that
there, is that something?
I think that's a grain,
- it looks like maybe like.
- Can I pick it up?
If you're very careful.
Yeah, I think that looks
probably like a barley grain.
Really?
I think so.
How fantastic.
It's kind of micro archeology.
Yeah, definitely.
Lisa specializes
in archaeobotany
and she's been working
on the Iron Age samples
emerging from this
site for two years.
By collecting and
analyzing plant remains,
she can begin to work out
what the ancient
Callevans were eating.
This work has produced some
quite unexpected results.
These are dated
to about AD 30 to AD 43,
so we've got a seed of coriander
Wow.
And a few seeds of celery.
So, Pre-Roman coriander?
Basically and yeah,
these are really exciting
because they're now
the earliest records
of these in the country.
In the whole of the UK?
Basically, yeah.
That's just brilliant.
It is interesting
because I mean,
there are all these
plants that we think
only reached Britain
when the Romans arrived.
But actually, they got
here a few decades before.
Let's see if we can
get anything else.
A lot of household waste
ended up in the town wells,
so this process picks
up all sort of small,
but important finds.
Oh, I missed that.
So, you come to recognize
where the small bits were.
Oh, look at this bit, oh wow.
Oh, that's fantastic,
it's got a really
beautiful pattern on it.
Can you see these
lines, these grooves?
And there's a kind of zigzag
pattern just punched into it.
That's really pretty.
So, a tiny little fragment
that's been missed
in the excavation, but
then it's picked up
through wet sieving.
Pre-Roman Calleva
covered 87 acres.
This trench represents
just one percent.
On the left, the
archeologists are digging
the Iron Age layers.
On the right, early Roman.
Field School director,
Amanda Clarke,
has clear evidence to show
that Iron Age Callevans
led sophisticated lives
before the Romans invaded.
This is very, very
typical Roman ware, Samian,
found in a well of
Iron Age date here
and you can see they are
little drinking vessels,
so you know, they're quite posh,
almost sort of
like, fine dining,
but you know, we are
in the 1st century BC
and the thing about them
is that at the base of them
they have the makers stamps,
so the potters who actually
made these little vessels.
So, you can tell exactly
where they came from?
Yes, you can.
Until these discoveries,
we just didn't believe
Iron Age people
enjoyed such a
refined way of life.
These platters were
imported from France.
They are beautiful, but also
mass produced and affordable.
They're not, these aren't
barbarians that we're looking at
in any shape or form,
these are people who are
drinking out of lovely wine cups
and eating off plates.
That's right, I think, you know,
they recognized nice things
and they wanted the nice things
and they've adopted
and adapted them.
Pre-Roman
Calleva was a wealthy town.
It was also carefully planned.
Here, archeologists have
uncovered the first evidence
to show that Britons
developed urban planning
before Roman occupation.
We're actually
walking on a lane,
I would think that was
established maybe as early
as the 1st century
BC, but perhaps,
you know, early centuries
of the 1st century AD.
Is this what you'd expect
to find on an Iron Age site?
A lane with, you know, a
proper gravelly surface to it
and it's running
in a straight line,
it seems a bit Roman to me.
It was, you know, an
amazing surprise to find
such an ordered layout.
The excavations
here are revealing
a quite unfamiliar
picture of Iron Age life.
The people were living in a
settlement that we'd recognize
as a town, they
were drinking wine,
they were using olive
oil, dill and coriander
in their cooking.
It's a sophisticated,
urban way of living
that we don't expect to
find in prehistoric Britain.
No medieval or modern town
was ever built over Calleva,
which gives the archeologists
an unusually clear opportunity
to look at interaction
between the Iron Age
and Roman layers.
They're uncovering tantalizing
evidence that suggests
Calleva may have
witnessed conflict
between Romans and Britons.
Professor Mike Fulford
runs the excavations here.
He's taking me into the early
layers of the Roman town.
Roman records tell us
that after invasion,
the British Chief
Caratacus took them on
at the famous Battle of Meday.
It's the discovery of queens
that may connect
Caratacus to Calleva.
We have some examples
here, these tiny, tiny coins.
- Can I pick them up?
- Yeah, yeah.
Oh, they've
got little eagles on.
Are they eagles?
Yes, eagles on the reverse.
Those are
gorgeous, are they silver?
Yeah, they're silver.
Cara.
The inscription reads Cara,
thought to stand for Caratacus.
Archeologists use coins
to plot the territories
of Iron Age Chiefs and
many of these coins
have been found within a
25 mile radius of Calleva.
It's pretty suggestive that
this was Caratacus's stonghold
and it was one of the
wealthiest places,
place to be where you'd
get your tax, your tribute
and exercise your power.
If Caratacus was
using Calleva as a stronghold,
the Romans may have been
keen to throw him out
and to stamp their
authority on the town.
In the early Roman streets,
the team is now finding
metal artifacts that
indicate a possible
Roman military occupation.
This emerged last week.
It's a little point.
A little catapult
bolt, you can see.
That looks vicious.
It is vicious and
you can see the socketing
at the end here, so the
wooden shaft going in there
and that would've been fired
by a Roman Ballista
catapult device,
so with a considerable range.
Previously,
they uncovered traces
of what might've been
a military building
and there's more metal.
Here is a beautifully
preserved belt fitting.
Is it part of a
sword belt fitting?
Yeah, I think
something like that, yeah.
It really is
definitely military then,
it's not a part
of normal attire.
Yes, it joins
these other artifacts
that we're accumulating
that point to a
military occupation.
The early years of Roman rule
saw sporadic rebellions.
The archeology here
indicates that one of these
may have reached Calleva.
In 60 to 61 AD, the British
warrior queen, Boudica,
led her tribe in a great
revolt against the Romans.
In layers dating to this period,
the team have found signs
of burning and destruction.
Just here down in front of us
you've got this amazing smash,
at least one, possibly
two large jars
that have been broken,
you can see the rim.
- Oh, here?
- Yeah.
More rim to your left
and it's part of the
debris of the destruction.
Calleva is likely to have been
a newly Romanized town, a
potential target for Boudica.
The evidence from the
burnt layer suggests
that the town they abandoned
for up to 20 years,
around the time of her revolt.
It's a remarkable period
of history, isn't it?
I mean, this must've
been terrible,
it must've been a terrible time.
You've lost everything.
Lost everything and you
know, there's no insurance,
you'd just have to start again.
When you say it like that
and you say there was no
insurance you suddenly think,
imagine having a house fire
and not having insurance.
- Everything's gone.
- Everything's gone.
The Romans defeated
Boudica's rebellion.
For nearly 400 years,
their rule extended
over much of Britain.
The symbols of their empire
were stamped across this land.
This is Roman
Calleva's amphitheater,
it lies just outside
the town walls.
There is no more
powerful a symbol
of Roman culture in
Britain, but in fact,
this was built on the alignment
of the old Iron Age town.
This years archeology has
given us a deeper insight
into the sophistication
and complexity
of the ages of Bronze and Iron.
The Cladh Hallan mummies remind
us our Bronze Age ancestors
beliefs were just
as complex as ours
and the ancient timber
structures of East Anglia
allow us to explore the
magic of metal and water.
The Romans brought us writing,
but written history only
tells part of the story.
Archeology not only
fills in the gaps,
it paints a much more
complex picture of our past
and connects us with the
lives of ordinary people
and so, the digging continues.