Digging for Britain (2010) s04e01 Episode Script
West
1
Britain has an epic history
but within it there's a wealth
of untold secrets
still to uncover.
It's a really key
find, find of the week.
So every year,
hundreds of
archeologists set out
hunting for clues
to solve the mystery
of who we are and
where we've come from.
Just found this amazing pendant.
Over the
past year their discoveries
have been more
exciting than ever.
This series will explore
the best of them.
I've just found a coin.
Oh, marvelous.
Brought to you from the field
in a very special way.
Each excavation has
been filmed for us
as it happened by the
archeologists themselves.
It looks absolutely fantastic.
Somebody had a bad day
when he never
brought these back.
Their dig diaries mean
that we can be there
for every crucial
moment of discovery.
- Oh wow.
- Whoa.
- And we have a winner.
- I know, I think
- it's stunning.
- Incredible.
Our archeologists
will be joining us here
in our special lab
to take a closer look
at their finds and to figure
out what they really mean.
This is so exciting.
Welcome to Digging for Britain.
This time, we're
exploring dramatic
discoveries form
the west of Britain.
We'll reveal how the invaders
and outsiders of the past
have shaped our world
and give tantalizing insights
into the spiritual
beliefs of our ancestors.
We'll explore evidence
of foreign pilgrims
and strange rituals
around Stonehenge.
It's an immediate link
to the people that lived here.
A lost British city
rediscovered after 700 years.
At least 100 buildings going
up in flames all at once.
And the
warrior invaders we now know
were more than just legend.
These discoveries are
rewriting our history
to find out how archaeologist
Matt Williams and I
have been given special
access to Salisbury Museum.
Its unique collection
spans nearly
half a million years
of life on this island.
So these are all Anglo
Saxon grave goods.
This is absolutely beautiful.
This is the women's jewel.
And we're going
behind the scenes
to the back rooms ordinary
visitors don't get to see.
That is enormous, that is
a shin bone or a tibia.
Less than 10 miles from
Salisbury Museum is Stonehenge.
4,000 years ago the
spiritual beacon
of Britain and Europe,
today an enduring mystery
that leaves us asking who came
to this vast monument
and what did they do here?
The answers may lie
buried in the hills
and valleys that
surround Stonehenge.
Archeologists have
been interested
in the landscape
around Stonehenge
for some 300 years
but now new technology
has revealed hidden details
in the landscape that
haven't been seen before.
We've discovered Stonehenge
didn't stand alone.
It was one of a network
of sacred monuments
along the River
Avon in Wiltshire,
many of which have lain
hidden for thousands of years.
Since they've been identified,
archeologists have wondered
what clues they might conceal.
At the end of the day though,
the only way to understand how
all these monuments
link together
is to excavate them and that's
what a team from the
University of Redding is doing.
They're digging
just 10 miles from
Stonehenge at Marden Henge.
A henge is a circular
bank of earth
which we can still
make out at Marden.
Archeologist Jim
Leary is digging here,
hunting for clues to
explain the rituals
our ancestors practiced in
this landscape 4,000 years ago.
12 days into the dig, his
team strikes it lucky.
They found the
outline of a building
right inside the henge.
Okay, rolling.
Okay well this is a
very very exciting moment
because we have just uncovered
our neolithic building.
You can see the edges
of the chalk floor,
very clearly on this
side and this side.
Some features showing
up in the ground
that have yet to be excavated,
so what goodies
await us underneath
this section here?
The
team's next job is to look for
evidence of what kind
of building it was
and on day 16 they
make an intriguing
discovery just
outside its walls.
Here we have the remains
of an external fire.
This was a big bonfire
and it was all
emanating from one place
and it's created this
huge spread of charcoal
and ash and burnt stone.
The presence
of burnt stone is puzzling.
They're pieces of Sarsen stone,
a type of local rock,
and clearly scorched
but it's not clear why anyone
would put rocks on a fire.
Then, inside the building
they find a second hearth.
So one of the really key
elements of the building,
is the huge hearth
right in the middle.
This is where there
was significant
amount of burning, so much so
that it's discolored the chalk
into an orangey hue.
But interestingly there's
no charcoal at all.
I don't believe this
is an open flame fire.
Wood burning fires
produce charcoal,
but there's no trace
of any in this inner hearth.
So if it wasn't a fire,
what was the source of the heat
that discolored the ground
inside the building?
So we have a little
bit of a conundrum
but I think the key is
the burnt Sarsen stone
that we're getting in
the charcoal spread
outside the building.
Jim has an extraordinary
theory that these
mysterious twin hearthes
reveal a ritual,
practiced by our ancestors
in the Stonehenge landscape.
Can I have that?
I think what's
happening are people
are heating up the Sarsen stones
in the external fire
and that's the fire
we know is this
open flame bonfire
and I think they're
picking up the hot stones,
probably with two pieces of wood
and then they're carrying them
into the building
and they're putting
them in the central half
and piling up these hot rocks
and then I think
people are using
the ledge around the
edge to sit down,
close the door, pour
water on these hot rocks
and create a sauna and I think
this building is being
used a sweat lodge.
It's an intriguing idea
and Jim has brought his finds
into our lap so we can
explore it further.
It's a really
interesting site, Jim.
And it's quite a
persuasive hypothesis
I think you've come up with.
Well I think so, I mean it might
not be the answer
but it's the best
solution that we can
think of at the moment.
And we've got some of
the Sarsen stones here.
These are the burnt
stones are they?
Yeah so we're
finding burnt stone
within the external bonfire,
the outside fire and here
we have some of those
fragments that have
been clearly heated up.
They've changed to a
sort of pinkish hue,
fire cracked and broken.
So you've got the hearth outside
where you're finding
these burnt stones,
the burnt area
inside, burnt stones
don't make a sauna.
What else have you found?
So the building itself
is very well made.
The surface is well prepared,
there's a nice ledge around it
which just seems
appropriate, the internal
fire place, the internal hearth
it's huge, it's utterly dominant
and I just cannot
envisage other things
going on inside this building.
You wouldn't have room to live
so we need to focus
on that hearth
but that's our clue,
that's our way in
to understanding the building.
Jim, a prehistoric sweat lodge,
I mean is there any precedence
for that kind of thing?
It's not a crazy idea
and of course if you look
in the ethnographic record,
it's replete with
examples of sweat lodges.
It's a fantastic way of
purifying the body,
of cleansing the self.
And although we'll
never really know
how it was used if indeed
it was a sweat lodge,
it's very tempting
to ascribe some
kind of ritual ceremony
or purpose to it
when it's in this landscape
so close to Stonehenge.
That's right, we're
in the landscape
surrounded by temples,
Stonehenge is a temple,
Marden's temple,
Wilsford is a temple,
Avebury, Silbury Hill, these
are all ceremonial monuments.
This sweat lodge
is brand new evidence
of an intriguing ritual
that may have taken
place near Stonehenge
but who were these people
and where did they come from?
Jim's team starts another dig
at another henge, this one less
than three miles
away at Wilsford
and from day one,
trench supervisor Rose
is feeling confident
she knows exactly
where to look for clues.
She's learned from previous digs
that the entranceways to henges
can be the site of
major discoveries
so that's where she
puts her first trench.
So in this terminus
we hope to find
the majority of finds,
normally you find very
precious finds there
because that's where they dumped
so many objects or
whatnot that's normally
where all the good
finds are found
so we're gonna do a
big slot in the end
and hopefully we're gonna
find some wonderful things.
Just three weeks later,
Rose is proved
right when she makes
a discovery more exciting
than even she could've hoped
for, a neolithic burial.
She calls Jim to come
and see for himself.
- Stunning, it is beautiful.
- Has to.
- It's actually beautiful.
- Look at his hands.
By the hands and yeah I think
- it's actually beaten.
- Incredible.
Finding human remains
within a henge is
exceptionally rare,
an incredibly powerful
link to our ancestors.
So obviously what we have here
is a crouched entombation okay.
This individual
was lying on their
right hand side, legs pulled up,
arms crossed over,
basically a fetal position
and it's extraordinarily
evocative
I mean it reminds us that these
monuments were constructed
by and for real people.
This was a real individual.
They lived and they died,
it just brings it
really all to life
when you see
something like this.
This person has been
tenderly and carefully
placed within the ditch you know
so it's really really important
and really you know just
such a lovely discovery
just immediate link
to the people that lived here.
Jim knows a burial like this
could tell us who
worshiped in the
sacred landscape
around Stonehenge
and as Rose carefully
excavates the skeleton,
she finds an important
but fragile clue.
So we have exposed and removed
the rest of the
body and we're now
left with the top three
cervical vertebrae
and the skull and a tiny
pice of the scapula left.
What we're gonna do is
gonna try and block lift it.
The reason is because we have
these tiny little
amber beads coming up,
they're really fragile and
they look quite crushed.
So in order to keep
all of that together,
we're gonna try
and block lift it,
wrap it in bandages
and send it off
to a specialist to be
excavated properly.
Jim has brought the preserved
bones back to our lab.
As an osteologist
myself, I'm thrilled
to see this evidence.
The fact this person was buried
in the entrance to a henge
shows they must've
been significant.
Now I want to know what else
the skeleton can tell us.
We can see that his bones
haven't quite fused fully
so he's still in the
process of growing.
You can see that the
top of the humerus
there is separate from the shaft
so we can get quite a good age
in terms of his biological age.
He's in his mid teens
you know around 15.
How old is he in terms
of his chronological age?
We've been looking
at somewhere between
2,400 BC and 1,800
roughly speaking.
The fragments
of an earthenware
cup in his grave
show that this boy was
one of the Beaker people
who may have come
from the continent
to settle in the landscape
around Stonehenge
4,000 years ago.
They were dazzling craftsmen
and Beaker burials often
include valuable jewelry.
This boy's grave
was no different.
The only proper grave good
from his grave was a
beautiful amber necklace.
So this is them here,
- this degraded amber.
- That's right
you can see the sort
of orangey amber
- coming through there.
- Amber that might
even have come from the
Baltics or something.
Well quite possibly, yeah.
It's a clue
showing how Stonehenge and this
network of sacred monuments drew
pilgrims from across Europe.
The amber necklace,
the way it's buried,
very very different to what
went before, this is your
you know what you would expect
from a Beaker burial.
This is a new cultural
group of people.
Very different to
what went before
which seems to be quite
an insular culture
all of a sudden we're getting
very much an outward
looking group of people.
When they arrived here,
the Beaker people transformed
Britain with new
skills and technology.
To understand them
better, Matt's
examining Salisbury
Museum's star exhibit.
Another extraordinary
Beaker burial
known as the Amesbury Archer.
He was discovered close
to Stonehenge itself
and he was buried with an array
of fine metalwork like
these golden hair wraps.
Well he was also
buried with some
of the earliest copper objects
that have been found in Britain.
We have three copper knives
and daggers found in the grave
and here is one of
the daggers here.
The Beaker people
transformed Britain
by introducing metal
and these fine metal objects
suggest that the
Amesbury Archer himself
may have been a
gifted metal worker,
a skill completely
unheard of in Britain
until the arrival of
the Beaker people.
And so this is just on the cusp
of the neolithic Bronze age
so metalwork is just
being introduced.
Well that's right,
it's a new technology
that's just coming
into this country
at the time so it
is incredibly rare
and you have to
imagine that when
this was new it
would've been golden
in color, it would've gleamed,
it would've been
a very impressive
although very small object.
So this will have marked
the Amesbury Archer
to somebody important
owning really
unusual objects like this.
So if he was just a visitor,
do we know where
he was coming from?
Well that's the
interesting point
is that we've done
oxygen isotope analysis
of his teeth and we've been able
to work out where he grew
up and we've discovered
that he probably grew
up in central Europe,
possibly in the outer region.
He's a foreigner, effectively,
coming to this area,
spreading this new information
about metalworking.
This immigrant to Britain
had traveled across the
continent to get here.
Stonehenge may have
been the reason why.
Stonehenge at the
time, when he was alive,
about sort of two and
a half thousand BC
was a temple and
many people would've
been visiting this
area to perform
ceremonies and visit
ceremonies taking place there.
Perhaps he wanted
to meet those people
perhaps he wanted
to share this almost
magical understanding
he had of metalworking
technology with these people.
So he's come hundreds of miles
with this incredible
new technology
which must've
astounded the locals
or the people
visiting Stonehenge.
It's now wonder he was given
such an incredible burial.
That's right, buried
with over 100 objects
is absolutely exceptional
for this period.
Together with the
Amesbury Archer,
the new discovery
of the Marden boy
shows us more clearly than ever
how the power of
Stonehenge pulled in
pilgrims from across Europe.
4,000 years ago in
this ritual landscape
people were purifying
their bodies,
visiting the temples,
and burying their dead.
And the incomers from Europe
brought metalworking technology
to Britain, propelling
us out of the Stone Age
and into the Bronze Age.
At Winterborne
Kingston in Dorset,
a team from
Bournemouth University
has also been
investigating evidence
of religious rituals, this time
from the Iron Age
around 2,000 years ago.
What they've unearthed
is eye opening
and very strange.
They've discovered
extraordinary new evidence,
bizarre animal burials pointing
to very odd beliefs and rituals
and they had their
cameras rolling
right from the start.
A geophysical survey of the area
had revealed an array
of dark markings
in the landscape.
As the team excavated these,
they uncovered the remains
of a settlement
over 2,000 years old
which included a number
of massive storage pits.
Okay well I'm in the
base of one of these
cylindrical Iron
Age storage pits.
You can see it's
fantastic well cut
nice flat bottom base to it
and we've got absolutely no idea
what they were storing
in these originally,
although we presume
it to be grain,
that there's some
kind of grain silo
for storing grain over winter.
The grain pits
are vivid evidence of a thriving
Iron Age settlement.
Then, at the
beginning of week four
of the excavation, they
find something very unusual.
Where Alicia, Zack, and
Emily are excavating here,
we've got what appears
to be the remains
of three sets of pigs.
Very strangely, the pigs
have not been butchered,
they have been placed
in the pits whole.
This is a real dramatic
wastage of animals,
these are good, viable
animals, good lot
of meat on them but they've
been deliberately killed
and placed in these pits.
But if the animals
weren't killed to be eaten,
then what is going on?
Now we presume
they've been sacrificed
as a deliberate
kill, that these are
offerings for some kind
of god of the underworld
for some kind of god putting to
assume the continued
protection of the herd
or the community.
But this possible
evidence of sacrifice
is just the beginning.
In week five, the team discovers
even stranger practices.
Yeah we've got the front leg.
Yes.
And that, another front leg.
Yeah, and there's a bit
of humerus here as well.
It's the remains
of a sheep, but it
has a cow's head
placed on its hind quarters.
So it's kind of like this.
The discovery is unprecedented.
By day 22, the team has
discovered even more
burials of these
strange, man made beasts.
Nothing quite like this has
ever been discovered in Britain.
Right at the very
bottom of the pits
we're getting a whole
series of specially
placed deposits
and what we can see
in this particular example we've
got part of a horse's leg here
partially articulated
and a cow's rib and
what we're finding
in a number of these
pits is there's
a sort of, almost
hybrid animal of cow
and horse, where you
find a horse's skull
it's always with a cow's jaw.
Sometimes you find
a horse's head
with a cow's body.
They're mixing and
matching the two animals.
Obviously both animals
are important to them
for different reasons.
So incredibly, it
looks like our Iron Age
ancestors were
creating hybrid beasts
from the body parts of animals
sacrificed to their gods.
It sounds unbelievable,
but Miles has brought the bones
to the studio so we
can see the evidence
with our own eyes.
Miles, this site just
gets more and more
interesting, doesn't it.
This isn't just rubbish,
they're not filling
them in with discarded
remains of butchered animals.
No, the one thing actually
we're not getting in
any part of the site
is normal rubbish material,
not sort of discarded waste.
This isn't disordered
dumps of materials.
There was a very specific
order going on here.
But when we're finding a horse
and cow they're cut
up and obviously
you wouldn't be
able to cram a whole
horse into one of these
pits in a complete state
but they're cut up
and they're being
placed with other body parts.
So it's a rather sort of
macabre jig saw puzzle.
And that's what
you've got here is it?
That's a cow I see
because of the horns,
and the horse?
Yes yes, in fact one is
one of the storage pits
when we found it it was actually
sort of resting the
cow skull on top there
so it was creating this
rather bizarre hybrid animal.
Like a chimera, a mixture
of different animals.
You could say that, yes.
Yes, it is a direct attempt
to create something that
doesn't exist in nature.
Where they are dismantling
or dismembering
animals and then
reassembling them
whilst they're still
fleshed and bloody.
And there don't seem
to be any cut marks
on the bones at all really.
They seem to be pretty intact
I mean you'd expect
to see cut marks
here where muscle
had been taken away,
meat had been taken
away from the cheek
and then perhaps cut marks
on the inside here where
the tongue had been
taken out but we can't
see any evidence of that.
No no, exactly.
In most of them,
we're not finding
any kind of evidence
that meat's been removed
or indeed that the bones have
been broken up to
get at the marrow.
And we're getting
quite big sections
of animal in there all together
so perhaps there is a way of
by reassembling in there
you are creating
almost like a deity
or you're creating a deposit
the god's would accept
which would ensure the long term
survival of your community.
By next year, Miles may
have even more answers
but for now it
certainly looks like
his team have discovered a new
Iron Age religious phenomenon
that had been entirely
forgotten about
for over 2,000 years.
Our next dig diary features
another staggering find.
This time, an entire
city that disappeared
for seven centuries in
Monmouthshire in Wales.
10 years ago, an
archaeologist developed
a hunch that a
pretty little village
on the Welsh English border
had a forgotten past
that it did in fact lie
right at the heart
of the English
struggle for dominance over
the Welsh in the 1200s.
One particular field was crucial
to his idea so he gathered
up his life savings,
bought the field,
and started digging.
That archaeologist
was Stuart Wilson
and this year he's
kept us a dig diary.
Today, this sleepy village
is home to around 3,000 people
but if Stuart is right
then 800 years ago this
was a very different place.
Evidence is being
unearthed outside
the village in what is now
Stuart's very own field.
It was here that
his hunch came good
when he discovered an
entire medieval high street
in the middle of nowhere.
Could this be the
medieval city of Trellech?
The center of power and industry
that was lost in
the 14th century
and for which archeologists
have been searching
for generations?
Well here we have
a series of workshops
in medieval times
and what he have down
is iron slag floor
surface, with stone drains,
and a nice central
fireplace in the middle.
So, you could've
walked up along here
with your horse,
leave your dagger
or bits of armor, come in here
into a hard working
surface where the metalwork
is repair, whatever
you're coming in with
right next to the main
road in medieval times.
The
remains date back to the 1200s.
The sheer scale makes it clear
that this was just part
of a huge settlement
and as the dig
continues, Stuart's team
begin to turn up clues
as to what made this town grow.
So one of the
things that we find
consistently in each
and every trench
that we dig is this stuff.
It's iron slag.
These nuggets
are the by-products
of smelting iron
and the town produced
so much of it,
they started using the
slag as building material
in floors and on their roads.
Iron production on this scale
indicated that Trellech was
a major center of
trade and industry
and Stuart's team
has found evidence
that this was no ordinary place.
We do have a lot
of indications here
that the people who lived there
were extremely wealthy and we've
got a couple very nice finds
from previous
excavations that really
showed a wealth of these people.
The first is this
medieval flowerpot.
We could really say
it's a unique piece
because it's the only
medieval flowerpot
that has ever been
found in Wales.
Another piece that
we have is this one.
Most people see a thing
as some sort of a dish
that comes out of a kitchen
but actually this would
be on top of your roof.
This is a medieval finial.
So it's a very high
quality glaze on there,
it's a very very
expensive object.
It would have a large
ceramic spike on top of it
so if lighting would
strike this would break
and your roof would
still be in tact.
Now the showing to the people
of your village that
you can actually
afford to break an
object like this
really shows great wealth.
For Stuart,
the evidence of
affluence at the site
confirms that he has indeed
discovered the lost
town of Trellech.
This was no small
Welsh settlement
but a vast English
military supply base.
Now, he's also uncovered
remarkable evidence
that its great
wealth could've made
it a target for
attack by rebel Welsh
who may even have attempted
to burn the place down.
The buildings we
found quite interesting.
Because the buildings
have actually
been burnt down in a very
very severe house fire.
We had glass, actually formed
out of the thatch which
has actually melted
in the fire or we found the mica
on the stone had actually melted
a glaze on the stone itself.
So very very severe fire,
we think of a great
attack on the town
in about 1295,
1296 by the Welsh.
Yeah so it looks
exactly the same
Not only is it possible
that this English
run town was once
burned down by the Welsh,
Stuart is also finding
compelling clues
that the Welsh posed
a constant threat.
Well here we have a massive
round tower which looks like
a good fortification
to the mud house
but also to the town.
Now it's a really
nice dug construction,
it's got a single stone
wall about a meter thick.
There's an iron slag core to it,
an inner stone wall
and all built up
in one nice circle
right outwards.
And we think it's
defensive because
of its sheer size, the
way it's been built,
it's very well constructed.
In fact, it's not
just how this tower was built
but where that indicates
its purpose was defense.
If this stood up
quite nice and high
it would see across the gardens
of their neighboring burgages
both along this road,
along Tinkers Lane
and across the
entire common fields.
Stuart is convinced that
the round tower's construction
shows just how solid Trellech's
defenses needed to be
in order to see off
Welsh aggression.
But a big question
still remains,
why did this 700 year
old town just disappear?
I'm still intrigued
by how you actually
came across this to
begin with, Stuart.
Given that other people
had been looking for
Trellech for a long time.
How did you put all
the clues together?
You're never gonna
discover an elephant
by looking through a microscope
because you're looking
too closely at it.
You need to stand back
and when you stand back
actually look at the landscape,
it's speaking to you.
Well you've got a map here,
should we have a look at that?
Does that give us any clues?
Yes it does, these maps
are extremely useful.
So when does this date from?
This actual map dates from 1881
and what we have
are thin fields are,
following the main roads,
and more thin fields.
And the thin fields
carry all the way
down to the south with
large fields behind.
Why are these fields
like they are?
They're all man made,
they must've been here
for a reason and when you then
compare it to
medieval towns and say
well let's take
the buildings out
and what do we get?
We get this pattern,
the thin fields
are where the
buildings used to be.
Right.
And then back onto large fields
which are the common fields.
Okay.
Exactly what we've got here.
So the buildings
would've essentially
lined up in the plots along here
and these lines here form
the back of the buildings.
- Exactly, yes.
- So you know from
the documentary
evidence for instance,
you had an indication
of the size of it
in terms of numbers of houses.
We knew there were
378 taxable buildings
in 1288, now that is massive.
I mean it's even
bigger than Cardiff
at the time so we're talking
a really really big town.
But I can recognize
one thing over there,
that's the iron slag is it?
And that's a product of
what made this town so rich.
Oh yes, now this
it's iron slag though they used
this as hard coal
and so by recording
how much we get off
this every so often,
we can actually
then start recording
up how industrialized
this town was
but that will take
decades of work.
At the moment we've only go
a very very small sample.
Why is it forgotten?
Why did it disappear?
Yes the Welsh rebelled but
basically they
had been defeated.
So the military reason for
it being here has gone.
Combined with that 13,
14 had to proved to be
the first of five very severe
weathers in this country
which caused a great famine.
That precipitates a big
economic depression.
That means the civilian
market for iron reduces.
Then the economy goes,
then the population goes,
then it gets hit by the
second wave of plague.
Then you've got several wars
at the end of the century
so within a century,
everything that could go wrong
has gone wrong.
Trellech was left
without a purpose,
gradually the people left
and this great medieval
hub withered and died.
So how many fields are you
gonna buy then to do it?
Where are you looking next?
- That looks pretty good.
- Yeah, I reckon this one here
If it's one field
I would really like
it would be 121 just here.
Okay.
If you ever go up
there you can see
where they ground
the slopes off,
clearly a building
just under the ground
and if I was gonna
build an important
building in a town, that's
exactly where I would build it.
So that's where I
would like to dig.
How long are you
gonna spend excavating
medieval Trellech, do you think?
All my life.
I was hoping to do
my field in 70 years,
now I've only done
10 years so far
and the 70 years hasn't reduced
because it's only increasing.
So probably take me another
100 years to do the field
so unless I live for an
extremely long period of time
then it's gonna take me
longer than my lifetime.
Our successors will all be here
discussing, still,
medieval Trellech.
Indeed.
On a distant version
of Digging for Britain.
- Yes.
- Series 32.
Yes.
Next year, Stuart
is sure to have even
more revelations
about life in the lost
medieval boon town of Trellech.
This work highlights
the real power
of archeology to
bring to life stories
that are only hinted at
in the written record.
Archeology and
geology come together
to reveal what
happened in Britain
at the peak of the last ice age.
By around 30,000 BC,
the advancing ice had
driven humans and wildlife out,
leaving Britain a
deserted frozen wasteland
for 10,000 years.
But, as the climate warmed,
a new wave of humans arrived
from continental Europe,
to recolonize Britain.
The first colonizers were
Stone Age hunter gatherers
arriving in small bands,
following herds of game across
the land bridge
from the continent.
Because the population was small
and mobile, it's very rare
to find archeological
evidence of them
but a team of
archeologists in Jersey
has been making some
extraordinary discoveries.
In 2011, Digging for
Britain was there
when a team from the
Ice Age Island Project
discovered signs of significant
human activity, flint tools
that suggested a large Stone
Age hunting camp was nearby.
It's amazing to be finding these
little traces of them isn't it?
It's very exciting
just 'cause it is so old
and it's really nice
to be the first person
for 14,000 years to be
touching these tools.
This was a promising start
but the next four years
proved frustrating.
Lots of scattered flint.
By 2015, still no direct
evidence of a campsite.
We're yet to hit an
archeologically significant sediment.
The holy grail would be
objects that have
remained in situ,
undisturbed by the
passing millennia.
The problem is, the site
is on a gentle slope.
Over the last 15,000 years
the ground has shifted downhill
in a slow motion landslide.
This destructive
slide would destroy
any precious evidence
of a campsite
but finally, halfway
through the dig
things start to
look more promising.
This flat ground
here really provides
the last opportunity to find
a significant area of in situ
or well preserved archeology.
So we're at the tipping
point in the geology as well
so it's a really exciting
position to be at.
On day 14,
the team makes a
significant breakthrough.
Look, this is a flint over here
and it seems like it,
there's two pieces
which were originally
part of the same core.
If Yarun's right, and
these stick back together
then we're starting to
see a part of the site
we really haven't
see before where
everything is a lot more intact.
It suggests that this area
hasn't been disturbed
by the slow landslide,
giving the team a
fighting chance of finding
an actual campsite.
The artifacts aren't
all at crazy angles,
they're relatively flat and
they're relatively larger.
That will tell us a
hell of a lot more
about what the people
are doing here,
how people are
working at the site
and it may be pointing
to really good
high resolution archeology.
We found some
really fragile pieces
of what look like burnt bone
so it's this
particularly darker band
that seems to be
packed full of goodies.
It's the first
evidence of organics
we've had on the site and
it's really quite exciting.
Could this mean
that team has hit
the jackpot and that
these are the leftovers
of an Ice Age barbecue.
Nearby, something
absolutely extraordinary
has turned up,
evidence that this
is much ore than just
a temporary camp.
One of the new things about
this year is we're
getting all of this
granite material, big
large blocks of granite.
I mean is this natural, or is
there any human impact here?
If we look close
at this big stone
you can see that
actually it's fragmented
in several places.
It's actually
broken down in sit
Absolutely, yeah.
The team believes
this may have been a
man made paved surface.
It's incredible,
nothing like this
has ever been found
in Britain before.
It means that this could've been
a semi permanent settlement used
by some of the first
European tribes
to colonize Britain
after the Ice Age.
Matt, this site just
gets more and more
exciting and you've
certainly scaled up
your excavations
this year as well.
So rather than
stones just moving
around and having ended
up in those places
you think they're actually lying
where they were dropped.
Yeah, the geology
is looking different
it's looking as if
we've got actually
an intact land surface there
and yeah we're
not finding things
at crazy angles,
higgeldy piggeldy
or in these little mud flows.
We're finding
things in a spread,
nice and flat, behaving
themselves finally.
And some of the
evidence for that
is this amazing paving stones
or paving slabs,
I mean what do you
think that's all about?
Okay what we've
got at the movement
are big granite slabs,
very close together,
sometimes tessellating,
sometimes lying over each other.
We never found these
big blocks before
within otherwise
very sandy, silty,
and clay deposits so there needs
to be an explanation
for how they got there
and at the moment,
humans bringing them in,
placing them there is
our best explanation.
So what do you
think these stones
were used for then?
Are they something to stand on,
to sit on, or perhaps
even to cook on?
I just don't think we
can say at the minute.
We've only clipped the very
edge of the preserved site.
These sorts of
pavements aren't unknown
from other Mytilenean
sites across Europe so
Hang on, when you say Mytilenean
what age are you talking about?
What do you mean?
Mytilenean is the term for
the stone tool technology
and these are the
representatives
of the modern humans of the end
of the coldest part
of the last ice age
who end up moving out all
the way across Europe,
across into Germany and
ultimately to Britain as well.
So this is a
hunter gatherer camp
that you've uncovered?
I think we're quite
confident in that, yeah?
Finally locating this camp
is a triumph for the
Ice Age Island Project.
The archeologists
have given us a rare
and direct connection
back to the first
humans who came here
after the Ice Age
and began to build
the Britain we know.
The next dig diary
tells the story
of another group of incomers
who transformed this island.
Warrior invaders who
stormed into Britain
in the fifth century AD.
They were the Anglo Saxons.
They gave us our language,
our laws, and the beginnings
of our modern culture.
But they left us little
written record of theirs.
Now one of Britain's
greatest treasure hoards
could at last shine a light
on this race of warriors.
In 2009 the discovery of
the Staffordshire Hoard
astounded the world.
It's the biggest haul
of Anglo Saxon gold
and silver ever found.
Absolutely astonishing,
it's, I never ever in my career
thought I would be holding
this kind of treasure.
It's just incredible,
unbelievable.
The
hoard was found near Lichfeild.
Once the heart of the
powerful Anglo-Saxon kingdom
of Mercia, where it was
buried around 675 AD.
Now six years of
meticulous conservation
and research have
revealed a picture
of the people who owned these
unique weapons, bringing to life
a band of elite warriors once
thought to be only
the stuff of legend.
The conservators have
sent us their lab diary.
According to the famous
old English poem, Beowulf,
the Anglo Saxon invaders
were aristocrats
adorned with gold but
with no hard evidence,
experts assumed
this was just legend
and that the Anglo
Saxons were simpler,
warrior farmers.
Now, this incredible
hoard of silver,
gold and garnet could
prove the Beowulf legend
is at least partly true.
But first, they
need to clean it.
Today I'm working
on an object from
the Staffordshire Hoard.
This is a hilt
collar, and it's made
from gold and garnets.
I'm cleaning the
object to remove
the soil from all of the cells.
I'm using a solvent and
that softens the soil
and then I'm using this
thorn to pick out the soil
once it's softened and
thorn's really good
because it's quite soft so it
doesn't scratch the
surface of the gold.
Now the conservators
need to piece
together the nearly
4,000 fragments to
make complete weapons.
So here I've got a very
fragmented hilt guard.
It's a very elaborate
hilt guard assemblage
in the sense that it
has a lot of decorative
panels and decoration
on the side of it
because it's so fragile
in so many parts
and I've had to make
a custom made mount
which then appropriately
allows it to be
shown as it should be
shown, with the panels
on the side so in the
future it can be displayed
in all its glory.
Restoring this
will take thousands of hours.
The priceless materials
are as incredible
as the craftsmanship.
You can see in each
of the individual
cells is an
individually cut garnet
that's been cut exactly to fit
into these unique cells.
The gold was imported
from Europe and the
garnets from India,
proof that the
Anglo Saxons created
a wealthy, sophisticated,
British aristocracy
that was not just
the stuff of legend.
This is a very elaborate piece
with very finely
crafted decoration
and this particular
item would've been
a pommel for the top
of the end of a sword.
It has a piece of every single
type of material that you would
find in Staffordshire Hoard
and we see it shows
that this person
has been of a high ranking
to have this as
part of his weapon
Conservation work
is already showing that there
were over 100 weapons
in this hoard,
each one owned by an individual,
aristocratic warrior.
We had no idea that
this Anglo-Saxon
aristocracy was
so big or so rich.
The final step in the hunt
for new information is to
cerate a replica sword.
And here we have
it, the replica sword
is absolutely beautiful.
It's gorgeous.
This is the long bladed
sword of the period.
It's a slashing over arm weapon.
Quite a clumsy weapon,
not for dueling
and it's here with
its replica gold mount
at the end based on
examples that we have
found in the hoard.
Yeah so this is
the gold work here
that we can see kind
of replicated here
and the very end the
kind of the pommel,
that's what this is
based on isn't it?
That's right, it is
a exact copy of that pommel.
Were they ever used in war?
I mean certainly you
can do a lot of damage
with a blade like this.
Across the hundreds of
fittings on these weapons
is we are seeing
degrees of wear.
And where we find the
most worn down parts
is on the top of the pommel.
It's possibly to
do with a warrior
having his hand rested perhaps
on the pommel but interestingly
in contrast where we
don't find the wear
is on the grip and
if these weapons
were frequently being drawn,
and frequently being wielded
we might expect to see much more
wear on the grips than we do.
Maybe it is a case that
these weapons were
also to be appreciated
at an intimate level
in the feasting hall,
probably between warriors.
The nature of this
hoard and I suppose
the very numerous artifacts
that are contained within it,
as you say I mean
they were having
to rethink what we know
about the structure
of society at the time because
there were many more
people obviously
carrying around this
kind of superior weapon
than we'd thought in the past.
Yeah I mean this
changes the whole
landscape of looking
at the warrior
in Anglo-Saxon England.
I mean clearly there were
swords of this caliber
with this level of decoration
in much wider circulation
than we appreciated.
So was this Beowulf
and his warriors?
The sword that Beowulf the hero
uses to actually
kill Grendel's mother
is actually described
as having had
a hilt wrapped with
gold, potentially
with wire ornament, it
could well have been
a sword very like this.
The Staffordshire Hoard paints
a new and vivid picture
of the powerful
Anglo-Saxon warriors
who ruled Britain in
the seventh century
but what was their
relationship with the Britons
they lived alongside.
Salisbury Museum holds the
remains of the Anglo-Saxon
Ford Warrior and I'm getting
to see him face to face.
Reassessing the
objects from his grave
in light of the hoard
will fill in more
details in this picture
of Anglo-Saxon Britain.
Adrian I can't get
over how well preserved
absolutely everything
is from this grave.
Yes I mean this is the burial
of the Ford Warrior
as we call him.
He was found just to
the north of Salisbury
in the 1960s in an
Anglo-Saxon burial mound
and yeah he's buried
with all the trappings
of somebody who was
clearly going off
into the afterlife to fight.
The Ford Warrior was
buried with a long knife,
a scabbard, spearheads,
and this the boss
from a huge shield,
typical grave goods for
an Anglo-Saxon warrior.
But other objects in his grave
give a more subtle
insight into how
these invaders integrated
with life in Britain.
We've got this hanging bow here
which, the way it was discovered
was found to contain
crab apples and onions.
- Really?
- Yes.
So a
meal to take to the afterlife.
But these are
interesting objects
because although
what we see here
are very typical
Anglo-Saxon items,
this thing here is
a more indigenous,
native British object
so you have here
combination of influences,
you've got predominately
Anglo-Saxon influence
but then also this
item here is something
that was used by
local people as well.
So this is fascinating isn't it
because we are moving
away from the old
simplistic idea
of this invasions
of Anglo-Saxons
coming into Britain
and wiping out everybody
and replacing them
towards an idea where
you have a smaller influx
of people, assimilation
and cultures
blending a lot more.
The Staffordshire
Hoard has thrown
a new bright light
on the Ford Warrior.
Together they
reveal the true size
and wealth of one of
Britain's earliest
aristocracies, invading warriors
who blended their culture
with that of the
indigenous Britons,
laying a foundation
for the language
and legal system we use today.
These Anglo-Saxons were just one
of a wealth of people
who came here from
Europe and helped
to build Britain.
Our island story
is rich and complex
but from ice age
caves to Stonehenge,
forgotten Iron Age rituals,
to lost medieval cities,
archeology brings us closer
to understanding
how our ancestors
made us who we are today.
Next time on Digging for Britain
we're in the east,
unearthing the victims
of rough justice
in Roman London.
The possibility is
that these are
beheading victims.
We're there for
a metal detector's
find of a lifetime.
Somebody had a bad day
when he never
brought these back.
And we dive deep,
hunting for clues
to a naval disaster.
Britain has an epic history
but within it there's a wealth
of untold secrets
still to uncover.
It's a really key
find, find of the week.
So every year,
hundreds of
archeologists set out
hunting for clues
to solve the mystery
of who we are and
where we've come from.
Just found this amazing pendant.
Over the
past year their discoveries
have been more
exciting than ever.
This series will explore
the best of them.
I've just found a coin.
Oh, marvelous.
Brought to you from the field
in a very special way.
Each excavation has
been filmed for us
as it happened by the
archeologists themselves.
It looks absolutely fantastic.
Somebody had a bad day
when he never
brought these back.
Their dig diaries mean
that we can be there
for every crucial
moment of discovery.
- Oh wow.
- Whoa.
- And we have a winner.
- I know, I think
- it's stunning.
- Incredible.
Our archeologists
will be joining us here
in our special lab
to take a closer look
at their finds and to figure
out what they really mean.
This is so exciting.
Welcome to Digging for Britain.
This time, we're
exploring dramatic
discoveries form
the west of Britain.
We'll reveal how the invaders
and outsiders of the past
have shaped our world
and give tantalizing insights
into the spiritual
beliefs of our ancestors.
We'll explore evidence
of foreign pilgrims
and strange rituals
around Stonehenge.
It's an immediate link
to the people that lived here.
A lost British city
rediscovered after 700 years.
At least 100 buildings going
up in flames all at once.
And the
warrior invaders we now know
were more than just legend.
These discoveries are
rewriting our history
to find out how archaeologist
Matt Williams and I
have been given special
access to Salisbury Museum.
Its unique collection
spans nearly
half a million years
of life on this island.
So these are all Anglo
Saxon grave goods.
This is absolutely beautiful.
This is the women's jewel.
And we're going
behind the scenes
to the back rooms ordinary
visitors don't get to see.
That is enormous, that is
a shin bone or a tibia.
Less than 10 miles from
Salisbury Museum is Stonehenge.
4,000 years ago the
spiritual beacon
of Britain and Europe,
today an enduring mystery
that leaves us asking who came
to this vast monument
and what did they do here?
The answers may lie
buried in the hills
and valleys that
surround Stonehenge.
Archeologists have
been interested
in the landscape
around Stonehenge
for some 300 years
but now new technology
has revealed hidden details
in the landscape that
haven't been seen before.
We've discovered Stonehenge
didn't stand alone.
It was one of a network
of sacred monuments
along the River
Avon in Wiltshire,
many of which have lain
hidden for thousands of years.
Since they've been identified,
archeologists have wondered
what clues they might conceal.
At the end of the day though,
the only way to understand how
all these monuments
link together
is to excavate them and that's
what a team from the
University of Redding is doing.
They're digging
just 10 miles from
Stonehenge at Marden Henge.
A henge is a circular
bank of earth
which we can still
make out at Marden.
Archeologist Jim
Leary is digging here,
hunting for clues to
explain the rituals
our ancestors practiced in
this landscape 4,000 years ago.
12 days into the dig, his
team strikes it lucky.
They found the
outline of a building
right inside the henge.
Okay, rolling.
Okay well this is a
very very exciting moment
because we have just uncovered
our neolithic building.
You can see the edges
of the chalk floor,
very clearly on this
side and this side.
Some features showing
up in the ground
that have yet to be excavated,
so what goodies
await us underneath
this section here?
The
team's next job is to look for
evidence of what kind
of building it was
and on day 16 they
make an intriguing
discovery just
outside its walls.
Here we have the remains
of an external fire.
This was a big bonfire
and it was all
emanating from one place
and it's created this
huge spread of charcoal
and ash and burnt stone.
The presence
of burnt stone is puzzling.
They're pieces of Sarsen stone,
a type of local rock,
and clearly scorched
but it's not clear why anyone
would put rocks on a fire.
Then, inside the building
they find a second hearth.
So one of the really key
elements of the building,
is the huge hearth
right in the middle.
This is where there
was significant
amount of burning, so much so
that it's discolored the chalk
into an orangey hue.
But interestingly there's
no charcoal at all.
I don't believe this
is an open flame fire.
Wood burning fires
produce charcoal,
but there's no trace
of any in this inner hearth.
So if it wasn't a fire,
what was the source of the heat
that discolored the ground
inside the building?
So we have a little
bit of a conundrum
but I think the key is
the burnt Sarsen stone
that we're getting in
the charcoal spread
outside the building.
Jim has an extraordinary
theory that these
mysterious twin hearthes
reveal a ritual,
practiced by our ancestors
in the Stonehenge landscape.
Can I have that?
I think what's
happening are people
are heating up the Sarsen stones
in the external fire
and that's the fire
we know is this
open flame bonfire
and I think they're
picking up the hot stones,
probably with two pieces of wood
and then they're carrying them
into the building
and they're putting
them in the central half
and piling up these hot rocks
and then I think
people are using
the ledge around the
edge to sit down,
close the door, pour
water on these hot rocks
and create a sauna and I think
this building is being
used a sweat lodge.
It's an intriguing idea
and Jim has brought his finds
into our lap so we can
explore it further.
It's a really
interesting site, Jim.
And it's quite a
persuasive hypothesis
I think you've come up with.
Well I think so, I mean it might
not be the answer
but it's the best
solution that we can
think of at the moment.
And we've got some of
the Sarsen stones here.
These are the burnt
stones are they?
Yeah so we're
finding burnt stone
within the external bonfire,
the outside fire and here
we have some of those
fragments that have
been clearly heated up.
They've changed to a
sort of pinkish hue,
fire cracked and broken.
So you've got the hearth outside
where you're finding
these burnt stones,
the burnt area
inside, burnt stones
don't make a sauna.
What else have you found?
So the building itself
is very well made.
The surface is well prepared,
there's a nice ledge around it
which just seems
appropriate, the internal
fire place, the internal hearth
it's huge, it's utterly dominant
and I just cannot
envisage other things
going on inside this building.
You wouldn't have room to live
so we need to focus
on that hearth
but that's our clue,
that's our way in
to understanding the building.
Jim, a prehistoric sweat lodge,
I mean is there any precedence
for that kind of thing?
It's not a crazy idea
and of course if you look
in the ethnographic record,
it's replete with
examples of sweat lodges.
It's a fantastic way of
purifying the body,
of cleansing the self.
And although we'll
never really know
how it was used if indeed
it was a sweat lodge,
it's very tempting
to ascribe some
kind of ritual ceremony
or purpose to it
when it's in this landscape
so close to Stonehenge.
That's right, we're
in the landscape
surrounded by temples,
Stonehenge is a temple,
Marden's temple,
Wilsford is a temple,
Avebury, Silbury Hill, these
are all ceremonial monuments.
This sweat lodge
is brand new evidence
of an intriguing ritual
that may have taken
place near Stonehenge
but who were these people
and where did they come from?
Jim's team starts another dig
at another henge, this one less
than three miles
away at Wilsford
and from day one,
trench supervisor Rose
is feeling confident
she knows exactly
where to look for clues.
She's learned from previous digs
that the entranceways to henges
can be the site of
major discoveries
so that's where she
puts her first trench.
So in this terminus
we hope to find
the majority of finds,
normally you find very
precious finds there
because that's where they dumped
so many objects or
whatnot that's normally
where all the good
finds are found
so we're gonna do a
big slot in the end
and hopefully we're gonna
find some wonderful things.
Just three weeks later,
Rose is proved
right when she makes
a discovery more exciting
than even she could've hoped
for, a neolithic burial.
She calls Jim to come
and see for himself.
- Stunning, it is beautiful.
- Has to.
- It's actually beautiful.
- Look at his hands.
By the hands and yeah I think
- it's actually beaten.
- Incredible.
Finding human remains
within a henge is
exceptionally rare,
an incredibly powerful
link to our ancestors.
So obviously what we have here
is a crouched entombation okay.
This individual
was lying on their
right hand side, legs pulled up,
arms crossed over,
basically a fetal position
and it's extraordinarily
evocative
I mean it reminds us that these
monuments were constructed
by and for real people.
This was a real individual.
They lived and they died,
it just brings it
really all to life
when you see
something like this.
This person has been
tenderly and carefully
placed within the ditch you know
so it's really really important
and really you know just
such a lovely discovery
just immediate link
to the people that lived here.
Jim knows a burial like this
could tell us who
worshiped in the
sacred landscape
around Stonehenge
and as Rose carefully
excavates the skeleton,
she finds an important
but fragile clue.
So we have exposed and removed
the rest of the
body and we're now
left with the top three
cervical vertebrae
and the skull and a tiny
pice of the scapula left.
What we're gonna do is
gonna try and block lift it.
The reason is because we have
these tiny little
amber beads coming up,
they're really fragile and
they look quite crushed.
So in order to keep
all of that together,
we're gonna try
and block lift it,
wrap it in bandages
and send it off
to a specialist to be
excavated properly.
Jim has brought the preserved
bones back to our lab.
As an osteologist
myself, I'm thrilled
to see this evidence.
The fact this person was buried
in the entrance to a henge
shows they must've
been significant.
Now I want to know what else
the skeleton can tell us.
We can see that his bones
haven't quite fused fully
so he's still in the
process of growing.
You can see that the
top of the humerus
there is separate from the shaft
so we can get quite a good age
in terms of his biological age.
He's in his mid teens
you know around 15.
How old is he in terms
of his chronological age?
We've been looking
at somewhere between
2,400 BC and 1,800
roughly speaking.
The fragments
of an earthenware
cup in his grave
show that this boy was
one of the Beaker people
who may have come
from the continent
to settle in the landscape
around Stonehenge
4,000 years ago.
They were dazzling craftsmen
and Beaker burials often
include valuable jewelry.
This boy's grave
was no different.
The only proper grave good
from his grave was a
beautiful amber necklace.
So this is them here,
- this degraded amber.
- That's right
you can see the sort
of orangey amber
- coming through there.
- Amber that might
even have come from the
Baltics or something.
Well quite possibly, yeah.
It's a clue
showing how Stonehenge and this
network of sacred monuments drew
pilgrims from across Europe.
The amber necklace,
the way it's buried,
very very different to what
went before, this is your
you know what you would expect
from a Beaker burial.
This is a new cultural
group of people.
Very different to
what went before
which seems to be quite
an insular culture
all of a sudden we're getting
very much an outward
looking group of people.
When they arrived here,
the Beaker people transformed
Britain with new
skills and technology.
To understand them
better, Matt's
examining Salisbury
Museum's star exhibit.
Another extraordinary
Beaker burial
known as the Amesbury Archer.
He was discovered close
to Stonehenge itself
and he was buried with an array
of fine metalwork like
these golden hair wraps.
Well he was also
buried with some
of the earliest copper objects
that have been found in Britain.
We have three copper knives
and daggers found in the grave
and here is one of
the daggers here.
The Beaker people
transformed Britain
by introducing metal
and these fine metal objects
suggest that the
Amesbury Archer himself
may have been a
gifted metal worker,
a skill completely
unheard of in Britain
until the arrival of
the Beaker people.
And so this is just on the cusp
of the neolithic Bronze age
so metalwork is just
being introduced.
Well that's right,
it's a new technology
that's just coming
into this country
at the time so it
is incredibly rare
and you have to
imagine that when
this was new it
would've been golden
in color, it would've gleamed,
it would've been
a very impressive
although very small object.
So this will have marked
the Amesbury Archer
to somebody important
owning really
unusual objects like this.
So if he was just a visitor,
do we know where
he was coming from?
Well that's the
interesting point
is that we've done
oxygen isotope analysis
of his teeth and we've been able
to work out where he grew
up and we've discovered
that he probably grew
up in central Europe,
possibly in the outer region.
He's a foreigner, effectively,
coming to this area,
spreading this new information
about metalworking.
This immigrant to Britain
had traveled across the
continent to get here.
Stonehenge may have
been the reason why.
Stonehenge at the
time, when he was alive,
about sort of two and
a half thousand BC
was a temple and
many people would've
been visiting this
area to perform
ceremonies and visit
ceremonies taking place there.
Perhaps he wanted
to meet those people
perhaps he wanted
to share this almost
magical understanding
he had of metalworking
technology with these people.
So he's come hundreds of miles
with this incredible
new technology
which must've
astounded the locals
or the people
visiting Stonehenge.
It's now wonder he was given
such an incredible burial.
That's right, buried
with over 100 objects
is absolutely exceptional
for this period.
Together with the
Amesbury Archer,
the new discovery
of the Marden boy
shows us more clearly than ever
how the power of
Stonehenge pulled in
pilgrims from across Europe.
4,000 years ago in
this ritual landscape
people were purifying
their bodies,
visiting the temples,
and burying their dead.
And the incomers from Europe
brought metalworking technology
to Britain, propelling
us out of the Stone Age
and into the Bronze Age.
At Winterborne
Kingston in Dorset,
a team from
Bournemouth University
has also been
investigating evidence
of religious rituals, this time
from the Iron Age
around 2,000 years ago.
What they've unearthed
is eye opening
and very strange.
They've discovered
extraordinary new evidence,
bizarre animal burials pointing
to very odd beliefs and rituals
and they had their
cameras rolling
right from the start.
A geophysical survey of the area
had revealed an array
of dark markings
in the landscape.
As the team excavated these,
they uncovered the remains
of a settlement
over 2,000 years old
which included a number
of massive storage pits.
Okay well I'm in the
base of one of these
cylindrical Iron
Age storage pits.
You can see it's
fantastic well cut
nice flat bottom base to it
and we've got absolutely no idea
what they were storing
in these originally,
although we presume
it to be grain,
that there's some
kind of grain silo
for storing grain over winter.
The grain pits
are vivid evidence of a thriving
Iron Age settlement.
Then, at the
beginning of week four
of the excavation, they
find something very unusual.
Where Alicia, Zack, and
Emily are excavating here,
we've got what appears
to be the remains
of three sets of pigs.
Very strangely, the pigs
have not been butchered,
they have been placed
in the pits whole.
This is a real dramatic
wastage of animals,
these are good, viable
animals, good lot
of meat on them but they've
been deliberately killed
and placed in these pits.
But if the animals
weren't killed to be eaten,
then what is going on?
Now we presume
they've been sacrificed
as a deliberate
kill, that these are
offerings for some kind
of god of the underworld
for some kind of god putting to
assume the continued
protection of the herd
or the community.
But this possible
evidence of sacrifice
is just the beginning.
In week five, the team discovers
even stranger practices.
Yeah we've got the front leg.
Yes.
And that, another front leg.
Yeah, and there's a bit
of humerus here as well.
It's the remains
of a sheep, but it
has a cow's head
placed on its hind quarters.
So it's kind of like this.
The discovery is unprecedented.
By day 22, the team has
discovered even more
burials of these
strange, man made beasts.
Nothing quite like this has
ever been discovered in Britain.
Right at the very
bottom of the pits
we're getting a whole
series of specially
placed deposits
and what we can see
in this particular example we've
got part of a horse's leg here
partially articulated
and a cow's rib and
what we're finding
in a number of these
pits is there's
a sort of, almost
hybrid animal of cow
and horse, where you
find a horse's skull
it's always with a cow's jaw.
Sometimes you find
a horse's head
with a cow's body.
They're mixing and
matching the two animals.
Obviously both animals
are important to them
for different reasons.
So incredibly, it
looks like our Iron Age
ancestors were
creating hybrid beasts
from the body parts of animals
sacrificed to their gods.
It sounds unbelievable,
but Miles has brought the bones
to the studio so we
can see the evidence
with our own eyes.
Miles, this site just
gets more and more
interesting, doesn't it.
This isn't just rubbish,
they're not filling
them in with discarded
remains of butchered animals.
No, the one thing actually
we're not getting in
any part of the site
is normal rubbish material,
not sort of discarded waste.
This isn't disordered
dumps of materials.
There was a very specific
order going on here.
But when we're finding a horse
and cow they're cut
up and obviously
you wouldn't be
able to cram a whole
horse into one of these
pits in a complete state
but they're cut up
and they're being
placed with other body parts.
So it's a rather sort of
macabre jig saw puzzle.
And that's what
you've got here is it?
That's a cow I see
because of the horns,
and the horse?
Yes yes, in fact one is
one of the storage pits
when we found it it was actually
sort of resting the
cow skull on top there
so it was creating this
rather bizarre hybrid animal.
Like a chimera, a mixture
of different animals.
You could say that, yes.
Yes, it is a direct attempt
to create something that
doesn't exist in nature.
Where they are dismantling
or dismembering
animals and then
reassembling them
whilst they're still
fleshed and bloody.
And there don't seem
to be any cut marks
on the bones at all really.
They seem to be pretty intact
I mean you'd expect
to see cut marks
here where muscle
had been taken away,
meat had been taken
away from the cheek
and then perhaps cut marks
on the inside here where
the tongue had been
taken out but we can't
see any evidence of that.
No no, exactly.
In most of them,
we're not finding
any kind of evidence
that meat's been removed
or indeed that the bones have
been broken up to
get at the marrow.
And we're getting
quite big sections
of animal in there all together
so perhaps there is a way of
by reassembling in there
you are creating
almost like a deity
or you're creating a deposit
the god's would accept
which would ensure the long term
survival of your community.
By next year, Miles may
have even more answers
but for now it
certainly looks like
his team have discovered a new
Iron Age religious phenomenon
that had been entirely
forgotten about
for over 2,000 years.
Our next dig diary features
another staggering find.
This time, an entire
city that disappeared
for seven centuries in
Monmouthshire in Wales.
10 years ago, an
archaeologist developed
a hunch that a
pretty little village
on the Welsh English border
had a forgotten past
that it did in fact lie
right at the heart
of the English
struggle for dominance over
the Welsh in the 1200s.
One particular field was crucial
to his idea so he gathered
up his life savings,
bought the field,
and started digging.
That archaeologist
was Stuart Wilson
and this year he's
kept us a dig diary.
Today, this sleepy village
is home to around 3,000 people
but if Stuart is right
then 800 years ago this
was a very different place.
Evidence is being
unearthed outside
the village in what is now
Stuart's very own field.
It was here that
his hunch came good
when he discovered an
entire medieval high street
in the middle of nowhere.
Could this be the
medieval city of Trellech?
The center of power and industry
that was lost in
the 14th century
and for which archeologists
have been searching
for generations?
Well here we have
a series of workshops
in medieval times
and what he have down
is iron slag floor
surface, with stone drains,
and a nice central
fireplace in the middle.
So, you could've
walked up along here
with your horse,
leave your dagger
or bits of armor, come in here
into a hard working
surface where the metalwork
is repair, whatever
you're coming in with
right next to the main
road in medieval times.
The
remains date back to the 1200s.
The sheer scale makes it clear
that this was just part
of a huge settlement
and as the dig
continues, Stuart's team
begin to turn up clues
as to what made this town grow.
So one of the
things that we find
consistently in each
and every trench
that we dig is this stuff.
It's iron slag.
These nuggets
are the by-products
of smelting iron
and the town produced
so much of it,
they started using the
slag as building material
in floors and on their roads.
Iron production on this scale
indicated that Trellech was
a major center of
trade and industry
and Stuart's team
has found evidence
that this was no ordinary place.
We do have a lot
of indications here
that the people who lived there
were extremely wealthy and we've
got a couple very nice finds
from previous
excavations that really
showed a wealth of these people.
The first is this
medieval flowerpot.
We could really say
it's a unique piece
because it's the only
medieval flowerpot
that has ever been
found in Wales.
Another piece that
we have is this one.
Most people see a thing
as some sort of a dish
that comes out of a kitchen
but actually this would
be on top of your roof.
This is a medieval finial.
So it's a very high
quality glaze on there,
it's a very very
expensive object.
It would have a large
ceramic spike on top of it
so if lighting would
strike this would break
and your roof would
still be in tact.
Now the showing to the people
of your village that
you can actually
afford to break an
object like this
really shows great wealth.
For Stuart,
the evidence of
affluence at the site
confirms that he has indeed
discovered the lost
town of Trellech.
This was no small
Welsh settlement
but a vast English
military supply base.
Now, he's also uncovered
remarkable evidence
that its great
wealth could've made
it a target for
attack by rebel Welsh
who may even have attempted
to burn the place down.
The buildings we
found quite interesting.
Because the buildings
have actually
been burnt down in a very
very severe house fire.
We had glass, actually formed
out of the thatch which
has actually melted
in the fire or we found the mica
on the stone had actually melted
a glaze on the stone itself.
So very very severe fire,
we think of a great
attack on the town
in about 1295,
1296 by the Welsh.
Yeah so it looks
exactly the same
Not only is it possible
that this English
run town was once
burned down by the Welsh,
Stuart is also finding
compelling clues
that the Welsh posed
a constant threat.
Well here we have a massive
round tower which looks like
a good fortification
to the mud house
but also to the town.
Now it's a really
nice dug construction,
it's got a single stone
wall about a meter thick.
There's an iron slag core to it,
an inner stone wall
and all built up
in one nice circle
right outwards.
And we think it's
defensive because
of its sheer size, the
way it's been built,
it's very well constructed.
In fact, it's not
just how this tower was built
but where that indicates
its purpose was defense.
If this stood up
quite nice and high
it would see across the gardens
of their neighboring burgages
both along this road,
along Tinkers Lane
and across the
entire common fields.
Stuart is convinced that
the round tower's construction
shows just how solid Trellech's
defenses needed to be
in order to see off
Welsh aggression.
But a big question
still remains,
why did this 700 year
old town just disappear?
I'm still intrigued
by how you actually
came across this to
begin with, Stuart.
Given that other people
had been looking for
Trellech for a long time.
How did you put all
the clues together?
You're never gonna
discover an elephant
by looking through a microscope
because you're looking
too closely at it.
You need to stand back
and when you stand back
actually look at the landscape,
it's speaking to you.
Well you've got a map here,
should we have a look at that?
Does that give us any clues?
Yes it does, these maps
are extremely useful.
So when does this date from?
This actual map dates from 1881
and what we have
are thin fields are,
following the main roads,
and more thin fields.
And the thin fields
carry all the way
down to the south with
large fields behind.
Why are these fields
like they are?
They're all man made,
they must've been here
for a reason and when you then
compare it to
medieval towns and say
well let's take
the buildings out
and what do we get?
We get this pattern,
the thin fields
are where the
buildings used to be.
Right.
And then back onto large fields
which are the common fields.
Okay.
Exactly what we've got here.
So the buildings
would've essentially
lined up in the plots along here
and these lines here form
the back of the buildings.
- Exactly, yes.
- So you know from
the documentary
evidence for instance,
you had an indication
of the size of it
in terms of numbers of houses.
We knew there were
378 taxable buildings
in 1288, now that is massive.
I mean it's even
bigger than Cardiff
at the time so we're talking
a really really big town.
But I can recognize
one thing over there,
that's the iron slag is it?
And that's a product of
what made this town so rich.
Oh yes, now this
it's iron slag though they used
this as hard coal
and so by recording
how much we get off
this every so often,
we can actually
then start recording
up how industrialized
this town was
but that will take
decades of work.
At the moment we've only go
a very very small sample.
Why is it forgotten?
Why did it disappear?
Yes the Welsh rebelled but
basically they
had been defeated.
So the military reason for
it being here has gone.
Combined with that 13,
14 had to proved to be
the first of five very severe
weathers in this country
which caused a great famine.
That precipitates a big
economic depression.
That means the civilian
market for iron reduces.
Then the economy goes,
then the population goes,
then it gets hit by the
second wave of plague.
Then you've got several wars
at the end of the century
so within a century,
everything that could go wrong
has gone wrong.
Trellech was left
without a purpose,
gradually the people left
and this great medieval
hub withered and died.
So how many fields are you
gonna buy then to do it?
Where are you looking next?
- That looks pretty good.
- Yeah, I reckon this one here
If it's one field
I would really like
it would be 121 just here.
Okay.
If you ever go up
there you can see
where they ground
the slopes off,
clearly a building
just under the ground
and if I was gonna
build an important
building in a town, that's
exactly where I would build it.
So that's where I
would like to dig.
How long are you
gonna spend excavating
medieval Trellech, do you think?
All my life.
I was hoping to do
my field in 70 years,
now I've only done
10 years so far
and the 70 years hasn't reduced
because it's only increasing.
So probably take me another
100 years to do the field
so unless I live for an
extremely long period of time
then it's gonna take me
longer than my lifetime.
Our successors will all be here
discussing, still,
medieval Trellech.
Indeed.
On a distant version
of Digging for Britain.
- Yes.
- Series 32.
Yes.
Next year, Stuart
is sure to have even
more revelations
about life in the lost
medieval boon town of Trellech.
This work highlights
the real power
of archeology to
bring to life stories
that are only hinted at
in the written record.
Archeology and
geology come together
to reveal what
happened in Britain
at the peak of the last ice age.
By around 30,000 BC,
the advancing ice had
driven humans and wildlife out,
leaving Britain a
deserted frozen wasteland
for 10,000 years.
But, as the climate warmed,
a new wave of humans arrived
from continental Europe,
to recolonize Britain.
The first colonizers were
Stone Age hunter gatherers
arriving in small bands,
following herds of game across
the land bridge
from the continent.
Because the population was small
and mobile, it's very rare
to find archeological
evidence of them
but a team of
archeologists in Jersey
has been making some
extraordinary discoveries.
In 2011, Digging for
Britain was there
when a team from the
Ice Age Island Project
discovered signs of significant
human activity, flint tools
that suggested a large Stone
Age hunting camp was nearby.
It's amazing to be finding these
little traces of them isn't it?
It's very exciting
just 'cause it is so old
and it's really nice
to be the first person
for 14,000 years to be
touching these tools.
This was a promising start
but the next four years
proved frustrating.
Lots of scattered flint.
By 2015, still no direct
evidence of a campsite.
We're yet to hit an
archeologically significant sediment.
The holy grail would be
objects that have
remained in situ,
undisturbed by the
passing millennia.
The problem is, the site
is on a gentle slope.
Over the last 15,000 years
the ground has shifted downhill
in a slow motion landslide.
This destructive
slide would destroy
any precious evidence
of a campsite
but finally, halfway
through the dig
things start to
look more promising.
This flat ground
here really provides
the last opportunity to find
a significant area of in situ
or well preserved archeology.
So we're at the tipping
point in the geology as well
so it's a really exciting
position to be at.
On day 14,
the team makes a
significant breakthrough.
Look, this is a flint over here
and it seems like it,
there's two pieces
which were originally
part of the same core.
If Yarun's right, and
these stick back together
then we're starting to
see a part of the site
we really haven't
see before where
everything is a lot more intact.
It suggests that this area
hasn't been disturbed
by the slow landslide,
giving the team a
fighting chance of finding
an actual campsite.
The artifacts aren't
all at crazy angles,
they're relatively flat and
they're relatively larger.
That will tell us a
hell of a lot more
about what the people
are doing here,
how people are
working at the site
and it may be pointing
to really good
high resolution archeology.
We found some
really fragile pieces
of what look like burnt bone
so it's this
particularly darker band
that seems to be
packed full of goodies.
It's the first
evidence of organics
we've had on the site and
it's really quite exciting.
Could this mean
that team has hit
the jackpot and that
these are the leftovers
of an Ice Age barbecue.
Nearby, something
absolutely extraordinary
has turned up,
evidence that this
is much ore than just
a temporary camp.
One of the new things about
this year is we're
getting all of this
granite material, big
large blocks of granite.
I mean is this natural, or is
there any human impact here?
If we look close
at this big stone
you can see that
actually it's fragmented
in several places.
It's actually
broken down in sit
Absolutely, yeah.
The team believes
this may have been a
man made paved surface.
It's incredible,
nothing like this
has ever been found
in Britain before.
It means that this could've been
a semi permanent settlement used
by some of the first
European tribes
to colonize Britain
after the Ice Age.
Matt, this site just
gets more and more
exciting and you've
certainly scaled up
your excavations
this year as well.
So rather than
stones just moving
around and having ended
up in those places
you think they're actually lying
where they were dropped.
Yeah, the geology
is looking different
it's looking as if
we've got actually
an intact land surface there
and yeah we're
not finding things
at crazy angles,
higgeldy piggeldy
or in these little mud flows.
We're finding
things in a spread,
nice and flat, behaving
themselves finally.
And some of the
evidence for that
is this amazing paving stones
or paving slabs,
I mean what do you
think that's all about?
Okay what we've
got at the movement
are big granite slabs,
very close together,
sometimes tessellating,
sometimes lying over each other.
We never found these
big blocks before
within otherwise
very sandy, silty,
and clay deposits so there needs
to be an explanation
for how they got there
and at the moment,
humans bringing them in,
placing them there is
our best explanation.
So what do you
think these stones
were used for then?
Are they something to stand on,
to sit on, or perhaps
even to cook on?
I just don't think we
can say at the minute.
We've only clipped the very
edge of the preserved site.
These sorts of
pavements aren't unknown
from other Mytilenean
sites across Europe so
Hang on, when you say Mytilenean
what age are you talking about?
What do you mean?
Mytilenean is the term for
the stone tool technology
and these are the
representatives
of the modern humans of the end
of the coldest part
of the last ice age
who end up moving out all
the way across Europe,
across into Germany and
ultimately to Britain as well.
So this is a
hunter gatherer camp
that you've uncovered?
I think we're quite
confident in that, yeah?
Finally locating this camp
is a triumph for the
Ice Age Island Project.
The archeologists
have given us a rare
and direct connection
back to the first
humans who came here
after the Ice Age
and began to build
the Britain we know.
The next dig diary
tells the story
of another group of incomers
who transformed this island.
Warrior invaders who
stormed into Britain
in the fifth century AD.
They were the Anglo Saxons.
They gave us our language,
our laws, and the beginnings
of our modern culture.
But they left us little
written record of theirs.
Now one of Britain's
greatest treasure hoards
could at last shine a light
on this race of warriors.
In 2009 the discovery of
the Staffordshire Hoard
astounded the world.
It's the biggest haul
of Anglo Saxon gold
and silver ever found.
Absolutely astonishing,
it's, I never ever in my career
thought I would be holding
this kind of treasure.
It's just incredible,
unbelievable.
The
hoard was found near Lichfeild.
Once the heart of the
powerful Anglo-Saxon kingdom
of Mercia, where it was
buried around 675 AD.
Now six years of
meticulous conservation
and research have
revealed a picture
of the people who owned these
unique weapons, bringing to life
a band of elite warriors once
thought to be only
the stuff of legend.
The conservators have
sent us their lab diary.
According to the famous
old English poem, Beowulf,
the Anglo Saxon invaders
were aristocrats
adorned with gold but
with no hard evidence,
experts assumed
this was just legend
and that the Anglo
Saxons were simpler,
warrior farmers.
Now, this incredible
hoard of silver,
gold and garnet could
prove the Beowulf legend
is at least partly true.
But first, they
need to clean it.
Today I'm working
on an object from
the Staffordshire Hoard.
This is a hilt
collar, and it's made
from gold and garnets.
I'm cleaning the
object to remove
the soil from all of the cells.
I'm using a solvent and
that softens the soil
and then I'm using this
thorn to pick out the soil
once it's softened and
thorn's really good
because it's quite soft so it
doesn't scratch the
surface of the gold.
Now the conservators
need to piece
together the nearly
4,000 fragments to
make complete weapons.
So here I've got a very
fragmented hilt guard.
It's a very elaborate
hilt guard assemblage
in the sense that it
has a lot of decorative
panels and decoration
on the side of it
because it's so fragile
in so many parts
and I've had to make
a custom made mount
which then appropriately
allows it to be
shown as it should be
shown, with the panels
on the side so in the
future it can be displayed
in all its glory.
Restoring this
will take thousands of hours.
The priceless materials
are as incredible
as the craftsmanship.
You can see in each
of the individual
cells is an
individually cut garnet
that's been cut exactly to fit
into these unique cells.
The gold was imported
from Europe and the
garnets from India,
proof that the
Anglo Saxons created
a wealthy, sophisticated,
British aristocracy
that was not just
the stuff of legend.
This is a very elaborate piece
with very finely
crafted decoration
and this particular
item would've been
a pommel for the top
of the end of a sword.
It has a piece of every single
type of material that you would
find in Staffordshire Hoard
and we see it shows
that this person
has been of a high ranking
to have this as
part of his weapon
Conservation work
is already showing that there
were over 100 weapons
in this hoard,
each one owned by an individual,
aristocratic warrior.
We had no idea that
this Anglo-Saxon
aristocracy was
so big or so rich.
The final step in the hunt
for new information is to
cerate a replica sword.
And here we have
it, the replica sword
is absolutely beautiful.
It's gorgeous.
This is the long bladed
sword of the period.
It's a slashing over arm weapon.
Quite a clumsy weapon,
not for dueling
and it's here with
its replica gold mount
at the end based on
examples that we have
found in the hoard.
Yeah so this is
the gold work here
that we can see kind
of replicated here
and the very end the
kind of the pommel,
that's what this is
based on isn't it?
That's right, it is
a exact copy of that pommel.
Were they ever used in war?
I mean certainly you
can do a lot of damage
with a blade like this.
Across the hundreds of
fittings on these weapons
is we are seeing
degrees of wear.
And where we find the
most worn down parts
is on the top of the pommel.
It's possibly to
do with a warrior
having his hand rested perhaps
on the pommel but interestingly
in contrast where we
don't find the wear
is on the grip and
if these weapons
were frequently being drawn,
and frequently being wielded
we might expect to see much more
wear on the grips than we do.
Maybe it is a case that
these weapons were
also to be appreciated
at an intimate level
in the feasting hall,
probably between warriors.
The nature of this
hoard and I suppose
the very numerous artifacts
that are contained within it,
as you say I mean
they were having
to rethink what we know
about the structure
of society at the time because
there were many more
people obviously
carrying around this
kind of superior weapon
than we'd thought in the past.
Yeah I mean this
changes the whole
landscape of looking
at the warrior
in Anglo-Saxon England.
I mean clearly there were
swords of this caliber
with this level of decoration
in much wider circulation
than we appreciated.
So was this Beowulf
and his warriors?
The sword that Beowulf the hero
uses to actually
kill Grendel's mother
is actually described
as having had
a hilt wrapped with
gold, potentially
with wire ornament, it
could well have been
a sword very like this.
The Staffordshire Hoard paints
a new and vivid picture
of the powerful
Anglo-Saxon warriors
who ruled Britain in
the seventh century
but what was their
relationship with the Britons
they lived alongside.
Salisbury Museum holds the
remains of the Anglo-Saxon
Ford Warrior and I'm getting
to see him face to face.
Reassessing the
objects from his grave
in light of the hoard
will fill in more
details in this picture
of Anglo-Saxon Britain.
Adrian I can't get
over how well preserved
absolutely everything
is from this grave.
Yes I mean this is the burial
of the Ford Warrior
as we call him.
He was found just to
the north of Salisbury
in the 1960s in an
Anglo-Saxon burial mound
and yeah he's buried
with all the trappings
of somebody who was
clearly going off
into the afterlife to fight.
The Ford Warrior was
buried with a long knife,
a scabbard, spearheads,
and this the boss
from a huge shield,
typical grave goods for
an Anglo-Saxon warrior.
But other objects in his grave
give a more subtle
insight into how
these invaders integrated
with life in Britain.
We've got this hanging bow here
which, the way it was discovered
was found to contain
crab apples and onions.
- Really?
- Yes.
So a
meal to take to the afterlife.
But these are
interesting objects
because although
what we see here
are very typical
Anglo-Saxon items,
this thing here is
a more indigenous,
native British object
so you have here
combination of influences,
you've got predominately
Anglo-Saxon influence
but then also this
item here is something
that was used by
local people as well.
So this is fascinating isn't it
because we are moving
away from the old
simplistic idea
of this invasions
of Anglo-Saxons
coming into Britain
and wiping out everybody
and replacing them
towards an idea where
you have a smaller influx
of people, assimilation
and cultures
blending a lot more.
The Staffordshire
Hoard has thrown
a new bright light
on the Ford Warrior.
Together they
reveal the true size
and wealth of one of
Britain's earliest
aristocracies, invading warriors
who blended their culture
with that of the
indigenous Britons,
laying a foundation
for the language
and legal system we use today.
These Anglo-Saxons were just one
of a wealth of people
who came here from
Europe and helped
to build Britain.
Our island story
is rich and complex
but from ice age
caves to Stonehenge,
forgotten Iron Age rituals,
to lost medieval cities,
archeology brings us closer
to understanding
how our ancestors
made us who we are today.
Next time on Digging for Britain
we're in the east,
unearthing the victims
of rough justice
in Roman London.
The possibility is
that these are
beheading victims.
We're there for
a metal detector's
find of a lifetime.
Somebody had a bad day
when he never
brought these back.
And we dive deep,
hunting for clues
to a naval disaster.