Digging for Britain (2010) s10e03 Episode Script
Headless Romans and Anglo Saxon Gold
1
Everywhere you look, the rich
history of the United Kingdom
is there to be seen.
But hidden beneath our feet,
there's still a wealth of
archaeological treasure
just waiting to be found.
That's why each year,
all across the country,
our archaeologists dig, dive,
and explore their way down
Oh, my God.
Some of the best stuff you're
ever going to see.
Oh, wow.
Ooh, we got arrowhead.
searching for fresh discoveries
Oh! Hypocaust!
revealing the imprint of
ancient civilisations.
It's been there for 5,500
thousand years.
and unearthing fascinating
objects.
Fantastic decoration.
Wow, look at that.
Every dig adds new pieces to the
ever growing archaeological jigsaw
that is the epic story
of our islands.
And I'm down.
This year, I visit digs in some
extraordinary locations
and solve mysteries using
cutting-edge tools.
Oh, this is wonderful.
I'm joined by a trio of
expert investigators
So, you can see how that gives you
a really unique signature.
That's right.
So, they were using food as a type
of bribery.
who dig deeper to answer the
questions raised by the finds.
That's how he got away with it.
Finally, the archaeologists
bring their best discoveries
into our tent
Oh, wow. Yeah, it's a cracking find.
for up-close analysis.
So, it's completely unique
impression. That's wonderful.
Welcome to Digging for Britain.
In this episode, we're exploring
the best archaeology
from the central regions of Britain.
We unearth a mysterious
Roman cemetery
I want to know why they were buried
like this.
where skulls have been
replaced with pots.
Somehow, this has got to
mean something.
We investigate the world's
only surviving example
This is really quite exceptional.
of an Iron Age shield
made from bark.
We think, "Oh, it's going to be
collapsible," but it's not at all.
And we uncover the most ornate
Anglo-Saxon necklace
ever found in Britain.
Blown away by that.
That is amazing.
Across the centre of Britain
in the 16th century,
wealthy landowners stamped symbols
of their status on the landscape.
Like Burghley House,
in Lincolnshire,
and Wollaton Hall,
in Nottingham.
Many Elizabethan manors rivals
the grandeur of royal palaces.
But not all of them have survived
to the present day.
Our first dig takes place
close to Coleshill,
ten miles east of Birmingham.
Here, the ground is being prepared
for the nation's biggest
infrastructure project, HS2.
A team from Wessex Archaeology
is investigating the site
of a lost Elizabethan manor house
that was torn down
at the beginning of
the 19th century.
We know there was an Elizabethan
manor here at Coleshill,
but there's not much in the way
of a historical record
and even less to see above ground.
What's now emerging is an
extraordinary fortified gatehouse
that once guarded the entrance
to the manor -
and it's dwarfing all expectations.
Oh, my God.
I cannot believe that you just had
no idea that this was here.
It was a massive shock for us
as well when we found it.
Stuart Pearson is leading the dig.
So, this is the gatehouse
to the manor?
It would have been. So, this would
have led right up to the entrance
to our manor house.
Can we get down and get a bit of
a closer look? We can.
The team has fully exposed the base
of one of the two octagonal towers
that flank the entrance.
Look at those walls.
I mean, they're really substantial.
This is almost like a small castle.
And when it would have been fully
constructed, it would have been
visible for miles around.
History has left its impression
on the surfaces
of these sandstone blocks.
They're covered in telltale
marks and scars.
Oh! It's amazing.
It's just incredible. Wow.
It's the more that you look at it,
the more detail you see. Yeah.
There's a lot of marks on
these stones. There are.
Is this tool marks here?
Yeah, they're all tool marks
coming down there.
And if you look a little bit lower,
you might be able to pick out
a mason's mark, as well. There!
That's the one.
And there's another one just
further up as well.
I can't quite see it from here.
There. Yeah, that's the one.
The same person, then?
Potentially. They are very similar,
so it could be the same person
that's put these stones into place
and carved them. That's amazing.
There's other marks as well,
aren't there, on these stones?
There are.
There's little round marks.
What are these?
So, this is what's really, really
exciting about the gatehouse.
When we were excavating this area,
we found 42 of them
just on this section of wall.
So, we started looking up and
realising, hang on a minute,
are all these little impacts? Yeah.
And then led us to believe that
musket balls have been fired
at the gatehouse.
That's just extraordinary.
So, what you've got here
then is a building
which is being attacked by
people bearing muskets.
Yeah. And that makes me think
17th century, Civil War?
I think you're probably correct.
So, what we know about this area
is the first skirmish
of the Civil War was supposedly
at Kibworth Bridge,
which is just two miles up the road,
but this location is on the way
to that skirmish.
So, we think, potentially,
that this actually might be
the location of the first battle
of the Civil War.
Oh, this site just gets better
and better.
This is incredible.
So, you've got this gatehouse,
this building that you just had
no idea existed, and now you've
got evidence which could
potentially rewrite history.
This could be where the
first skirmish
of the English Civil War took place.
The English Civil War kicked off
in August 1642 -
a conflict between royalists
loyal to King Charles I
and parliamentarians.
This part of the Midlands was split
between rival factions,
with small bands of soldiers from
both sides roaming the landscape.
This nearby fortified manor
house became a garrison
for the parliamentarian troops.
While the manor at our site was
owned by an aristocratic family
loyal to the king.
Now, I'm not claiming that this is
an entirely accurate historical
reconstruction, but it's
the best I can do.
Looking at that, we know that there
are two octagonal towers,
and that there's a building
behind them.
And looking at other gatehouses
of a similar age,
this is what I think it might have
looked like.
And, really, calling it a gatehouse
doesn't do it justice.
It's like a miniature castle.
And it's not just for show,
as we now know.
Across the front of it, we've got
all of these musket ball impacts.
So, could this have been the
very first skirmish
of the English Civil War?
And it's not just traces of impacts
that the archaeologists are finding.
Dozens of musket balls have been
recovered from the moat,
each one a potential source
of ballistic evidence.
Finds Specialist Lorraine Mepham
has lined up some prime suspects.
So, we've got some of the musket
balls that have come out
from right in front of
the gatehouse here.
There's quite a variety of sizes.
There is, and that's quite exciting
in itself because, obviously,
the size tells us something about
the calibre of the weapon.
Yeah. And, in fact, the weapons are
not necessarily standard calibre.
So, they're probably using whatever
they had to hand.
So, have any of them definitely
been fired?
Well, some of them have, because
some of them have traces
of actually going through
the weapon.
Yeah.
So, if we look at a couple that
have actually been fired,
you can see that this actually
isn't a spheroid. Yes.
It's only rounded on one side.
It's quite cylindrical.
It's got the band round here, and
then that rear end is almost flat.
So, this has actually gone
through the barrel,
and it's been compressed
against the barrel here.
So, that shape is from being fired?
From firing, yes.
God, it's heavy. And if you look
at the band,
you can see slight striations.
Yeah, yeah. Running back.
So, that has definitely been shot,
but not necessarily hit anything?
That's right.
And that one looks like
it's been flattened. Yes.
Now, this one has.
As you can see, rounded at the top,
but flattened on this.
But interestingly, this is
not entirely splattered
against something.
This has hit something relatively
smooth, but at medium velocity,
so it hasn't completely
disintegrated.
When you say relatively smooth,
could that have been the front
of the gatehouse?
It could have been. Yeah.
It could have been, yeah.
Yeah, yeah.
Having found both musket balls
and impacts on the walls,
the team are close to a smoking gun
here at Coleshill.
Archaeologist and Civil War expert
Bob Clark is visually impaired,
so he's come down to the site to get
hands-on with the evidence.
Bob, how important is it for you
to come to the site
and to experience the evidence
for yourself?
Yeah.
Yeah.
You know, I haven't even noticed
that, cos I've not felt them, Bob.
And you're there automatically
doing that
and I'm standing back and
looking at them.
So, we've got musket balls
which have emerged from the site
and we've got impacts
which could have been caused
by these musket balls.
Could this be Civil War action?
It's tantalising and frustrating
at the same time.
I find it amazing that we've
got this evidence,
which is, you know
it's been buried for centuries,
and it's just been revealed.
And then to find it covered with
pockmarks is just extraordinary.
And then here we are trying
to work out what exactly
happened here at Coleshill.
You know, before, you probably
wouldn't have even thought of
asking these questions.
But now we have this evidence,
suddenly we've got a whole
load of questions.
I want to know more about who would
have been firing at this gatehouse.
Onyeka Nubia has come to
Holmby House to investigate
military movements around Coleshill
during these tumultuous times.
I'm here to meet Andrew Hopper,
an expert on the English Civil War.
He has found some fascinating
documents that might help us
understand more about what
happened at Coleshill.
There's no written record
of a skirmish or battle
at Coleshill Manor, but the house
sits just outside the town -
and Andrew has discovered
lots of evidence
for what was happening there.
Hello, Andrew.
Good to see you.
So, what can we learn from
these sources?
Well, this is a source from the very
beginning of the Civil War,
and it's the financial accounts
of Robert Greville,
Lord Brooke of Warwick Castle.
He was a militant
parliamentarian commander,
who came to Coleshill town
on July 5, 1642.
He was at the forefront of
opposition to the king Right.
and had been so for a long time.
He was ready for civil war.
So, what do these records tell us?
Right. Well, this record here,
it shows his efforts
to win over the trained bands
of Coleshill.
These are the local militia who are
a kind of part time defence force
who practise once a month.
And the expenses you can see on
this column here in pounds,
shillings and pence is all the
money he's spent on feasting them.
Which sounds like
already like bribery, Andrew!
Just listening to what you're
saying, he sounds like he's coming
here to bribe the local people.
Well, he's dispensing noble
hospitality. Right.
That's a euphemistic way
of saying it! Yes.
The parliamentarian leader
put on quite a feast.
Two lambs, three geese, three pigs,
four turkeys, six mallards,
12 chickens,
and even venison pasties.
Most ordinary people would not
be allowed to eat venison.
It was a very high status meat.
So, the idea of being offered
venison must have been,
you know, something that was
really quite special?
Yes, I think so.
And he's using the local inns
to dispense this hospitality.
Mr Elsemore's inn
Where's that?
It's the Angel Inn, only a few
hundred yards from Coleshill Manor.
Wow. And they're drawing beer for
those that came in from the fields.
Oh, I see.
So, I imagine they would have
been beating their drums
and making a noise to attract people
in from around the town
to see what was happening.
So, all of this looks
like a spectacle,
but a spectacle with a purpose.
The drink, the food is to
encourage people to fight
on the parliamentarians' side
against their king.
So, that means that the
parliamentarian force
was being raised right
near our location.
That's fascinating.
And we have this account here,
which shows that about 300 cavalry
came through Coleshill in July 1645.
So, these are Scottish soldiers
that have been recruited
by the parliamentarians,
is that right?
That's right, they're fighting
on parliament's side.
And we can see that they establish
their headquarters in the vicarage,
where the vicar, Mr Richard Adamson,
spends Ł8 of his own money
to look after them for two nights.
And their horses, I see.
Their horses, yes.
Yeah, and their horses.
Are the local people voluntarily
giving away their money
and food and drink?
No, they didn't have much choice,
not with 300 Scottish cavalrymen
descending on them. Right.
And there's evidence here that
suggests what was happening.
We've got Mr Josiah's
bull gentlemen.
Now, he has to quarter 20 men and
boys for two nights in his home.
And then he complains about the
oats, peas, beans and barley
and linen and other things
which they violently took away.
Wow.
And we see our old friend from
the Angel Inn, Josiah Elsemore.
He has to pay Ł6 and 17 shillings
to give wine,
victuals, beer and horse meat
to the Scots troopers staying
at his inn.
And you can see the total losses
that each household
has had to fork out for the Scots.
So, is that the same landlord
mentioned in the previous account?
Yes, that's right.
Three years before,
he was being paid to throw on
a feast for the soldiers.
But now here the Scots are
just taking it from him.
Wow, that's fascinating.
It just shows how in the space
of a few years of war,
how someone's position can change.
Yes, very much so.
It shows how the war was
a continual presence
for the people of Coleshill.
These sources help me to understand
that there would have been
considerable confusion and chaos
around Coleshill.
And it's not surprising,
with soldiers moving in
and soldiers moving out,
that we would see perhaps
the signs of war left at Coleshill.
A month later, the team has fully
revealed both octagonal towers
of the gatehouse at Coleshill Manor,
and they are covered with impact
scars from musket balls.
It's unbelievable, really.
We knew we were going
to get something.
And as we dug and we dug,
and we found a bit more,
we uncovered just a huge amount
of lead shot impacts
right across this whole section
of wall.
Something like 186,
which implies quite a lot of people
here taking a shot at this building.
This extraordinary medieval
gatehouse had lain completely lost
and forgotten for centuries.
And it clearly played a role
in the Civil War,
bearing the scars of action.
With the manor owned by
staunch royalists,
it may have been an obvious target,
and perhaps even the site
of the earliest skirmish
of that bitter war.
Next, we make our way to
a secret location
just outside the village of Harpole,
in Northamptonshire.
While excavating in advance
of a new housing development,
a team from Museum of London
Archaeology uncovers something
completely unexpected -
an Anglo-Saxon burial
with a stunning array of beautiful,
fragile finds.
This collection of gold and gems
seems to have formed
an ornate necklace, which could be
among the richest of its kind
ever found in Britain.
And as they dig further,
they realise there are more
exceptional items with this burial.
The team spot hints of other
precious metals peeking out
of the grave and decide
to block lift entire segments.
And these segments have been brought
here to the MOLA labs
where the conservators
are just starting the incredibly
painstaking process
of micro excavation.
And I'm really lucky to be getting
an early look.
Lead conservator Liz Barham
is laying out some of the 30 unique
pendants and beads,
each of which is undergoing
cleaning and conservation.
From garnet and gold to colourful
glass and semi - precious stones,
all of these once hung together
in a single necklace.
Oh, just beautiful pieces.
Are these objects finely dateable?
What century are we in,
do you think?
We think on the basis of the style
of the finds that this is probably
a mid to late seventh century
burial.
And the balance of probability is
that this was a high status woman?
Yeah.
The bones in the grave
had practically disappeared,
but the jewellery is remarkably
well preserved.
Dating to the seventh century,
this is a hugely significant find.
It's astonishing the range
of different techniques
that are brought together
in this single necklace.
Some of them are tiny,
this one's really tiny.
Then you've got these really larger
ones, too.
They've all been made
out of golden wire.
I mean, obviously, there's
still a lot of soil on them,
but you can kind of see,
actually this one particularly
has this lovely green and black
and white colour to it.
That's beautiful.
This would have been made
out of strands of glass wound
around each other, twisted
Fused together.
and assembled and fused.
Yes.
And we have the central
pendant as well, which seems
to have, it's very likely
that these are garnets set
in these little golden enclosures.
It's beautiful from a distance.
And then you get closer and there's
just all this pattern and design
and the craftsmanship in that.
When you look at the little cells
which are created with thin sheets
of gold separating them,
and then the garnets have to be cut
to shape presumably to be slotted
into each of those differently
shaped cells.
Yes.
And you also have these
tiny little curled wires
set into this piece as well.
Yeah, they're actually little
S-shaped curls, aren't they?
They must have been really difficult
to make at a time when there were no
microscopes, no,
no real magnification.
Somebody's obviously taken
a great deal of time to make
this beautiful piece.
And that coin is lovely.
I mean, that's cleaned up
beautifully, hasn't it? Yes.
I mean, we can take this one out,
actually.
I can actually hold
it in my hand. Yes.
So there we go.
So it doesn't look like a pendant
that's just been decorated
on one side.
It does look more like a coin.
Yes, I think it does look
as if it's a coin that's been made
into a pendant.
It must be a real joy
as a conservator to be working
on such beautiful finds.
It's really fantastically wonderful
to work on these kinds of things.
Once pieced back together,
it's clear that this necklace
is one of the most beautiful and
important Anglo-Saxon objects
ever found.
It shouts wealth and status.
But this grave hasn't given up
all its secrets just yet.
Riva Butilkova is still
excavating this block lifted sample,
millimetre by millimetre.
So, Riva, this is the segment
of the grave where that beautiful
necklace was found,
or the pieces of that necklace
was found.
But you think there's more
to find here?
Yeah, we definitely do.
We found what looks like
silver edge over here.
I hadn't realised
there was any metal there.
That's a piece of metal, is it?
Yeah, it is.
You can see kind of by the greyish
tint over here.
It's quite difficult to spot,
though, isn't it?
It's not like gold, which, you know,
doesn't tarnish. Exactly, yeah.
And what we see here is,
there is some wood. OK.
Do you have any idea what it is
that you're looking at?
Well, yeah, that's a big question.
We X-rayed the whole block
to see what kind of structure
is underneath here.
And we found actually
a really exciting thing.
This over here.
That's incredible!
Yeah.
A huge silver cross
mounted on wood.
It's the first time anything
like this has ever been found.
So this area over here, that's
this silver part over here.
Oh, wow!
And you look at the surface here,
and it doesn't look like much.
You've just got a few bits of wood
and a few bits of silver.
You start to think, what's there?
And then you X-ray it.
And it's this amazing thing.
I mean, that's an astonishing
object, isn't it?
This elaborate cross suggests
the team may have found the burial
of an early Christian leader
or even Anglo-Saxon royalty.
And how long is it going to take
you, Riva, to complete this work?
I mean, how long will it be,
for instance, before you start
to actually see the details
of this beautiful cross?
It's going to take a bit of time.
Weeks or months?
Months, probably, yeah.
A few months down the line,
we'll see this cross.
Desperate to see it.
Are you desperate to see it?
You have to be so patient
doing what you do.
Yeah. Yeah.
But it's good when you're working
kind of with the microscope
on very minuscule details.
Yeah. It helps to see
the process through.
And every day you're seeing
something new? Exactly, yeah.
You're finding out more information.
I'm blown away by that.
That is amazing.
The micro excavation
and conservation work here
at the MOLA Labs will continue.
I 'll just have to be patient
and catch up when the team
have finished revealing
what has already been dubbed
the Harpole Treasure.
Gold objects can survive almost
indefinitely underground.
But it takes very special conditions
to preserve ancient organic material
like fabric or timber.
Next, an astonishingly rare
discovery takes us
to the outskirts of Leicester.
Here in 2015, a team from the
University of Leicester
Archaeological Services
uncovered a remarkable piece
of ancient weaponry -
a shield made from tree bark.
An object so unusual, it even
shocked the archaeologists.
Radiocarbon dating shows
this incredible shield
is more than 2,300 years old,
placing it in the Iron Age.
It's very rare for organic material
to survive in the ground
for thousands of years.
Bark and wood almost always
rot down, leaving nothing
behind for archaeologists to find.
But in waterlogged sediment,
this fragile shield made
from willow bark has survived
in such good condition
that it's possible
to see tiny clues
revealing how it was made.
The shield is undergoing
vital conservation work
at the British Museum,
allowing detailed investigation
into just how Iron Age Britons
worked with these natural materials.
Now a team of experimental
archaeologists are trying
to recreate a bark shield
based on all this new evidence.
Our objective is to have a shield
that's complete and it's the kind
of shape that we want.
Matt Beamish is leading the project.
What we're trying to do
by experimenting is to understand
how it was made and a little bit
more about how effective it was.
The team are working from a precise
scale drawing of the fragmented
Iron Age shield, taking great care
to replicate each detail.
On the surviving original shield,
we can see slits for the stitches,
and we have one segment
where we've even got some
of the stitch surviving.
The preservation was so good,
even parts of the hazel rim running
around the edge of the bark
had survived.
Tiny slits show the rim
was stitched on.
But the team have to work out
exactly how that was done
through trial and error using
the same natural materials.
Now it's time to bend this hazel
because it's drying out in the sun.
It's good to bend this.
Yeah, you see, I was afraid
it would happen.
Yeah, it doesn't matter.
We just have to redo this, right?
It can be frustrating,
but experimental archaeology
is hugely valuable, helping
us understand how objects
like this shield were made and used.
You think you've got answers,
then you're like, "oh, well,
where did they put that stitch?
"How did they join that piece
of rim?
"How did they attach that?"
And it makes you study
the object so much better.
We don't know exactly where
all the stitches went.
So we've got only two.
They're really close together
and very far from the end.
So it's going to be really ugly.
But, well, that's what they did
and that's what we've got
to do as well.
So we can't go back to
the Iron Age and tell them,
"you shouldn't have done it
like that."
We're happy to follow
their methods.
One element of the design
that surprises everyone
is the shield boss.
This boss was made
like a small basket.
Willow rods were bound together
with thin strips of lime bark
and tiny holes show
where it was stitched on.
Most shields' bosses are made
of metal, even if the rest
of the shield is wood or hide.
So this is really quite exceptional.
And with the handle also stitched
onto the back, the structure
of the shield is complete.
Right, done.
Now the team will clamp the shield
so that it stays as flat as possible
while it dries out and hardens
over a few months.
It's really exciting to be able
to put these components together
and then see what the materials
do as they dry.
To find out how the experiment went
and what they've learned
about making a bark shield,
I've invited Matt and Sophie
to the Digging for Britain tent.
And they've brought all
of the prototypes they've made
along the way.
Some good, some not so good.
So what we've got here then
is a whole series
of experiments, trial and error,
trying to work out
how this was constructed.
I mean, I can see a couple
of prototypes, but how do you start?
I mean, presumably you start
with the materials?
Yes.
I guess the materials
were effectively
our kind of core elements.
We knew we'd got certain pieces,
we'd got the body, we'd got
the handle, we'd got the rim
and we'd got the boss.
And somehow we had to
articulate these things.
Remake them and put them together
and try and end up with a shield.
So what about this one here?
You've got the handle.
Almost looks like it's attached
to the outside there, which seems
a bit odd to me.
This piece illustrates really
clearly that the bark is inverted.
So this is a piece of willow bark
that hasn't been constrained
as it's dried. Right, yeah.
That then says that they were
forcing the shield
to actually invert.
So it's not even
just flattened bark.
It's bark that has been pushed
into an opposite, an inverse curve.
It's creating a tension
against itself. Yeah.
Which adds strength to it.
So this one looks a bit
more successful because it's flatter
than that, but it's still curving
that way.
You don't want that?
No, that's right.
It's not regular either.
So this one was just clamped
flat with some batons
and then allowed to dry.
And although it has stayed
much flatter than this one,
it's not got the kind
of shape that we want.
So that said, no, the way
that we've done that one
isn't quite right either.
Yeah.
And then this miniature prototype
here, I mean, that's showing us
that bark will dry in a very uneven
way if it's not constrained at all.
That absolutely shows that.
So, yeah, this piece has got edging
pieces effectively on the rim.
And the rim has stayed
fairly straight.
Yeah. But it hasn't got anything
across the body of the shield
and it's actually folded up.
Yeah.
Now there was something found
in the end of the shield
that we didn't understand,
and that was something called laths.
And they are small pieces
of applewood that are actually
within the body of the bark.
These images of the original shield
show the small strips of applewood,
which help the shield stay flat.
These are little pieces of wood
that are driven in like this?
That's right.
That's just to show the principle.
A piece of wood driven through
the bark does actually help it
to retain some sort of shape
as it dries.
But even there you can see
that it has successfully managed
to invert that curve of the bark.
Yeah.
And then we saw you working
on this final version,
and now it's ready.
It's dried out.
It's complete.
And you've got a boss there as well.
Yeah, that's a beautiful boss.
That looks so like the original.
Isn't that fantastic?
Brilliant. Yeah.
And it is really rigid.
It's really.
It's really firm.
And you think, oh, it's going to be
collapsible, but it's not at all.
Once you've got a well woven piece
of basket work, it's very solid.
It holds itself together.
And if one stitch got slightly
damaged, you know, you've got
all these other stitches
that will help hold it.
So we've got metal shields probably
around the same time as this.
Are they intrinsically better
than an organic version?
I don't think they're better.
I think they're different
with a recursion there.
It's a very agile shield.
It's very light.
It's extremely light
and manoeuvrable. Yeah.
And I think you could still actually
inflict some damage with that.
I mean, I'm not going to do it,
Matt, but you could still
damage somebody.
Yes, I think you could.
And how rare is it?
I mean, it's unique in Britain,
but do we see anything
like this in the rest of Europe?
Unique in the northern hemisphere.
In the northern hemisphere?
Really?
Yeah. That's extraordinary.
And that it's come to light in just
the last few years does give us
an idea of how much we're missing
in terms of that material culture
if we're not seeing
the organic material.
We dig for the gods
that leave no bones
For the ship that sailed
in the sunken sea
The vessel lost in the sky
and stones
The famine road
And the merchants keep ♪
Next, we make our way to the town
of St Neots,
20 miles west of Cambridge.
It's here that a team from Oxford
Archaeology are investigating
a fascinating cemetery.
When I heard about these
discoveries, I simply had to see
them for myself.
So I've hotfooted it here
and I'm hoping to see some
of this evidence emerging
out of the ground.
What we've got here are deviant
burials, strange burials.
What's particularly odd
about these ones
is that they've been decapitated.
But it's the way these burials
are laid out that's really curious.
Each body was placed in the grave
on its back with grave goods
buried alongside it.
But some of the skulls
are not where they should be.
Archaeologists call unusual burials
like this deviant or irregular.
And these ones all date
to the Roman period.
I've come to meet Stuart Ladd
to find out what's going on.
These are quite bizarre
burials, aren't they?
Yeah. Because very definitely,
the skull,
which should be at this end
of the grave
It's not in the right place, is it?
..is down at the feet.
Yeah. Yeah.
And actually buried with a piece
of pottery as well.
So it's a particular mode of burial
where the head is detached and moved
down to the feet and then a pot
is placed in the grave
up towards the head end?
Yeah.
And somehow this has got
to mean something? Yes.
It's easy to see a headless skeleton
and suspect foul play,
perhaps even an execution.
But the fact that these bodies seem
to have been carefully buried
with grave goods suggests something
else might have been happening here.
So tell me more about the site.
So we're on the edge of quite
a busy Roman rural settlement,
just on the corner of one
of their larger enclosures,
which first comes into use
in the late Iron Age.
But the ditches around it get recut
and recut and continues
into the Roman period.
So that means that we're on a site
which has got at least 1,000
years of history going from the
Iron Age into the Roman period.
Society in Roman Britain
was far from simple.
There were people whose ancestors
had lived here for centuries,
alongside others coming in
from all over Europe and beyond,
bringing their own cultures
and practices with them.
There's almost no such thing as a
normal burial from this time.
So your team are now moving on
to these other two burials.
I can see a skull in that one.
So is that in the right place?
Not exactly.
So it's their position
next to a leg bone.
And you can see the jaw
has actually been moved.
But this one's actually a bit
different in that we've had a little
bit of bone in the upper parts
of the field as we've gone down,
and so far, nothing is quite
in the right place.
So both of them,
we're about down to the level.
So we'll start to clean them up
and get a really good view
of where the bones are.
Great.
I can't wait to see what happens,
what emerges in these two burials.
As Harry and Ellie remove
the final layers of clay,
I can't just stand and watch.
I want to know who this person was
and why they were buried like this.
That's the age-old question.
Much worse survival.
The conditions aren't ideal
for digging, but have been great
for bone preservation.
If we can find evidence of cut marks
on the spine or skull,
it could tell us how the head was
removed and perhaps even if that was
the cause of death.
I'm going to be lazy now, Harry.
Can I pass you that?
Yes.
Thank you.
Thank you very much.
Little by little, this bizarre
burial is becoming clearer.
That's the second cervical vertebra.
This came from just here,
just in front of the skull.
Vertebra there.
Can't see any obvious cut marks
on that,
but it is covered in mud.
So, you know.
The heavy, sticky clay
makes it impossible to see
whether there are cut marks
on the spine.
But we may be able to tell
other things about this person
as more of their skeleton
is revealed.
What do you think's
going on here then?
Who do you think these people are?
I don't know.
I think maybe it's maybe different
family groups together.
Yeah. Yeah.
I've just got a few fragments here
from around the skull area,
the skull that was down below
the knees of this individual.
And there are some tantalising
clues about this person.
I can see how heavily worn
their teeth are.
And so this must have been an adult,
certainly.
And this is an extremely prominent
chin, a squared off prominent chin.
So it may be that we're looking
at an older man.
When this evidence is cleaned up,
we will get an even better insight
into who these people were
and perhaps even why
they were being buried in this way,
a way that we might describe
as deviant but was clearly
not deviant here.
It wasn't even irregular.
This is the mode of death
for everybody that has been found
so far on this site.
To us, it seems like such an odd
thing to do with a body -
to chop off the head and place it
at the feet.
But here it seems that this
may have just been the normal way
to bury someone.
And every newly discovered irregular
burial could bring us closer
to understanding why.
A huge medieval castle can give
any modern town or city
a real presence, a sense of identity
and heritage.
Even just a few fragments of turrets
and walls can lend a certain
romantic antique aura to a place.
But over centuries of change,
some once magnificent castles
have completely disappeared.
So what can be done when we know
that a city once had a castle,
but few traces of it remain?
Next, we're on the hunt
for a missing medieval
masterpiece, Sheffield Castle.
We know from historical records
that a famous medieval castle
where Mary, Oueen of Scots was once
held as a prisoner,
stood in the centre of the city.
But it was completely dismantled
after the Civil War in 1648.
And today there's absolutely
nothing on the surface
to show what it looked like.
Now the site's being redeveloped,
and it's giving a team
from Wessex Archaeology
the chance to investigate.
In 2018, trial excavations revealed
the remains of the castle itself.
But this year, they're trying
to find out about its moat.
We are doing geoarchaeological
and geotechnical boreholes.
Mili Rajic is leading the dig.
With that methodology
and approach,
we are trying to be as little
intrusive as possible and to gain
as much information as possible.
Borehole sampling like this can
provide a complete cross-section
of everything below ground.
So this is a sample taken vertically
down through the deposits,
what we call stratigraphy.
So the oldest deposits are down
at the bottom and it getting younger
as we get further towards
the surface.
Richard Payne is supervising
the drilling.
It's always a little bit exciting,
wondering what you're going to find.
So the borehole provides us
with a lot of information,
but only at that single point.
So what we need is a number
of boreholes spread across the site,
but they all need to go back
to the lab where we can get a much
better picture of what's going on.
Cat Jarman is visiting the lab
to see the results.
I've come here to meet
Dr Daniel Young, an expert
who has been studying these
boreholes from Sheffield,
and hopefully we can find
some trace of that lost moat.
Hey, Dan!
So this is it.
These are the course?
Yep. So this is borehole 14.
Excellent.
Well, let's have a look.
So lots of what looks like sandstone
rubble, as well as some brick
and other building materials.
Yes, this is brick with mortar
or something, isn't it?
So that's definite
building material. Yeah.
This what looks to me possibly
like what bits of the castle.
Excellent!
It's incredible to find traces
of the castle itself, but evidence
of the moat is much more subtle
and takes an expert eye to identify.
So this is completely different.
So you've got a tiny bit
of sandstone
and then it changes completely.
So, yeah, we've got this very fine
grained stuff here,
which is very different from this
layer above, and that's mostly
composed of probably clays
and silts, but with sort of various
pebbly and stony inclusions as well.
Yeah, because that feels
very clay to me.
It's like putty, isn't it?
Yeah.
Does that mean we've got water
possibly? Potentially.
What we have here with the very fine
grained clays, particularly
at the bottom, could be evidence
for sediments forming within water
that was within the moat.
So this is quite likely to be the
moat, if that's what it is?
Yeah, I think it is. Brilliant!
Dan has looked at a total of 49
samples from the site, and plotting
them on a map can give us
an idea of the size and shape
of Sheffield Castle's moat.
So how about this one
with our possible moat?
Where's that one from?
That's borehole 14,
which is just here. OK.
So quite far on that sort of
eastern side of the site?
That's right.
And these lines of boreholes here,
that's where you've essentially
chased the moat?
Yeah.
So this is a cross-section
across the site
with several boreholes now.
And from that information,
we can see that the moat cut
into the bedrock was about five
metres deep and probably at least
eight metres wide.
OK, so that's fantastic.
I love this because I mean,
there's nothing there at all.
But just from these sort of tiny,
really, cores, you got a really,
really good reconstruction.
Yeah.
And there's still more that these
boreholes can tell us as well.
So there's more information
to come from these.
It's all just hiding there,
just under the ground.
Using this data, the team can
reconstruct the castle's moat,
showing not only where it once
was, but also how it varied
in width and depth.
Piece by piece, the mighty
Sheffield Castle is being brought
back to life.
Many of our towns and cities
can be traced back to Roman
settlements, even to the Iron Age.
But others come along much later,
and our final dig
takes us to a city
with a surprisingly recent history.
Oxford.
The city began life as a
fortified settlement, protected
from intruders like the Vikings
in the early medieval period.
Little is known about Oxford
before its Anglo-Saxon beginnings.
But now, as part of a development
to make way for new student
accommodation, a team from Oxford
Archaeology has been given
the unique opportunity to dig down
and search for evidence
of what was here first
before the town.
In Oxford,
it's easy to imagine that
you're in an ancient city, but one
of the great pleasures of doing
excavations like this
is that you basically
are discovering new things.
Ben Ford is leading the dig.
The excavation here is located
in the heart of historic Oxford,
within what is thought to be
the earliest defended part
of the Anglo-Saxon town.
So we're right in the heart
of that depth of history.
As the team dig down,
they're finding a vast array
of medieval structures and finds.
We think it may have been
a stone-lined well originally.
Fairly well fitted,
so there's a bit of persuasion
to get rid of it.
What we just found here
is a nice hammered silver coin.
I found this nice, sizeable
bit of pot. We think it's medieval.
After only a few weeks of
excavation, the team make
a surprising discovery.
This reddish-colour soil here,
this is the soil that was
on the site from 10,000 years ago.
And it's been preserved
in this situation by what we think
is a Bronze Age monument.
They've stumbled on a Bronze Age
burial mound,
predating the Anglo Saxon settlement
of Oxford by thousands of years.
This is that big deposit of soil
that the mound is made from.
And you can see that there appear
to be phases of construction.
So here is a reddish soil
overlain with gravel.
And as we come around here,
we've got this level of charcoal.
And you can see that the soil
above the charcoal
is slightly darker than the soil
below the charcoal.
So we think that this is the primary
mound here
and that this charcoal
layer was created by some fire -
maybe a ritual-type ceremony
on this mound before
they then enlarged it.
The excavation of this mound
is really a unique opportunity.
It's the first time in Oxford
that such an earthwork
has been found.
With a burial mound,
you might expect a burial,
but, so far,
the team have only found scattered
fragments of human remains.
First, we had a very robust jawbone.
Then we got the other side
of the jawbone, a piece of skull,
some tibias, femurs, and a piece
of pelvis.
They weren't in an in-situ grave,
but we think that those human
remains come from a burial
associated with the Bronze
Age burial mound.
Could the human remains found here
be one of Oxford's earliest
residents?
To find out, I've invited Ben
and osteologist Lauren McIntyre
to the Digging For Britain tent,
and they've brought some
of their best discoveries ranging
across the eras in Oxford.
Right, then, Ben, what do
the finds from the site tell us
about life in Oxford?
They tell us quite a lot.
There's a ceramic whistle.
Yeah. Who knows what tunes would
have been played for it?
Yeah. A gaming piece.
So we've got a whistle
and the gaming piece telling us
a little bit about what they're
doing in their free time.
Yeah. And this is a decorated
piece of window glass.
Isn't that gorgeous? That's painted.
Yeah.
And this is a remarkable find
from a large jug which would be held
next to the table so people
could wash their hands.
Yeah? And it's in the shape
of a stag.
It's so beautiful, isn't it?
It's really decorative.
So this is the head of
the stag, just here.
Yeah. That's where you're going to pour
the water. Exactly. That's fantastic. Yes.
It's high quality.
Yeah.
So you've got this very complex
urban site,
lots of different layers.
But what we've got at the base
of it is this Bronze Age mound
with what looks like redeposited
human remains in it.
So, Lauren, tell us what you can say
about these human bones,
then, from the site. OK.
So the bones were found
in two separate pits.
But when we look at the fragments,
we can actually piece them
all together
and we know that
they're all from the same person.
So did these two pieces of femur
come from different contexts?
Yes. Yeah.
You can see that they fit together
really nicely. Yeah, they do.
Yeah. There we go.
So that's definitely from one
individual.
And what else can you tell
about this individual in terms
of age and sex of that person?
So there's not a huge amount of
evidence to go on, as you can see,
because there's not very much bone.
But, looking at the various bits
of the pelvis,
you can see that sciatic notch is
quite narrow.
That's a good indicator we're
looking at a male. Yeah.
Then, also, around the forehead
as well,
like the brow ridge is
quite pronounced,
and that's a good indicator that
we're looking at a male, as well.
OK. So are these bones Bronze Age?
Is this a Bronze Age burial
that's been disturbed
in later times?
Well, we thought that on site.
Yeah. But we weren't sure.
So we took these samples here
and sent them off for carbon dating.
Yeah? It turns out that it's
a mid -Saxon burial. Really?
So this date comes back
as 770 to 930.
OK. So that's 3,000 years later
than the mound is constructed.
Yeah. So this is a Saxon burial
that's inserted into a mound
that is already very ancient
at the time.
Exactly. So our assumption is we've
got a landscape of a huge number
of prehistoric burial monuments
and those burial monuments seem
to have become a focus
for mid -Saxon activity. Yeah.
I mean, he's buried at a time
when there's not really any kind
of settlement that we can say
is Oxford at that point.
Yeah. The town is imposed
into that landscape at a later date.
These finds come from 150, 100
years later
than this chap's buried,
next to the mound.
So there's a very significant
change at that point -
in those 100, 150 years. Yeah.
So from this one site, we've just
got a fantastic glimpse
of the layers and layers
and layers through history. Yeah.
Next time on Digging For Britain,
divers hunt down the identity
of a ship sunk
with valuable cargo,
but also weapons.
We've got cannons.
We've got big cannons.
And a massive army camp proves
the Roman legions
did march deep into Cornwall.
It's really quite impressive
to go, "We're Rome. This is it."
And I'm there as archaeologists
try to reveal the secrets
of a mysterious underground chamber.
It's weird. What is it?
I mean, that's the big question.
Everywhere you look, the rich
history of the United Kingdom
is there to be seen.
But hidden beneath our feet,
there's still a wealth of
archaeological treasure
just waiting to be found.
That's why each year,
all across the country,
our archaeologists dig, dive,
and explore their way down
Oh, my God.
Some of the best stuff you're
ever going to see.
Oh, wow.
Ooh, we got arrowhead.
searching for fresh discoveries
Oh! Hypocaust!
revealing the imprint of
ancient civilisations.
It's been there for 5,500
thousand years.
and unearthing fascinating
objects.
Fantastic decoration.
Wow, look at that.
Every dig adds new pieces to the
ever growing archaeological jigsaw
that is the epic story
of our islands.
And I'm down.
This year, I visit digs in some
extraordinary locations
and solve mysteries using
cutting-edge tools.
Oh, this is wonderful.
I'm joined by a trio of
expert investigators
So, you can see how that gives you
a really unique signature.
That's right.
So, they were using food as a type
of bribery.
who dig deeper to answer the
questions raised by the finds.
That's how he got away with it.
Finally, the archaeologists
bring their best discoveries
into our tent
Oh, wow. Yeah, it's a cracking find.
for up-close analysis.
So, it's completely unique
impression. That's wonderful.
Welcome to Digging for Britain.
In this episode, we're exploring
the best archaeology
from the central regions of Britain.
We unearth a mysterious
Roman cemetery
I want to know why they were buried
like this.
where skulls have been
replaced with pots.
Somehow, this has got to
mean something.
We investigate the world's
only surviving example
This is really quite exceptional.
of an Iron Age shield
made from bark.
We think, "Oh, it's going to be
collapsible," but it's not at all.
And we uncover the most ornate
Anglo-Saxon necklace
ever found in Britain.
Blown away by that.
That is amazing.
Across the centre of Britain
in the 16th century,
wealthy landowners stamped symbols
of their status on the landscape.
Like Burghley House,
in Lincolnshire,
and Wollaton Hall,
in Nottingham.
Many Elizabethan manors rivals
the grandeur of royal palaces.
But not all of them have survived
to the present day.
Our first dig takes place
close to Coleshill,
ten miles east of Birmingham.
Here, the ground is being prepared
for the nation's biggest
infrastructure project, HS2.
A team from Wessex Archaeology
is investigating the site
of a lost Elizabethan manor house
that was torn down
at the beginning of
the 19th century.
We know there was an Elizabethan
manor here at Coleshill,
but there's not much in the way
of a historical record
and even less to see above ground.
What's now emerging is an
extraordinary fortified gatehouse
that once guarded the entrance
to the manor -
and it's dwarfing all expectations.
Oh, my God.
I cannot believe that you just had
no idea that this was here.
It was a massive shock for us
as well when we found it.
Stuart Pearson is leading the dig.
So, this is the gatehouse
to the manor?
It would have been. So, this would
have led right up to the entrance
to our manor house.
Can we get down and get a bit of
a closer look? We can.
The team has fully exposed the base
of one of the two octagonal towers
that flank the entrance.
Look at those walls.
I mean, they're really substantial.
This is almost like a small castle.
And when it would have been fully
constructed, it would have been
visible for miles around.
History has left its impression
on the surfaces
of these sandstone blocks.
They're covered in telltale
marks and scars.
Oh! It's amazing.
It's just incredible. Wow.
It's the more that you look at it,
the more detail you see. Yeah.
There's a lot of marks on
these stones. There are.
Is this tool marks here?
Yeah, they're all tool marks
coming down there.
And if you look a little bit lower,
you might be able to pick out
a mason's mark, as well. There!
That's the one.
And there's another one just
further up as well.
I can't quite see it from here.
There. Yeah, that's the one.
The same person, then?
Potentially. They are very similar,
so it could be the same person
that's put these stones into place
and carved them. That's amazing.
There's other marks as well,
aren't there, on these stones?
There are.
There's little round marks.
What are these?
So, this is what's really, really
exciting about the gatehouse.
When we were excavating this area,
we found 42 of them
just on this section of wall.
So, we started looking up and
realising, hang on a minute,
are all these little impacts? Yeah.
And then led us to believe that
musket balls have been fired
at the gatehouse.
That's just extraordinary.
So, what you've got here
then is a building
which is being attacked by
people bearing muskets.
Yeah. And that makes me think
17th century, Civil War?
I think you're probably correct.
So, what we know about this area
is the first skirmish
of the Civil War was supposedly
at Kibworth Bridge,
which is just two miles up the road,
but this location is on the way
to that skirmish.
So, we think, potentially,
that this actually might be
the location of the first battle
of the Civil War.
Oh, this site just gets better
and better.
This is incredible.
So, you've got this gatehouse,
this building that you just had
no idea existed, and now you've
got evidence which could
potentially rewrite history.
This could be where the
first skirmish
of the English Civil War took place.
The English Civil War kicked off
in August 1642 -
a conflict between royalists
loyal to King Charles I
and parliamentarians.
This part of the Midlands was split
between rival factions,
with small bands of soldiers from
both sides roaming the landscape.
This nearby fortified manor
house became a garrison
for the parliamentarian troops.
While the manor at our site was
owned by an aristocratic family
loyal to the king.
Now, I'm not claiming that this is
an entirely accurate historical
reconstruction, but it's
the best I can do.
Looking at that, we know that there
are two octagonal towers,
and that there's a building
behind them.
And looking at other gatehouses
of a similar age,
this is what I think it might have
looked like.
And, really, calling it a gatehouse
doesn't do it justice.
It's like a miniature castle.
And it's not just for show,
as we now know.
Across the front of it, we've got
all of these musket ball impacts.
So, could this have been the
very first skirmish
of the English Civil War?
And it's not just traces of impacts
that the archaeologists are finding.
Dozens of musket balls have been
recovered from the moat,
each one a potential source
of ballistic evidence.
Finds Specialist Lorraine Mepham
has lined up some prime suspects.
So, we've got some of the musket
balls that have come out
from right in front of
the gatehouse here.
There's quite a variety of sizes.
There is, and that's quite exciting
in itself because, obviously,
the size tells us something about
the calibre of the weapon.
Yeah. And, in fact, the weapons are
not necessarily standard calibre.
So, they're probably using whatever
they had to hand.
So, have any of them definitely
been fired?
Well, some of them have, because
some of them have traces
of actually going through
the weapon.
Yeah.
So, if we look at a couple that
have actually been fired,
you can see that this actually
isn't a spheroid. Yes.
It's only rounded on one side.
It's quite cylindrical.
It's got the band round here, and
then that rear end is almost flat.
So, this has actually gone
through the barrel,
and it's been compressed
against the barrel here.
So, that shape is from being fired?
From firing, yes.
God, it's heavy. And if you look
at the band,
you can see slight striations.
Yeah, yeah. Running back.
So, that has definitely been shot,
but not necessarily hit anything?
That's right.
And that one looks like
it's been flattened. Yes.
Now, this one has.
As you can see, rounded at the top,
but flattened on this.
But interestingly, this is
not entirely splattered
against something.
This has hit something relatively
smooth, but at medium velocity,
so it hasn't completely
disintegrated.
When you say relatively smooth,
could that have been the front
of the gatehouse?
It could have been. Yeah.
It could have been, yeah.
Yeah, yeah.
Having found both musket balls
and impacts on the walls,
the team are close to a smoking gun
here at Coleshill.
Archaeologist and Civil War expert
Bob Clark is visually impaired,
so he's come down to the site to get
hands-on with the evidence.
Bob, how important is it for you
to come to the site
and to experience the evidence
for yourself?
Yeah.
Yeah.
You know, I haven't even noticed
that, cos I've not felt them, Bob.
And you're there automatically
doing that
and I'm standing back and
looking at them.
So, we've got musket balls
which have emerged from the site
and we've got impacts
which could have been caused
by these musket balls.
Could this be Civil War action?
It's tantalising and frustrating
at the same time.
I find it amazing that we've
got this evidence,
which is, you know
it's been buried for centuries,
and it's just been revealed.
And then to find it covered with
pockmarks is just extraordinary.
And then here we are trying
to work out what exactly
happened here at Coleshill.
You know, before, you probably
wouldn't have even thought of
asking these questions.
But now we have this evidence,
suddenly we've got a whole
load of questions.
I want to know more about who would
have been firing at this gatehouse.
Onyeka Nubia has come to
Holmby House to investigate
military movements around Coleshill
during these tumultuous times.
I'm here to meet Andrew Hopper,
an expert on the English Civil War.
He has found some fascinating
documents that might help us
understand more about what
happened at Coleshill.
There's no written record
of a skirmish or battle
at Coleshill Manor, but the house
sits just outside the town -
and Andrew has discovered
lots of evidence
for what was happening there.
Hello, Andrew.
Good to see you.
So, what can we learn from
these sources?
Well, this is a source from the very
beginning of the Civil War,
and it's the financial accounts
of Robert Greville,
Lord Brooke of Warwick Castle.
He was a militant
parliamentarian commander,
who came to Coleshill town
on July 5, 1642.
He was at the forefront of
opposition to the king Right.
and had been so for a long time.
He was ready for civil war.
So, what do these records tell us?
Right. Well, this record here,
it shows his efforts
to win over the trained bands
of Coleshill.
These are the local militia who are
a kind of part time defence force
who practise once a month.
And the expenses you can see on
this column here in pounds,
shillings and pence is all the
money he's spent on feasting them.
Which sounds like
already like bribery, Andrew!
Just listening to what you're
saying, he sounds like he's coming
here to bribe the local people.
Well, he's dispensing noble
hospitality. Right.
That's a euphemistic way
of saying it! Yes.
The parliamentarian leader
put on quite a feast.
Two lambs, three geese, three pigs,
four turkeys, six mallards,
12 chickens,
and even venison pasties.
Most ordinary people would not
be allowed to eat venison.
It was a very high status meat.
So, the idea of being offered
venison must have been,
you know, something that was
really quite special?
Yes, I think so.
And he's using the local inns
to dispense this hospitality.
Mr Elsemore's inn
Where's that?
It's the Angel Inn, only a few
hundred yards from Coleshill Manor.
Wow. And they're drawing beer for
those that came in from the fields.
Oh, I see.
So, I imagine they would have
been beating their drums
and making a noise to attract people
in from around the town
to see what was happening.
So, all of this looks
like a spectacle,
but a spectacle with a purpose.
The drink, the food is to
encourage people to fight
on the parliamentarians' side
against their king.
So, that means that the
parliamentarian force
was being raised right
near our location.
That's fascinating.
And we have this account here,
which shows that about 300 cavalry
came through Coleshill in July 1645.
So, these are Scottish soldiers
that have been recruited
by the parliamentarians,
is that right?
That's right, they're fighting
on parliament's side.
And we can see that they establish
their headquarters in the vicarage,
where the vicar, Mr Richard Adamson,
spends Ł8 of his own money
to look after them for two nights.
And their horses, I see.
Their horses, yes.
Yeah, and their horses.
Are the local people voluntarily
giving away their money
and food and drink?
No, they didn't have much choice,
not with 300 Scottish cavalrymen
descending on them. Right.
And there's evidence here that
suggests what was happening.
We've got Mr Josiah's
bull gentlemen.
Now, he has to quarter 20 men and
boys for two nights in his home.
And then he complains about the
oats, peas, beans and barley
and linen and other things
which they violently took away.
Wow.
And we see our old friend from
the Angel Inn, Josiah Elsemore.
He has to pay Ł6 and 17 shillings
to give wine,
victuals, beer and horse meat
to the Scots troopers staying
at his inn.
And you can see the total losses
that each household
has had to fork out for the Scots.
So, is that the same landlord
mentioned in the previous account?
Yes, that's right.
Three years before,
he was being paid to throw on
a feast for the soldiers.
But now here the Scots are
just taking it from him.
Wow, that's fascinating.
It just shows how in the space
of a few years of war,
how someone's position can change.
Yes, very much so.
It shows how the war was
a continual presence
for the people of Coleshill.
These sources help me to understand
that there would have been
considerable confusion and chaos
around Coleshill.
And it's not surprising,
with soldiers moving in
and soldiers moving out,
that we would see perhaps
the signs of war left at Coleshill.
A month later, the team has fully
revealed both octagonal towers
of the gatehouse at Coleshill Manor,
and they are covered with impact
scars from musket balls.
It's unbelievable, really.
We knew we were going
to get something.
And as we dug and we dug,
and we found a bit more,
we uncovered just a huge amount
of lead shot impacts
right across this whole section
of wall.
Something like 186,
which implies quite a lot of people
here taking a shot at this building.
This extraordinary medieval
gatehouse had lain completely lost
and forgotten for centuries.
And it clearly played a role
in the Civil War,
bearing the scars of action.
With the manor owned by
staunch royalists,
it may have been an obvious target,
and perhaps even the site
of the earliest skirmish
of that bitter war.
Next, we make our way to
a secret location
just outside the village of Harpole,
in Northamptonshire.
While excavating in advance
of a new housing development,
a team from Museum of London
Archaeology uncovers something
completely unexpected -
an Anglo-Saxon burial
with a stunning array of beautiful,
fragile finds.
This collection of gold and gems
seems to have formed
an ornate necklace, which could be
among the richest of its kind
ever found in Britain.
And as they dig further,
they realise there are more
exceptional items with this burial.
The team spot hints of other
precious metals peeking out
of the grave and decide
to block lift entire segments.
And these segments have been brought
here to the MOLA labs
where the conservators
are just starting the incredibly
painstaking process
of micro excavation.
And I'm really lucky to be getting
an early look.
Lead conservator Liz Barham
is laying out some of the 30 unique
pendants and beads,
each of which is undergoing
cleaning and conservation.
From garnet and gold to colourful
glass and semi - precious stones,
all of these once hung together
in a single necklace.
Oh, just beautiful pieces.
Are these objects finely dateable?
What century are we in,
do you think?
We think on the basis of the style
of the finds that this is probably
a mid to late seventh century
burial.
And the balance of probability is
that this was a high status woman?
Yeah.
The bones in the grave
had practically disappeared,
but the jewellery is remarkably
well preserved.
Dating to the seventh century,
this is a hugely significant find.
It's astonishing the range
of different techniques
that are brought together
in this single necklace.
Some of them are tiny,
this one's really tiny.
Then you've got these really larger
ones, too.
They've all been made
out of golden wire.
I mean, obviously, there's
still a lot of soil on them,
but you can kind of see,
actually this one particularly
has this lovely green and black
and white colour to it.
That's beautiful.
This would have been made
out of strands of glass wound
around each other, twisted
Fused together.
and assembled and fused.
Yes.
And we have the central
pendant as well, which seems
to have, it's very likely
that these are garnets set
in these little golden enclosures.
It's beautiful from a distance.
And then you get closer and there's
just all this pattern and design
and the craftsmanship in that.
When you look at the little cells
which are created with thin sheets
of gold separating them,
and then the garnets have to be cut
to shape presumably to be slotted
into each of those differently
shaped cells.
Yes.
And you also have these
tiny little curled wires
set into this piece as well.
Yeah, they're actually little
S-shaped curls, aren't they?
They must have been really difficult
to make at a time when there were no
microscopes, no,
no real magnification.
Somebody's obviously taken
a great deal of time to make
this beautiful piece.
And that coin is lovely.
I mean, that's cleaned up
beautifully, hasn't it? Yes.
I mean, we can take this one out,
actually.
I can actually hold
it in my hand. Yes.
So there we go.
So it doesn't look like a pendant
that's just been decorated
on one side.
It does look more like a coin.
Yes, I think it does look
as if it's a coin that's been made
into a pendant.
It must be a real joy
as a conservator to be working
on such beautiful finds.
It's really fantastically wonderful
to work on these kinds of things.
Once pieced back together,
it's clear that this necklace
is one of the most beautiful and
important Anglo-Saxon objects
ever found.
It shouts wealth and status.
But this grave hasn't given up
all its secrets just yet.
Riva Butilkova is still
excavating this block lifted sample,
millimetre by millimetre.
So, Riva, this is the segment
of the grave where that beautiful
necklace was found,
or the pieces of that necklace
was found.
But you think there's more
to find here?
Yeah, we definitely do.
We found what looks like
silver edge over here.
I hadn't realised
there was any metal there.
That's a piece of metal, is it?
Yeah, it is.
You can see kind of by the greyish
tint over here.
It's quite difficult to spot,
though, isn't it?
It's not like gold, which, you know,
doesn't tarnish. Exactly, yeah.
And what we see here is,
there is some wood. OK.
Do you have any idea what it is
that you're looking at?
Well, yeah, that's a big question.
We X-rayed the whole block
to see what kind of structure
is underneath here.
And we found actually
a really exciting thing.
This over here.
That's incredible!
Yeah.
A huge silver cross
mounted on wood.
It's the first time anything
like this has ever been found.
So this area over here, that's
this silver part over here.
Oh, wow!
And you look at the surface here,
and it doesn't look like much.
You've just got a few bits of wood
and a few bits of silver.
You start to think, what's there?
And then you X-ray it.
And it's this amazing thing.
I mean, that's an astonishing
object, isn't it?
This elaborate cross suggests
the team may have found the burial
of an early Christian leader
or even Anglo-Saxon royalty.
And how long is it going to take
you, Riva, to complete this work?
I mean, how long will it be,
for instance, before you start
to actually see the details
of this beautiful cross?
It's going to take a bit of time.
Weeks or months?
Months, probably, yeah.
A few months down the line,
we'll see this cross.
Desperate to see it.
Are you desperate to see it?
You have to be so patient
doing what you do.
Yeah. Yeah.
But it's good when you're working
kind of with the microscope
on very minuscule details.
Yeah. It helps to see
the process through.
And every day you're seeing
something new? Exactly, yeah.
You're finding out more information.
I'm blown away by that.
That is amazing.
The micro excavation
and conservation work here
at the MOLA Labs will continue.
I 'll just have to be patient
and catch up when the team
have finished revealing
what has already been dubbed
the Harpole Treasure.
Gold objects can survive almost
indefinitely underground.
But it takes very special conditions
to preserve ancient organic material
like fabric or timber.
Next, an astonishingly rare
discovery takes us
to the outskirts of Leicester.
Here in 2015, a team from the
University of Leicester
Archaeological Services
uncovered a remarkable piece
of ancient weaponry -
a shield made from tree bark.
An object so unusual, it even
shocked the archaeologists.
Radiocarbon dating shows
this incredible shield
is more than 2,300 years old,
placing it in the Iron Age.
It's very rare for organic material
to survive in the ground
for thousands of years.
Bark and wood almost always
rot down, leaving nothing
behind for archaeologists to find.
But in waterlogged sediment,
this fragile shield made
from willow bark has survived
in such good condition
that it's possible
to see tiny clues
revealing how it was made.
The shield is undergoing
vital conservation work
at the British Museum,
allowing detailed investigation
into just how Iron Age Britons
worked with these natural materials.
Now a team of experimental
archaeologists are trying
to recreate a bark shield
based on all this new evidence.
Our objective is to have a shield
that's complete and it's the kind
of shape that we want.
Matt Beamish is leading the project.
What we're trying to do
by experimenting is to understand
how it was made and a little bit
more about how effective it was.
The team are working from a precise
scale drawing of the fragmented
Iron Age shield, taking great care
to replicate each detail.
On the surviving original shield,
we can see slits for the stitches,
and we have one segment
where we've even got some
of the stitch surviving.
The preservation was so good,
even parts of the hazel rim running
around the edge of the bark
had survived.
Tiny slits show the rim
was stitched on.
But the team have to work out
exactly how that was done
through trial and error using
the same natural materials.
Now it's time to bend this hazel
because it's drying out in the sun.
It's good to bend this.
Yeah, you see, I was afraid
it would happen.
Yeah, it doesn't matter.
We just have to redo this, right?
It can be frustrating,
but experimental archaeology
is hugely valuable, helping
us understand how objects
like this shield were made and used.
You think you've got answers,
then you're like, "oh, well,
where did they put that stitch?
"How did they join that piece
of rim?
"How did they attach that?"
And it makes you study
the object so much better.
We don't know exactly where
all the stitches went.
So we've got only two.
They're really close together
and very far from the end.
So it's going to be really ugly.
But, well, that's what they did
and that's what we've got
to do as well.
So we can't go back to
the Iron Age and tell them,
"you shouldn't have done it
like that."
We're happy to follow
their methods.
One element of the design
that surprises everyone
is the shield boss.
This boss was made
like a small basket.
Willow rods were bound together
with thin strips of lime bark
and tiny holes show
where it was stitched on.
Most shields' bosses are made
of metal, even if the rest
of the shield is wood or hide.
So this is really quite exceptional.
And with the handle also stitched
onto the back, the structure
of the shield is complete.
Right, done.
Now the team will clamp the shield
so that it stays as flat as possible
while it dries out and hardens
over a few months.
It's really exciting to be able
to put these components together
and then see what the materials
do as they dry.
To find out how the experiment went
and what they've learned
about making a bark shield,
I've invited Matt and Sophie
to the Digging for Britain tent.
And they've brought all
of the prototypes they've made
along the way.
Some good, some not so good.
So what we've got here then
is a whole series
of experiments, trial and error,
trying to work out
how this was constructed.
I mean, I can see a couple
of prototypes, but how do you start?
I mean, presumably you start
with the materials?
Yes.
I guess the materials
were effectively
our kind of core elements.
We knew we'd got certain pieces,
we'd got the body, we'd got
the handle, we'd got the rim
and we'd got the boss.
And somehow we had to
articulate these things.
Remake them and put them together
and try and end up with a shield.
So what about this one here?
You've got the handle.
Almost looks like it's attached
to the outside there, which seems
a bit odd to me.
This piece illustrates really
clearly that the bark is inverted.
So this is a piece of willow bark
that hasn't been constrained
as it's dried. Right, yeah.
That then says that they were
forcing the shield
to actually invert.
So it's not even
just flattened bark.
It's bark that has been pushed
into an opposite, an inverse curve.
It's creating a tension
against itself. Yeah.
Which adds strength to it.
So this one looks a bit
more successful because it's flatter
than that, but it's still curving
that way.
You don't want that?
No, that's right.
It's not regular either.
So this one was just clamped
flat with some batons
and then allowed to dry.
And although it has stayed
much flatter than this one,
it's not got the kind
of shape that we want.
So that said, no, the way
that we've done that one
isn't quite right either.
Yeah.
And then this miniature prototype
here, I mean, that's showing us
that bark will dry in a very uneven
way if it's not constrained at all.
That absolutely shows that.
So, yeah, this piece has got edging
pieces effectively on the rim.
And the rim has stayed
fairly straight.
Yeah. But it hasn't got anything
across the body of the shield
and it's actually folded up.
Yeah.
Now there was something found
in the end of the shield
that we didn't understand,
and that was something called laths.
And they are small pieces
of applewood that are actually
within the body of the bark.
These images of the original shield
show the small strips of applewood,
which help the shield stay flat.
These are little pieces of wood
that are driven in like this?
That's right.
That's just to show the principle.
A piece of wood driven through
the bark does actually help it
to retain some sort of shape
as it dries.
But even there you can see
that it has successfully managed
to invert that curve of the bark.
Yeah.
And then we saw you working
on this final version,
and now it's ready.
It's dried out.
It's complete.
And you've got a boss there as well.
Yeah, that's a beautiful boss.
That looks so like the original.
Isn't that fantastic?
Brilliant. Yeah.
And it is really rigid.
It's really.
It's really firm.
And you think, oh, it's going to be
collapsible, but it's not at all.
Once you've got a well woven piece
of basket work, it's very solid.
It holds itself together.
And if one stitch got slightly
damaged, you know, you've got
all these other stitches
that will help hold it.
So we've got metal shields probably
around the same time as this.
Are they intrinsically better
than an organic version?
I don't think they're better.
I think they're different
with a recursion there.
It's a very agile shield.
It's very light.
It's extremely light
and manoeuvrable. Yeah.
And I think you could still actually
inflict some damage with that.
I mean, I'm not going to do it,
Matt, but you could still
damage somebody.
Yes, I think you could.
And how rare is it?
I mean, it's unique in Britain,
but do we see anything
like this in the rest of Europe?
Unique in the northern hemisphere.
In the northern hemisphere?
Really?
Yeah. That's extraordinary.
And that it's come to light in just
the last few years does give us
an idea of how much we're missing
in terms of that material culture
if we're not seeing
the organic material.
We dig for the gods
that leave no bones
For the ship that sailed
in the sunken sea
The vessel lost in the sky
and stones
The famine road
And the merchants keep ♪
Next, we make our way to the town
of St Neots,
20 miles west of Cambridge.
It's here that a team from Oxford
Archaeology are investigating
a fascinating cemetery.
When I heard about these
discoveries, I simply had to see
them for myself.
So I've hotfooted it here
and I'm hoping to see some
of this evidence emerging
out of the ground.
What we've got here are deviant
burials, strange burials.
What's particularly odd
about these ones
is that they've been decapitated.
But it's the way these burials
are laid out that's really curious.
Each body was placed in the grave
on its back with grave goods
buried alongside it.
But some of the skulls
are not where they should be.
Archaeologists call unusual burials
like this deviant or irregular.
And these ones all date
to the Roman period.
I've come to meet Stuart Ladd
to find out what's going on.
These are quite bizarre
burials, aren't they?
Yeah. Because very definitely,
the skull,
which should be at this end
of the grave
It's not in the right place, is it?
..is down at the feet.
Yeah. Yeah.
And actually buried with a piece
of pottery as well.
So it's a particular mode of burial
where the head is detached and moved
down to the feet and then a pot
is placed in the grave
up towards the head end?
Yeah.
And somehow this has got
to mean something? Yes.
It's easy to see a headless skeleton
and suspect foul play,
perhaps even an execution.
But the fact that these bodies seem
to have been carefully buried
with grave goods suggests something
else might have been happening here.
So tell me more about the site.
So we're on the edge of quite
a busy Roman rural settlement,
just on the corner of one
of their larger enclosures,
which first comes into use
in the late Iron Age.
But the ditches around it get recut
and recut and continues
into the Roman period.
So that means that we're on a site
which has got at least 1,000
years of history going from the
Iron Age into the Roman period.
Society in Roman Britain
was far from simple.
There were people whose ancestors
had lived here for centuries,
alongside others coming in
from all over Europe and beyond,
bringing their own cultures
and practices with them.
There's almost no such thing as a
normal burial from this time.
So your team are now moving on
to these other two burials.
I can see a skull in that one.
So is that in the right place?
Not exactly.
So it's their position
next to a leg bone.
And you can see the jaw
has actually been moved.
But this one's actually a bit
different in that we've had a little
bit of bone in the upper parts
of the field as we've gone down,
and so far, nothing is quite
in the right place.
So both of them,
we're about down to the level.
So we'll start to clean them up
and get a really good view
of where the bones are.
Great.
I can't wait to see what happens,
what emerges in these two burials.
As Harry and Ellie remove
the final layers of clay,
I can't just stand and watch.
I want to know who this person was
and why they were buried like this.
That's the age-old question.
Much worse survival.
The conditions aren't ideal
for digging, but have been great
for bone preservation.
If we can find evidence of cut marks
on the spine or skull,
it could tell us how the head was
removed and perhaps even if that was
the cause of death.
I'm going to be lazy now, Harry.
Can I pass you that?
Yes.
Thank you.
Thank you very much.
Little by little, this bizarre
burial is becoming clearer.
That's the second cervical vertebra.
This came from just here,
just in front of the skull.
Vertebra there.
Can't see any obvious cut marks
on that,
but it is covered in mud.
So, you know.
The heavy, sticky clay
makes it impossible to see
whether there are cut marks
on the spine.
But we may be able to tell
other things about this person
as more of their skeleton
is revealed.
What do you think's
going on here then?
Who do you think these people are?
I don't know.
I think maybe it's maybe different
family groups together.
Yeah. Yeah.
I've just got a few fragments here
from around the skull area,
the skull that was down below
the knees of this individual.
And there are some tantalising
clues about this person.
I can see how heavily worn
their teeth are.
And so this must have been an adult,
certainly.
And this is an extremely prominent
chin, a squared off prominent chin.
So it may be that we're looking
at an older man.
When this evidence is cleaned up,
we will get an even better insight
into who these people were
and perhaps even why
they were being buried in this way,
a way that we might describe
as deviant but was clearly
not deviant here.
It wasn't even irregular.
This is the mode of death
for everybody that has been found
so far on this site.
To us, it seems like such an odd
thing to do with a body -
to chop off the head and place it
at the feet.
But here it seems that this
may have just been the normal way
to bury someone.
And every newly discovered irregular
burial could bring us closer
to understanding why.
A huge medieval castle can give
any modern town or city
a real presence, a sense of identity
and heritage.
Even just a few fragments of turrets
and walls can lend a certain
romantic antique aura to a place.
But over centuries of change,
some once magnificent castles
have completely disappeared.
So what can be done when we know
that a city once had a castle,
but few traces of it remain?
Next, we're on the hunt
for a missing medieval
masterpiece, Sheffield Castle.
We know from historical records
that a famous medieval castle
where Mary, Oueen of Scots was once
held as a prisoner,
stood in the centre of the city.
But it was completely dismantled
after the Civil War in 1648.
And today there's absolutely
nothing on the surface
to show what it looked like.
Now the site's being redeveloped,
and it's giving a team
from Wessex Archaeology
the chance to investigate.
In 2018, trial excavations revealed
the remains of the castle itself.
But this year, they're trying
to find out about its moat.
We are doing geoarchaeological
and geotechnical boreholes.
Mili Rajic is leading the dig.
With that methodology
and approach,
we are trying to be as little
intrusive as possible and to gain
as much information as possible.
Borehole sampling like this can
provide a complete cross-section
of everything below ground.
So this is a sample taken vertically
down through the deposits,
what we call stratigraphy.
So the oldest deposits are down
at the bottom and it getting younger
as we get further towards
the surface.
Richard Payne is supervising
the drilling.
It's always a little bit exciting,
wondering what you're going to find.
So the borehole provides us
with a lot of information,
but only at that single point.
So what we need is a number
of boreholes spread across the site,
but they all need to go back
to the lab where we can get a much
better picture of what's going on.
Cat Jarman is visiting the lab
to see the results.
I've come here to meet
Dr Daniel Young, an expert
who has been studying these
boreholes from Sheffield,
and hopefully we can find
some trace of that lost moat.
Hey, Dan!
So this is it.
These are the course?
Yep. So this is borehole 14.
Excellent.
Well, let's have a look.
So lots of what looks like sandstone
rubble, as well as some brick
and other building materials.
Yes, this is brick with mortar
or something, isn't it?
So that's definite
building material. Yeah.
This what looks to me possibly
like what bits of the castle.
Excellent!
It's incredible to find traces
of the castle itself, but evidence
of the moat is much more subtle
and takes an expert eye to identify.
So this is completely different.
So you've got a tiny bit
of sandstone
and then it changes completely.
So, yeah, we've got this very fine
grained stuff here,
which is very different from this
layer above, and that's mostly
composed of probably clays
and silts, but with sort of various
pebbly and stony inclusions as well.
Yeah, because that feels
very clay to me.
It's like putty, isn't it?
Yeah.
Does that mean we've got water
possibly? Potentially.
What we have here with the very fine
grained clays, particularly
at the bottom, could be evidence
for sediments forming within water
that was within the moat.
So this is quite likely to be the
moat, if that's what it is?
Yeah, I think it is. Brilliant!
Dan has looked at a total of 49
samples from the site, and plotting
them on a map can give us
an idea of the size and shape
of Sheffield Castle's moat.
So how about this one
with our possible moat?
Where's that one from?
That's borehole 14,
which is just here. OK.
So quite far on that sort of
eastern side of the site?
That's right.
And these lines of boreholes here,
that's where you've essentially
chased the moat?
Yeah.
So this is a cross-section
across the site
with several boreholes now.
And from that information,
we can see that the moat cut
into the bedrock was about five
metres deep and probably at least
eight metres wide.
OK, so that's fantastic.
I love this because I mean,
there's nothing there at all.
But just from these sort of tiny,
really, cores, you got a really,
really good reconstruction.
Yeah.
And there's still more that these
boreholes can tell us as well.
So there's more information
to come from these.
It's all just hiding there,
just under the ground.
Using this data, the team can
reconstruct the castle's moat,
showing not only where it once
was, but also how it varied
in width and depth.
Piece by piece, the mighty
Sheffield Castle is being brought
back to life.
Many of our towns and cities
can be traced back to Roman
settlements, even to the Iron Age.
But others come along much later,
and our final dig
takes us to a city
with a surprisingly recent history.
Oxford.
The city began life as a
fortified settlement, protected
from intruders like the Vikings
in the early medieval period.
Little is known about Oxford
before its Anglo-Saxon beginnings.
But now, as part of a development
to make way for new student
accommodation, a team from Oxford
Archaeology has been given
the unique opportunity to dig down
and search for evidence
of what was here first
before the town.
In Oxford,
it's easy to imagine that
you're in an ancient city, but one
of the great pleasures of doing
excavations like this
is that you basically
are discovering new things.
Ben Ford is leading the dig.
The excavation here is located
in the heart of historic Oxford,
within what is thought to be
the earliest defended part
of the Anglo-Saxon town.
So we're right in the heart
of that depth of history.
As the team dig down,
they're finding a vast array
of medieval structures and finds.
We think it may have been
a stone-lined well originally.
Fairly well fitted,
so there's a bit of persuasion
to get rid of it.
What we just found here
is a nice hammered silver coin.
I found this nice, sizeable
bit of pot. We think it's medieval.
After only a few weeks of
excavation, the team make
a surprising discovery.
This reddish-colour soil here,
this is the soil that was
on the site from 10,000 years ago.
And it's been preserved
in this situation by what we think
is a Bronze Age monument.
They've stumbled on a Bronze Age
burial mound,
predating the Anglo Saxon settlement
of Oxford by thousands of years.
This is that big deposit of soil
that the mound is made from.
And you can see that there appear
to be phases of construction.
So here is a reddish soil
overlain with gravel.
And as we come around here,
we've got this level of charcoal.
And you can see that the soil
above the charcoal
is slightly darker than the soil
below the charcoal.
So we think that this is the primary
mound here
and that this charcoal
layer was created by some fire -
maybe a ritual-type ceremony
on this mound before
they then enlarged it.
The excavation of this mound
is really a unique opportunity.
It's the first time in Oxford
that such an earthwork
has been found.
With a burial mound,
you might expect a burial,
but, so far,
the team have only found scattered
fragments of human remains.
First, we had a very robust jawbone.
Then we got the other side
of the jawbone, a piece of skull,
some tibias, femurs, and a piece
of pelvis.
They weren't in an in-situ grave,
but we think that those human
remains come from a burial
associated with the Bronze
Age burial mound.
Could the human remains found here
be one of Oxford's earliest
residents?
To find out, I've invited Ben
and osteologist Lauren McIntyre
to the Digging For Britain tent,
and they've brought some
of their best discoveries ranging
across the eras in Oxford.
Right, then, Ben, what do
the finds from the site tell us
about life in Oxford?
They tell us quite a lot.
There's a ceramic whistle.
Yeah. Who knows what tunes would
have been played for it?
Yeah. A gaming piece.
So we've got a whistle
and the gaming piece telling us
a little bit about what they're
doing in their free time.
Yeah. And this is a decorated
piece of window glass.
Isn't that gorgeous? That's painted.
Yeah.
And this is a remarkable find
from a large jug which would be held
next to the table so people
could wash their hands.
Yeah? And it's in the shape
of a stag.
It's so beautiful, isn't it?
It's really decorative.
So this is the head of
the stag, just here.
Yeah. That's where you're going to pour
the water. Exactly. That's fantastic. Yes.
It's high quality.
Yeah.
So you've got this very complex
urban site,
lots of different layers.
But what we've got at the base
of it is this Bronze Age mound
with what looks like redeposited
human remains in it.
So, Lauren, tell us what you can say
about these human bones,
then, from the site. OK.
So the bones were found
in two separate pits.
But when we look at the fragments,
we can actually piece them
all together
and we know that
they're all from the same person.
So did these two pieces of femur
come from different contexts?
Yes. Yeah.
You can see that they fit together
really nicely. Yeah, they do.
Yeah. There we go.
So that's definitely from one
individual.
And what else can you tell
about this individual in terms
of age and sex of that person?
So there's not a huge amount of
evidence to go on, as you can see,
because there's not very much bone.
But, looking at the various bits
of the pelvis,
you can see that sciatic notch is
quite narrow.
That's a good indicator we're
looking at a male. Yeah.
Then, also, around the forehead
as well,
like the brow ridge is
quite pronounced,
and that's a good indicator that
we're looking at a male, as well.
OK. So are these bones Bronze Age?
Is this a Bronze Age burial
that's been disturbed
in later times?
Well, we thought that on site.
Yeah. But we weren't sure.
So we took these samples here
and sent them off for carbon dating.
Yeah? It turns out that it's
a mid -Saxon burial. Really?
So this date comes back
as 770 to 930.
OK. So that's 3,000 years later
than the mound is constructed.
Yeah. So this is a Saxon burial
that's inserted into a mound
that is already very ancient
at the time.
Exactly. So our assumption is we've
got a landscape of a huge number
of prehistoric burial monuments
and those burial monuments seem
to have become a focus
for mid -Saxon activity. Yeah.
I mean, he's buried at a time
when there's not really any kind
of settlement that we can say
is Oxford at that point.
Yeah. The town is imposed
into that landscape at a later date.
These finds come from 150, 100
years later
than this chap's buried,
next to the mound.
So there's a very significant
change at that point -
in those 100, 150 years. Yeah.
So from this one site, we've just
got a fantastic glimpse
of the layers and layers
and layers through history. Yeah.
Next time on Digging For Britain,
divers hunt down the identity
of a ship sunk
with valuable cargo,
but also weapons.
We've got cannons.
We've got big cannons.
And a massive army camp proves
the Roman legions
did march deep into Cornwall.
It's really quite impressive
to go, "We're Rome. This is it."
And I'm there as archaeologists
try to reveal the secrets
of a mysterious underground chamber.
It's weird. What is it?
I mean, that's the big question.