Mystery of the Moor

This is the story of what may be

the most important archaeological find ever on Dartmoor.

I've worked on Dartmoor for over 20 years

and never would have anticipated getting anything like this.

The moor has kept its secrets well.

But now I'm on the trail of the discovery of a 4,000-year-old tomb

that's rewriting the history books.

This sort of find is truly exceptional -

they don't come along even every decade, every 100 years.

-There we are, going to pour it into this mould.

-Whoa! Look at that.

-There we are.

-Fabulous.

As a team of archaeologists and craftsmen seek to understand

these unique finds by creating detailed replicas...

That's really marvellous, cos we've ended up with a product

that's very, very similar to the originals.

..we reveal just how magnificent

these artefacts would have been when new,

and what they tell us that the people who made them...

-Amazing.

-That is beautiful.

..as we seek to unravel the Mystery of the Moor.

If it's Bronze Age Britain you're after,

then this is the place to come.

Because beyond this woodland is the finest relic

we have of this ancient landscape.

Dartmoor has the finest preserved Bronze Age landscape,

not only in Britain, but in the whole of Europe.

Come to the high moor and you'll find enigmatic stone rows

and cosmically-aligned standing stones,

the purpose of which we can only guess.

But what we do know is that just over 4,000 years ago,

there was a technological and cultural revolution

with Dartmoor right at the heart.

There were more than 5,000 of these hut circles

showing a vibrant community living and working on the moor.

Despite this, discoveries of artefacts on the moor

have been few and far between.

A combination of the acidic nature of the soil

and grave-robbing have left us few significant finds.

Until now.

The chance discovery of a buried cist or stone box

on White Horse Hill, high on the Northern moor,

is giving us a glimpse into the ancient past.

The cist had been untouched for nearly 4,000 years,

until 2011, when archaeologists from the National Park

levered off the lid.

What they found astonished them -

organic remains very rare in the harsh conditions of Dartmoor.

They found a cremation wrapped in an animal pelt,

and containing a delicate bracelet studded with tin beads,

a textile fragment with detailed leather fringing,

and a unique coiled bag, scans of which reveal more treasures within.

The story of the discovery is a tale of good fortune.

Guiding me to the location is Jane Marchand,

Dartmoor National Park's chief archaeologist.

Half an hour in the car, half an hour walk,

one of the most remote places in England.

Jane, it's not Stonehenge, is it?

I have to admit, I'm slightly underwhelmed.

I'm sorry about that,

but actually what we've got here is visibly maybe not as impressive

as Stonehenge, but archaeologically it's just as important.

-It's what's underneath...

-It's what it contained, yeah.

So, what happened? How did this become revealed, then?

One of those stones actually fell out.

Somebody reported to us that they'd thought they'd found

this cist up here, came up to have a look, thinking,

"They must be..." You know, "They're making it up."

Couldn't believe it when we saw it.

But seeing that it still had its lid on it,

there was just the chance that there might be still

something contained within it.

Of course, those stones on top are nothing to do with it.

They're nothing to do with it. No, they're just walkers' cairns.

And this is the first time that any organic remains

-have been found on Dartmoor.

-It is.

So, come on, tell me how you were feeling when you actually found it.

It must've been astonishing.

It was incredibly exciting.

As we lifted it up, very carefully, a bead fell out.

And the thrill of realising, "Actually, this is a proper burial."

This is a bead that belonged to the burial.

But unfortunately we don't know who this person was.

Only that they were a young man or woman.

To think of the scene that must have been going on here

almost 4,000 years ago, and the most exciting thing of all -

the journey of discovery has only just begun.

There.

'And in December 2012, that journey started.'

I just really want it to be, so I may be thinking...

That's the second bit I've seen.

Jane's come to the Wiltshire Conservation lab,

where they're hoping to reveal the secrets of that coiled bag.

..wishful thinking, but we were thinking that might be

remains of mineralised thread, because you see the way

-it's kind of going through the perforation in the middle...

-Yeah.

Today, it's conservator Helen Williams' job

to delicately remove the contents for the first time

in nearly 4,000 years.

The level of preservation we've got is amazing,

so to find an object like this, with contents still intact, is fantastic.

It is a very exciting day,

and, hopefully, it's all going to go well.

So I'll have a look and see what we've got.

'It's painstaking work looking for and then removing bead after bead.

'To put this in context,

'just eight beads have been found on Dartmoor in the last 100 years.'

It's getting better by the minute, certainly.

OK.

'But then something altogether more unusual.'

Well, it's a round object - sort of about that size.

It's got two slightly domed surfaces,

it almost looks like a very small yo-yo.

It would have been worn, sort of, in the ear.

Absolutely extraordinary.

I don't remember studs being recorded

in any other excavation from this period.

That's one there, I'm sure.

That excavation was carried out nearly a year ago,

and since then leading archaeologists

from across the country have been coming here to Wiltshire

to examine the finds.

They're eager to work out what clues those objects hold to the lives

of our ancestors, and hopefully in here are some of the answers.

It's a year since our cameras have been here.

Helen, I have to say, it looks like you've been incredibly busy.

All of a sudden, they're looking fantastic.

Yeah, it's been quite a year, actually.

We've had a whole range of different materials

and objects to work on, so it's been fantastic.

As a natural historian, I have to say I'm fascinated,

of course, with animals, and the pelt is astonishing.

Yeah, we are waiting hopefully to get some DNA results through,

so we can identify what animal it might have come from.

So that's the kind of key bit of mystery we're still trying to unravel

with this one at the moment.

'Organic finds are incredibly rare, as the material usually rots away.'

That for me is the most interesting find,

but that, I have to say, is so impressive.

A year ago, that kind of looked like a cowpat, didn't it?

-It's changed quite a bit.

-So much detail.

Yes, yeah, this has been freeze-dried now.

Considering it's 4,000 years old, I have to say it's astonishing.

"Amazing" doesn't really do them justice, I don't think.

We've got the most extraordinary assortment of finds.

We've got things like the tin, we've got the tin bead,

we've got the tin studs on the bracelet,

and this is the first hard evidence we've got suggesting

that Bronze Age people were actually working tin on Dartmoor.

'In fact, it's the earliest evidence of tin

'ever found in the Southwest.

'But even more remarkable are the organic finds,

'and in particular the wooden ear studs.'

Well, these look absolutely...

-Do you mind if I pick it up?

-Absolutely.

-Divine.

The most astonishing thing is, we think these are the ear studs,

is that you can actually see the annual growth rings on this.

You can almost say that is an ear stud taken from a piece of wood

that was maybe six or seven years old, at least.

-Any idea what type of wood?

-We think that's spindle wood.

I have to say that they look just a glorious collection.

It's really revealing life about this person.

It's kind of tantalising and exciting in equal measure,

-isn't it, Jane?

-It is, absolutely.

Is there any way you can take these objects to learn even more?

That would be great because we've got 200 beads,

but we don't actually know how they were worn,

whether they were just one great necklace.

Certainly the bracelet, you've seen the intricate working,

wonderful weaving around the tin studs.

Whether we could actually try and get someone to replicate that,

I just don't know.

I mean, wouldn't it be fantastic if we could try

and actually see if we can make them today?

I think you're throwing down the gauntlet here, Jane.

I just might be.

It's called experimental archaeology.

I like a challenge.

These finds are a wonderful insight into the people who lived

in this landscape 4,000 years ago.

'A direct link to what one person actually wore and what their friends

'and family believed they would need on their journey

'into the afterlife.'

So I've decided to recreate some of the grave goods

to find out, by remaking them, what we can learn from the past.

Basically, I need a panel of experts.

Someone to work wood, weave hair, carve amber, cut shale,

smelt tin, and then fashion it into the incredibly exquisite jewellery

of the day. All as they would have done in the Bronze Age.

How difficult can that be?

First on my list is Britain's foremost Bronze Age expert,

President of the Prehistoric Society

and the perfect person to help me with my challenge - Alison Sheridan.

I think what really makes it special for me is you've got tin.

You've got tin beads and tin studs. This is incredibly rare.

Why was tin so important and such a revelatory find?

Well, tin is really what the Southwest Bronze Age was all about.

Because here you have one of the largest natural deposits of tin

-in the whole of Europe.

-So what do we know about the person with the bead?

Well, the person had been cremated and the bone specialists

have been able to say it was an individual between 15 and 25,

so it's a young adult.

Unfortunately, they couldn't tell the sex,

but they said that the bones were quite slender

and on the basis of the things that have been found in the cist,

I'd bet you 95% probability it was a woman.

-So, it's a young woman.

-Well, there we go, a woman.

And potentially with all these finds, as well,

a priestess or a princess of Dartmoor.

Yes, very, very high status. And it wasn't just the one tin bead.

It was part of a necklace

and, in fact, she was buried with an entire set of jewellery.

So, in modern parlance, she was really quite blinged-up.

Oh, totally blinged-up, yeah.

They have complicated beliefs, so this necklace

wasn't just something that was beautiful or showing her status.

It was supernatural power dressing.

These people had a very sophisticated set of religious beliefs.

It's a very dramatic landscape,

it's close to the world of the gods and the ancestors.

You've got the big sky.

We know that they had a very close interest

in the movement of the planets, the sun and the moon

and the stars, as well. And you can see from the stone rows,

they are creating their own landscapes, as well.

-So, spiritual people.

-Very spiritual people, indeed.

Could this find really be that of a tin princess?

Was she the leader of a people who were beginning

to play a central role

in the most important technological revolution to date?

To understand what was at the heart of that revolution,

and to get the tin in order to make those replica studs and beads,

I'm going to need a man with fire.

I'm presuming this must be what a Bronze Age smelt

-must have looked like 4,000 years ago on Dartmoor.

-Exactly.

I mean, all it is is a hole cut into the turf,

and it's only about that deep.

The air is coming under the turf

in a little pipe from where Dan is using these bellows,

so he's just trapping the air,

pushing the air through this pipe and we've got about,

maybe getting up to 1,100 degrees centigrade

under those charcoal embers there.

These bellows are very effective.

It's really cranking the fire now, and the charcoal is burning well

and the heat's rising and that's exactly what we need to smelt.

Simon now needs to put cassiterite, or tin ore, into the crucible

before that's heated in the fire to produce our tin.

So, 4,000 years ago, the people who must have made tin

by smelting like this were considered magicians.

It really is a magical metal,

because here you're having it used as ornaments,

as a sort of status object in a burial.

But also this is the ingredient of that technological change

which goes from the Copper Age into the Bronze Age

to make harder, more versatile, easier to cast,

more complex casting tools.

-Right, Simon, the moment has come.

-The moment has come, yeah.

Wow, the heat coming off that is astonishing!

Here we are, that's the top of the crucible there.

The first time this has been done for thousands of years...

on Dartmoor. Terribly exciting.

-There we are.

-Look at that!

-That's the crucible.

-Fabulous.

That's the lid off. There we are, going to pour it into this mould.

Whoa, look at that! Fabulous!

We've got a nice, little ingot of tin there.

Maybe another little ingot there. A little bead.

-Look at that.

-There we are.

There we go. That is absolutely fantastic.

That is tin from the Southwest made, for the record, in Dartmoor.

That, gentlemen, is a result.

Chuffed to bits.

4,000 years ago, this ingot of tin would have put the Southwest

right at the heart of the European Bronze Age,

bringing with it power, wealth and prestige.

No wonder they wanted to make jewellery out of it.

-Jamie, nice to meet you, sir.

-Hello.

Look at this.

That is tin made on Dartmoor this morning.

What do you think?

Well, looks a lot better than I'd thought it might be.

Looks just as good as the Cornish tin I'd been using in practice runs,

so, yeah, well done.

What's the technique to turn that into the bead

that was found on the Dartmoor cist?

What I'll do is just hammer that out,

make a big sheet and then chop my oblong shape out.

And then try bending.

I want that, the surface, to just roll over and to such an extent

that you shouldn't be able to see the seam at all.

So, I would have thought that's more or less it.

Jamie, I have to say, it's taken, by my reckoning,

about an hour and ten minutes for you to turn a chunk of tin

into that absolutely fabulous bead,

which would be the proud centrepiece of any necklace.

Well, thanks.

It looks like the studs for the bracelet were even more tricky,

because they're tiny.

How on earth do you go about making something as small as that?

Cutting them off a length of rod,

putting them in a bit of stick with a hole drilled in

and filing and polishing from there.

'Watching Jamie brings home how skilled those early tinsmiths

'must have been and just how advanced their society was.

'Creating just one of the studs is a tall order.'

-We need 35 studs.

-Don't I know it?

And how have you got on?

Yeah, well, I've done them, and I'm pleased with them.

The sooner you can polish them, the sooner I can take them away.

Because I know a lady who's very keen to do a job

-equally as demanding and intricate as you.

-Yes, I hear.

They're going into this lovely bracelet.

Great, well, I'll look forward to seeing that.

The bracelet. Surely the most intricate of all our artefacts.

We know it's woven from animal hair and to try and create a replica,

I've recruited Linda Hurcombe,

a materials culture archaeologist from Exeter University.

This sort of find is truly exceptional.

They don't come along even every decade, every 100 years.

The bracelet is unique.

I mean, I specialise in organic remains

and the joke is that I look at what isn't there, normally.

Here, it IS there, and it's fantastic

to have a chance to really look at something and try and replicate it.

And putting those beside the bracelet that I've started to weave

for the first time, they're going to work exactly right,

and in keeping with the archaeological piece. That's great.

It's very fiddly.

There's a rhythm to it, as there is with most weaving and plaiting.

It looks so difficult. So you're trying technique number two, Linda.

And until you tension it, it's not going to...

..pull that and lock it in.

So maybe it might work better... Ah!

Back to the drawing board, I think.

Ah! I think you can pick up the bead?

By my reckoning,

Linda's been working now for about just under half an hour.

And she hasn't even put the first stud in. She's only got 35 to go.

LINDA CHUCKLES

It's going to take a while, isn't it?

Well, Linda's first two techniques have failed miserably.

So method number three is a set of watchmakers' forceps

with a stud in, and two people. I'm going to be her assistant.

I'm going to put it underneath and you are going to try...

-I'm going to try with the...

-Tease it out.

It looks like it's just easing apart those horsehairs.

-Is it through yet? I can't quite see.

-Not quite, not quite.

Shall I take the tweezers out?

-It's done.

-Let's have a look.

-It's done.

-You've got it.

-Yeah, it's in.

-Congratulations.

-If at first, you don't succeed...

-Try and try and try.

..try and try again.

-Wow, that looks beautiful in there, as well.

-It does, doesn't it?

-Pleased?

-Very.

-It's going to be a bit easier, now you've got a good technique.

-Yes.

I'm just going to need you to stay there for a while, I think.

-For the next week!

-Yes!

34 more beads to go.

It's going to be a challenge,

but that doesn't mean to say it won't get done.

-All I can say, Linda, is the very best of luck.

-Thank you.

18th-century investigators called these people aborigines.

But what I'm learning is that they were, in fact, highly skilled,

immensely sophisticated and spiritual folk,

totally in touch with their landscape.

But when our princess walked this land, it looked very different.

We know it was heavily wooded with oak and hazel

and that these raw materials formed the basis of their lives,

their buildings, their tools and their jewellery.

But very little of this organic material has survived

and it's what makes our next find - the ear studs - so special.

They're made from the wood of the spindle tree

and I've a piece freshly-cut from a Dartmoor hedgerow

ready for our next task.

Can I introduce you, Stuart...

Stuart King, master carpenter, has agreed to help.

So before you put it onto the lathe, you're going to

-have to do some fashioning and some whittling?

-Quite a bit, yes.

-Can we leave that with you?

-Yeah, I'll go off and do some work.

-We'll discuss ear studs.

-OK, see you later.

Fabulous, see you later, Stuart.

Tell me why this find is so special.

Wooden finds like this are extremely rare.

They're probably the earliest evidence

for turning of wood from the UK.

The earliest in the UK, ever?!

It's basically pushed back our evidence for wood turning in the UK

half a millennium, 500 years.

-That's nicely whittled.

-Yeah, basically...

I need someone to do that.

-OK, long strokes.

-Yeah.

Go on, then, that's it.

Isn't that brilliant? What do you think, Richard?

That looks really good, it's very simple technology,

there's no reason why they couldn't have use something like that.

-Here's an original bronze tool just to prove...

-There we go.

It's slower, but it will work.

Doesn't really get any better than this, does it?

Dartmoor spindle, Bronze Age hut circle in the background,

ancient techniques...

..and very effective as well.

Lovely razzle of the tool,

which must have echoed all over Dartmoor at one time.

I like the picture you're painting.

HE LAUGHS

-That's pretty well good enough, I think.

-So smooth inside as well.

Yeah, and that's straight from the tool.

Now we remove that from the lathe.

It is giving a very similar finish to that on the originals.

Just like a 4,000-year-old Stanley knife.

What we can do now...

is...

LAUGHTER

-Break that off there.

-As if by magic.

-Just tidy up the other side.

There we are, finished.

There we have a spindle ear stud or labret.

Now, Richard, how similar do you think it is and what do you

think of this fantastic process we've gone through?

I think that's marvellous because we've ended up with

a product that's very, very similar to the originals.

And you've shown that a skilled person using very simple technology

and bronze tools can make them.

So that's wonderful.

Well, my journey is nearly at an end

and I'm ready to bring all our efforts together.

From smelting tin on Dartmoor

and working it into a beautiful bead and studs,

to our painstaking bracelet weaving.

And, let's not forget our wood turning.

Alison just needs to string the necklace

incorporating our tin bead and then I can dress our model.

Claire, you look fabulous.

Right, it's time to show the results to our expectant team.

Folks, follow me.

We have a lovely model called Claire here. Come round.

MUFFLED VOICES

-That is beautiful.

-It's so detailed, isn't it?

-That's wonderful.

Jane, what's it like to see our lovely model Claire

-in all her glory?

-It's wonderful. Really, it's incredible.

-And how many hours did you go into making this, Linda?

-A lot!

-I lost count.

-Fantastic.

When I started to put them all in and it was coming out in a row,

I thought, "This has got real sparkle to it."

It's maybe a piece of jewellery that does two things, one up close

and one from a distance.

And the interesting thing as well, Alison, the colour

of the beads just directs your eye

towards the amber and then...the tin.

Yes, it's just great. Bling!

Jane, the ear studs?

Absolutely extraordinary. Beautiful.

-Actually, they look very attractive - would you buy a pair?

-Yes, I would.

You look beautiful, really beautiful.

And, Alison, of course, you are a kind of Bronze Age jewellery expert,

if there could possibly be one.

Is it like stepping back in time?

Oh absolutely, I mean, this brings it absolutely to life.

Yes, it's fantastic.

It's only when you string them up together and you think,

"Wow, this is an amazing piece of jewellery."

And seeing them against the skin, that makes all the difference.

Actually, I'm lost for words. It looks wonderful.

Thank you very much, guys.

-What a wonderful project and quite fabulous result.

-Yes.

In remaking these wonderful objects,

I had no idea how hard it would be or how much we would learn.

It's given me a vivid insight into how incredibly skilled these

ancient craftspeople were.

And, how sophisticated their society must have been.

Perhaps most important of all, the beauty

and obvious value of the grave goods,

show the respect our ancient forebears had for their dead.