0:00:01 > 0:00:05Britain is a land rich in ancient history.
0:00:08 > 0:00:11Many of the world's greatest Stone Age monuments
0:00:11 > 0:00:13are spread right across our countryside.
0:00:15 > 0:00:19But right now, a brand new discovery could rival anything
0:00:19 > 0:00:21we have from our distant past.
0:00:21 > 0:00:24It's the discovery of a lifetime,
0:00:24 > 0:00:26unlike anything I've ever seen before.
0:00:26 > 0:00:31The excavation of a vast network of buildings on Orkney
0:00:31 > 0:00:34is allowing us to recreate an entire Stone Age world.
0:00:38 > 0:00:41And 5,000-year-old finds are opening a window
0:00:41 > 0:00:44onto the mysteries of Neolithic religion...
0:00:46 > 0:00:50..and giving rare glimpses into our human imagination.
0:00:52 > 0:00:55The archaeologists believe they've found nothing less
0:00:55 > 0:00:57than a temple complex.
0:00:59 > 0:01:02This may have been the portal between life and death.
0:01:02 > 0:01:06The place where the two worlds met.
0:01:06 > 0:01:08The Orkney discovery could even explain
0:01:08 > 0:01:12the creation of the most iconic ancient monument of them all.
0:01:12 > 0:01:16It's just breathtaking to think that it turns the map of Britain
0:01:16 > 0:01:18through 180 degrees.
0:01:18 > 0:01:21- The heartland's at the other end. - Yes.
0:01:22 > 0:01:26This is the story of the most important Neolithic excavation
0:01:26 > 0:01:28taking place in Britain today.
0:01:29 > 0:01:33An excavation that's giving new insights
0:01:33 > 0:01:36into one of the greatest questions in the whole of ancient history.
0:01:38 > 0:01:40Just what did our Neolithic ancestors
0:01:40 > 0:01:42believe about their world,
0:01:42 > 0:01:45about life,
0:01:45 > 0:01:46and the cosmos?
0:02:02 > 0:02:04Orkney is a land on the edge of the world.
0:02:04 > 0:02:09Scotland and the rest of Britain are away in that direction to the south.
0:02:09 > 0:02:12Out there, nothing but the cold emptiness of the North Atlantic.
0:02:16 > 0:02:20The locals call Orkney a place between the wind and the water
0:02:20 > 0:02:24and standing here today, you get an idea of why.
0:02:35 > 0:02:38Over 5,000 years ago, to the north of mainland Britain,
0:02:38 > 0:02:42the islands of Orkney were home to a thriving community.
0:02:44 > 0:02:47Neolithic people who created some of the most
0:02:47 > 0:02:51remarkable monuments in all of prehistory.
0:02:53 > 0:02:56These islands are home to the towering Stones of Stenness,
0:02:56 > 0:03:00the remains of one of the earliest stone circles in the world.
0:03:05 > 0:03:09And just a mile to the north, the Ring of Brodgar,
0:03:10 > 0:03:12one of the largest.
0:03:15 > 0:03:17It's over 100 metres across
0:03:17 > 0:03:20and while there are 21 stones standing today,
0:03:20 > 0:03:23in its original form there would have been as many as 60.
0:03:23 > 0:03:27It's been estimated that it would have taken 100 men
0:03:27 > 0:03:31six months just to cut the ditch.
0:03:31 > 0:03:33This is on an epic scale.
0:03:36 > 0:03:38Nearby is Skara Brae.
0:03:40 > 0:03:43A group of incredibly preserved houses
0:03:43 > 0:03:47inhabited by Neolithic farmers 5,000 years ago.
0:03:51 > 0:03:52Right.
0:03:53 > 0:03:56This is the inside of one of the houses.
0:03:56 > 0:04:00What you notice right away is a big square hearth for a big roaring fire.
0:04:00 > 0:04:03These are bed recesses,
0:04:03 > 0:04:06places where people would have laid out their bedding.
0:04:07 > 0:04:09Places like this are magical.
0:04:09 > 0:04:14Conjuring up the distant world of the Neolithic before our eyes.
0:04:16 > 0:04:20You can almost hear the echoes of voices,
0:04:20 > 0:04:23smell the embers of fires,
0:04:23 > 0:04:26almost touch those ancient lives.
0:04:32 > 0:04:35But yet another site reveals what happened
0:04:35 > 0:04:37to a few of them when they died.
0:04:40 > 0:04:44Maeshowe is one of the finest passage tombs ever constructed.
0:04:49 > 0:04:50Fantastic.
0:04:50 > 0:04:54Already you get the sense that you've left one world behind
0:04:54 > 0:04:57and come somewhere different.
0:04:57 > 0:05:02Right away you notice the similarity between the interior of this tomb
0:05:02 > 0:05:05and the interior of the houses in Skara Brae.
0:05:07 > 0:05:12Over here, a recess, similar to a bed,
0:05:12 > 0:05:18but the people put in there are having a much, much deeper sleep.
0:05:22 > 0:05:25But today a new discovery on Orkney
0:05:25 > 0:05:28could prove to be the most evocative of all.
0:05:28 > 0:05:31A place that helps us to really feel
0:05:31 > 0:05:34what the people who once lived here actually believed.
0:05:36 > 0:05:40It lies between two lochs on a narrow spit of land called
0:05:40 > 0:05:43The Ness of Brodgar.
0:05:43 > 0:05:46What the archaeologists have unearthed is extraordinary.
0:05:46 > 0:05:51Walls and doorways of buildings preserved after 5,000 years.
0:05:51 > 0:05:57What's particularly exciting is that so much remains to be discovered.
0:05:57 > 0:06:01I could just get in there myself and start digging it up.
0:06:01 > 0:06:04Is there still stone to come out of there or can we...?
0:06:04 > 0:06:07You can come and have a scrape, just all of this material.
0:06:07 > 0:06:10Hopefully this is going to be the entrance.
0:06:12 > 0:06:15How does this rate for you as an archaeologist, working here?
0:06:15 > 0:06:17It's amazing.
0:06:17 > 0:06:20There's not many buildings in Orkney today on this sort of scale
0:06:20 > 0:06:26which gives you an indication of how much it would have dominated the landscape in the Neolithic.
0:06:31 > 0:06:33Look at that.
0:06:33 > 0:06:37- What's that?- Whale tooth. Whale ivory.
0:06:37 > 0:06:42Since 2008, archaeologists have been slowly stripping away
0:06:42 > 0:06:44- the layers of history...- Well done.
0:06:44 > 0:06:48..under the watchful eye of site director, Nick Card.
0:06:52 > 0:06:55This whalebone mace head has been shaped,
0:06:55 > 0:06:57there's a kind of curvature to it.
0:06:57 > 0:07:01We need to get this out as quickly as possible for conservation.
0:07:03 > 0:07:10It's always a bit nerve wracking when you're dealing with something 5000 years old that might be unique.
0:07:10 > 0:07:12Things can go wrong.
0:07:15 > 0:07:18Right, here we go.
0:07:22 > 0:07:24WHISPERS: Well done.
0:07:24 > 0:07:26Well done.
0:07:26 > 0:07:28WHISTLE Just like that.
0:07:31 > 0:07:34With precious objects appearing everyday
0:07:34 > 0:07:37the Ness of Brodgar has become a must-see stop
0:07:37 > 0:07:42on the tour of Orkney's prehistoric past.
0:07:42 > 0:07:44It's probably a whalebone mace head.
0:07:44 > 0:07:46A very unusual object.
0:07:46 > 0:07:49You should all feel very privileged to see this.
0:07:50 > 0:07:54Was there a day early on when you realised
0:07:54 > 0:07:58possibly, what you had got your hands on here?
0:07:58 > 0:08:00That this was something unusual?
0:08:00 > 0:08:03It's an archaeologist's dream site.
0:08:03 > 0:08:06The excitement of this site just never fades.
0:08:06 > 0:08:11There's nothing else like it in the prehistory of North Europe.
0:08:11 > 0:08:13It's more like a site you'd find in Middle East
0:08:13 > 0:08:16or the classical Mediterranean world. This site is a one-off.
0:08:16 > 0:08:20So right up there with the Aveburys and Stonehenges?
0:08:20 > 0:08:24Er, possibly above them.
0:08:27 > 0:08:30Only one place in Britain can rival Orkney
0:08:30 > 0:08:32for its Neolithic monuments -
0:08:36 > 0:08:40The Wessex landscape of Avebury and Stonehenge,
0:08:40 > 0:08:44600 miles to the south.
0:08:50 > 0:08:54For a long time, this was thought to be the centre of Neolithic culture
0:08:54 > 0:08:58but the Orkney discovery could change everything.
0:09:09 > 0:09:14The Ness of Brodgar site is revealing an entire complex of ancient buildings,
0:09:14 > 0:09:17directly between the two ancient stone circles
0:09:17 > 0:09:20and within sight of the passage tomb of Maeshowe.
0:09:25 > 0:09:28Experts are just coming to terms with what this new discovery
0:09:28 > 0:09:32might mean for our understanding of the Stone Age.
0:09:32 > 0:09:34It just blows your mind really
0:09:34 > 0:09:38because it's providing us with structures that are bigger
0:09:38 > 0:09:40than any other structures we've seen before.
0:09:40 > 0:09:43It's posing all sorts of questions.
0:09:43 > 0:09:46It clearly wasn't an ordinary domestic site.
0:09:46 > 0:09:48How does it relate to the other monuments
0:09:48 > 0:09:50Maeshowe and the Stones of Stenness?
0:09:53 > 0:09:57The Ness of Brodgar is definitely of international importance.
0:09:57 > 0:10:02It's characterised by architectures we don't see on this scale.
0:10:02 > 0:10:07The chance to dig, or to work on, or explore buildings in three dimension
0:10:07 > 0:10:10is almost unparalleled.
0:10:12 > 0:10:13But there's more.
0:10:13 > 0:10:17Because so far archaeologists have only dug a small part of the site.
0:10:22 > 0:10:25Geophysics has detected up to 100 separate structures
0:10:25 > 0:10:27that remain hidden.
0:10:28 > 0:10:31A vast area of undisturbed archaeology.
0:10:33 > 0:10:36Nick, can you give me an overview,
0:10:36 > 0:10:39just describe to me what we're looking at?
0:10:39 > 0:10:42What you're looking at is really a tiny percentage
0:10:42 > 0:10:43of the scale of the site.
0:10:43 > 0:10:48The site basically covers almost 250 metres by 100 metres wide,
0:10:48 > 0:10:51five football pitches, so what we're excavating
0:10:51 > 0:10:55is only probably less than ten percent of the whole site.
0:10:55 > 0:10:59So there's buried archaeology everywhere on this promontory.
0:10:59 > 0:11:02Everywhere I think, you know, this whole promontory
0:11:02 > 0:11:04is just chock-a-block with archaeology.
0:11:07 > 0:11:09So just what was this place?
0:11:09 > 0:11:13Why did the community of Orkney go to such trouble to create it?
0:11:15 > 0:11:17And what was it used for?
0:11:21 > 0:11:25Of all the unknown structures detected by the geophysics,
0:11:25 > 0:11:28huge features at either end of the site,
0:11:28 > 0:11:32across the width of the promontory were particularly intriguing.
0:11:34 > 0:11:37A separate trench was dug to investigate them.
0:11:37 > 0:11:41This promontory doesn't just contain buildings.
0:11:41 > 0:11:43There's something else going on here.
0:11:43 > 0:11:46It's unique. You won't see it anywhere else in Britain.
0:11:48 > 0:11:53This is what the archaeologists are calling the lesser wall of Brodgar.
0:11:53 > 0:11:54It's two metres wide.
0:11:54 > 0:11:57It's called the lesser wall because there's another one
0:11:57 > 0:12:01on the other side of the site towards the north.
0:12:01 > 0:12:04It's bigger. That's the great wall of Brodgar.
0:12:06 > 0:12:09Prehistoric walls this big have never been found before.
0:12:11 > 0:12:14It's thought they once stood at over ten feet,
0:12:14 > 0:12:18too great to be domestic, or even defensive.
0:12:18 > 0:12:20So what were they?
0:12:25 > 0:12:28To find out, the geophysics team made a more detailed survey.
0:12:32 > 0:12:37Stones, rocks, bricks all have their own little magnetic signature.
0:12:37 > 0:12:39We collect all this data
0:12:39 > 0:12:43and then process it to produce a map of what's beneath the soil.
0:12:43 > 0:12:49Tracking the line of the wall underground provided an answer.
0:12:49 > 0:12:54What we were trying to do is define how far that wall actually extended.
0:12:54 > 0:12:57With this extra high resolution you can actually see
0:12:57 > 0:13:01that it does curve round and continue into where they're excavating,
0:13:01 > 0:13:03where they're excavating is up here at top.
0:13:03 > 0:13:08That's good news for Nick and his crew because it means the wall is a continuation.
0:13:11 > 0:13:15So the buried walls were in fact a single structure,
0:13:15 > 0:13:18a perimeter of monumental proportions.
0:13:19 > 0:13:22In places, up to 12 feet wide.
0:13:23 > 0:13:26Built from almost 10,000 tonnes of quarried rock.
0:13:28 > 0:13:32All to hide and protect the complex of buildings within.
0:13:38 > 0:13:43I know it's putting you on the spot to ask a question like this at this time,
0:13:43 > 0:13:48but how would you interpret what you're seeing just now?
0:13:48 > 0:13:51Well, I think to begin with it was being viewed at,
0:13:51 > 0:13:54viewed in terms of being a settlement
0:13:54 > 0:13:58but I think the scale and the complexity of the buildings
0:13:58 > 0:14:00coupled with its huge walled enclosure
0:14:00 > 0:14:04make you think along the lines of something like a temple precinct.
0:14:04 > 0:14:06- A temple?- A temple, yeah.
0:14:06 > 0:14:08That's a big loaded word.
0:14:08 > 0:14:13Very loaded, but I think in many ways it kind of sums up
0:14:13 > 0:14:15what I think is going on here.
0:14:17 > 0:14:21I think it's interesting Nick Card is using the phrase temple complex
0:14:21 > 0:14:24and I think he's probably got something there.
0:14:24 > 0:14:28Clearly it's surrounded by this wall so it's a kind of sacred precinct.
0:14:28 > 0:14:32Yes, it was something special and the fact it is so close
0:14:32 > 0:14:34to the Stones of Stenness and Maeshowe
0:14:34 > 0:14:36and these standing stones suggest to me
0:14:36 > 0:14:41this is all part of a sacred complex.
0:14:41 > 0:14:45Now those walls are effectively built to make a statement
0:14:45 > 0:14:49simply by virtue of their scale, but they're also built to define
0:14:49 > 0:14:53an area within which certain people, certain events,
0:14:53 > 0:14:56certain proceedings, perhaps even certain powers can be contained.
0:14:58 > 0:15:02What Nick and his team have found is something truly unique.
0:15:02 > 0:15:06A monumental structure unlike anything found anywhere else.
0:15:08 > 0:15:12From the evidence of the archaeology and geophysics, we can recreate
0:15:12 > 0:15:15how this place would once have appeared.
0:15:17 > 0:15:20It would have stood three metres high.
0:15:20 > 0:15:23So it would certainly have prevented anyone out here from seeing
0:15:23 > 0:15:25what was going on in there.
0:15:25 > 0:15:28And that's presumably why it was built, to control access,
0:15:28 > 0:15:33to dictate who was allowed inside and who was to remain excluded.
0:15:33 > 0:15:36And it's easy to imagine the world within.
0:15:36 > 0:15:39A Stone Age world of ritual and religion.
0:15:39 > 0:15:42A place set apart from the wild world outside.
0:15:42 > 0:15:46The inner sanctum of a Neolithic temple.
0:15:50 > 0:15:55But when was this temple complex built?
0:15:55 > 0:15:59And how did it relate to other Neolithic monuments in Britain?
0:16:02 > 0:16:08Charcoal samples from beneath the temple's great boundary wall
0:16:08 > 0:16:12could be used to date its construction.
0:16:12 > 0:16:15Every living organism gets labelled with carbon 14
0:16:15 > 0:16:19but because carbon 14 is radioactive, it gradually decays away.
0:16:22 > 0:16:26We know what carbon 14 activity should be in a living organism.
0:16:26 > 0:16:28We know the rate at which it decays.
0:16:28 > 0:16:32We can measure it in a dead organism and therefore the only unknown
0:16:32 > 0:16:36is the time that's elapsed between death and measurement
0:16:36 > 0:16:39and that is what we calculate in the radio carbon measurement.
0:16:39 > 0:16:41After careful analysis,
0:16:41 > 0:16:46the carbon 14 readings revealed just how old this site is.
0:16:48 > 0:16:50Nick sent us three charcoal samples
0:16:50 > 0:16:53from below the foundation of the lesser wall.
0:16:53 > 0:16:59And when we calibrated them they were all in excess of 3,000 BC.
0:17:02 > 0:17:05Carbon dating has revealed that the temple wall was
0:17:05 > 0:17:08built around the same time as the village of Skara Brae,
0:17:08 > 0:17:13the tomb of Maeshowe and the Stones of Stenness.
0:17:16 > 0:17:19This was the beginning of a new ritual landscape
0:17:19 > 0:17:23that pre-dates our other great Neolithic monument...
0:17:23 > 0:17:27far to the South.
0:17:30 > 0:17:34The massive trilithons of Stonehenge might be our most famous
0:17:34 > 0:17:36Stone Age landmark.
0:17:36 > 0:17:39But they're just a third of the weight of
0:17:39 > 0:17:40the Ness of Brodgar Wall...
0:17:40 > 0:17:45and were dragged into place a full 500 years after the Orkney
0:17:45 > 0:17:48temple had been built.
0:17:50 > 0:17:54For Stonehenge expert Mike Parker Pearson,
0:17:54 > 0:17:58the early Orkney dates have huge implications.
0:17:58 > 0:18:01Do you think that people who were building
0:18:01 > 0:18:07and thinking about Stonehenge, were well aware of what was going on
0:18:07 > 0:18:12at Ness of Brodgar and the stones of Stenness and all the rest?
0:18:12 > 0:18:17It's a really difficult question to answer, but the people who are
0:18:17 > 0:18:22building this, were using a type of pottery that we call grooved wear,
0:18:22 > 0:18:28that's because it's grooved, and, um that originates in Orkney and it's
0:18:28 > 0:18:34a style of ceramic which is used throughout Britain by this time.
0:18:34 > 0:18:38- But it starts on Orkney? - But it starts on Orkney.
0:18:38 > 0:18:42So there's some really important influence that the Orcadians
0:18:42 > 0:18:45had over the rest of Britain.
0:18:45 > 0:18:49It's just breath-taking I think fundamentally to think it,
0:18:49 > 0:18:52it turns the map of Britain through 180 degrees,
0:18:52 > 0:18:56that instead of things spreading north, they spread south
0:18:56 > 0:19:00from that what we consider to be an isolated archipelago.
0:19:00 > 0:19:04Yeah, and the people in the far north are having this huge impact
0:19:04 > 0:19:10on what we might consider the British heartland of Stonehenge.
0:19:10 > 0:19:14So I think we have a lot of debt if you like for the people
0:19:14 > 0:19:17of Stonehenge, to those Neolithic Orcadians.
0:19:18 > 0:19:23And perhaps, if we can understand the Orkney temple, we might
0:19:23 > 0:19:28be able to unlock the wider secrets of Neolithic ritual and belief.
0:19:33 > 0:19:36Just like Stonehenge,
0:19:36 > 0:19:40the stone circles of Orkney located either side of the Ness of Brodgar,
0:19:40 > 0:19:47are open, windswept places, almost stages, set for ceremony.
0:19:51 > 0:19:54But between the two, on its narrow bridge of land,
0:19:54 > 0:19:57the temple site is very different.
0:19:58 > 0:20:03A secret complex of buildings, bounded by a great enclosing wall.
0:20:06 > 0:20:09So what did the buildings look like?
0:20:09 > 0:20:12And how were they used?
0:20:14 > 0:20:18Over the last three years, Nick Card and his team have been slowly
0:20:18 > 0:20:21unearthing the temple itself.
0:20:22 > 0:20:24For the farmers who lived here,
0:20:24 > 0:20:29quarrying, moving, and constructing these stone buildings was a massive
0:20:29 > 0:20:31show of devotion.
0:20:33 > 0:20:37How do you go about making sense of what really just
0:20:37 > 0:20:40looks like a jumble of slabs to me?
0:20:40 > 0:20:43Well, you can see there's wall lines starting to appear and it's
0:20:43 > 0:20:49almost by experience you can start to join up the apparent disparate
0:20:49 > 0:20:55elements of the site and you start to see structures forming outlines.
0:20:56 > 0:21:00It's only by getting to grips with every detail of the stones
0:21:00 > 0:21:03that's its possible to understand the temple...
0:21:03 > 0:21:05and why it was built.
0:21:05 > 0:21:11And here it's being done in incredible detail as lasers scan
0:21:11 > 0:21:16the site to produce the most accurate records possible.
0:21:16 > 0:21:20Once the scan is complete, a computer can recreate every detail
0:21:20 > 0:21:22of the site.
0:21:27 > 0:21:31Once we've acquired the data we are able to generate very precise
0:21:31 > 0:21:34three dimensional models.
0:21:34 > 0:21:37In looking at the Ness of Brodgar what we're able to do is
0:21:37 > 0:21:42move around the data and zoom in, zoom out.
0:21:42 > 0:21:45We can look in here and see the hearth.
0:21:45 > 0:21:48We can also go in and measure particular points.
0:21:48 > 0:21:52The fantastic thing about the scanner, the reason why it's
0:21:52 > 0:21:55so powerful is that you can scan a site in such a short
0:21:55 > 0:21:59period of time, pick up so much information and information that is
0:21:59 > 0:22:03dimensionally accurate, the accuracy is about a millimetre.
0:22:03 > 0:22:08This gives us a perfect snapshot in time of this excavation.
0:22:11 > 0:22:15So at any given time, there would've been a complex of buildings.
0:22:15 > 0:22:20Several buildings, all of which had to function together as a whole.
0:22:20 > 0:22:25- I think so.- Entrances, connecting passageways, roadways, whatever.
0:22:25 > 0:22:26It worked together.
0:22:26 > 0:22:31It worked. On the whole, a very structured layout to this site.
0:22:33 > 0:22:36To the untrained eye at ground level though,
0:22:36 > 0:22:40the layout of the buildings still isn't clear.
0:22:40 > 0:22:44To really get a sense of what's going on, I've got to go up there.
0:22:51 > 0:22:55Looking down from 50 feet gives you a completely different view.
0:22:58 > 0:23:01Detailed mapping has revealed 14 separate structures.
0:23:04 > 0:23:08But the layouts of three of them have drawn particular attention.
0:23:10 > 0:23:14The excavation team has named them structure one,
0:23:14 > 0:23:16structure eight
0:23:16 > 0:23:19and structure twelve.
0:23:19 > 0:23:23At the moment, the archaeologists are calling this structure
0:23:23 > 0:23:26over on the left structure one.
0:23:29 > 0:23:33This is the first Neolithic building ever to be discovered
0:23:33 > 0:23:34with more than one doorway.
0:23:36 > 0:23:39structure one has three.
0:23:41 > 0:23:45It also has three hearths for fires,
0:23:45 > 0:23:48two within the middle of the building
0:23:48 > 0:23:52and another right in the middle of one of the doorways.
0:23:52 > 0:23:54It all suggests ceremony,
0:23:54 > 0:23:59with one entrance perhaps involving symbolic purification by fire.
0:24:01 > 0:24:05The things that we see in domestic buildings of the time are reproduced
0:24:05 > 0:24:08in the Ness of Brodgar but on a more monumental scale.
0:24:08 > 0:24:11There's a familiar pattern to the way space is arranged
0:24:11 > 0:24:13in these buildings.
0:24:13 > 0:24:17People would've known about it and understood what it meant.
0:24:17 > 0:24:19Furthest away
0:24:19 > 0:24:22is structure number eight.
0:24:22 > 0:24:25In there have been unearthed a lot of artefacts
0:24:25 > 0:24:27made of carved whalebone.
0:24:30 > 0:24:35Structure eight is a long building with a single entrance.
0:24:35 > 0:24:38Like structure one, it also has three hearths.
0:24:40 > 0:24:43Stone piers along its walls
0:24:43 > 0:24:45divide the internal space into alcoves.
0:24:46 > 0:24:51These seem similar to some early Neolithic tombs
0:24:51 > 0:24:53that stored the sorted bones of the dead.
0:24:55 > 0:24:59Around the piers, within the alcoves,
0:24:59 > 0:25:02stone slabs created secret spaces.
0:25:02 > 0:25:06Like a church or cathedral, you don't walk straight to the altar,
0:25:06 > 0:25:09you go through a series of controlled spaces.
0:25:09 > 0:25:14All these things tell me that what you're dealing with
0:25:14 > 0:25:17is some form of approach towards the sacred.
0:25:17 > 0:25:22Nearest to us is structure twelve, which would appear to be
0:25:22 > 0:25:25almost a mirror image of structure eight.
0:25:29 > 0:25:31A mirror image, but different.
0:25:33 > 0:25:37Here, a highly constricted opening controlled access.
0:25:40 > 0:25:43But once inside, like structure eight,
0:25:43 > 0:25:47structure twelve had piers that divided its interior
0:25:47 > 0:25:50into a set of separate, intimate spaces.
0:25:54 > 0:25:58This one is one of the most recent to be exposed by the excavation
0:25:58 > 0:26:00so interpretation of it is a long way off.
0:26:02 > 0:26:04No-one knows exactly what went on
0:26:04 > 0:26:07in these buildings 5,000 years ago.
0:26:07 > 0:26:12But taken together, all those entrances and exits,
0:26:12 > 0:26:15the hearths for fires, such a symbol of life,
0:26:15 > 0:26:21and the separated alcoves so reminiscent of Neolithic tombs,
0:26:21 > 0:26:25all of it seemed to fit with the idea of choreographed ceremony,
0:26:25 > 0:26:29where progress was guided, restricted
0:26:29 > 0:26:32and perhaps sometimes forbidden.
0:26:36 > 0:26:38This wall is over 5,000 years old,
0:26:38 > 0:26:42and yet it looks like it was built yesterday.
0:26:42 > 0:26:45All across the site,
0:26:45 > 0:26:49there are more walls, hearths, recesses, passageways.
0:26:49 > 0:26:51In fact, there's everything we need
0:26:51 > 0:26:56to help us imagine what these place looked like in the Stone Age.
0:27:01 > 0:27:05From the outside, those buildings would have been hidden from view,
0:27:05 > 0:27:08let alone everything that went on inside them.
0:27:09 > 0:27:11Within those massive walls,
0:27:11 > 0:27:16the full splendour of this place would have been revealed.
0:27:16 > 0:27:18A cluster of solid stone buildings,
0:27:18 > 0:27:21even boasting unique stone-tiled roofs.
0:27:23 > 0:27:27Around 3,000 BC the community of Orkney laboured to create
0:27:27 > 0:27:30this vast temple complex,
0:27:30 > 0:27:35within which the mysterious rites of Neolithic beliefs were enacted.
0:27:55 > 0:28:00Around 5,000 years ago, The Ness of Brodgar site was built
0:28:00 > 0:28:05at a time when life was undergoing a radical transformation.
0:28:05 > 0:28:09The arrival of the New Stone Age, the Neolithic,
0:28:09 > 0:28:14was the single most momentous shift in all of our history.
0:28:14 > 0:28:17It was the moment when we stopped being hunter-gatherers
0:28:17 > 0:28:21and became farmers tied to the land and the seasons.
0:28:21 > 0:28:24Everything we consider part of the modern world,
0:28:24 > 0:28:27towns and cities like this one, lofty buildings,
0:28:27 > 0:28:30people going about their business on the streets,
0:28:30 > 0:28:33all of that has its roots in the Neolithic.
0:28:37 > 0:28:40The coming of farming also brought new beliefs.
0:28:42 > 0:28:45Tombs were built to the ancestors
0:28:45 > 0:28:47and then, from around 3,000,
0:28:47 > 0:28:49monumental stone circles
0:28:49 > 0:28:52began to appear across Britain.
0:28:55 > 0:28:58These farmers had arrived at an understanding.
0:28:58 > 0:29:02They knew just how much they their lives depended
0:29:02 > 0:29:04on time and the seasons.
0:29:07 > 0:29:10With that understanding came new authority.
0:29:12 > 0:29:16Those people who claimed to divine, maybe even control the motions
0:29:16 > 0:29:19of the sun and the moon, became powerful.
0:29:26 > 0:29:31The Orkney excavation has unearthed polished stone axes and mace heads.
0:29:31 > 0:29:33Symbols of power.
0:29:35 > 0:29:39'At the National Museum of Scotland, Neolithic specialist
0:29:39 > 0:29:42'Alison Sheridan has been studying them.'
0:29:42 > 0:29:45What is a mace head for technically?
0:29:45 > 0:29:49Well, you could use it as a weapon. You would have it on a hath.
0:29:49 > 0:29:54Theoretically, I could deal you a good blow on the head.
0:29:54 > 0:29:56But it's also a weapon of power,
0:29:56 > 0:30:00just as the Queen has an orb and sceptre. The sceptre could be
0:30:00 > 0:30:02used as a weapon as needs be,
0:30:02 > 0:30:05but obviously it's much more important ceremonially.
0:30:05 > 0:30:10Why are you able to say that that's a ceremonial item
0:30:10 > 0:30:12rather than just a tool?
0:30:12 > 0:30:15Because they're very finely made.
0:30:15 > 0:30:19Very few of them have any traces of wear.
0:30:19 > 0:30:21Only the most powerful, the most important people
0:30:21 > 0:30:24would be allowed to have one of these things,
0:30:24 > 0:30:28- to commission it.- Just like a badge of office?- Absolutely, yeah.
0:30:29 > 0:30:33Mace heads are rare. But at the Ness of Brodgar site,
0:30:33 > 0:30:36four have been found within structure eight alone.
0:30:38 > 0:30:41But all of them had been broken.
0:30:41 > 0:30:45- Does this suggest religion to you? - Yes, it certainly does.
0:30:45 > 0:30:48I think the fact that you have a huge proportion of them
0:30:48 > 0:30:50that have been broken across the perforation there
0:30:50 > 0:30:55suggests that this was all part of the religious rituals of the day.
0:30:55 > 0:30:59So we're not talking about lords,
0:30:59 > 0:31:01kings, warriors?
0:31:01 > 0:31:05The people at the top were the people who had influence
0:31:05 > 0:31:08- over the otherworld. - Correct.
0:31:08 > 0:31:11It's more likely we're dealing with a theocracy.
0:31:11 > 0:31:16So their power is based on their ability to communicate with the gods
0:31:16 > 0:31:20and the ancestors and also to control them to some extent.
0:31:20 > 0:31:23Does that suggest the Ness of Brodgar site
0:31:23 > 0:31:26was some kind of hub or focal point
0:31:26 > 0:31:29for much of what was going on in the Neolithic?
0:31:29 > 0:31:33Yes, it's a sort of religious HQ, if you like. Absolutely. I think so.
0:31:37 > 0:31:40If you can say this is how things are,
0:31:40 > 0:31:42this is how things will happen,
0:31:42 > 0:31:46then you have that ideological power over people
0:31:46 > 0:31:50to tell them that their lives, their world,
0:31:50 > 0:31:53their universe, is dictated by forces
0:31:53 > 0:31:57which only the people in charge have actual control over.
0:32:00 > 0:32:04If you control ritual, if you operate in a way
0:32:04 > 0:32:07that allows you to speak with some authority,
0:32:07 > 0:32:09both to and perhaps on behalf of the gods,
0:32:09 > 0:32:13then you are a person or a group of some standing within society.
0:32:13 > 0:32:16So we're looking here at centres which are of great spiritual,
0:32:16 > 0:32:21perhaps religious importance, which are always utterly political.
0:32:23 > 0:32:28'What is becoming clear is that on Orkney, 5,000 years ago,
0:32:28 > 0:32:32'our temple complex wasn't only the beginning of a new belief system,
0:32:32 > 0:32:35'but a new social order as well.
0:32:37 > 0:32:41'The people who mediated the beliefs that went with it,'
0:32:41 > 0:32:45the priests, for want of a better word, were in control.
0:32:45 > 0:32:49They were the theocratic leaders of Neolithic Orkney.
0:32:49 > 0:32:52It was the advent of a whole new world order
0:32:52 > 0:32:56of religion, hierarchy and power.
0:33:05 > 0:33:095,000 years ago, off Britain's northern tip,
0:33:09 > 0:33:13Orkney was home to a Neolithic community at the very forefront
0:33:13 > 0:33:15of technology, society and religion.
0:33:18 > 0:33:21'Today, this place seems so remote.
0:33:23 > 0:33:27'Back then it was a modern place, full of wonder.'
0:33:29 > 0:33:33The temple complex was built long before the Pyramids of Egypt,
0:33:33 > 0:33:37long before the great trilithons of Stonehenge,
0:33:37 > 0:33:41pretty much before any building at all.
0:33:41 > 0:33:46And that required an organised and sophisticated society.
0:33:51 > 0:33:54One clue to just how sophisticated Stone Age Orkney was
0:33:54 > 0:33:56has been found in cattle bones
0:33:56 > 0:33:59unearthed from within the temple buildings.
0:34:03 > 0:34:07By isolating elements from these bones, stable isotope analysis
0:34:07 > 0:34:12can determine what an animal ate whilst it was alive.
0:34:12 > 0:34:16At the moment, I'm drilling a bit of cow tibia to be sampled.
0:34:17 > 0:34:20That research is telling us
0:34:20 > 0:34:23that Neolithic farmers on Orkney were innovators.
0:34:25 > 0:34:28Analysis from the cattle bones from the Ness of Brodgar
0:34:28 > 0:34:30shows very elevated nitrogen levels.
0:34:32 > 0:34:35There are a number of reasons this could have happened.
0:34:35 > 0:34:37Most likely is the application of manure
0:34:37 > 0:34:41to farmland to increase the fertility of the soil.
0:34:41 > 0:34:45Basically it shows us they had developed very sophisticated
0:34:45 > 0:34:49farming practises that we don't really see in the rest of Britain.
0:34:54 > 0:34:57But these weren't just advanced farmers.
0:34:57 > 0:35:00Other clues to Orcadian culture
0:35:00 > 0:35:02were found within the excavation.
0:35:04 > 0:35:07As well as broken ceremonial mace heads,
0:35:07 > 0:35:10structure eight revealed more.
0:35:10 > 0:35:15Something unexpected and unique on its walls.
0:35:15 > 0:35:19It was thought that in the Neolithic, pigment or paint
0:35:19 > 0:35:24was only used as make-up, to put designs on the skin,
0:35:24 > 0:35:28or for dying textiles. But we don't think that any more.
0:35:28 > 0:35:32This stone here has been painted.
0:35:32 > 0:35:35It's quite hard to see,
0:35:35 > 0:35:39but remember, that was painted 5,000 years ago.
0:35:39 > 0:35:44That stone has been under the ground for almost all of that time.
0:35:44 > 0:35:47This is the first time painted wall decoration
0:35:47 > 0:35:51has been discovered on any Neolithic site.
0:35:51 > 0:35:55Incredibly, even tools used by the artists
0:35:55 > 0:35:58have been found.
0:35:58 > 0:36:02How easily, you think, could that have been overlooked
0:36:02 > 0:36:04in the course of excavating a site this size?
0:36:04 > 0:36:08It's clay, fired clay.
0:36:08 > 0:36:11It's possible what you're looking at here
0:36:11 > 0:36:13is part of an artist's tool kit.
0:36:13 > 0:36:17one of the artists who was painting panels within the structures
0:36:17 > 0:36:21would have had pigment of some kind in a pot like this.
0:36:23 > 0:36:26How modest, but how much it has to say.
0:36:28 > 0:36:32But what was the pigment used to create the paint?
0:36:34 > 0:36:38Orkney is varied geologically.
0:36:38 > 0:36:41And that means that a wealth of unusual surface minerals
0:36:41 > 0:36:44can be picked up all over the islands.
0:36:45 > 0:36:47This is the very stuff.
0:36:47 > 0:36:51A small lump of haematite found on this beach, this morning.
0:36:51 > 0:36:55This was of interest to Neolithic peoples for a very good reason.
0:36:55 > 0:36:58Rub it against another rock
0:36:58 > 0:37:02and you get this rich, rusty red colour.
0:37:03 > 0:37:08Also available to them was another form of iron oxide. Limonite.
0:37:08 > 0:37:11When you rub this, the powder it gives,
0:37:11 > 0:37:16the colour is a warmer, more of an ochre, orangey shade.
0:37:16 > 0:37:20You also get this elsewhere on the Orkney islands.
0:37:20 > 0:37:22This is lead sulphide or galena.
0:37:22 > 0:37:25It gives up a black colour when you rub it against other rocks.
0:37:25 > 0:37:28There's another piece of it here.
0:37:28 > 0:37:30So all of these colours were freely available
0:37:30 > 0:37:33to the Neolithic peoples on the islands.
0:37:35 > 0:37:39'But these Stone Age artists didn't only work in paint...'
0:37:39 > 0:37:40Hiya, Ann.
0:37:40 > 0:37:42'They also used clay.'
0:37:42 > 0:37:46Can I see this artwork of yours by any chance?
0:37:48 > 0:37:51Wait till you see this.
0:37:51 > 0:37:56Now it should be in one piece, but it's broken into two.
0:37:56 > 0:38:00It's baked clay, so it's not strangely-shaped stone.
0:38:00 > 0:38:03Someone set out to make this.
0:38:03 > 0:38:05What you're looking at is a head,
0:38:05 > 0:38:09then the torso and the legs down here.
0:38:11 > 0:38:15Some people here are calling him the Brodgar Boy.
0:38:15 > 0:38:18If they're right that makes it
0:38:18 > 0:38:21a very, very rare representation of the human form.
0:38:21 > 0:38:25So rare, in fact, that there's only one other known in Britain
0:38:25 > 0:38:27or anywhere in northern Europe.
0:38:29 > 0:38:33When I first heard this place being described as a temple,
0:38:33 > 0:38:37as anyone would, I thought the word sounded a bit grandiose.
0:38:37 > 0:38:41Fanciful to use that kind of language. But when you this
0:38:41 > 0:38:44and see the site, then temple complex
0:38:44 > 0:38:47almost isn't a big enough word.
0:38:49 > 0:38:52It's these intimate discoveries that bring us close
0:38:52 > 0:38:56to the people who once lived here.
0:38:56 > 0:39:00People just like us whose natural human creativity
0:39:00 > 0:39:03led them to craft and shape objects and designs.
0:39:06 > 0:39:10We often think of the Stone Age as just that,
0:39:10 > 0:39:12somewhere cold and grey.
0:39:12 > 0:39:16But at that temple complex, we're seeing something else.
0:39:16 > 0:39:20A new Stone Age, A new Neolithic, if you like.
0:39:20 > 0:39:23It's a site of secret places
0:39:23 > 0:39:26linked by many doors.
0:39:26 > 0:39:29A place run by a theocracy of priests,
0:39:29 > 0:39:32moving through rooms where the walls are decorated
0:39:32 > 0:39:34with vivid colours and designs,
0:39:34 > 0:39:38all of it illuminated by the flickering lights of fires.
0:39:38 > 0:39:40It's at a place like the Ness of Brodgar
0:39:40 > 0:39:42that the Stone Age comes back to life.
0:39:45 > 0:39:47But just how did the temple precinct
0:39:47 > 0:39:50fit into the bigger ritual landscape of Orkney?
0:39:50 > 0:39:54Just what did it mean to the people who built it?
0:39:57 > 0:40:00And how was it used?
0:40:02 > 0:40:05It's from up here with the benefit of a bird's eye view
0:40:05 > 0:40:08that you see just why this site is so special.
0:40:08 > 0:40:12It sits surrounded by hills, on all sides really,
0:40:12 > 0:40:15so it's in a shallow basin.
0:40:15 > 0:40:18On one side, there's the freshwater loch of Harray
0:40:18 > 0:40:21and on this side, the salt water loch of Stenness.
0:40:22 > 0:40:27Set within this dramatic natural landscape is the passage tomb
0:40:27 > 0:40:28of Maeshowe to the South...
0:40:30 > 0:40:32..the Stones of Stenness.
0:40:33 > 0:40:36And to the north, the site of the Ring of Brodgar.
0:40:41 > 0:40:45And here, on this promontory, right at the heart of everything,
0:40:45 > 0:40:48is the temple complex.
0:40:51 > 0:40:54Archaeologists have always been interested in the geography
0:40:54 > 0:40:57surrounding our Neolithic monuments.
0:40:58 > 0:41:02Because the relationships to their natural setting
0:41:02 > 0:41:04may reveal something about their use.
0:41:06 > 0:41:09And there's only one other landscape in Britain
0:41:09 > 0:41:11that bears comparison to Orkney.
0:41:13 > 0:41:15Stonehenge.
0:41:17 > 0:41:19Just like the Orkney monuments,
0:41:19 > 0:41:23Stonehenge isn't an isolated construction,
0:41:23 > 0:41:27but set within something archaeologists call a "ritual landscape".
0:41:32 > 0:41:37Stonehenge was related to another monument known as Durrington Walls.
0:41:40 > 0:41:42And it's thought that the two were connected
0:41:42 > 0:41:45by a processional route along the River Avon.
0:41:48 > 0:41:51A leading theory suggests that the landscape between Durrington
0:41:51 > 0:41:54and Stonehenge marks a boundary
0:41:54 > 0:41:56between a land for the living
0:41:56 > 0:41:58and a land for the dead.
0:42:00 > 0:42:04Mike Parker Pearson, who developed this theory,
0:42:04 > 0:42:07is one of our leading Stonehenge experts.
0:42:07 > 0:42:12What is the theory of land of the living, land of the dead?
0:42:12 > 0:42:16I think it's the idea that you actually create a separate place
0:42:16 > 0:42:19for your ancestors as opposed to where you're living.
0:42:19 > 0:42:23This place is full of burials, cremation deposits.
0:42:23 > 0:42:26We're currently analysing 60 of them,
0:42:26 > 0:42:29and Durrington walls, by contrast,
0:42:29 > 0:42:30there aren't any dead.
0:42:30 > 0:42:33It's about the living, it's full of houses.
0:42:35 > 0:42:40It now seems likely that this idea of a journey to the world of the ancestors
0:42:40 > 0:42:44began not here, at Stonehenge, but far to the north,
0:42:44 > 0:42:48within the earlier ritual landscape of Orkney.
0:42:49 > 0:42:54I think Orkney's probably the first place really to develop this notion.
0:42:54 > 0:42:56What you have is actually a natural avenue.
0:42:56 > 0:43:01That isthmus which links Brodgar on one hand,
0:43:01 > 0:43:04Ness of Brodgar in the middle,
0:43:04 > 0:43:07and then on the other side, the Stones of Stenness.
0:43:07 > 0:43:09So I think we can see that you've got this contrast
0:43:09 > 0:43:12between the Ness of Brodgar and the Stones of Stenness,
0:43:12 > 0:43:17AND the great place of the dead at the ring of Brodgar.
0:43:26 > 0:43:29When you consider the massive scale of the place,
0:43:29 > 0:43:33the towering boundary walls, the roofs of stone tiles,
0:43:33 > 0:43:38and then the details, like the painted interior walls,
0:43:38 > 0:43:41you surely have to allow a place for the Ness of Brodgar
0:43:41 > 0:43:45near the very top of the list of Britain's most iconic Stone Age monuments.
0:43:48 > 0:43:52Now we can even suggest how it must have been used.
0:43:55 > 0:43:58It's thought that a processional route
0:43:58 > 0:44:01started at the Stones of Stenness in the land living.
0:44:03 > 0:44:05It then travelled north...
0:44:10 > 0:44:13..to the temple complex on the Ness of Brodgar.
0:44:16 > 0:44:19And then continued to the end of the promontory...
0:44:20 > 0:44:24..to finish at the Ring of Brodgar, in the land of the dead.
0:44:27 > 0:44:29And that begs an even greater question.
0:44:30 > 0:44:35If the temple precinct was the portal between this world and the next,
0:44:35 > 0:44:39just what went on within its walls?
0:44:40 > 0:44:44Structure eight, shaped like a passage tomb, with hidden alcoves
0:44:44 > 0:44:49and structure twelve, with its single constricted entrance, offer clues.
0:44:50 > 0:44:54But it was structure one, with its mysterious doorways
0:44:54 > 0:44:59and purifying hearths that seemed to suggest a processional route.
0:45:01 > 0:45:03Perhaps this was the very point
0:45:03 > 0:45:07where those two separate worlds of the living and the dead collided.
0:45:09 > 0:45:13I see the site at the time of its use as a place of transition.
0:45:13 > 0:45:16The way the architecture guides you in,
0:45:16 > 0:45:18makes you move in particular ways.
0:45:18 > 0:45:20There would have been a couple of hearths here
0:45:20 > 0:45:25that had to be manoeuvred around, and then, unusually, your...
0:45:26 > 0:45:30..you have this, er, choice of exits, one here and one in the side.
0:45:30 > 0:45:35So there's nothing casual about just coming in here,
0:45:35 > 0:45:39it's a building that you come through and are moved through for a specific reason?
0:45:39 > 0:45:42I thinks it's something beyond the normal.
0:45:42 > 0:45:46- Like a portal from somewhere to somewhere else?- Yes, exactly.
0:45:50 > 0:45:51At the Ness of Brodgar,
0:45:51 > 0:45:55all sorts of different architectural devices are used.
0:45:55 > 0:45:58This is precisely the exactly the sort of construction
0:45:58 > 0:46:02you see in passage graves. I would say you literally are confronting
0:46:02 > 0:46:03your ancestors or deities.
0:46:03 > 0:46:08That is an extremely, if you like, dangerous transaction.
0:46:08 > 0:46:12Under those conditions you expect extreme control,
0:46:12 > 0:46:16you would expect to see huge boundaries, huge divisions,
0:46:16 > 0:46:19decoration on divisions, just what you see at the Ness.
0:46:21 > 0:46:25It's showing how the living and the dead are really bound together.
0:46:25 > 0:46:29Rites of passage, remembering important ancestors,
0:46:29 > 0:46:34connecting those ancestors to cycles in the heavens are cheek-by-jowl
0:46:34 > 0:46:37with dwellings, with places where people are living,
0:46:37 > 0:46:39the living and the dead are not apart,
0:46:39 > 0:46:41and the living can't survive without the dead.
0:46:47 > 0:46:49As things stand,
0:46:49 > 0:46:52Nick and his team believe that this site on the Ness of Brodgar
0:46:52 > 0:46:56witnessed the final scenes in the drama of life and death.
0:46:56 > 0:46:59People would have walked down past the Stones of Stenness,
0:46:59 > 0:47:00the land of the living,
0:47:00 > 0:47:02then they would have crossed the water
0:47:02 > 0:47:07before making their way up here, where they were confronted by a huge wall.
0:47:11 > 0:47:15Then they would have entered the temple complex itself.
0:47:22 > 0:47:25Once inside, the stage was set for the final rituals
0:47:25 > 0:47:28celebrating the lives of the ancestors.
0:47:33 > 0:47:36Perhaps they walked reverently through different buildings,
0:47:36 > 0:47:38taking part in different rituals...
0:47:40 > 0:47:42..passing over purifying fires.
0:47:47 > 0:47:50They might have offered thanks and asked for guidance
0:47:50 > 0:47:55as they communicated with their ancestors and gods.
0:47:55 > 0:47:59This may have been the portal between life and death.
0:47:59 > 0:48:02The place where the two worlds met.
0:48:11 > 0:48:14The life of this religious landscape
0:48:14 > 0:48:19extended from around 3,000 BC for almost 1,000 years.
0:48:21 > 0:48:24But as Nick and his team study and date what they're finding,
0:48:24 > 0:48:27they're now able to build up a chronology of the site.
0:48:27 > 0:48:31And they're discovering a sudden change in how it was used.
0:48:34 > 0:48:39After centuries of use, structures one, eight and twelve were all demolished,
0:48:39 > 0:48:43perhaps signalling an abrupt change in belief.
0:48:44 > 0:48:48Then, just one solitary building took their place.
0:48:50 > 0:48:53And it was grander than anything that had gone before.
0:48:58 > 0:49:02The archaeologists have named it, rather unromantically,
0:49:02 > 0:49:04structure ten.
0:49:04 > 0:49:08But it would have been far and away the largest building on the whole site.
0:49:08 > 0:49:13Each side of the building could have been as much as 25 metres long.
0:49:13 > 0:49:16That means when it was complete it would have extended
0:49:16 > 0:49:20beyond and underneath that modern bungalow.
0:49:20 > 0:49:25Uniquely, what you've got here are walls as much as 5 metre thick,
0:49:25 > 0:49:27that's from an inner face here,
0:49:27 > 0:49:30all the way across...
0:49:30 > 0:49:31to the outer face here.
0:49:31 > 0:49:35The roof may have extended out beyond the limits of the walls
0:49:35 > 0:49:37to create a covered walkway.
0:49:40 > 0:49:44The new building even had its own enclosed forecourt
0:49:44 > 0:49:48with two standing stones marking an imposing, ceremonial, entrance.
0:49:52 > 0:49:55When this vast building stood alone,
0:49:55 > 0:49:58it would have been visible for miles around.
0:50:07 > 0:50:10But structure ten's single entrance tells us
0:50:10 > 0:50:14that it was never designed for processional movement.
0:50:15 > 0:50:21For Nick Card, that suggests that the purpose of these ritual buildings was changing.
0:50:23 > 0:50:26You have this kind of massive structure being imposed
0:50:26 > 0:50:31on this site, a site which has perhaps for centuries been very high-status
0:50:31 > 0:50:33in the lives of the people around here.
0:50:33 > 0:50:38Suddenly, structure ten is there, sitting on this very important site.
0:50:38 > 0:50:43So does it...do you think it ceases at that point to be a portal,
0:50:43 > 0:50:46or some way that people were invited through?
0:50:46 > 0:50:49Is structure ten there to say, you know,
0:50:49 > 0:50:53that's the end of it, we're here blocking the way?
0:50:53 > 0:50:56It does seem to kind of be this, you know, statement,
0:50:56 > 0:51:00that is taking away, removing everything that had gone before it.
0:51:00 > 0:51:03So maybe the whole idea of this kind of processional way
0:51:03 > 0:51:06was also changed with the imposition of this structure.
0:51:09 > 0:51:14Around 2300 BC, structure ten was the very last building standing
0:51:14 > 0:51:17within the temple complex.
0:51:19 > 0:51:21It marked the end of an era.
0:51:21 > 0:51:24But it had one more secret to reveal.
0:51:26 > 0:51:29Cattle bones from more than 600 animals have been found
0:51:29 > 0:51:33covering the walkway that surrounds this building.
0:51:35 > 0:51:40And it's these bones that show how this whole site ended its life.
0:51:44 > 0:51:49600 animals suggests there's a mass slaughter of animals going on.
0:51:49 > 0:51:52We can see that the bone is fractured.
0:51:52 > 0:51:55If you can have a look at this, this isn't an entire bone,
0:51:55 > 0:51:59this is...this bone here is what an entire tibia looks like.
0:51:59 > 0:52:03The bone has been fractured in order to extract marrow.
0:52:03 > 0:52:06They're being prepared for food consumption.
0:52:06 > 0:52:10Just one cow can feed over 200 people.
0:52:10 > 0:52:16So finding the remains of 600 indicates something hugely significant.
0:52:16 > 0:52:21Especially since the evidence points to a single feast.
0:52:21 > 0:52:24For thousands of people.
0:52:25 > 0:52:29There isn't any extensive evidence for weathering on the bones' surfaces.
0:52:29 > 0:52:33And this suggests that once the bone was deposited,
0:52:33 > 0:52:35it was very rapidly covered up.
0:52:36 > 0:52:40These things suggest that we may be dealing with a single event.
0:52:46 > 0:52:51Imagine, 600 head of cattle enough to feed 10,000 people,
0:52:51 > 0:52:54all being slaughtered in a single, ritual event.
0:52:54 > 0:52:57It would have been an amazing spectacle.
0:52:57 > 0:53:00It's not as though those people were having a big party
0:53:00 > 0:53:02just to celebrate the end of the year.
0:53:02 > 0:53:06The excavated remains suggest it was nothing less than a funeral feast
0:53:06 > 0:53:09for the death of the temple complex itself.
0:53:09 > 0:53:13At the same time, those people were likely commemorating
0:53:13 > 0:53:18the very end of what had been their all-powerful, cosmic religion.
0:53:20 > 0:53:24At the end, towards the history of the site,
0:53:24 > 0:53:28these structures appear to have been deliberately demolished.
0:53:28 > 0:53:31Levelled, filled in with masses amounts of midden.
0:53:32 > 0:53:35In part, bits of wall were demolished.
0:53:35 > 0:53:40It was as though it was an attempt to erase them from the human memory.
0:53:40 > 0:53:46Why go to all that trouble to destroy what had taken decades or centuries to create?
0:53:46 > 0:53:47You do wonder.
0:53:47 > 0:53:51What it reflects is some major change happening in society,
0:53:51 > 0:53:54maybe a change in religion, change in politics.
0:53:54 > 0:53:59The Neolithic system was very dynamic, it wasn't a static society.
0:53:59 > 0:54:04Throughout the Neolithic, 1,500 years of Neolithic activity in Orkney,
0:54:04 > 0:54:08you're looking at major changes happening, developments in that society.
0:54:08 > 0:54:13So all of those, maybe, decades or centuries of work
0:54:13 > 0:54:15were just deliberately wiped out?
0:54:15 > 0:54:17It's like the slate was wiped clean.
0:54:21 > 0:54:25The great era when Orkney was the epicentre of Neolithic culture
0:54:25 > 0:54:27was drawing to a close
0:54:27 > 0:54:31because the Stone Age itself was coming to an end.
0:54:33 > 0:54:37All of this is happening around 2,300 BC,
0:54:37 > 0:54:42around time when the era of stone is giving way to the era of bronze.
0:54:42 > 0:54:47An object, like this one, a beautiful polished stone axe,
0:54:47 > 0:54:52Now, objects like this had held sway for perhaps 2,000 years.
0:54:52 > 0:54:58At this point, they no longer command the power and authority they once did.
0:54:59 > 0:55:01Once you have objects like this one,
0:55:01 > 0:55:02a bronze axe,
0:55:02 > 0:55:05once these are available,
0:55:05 > 0:55:09then metal becomes the hub around which everything else revolves.
0:55:09 > 0:55:11There's a new social order, a new economy,
0:55:11 > 0:55:14and new beliefs to go along with it.
0:55:14 > 0:55:18When it comes to the temple complex on Orkney,
0:55:18 > 0:55:23that cattle slaughter begins to look something like a swansong
0:55:23 > 0:55:26because although that religious centre had been in existence
0:55:26 > 0:55:28for perhaps 1,000 years,
0:55:28 > 0:55:34its life was over, and forever, soon after 2300BC.
0:55:34 > 0:55:39What certainly came next was a different set of values.
0:55:39 > 0:55:43So you have an influx of new ideas from the continent
0:55:43 > 0:55:46and you really don't see this in Orkney.
0:55:46 > 0:55:49Orkney got left behind at that point.
0:55:49 > 0:55:56It is, I think, very clear that Orkney's star is not just in the descent,
0:55:56 > 0:55:59it's positively dipped below the horizon.
0:55:59 > 0:56:01And with it an entire way of life,
0:56:01 > 0:56:06an entire way of thinking about the world, the universe and society.
0:56:14 > 0:56:17The effort involved in demolishing and covering structure ten
0:56:17 > 0:56:18and the massive wall
0:56:18 > 0:56:23would have been almost as great as the effort needed for their construction.
0:56:23 > 0:56:28After 1,000 years of use, the death of temple complex,
0:56:28 > 0:56:31was itself a powerful, symbolic act.
0:56:35 > 0:56:36A year or so after that happened,
0:56:36 > 0:56:40it would have been as though nothing had never existed here at all.
0:56:40 > 0:56:44And that's how it remained for well over 4,000 years.
0:56:46 > 0:56:51Our understanding of Neolithic religion has always been rooted
0:56:51 > 0:56:56in the stone circles and tombs that are spread across our countryside.
0:56:57 > 0:57:00But this temple complex on Orkney allows us
0:57:00 > 0:57:05to glimpse the people who believed in that religion.
0:57:09 > 0:57:11It's showing us a sophisticated farming society,
0:57:11 > 0:57:13ruled by a theocracy.
0:57:13 > 0:57:18And the rituals that connected this world to that of the ancestors.
0:57:21 > 0:57:26In short, it's revealing how the people who built this place,
0:57:26 > 0:57:29celebrated life's great journey.
0:57:30 > 0:57:33And the passage from the land of the living
0:57:33 > 0:57:36to the land of the dead.
0:57:52 > 0:57:55As an archaeologist,
0:57:55 > 0:57:58I've worked on sites where we've found next to nothing.
0:57:58 > 0:58:00A few shadowy marks in the soil,
0:58:00 > 0:58:04some crumbs of pottery, some worked stone.
0:58:04 > 0:58:06The archaeologists working there
0:58:06 > 0:58:09are probably having the time of their lives.
0:58:09 > 0:58:15What Nick and his team have discovered is already astounding.
0:58:16 > 0:58:21I hope that they'll be working there for decades to come.
0:58:21 > 0:58:23And I don't think it's too much,
0:58:23 > 0:58:26I don't think it's an exaggeration to say that, so far,
0:58:26 > 0:58:30they've really only scratched at the surface.
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