0:00:05 > 0:00:08This is the story of how Britain came to be.
0:00:10 > 0:00:15Of how our land, and its people, were forged over thousands of years of ancient history.
0:00:20 > 0:00:25This Britain is a strange and alien world.
0:00:25 > 0:00:29A world that contains the hidden story of our distant, pre-historic past.
0:00:34 > 0:00:38We began as hunters who came from mainland Europe
0:00:38 > 0:00:41before Britain was an island.
0:00:41 > 0:00:45Instead of hunting mammoth and reindeer in the snow,
0:00:45 > 0:00:49he hunted red deer in the wild wood...
0:00:51 > 0:00:53..and continued into a new age,
0:00:53 > 0:00:58as the first farmers built monumental tombs to their ancestors.
0:00:58 > 0:01:01Nothing like this had ever been seen before in Britain.
0:01:02 > 0:01:05Now the journey continues
0:01:05 > 0:01:08with the next chapter in our epic story.
0:01:08 > 0:01:13What everybody is waiting for is the sunrise!
0:01:13 > 0:01:19An age of cosmology when our lives were ruled by the sun and the stars.
0:01:21 > 0:01:25The birth of earthly power and social class,
0:01:25 > 0:01:29set against some of the greatest wonders of the ancient world.
0:01:43 > 0:01:47I'm going back almost 6,000 years
0:01:47 > 0:01:51to a Britain in the throes of the Neolithic revolution.
0:01:56 > 0:02:00The first farmers were forging a whole new relationship with the land...
0:02:03 > 0:02:07..a land that was alive with spiritual meaning.
0:02:07 > 0:02:10The wild wood that bordered their fields,
0:02:10 > 0:02:13the boundary between land and sea...
0:02:16 > 0:02:18..and mountains
0:02:18 > 0:02:19that touched the very sky.
0:02:22 > 0:02:24Places like the Lake District,
0:02:24 > 0:02:29with its dramatic valleys and crags, held a special power.
0:02:29 > 0:02:33If your understanding of the world was rooted in stone,
0:02:33 > 0:02:37then this landscape, that seems to shout the very word "stone",
0:02:37 > 0:02:39would have seemed especially important.
0:02:39 > 0:02:43And here in the central fells, the shout is particularly clear.
0:02:45 > 0:02:50Archaeologist Mark Edmonds has spent 30 years on the trail
0:02:50 > 0:02:55of the ancient people who came here in search of something very special.
0:02:55 > 0:02:595,000, 6,000 years ago, chances are no-one is living here full time.
0:02:59 > 0:03:02They come here because the highest ground probably has good grazing.
0:03:02 > 0:03:06But what drew them up here was not the chance of living here full time,
0:03:06 > 0:03:08that would happen many years later.
0:03:08 > 0:03:11It was the stone that brought them up, that they came for.
0:03:15 > 0:03:21Over 5,000 years ago, Neolithic people climbed these same precarious paths.
0:03:21 > 0:03:26What they were heading for were high outcrops of volcanic rock called Greenstone.
0:03:28 > 0:03:32The crags that are worked the most are some of their highest and most difficult to get to.
0:03:32 > 0:03:38I think that's part of the attraction of the place, that it involves risk and danger.
0:03:38 > 0:03:41- OK, so nearly there.- Mmm-hmm. - Nearly there.
0:03:43 > 0:03:47The debris of ancient stone-working still lies all around.
0:03:47 > 0:03:51Hundreds of off-cuts of very special stone axes.
0:03:57 > 0:04:00- This is what we've climbed for. - Look at this stuff, this is amazing!
0:04:00 > 0:04:04- I know, it's ridiculous, isn't it? - It's the volume of it.
0:04:04 > 0:04:08So every single bit of this is the result of people making tools?
0:04:08 > 0:04:11There was stone to be had that could be worked to a fine finish.
0:04:11 > 0:04:15- This was a must have raw material? - It's an extraordinary raw material.
0:04:15 > 0:04:19- So this whole area was an axe factory?- Yep.
0:04:23 > 0:04:25You don't find many of the axes themselves up here,
0:04:25 > 0:04:28but fortunately I have brought some with me
0:04:28 > 0:04:32and this is what we call in the trade a rough-out.
0:04:32 > 0:04:35So that's halfway through the process of making?
0:04:35 > 0:04:37Yeah. It's absolutely exquisite.
0:04:37 > 0:04:40It's a thing of beauty, unfinished or not.
0:04:40 > 0:04:44This is what they looked like when they left the crags.
0:04:46 > 0:04:47Pop that down there.
0:04:47 > 0:04:53Once you get into the Lowlands where people would have been living,
0:04:53 > 0:04:57that's when the more glacial, slow process of grinding, polishing
0:04:57 > 0:05:00would be undertaken to get them down to something like that.
0:05:00 > 0:05:04How long does it take to get from that
0:05:04 > 0:05:07- to the finished article? - You can see in the two forms
0:05:07 > 0:05:10already the idea of what it's going to look like is there.
0:05:10 > 0:05:14In accustomed hands, you can make one of these in about 45 minutes, flaking as you go.
0:05:14 > 0:05:19This, at least several hundred hours, possibly even thousands of hours
0:05:19 > 0:05:24to get a good lustre and polish which brings out the colour of the stone.
0:05:24 > 0:05:28Why go to that effort? It doesn't make it a better axe, does it?
0:05:28 > 0:05:32It doesn't, it doesn't improve the effect of the tool.
0:05:32 > 0:05:35I think what's important about these things is not that they're tools,
0:05:35 > 0:05:39but they were also important because they were tokens of identity.
0:05:39 > 0:05:44They said something about the people who made them and used them.
0:05:44 > 0:05:47It wasn't just the stone that made these axes special,
0:05:47 > 0:05:49but where it came from -
0:05:49 > 0:05:51the sky.
0:05:51 > 0:05:55Although it's a mountain, what we're dealing with here is a monument,
0:05:55 > 0:05:58a place that draws people up, draws people together,
0:05:58 > 0:06:00at which they can work the stone
0:06:00 > 0:06:04to produce objects that matter to them,
0:06:04 > 0:06:06because they say something about who they are.
0:06:06 > 0:06:11So in sense the journey from the low country up here, takes several days,
0:06:11 > 0:06:17exposing yourself to danger, to the risk of falling, to come up into the clouds sometimes as well,
0:06:17 > 0:06:19is as much a rite of passage as anything else,
0:06:19 > 0:06:24an activity that's as much ceremonial, possibly spiritual as it is practical.
0:06:27 > 0:06:32The Cumbrian axe factory reveals a relationship between people,
0:06:32 > 0:06:35their landscape, and stone itself.
0:06:37 > 0:06:39This belief system would change over time.
0:06:39 > 0:06:46It would develop into something more complex, and for us, something fantastically enigmatic.
0:06:46 > 0:06:52Something that represents the beginning of a whole new age in our history.
0:06:52 > 0:06:55A time experts refer to as the Age of Astronomy -
0:06:55 > 0:07:00when we moved away from this more earthly ancestor worship
0:07:00 > 0:07:03towards something much more cosmic.
0:07:24 > 0:07:27What we see is a radical change in thinking
0:07:27 > 0:07:30that manifested itself in something staggering -
0:07:30 > 0:07:33the construction of monuments in stone
0:07:33 > 0:07:37on an unprecedented and massive scale,
0:07:37 > 0:07:40some of them astronomically aligned.
0:07:45 > 0:07:51What's becoming clear is that for people living 5,000 years ago,
0:07:51 > 0:07:56this new age wasn't bringing a new way of thinking about their ancestors.
0:07:56 > 0:08:00Rather it was a new way of thinking about themselves
0:08:00 > 0:08:05as individuals within an increasingly complicated society
0:08:05 > 0:08:08and an internationally connected world.
0:08:08 > 0:08:12All of that, and the universe itself.
0:08:12 > 0:08:16Where did we fit into time and into the cosmos?
0:08:23 > 0:08:27In a valley just beneath the greenstone axe factory,
0:08:27 > 0:08:29there's evidence of these new ideas.
0:08:39 > 0:08:44Places like this have an atmosphere.
0:08:44 > 0:08:46When you happen across one in the landscape
0:08:46 > 0:08:51it makes you pause and think and wonder -
0:08:51 > 0:08:53you know, what's going on?
0:08:57 > 0:09:01Stone circles are almost unknown outside Britain and Ireland,
0:09:01 > 0:09:04but we have hundreds of them.
0:09:04 > 0:09:07And they're often found in the most dramatic of locations.
0:09:10 > 0:09:14First of all, this place, these stones, mattered.
0:09:14 > 0:09:18This is quite a small stone circle, but still the effort involved
0:09:18 > 0:09:22suggests you don't go moving things this size just for fun.
0:09:22 > 0:09:25And building monumental structures like this
0:09:25 > 0:09:28was part of a tradition that lasted for over a thousand years.
0:09:32 > 0:09:375,000 years ago, people living here in Cumbria, and all over Britain,
0:09:37 > 0:09:41were making spiritual connections that had never been made before...
0:09:42 > 0:09:45..not just between their lives and the land,
0:09:45 > 0:09:48but between their lives and the sky,
0:09:48 > 0:09:50the cosmos as well.
0:09:54 > 0:09:56Perhaps the very idea of heaven.
0:10:01 > 0:10:05This is a new Britain, the Neolithic reaching its very height,
0:10:05 > 0:10:09and it's one of the most mysterious and glorious periods
0:10:09 > 0:10:10in all of pre-history.
0:10:15 > 0:10:20Welcome to the Orkney islands, off the northern tip of Scotland.
0:10:20 > 0:10:23I've come here to explore a landscape that holds
0:10:23 > 0:10:27some of the best-preserved Stone Age structures in Britain.
0:10:27 > 0:10:31Here, there are relics of the lives and the beliefs
0:10:31 > 0:10:34of people who lived here at the very height of the Neolithic.
0:10:40 > 0:10:44Orkney is a wild place, whipped by North Atlantic winds.
0:10:44 > 0:10:47Even from the air there's not a tree to be seen.
0:10:50 > 0:10:53But it's more than the wind that's responsible.
0:10:57 > 0:11:00There were trees on Orkney, once upon a time.
0:11:00 > 0:11:03But it's thought that the first farmers cut them down
0:11:03 > 0:11:06to prepare fields for crops and keeping animals
0:11:06 > 0:11:10and given that Orkney's not a big place, it didn't take long to clear the lot.
0:11:14 > 0:11:20Fortunately, though, Orkney was rich in another building material.
0:11:20 > 0:11:23The whole island is made of this - horizontally bedded,
0:11:23 > 0:11:29fractured sandstone that splits very easily into useful slabs and sheets.
0:11:29 > 0:11:35And around 3,300 BC the people living here began to use this stuff
0:11:35 > 0:11:39to build some of the most enduring structures of the ancient world.
0:11:45 > 0:11:49Magnificent stone tombs and vast stone circles
0:11:49 > 0:11:53give us a unique insight into an extraordinary moment in our history,
0:11:55 > 0:11:59When we first turned our spiritual gaze towards the heavens.
0:12:02 > 0:12:05Here, even domestic houses have been preserved in stone,
0:12:05 > 0:12:09the very homes of the people who were pioneering this new age.
0:12:16 > 0:12:21Some of the most special are perched on the far west coast of Orkney.
0:12:23 > 0:12:25Here it is, Skara Brae.
0:12:25 > 0:12:27It's an extraordinary place,
0:12:27 > 0:12:30and it lets us get as close as we could possibly hope to
0:12:30 > 0:12:34the way domestic life was lived on Orkney in the Stone Age.
0:12:43 > 0:12:49The village was occupied for over 600 years, from about 3,100BC.
0:12:49 > 0:12:55What you've got are eight houses arranged on either side of a long winding passage,
0:12:55 > 0:12:58and because the whole thing is semi-subterranean,
0:12:58 > 0:13:04it does a great job of keeping the wind out, cutting down the draughts.
0:13:04 > 0:13:07'And because there wasn't any wood available, it wasn't just
0:13:07 > 0:13:11'the houses that were built of stone, but everything inside as well.'
0:13:14 > 0:13:15Right.
0:13:16 > 0:13:18This is the inside of one of the houses.
0:13:18 > 0:13:23What you notice right away is a big square hearth for a big roaring fire.
0:13:23 > 0:13:28These are bed recesses, places where people would have laid out their bedding.
0:13:28 > 0:13:30This arrangement here
0:13:30 > 0:13:33looks a bit like a dresser because it is a dresser.
0:13:33 > 0:13:36It's directly opposite the only entrance
0:13:36 > 0:13:39so it's the first thing that guests see as they enter,
0:13:39 > 0:13:43and on these shelves you would put the things that mattered,
0:13:43 > 0:13:46the equivalent of somewhere to put the good wedding china.
0:13:46 > 0:13:51Everything about this design, this house, is so clever and so human.
0:13:55 > 0:13:59But wonderful and evocative though this place undoubtedly is,
0:13:59 > 0:14:03it's all a bit too neat and tidy, a bit sterile, the grass is too mown.
0:14:03 > 0:14:06The first time I came here I heard a song in my head,
0:14:06 > 0:14:09and I've heard it every time since - it's Flintstones,
0:14:09 > 0:14:12meet the Flintstones, modern Stone Age famil-ee.
0:14:12 > 0:14:15What you want here in addition to the sights
0:14:15 > 0:14:18are the sounds of conversation and lives being lived,
0:14:18 > 0:14:20the smells of that human activity.
0:14:22 > 0:14:23But we can get closer.
0:14:26 > 0:14:28- You all right?- Yeah, lead on! - OK, here we go.
0:14:28 > 0:14:33'Alison Sheridan, a specialist in pre-historic artefacts, is showing me one house
0:14:33 > 0:14:37'that's so well-preserved people aren't usually allowed inside.'
0:14:37 > 0:14:40It's not the easiest place to get into, is it?
0:14:40 > 0:14:42No, but it's cosy!
0:14:42 > 0:14:48So what would life have been like for the Skara Brae residents, do you think?
0:14:48 > 0:14:52It would've been pretty comfortable by the standards of the age,
0:14:52 > 0:14:54because you've got this wonderful central hearth,
0:14:54 > 0:14:58so it may have been dark because of the roof but it would have been warm.
0:14:58 > 0:15:02They've also got a convenience, they have a toilet.
0:15:02 > 0:15:05How do you know that's a toilet and not a storage space?
0:15:05 > 0:15:09Well, there's a drain underneath it.
0:15:09 > 0:15:12- And they did find poo!- Really?
0:15:12 > 0:15:14- So the hard evidence is there? - Yes.
0:15:16 > 0:15:20'Remarkably, these houses also contained artefacts,
0:15:20 > 0:15:26'the precious possessions of the people who were living here 5,000 years ago.'
0:15:26 > 0:15:29I never found anything like this in my entire life.
0:15:29 > 0:15:32Miserable bits of broken stone was all I ever found.
0:15:32 > 0:15:38- So what have we got? - Anything but miserable bits of stone. These are absolutely amazing.
0:15:38 > 0:15:41What are they generally called, if you were to group them as a class of find?
0:15:41 > 0:15:43Enigmatic carved stone objects.
0:15:43 > 0:15:47Only because archaeologists haven't worked out what they are.
0:15:47 > 0:15:51And in the absence of materials we would consider precious,
0:15:51 > 0:15:55like gold or silver, these have to be the equivalent of it.
0:15:55 > 0:15:58Because of the time and the skill they represent.
0:15:58 > 0:16:01Yes, we're in an age before the earliest metal.
0:16:01 > 0:16:05So the stone itself is not intrinsically valuable
0:16:05 > 0:16:07but as an object, it meant a lot.
0:16:07 > 0:16:08What about the rest?
0:16:08 > 0:16:10These pieces of jewellery...
0:16:10 > 0:16:16- They found something like 8,000 beads in this structure. - In this house?!- Yes.
0:16:16 > 0:16:23Right. So on a practical level, it says someone has the time to do this
0:16:23 > 0:16:26rather then being out growing, herding, whatever.
0:16:26 > 0:16:31Someone can set aside part of their day, perhaps all of their time to specialising,
0:16:31 > 0:16:37- and being provided with everything else they need by the rest of the village?- That's right.
0:16:37 > 0:16:40These are just wonders - which one can I have?
0:16:40 > 0:16:42Take them all!
0:16:42 > 0:16:44We know where you live!
0:16:47 > 0:16:50But as well as jewellery and carved stones,
0:16:50 > 0:16:53this house also revealed a darker secret.
0:16:53 > 0:16:59Intriguingly, two adult women's skeletons were found under the bed.
0:16:59 > 0:17:02- Uniquely.- Below floor level?
0:17:02 > 0:17:07Yes, it's as if during the lifetime of the house, they lived here,
0:17:07 > 0:17:10- they died here, they were buried here. - And put under the bed?
0:17:10 > 0:17:15Like Granny under the bed. It was a house for the living, but also a house for the dead.
0:17:22 > 0:17:26The precious artefacts and the presence of human remains
0:17:26 > 0:17:28might mean that these houses were special.
0:17:31 > 0:17:34No-one can be sure, but the people who lived here
0:17:34 > 0:17:37might not have been ordinary farmers
0:17:37 > 0:17:40but some of the earliest priests of a new religion.
0:17:46 > 0:17:51Within just a few miles of Skara Brae, built around the same time, is this...
0:17:58 > 0:18:02A stone tomb constructed on a truly grand scale.
0:18:12 > 0:18:13Fantastic.
0:18:13 > 0:18:17Already you get the sense that you've left one world behind
0:18:17 > 0:18:20and come somewhere different.
0:18:20 > 0:18:22And what you're rewarded with
0:18:22 > 0:18:25after bending down and struggling through
0:18:25 > 0:18:28is access to a masterpiece, in every sense of the word.
0:18:31 > 0:18:34What you also see right away is the similarity between the interior of
0:18:34 > 0:18:38this tomb and the interiors of the houses in Skara Brae.
0:18:38 > 0:18:43And in fact there was a house here once upon a time.
0:18:43 > 0:18:48And a circle of standing stones, all before the tomb was ever built.
0:18:48 > 0:18:52It's a classic example of somewhere domestic being altered,
0:18:52 > 0:18:56becoming something other, something ritual.
0:18:56 > 0:18:58Over here,
0:18:58 > 0:19:01again, a shadow of something domestic -
0:19:01 > 0:19:04it's a recess, similar to a bed,
0:19:04 > 0:19:10but of course the people put away in there are having a much, much deeper sleep.
0:19:17 > 0:19:20Maeshowe is a triumph of ancient architecture,
0:19:20 > 0:19:22not only in its stonework,
0:19:22 > 0:19:25but in the way it's been positioned in the landscape.
0:19:27 > 0:19:30For a few days each midwinter,
0:19:30 > 0:19:34the setting sun is framed by two distant hills
0:19:34 > 0:19:37on the neighbouring island of Hoy.
0:19:37 > 0:19:40And as the sun drops onto the horizon,
0:19:40 > 0:19:43it shines through the passage, lighting up the inner chamber.
0:19:46 > 0:19:49Maeshowe was aligned to the heavens
0:19:49 > 0:19:52and to the dramatic features of the Orcadian landscape.
0:19:59 > 0:20:00When you look around here,
0:20:00 > 0:20:05you realise that you're surrounded by hills and water.
0:20:05 > 0:20:07It's a natural amphitheatre.
0:20:07 > 0:20:10It's a stage set for drama.
0:20:10 > 0:20:13And it's here, across the promontory from Maeshowe,
0:20:13 > 0:20:16that the Neolithic people of Orkney
0:20:16 > 0:20:20decided to build another extraordinary monument in stone.
0:20:35 > 0:20:41The Ring of Brodgar is one of the biggest stone circles we know about anywhere.
0:20:41 > 0:20:45It's over 100m across, and while there are 21 stones standing today,
0:20:45 > 0:20:50in its original form there would have been as many as 60.
0:20:50 > 0:20:52And that's not all...
0:20:52 > 0:20:56This stone circle was also surrounded by a ditch -
0:20:58 > 0:21:02not just any ditch, this is ten metres across
0:21:02 > 0:21:06and over three metres deep and it's not just cut into the soil,
0:21:06 > 0:21:10it's been cut into the living bedrock.
0:21:10 > 0:21:16It's been estimated that it would have taken 100 men six months just to cut the ditch.
0:21:16 > 0:21:18This is on an epic scale.
0:21:22 > 0:21:24The Ring of Brodgar is vast,
0:21:24 > 0:21:28but incredibly, it actually forms part of something even bigger.
0:21:31 > 0:21:32And here's a clue...
0:21:32 > 0:21:35The ditch isn't actually complete.
0:21:35 > 0:21:40There's a causeway right here and another one on the other side.
0:21:40 > 0:21:43It's thought that these are an entrance and an exit,
0:21:43 > 0:21:48which means perhaps the stone circle isn't itself a destination,
0:21:48 > 0:21:50it's some kind of portal maybe,
0:21:50 > 0:21:53something you pass through on the way to something else.
0:21:53 > 0:21:57And that somewhere else is down there, just across the peninsula.
0:22:03 > 0:22:06The Ring of Brodgar points you across a narrow land-bridge
0:22:06 > 0:22:11towards another even older stone circle, the Stones of Stenness.
0:22:18 > 0:22:22Few of the original stones survive, but those that do
0:22:22 > 0:22:25reveal yet more connections to this monumental landscape.
0:22:30 > 0:22:34What's striking here is the way some of the stone are positioned.
0:22:34 > 0:22:38This pair here are aligned so that when you look through the gap,
0:22:38 > 0:22:42Maeshowe is perfectly framed against the hillside.
0:22:46 > 0:22:52Originally there would have been a complete ditch encircling the monument.
0:22:52 > 0:22:56And the thinking is that that ditch would have held water, so it would have appeared as a moat.
0:22:56 > 0:23:01So maybe what you have 5,000 years ago is the builders,
0:23:01 > 0:23:04the architects of this monument
0:23:04 > 0:23:07creating an island within an island,
0:23:07 > 0:23:12a miniature, a microcosm of their world as they saw it.
0:23:24 > 0:23:28The creation of monumental architecture around 5,000 years ago
0:23:28 > 0:23:33can be seen in a sense as an evolution of earlier Neolithic culture.
0:23:33 > 0:23:36After all, these people had been building
0:23:36 > 0:23:41huge earthen enclosures and vast cursus monuments for generations.
0:23:41 > 0:23:44It was the connections between the monuments
0:23:44 > 0:23:47and astronomical alignments that was new.
0:23:47 > 0:23:52The earth, the landscape, was as important as it had always been.
0:23:52 > 0:23:55But now it was being seen as part of a bigger picture.
0:23:55 > 0:23:59The skies, the sun and the moon, the heavens.
0:23:59 > 0:24:04That's what this Age of Astronomy seems to have been all about.
0:24:11 > 0:24:14Our human need to understand our place in the cosmos
0:24:14 > 0:24:16still resonates today.
0:24:21 > 0:24:23This is midsummer,
0:24:23 > 0:24:27just before dawn at the most famous stone age monument of them all.
0:24:31 > 0:24:33This place, Salisbury Plain...
0:24:35 > 0:24:38..has been attracting people for millennia, and it still does.
0:24:38 > 0:24:42There are literally thousands of people here.
0:24:42 > 0:24:46Some of them have come to worship ancient gods,
0:24:46 > 0:24:49some to connect with Mother Earth.
0:24:49 > 0:24:52Some have come in search of themselves.
0:24:52 > 0:24:57But to be honest, I think a lot of them are here just because everyone else is, just for the spectacle.
0:25:11 > 0:25:14DRUMMING
0:25:14 > 0:25:17Of course, what everybody's waiting for is the sunrise,
0:25:17 > 0:25:21which will be over there, and by my reckoning,
0:25:21 > 0:25:23will be in, oh, several minutes' time.
0:25:25 > 0:25:27Can't wait!
0:25:36 > 0:25:40Funny thing is that it's actually very hard to see the sunrise
0:25:40 > 0:25:43because of all these stones and all these people.
0:25:56 > 0:25:58Oh, there she blows.
0:26:10 > 0:26:14Presumably, its arrival today means,
0:26:14 > 0:26:17well, something different to every one of these people here.
0:26:17 > 0:26:22There's several thousand of them, so that's several thousand meanings.
0:26:22 > 0:26:23Take your pick.
0:26:28 > 0:26:33But what did Stonehenge mean to the people who gathered here 5,000 years ago?
0:26:35 > 0:26:39To begin to answer that, you have to go back to the stones themselves.
0:26:41 > 0:26:44And I don't mean the most obvious ones.
0:26:44 > 0:26:47The sarsen stones, and the huge trilithons,
0:26:47 > 0:26:50they weren't part of the original monument.
0:26:50 > 0:26:54If you want to get back to the start of Stonehenge, you have to look at
0:26:54 > 0:26:58these smaller stones that are all around the interior.
0:26:58 > 0:27:03Unlike the sarsens, which were dragged here from just 20 or so miles up the road,
0:27:03 > 0:27:07these are from much, much further away, off to the west.
0:27:23 > 0:27:26The wild south-west of Wales.
0:27:27 > 0:27:30High in the Preseli Hills, the rolling landscape
0:27:30 > 0:27:34is broken by huge outcrops of a very distinctive stone.
0:27:40 > 0:27:44Now, the thing is, studies have shown that this kind of stone
0:27:44 > 0:27:48is identical to the original boulders of Stonehenge,
0:27:48 > 0:27:51built over 200 miles away in that direction.
0:27:51 > 0:27:54'Geologists call this a spotted dolerite.
0:27:54 > 0:28:00'And this is the only place in Britain where this particular type exists.'
0:28:00 > 0:28:03This has been amazing to me for more than half of my life.
0:28:03 > 0:28:05I mean, why do it at all?
0:28:05 > 0:28:09What motivated them? Why these stones, from here?
0:28:11 > 0:28:17Now, it does have to be said there are a couple of things about this rock that are unusual.
0:28:17 > 0:28:19First of all, I'm going to don my Stone Age goggles...
0:28:21 > 0:28:22..and hit this as hard as I can.
0:28:27 > 0:28:30Now, on that fresh face there...
0:28:31 > 0:28:36..if I wet that freshly broken face,
0:28:36 > 0:28:37look at that, isn't that lovely?
0:28:37 > 0:28:42See how it changes colour? It goes this soft blue shade.
0:28:42 > 0:28:46Obviously, it's why this stuff is known as bluestone.
0:28:46 > 0:28:50And it's speckled throughout with these little flecks of feldspar.
0:28:50 > 0:28:56These properties, these unique freckles, would have made this rock seem very special.
0:28:56 > 0:28:58It might even have seemed magical.
0:29:00 > 0:29:06We might never know exactly why this place and these crags were chosen.
0:29:06 > 0:29:13But it reminds me of the Lake District axe-makers on a much grander scale.
0:29:13 > 0:29:17What we do know for certain, though, is that this place was important.
0:29:17 > 0:29:22So important that it filled ancient people with an urge so powerful
0:29:22 > 0:29:27that they were able to find the strength and the will to move over 200 tonnes of this rock
0:29:27 > 0:29:32and use it to set up the first stone circle of Stonehenge.
0:29:32 > 0:29:34Now THAT takes some belief.
0:29:42 > 0:29:475,000 years ago, the Stonehenge we see today simply didn't exist.
0:29:49 > 0:29:52Instead, there was a much simpler circle.
0:29:56 > 0:30:01After their long journey from Preseli, the bluestones were put up in a great big circle,
0:30:01 > 0:30:04round the outside, on the inner edge of this bank.
0:30:04 > 0:30:09So for 500 years or so, the bluestone circle WAS Stonehenge.
0:30:09 > 0:30:13And then, for some reason, the people living around here
0:30:13 > 0:30:16decided to give themselves an even bigger challenge.
0:30:21 > 0:30:26Around 2,500 BC, a new generation of builders
0:30:26 > 0:30:29created their ultimate monument.
0:30:29 > 0:30:35Using massive blocks of local sandstone, they constructed something unprecedented -
0:30:35 > 0:30:38a ring of standing stones capped with lintels.
0:30:42 > 0:30:45Inside, a horseshoe of yet more stones.
0:30:47 > 0:30:49And at the same time, for good measure,
0:30:49 > 0:30:55they moved the original boulders of bluestone right into the centre.
0:30:55 > 0:30:59Unlike the bluestones, these gigantic sarsens
0:30:59 > 0:31:03were only transported 20 miles or so, from up the road.
0:31:03 > 0:31:07But given that each one weighs anything up to 40 tonnes,
0:31:07 > 0:31:10well, the effort required to shift them was phenomenal.
0:31:13 > 0:31:18This new Stonehenge marked special days in the cosmic calendar -
0:31:20 > 0:31:22spring and autumn,
0:31:22 > 0:31:25as well as the well known alignment on the midsummer sunrise.
0:31:32 > 0:31:37But the midsummer sunrise exactly matches another event -
0:31:37 > 0:31:38the setting sun...
0:31:40 > 0:31:41..at midwinter.
0:31:43 > 0:31:49The latest evidence suggests that our most famous prehistoric monument of all
0:31:49 > 0:31:52might not have been a celebration of summer and life...
0:31:54 > 0:31:56..but a commemoration of winter...
0:31:57 > 0:31:58..and death.
0:32:05 > 0:32:10Like the Orkney monuments, Stonehenge is not alone.
0:32:10 > 0:32:14Nearby, this field contains all that remains of
0:32:14 > 0:32:17an ancient site of winter gathering.
0:32:23 > 0:32:25Have a look at these!
0:32:25 > 0:32:27Animal bones and teeth.
0:32:27 > 0:32:31Just a sample of the thousands of animal remains
0:32:31 > 0:32:33found scattered all across the site.
0:32:34 > 0:32:36These are pig bones.
0:32:36 > 0:32:39Piglets are usually born in the springtime
0:32:39 > 0:32:43and the vast majority of the pig remains at Durrington Walls
0:32:43 > 0:32:46show that adult animals were slaughtered at around nine months -
0:32:46 > 0:32:49that's in midwinter.
0:32:49 > 0:32:54Also, the teeth reveal that the animals had been
0:32:54 > 0:32:58specifically fattened up prior to the feasting,
0:32:58 > 0:33:01and we can tell this because the teeth are rotten.
0:33:01 > 0:33:05What we have here isn't just casual feasting.
0:33:05 > 0:33:12This is one final commemoration, one big celebration of life,
0:33:12 > 0:33:16before the ancestors commenced their journey to Stonehenge
0:33:16 > 0:33:17and the land of the dead.
0:33:19 > 0:33:21It's thought that each winter,
0:33:21 > 0:33:24people would come here from hundreds of miles around
0:33:24 > 0:33:27to commemorate the lives of their ancestors...
0:33:29 > 0:33:31..and to ensure the souls of the recently dead
0:33:31 > 0:33:35reached the safety of the afterlife at Stonehenge itself.
0:33:41 > 0:33:46I think it's fascinating that everyone believes they know Stonehenge.
0:33:46 > 0:33:49It's like the Mona Lisa or the Pyramids.
0:33:49 > 0:33:53It's so familiar, it's hard to see it with fresh eyes.
0:33:54 > 0:33:57I think we've discovered something by coming here.
0:33:57 > 0:34:00I think we've discovered a new Stonehenge,
0:34:00 > 0:34:04and it's as far from the golden warmth of a midsummer sunrise
0:34:04 > 0:34:06as it's possible to get.
0:34:08 > 0:34:11It's somewhere that still carries a charge.
0:34:11 > 0:34:13You can feel it.
0:34:13 > 0:34:15And if you come here at midwinter,
0:34:15 > 0:34:18you can feel that charge just a little bit more.
0:34:20 > 0:34:24The coldness of the stones, the open landscape.
0:34:24 > 0:34:26It's not hard to believe
0:34:26 > 0:34:31that this place is somewhere that belongs to the dead.
0:34:56 > 0:34:59When we look back to the time of the great monuments of the Neolithic,
0:34:59 > 0:35:05we see a whole new age dawning, in belief, but also in society.
0:35:08 > 0:35:13There's no doubt that the creation of these vast monuments was a religious act.
0:35:13 > 0:35:17It's about finding and defining a place in the universe,
0:35:17 > 0:35:19in time, in life and in death.
0:35:20 > 0:35:23The special objects found at Orkney,
0:35:23 > 0:35:25the arrangement of the temple complex,
0:35:25 > 0:35:29these things imply the existence of a priestly class
0:35:29 > 0:35:33that the farmers themselves were supporting.
0:35:33 > 0:35:35And the sheer scale of these enterprises,
0:35:35 > 0:35:39the planning and engineering required by Stonehenge,
0:35:39 > 0:35:43by the Ring of Brodgar, suggests that some group was in charge,
0:35:43 > 0:35:45and they were out to impress.
0:35:45 > 0:35:49Because these monuments themselves were connected.
0:35:51 > 0:35:55We know people were moving between these great monuments
0:35:55 > 0:35:57because of this.
0:35:57 > 0:35:59It's a style of pottery.
0:35:59 > 0:36:05It's called grooved ware because of the grooves that decorate the surface.
0:36:05 > 0:36:08It was made first of all in Orkney.
0:36:08 > 0:36:13It's also the first pottery we know of in Britain and Ireland
0:36:13 > 0:36:15with a proper flat base.
0:36:15 > 0:36:19This style of pottery was subsequently found at Stonehenge,
0:36:19 > 0:36:24in the south of England, and it's found at all points in between.
0:36:24 > 0:36:29What the experts are now imagining is a kind of elite world travel, if you like,
0:36:29 > 0:36:31where important people
0:36:31 > 0:36:37moved between the great Neolithic monuments on a kind of Grand Tour.
0:36:37 > 0:36:39On three, lads.
0:36:39 > 0:36:41Haon, do, tri!
0:36:46 > 0:36:48'5,000 years ago,
0:36:48 > 0:36:52'there was only one way for a serious Neolithic traveller to get around.'
0:36:52 > 0:36:55Is she doing what she's supposed to, Clive?
0:36:55 > 0:36:58She's doing exactly what she's meant to do, so very impressed.
0:36:58 > 0:37:02- And it's completely dry.- She is.
0:37:02 > 0:37:08'I'm joining the crew of a sea-going currach, built by Irish boat-builder Clive O'Gibney,
0:37:08 > 0:37:12'using 5,000-year-old technology -
0:37:12 > 0:37:17'a frame of hazel, covered with cow hide, and sealed with pitch.'
0:37:17 > 0:37:20It's as smooth as spreading a nice piece of butter on bread.
0:37:20 > 0:37:25- Every now and again I can convince myself I'm in time with somebody. - That's it.
0:37:25 > 0:37:28If it's with me, Neil, we're in trouble. We're both out.
0:37:29 > 0:37:32- 'Rowing's all very well...' - All right, lads, give it a crack.
0:37:32 > 0:37:37'but Clive believes that longer voyages would have required some sort of sail.'
0:37:37 > 0:37:40OK. Now I'm going to go overboard if we do this.
0:37:40 > 0:37:45In the Neolithic, there was no cloth technology,
0:37:45 > 0:37:49so Clive has used hazel rods and strips of cow hide.
0:37:49 > 0:37:54No-one has ever attempted anything remotely like this before.
0:37:54 > 0:37:57We need everybody to be calm.
0:37:57 > 0:38:01I'm going to move that way with the sail, over towards you.
0:38:01 > 0:38:03Whoa, whoa, whoa!
0:38:04 > 0:38:06You're all right, lads, sit down.
0:38:08 > 0:38:10Do you hear it?
0:38:10 > 0:38:11All the way.
0:38:15 > 0:38:17'It's a heavy and cumbersome rig...
0:38:19 > 0:38:22'..but amazingly, it actually seems to work!'
0:38:32 > 0:38:35So how does it feel, Clive, seeing this for the first time?
0:38:35 > 0:38:36I'm delighted with myself.
0:38:36 > 0:38:41- It's one thing imagining it, but to actually feel it working...- Feel it.
0:38:41 > 0:38:45I wanted to hear it, I wanted to feel it and that's what we're getting now.
0:38:45 > 0:38:48- It's one of the best experiences I've had in my life. - It's definitely a sailing currach.
0:38:48 > 0:38:53It's definitely a sailing currach, there you go, Neil.
0:38:53 > 0:38:55- Will we just go to England? - Aye, come on.
0:38:55 > 0:38:58I've got the lunch, and a dram of something in there.
0:39:01 > 0:39:03It's easy to imagine boats like this
0:39:03 > 0:39:07sailing between the great sites of Neolithic Britain,
0:39:07 > 0:39:15carrying people, ideas, beliefs, and precious objects.
0:39:23 > 0:39:28One remarkable find epitomises this age of elite travel.
0:39:28 > 0:39:30It was discovered just north of Dublin,
0:39:30 > 0:39:35but it's thought it was made across the sea in Britain.
0:39:43 > 0:39:45This is a ceremonial macehead.
0:39:47 > 0:39:50It's 5,000 years old, there or thereabouts,
0:39:50 > 0:39:53and it's made from a single piece of beautifully worked flint.
0:39:54 > 0:39:57In every possible way, it's an object of wonder.
0:40:00 > 0:40:06Now, the person who made this wasn't just technically skilled,
0:40:06 > 0:40:08but also an artistic genius.
0:40:10 > 0:40:15Do you see the way that that spiral there suggests two eyes?
0:40:15 > 0:40:19And the hole to take the shaft of the mace could be the mouth.
0:40:19 > 0:40:24The hole for the shaft has been drilled out.
0:40:24 > 0:40:26Now this is from a time before any metal,
0:40:26 > 0:40:29so the drill bit was a piece of wood
0:40:29 > 0:40:34and the abrasive action has been achieved by using sand or ground quartz.
0:40:34 > 0:40:39But even saying that, you're still looking at countless hours, days,
0:40:39 > 0:40:43maybe even weeks of painstaking effort to create that perfect smooth hole.
0:40:46 > 0:40:48It's technically flawless,
0:40:48 > 0:40:51but it also reveals a level of sophistication
0:40:51 > 0:40:55and refinement of design that you simply don't see
0:40:55 > 0:41:00in any other artefact of the period in Britain or in Ireland.
0:41:02 > 0:41:07This new art speaks of power and prestige.
0:41:07 > 0:41:11Of an emerging world of priests and chieftains, people whose status
0:41:11 > 0:41:15was displayed in the possession of rare and exquisite objects.
0:41:22 > 0:41:24As well as Stonehenge and Orkney,
0:41:24 > 0:41:28it seems that these people also came to Ireland.
0:41:31 > 0:41:375,000 years ago, travellers sailed or rowed up here, the River Boyne,
0:41:37 > 0:41:39to the most sacred landscape of them all,
0:41:39 > 0:41:42The Bru na Boinne, the "Palace of the Boyne".
0:41:51 > 0:41:53This is another sacred landscape,
0:41:53 > 0:41:59constructed around 3,200 BC, which means it probably predates
0:41:59 > 0:42:03the bluestone phase at Stonehenge, and the stone circles of Orkney.
0:42:03 > 0:42:06This could be where it all began.
0:42:06 > 0:42:10And right at the centre, a mecca for tourists from all over the world
0:42:10 > 0:42:14is this massive passage grave, Newgrange.
0:42:20 > 0:42:23Of course, the mound as you see it today isn't original.
0:42:23 > 0:42:28It was excavated in the 1960s and then reconstructed in this...
0:42:28 > 0:42:30well, very confident style.
0:42:30 > 0:42:33I'm in two minds about it, actually. On the one hand,
0:42:33 > 0:42:36it's very striking and attracts a lot of people,
0:42:36 > 0:42:38maybe inspires a lot of people to find out more.
0:42:38 > 0:42:42But on the other hand, it's a bit brutal and a bit overdone.
0:42:42 > 0:42:45It's kind of like "Stalin does the Stone Age".
0:42:53 > 0:42:56Inside, though, its magic still rings out.
0:42:57 > 0:43:03This is the very earliest building of the new Neolithic cosmology,
0:43:03 > 0:43:07created hundreds of years before even the Egyptian pyramids.
0:43:10 > 0:43:13What strikes you immediately is how much this feels like Maeshowe
0:43:13 > 0:43:17on Orkney, with this narrow low passageway
0:43:17 > 0:43:20leading from the world of light to the dark world within.
0:43:20 > 0:43:23And in fact, this may have been the inspiration for Maeshowe,
0:43:23 > 0:43:25because this tomb was built first.
0:43:35 > 0:43:39And again, like Maeshowe, there are three recesses
0:43:39 > 0:43:43that once upon a time would have held the remains of the dead.
0:43:43 > 0:43:47But this one is altogether more rough-hewn than Maeshowe.
0:43:47 > 0:43:50It lacks the perfection, it's more Stone Age, if you like.
0:43:53 > 0:43:55Like Maeshowe on Orkney,
0:43:55 > 0:43:59Newgrange is carefully aligned on the movement of the sun.
0:43:59 > 0:44:00Above the entrance
0:44:00 > 0:44:05there's a stone frame that lets light into the passage, a roofbox.
0:44:08 > 0:44:12If I get down here, you can see what I mean.
0:44:12 > 0:44:17On a day like today, it doesn't let a lot of sunshine in,
0:44:17 > 0:44:19but once a year,
0:44:19 > 0:44:21on December 21st, the winter solstice,
0:44:21 > 0:44:25the sun is directly in front of the entrance
0:44:25 > 0:44:30and the roofbox lets the sun all the way up this passageway
0:44:30 > 0:44:33until it illuminates the entire chamber.
0:44:35 > 0:44:37It lasts for about 17 minutes,
0:44:37 > 0:44:41and then the chamber is plunged into darkness for another year.
0:44:41 > 0:44:45Now, that trick makes this place
0:44:45 > 0:44:49one of the earliest astronomically aligned buildings anywhere in the world.
0:44:52 > 0:44:56Like the other monuments, Newgrange marks midwinter.
0:44:56 > 0:45:00But here, there's an additional clue to Neolithic belief.
0:45:00 > 0:45:03That time flows in a cycle.
0:45:03 > 0:45:07And even in death, there is a promise of rebirth.
0:45:12 > 0:45:15There's a reason for the alignment of the passageway.
0:45:15 > 0:45:21It's to allow the sun to illuminate this stone and pick out this carving,
0:45:21 > 0:45:23the only carving in the recess.
0:45:23 > 0:45:26It's something called a triple spiral,
0:45:26 > 0:45:30the very earliest example of a triple spiral.
0:45:30 > 0:45:35It's one continuous carving with no beginning and no end.
0:45:35 > 0:45:37It's a kind of perfect form.
0:45:37 > 0:45:40The illumination of this carving once a year,
0:45:40 > 0:45:45in a piece of religious theatre, lay at the very heart of the beliefs
0:45:45 > 0:45:49of the people who designed and built this place.
0:45:51 > 0:45:57The great sacred sites of Newgrange, Stonehenge and Orkney were magnets
0:45:57 > 0:45:59for elite travellers who,
0:45:59 > 0:46:045,000 years ago, took inspiration and ideas from one another.
0:46:04 > 0:46:08What we're left with today are monuments that are unique in Europe,
0:46:08 > 0:46:14created by powerful and commonly held religious beliefs.
0:46:14 > 0:46:18From the Orkney Islands in Scotland to the Preseli mountains in Wales,
0:46:18 > 0:46:22from the Lake District in the north of England to Stonehenge in the south
0:46:22 > 0:46:26and finally here in Ireland, it's all connected.
0:46:28 > 0:46:32And all that time, there must have been some sort of priestly caste
0:46:32 > 0:46:34marshalling all that effort.
0:46:34 > 0:46:37The people who carried the maceheads.
0:46:37 > 0:46:39And in some of the tombs surrounding Newgrange,
0:46:39 > 0:46:43there are clues to their sacred beliefs, and, in particular,
0:46:43 > 0:46:46to the treatment of some of the first elites of ancient society.
0:46:53 > 0:46:57Within sight of Newgrange lies yet another tomb, Knowth.
0:47:08 > 0:47:13More than 400 of its stones are covered in swirling, abstract art,
0:47:13 > 0:47:17almost half of all the megalithic art in the whole of Western Europe.
0:47:23 > 0:47:28This is where the precious macehead was found.
0:47:28 > 0:47:30And it wasn't the only spectacular discovery.
0:47:32 > 0:47:36Archaeologist George Eogan has been studying Knowth for 50 years.
0:47:40 > 0:47:45You could picture that you had a religious person, the equivalent of a priest
0:47:45 > 0:47:47who could stand here
0:47:47 > 0:47:52before the entrance, and in between,
0:47:52 > 0:47:58you have this splendid sandstone, six feet or so in height,
0:47:58 > 0:48:02with a vertical line which leads up the centre of the passage.
0:48:02 > 0:48:04So what would have happened inside?
0:48:04 > 0:48:06Who gets in there?
0:48:06 > 0:48:11I would think only a small number of people went inside,
0:48:11 > 0:48:13probably even an individual,
0:48:13 > 0:48:18who just took the remains and placed them in the tomb.
0:48:18 > 0:48:20- Can we have a look?- We can indeed.
0:48:20 > 0:48:21Good. Lead on.
0:48:28 > 0:48:30Back in 1968,
0:48:30 > 0:48:35George was the first person in modern times to break into the tomb.
0:48:35 > 0:48:38- How long is the passage? - About 140 feet.
0:48:43 > 0:48:47- Are you winning?- It'll take me a long time. No hurry.
0:48:54 > 0:48:58I can see why you don't have this place open to the public, George.
0:48:58 > 0:49:00- It's not the easiest place.- No.
0:49:02 > 0:49:06Oh, my. Oh, I say.
0:49:06 > 0:49:09- Look up. - Now, that's a bit good.
0:49:12 > 0:49:15And this is as it was? This hasn't been reconstructed?
0:49:15 > 0:49:18No, not at all.
0:49:18 > 0:49:21What was it like the very first time you came in here?
0:49:21 > 0:49:25How did you feel to be the first person in here in goodness knows how long?
0:49:25 > 0:49:29Well, it was unbelievably exciting.
0:49:36 > 0:49:41What George found were the untouched remnants of ancient sacred rites,
0:49:41 > 0:49:44a time capsule of Neolithic belief.
0:49:46 > 0:49:50And scattered in and around this exquisitely carved basin
0:49:50 > 0:49:53was evidence of something new in Stone Age society -
0:49:55 > 0:49:57burnt human remains.
0:50:04 > 0:50:06These are some of the earliest remains
0:50:06 > 0:50:09of ritual cremation ever found.
0:50:09 > 0:50:14The skull is easiest to find, because the skull is very distinctive.
0:50:14 > 0:50:16It has an inner and outer layer,
0:50:16 > 0:50:20and some spongy bone in between.
0:50:20 > 0:50:22Although only fragments survive,
0:50:22 > 0:50:28under expert eyes, these remains reveal a wealth of information.
0:50:28 > 0:50:31Some areas of the skull are more important than others.
0:50:31 > 0:50:36This part in particular is the petrous portion of the temporal bone
0:50:36 > 0:50:39and it survives very well because it's thick.
0:50:39 > 0:50:44From this, I can identify which side of the skull it came from,
0:50:44 > 0:50:47so it's useful in determining the number of individuals.
0:50:47 > 0:50:51If I have two left temporal bones, I have two different individuals.
0:50:53 > 0:50:58Forensic science reveals that Knowth contained over 100 cremated bodies.
0:51:01 > 0:51:05But those cremations were accumulated over centuries of use.
0:51:06 > 0:51:12The radiocarbon dates showed that that was over approximately a 300-year time span.
0:51:12 > 0:51:17That works out at one cremation every two to three years.
0:51:17 > 0:51:20So therefore, cremation wasn't that common.
0:51:21 > 0:51:28What Laureen Buckley's work shows is that the new practice of cremation was unusual.
0:51:28 > 0:51:31This rarity, and the discovery of the Knowth macehead,
0:51:31 > 0:51:33suggests that it was an honour
0:51:33 > 0:51:37reserved for only the very highest levels of late Neolithic society.
0:51:42 > 0:51:47The cremated remains at Knowth show that there was a hierarchy
0:51:47 > 0:51:50at play which determined how your mortal remains were treated.
0:51:50 > 0:51:55Put simply, if you were important, your remains were burnt, cremated.
0:51:57 > 0:52:03And presumably that meant that your spirit was being treated differently
0:52:03 > 0:52:05and was going to go somewhere different
0:52:05 > 0:52:09than the remains of those left behind on Earth simply to be buried.
0:52:13 > 0:52:18I'm going to have my own experimental cremation right here in the shadow of Knowth tomb.
0:52:21 > 0:52:24The thing is, cremating a body
0:52:24 > 0:52:27is about much more than just lighting a fire,
0:52:27 > 0:52:30it's a technological challenge,
0:52:30 > 0:52:33which is why I've brought two Dublin firemen with me.
0:52:37 > 0:52:40We need to get it between 1,500-1,700 degrees Celsius
0:52:40 > 0:52:43in order to totally cremate the body.
0:52:43 > 0:52:47And how long does it have to sustain that temperature
0:52:47 > 0:52:50to do away with something like a human body?
0:52:50 > 0:52:54About two to three hours, but then the idea of building the pyre like this is that it holds its structure.
0:52:54 > 0:52:59As it ignites, the structure remains intact and then collapses inwards.
0:52:59 > 0:53:00Lovely.
0:53:03 > 0:53:05Since I can't find anyone to volunteer,
0:53:05 > 0:53:08we've taken a trip to the local butcher's.
0:53:08 > 0:53:10At around 70 kilos,
0:53:10 > 0:53:14a medium-sized pig makes a good substitute for an average adult man.
0:53:18 > 0:53:22Almost a third of its weight is fat and that's important,
0:53:22 > 0:53:25because although wood is needed to get things going,
0:53:25 > 0:53:28the main fuel in a cremation is the body itself.
0:53:55 > 0:53:57We've ordained that our cremations
0:53:57 > 0:54:00are performed out of sight and out of mind,
0:54:00 > 0:54:02but this is really what it's all about.
0:54:02 > 0:54:07Flesh and bone being consumed by the flames and turned into smoke.
0:54:10 > 0:54:11I quite like it.
0:54:14 > 0:54:17It's a process that takes hours,
0:54:17 > 0:54:21time enough to reflect upon a leader's life
0:54:21 > 0:54:23and their journey to another world.
0:54:25 > 0:54:28You have to try and imagine the impact of this on people
0:54:28 > 0:54:305,000 years ago.
0:54:30 > 0:54:34When a chieftain or priest died,
0:54:34 > 0:54:40their body would be consumed by fire and be reduced to virtually nothing.
0:54:43 > 0:54:47And then to see the few earthbound remains,
0:54:47 > 0:54:50a handful of dust and crumbling bones,
0:54:50 > 0:54:57picked out of the embers and placed in a recess in that tomb for ever...
0:55:00 > 0:55:05..while all the rest of them had disappeared into the sky.
0:55:05 > 0:55:07Who can imagine what impact that would have?
0:55:16 > 0:55:20The following morning, and only a few smoking embers remain.
0:55:22 > 0:55:27As a first attempt at Neolithic cremation, I think that's quite good.
0:55:27 > 0:55:30The flame has done away with most of the body.
0:55:30 > 0:55:33So I've sent that pig into the afterlife, if you like.
0:55:40 > 0:55:43The discoveries in Ireland show a new society emerging
0:55:43 > 0:55:48though the late Neolithic, a society where status mattered.
0:55:50 > 0:55:53It determined the objects you possessed in life,
0:55:53 > 0:55:55and how your body was treated in death.
0:56:00 > 0:56:03This was a society where ideas travelled,
0:56:03 > 0:56:05and where new beliefs were manifested
0:56:05 > 0:56:10in the greatest ancient monuments the world had ever seen.
0:56:10 > 0:56:13And it's in those very monuments that today,
0:56:13 > 0:56:18we're able to glimpse the very birth of a whole new concept of existence.
0:56:20 > 0:56:25From around 3,000 to 2,500BC was the time when we became aware
0:56:25 > 0:56:30of our place, not just here on Earth, but within the cosmos.
0:56:30 > 0:56:34The great tombs, the stone circles,
0:56:34 > 0:56:38they were an attempt to make sense of the movement of the sun and the moon,
0:56:38 > 0:56:43of an entire universe that shapes and governs our lives, and our time.
0:56:50 > 0:56:54Those forces went way beyond the reach of the ancestors.
0:56:54 > 0:56:58So much so, that from now on when some people died,
0:56:58 > 0:57:02they were to be sent to a new place, a different place.
0:57:02 > 0:57:06Not down into the earth, but up into the sky.
0:57:06 > 0:57:13It seems to me that it was in the Neolithic that people conceived of an idea that endures to this day,
0:57:13 > 0:57:17that somewhere up here was heaven.
0:57:24 > 0:57:26'Next time, my journey continues...'
0:57:28 > 0:57:29Look at that!
0:57:29 > 0:57:32'..as I discover a new age...'
0:57:32 > 0:57:34That is magic.
0:57:34 > 0:57:37- '..one forged in metal...' - Are you impressed?
0:57:37 > 0:57:40Very. I'm deeply, deeply impressed.
0:57:40 > 0:57:41'..by a new people...'
0:57:41 > 0:57:47He knew how to get metal, how to make metal and how to work metal.
0:57:47 > 0:57:50'..a people inventing a whole new way of living.'
0:57:53 > 0:57:57As well as men working down here, there must have been children.
0:57:57 > 0:58:00Some of the spaces are just too small.