0:00:06 > 0:00:11This is the story of how Britain came to be.
0:00:11 > 0:00:17Of how our land, and its people, were forged over thousands of years of ancient history.
0:00:21 > 0:00:25This Britain is a strange and alien world.
0:00:25 > 0:00:30A world that contains the hidden story of our distant, prehistoric past.
0:00:34 > 0:00:40'We began as hunters who followed the herds across Europe before Britain was an island.'
0:00:40 > 0:00:44Fantastic, after 14,000 years, to get a glimpse
0:00:44 > 0:00:47of the way at least one individual was thinking.
0:00:48 > 0:00:50'Then the first farmers came,
0:00:50 > 0:00:54'building monumental tombs to their ancestors...'
0:00:54 > 0:00:58Nothing like this had ever been seen before in Britain.
0:00:59 > 0:01:01'..before turning to the heavens
0:01:01 > 0:01:05'and creating some of the greatest monuments of the ancient world.'
0:01:08 > 0:01:14'Now the journey continues, with the next chapter in our epic story...'
0:01:14 > 0:01:17That is magic.
0:01:17 > 0:01:21'..an age of bronze, and a whole new way of living.
0:01:21 > 0:01:26'The rise of individuals controlling trade and wealth.'
0:01:29 > 0:01:35'The beginnings of a practical, domestic, almost modern Britain.'
0:01:55 > 0:01:59Britain, 2500 years BC.
0:01:59 > 0:02:02This is the height of the Stone Age.
0:02:02 > 0:02:07People live by farming the land - growing crops, keeping animals.
0:02:09 > 0:02:13There's little evidence of fixed villages, permanent settlement.
0:02:13 > 0:02:19Instead, they seek out fresh grazing land and fresh soil, season by season.
0:02:19 > 0:02:26Everything they have, clothes, tools, food, is gathered from the world around them.
0:02:29 > 0:02:35One material lay at the very heart of their world, as it had done for thousands of years...
0:02:37 > 0:02:38Flint.
0:02:38 > 0:02:41And it was needed in vast quantities.
0:02:43 > 0:02:45Look at this.
0:02:45 > 0:02:51It's a moonscape of deep hollows and depressions.
0:02:51 > 0:02:56There are literally hundreds of them.
0:03:03 > 0:03:09These aren't the product of ancient farming or ancient settlements.
0:03:09 > 0:03:14All of this was created by ancient industry.
0:03:17 > 0:03:22Each one of these hollows is the remnant of an ancient mine shaft,
0:03:22 > 0:03:26and there are 433 of them.
0:03:30 > 0:03:34Some of the mine shafts have been excavated, so it's possible to enter
0:03:34 > 0:03:40the very ground that was worked by our prehistoric ancestors.
0:03:40 > 0:03:43It's a bit deeper than I thought!
0:03:49 > 0:03:51Each shaft leads to a network of tunnels,
0:03:51 > 0:03:55hacked from the chalk bedrock with basic tools.
0:03:57 > 0:04:03This is red deer antler, hunted or collected in the forests above.
0:04:03 > 0:04:09And then it's been used, just as the shape suggests, as a pick.
0:04:09 > 0:04:15You can see just how cramped the conditions are down here.
0:04:15 > 0:04:17And some of
0:04:17 > 0:04:19the tunnels are so small,
0:04:19 > 0:04:22it's believed that as well as men working down here,
0:04:22 > 0:04:25there must have been children because some of the spaces
0:04:25 > 0:04:28are just too small to believe it was grown-ups.
0:04:31 > 0:04:34Now, here's what all the effort
0:04:34 > 0:04:36is in aid of.
0:04:36 > 0:04:40This black stuff here, this is flint.
0:04:40 > 0:04:46They would have found a complete floor, like a black floor of flint,
0:04:46 > 0:04:50as if a black liquid had flowed in and solidified.
0:04:50 > 0:04:54Looks like glass, or treacle toffee.
0:04:54 > 0:04:57In any case, this
0:04:57 > 0:05:00is what this mine was all about.
0:05:05 > 0:05:09Flint, the lifeblood of the Stone Age.
0:05:09 > 0:05:13If you were going to fell a tree, build a house, shape wood,
0:05:13 > 0:05:17make a dug-out canoe, you needed an axe like this.
0:05:21 > 0:05:26But Britain, and its ancient dependence on flint, was about to change.
0:05:33 > 0:05:41In 2500BC, a radical, unimaginable new technology was about to hit Britain - metal.
0:05:43 > 0:05:45We take it for granted.
0:05:45 > 0:05:48It's quite literally the scaffolding that holds up the modern world.
0:05:48 > 0:05:53So much of what we have, what we depend on, is made of metal.
0:05:53 > 0:05:57But 4,500 years ago, no-one in Britain had ever even seen it.
0:05:57 > 0:06:02Yet it was about to catapult us out of the Stone Age and into a whole new chapter.
0:06:04 > 0:06:10The arrival of metal would bring a social as well as a technological revolution,
0:06:10 > 0:06:12the beginning of community life
0:06:12 > 0:06:16and a world that begins to look increasingly like our own.
0:06:16 > 0:06:21All this change in an era that we call the Bronze Age.
0:06:26 > 0:06:31The story of how metal first came to Britain begins much further west,
0:06:31 > 0:06:35in the hills of South West Ireland,
0:06:35 > 0:06:42because the rocks around this stretch of water in County Kerry are rich in copper ore.
0:06:42 > 0:06:48And it was copper from here that was used to make the first metal objects back home in Britain.
0:06:52 > 0:06:56Archaeologist Billy O'Brien has spent decades here
0:06:56 > 0:06:59discovering evidence of ancient copper workers.
0:07:01 > 0:07:05The typical rock I'm seeing is dark with white veins through it.
0:07:05 > 0:07:07That's what miners would call the country rock.
0:07:07 > 0:07:10It's limestone, with pieces of calcite veining running through it,
0:07:10 > 0:07:13but there's no copper minerals in that piece, I'm afraid.
0:07:13 > 0:07:17So, when I think about copper, I'm thinking of a green colour.
0:07:17 > 0:07:21You're right. Copper oxidises on the surface and becomes green and blue.
0:07:21 > 0:07:25- And it's bright colours like that you're looking for.- Right.
0:07:30 > 0:07:34- Oh, look. What about that?- Yeah, that's got a lot of copper minerals.
0:07:34 > 0:07:36You can see the green staining.
0:07:36 > 0:07:40You can see the bright, sparkly silver and gold of the copper sulphide minerals.
0:07:42 > 0:07:44Yeah.
0:07:45 > 0:07:48Yeah, you can see the green instantly.
0:07:48 > 0:07:51And there's even... There's even sparkling.
0:07:51 > 0:07:53It's like glitter.
0:07:53 > 0:07:56And it's the glitter that's actually the copper.
0:07:56 > 0:08:01- That would become the copper? - It's the copper minerals against the limestone.
0:08:01 > 0:08:04How on earth would you know it was there?
0:08:04 > 0:08:08Surely to the average person thousands of years ago,
0:08:08 > 0:08:11a stone is a stone is a stone. How does anyone realise
0:08:11 > 0:08:15there's a completely different material hidden in here?
0:08:15 > 0:08:20We know there was a history of Stone-Age settlement in this area going back thousands of years.
0:08:20 > 0:08:24At some point, they would have noticed that the limestone rocks on this part of the lake
0:08:24 > 0:08:28were streaked with copper minerals. They wouldn't have known what to make of this knowledge.
0:08:28 > 0:08:32But at some point, they came in contact with people from outside of Ireland
0:08:32 > 0:08:35who were metal prospectors, and the two would have come together
0:08:35 > 0:08:39and with that outside expertise, they eventually started to mine here.
0:08:39 > 0:08:43- So it was a foreign expertise that was required to trigger it all. - Absolutely.
0:08:45 > 0:08:52The very first copper mines were dug in the Balkans, far to the south, nearly 6,000 years ago.
0:08:55 > 0:08:59By 3000BC, pockets of copper technology were appearing
0:08:59 > 0:09:04further west, in northern Italy and along the Mediterranean coast.
0:09:06 > 0:09:12But it wasn't until around 2500BC that copper spread through North West Europe.
0:09:12 > 0:09:17And prospectors came looking for ore further north still,
0:09:17 > 0:09:19in Ireland.
0:09:21 > 0:09:24And all of this was cut out by human labour?
0:09:24 > 0:09:29There's good scientific evidence from things like isotope analysis that indicate that the first copper
0:09:29 > 0:09:33from Ross Island came from this trench. It's called Blue Hole Mine.
0:09:36 > 0:09:39And this copper was produced very early on,
0:09:39 > 0:09:43and it circulated all over Ireland and then into western Britain.
0:09:43 > 0:09:46So when you find the earliest copper tools in Britain,
0:09:46 > 0:09:49wherever you find them, the metal for them has come out of this hole?
0:09:49 > 0:09:52Certainly the ones in Ireland and western Britain.
0:09:52 > 0:09:55Many of the ones in places like Wales and Scotland,
0:09:55 > 0:09:58some of the very earliest copper axes came out of this hole.
0:09:58 > 0:10:04It's just extraordinary to be able to track a story like metalworking,
0:10:04 > 0:10:08like copper, all the way back to one hole in the ground.
0:10:08 > 0:10:12It's like following a river right back to a spring, the source.
0:10:16 > 0:10:20Next to the mine, workers would have begun to process the rock.
0:10:22 > 0:10:23How do you know all of this?
0:10:23 > 0:10:27How do you know that this was the process and it was done here?
0:10:27 > 0:10:30We know because of the tools we found in the site.
0:10:30 > 0:10:35The excavation of this work camp and the surrounding mine site produced thousands of these stone hammers.
0:10:35 > 0:10:38You can see they've got grooves around the centre.
0:10:38 > 0:10:41That's because there were usually handles put on them like this.
0:10:41 > 0:10:43- They've been worked, picked away at. - Exactly.
0:10:43 > 0:10:49The purpose of the groove was to grip a handle like this so that you could use it with more force.
0:10:49 > 0:10:53- So they had more sophisticated tools than I've got. - Much more sophisticated.
0:10:53 > 0:10:59'Most sophisticated of all, the secret of how to transform the rock into gleaming copper.'
0:11:04 > 0:11:09Smelting copper ore required cutting edge technology...bellows,
0:11:09 > 0:11:14to create fire that was hotter than anything ever seen in Britain before.
0:11:14 > 0:11:17If you look at the colour of your flame.
0:11:17 > 0:11:20Experience tells you that I know it's ready.
0:11:20 > 0:11:21I can see it's ready.
0:11:21 > 0:11:29For the locals, the new people who could create glowing metal from rock must have seemed like magicians.
0:11:29 > 0:11:30Oh, yeah.
0:11:30 > 0:11:34Look at that!
0:11:34 > 0:11:39That is magic. Wow.
0:11:41 > 0:11:45That's magic now, what was that like 4,500 years ago?
0:11:47 > 0:11:49Look, it's actually turning green.
0:11:49 > 0:11:54You can see how it reacts straight away with the air as soon as it's out.
0:11:54 > 0:11:57Imagine if someone had turned up in your village and said,
0:11:57 > 0:12:00"I'll show you something", and then went through that process,
0:12:00 > 0:12:03and then to see that, to see that liquid leap in there
0:12:03 > 0:12:06and then turn into a recognisable object...
0:12:06 > 0:12:07Yeah, it's magic.
0:12:10 > 0:12:11That's pure copper.
0:12:12 > 0:12:14- I love it.- Yeah.
0:12:19 > 0:12:24So, amazingly, it's the raw materials in these hills
0:12:24 > 0:12:28and the technology that transformed it into copper
0:12:28 > 0:12:33that are, in many ways, the foundations of our modern world.
0:12:36 > 0:12:41The people who brought this technology also brought a new and very different culture
0:12:41 > 0:12:46that was to spread throughout Britain and transform society.
0:12:47 > 0:12:51They made and used a distinctive kind of pottery.
0:12:51 > 0:12:54This piece was actually found here.
0:12:54 > 0:12:57Before it was broken, it was part of a vessel
0:12:57 > 0:12:59that looked a bit like this one.
0:12:59 > 0:13:03We call these beakers, and the people who made these,
0:13:03 > 0:13:07used these and were often buried with them
0:13:07 > 0:13:09alongside them in their graves,
0:13:09 > 0:13:11are called the Beaker people.
0:13:16 > 0:13:21Around 2500BC, Beaker people first arrived in Britain...
0:13:24 > 0:13:29..bringing their new metalworking skills and a whole new culture.
0:13:31 > 0:13:34And we know that, at least partly,
0:13:34 > 0:13:37because of an early Beaker man who was buried here
0:13:37 > 0:13:42on land between this school and that housing estate 4,500 years ago.
0:13:53 > 0:13:55And here he is.
0:13:59 > 0:14:01We've got beakers here.
0:14:01 > 0:14:04Real ones this time.
0:14:04 > 0:14:08Terrified at the prospect of even touching them, because
0:14:08 > 0:14:15these are some of the oldest, earliest beakers in Britain.
0:14:15 > 0:14:21This fragile lovely is a beaker classic.
0:14:23 > 0:14:31Now, also in amongst this dazzling array of grave goods
0:14:31 > 0:14:33is metal.
0:14:33 > 0:14:35There are copper knives in here.
0:14:35 > 0:14:37And this isn't just any metal.
0:14:37 > 0:14:40Look at this. Here's one of them.
0:14:40 > 0:14:44It's a copper knife that would have had a wooden handle coming out to give you a grip on it.
0:14:44 > 0:14:46There's the cutting edge.
0:14:46 > 0:14:52These are the oldest metal objects found so far in Britain.
0:14:54 > 0:14:57And alongside the earliest copper,
0:14:57 > 0:15:00and I can't believe I'm about to touch this,
0:15:00 > 0:15:04is the earliest gold.
0:15:04 > 0:15:07This is the earliest gold jewellery.
0:15:07 > 0:15:10It's been wrongly described previously as an earring,
0:15:10 > 0:15:15but it's not. It's a decoration for hair.
0:15:15 > 0:15:19You would put it on the end of pleated hair, a braid of hair,
0:15:19 > 0:15:21just for decoration. Look at that.
0:15:21 > 0:15:23Look at how fine it is.
0:15:23 > 0:15:29It feels as fragile as the foil on a Terry's Chocolate Orange.
0:15:29 > 0:15:31I feel as if with an uncontrolled nervous twitch,
0:15:31 > 0:15:35I might crush it flat. But look at it.
0:15:35 > 0:15:36Amazing.
0:15:36 > 0:15:39Put it down.
0:15:43 > 0:15:46Taking a tooth from the Amesbury Archer,
0:15:46 > 0:15:51scientists could discover where this new metalworker had come from.
0:15:51 > 0:15:54First time we'd ever had a tooth that old in our hands.
0:15:54 > 0:15:58It was amazing to be holding something that old from another human being.
0:16:00 > 0:16:05Teeth contain traces of atomic elements, strontium and oxygen.
0:16:05 > 0:16:10And the pattern of these traces can reveal where someone spent their childhood,
0:16:10 > 0:16:14even after thousands of years.
0:16:14 > 0:16:17We were absolutely overwhelmed with the results.
0:16:17 > 0:16:19It was absolutely amazing.
0:16:19 > 0:16:21This guy didn't come from Britain.
0:16:22 > 0:16:26The Amesbury Archer wasn't just an early Beaker man,
0:16:26 > 0:16:29but one of the original pioneers,
0:16:29 > 0:16:35born a thousand miles away in the Alps of Central Europe.
0:16:36 > 0:16:40You just can't possibly think of somebody walking all that way.
0:16:40 > 0:16:43I was amazed. I was just totally amazed.
0:16:43 > 0:16:47And I was absolutely over the moon, because he was different.
0:16:47 > 0:16:51You see so many individuals who were just like everybody else, and then
0:16:51 > 0:16:54all of a sudden, here's one guy who's just totally different.
0:16:57 > 0:16:59After travelling a thousand miles,
0:16:59 > 0:17:04the Amesbury Archer ended his days here in Wiltshire,
0:17:04 > 0:17:09buried alongside the things that were important to him in life.
0:17:09 > 0:17:15All of this, so far, makes him fascinating and compelling.
0:17:15 > 0:17:17But there's one last item in here
0:17:17 > 0:17:21that makes this individual crucial to our story.
0:17:21 > 0:17:26It's this item here.
0:17:26 > 0:17:28This is called a cushion stone.
0:17:29 > 0:17:34It's used for working and finishing metal.
0:17:34 > 0:17:37Look at it. It's seen years of use.
0:17:37 > 0:17:38Look how smooth it is.
0:17:38 > 0:17:44You would have used the smooth surface of this one to cold work metal
0:17:44 > 0:17:49and give it the finishing shape and finishing touches.
0:17:49 > 0:17:54So this individual, this pioneer from Europe,
0:17:54 > 0:17:57he didn't just own metal things.
0:17:57 > 0:18:03He knew how to get metal, how to make metal and how to work metal.
0:18:07 > 0:18:13The arrival of Beaker people in Britain was a tipping point in the history of our land.
0:18:15 > 0:18:22Before the new people arrived, all our materials were simply collected from the natural world.
0:18:22 > 0:18:28Stone, bone, shell, wood, antler, animal sinew.
0:18:28 > 0:18:32All of these and more had been used in countless ingenious ways.
0:18:32 > 0:18:36And of course, people had been making pottery for over a thousand years.
0:18:36 > 0:18:40But the Beaker people had brought something completely new.
0:18:40 > 0:18:45Not just copper technology, but gold jewellery,
0:18:45 > 0:18:49and the trappings of status, perhaps even wealth.
0:18:51 > 0:18:54Metalworkers like the Amesbury Archer were pioneering a new
0:18:54 > 0:18:59and very different world to that of the ancient past.
0:18:59 > 0:19:02This was nothing less than the end of the Stone Age
0:19:02 > 0:19:04and everything that went with it.
0:19:08 > 0:19:12Stone-Age Britain had reached its peak with the creation
0:19:12 > 0:19:16of massive, cosmically aligned, communal monuments.
0:19:19 > 0:19:22Even in death, the ancestors shared a world,
0:19:22 > 0:19:26often buried or cremated in communal tombs.
0:19:33 > 0:19:37But now, just a few incomers from Europe had brought very different ideas
0:19:37 > 0:19:43about how people fitted into society and the world around them.
0:19:43 > 0:19:47The Beaker people brought a whole new sense of "self",
0:19:47 > 0:19:49of individuality.
0:19:49 > 0:19:51Unlike most burials in the Stone Age,
0:19:51 > 0:19:55the Amesbury Archer was laid to rest on his own.
0:19:55 > 0:20:01He was also buried with possessions - things that showed what he did, who he was.
0:20:01 > 0:20:04An acknowledgement of his status, if you like.
0:20:04 > 0:20:09For the Beaker people, all of this mattered.
0:20:09 > 0:20:11But for British people in the Stone Age,
0:20:11 > 0:20:14this was radical thinking.
0:20:17 > 0:20:23Right on the cusp of this change, the last great prehistoric monument in Britain was begun.
0:20:28 > 0:20:32It's this enormous mound - Silbury Hill.
0:20:32 > 0:20:37It's almost certainly the largest prehistoric mound built anywhere in the world.
0:20:37 > 0:20:42It's been calculated that it took four million man-hours to build.
0:20:42 > 0:20:45And as for what it's for,
0:20:45 > 0:20:48I'll be honest with you - nobody knows.
0:20:49 > 0:20:53One thing we do know for certain - the people who started building it
0:20:53 > 0:20:55didn't live long enough to see it completed.
0:20:55 > 0:21:01It was the idea of Silbury Hill that survived, generation after generation.
0:21:02 > 0:21:06And now, of course, it's just a mystery.
0:21:09 > 0:21:13It could be that this was the last blossoming of the Neolithic
0:21:13 > 0:21:17before the new, more individual Beaker ways took over.
0:21:17 > 0:21:24Beakers - classic beakers - that give the Beaker people their name, are drinking vessels.
0:21:24 > 0:21:31And they're associated with a male-dominated culture of archery, metal-working, and drinking.
0:21:31 > 0:21:37Analysis of fragments of real beakers, to see what they contained,
0:21:37 > 0:21:41have shown that it was almost certainly alcoholic.
0:21:41 > 0:21:43Now...
0:21:46 > 0:21:47So, in honour
0:21:47 > 0:21:52of the Amesbury Archer and the builders of Silbury Hill,
0:21:52 > 0:21:54I'm going to try some.
0:21:54 > 0:21:56Good health.
0:22:03 > 0:22:08Metal was only one part of the new Beaker culture.
0:22:08 > 0:22:14But for all their individual skills and modern outlook, the new metal workers had a problem.
0:22:14 > 0:22:20Copper might have looked good, but it was so soft that it was barely better than flint as a tool.
0:22:24 > 0:22:29But the Beaker people also knew about another, even more astonishing metal.
0:22:35 > 0:22:40The metal that was to open up a whole new age was unlocked from the rocks of the Cornish coast.
0:22:43 > 0:22:47'Because to make it, you needed to combine copper with tin.'
0:22:56 > 0:22:58Bear with me...
0:22:58 > 0:23:03Apparently it's quite distinctive when you see it.
0:23:04 > 0:23:06If you don't break an ankle on the way!
0:23:08 > 0:23:10Look.
0:23:10 > 0:23:13The secret to all of this,
0:23:13 > 0:23:17what those early metal-workers were on the hunt for,
0:23:17 > 0:23:21is in this ribbon of black-and-white rock.
0:23:21 > 0:23:24It's very distinctive. See it?
0:23:24 > 0:23:26It's called cassiterite.
0:23:26 > 0:23:28A rock that contains tin.
0:23:33 > 0:23:37Britain had been a latecomer to the copper age, but the discovery of local tin -
0:23:37 > 0:23:43a much rarer metal than copper - was to propel Britain to the very technological forefront of Europe.
0:23:45 > 0:23:48If you were very lucky,
0:23:48 > 0:23:51you'd find something like this.
0:23:51 > 0:23:52I wish you could feel it.
0:23:52 > 0:23:57It looks like any ordinary pebble, but trust me, it's as heavy as a cannonball
0:23:57 > 0:24:04and when you extract the tin itself, it's as beautiful as silver.
0:24:07 > 0:24:10And this is an ingot of tin.
0:24:10 > 0:24:14It's very lovely. They say that if you bend it...
0:24:14 > 0:24:15CRACKLING
0:24:15 > 0:24:17..it crackles.
0:24:17 > 0:24:19They call that the cry of tin.
0:24:19 > 0:24:26More importantly, if you have copper and you add this, you transform it into bronze.
0:24:32 > 0:24:36If you control the bellow speed, it'll hold the perfect temperature for casting.
0:24:42 > 0:24:46With just the right mixture of copper and tin, metal workers could
0:24:46 > 0:24:51create an alloy that was hard enough to make useful tools and weapons.
0:24:55 > 0:24:57An impact that crumples copper...
0:25:01 > 0:25:03..is no match for bronze...
0:25:05 > 0:25:07..the hardest metal of the ancient world.
0:25:07 > 0:25:11No matter how often I do this, I still find it quite challenging.
0:25:14 > 0:25:17Moulds were made of stone or clay.
0:25:18 > 0:25:21- Fingers crossed, gentlemen. - Everything crossed.
0:25:23 > 0:25:27In this case, to cast something that was unknown before bronze came along...
0:25:27 > 0:25:29A sword.
0:25:37 > 0:25:39That's fantastic.
0:25:41 > 0:25:44Loving this. Right.
0:25:44 > 0:25:46Can you lift that off?
0:25:51 > 0:25:54- OK, this is it.- Right.
0:26:03 > 0:26:08- OK, lift it up.- It's like a beating heart. Look at it.
0:26:08 > 0:26:11OK, in you go.
0:26:11 > 0:26:13- Bit lower....- Finally.
0:26:21 > 0:26:24- That's it. Well done, gentlemen. - Oh, look.
0:26:24 > 0:26:27Amazing.
0:26:27 > 0:26:29It's like blood. Better than blood.
0:26:29 > 0:26:33OK, that's good.
0:26:33 > 0:26:36Lift it up a little bit. That's it. We're there.
0:26:42 > 0:26:45- Wow, it's so visceral, isn't it? - Oh, definitely.
0:26:51 > 0:26:53The moment of truth.
0:27:00 > 0:27:02There we go.
0:27:02 > 0:27:04Look at that!
0:27:09 > 0:27:12That is amazing. Look at the colour of it.
0:27:14 > 0:27:17- Are you impressed? - I'm deeply, deeply impressed.
0:27:17 > 0:27:20Look at that!
0:27:20 > 0:27:22Yeah, it even makes a ring.
0:27:22 > 0:27:25- It's a very hard piece of bronze. - Just amazing.
0:27:28 > 0:27:32From liquid fire to metal sword in a couple of minutes.
0:27:42 > 0:27:48In the hands of master metal-workers, bronze was leading Britain into a whole new age.
0:27:48 > 0:27:51Not only technologically, but socially as well.
0:27:54 > 0:27:58Look at these, obviously lethal weapons.
0:28:00 > 0:28:07But swords are quite a late development in the story of bronze, in the story of metal.
0:28:07 > 0:28:12If you're talking about early bronze, then you have to look at axes.
0:28:14 > 0:28:19These are some of the earliest bronze objects found so far in Britain.
0:28:19 > 0:28:24These date from as early as 2,200 years BC.
0:28:24 > 0:28:27A carpenter would have coveted an item like this,
0:28:27 > 0:28:31because it would enable him to do a better, faster job.
0:28:31 > 0:28:36But bronze axes are about much more than the utility of the object.
0:28:36 > 0:28:39They're are about status and prestige. No humble carpenter
0:28:39 > 0:28:46could possibly have dreamt of owning something so valuable in the early days of bronze.
0:28:46 > 0:28:50Much more than tools, these are objects of desire.
0:28:50 > 0:28:53There's a whole range
0:28:53 > 0:28:55of sizes, styles,
0:28:55 > 0:28:57although still early.
0:28:57 > 0:28:59Look at the size of that one.
0:28:59 > 0:29:02That's what that was all about - bigger is better.
0:29:02 > 0:29:04It's showing off.
0:29:04 > 0:29:06And this one,
0:29:06 > 0:29:10which looks silvery in colour, rather than the warm gold of bronze,
0:29:10 > 0:29:16that silvering has been achieved by flashing tin onto the surface of the bronze.
0:29:16 > 0:29:21It doesn't make a better axe, it just makes it more eye-catching.
0:29:21 > 0:29:24This ushers in a whole new era,
0:29:24 > 0:29:26because for the first time,
0:29:26 > 0:29:31there was a different way to get and to demonstrate wealth.
0:29:31 > 0:29:36After the time of the priestly class, where status
0:29:36 > 0:29:40was conferred on people because of who they were and what they knew,
0:29:40 > 0:29:42now there's a different opportunity.
0:29:42 > 0:29:46The bronze here has been brought together from many sources.
0:29:46 > 0:29:49The copper from South West Ireland,
0:29:49 > 0:29:50the tin from Cornwall.
0:29:50 > 0:29:53But these were found in the North East of Scotland.
0:29:53 > 0:29:57The materials are moving all over the country.
0:29:57 > 0:30:00If you are someone who can control those trade routes,
0:30:00 > 0:30:01if you can get your hands on this
0:30:01 > 0:30:05as it moves through your territory and control it, then you've got
0:30:05 > 0:30:10personal wealth and you've got the ability to demonstrate and to show
0:30:10 > 0:30:12that you are someone who matters.
0:30:16 > 0:30:19Now, not everyone had to farm the land.
0:30:19 > 0:30:24At least for a few of Britain's population of perhaps a quarter of a million people,
0:30:24 > 0:30:26new opportunities were emerging.
0:30:28 > 0:30:33Specialist metal-workers, metal-traders and, in particular,
0:30:33 > 0:30:37those who controlled trade routes, could become seriously rich.
0:30:37 > 0:30:40This was a new self-made elite,
0:30:40 > 0:30:44for whom the Stone Age must have seemed a quaint and distant memory.
0:30:51 > 0:30:57In the Bronze Age, it wasn't just the ancient, sacred landscapes that were important,
0:30:57 > 0:31:01but the practical landscapes of natural harbours and river routes.
0:31:03 > 0:31:09One of the most important trade routes was the western entrance to the Great Glen in Scotland,
0:31:09 > 0:31:13a place studied by archaeologist Alison Sheridan.
0:31:13 > 0:31:20This glen is geographically in a great position to control the flow of metal that's coming from Ireland,
0:31:20 > 0:31:23up the Great Glen, to North East Scotland.
0:31:23 > 0:31:28- So this valley finds itself at the hub of what is effectively a busy motorway?- Yes, absolutely.
0:31:28 > 0:31:33Those people who were able to control the flow of copper or tin or both
0:31:33 > 0:31:35were going to make it rich.
0:31:39 > 0:31:42The tombs of some of the new, rich bronze elite
0:31:42 > 0:31:44of Kilmartin still survive.
0:31:45 > 0:31:50Within this huge cairn, there was only ever one person buried.
0:31:50 > 0:31:53This is no mass grave.
0:31:53 > 0:31:58This is for a single, high-status individual.
0:32:05 > 0:32:09This cairn was rebuilt around this modern chamber
0:32:09 > 0:32:11that was itself built
0:32:11 > 0:32:15to let people see this single grave, this stone-lined cist.
0:32:15 > 0:32:23There was only ever one grave in this entire cairn, so this was an important individual.
0:32:23 > 0:32:27Most interesting thing of all in here is the lid,
0:32:27 > 0:32:32the capstone, that was once laid on top of this cist to seal it.
0:32:32 > 0:32:37Before it was put down, it was upgraded, re-worked,
0:32:37 > 0:32:42with these axe heads picked and carved into the surface.
0:32:42 > 0:32:45They're all over the place here.
0:32:45 > 0:32:51So the person, whoever he or she was, was laid to rest in here
0:32:51 > 0:32:54and they would spend eternity looking up at this stone,
0:32:54 > 0:33:02because it was the axe, the metal of the axes, that was the basis for the wealth and power of these people.
0:33:05 > 0:33:10The new wealth fed a new demand for luxury goods.
0:33:16 > 0:33:22- Alison, you don't often find or see anything quite as stunning as that, do you?- No.
0:33:22 > 0:33:24What is it made of?
0:33:24 > 0:33:27It's made of jet from Whitby in Yorkshire.
0:33:27 > 0:33:35This necklace had travelled over 300 miles to be worn by one special, very rich woman.
0:33:37 > 0:33:40It's actually semi-fossilised wood of the monkey puzzle tree family.
0:33:40 > 0:33:42- Isn't that fantastic?- It's great.
0:33:42 > 0:33:45You can actually see the grain of the wood, there.
0:33:45 > 0:33:47And it feels... It doesn't feel as you would expect it to,
0:33:47 > 0:33:50because it looks as if it ought to be much heavier than it is.
0:33:50 > 0:33:53- Yes.- It is quite like handing varnished wood.
0:33:53 > 0:33:55It's wonderful. It's also warm.
0:33:55 > 0:34:01Jet is an amazing stone. It's stone that is light, it's stone that you can burn.
0:34:01 > 0:34:03It also has electrostatic properties.
0:34:03 > 0:34:07This wasn't just precious bling, this was supernatural power dressing if you like.
0:34:07 > 0:34:11It's something which would have protected the woman in her
0:34:11 > 0:34:14dangerous journey to the world of the gods and the ancestors.
0:34:14 > 0:34:16How old did you say that was?
0:34:16 > 0:34:18It's about 4,150 years old.
0:34:18 > 0:34:20- And fragile?- Yes!
0:34:20 > 0:34:23So this...
0:34:23 > 0:34:26- is a replica.- That's right, yes.
0:34:26 > 0:34:31It was made for Kilmartin House Museum by a modern-day Whitby jet specialist worker.
0:34:31 > 0:34:33- Would you like to try it? - I'd love to.
0:34:35 > 0:34:37Oh!
0:34:37 > 0:34:42OK. Now, does it feel different than other items of finery you've worn before?
0:34:42 > 0:34:45Yes, it makes me feel like a queen.
0:34:45 > 0:34:49It's just wonderful. It's so comfortable, so soft, so beautiful.
0:34:49 > 0:34:52It would have been originally very tightly strung,
0:34:52 > 0:34:57so it's a solid black mass of precious magical material.
0:34:57 > 0:35:04So, 4,100 years ago, this part of Britain was centre stage?
0:35:04 > 0:35:10Absolutely, yes. At the time, northern Britain and Ireland were the epicentre of cool.
0:35:10 > 0:35:14They were the places where the fashion trends were being created.
0:35:14 > 0:35:17This is internationally significant.
0:35:17 > 0:35:21The person would have held her own among the elite across Europe.
0:35:21 > 0:35:24- So Britain is at the centre, not on the periphery?- Yes, absolutely.
0:35:28 > 0:35:35If this glen teaches us anything, it's that, by 2000BC, Britain had a real presence in the world.
0:35:35 > 0:35:40We had the natural resources and the technical skills that meant we couldn't be ignored.
0:35:40 > 0:35:47In the Mediterranean and the rest of Europe, they'd had trade and wealth for centuries. Now we had it too.
0:35:53 > 0:35:57The waters around Britain can be some of the most treacherous in the world,
0:35:57 > 0:36:02but to trade with Europe, Bronze-Age sailors had to brave them.
0:36:03 > 0:36:10And a remarkable discovery made in Dover reveals the sophistication of their maritime prowess.
0:36:14 > 0:36:19In 1992, while this underpass was being dug, the evidence emerged from the mud.
0:36:22 > 0:36:28Incredibly they found a boat - a big wooden boat - buried 20 feet underground, down here.
0:36:29 > 0:36:36It's hard to believe, surrounded down here by all this concrete and these painted tiles,
0:36:36 > 0:36:43that 3,500 years ago, the boat came to rest and was gradually buried under layers and layers of mud.
0:36:51 > 0:36:59And here it is. This, quite simply, is the oldest surviving sea-going vessel in the world.
0:37:01 > 0:37:03It's absolutely fantastic.
0:37:03 > 0:37:09At first sight, it's honestly one of the most impressive archaeological finds I've ever laid eyes on.
0:37:11 > 0:37:18'Originally up to 20m long, the Dover Boat would have carried cargo between Britain and mainland Europe.
0:37:18 > 0:37:24'Scrap bronze and other metals, perhaps also wool and fabrics.'
0:37:24 > 0:37:29A vessel this size would obviously have taken some skilled handling.
0:37:29 > 0:37:33It must have been either paddled
0:37:33 > 0:37:37with several of these or, the thinking more recently has been
0:37:37 > 0:37:45that it might have been rowed, like a rowing boat on a paddling pond, only on a much grander scale.
0:37:45 > 0:37:49I've actually been given the privilege of going inside the case.
0:37:49 > 0:37:54This is the magic handle that opens the door.
0:37:56 > 0:37:59You don't get to do this in normal life!
0:38:06 > 0:38:09There's a real atmosphere in here.
0:38:09 > 0:38:12I don't know if it's just the case,
0:38:12 > 0:38:18but it's almost like being in here with someONE rather than just someTHING.
0:38:18 > 0:38:22It's as if the Bronze Age is,
0:38:22 > 0:38:26and Bronze-Age people are, preserved in here.
0:38:31 > 0:38:36The boat's construction relied on the expert skills of carpenters using bronze axes.
0:38:36 > 0:38:41Its hull, four enormous planks, sewn together.
0:38:43 > 0:38:46These are twisted yew branches.
0:38:46 > 0:38:50They're called withies. They've been used like thread, or cords.
0:38:50 > 0:38:53The pieces have been stitched together,
0:38:53 > 0:39:00almost as though, rather than wood it was made out of skin, or cloth. It's the same sort of technology.
0:39:00 > 0:39:04It's been sewn together on a giant scale.
0:39:07 > 0:39:10Close up, there's a detail that reveals
0:39:10 > 0:39:12how this boat ended its days.
0:39:14 > 0:39:18It was in good nick
0:39:18 > 0:39:19but at some point,
0:39:19 > 0:39:23people have decided to put it beyond use.
0:39:23 > 0:39:25It's been scuttled, if you like.
0:39:25 > 0:39:27You can see, at certain points,
0:39:27 > 0:39:29where the withies - those twisted yew branches -
0:39:29 > 0:39:31have been cut deliberately.
0:39:31 > 0:39:34So, for some reason,
0:39:34 > 0:39:38it was thought appropriate to put this boat,
0:39:38 > 0:39:39this perfectly functional boat,
0:39:39 > 0:39:41beyond the use of man.
0:39:55 > 0:40:00In ancient Britain, the earth was alive, and sacred.
0:40:00 > 0:40:02So anything taken from the earth,
0:40:02 > 0:40:04whether wood or bronze,
0:40:04 > 0:40:05was only borrowed
0:40:05 > 0:40:08and would one day have to be returned.
0:40:10 > 0:40:14People in the past seemed to acknowledge a relationship
0:40:14 > 0:40:18between themselves, their belongings, and their landscape.
0:40:18 > 0:40:20And something unseen.
0:40:20 > 0:40:24They accept that there's a relationship,
0:40:24 > 0:40:27that there's an obligation,
0:40:27 > 0:40:29that comes with ownership.
0:40:29 > 0:40:33That death follows life and that debts have to be repaid.
0:40:33 > 0:40:36So, an axe is buried,
0:40:36 > 0:40:38or thrown away.
0:40:38 > 0:40:42A polished mace head goes into a tomb with the ancestors
0:40:42 > 0:40:43and a boat like the Dover Boat,
0:40:43 > 0:40:46even though it's still serviceable,
0:40:46 > 0:40:49has to be returned to the world.
0:40:51 > 0:40:53Look at this...
0:40:53 > 0:40:55Beautiful.
0:40:55 > 0:40:59Rapier. Look how fine it is.
0:40:59 > 0:41:02You can imagine the use that was put to,
0:41:02 > 0:41:04with the handle here.
0:41:07 > 0:41:10But it's been damaged, to put it beyond the use of men.
0:41:10 > 0:41:13So it's been bent over someone's knee
0:41:13 > 0:41:18and then the edge has been ruined by striking it on a rock.
0:41:21 > 0:41:28Look. Before this was given back to the world, it's been snapped,
0:41:28 > 0:41:30great force has been used.
0:41:30 > 0:41:34This was probably a valuable, cherished object,
0:41:34 > 0:41:37but the time came for it to go away.
0:41:37 > 0:41:41And so, it was put out of reach, by destroying it.
0:41:47 > 0:41:50Bronze-Age discoveries are revealing more than ancient lives,
0:41:50 > 0:41:54but ancient beliefs as well.
0:41:54 > 0:41:56In some ways,
0:41:56 > 0:41:57the people of the Bronze Age
0:41:57 > 0:42:02were forging a new, modern way of living.
0:42:02 > 0:42:04But with the Dover Boat,
0:42:04 > 0:42:09and with those damaged pieces of valuable bronze,
0:42:09 > 0:42:12we're also seeing another side to Bronze-Age life.
0:42:12 > 0:42:16It's a glimpse of Bronze-Age religion, if you like,
0:42:16 > 0:42:18and it's connected with water.
0:42:20 > 0:42:22The only evidence we have
0:42:22 > 0:42:25is the gifts that were given to the gods.
0:42:25 > 0:42:29Rivers, particularly those that flow east in England,
0:42:29 > 0:42:31were special places
0:42:31 > 0:42:35where people brought treasured personal belongings,
0:42:35 > 0:42:37like swords, or cooking pots,
0:42:37 > 0:42:38and threw them in.
0:42:38 > 0:42:40Archaeologists think that those things
0:42:40 > 0:42:44were offerings to appease the gods.
0:42:46 > 0:42:48So, living beside nature
0:42:48 > 0:42:51and trying to work out how to appease the gods,
0:42:51 > 0:42:52how to keep them happy,
0:42:52 > 0:42:56would presumably just have been part of everyday life.
0:43:01 > 0:43:06In the thousand years since the Beaker people first brought metal to our shores,
0:43:06 > 0:43:09a wealthy Bronze-Age elite had emerged.
0:43:12 > 0:43:17By 1500BC, Britain was a rich, well-connected land.
0:43:17 > 0:43:18But of course,
0:43:18 > 0:43:22almost all those riches were the preserve of just a few -
0:43:22 > 0:43:25those at the very top of society.
0:43:26 > 0:43:29One aspect of Britain had barely changed.
0:43:29 > 0:43:32The way people lived their lives
0:43:32 > 0:43:35was pretty much the same as it had been in the Stone Age.
0:43:35 > 0:43:39They farmed the land as they had done for centuries.
0:43:39 > 0:43:43But they moved around, season by season.
0:43:43 > 0:43:44Apart from a few exceptions,
0:43:44 > 0:43:49there's scant evidence of permanent homes or permanent farms.
0:43:49 > 0:43:52But all of this was about to change.
0:43:57 > 0:43:58A Bronze-Age site in East Anglia
0:43:58 > 0:44:00revealed the remains of something new.
0:44:06 > 0:44:08'A permanent farmstead,
0:44:08 > 0:44:11'with evidence of houses built to last a lifetime.
0:44:14 > 0:44:17'Since the original discovery in the 1980s,
0:44:17 > 0:44:21'some of the buildings have been recreated.
0:44:21 > 0:44:24'To get a better idea of how Bronze-Age people lived,'
0:44:24 > 0:44:27you want to get inside one of the houses.
0:44:27 > 0:44:29So there's no way around reconstruction
0:44:29 > 0:44:32because although stone foundations survive,
0:44:32 > 0:44:34in terms of the roof, they perish.
0:44:34 > 0:44:39So there's no alternative but to use archaeological evidence and best guesses
0:44:39 > 0:44:44to put together as close a replica of a Bronze-Age house
0:44:44 > 0:44:45as we can get.
0:44:46 > 0:44:50An entire family would occupy a single room,
0:44:50 > 0:44:53with a central hearth for heating and cooking.
0:44:54 > 0:44:55It's quite interesting -
0:44:55 > 0:44:59you don't need a hole in the roof for the smoke.
0:44:59 > 0:45:00The smoke just rises
0:45:00 > 0:45:02and sits above head height
0:45:02 > 0:45:06and then gradually seeps out through the thatch.
0:45:06 > 0:45:11The Bronze-Age roundhouse formed a template for domestic living
0:45:11 > 0:45:13that would last for over a thousand years.
0:45:21 > 0:45:24'Bronze-Age specialist Francis Pryor discovered Flag Fen
0:45:24 > 0:45:27'and he's studied it ever since.'
0:45:28 > 0:45:30Francis, what would it have been like
0:45:30 > 0:45:33to live in the Bronze Age,
0:45:33 > 0:45:361200 years BC?
0:45:36 > 0:45:38People were very relaxed,
0:45:38 > 0:45:41they knew their place in society,
0:45:41 > 0:45:43they ate well.
0:45:43 > 0:45:46The archaeological evidence doesn't suggest
0:45:46 > 0:45:48that there was, let's say,
0:45:48 > 0:45:51an underclass that was not properly nourished.
0:45:51 > 0:45:54Whenever you dig up a Bronze-Age burial,
0:45:54 > 0:45:589 times out of 10 or 90 times out of 100,
0:45:58 > 0:46:01the body is well-nourished, the bones are well-formed.
0:46:01 > 0:46:04- So they had plenty of calcium and they ate a decent diet.- Right.
0:46:04 > 0:46:08One of the things there isn't much evidence for in the Bronze Age
0:46:08 > 0:46:10is actual strife.
0:46:10 > 0:46:13The population hadn't got SO big
0:46:13 > 0:46:15that people were at each other's throats.
0:46:15 > 0:46:18Everyone knew what land they owned,
0:46:18 > 0:46:19people lived in families,
0:46:19 > 0:46:22your week was organised.
0:46:22 > 0:46:25Life, I think, in the Bronze Age would have been pretty good.
0:46:29 > 0:46:31As the Bronze Age matured,
0:46:31 > 0:46:34settled life came with an even bigger change...
0:46:34 > 0:46:38a change that was one of the greatest social transformations
0:46:38 > 0:46:40in the whole of our history.
0:46:40 > 0:46:45This sort of set-up, these houses,
0:46:45 > 0:46:46this winding road -
0:46:46 > 0:46:49this is our classic view of rural Britain.
0:46:52 > 0:46:55Permanent houses led to the beginnings
0:46:55 > 0:46:58of the very first villages.
0:46:58 > 0:47:05Fields all around, houses close together. These are the neighbours.
0:47:06 > 0:47:12And that fundamentally changed the way we related to a place...
0:47:12 > 0:47:14and to one another.
0:47:14 > 0:47:18It seems normal to us, but it all had to be invented.
0:47:18 > 0:47:23The whole idea of getting used to living in the same house for your whole life.
0:47:23 > 0:47:28The neighbours - getting used to seeing the same faces day after day.
0:47:28 > 0:47:30It seems obvious to us,
0:47:30 > 0:47:33but until about 1500BC,
0:47:33 > 0:47:34this was shockingly new.
0:47:39 > 0:47:41The wild moorlands of Devon
0:47:41 > 0:47:43contain evidence of this new way of living.
0:47:49 > 0:47:51If it's Bronze-Age Britain you're looking for,
0:47:51 > 0:47:53this is the place to come.
0:47:53 > 0:47:55Because beyond this patch of woodland,
0:47:55 > 0:48:00is the finest relic we have of that ancient landscape.
0:48:08 > 0:48:12Dartmoor has the best-preserved Bronze-Age landscape,
0:48:12 > 0:48:14not just in Britain, but in the whole of Europe.
0:48:23 > 0:48:27These rocky outcrops, called tors, are natural.
0:48:27 > 0:48:31But the landscape is also marked by the work of people
0:48:31 > 0:48:34who lived on these hills 3,500 years ago.
0:48:46 > 0:48:51Faint crisscross markings are relics of Bronze-Age field systems
0:48:51 > 0:48:54that divide the land into plots,
0:48:54 > 0:48:57farmed by families living in their own homes.
0:49:00 > 0:49:03Really, what's impressive about it is the scale!
0:49:04 > 0:49:06Within this landscape -
0:49:06 > 0:49:10the remains of some of the very earliest Bronze-Age roundhouses.
0:49:16 > 0:49:18Proper entrance...
0:49:23 > 0:49:27There's nothing temporary or half-hearted about this.
0:49:27 > 0:49:28This is permanent.
0:49:29 > 0:49:32Whoever built this wasn't moving on in a hurry.
0:49:36 > 0:49:39Archaeologist Niall Sharples
0:49:39 > 0:49:43has made an extensive study of the Dartmoor landscape and its buildings.
0:49:46 > 0:49:49Activity areas. Not rooms, not divided up.
0:49:49 > 0:49:51No walls separating the room, but one big room,
0:49:51 > 0:49:54but divided into areas where they're doing different things.
0:49:54 > 0:49:57So you cook over here and make tools over here...
0:49:57 > 0:50:01The other side, over here perhaps, is sleeping and storage,
0:50:01 > 0:50:05perhaps a loom, as well, for weaving at the back of the house maybe.
0:50:05 > 0:50:07Those kind of activities going on.
0:50:07 > 0:50:11When they start building these houses, this is here for their adult lifetime.
0:50:11 > 0:50:15Their main social life would be carried out in this house,
0:50:15 > 0:50:19and is focused on this house, for 20 to 30 years, something like that.
0:50:19 > 0:50:21So it's a permanent part of the landscape.
0:50:21 > 0:50:23So, for the very first time in history,
0:50:23 > 0:50:25people have a sense of place.
0:50:25 > 0:50:29Yeah. Absolutely. That's important.
0:50:29 > 0:50:30'Most radical of all -
0:50:30 > 0:50:33'these houses aren't isolated farmsteads.
0:50:33 > 0:50:35'Here on Dartmoor,
0:50:35 > 0:50:38'there's evidence of over 5,000 of them.'
0:50:38 > 0:50:41There's another house just over there - that's the neighbours.
0:50:41 > 0:50:44They would be related kin of some sort.
0:50:44 > 0:50:46There's another two houses over there.
0:50:46 > 0:50:505, 6, 7 or 8, maybe up to 12 houses within this group of fields.
0:50:54 > 0:50:56Take a tour of the neighbourhood now...
0:50:56 > 0:51:02It does feel strangely...familiar, a layout like this.
0:51:02 > 0:51:04You know, families, in their own homes,
0:51:04 > 0:51:09dotted across the landscape. But they're within reach of each other, you've got help at hand.
0:51:09 > 0:51:12Morning, Niall!
0:51:12 > 0:51:14Is this rain ever going to stop?
0:51:14 > 0:51:17Shall we go and do some farming?
0:51:17 > 0:51:19I think I'll just stay in today.
0:51:19 > 0:51:22Your children would grow up with their children.
0:51:22 > 0:51:25They would reach adulthood, move into their own homes. It's all...
0:51:25 > 0:51:28exactly the same as the way we think about
0:51:28 > 0:51:31our communities and our neighbours.
0:51:31 > 0:51:34- You've got some impressive stones here!- It's good, isn't it?
0:51:34 > 0:51:37We're very proud of them. We think it worked out very well.
0:51:37 > 0:51:41An Englishman's home is his castle, and all that...
0:51:41 > 0:51:43starts now.
0:51:48 > 0:51:51'A warm climate had improved productivity,
0:51:51 > 0:51:53'perhaps doubling Britain's population
0:51:53 > 0:51:57'to around half a million people, in just a few hundred years.
0:52:01 > 0:52:04'Settlements weren't unknown before 1500 years BC,
0:52:04 > 0:52:07'but now they were occurring everywhere,
0:52:07 > 0:52:09'right across Britain and Europe.'
0:52:11 > 0:52:14- A fantastic view!- It is.
0:52:18 > 0:52:21'Ties to the land that were once tribal and ancestral,
0:52:21 > 0:52:24'were now personal and practical.
0:52:24 > 0:52:27'Domestic life was placed right at the heart
0:52:27 > 0:52:29'of everything these people did.'
0:52:29 > 0:52:32Viewed from up here, it's a grand scheme, isn't it?
0:52:32 > 0:52:34A very grand scheme.
0:52:34 > 0:52:37I mean, there's nothing really like it in any other period.
0:52:40 > 0:52:42It's not a pattern of nature,
0:52:42 > 0:52:45they wanted to impose something that was man-made.
0:52:57 > 0:53:00How're you doing?
0:53:07 > 0:53:12Britain had come a long way since 2,500 BC.
0:53:12 > 0:53:16We were still in the Stone Age until the Beaker people arrived
0:53:16 > 0:53:20and showed us how to make metals, from glittering stones like these.
0:53:20 > 0:53:24Until then, we were well behind the rest of Europe.
0:53:24 > 0:53:28Then, with the discovery of tin in Cornwall, we had bronze,
0:53:28 > 0:53:32and suddenly, we were at the centre of trade.
0:53:34 > 0:53:36But it wasn't until this big change,
0:53:36 > 0:53:39around 1,500 years BC,
0:53:39 > 0:53:42that we began to settle down
0:53:42 > 0:53:45into the way of life that we would recognise now.
0:53:45 > 0:53:48There was even a sexual revolution.
0:53:48 > 0:53:51It's likely that sons and daughters
0:53:51 > 0:53:56were exchanged between hamlets 5, 10, 20 miles apart.
0:53:56 > 0:54:00If you sent your daughter to be betrothed to a neighbour's son,
0:54:00 > 0:54:04that would have forged an alliance between the families -
0:54:04 > 0:54:09people that you could look to for help when times turned bad.
0:54:09 > 0:54:14A kind of Bronze-Age insurance policy.
0:54:14 > 0:54:17In the years since 1,500 years BC,
0:54:17 > 0:54:21things begin to look a bit modern.
0:54:24 > 0:54:28Those early settlements on Dartmoor, though, didn't last.
0:54:32 > 0:54:34Over just a few centuries,
0:54:34 > 0:54:37possibly because of climate change and over-farming,
0:54:37 > 0:54:41the moors and those first villages were abandoned forever.
0:54:47 > 0:54:49But places like Dartmoor
0:54:49 > 0:54:52had set a pattern for the rest of Britain...
0:54:52 > 0:54:54and for the future.
0:54:59 > 0:55:02Through thousands of years of prehistory,
0:55:02 > 0:55:06the building blocks of the world WE know had all been invented.
0:55:06 > 0:55:08Society and class,
0:55:08 > 0:55:11religion and trade.
0:55:11 > 0:55:14Now, by 1000 BC,
0:55:14 > 0:55:17the first neighbourhoods and settled villages
0:55:17 > 0:55:20were seeds from which city life would eventually blossom.
0:55:22 > 0:55:25From the strange and distant days of the first hunters,
0:55:25 > 0:55:29a very recognisable Britain was beginning to emerge.
0:55:36 > 0:55:41The ice finally retreated around 11,000 or 12,000 years ago.
0:55:41 > 0:55:45People came. There were shifts in technology and belief,
0:55:45 > 0:55:50and all of that has moulded the Britain we know today.
0:55:50 > 0:55:53The very shape of the land - as Britain became an island.
0:55:53 > 0:55:54The coming of farming,
0:55:54 > 0:55:59with ideas of work, and productivity, and community.
0:55:59 > 0:56:01But it feels that with the end of the Stone Age
0:56:01 > 0:56:03and the coming of Bronze,
0:56:03 > 0:56:08the distant, strange world of our very early prehistory
0:56:08 > 0:56:09finally came to an end.
0:56:15 > 0:56:20It was as if we, as a people, had come of age.
0:56:20 > 0:56:22We had the keys to the door,
0:56:22 > 0:56:26and we could mould the world in our own image,
0:56:26 > 0:56:27as individuals,
0:56:27 > 0:56:30taking care of our own families.
0:56:30 > 0:56:32But there was a price to pay.
0:56:32 > 0:56:35That realisation, that thought,
0:56:35 > 0:56:383,000 or 4,000 years ago,
0:56:38 > 0:56:41that we could impose our vision on the world,
0:56:41 > 0:56:44brought with it a very grown-up responsibility.
0:56:44 > 0:56:48Because what kind of world did we want to shape?
0:56:48 > 0:56:51What kind of Britain did we want to build?
0:56:56 > 0:56:59Next time, my journey continues.
0:57:08 > 0:57:11'From a golden age of bronze...'
0:57:11 > 0:57:13And then there's this magnificent cauldron.
0:57:13 > 0:57:14It's so modern, somehow.
0:57:15 > 0:57:19'..to a Britain in crisis.'
0:57:19 > 0:57:23Everything about this place says "keep out".
0:57:23 > 0:57:25'A time of economic meltdown,
0:57:25 > 0:57:27'sudden climate change...
0:57:29 > 0:57:33'..and the dawn of a new era... of iron.'