0:00:06 > 0:00:09'This is the story of how Britain came to be.
0:00:09 > 0:00:11'Of how our land, and its people,
0:00:11 > 0:00:15'were forged over thousands of years of ancient history.
0:00:20 > 0:00:23'This Britain is a strange and alien world.
0:00:25 > 0:00:27'A world that contains the hidden story
0:00:27 > 0:00:29'of our distant, prehistoric past.
0:00:35 > 0:00:38'After more than 1,000 years,
0:00:38 > 0:00:41'the international world of the Bronze Age had collapsed.'
0:00:42 > 0:00:44A horde like this is a snapshot
0:00:44 > 0:00:47of the time when bronze
0:00:47 > 0:00:50was no longer working as the glue of society.
0:00:52 > 0:00:54'A new Britain began to emerge.
0:00:54 > 0:00:57'A whole new era -
0:00:57 > 0:00:59'the Iron Age.'
0:00:59 > 0:01:03There's nothing different about it from the tools we use today.
0:01:03 > 0:01:06Yet it's 2,500 years old.
0:01:06 > 0:01:09'A Britain of powerful regional identities
0:01:09 > 0:01:16'where land and grain had replaced bronze as a source of prestige.
0:01:18 > 0:01:21'Now, the journey continues
0:01:21 > 0:01:24'with the next chapter in our epic story.'
0:01:24 > 0:01:26He was laid in his grave
0:01:26 > 0:01:31and soon thereafter, three spears were thrust in.
0:01:31 > 0:01:35This would have been a moment of huge drama.
0:01:35 > 0:01:39'A time of Iron Age warriors
0:01:39 > 0:01:41'and Celtic glory.
0:01:41 > 0:01:43'A tipping point in our history,
0:01:43 > 0:01:46'when tribal leaders began to believe
0:01:46 > 0:01:48'they were more than chieftains.
0:01:50 > 0:01:53'They were kings.'
0:02:09 > 0:02:15'I'm going back 2,500 years to 500 BC.
0:02:17 > 0:02:21'This is Britain right in the heart of the Iron Age.
0:02:21 > 0:02:27'A time of huge transformation for our land and its people.'
0:02:27 > 0:02:29Ever since the end of the Bronze Age
0:02:29 > 0:02:34a few hundred years earlier, a new Britain had begun to emerge
0:02:34 > 0:02:38and it was a more insular Britain with strong regional identities.
0:02:39 > 0:02:45'This was a world of tall broch towers in the North,
0:02:45 > 0:02:49'and communal hill forts in the South.
0:02:50 > 0:02:54'Both, responses to the importance of controlling the land.'
0:02:56 > 0:03:01What was common across Britain was that trade was focussed locally
0:03:01 > 0:03:06and wealth was no longer centred around bronze as it had been.
0:03:06 > 0:03:08It was now centred around grain.
0:03:08 > 0:03:12'Britain was entering a new era, in which
0:03:12 > 0:03:16'the people who controlled land would gain wealth and power,
0:03:16 > 0:03:20'the like of which had never been seen before.'
0:03:25 > 0:03:29'At the top of this hill are the remains of an Iron Age hill fort
0:03:29 > 0:03:33'that holds evidence of the beginning of this new age.'
0:03:39 > 0:03:42This isn't just any old hill fort.
0:03:42 > 0:03:43This is Danebury.
0:03:43 > 0:03:46This is a completely different beast.
0:03:46 > 0:03:50A mega hill fort, and it's one of the first of its type.
0:03:51 > 0:03:56Farmers here were cultivating ever greater tracts of land,
0:03:56 > 0:03:58harvesting more and more grain.
0:03:58 > 0:04:00This wasn't subsistence farming.
0:04:00 > 0:04:06This was about creating a surplus to trade.
0:04:07 > 0:04:10But there was a problem.
0:04:10 > 0:04:14And you can see it over there, just on the horizon.
0:04:14 > 0:04:19That bump into the sky is another hill fort - Woodbury Hill fort.
0:04:19 > 0:04:21And it's not the only one.
0:04:21 > 0:04:24On a clear day, from up here, you can see another three hill forts
0:04:24 > 0:04:28and they were all equally prosperous
0:04:28 > 0:04:30and, crucially, they were all beginning
0:04:30 > 0:04:32to want more and more land.
0:04:33 > 0:04:36For the first time in our history,
0:04:36 > 0:04:40Britain, or parts of it, were actually starting to fill up.
0:04:40 > 0:04:44After all those millennia of hunting, and then the early farming,
0:04:44 > 0:04:48the physical size of our island was actually beginning to tell.
0:04:48 > 0:04:52And where the territories of those hill-fort communities
0:04:52 > 0:04:55were starting to rub against one another,
0:04:55 > 0:04:58there was one consequence and one consequence only
0:04:58 > 0:05:00and that was friction.
0:05:06 > 0:05:11What's happening is that the land is being used more and more and more.
0:05:11 > 0:05:12It is good land, it is rich land,
0:05:12 > 0:05:14it encourages the population to grow,
0:05:14 > 0:05:17but you can only grow to a certain extent
0:05:17 > 0:05:21and the population will continue to grow beyond the holding capacity
0:05:21 > 0:05:25of the land, and at that point you get tension.
0:05:25 > 0:05:29And how does the instability, the pressure, manifest itself?
0:05:29 > 0:05:34Normally in terms of aggression and warfare.
0:05:34 > 0:05:37Resources are rare, you fight for resources.
0:05:37 > 0:05:39You can have long, long periods of peace, I think.
0:05:39 > 0:05:42Then, perhaps in a confrontation,
0:05:42 > 0:05:46some young man would be hurt, everyone would be angry
0:05:46 > 0:05:50and it would escalate into outright, really violent warfare.
0:05:50 > 0:05:56Barry Cunliffe first studied Danebury over forty years ago.
0:05:56 > 0:05:59These are iron spearheads. Now, look at that one.
0:05:59 > 0:06:02That is a mean thing.
0:06:02 > 0:06:05A long shank. Very sharp point.
0:06:05 > 0:06:11Gosh. And that has been done with the intention to kill.
0:06:11 > 0:06:13Everything about it is violent.
0:06:13 > 0:06:18Yes, absolutely redolent of violence.
0:06:18 > 0:06:20And this is all coming from in here?
0:06:20 > 0:06:23- Everything here is from within Danebury.- OK.
0:06:23 > 0:06:26We have also got evidence from the human bones themselves.
0:06:26 > 0:06:29This is the real hard evidence.
0:06:29 > 0:06:31Here we are. We've got the skull.
0:06:31 > 0:06:35You can see the eye sockets there and you see that hole there?
0:06:35 > 0:06:37And that's got the same section...
0:06:37 > 0:06:40It is exactly the same section as that spear.
0:06:40 > 0:06:44He would have copped a spear directly through the top of his head there.
0:06:44 > 0:06:46But the fascinating thing about this guy
0:06:46 > 0:06:49is that he also had a pretty hefty bash on the head
0:06:49 > 0:06:52- which caved a bit of the skull in. - And that's not been enough to kill?
0:06:52 > 0:06:55No, because if you turn inside,
0:06:55 > 0:06:58you see the damage that it has done inside, but it has all healed over.
0:06:58 > 0:07:00He must have had a headache...
0:07:00 > 0:07:01That is so graphic.
0:07:01 > 0:07:03..and possibly brain damage.
0:07:03 > 0:07:06But he was still fit enough presumably to go into battle
0:07:06 > 0:07:08some months, perhaps some years later,
0:07:08 > 0:07:10to end up with that spear in his head.
0:07:10 > 0:07:13Gosh! So, he went into battle
0:07:13 > 0:07:17already knowing what it was like to face these weapons?
0:07:17 > 0:07:23He probably had been into battle many times, this guy, as had many of them.
0:07:23 > 0:07:24We have many more skulls here.
0:07:24 > 0:07:27Goodness! There is no end of it up here.
0:07:27 > 0:07:31No. Again just close to where we are standing was a very large pit
0:07:31 > 0:07:34into which they had thrown body parts,
0:07:34 > 0:07:36cleaning up after a battle, presumably.
0:07:36 > 0:07:38Lots of body parts and some of these skulls came from there.
0:07:38 > 0:07:40People are dying in significant numbers
0:07:40 > 0:07:42that they're not given a burial?
0:07:42 > 0:07:44- They are being cleared away? - Cleared away.
0:07:44 > 0:07:47You see here a whole series of slivers
0:07:47 > 0:07:49taken off his skull with glancing blows.
0:07:49 > 0:07:52He wouldn't have needed a haircut after that.
0:07:52 > 0:07:56But the coup de grace was that - a great sword slash.
0:07:56 > 0:07:58Goodness sake! That has not healed over.
0:07:58 > 0:08:01That was the end of him.
0:08:01 > 0:08:07And altogether this shows what an incredibly violent life people lived.
0:08:07 > 0:08:10What a world they inhabited with the threat of this hanging over them!
0:08:10 > 0:08:13I think they would have been aware of it the whole time.
0:08:13 > 0:08:15You can imagine here in Danebury
0:08:15 > 0:08:19these young guys coming back from battle with all their scars
0:08:19 > 0:08:22and living in the community with noses cut off,
0:08:22 > 0:08:25ears cut off, horrendous injuries.
0:08:25 > 0:08:28They must have been aware every moment of every day
0:08:28 > 0:08:30of just how violent life was.
0:08:39 > 0:08:42What's unfolding now is something quite new.
0:08:42 > 0:08:47The time of the peaceful, local farming collective is over.
0:08:47 > 0:08:50By 400 BC, in Southern Britain at least,
0:08:50 > 0:08:54the area is descending into bloody conflict.
0:08:54 > 0:08:56And what's interesting about that conflict
0:08:56 > 0:08:59is the kind of personality that it encourages.
0:08:59 > 0:09:03As the need to fight and defend became more important,
0:09:03 > 0:09:08the status of those who could do the fighting and defending increased.
0:09:08 > 0:09:10You can't know these things for certain,
0:09:10 > 0:09:13but it's tempting to imagine that, in peaceful times,
0:09:13 > 0:09:16these communities were controlled by councils of elders,
0:09:16 > 0:09:19or the heads of important families.
0:09:19 > 0:09:23But not any more. Now, now that the fighting had started,
0:09:23 > 0:09:28was the time of heroes, champions, men who could wield swords.
0:09:28 > 0:09:32THESE were the type who could expand territories,
0:09:32 > 0:09:35defend territories, bring upstarts to heel.
0:09:50 > 0:09:54Britain was entering a period we call the Middle Iron Age,
0:09:54 > 0:10:00a time when local power bases fought it out for power and prestige.
0:10:00 > 0:10:02And where a man's status had to be earned...
0:10:02 > 0:10:04in battle.
0:10:10 > 0:10:12But out of bloody conflict
0:10:12 > 0:10:16something was about to emerge that was sublime.
0:10:23 > 0:10:25This is one of the finest,
0:10:25 > 0:10:27most astonishing pieces of early art
0:10:27 > 0:10:30ever produced in Britain.
0:10:30 > 0:10:35It is from 350 BC and it's called the Battersea Shield.
0:10:37 > 0:10:42It is too small to have been used in warfare.
0:10:42 > 0:10:46It is completely wrong for combat, it is too elaborate.
0:10:46 > 0:10:48This is ceremonial,
0:10:48 > 0:10:50owned by a warlord
0:10:50 > 0:10:54and perhaps carried at the head of a victory parade.
0:10:55 > 0:10:59This is an object that demonstrates technical perfection
0:10:59 > 0:11:03and also artistic genius.
0:11:04 > 0:11:09This is the beginning of something utterly new in our history,
0:11:09 > 0:11:11a sudden blossoming of art and design.
0:11:14 > 0:11:17The great continental rivers
0:11:17 > 0:11:21were trade routes to the classical world to the South.
0:11:23 > 0:11:28As Northern tribes, controlling the routes, developed a taste
0:11:28 > 0:11:32for luxury goods, they also began to invent a new decorative style.
0:11:35 > 0:11:38This was the birth of Celtic art.
0:11:38 > 0:11:42And around 350 BC, when it came to Britain,
0:11:42 > 0:11:47local craftsmen took it to completely new heights.
0:11:47 > 0:11:52It is said that the innovation and sophistication of British Celtic art
0:11:52 > 0:11:55is the single greatest contribution
0:11:55 > 0:11:59by these islands to the world of art ever.
0:11:59 > 0:12:03And the proof of that statement is here in my hands.
0:12:09 > 0:12:12This is the magnificent Kirkburn Sword.
0:12:13 > 0:12:18And it was excavated from a grave in East Yorkshire.
0:12:18 > 0:12:23Unlike earlier swords, this is a composite item.
0:12:23 > 0:12:26It required the meticulous design
0:12:26 > 0:12:31and fabrication of 70 separate pieces which were then assembled.
0:12:31 > 0:12:34There is iron here in the blade,
0:12:34 > 0:12:38there is bronze on the scabbard, there is horn.
0:12:38 > 0:12:41It has also been a working sword.
0:12:41 > 0:12:46Unlike the shield, this actually saw battle.
0:12:46 > 0:12:49And we know that because analysis of the metal indicates
0:12:49 > 0:12:53that it was repaired on at least one occasion, possibly more.
0:12:55 > 0:12:58These red enamel additions
0:12:58 > 0:13:04are said to represent freshly-spilled blood.
0:13:04 > 0:13:08But it's the delicate nature
0:13:08 > 0:13:14of the perfection of this art that is new in Britain.
0:13:16 > 0:13:21And what is most fascinating of all is that it is embodied,
0:13:21 > 0:13:26not in jewellery, but in the objects that could be afforded
0:13:26 > 0:13:30by that class of people that deserved
0:13:30 > 0:13:36things like this, warriors, the most powerful warriors.
0:13:42 > 0:13:46But finely-decorated swords were not the only symbol of elite power,
0:13:46 > 0:13:51as the skeleton of a horse buried at Danebury Hill Fort reveals.
0:13:52 > 0:13:55The lifetime activities of the horse
0:13:55 > 0:13:57will leave different markers in the skeleton.
0:13:57 > 0:13:59And we are looking for clues
0:13:59 > 0:14:02as to what that animal was used for during its life.
0:14:02 > 0:14:04Throughout prehistory,
0:14:04 > 0:14:08horses were uncommon in Britain, even on farms,
0:14:08 > 0:14:14and forensic studies of this one found something unprecedented.
0:14:14 > 0:14:16If you look here at the front of the tooth,
0:14:16 > 0:14:20there's a small white parallel-sided band of enamel.
0:14:20 > 0:14:23This is evidence that the horse was bitted.
0:14:23 > 0:14:25And, if you look at this vertebrae,
0:14:25 > 0:14:30there is a fracture running through the epiphysis of the vertebra
0:14:30 > 0:14:33and this is evidence that this horse was ridden.
0:14:33 > 0:14:34This is the first time
0:14:34 > 0:14:36we have evidence for riding in prehistoric Britain.
0:14:38 > 0:14:42These bones reveal the very beginning of the ridden horse -
0:14:42 > 0:14:43a symbol of power.
0:14:45 > 0:14:48Use of horses would have revolutionised warfare.
0:14:48 > 0:14:50It would have changed raiding.
0:14:50 > 0:14:53People could raid at further distances and faster.
0:14:53 > 0:14:55You could attack a neighbouring settlement,
0:14:55 > 0:14:57take control of their cattle.
0:14:57 > 0:15:00A man on horseback would have had major advantages over a man on foot.
0:15:12 > 0:15:15By 300 BC, Britain was becoming the land
0:15:15 > 0:15:19that resonates in ancient myths and folk memory.
0:15:21 > 0:15:25A land of warrior heroes, wielding power from horseback,
0:15:25 > 0:15:28armed with glinting, decorated, Celtic swords.
0:15:41 > 0:15:46Incredibly, the remains of a warrior from this time still survive.
0:15:46 > 0:15:49The very man who once owned and wielded
0:15:49 > 0:15:52the finest Iron Age sword ever found in Britain -
0:15:52 > 0:15:54the Kirkburn Warrior.
0:16:01 > 0:16:07When he died, he was aged somewhere between 20 and 35 years,
0:16:07 > 0:16:11powerfully built, you would have thought in the prime of his life.
0:16:11 > 0:16:15And there is nothing on the skeleton to indicate why he died.
0:16:15 > 0:16:19There is no great catastrophic injury, no caved-in skull,
0:16:19 > 0:16:22no massive sword wounds to the long bones.
0:16:22 > 0:16:26It is still possible, though, that he died in battle.
0:16:26 > 0:16:29If he suffered a wound that severed a major artery,
0:16:29 > 0:16:33or punctured a vital organ, he could have bled
0:16:33 > 0:16:36to death and there would be no sign on the skeleton
0:16:36 > 0:16:38to reveal that as the cause of death.
0:16:39 > 0:16:44The circumstances of his burial are fascinating.
0:16:44 > 0:16:46He was laid in his grave
0:16:46 > 0:16:51and soon thereafter, three spears were thrust in,
0:16:51 > 0:16:54possibly penetrating the dead body.
0:16:54 > 0:16:58Now, this would have been a moment of huge drama
0:16:58 > 0:17:03for those witnessing the funerary ritual.
0:17:03 > 0:17:07Here was a man whose martial prowess
0:17:07 > 0:17:11was being marked out very blatantly.
0:17:11 > 0:17:14Then the grave was completely backfilled leaving the shafts
0:17:14 > 0:17:18sticking out of the ground, bristling out of the mound.
0:17:18 > 0:17:21So they would have been visible from some distance.
0:17:21 > 0:17:24They would have marked out that grave as that of a warrior.
0:17:24 > 0:17:26It could have become a place of homage,
0:17:26 > 0:17:29so that warriors who remembered him from life
0:17:29 > 0:17:32could have grown old and grey
0:17:32 > 0:17:35regaling their children and grandchildren with stories
0:17:35 > 0:17:39about this man, remembering what a great
0:17:39 > 0:17:44and powerful warrior now lay buried in that special grave.
0:17:53 > 0:17:54The world of the Kirkburn Warrior
0:17:54 > 0:17:58is the beginning of a new era in the history of our land and its people.
0:18:01 > 0:18:05This is the time of Celtic Britain.
0:18:05 > 0:18:11A world of magic, mystery, and spiritual destiny.
0:18:14 > 0:18:16And clues to the birth of this new age
0:18:16 > 0:18:19can be found in the Northeast of England.
0:18:25 > 0:18:28I've come to Yorkshire because 20 or so miles away
0:18:28 > 0:18:31in that direction is where the Kirkburn Warrior was buried
0:18:31 > 0:18:35around 300 BC along with his splendid sword.
0:18:35 > 0:18:38And what is more, he wasn't the only one.
0:18:50 > 0:18:53In the Iron Age, formal burial was rare.
0:18:53 > 0:18:55In most cases when people died,
0:18:55 > 0:18:59their bodies were simply laid out and the bones gradually picked clean
0:18:59 > 0:19:01by the animals and birds.
0:19:01 > 0:19:04If you were lucky, you might have got a cremation.
0:19:04 > 0:19:07But up here, in chalk uplands of East Yorkshire
0:19:07 > 0:19:10something a bit different was going on.
0:19:12 > 0:19:16Melanie Giles has been studying the Iron Age of East Yorkshire
0:19:16 > 0:19:18for more than a decade.
0:19:18 > 0:19:21What exactly is in this field?
0:19:21 > 0:19:26This is an Iron Age cemetery and what you are looking at is small barrows.
0:19:26 > 0:19:28Each one of those is somebody's grave.
0:19:28 > 0:19:34So all these bumps of different sizes and heights contain a person?
0:19:34 > 0:19:36- Indeed, yes.- Right.
0:19:36 > 0:19:38Is this the only cemetery of its kind?
0:19:38 > 0:19:43No, there are many more like it across East and into North Yorkshire.
0:19:43 > 0:19:46And, when you say East and North Yorkshire,
0:19:46 > 0:19:49is that the limit of cemeteries like these?
0:19:49 > 0:19:53Yes, they are really unique in Britain, but there are cemeteries
0:19:53 > 0:19:56like this in modern-day France, in the Marne and Moselle region.
0:19:56 > 0:19:59So what is going on, then?
0:19:59 > 0:20:03If this is a French cemetery, what is it doing here?
0:20:03 > 0:20:05I don't know that it's a French cemetery.
0:20:05 > 0:20:07There are lots of different ideas about this,
0:20:07 > 0:20:09lots of different debates.
0:20:09 > 0:20:12Some people thought it was a massive invasion,
0:20:12 > 0:20:14a kind of war band coming across.
0:20:14 > 0:20:18But, in fact, most of these people look as if they are local,
0:20:18 > 0:20:20they were born and brought up here,
0:20:20 > 0:20:23so we might be looking at just a small group of important
0:20:23 > 0:20:26or powerful people coming across from the Continent.
0:20:26 > 0:20:30And some of the grave goods we find in those barrows
0:20:30 > 0:20:34reinforce that sense that there are contacts with the Continent.
0:20:35 > 0:20:39The Celtic culture that came to represent an entire era
0:20:39 > 0:20:41might have had its genesis right here,
0:20:41 > 0:20:45in the continentally-connected warrior elites of East Yorkshire.
0:20:45 > 0:20:48So a warrior of the status,
0:20:48 > 0:20:53say, of the Kirkburn Warrior, someone of that style and demeanour?
0:20:53 > 0:20:57Absolutely, and he was buried just about ten miles from here.
0:20:57 > 0:21:00So he is part of this...fashion?
0:21:00 > 0:21:04Yes, and figures like that who maybe were skilled at fighting,
0:21:04 > 0:21:06or had achieved something in their life,
0:21:06 > 0:21:09or maybe even through the manner of their death
0:21:09 > 0:21:12were treated to special kinds of burials.
0:21:16 > 0:21:19'But the Yorkshire burials have revealed something else
0:21:19 > 0:21:22'that was remarkable about this new culture.
0:21:22 > 0:21:23'Because here, it seems,
0:21:23 > 0:21:27'it was not only great warriors who were revered.'
0:21:28 > 0:21:32Our picture of ancient Britain will always be incomplete because
0:21:32 > 0:21:35often the evidence we find is of important men,
0:21:35 > 0:21:39the artefacts are often symbols of martial prowess.
0:21:39 > 0:21:41What is remarkable here in Yorkshire
0:21:41 > 0:21:46is that around 300 BC we start to get evidence of something
0:21:46 > 0:21:49that has been missing so far and that is important women.
0:21:54 > 0:21:57This is the skeleton of a woman who died
0:21:57 > 0:22:02at least in her late 40s, possibly even older than that.
0:22:02 > 0:22:06But for all that, she was an older, mature woman,
0:22:06 > 0:22:09her teeth are in remarkably good shape
0:22:09 > 0:22:14which suggests she had access to a good, even privileged diet.
0:22:14 > 0:22:21But much more revealing and fascinating than her mere bones
0:22:21 > 0:22:24are the circumstances in which she was buried.
0:22:24 > 0:22:32This woman was buried lying on, inside a chariot.
0:22:32 > 0:22:39And around her were also placed all the furniture for horse driving.
0:22:39 > 0:22:42These are quite hard to describe.
0:22:42 > 0:22:45I suppose they're the equivalent of hub caps,
0:22:45 > 0:22:48decoration that would have gone around the knobbly bit
0:22:48 > 0:22:50that sticks out from the wheel.
0:22:50 > 0:22:55These are parts of the bit that the horse would have in its mouth,
0:22:55 > 0:22:56through which the reins passed
0:22:56 > 0:22:59which would have given the driver control over the horse's head.
0:23:01 > 0:23:04But also, in this woman's grave,
0:23:04 > 0:23:08are items altogether more mysterious, even magical.
0:23:08 > 0:23:12This metal cylinder,
0:23:12 > 0:23:15beautifully decorated
0:23:15 > 0:23:18with Celtic artwork.
0:23:18 > 0:23:20Now, it is completely sealed,
0:23:20 > 0:23:23you can't get into it, you can't open it.
0:23:23 > 0:23:25If it ever did contain anything,
0:23:25 > 0:23:27it must have been organic and very small
0:23:27 > 0:23:30so that with the passage of millennia,
0:23:30 > 0:23:32that has decayed and disappeared.
0:23:32 > 0:23:34Maybe it was some beans or seeds
0:23:34 > 0:23:37so that it could be used as a ceremonial rattle.
0:23:39 > 0:23:44Perhaps even more powerful is this.
0:23:44 > 0:23:47It has been called a mirror,
0:23:47 > 0:23:49I suspect because, in terms of its shape,
0:23:49 > 0:23:51that is exactly what it looks like.
0:23:51 > 0:23:55But for me, the word "mirror" downgrades this object,
0:23:55 > 0:23:59makes it seem trivial and to do with vanity.
0:23:59 > 0:24:03This, in its heyday, would have been highly polished iron,
0:24:03 > 0:24:05but even at its best,
0:24:05 > 0:24:10the reflection it offered would always have been blurred.
0:24:10 > 0:24:14It is now suggested that items such as these
0:24:14 > 0:24:19were used not to reflect back our world,
0:24:19 > 0:24:23but to open a portal into a world beyond,
0:24:23 > 0:24:27the world of the ancestors and that by owning this,
0:24:27 > 0:24:29and having access to it
0:24:29 > 0:24:33you were able to communicate directly with the dead.
0:24:36 > 0:24:39So, with these items here,
0:24:39 > 0:24:44it is easy to understand that, whoever this woman was,
0:24:44 > 0:24:47once upon a time, she really mattered.
0:24:47 > 0:24:52She was a woman of substance, she was revered,
0:24:52 > 0:24:58she was wise and, in her community, she was someone of real power.
0:25:06 > 0:25:12By 200 BC, Celtic culture had spread right across our land,
0:25:12 > 0:25:16and power was increasingly becoming concentrated
0:25:16 > 0:25:19in the hands of fewer, bigger, regional leaders.
0:25:19 > 0:25:23The chieftains of the emerging Celtic tribes of Britain.
0:25:25 > 0:25:29The big question, though, is just who were these Celts?
0:25:36 > 0:25:40Here in Britain, especially along the so-called Celtic fringe
0:25:40 > 0:25:46of Cornwall, Wales and Scotland Celticness is an emotive subject.
0:25:46 > 0:25:49There are people who believe it connects them
0:25:49 > 0:25:52to a sense of their own history,
0:25:52 > 0:25:56that it underpins their sense of self and inheritance.
0:25:56 > 0:26:00There are even those who believe in an entirely separate Celtic race.
0:26:02 > 0:26:04And how do I feel about that?
0:26:04 > 0:26:08Well, as a Scot, I feel a sense of belonging to my country.
0:26:08 > 0:26:11I feel in a sense, that my homeland belongs to me.
0:26:11 > 0:26:13But whether or not that is the same
0:26:13 > 0:26:15as the sense of a separate ethnic identity,
0:26:15 > 0:26:18I'd need help to answer that one.
0:26:24 > 0:26:28I'm sending a sample of my DNA for analysis in an attempt
0:26:28 > 0:26:32to try and find out where my Scottish ancestors came from.
0:26:32 > 0:26:35And, in particular, to find out whether
0:26:35 > 0:26:39they were living in Britain during the height of the Celtic Iron Age.
0:26:42 > 0:26:46Using statistical genetic dating methods, Peter Forster believes
0:26:46 > 0:26:50he can work out the detailed prehistory of living individuals.
0:26:50 > 0:26:54I know it is very complicated science that's involved,
0:26:54 > 0:26:57but can you tell me, in very simple terms,
0:26:57 > 0:26:59who I am and where I come from?
0:26:59 > 0:27:01I'll give it a try.
0:27:01 > 0:27:02So what we have done, in a nutshell,
0:27:02 > 0:27:06is to take a look at two stretches of your DNA which allow us
0:27:06 > 0:27:10to separately trace your mother's line back into deep prehistory
0:27:10 > 0:27:14- and your father's back into deep prehistory.- OK.
0:27:14 > 0:27:17So to start with we have looked at your mother's DNA,
0:27:17 > 0:27:21where her female ancestry traces back to.
0:27:21 > 0:27:23You could have matches from all over the world,
0:27:23 > 0:27:26but let's take a look at what they are.
0:27:26 > 0:27:28Oh, big red spot right on Scotland.
0:27:28 > 0:27:30Yeah, let me zoom in...
0:27:30 > 0:27:33Fascinating.
0:27:33 > 0:27:36And it's the Western Isles of Scotland.
0:27:36 > 0:27:38Yes.
0:27:38 > 0:27:42We have no recent historical connection to the islands.
0:27:42 > 0:27:44Well, it is not only Western Isles.
0:27:44 > 0:27:47We have some more matches in mainland Scotland.
0:27:47 > 0:27:51In simple terms, everything about my mum is pointing to Scotland,
0:27:51 > 0:27:55- and having been in Scotland for a long, long time.- That is right.
0:27:55 > 0:27:58Because it is all over Scotland, it is not just one particular location.
0:27:58 > 0:28:02So that argues for the presence of your mother's line in Scotland
0:28:02 > 0:28:05way back into prehistory, thousands of years ago.
0:28:05 > 0:28:07So what about my dad, then?
0:28:07 > 0:28:12Yes, your father's line was a bit of a surprise.
0:28:12 > 0:28:15So let's see.
0:28:15 > 0:28:18That is the result for the father's line.
0:28:18 > 0:28:20Right.
0:28:20 > 0:28:22Your particular paternal lineage
0:28:22 > 0:28:27is more common in Southern Europe and Eastern Europe.
0:28:27 > 0:28:30There is nothing from my dad's DNA in Britain at all.
0:28:30 > 0:28:34Well, it is more than that, in fact. There is nothing in Scandinavia or
0:28:34 > 0:28:39northern Europe so it is a Southern and Eastern European profile.
0:28:39 > 0:28:44So the individuals, or individual, in my father's line
0:28:44 > 0:28:49only came to Britain, in DNA terms, relatively recently?
0:28:49 > 0:28:51Yes, that is correct.
0:28:51 > 0:28:53Wait till I tell him.
0:28:53 > 0:28:56Wait till I tell my Scottish dad...
0:28:56 > 0:28:57that he's not from Scotland.
0:29:05 > 0:29:10Experts have tried again and again to identify a Celtic bloodline,
0:29:10 > 0:29:14but the most they can really agree on is that, just as in my case,
0:29:14 > 0:29:16ancestry is complicated.
0:29:17 > 0:29:21Many people today believe that "Celtic"
0:29:21 > 0:29:25is no more than a collective term to describe a whole host of peoples
0:29:25 > 0:29:28who lived in Europe around 2,000 years ago
0:29:28 > 0:29:30and shared common cultural values.
0:29:32 > 0:29:36It's possible - it's even likely - that there never was
0:29:36 > 0:29:39a separate ethnic Celtic identity.
0:29:39 > 0:29:44There's certainly no absolute evidence for a separate Celtic race,
0:29:44 > 0:29:47however disappointing some people might find that fact.
0:29:49 > 0:29:52But what we do have - and what we do have evidence for -
0:29:52 > 0:29:55is a common Celtic heritage.
0:29:59 > 0:30:02'The Celts appreciated similar art and design
0:30:02 > 0:30:06'and they held shared values of status and hierarchy.
0:30:07 > 0:30:11'And linguists also believe they shared a common language.
0:30:13 > 0:30:18'A language we can decipher, even after 2,000 years.'
0:30:18 > 0:30:22Paul, how much do we know about what the Iron Age would have sounded like
0:30:22 > 0:30:24in terms of the spoken word?
0:30:24 > 0:30:27Well we know something about it,
0:30:27 > 0:30:30in the sense that the descendent languages
0:30:30 > 0:30:34from this period in Britain do survive in the form of Welsh,
0:30:34 > 0:30:36and Cornish and Breton
0:30:36 > 0:30:40and - more distantly - with Irish and Scots Gaelic.
0:30:40 > 0:30:42If we were to take a particular word,
0:30:42 > 0:30:47we would know that the ancient British word for a boar
0:30:47 > 0:30:53would be "turcos" because we have Welsh "twrch" and so on.
0:30:53 > 0:30:56And to take another example,
0:30:56 > 0:31:00"maglos" would be the word for a prince or a lord
0:31:00 > 0:31:04on the basis of Welsh "mael" and Irish "mal".
0:31:04 > 0:31:10And these forms one can reconstruct to produce those forms.
0:31:10 > 0:31:14If you were to take a modern-day English speaker
0:31:14 > 0:31:18and plunk them down in an Iron Age marketplace,
0:31:18 > 0:31:22what would they find most striking about the voices around them?
0:31:22 > 0:31:24I think the most striking thing for them
0:31:24 > 0:31:26is that they wouldn't understand a word of it,
0:31:26 > 0:31:30because this is a language group that is unrelated -
0:31:30 > 0:31:33or only distantly related - to English.
0:31:33 > 0:31:37So you would be in the market and you would say,
0:31:37 > 0:31:39"Gwerthar mi turcon."
0:31:39 > 0:31:42"Sell me a boar."
0:31:42 > 0:31:46And there's nothing there - apart, perhaps, from "mi" -
0:31:46 > 0:31:49which an English speaker would understand.
0:31:49 > 0:31:54If a traveller was to go from the south-west of England
0:31:54 > 0:31:56to the north-east of Scotland,
0:31:56 > 0:32:00would they hear the language changing as though with dialects?
0:32:00 > 0:32:02Yes, almost certainly.
0:32:02 > 0:32:05That's probably definitely the case, by virtue of the fact that
0:32:05 > 0:32:09these are languages that develop into different languages.
0:32:09 > 0:32:12Welsh as separate from Cornish and so on and so forth.
0:32:12 > 0:32:15So there probably was that kind of variation.
0:32:15 > 0:32:20But the kind of variation where, mile on mile, neighbour to neighbour,
0:32:20 > 0:32:24they, perfectly well, would understand each other
0:32:24 > 0:32:27but if you moved them all the way from the south-west to the north-east
0:32:27 > 0:32:30they would probably struggle, I would have thought.
0:32:30 > 0:32:33Can you construct a sentence for me,
0:32:33 > 0:32:35so that I can get a sense of the...
0:32:35 > 0:32:40- The rhythm and cadence of that ancient British language?- Well, OK.
0:32:40 > 0:32:41Er...
0:32:41 > 0:32:44Think of a lord, the prince -
0:32:44 > 0:32:49like you, for example - coming into the feasting hall
0:32:49 > 0:32:52and people would rise and would say to you...
0:32:52 > 0:32:54I certainly hope so!
0:32:54 > 0:32:59.."a-rut reg-ami mag-leh wu-ta-keh".
0:32:59 > 0:33:02Which would mean, basically, something like,
0:33:02 > 0:33:04"I honour you, long-haired lord."
0:33:04 > 0:33:07Did you just call me a hippy in Celtic?
0:33:07 > 0:33:08Possibly.
0:33:17 > 0:33:21I'm used to seeing and handling artefacts -
0:33:21 > 0:33:24things made of metal, stone, pottery -
0:33:24 > 0:33:27so it's quite a strange feeling
0:33:27 > 0:33:30to get the sounds of the Iron Age, as well.
0:33:30 > 0:33:34It almost sounds crass to say it,
0:33:34 > 0:33:39but it brings that time back to life.
0:33:39 > 0:33:41If you take the language,
0:33:41 > 0:33:47if you had a Gallic speaker from the Western Isles or a Welsh speaker,
0:33:47 > 0:33:50while they perhaps couldn't have a conversation
0:33:50 > 0:33:52with an Iron Age warrior,
0:33:52 > 0:33:57there's every possibility that they could make themselves understood.
0:33:57 > 0:34:01And so the world of the past and the modern world
0:34:01 > 0:34:03would collide at that point.
0:34:03 > 0:34:06The past is very close if you approach it in the right way.
0:34:26 > 0:34:29Less than 200 years after the Kirkburn Warrior,
0:34:29 > 0:34:33the tribes of Britain might still have been rivals,
0:34:33 > 0:34:38but they were also bound by a common Celtic culture.
0:34:40 > 0:34:41In the Southern Highlands of Scotland,
0:34:41 > 0:34:43using experimental archaeology,
0:34:43 > 0:34:47it's even possible to get close to the reality of life
0:34:47 > 0:34:49at the time of the Celtic Iron Age.
0:34:54 > 0:34:55Look at that!
0:34:55 > 0:34:58It's a modern reconstruction of a building called a crannog,
0:34:58 > 0:35:00which is a large house
0:35:00 > 0:35:04built on a platform that sits above the waters of the loch.
0:35:04 > 0:35:08This would have been the home, 2,000 years ago, of a local chieftain.
0:35:09 > 0:35:12A building like that is about status and prestige.
0:35:12 > 0:35:15It's visible for miles around.
0:35:15 > 0:35:17You are essentially saying to people,
0:35:17 > 0:35:22"Here I am, and if you think you can take this from me, do your best."
0:35:25 > 0:35:28In this world of Celtic tribes,
0:35:28 > 0:35:31leaders needed to be more than powerful warriors.
0:35:31 > 0:35:34They needed diplomatic skills and political nous, too.
0:35:37 > 0:35:40And artefacts found here in Loch Tay
0:35:40 > 0:35:44bear testament to how Iron Age politics were conducted.
0:35:45 > 0:35:50This is a small, circular, wooden plate
0:35:50 > 0:35:52recovered from the loch.
0:35:53 > 0:35:55In Iron Age Britain,
0:35:55 > 0:36:02status wasn't just about items of jewellery and personal adornment.
0:36:02 > 0:36:07It was about your ability to draw people to you -
0:36:07 > 0:36:12men, fighting men, who were loyal to you, who would do your bidding.
0:36:12 > 0:36:16And a key way of getting to them was,
0:36:16 > 0:36:19as they say, through their stomachs.
0:36:19 > 0:36:21The way to a man's heart!
0:36:21 > 0:36:23And so you have to picture...
0:36:23 > 0:36:26a chieftain - perhaps THE chieftain of the area -
0:36:26 > 0:36:29gathering men to him,
0:36:29 > 0:36:34and they would be fed by him to show that he was a big man.
0:36:35 > 0:36:38So, the story here, from this little wooden plate,
0:36:38 > 0:36:43is that feasting was a key part of power broking
0:36:43 > 0:36:46in late Iron Age Britain.
0:36:49 > 0:36:52Barrie Andrian, who helped create the crannog,
0:36:52 > 0:36:54is an expert in feasting.
0:36:54 > 0:36:56And many of the same wild plants
0:36:56 > 0:36:59that would have been eaten 2,000 years ago
0:36:59 > 0:37:01still grow around the area today.
0:37:01 > 0:37:05They didn't have access to the kinds of vegetables that we have today -
0:37:05 > 0:37:09nothing like onions and potatoes and our staples.
0:37:09 > 0:37:11So, foraging would have been
0:37:11 > 0:37:14a very, very important source of food for them.
0:37:14 > 0:37:16There are lots of edible greens here -
0:37:16 > 0:37:21things like chickweed and sorrel, which has a lemony taste.
0:37:25 > 0:37:27See what you think.
0:37:36 > 0:37:40It's got a very... It's got a very definite...flavour.
0:37:40 > 0:37:42- This is sorrel...- Mm-hm.
0:37:42 > 0:37:46..and I'm going to put that in the stew, just to give it a kick.
0:37:46 > 0:37:50There's a real acidy, citrusy...
0:37:50 > 0:37:53That's a strong flavour.
0:37:54 > 0:37:57The scale and variety of food offered by a chieftain
0:37:57 > 0:38:02would have been a mark of his status and, by extension, his power.
0:38:02 > 0:38:05We have a fantastic amount of organic material
0:38:05 > 0:38:08that we've uncovered and discovered underwater here in Loch Tay,
0:38:08 > 0:38:10at one of the crannog sites.
0:38:10 > 0:38:14More than 160 different types of edible plants,
0:38:14 > 0:38:18so this is a mere representative sample.
0:38:18 > 0:38:22- Just a handful, literally, of some of those.- Let me just try that one.
0:38:22 > 0:38:25Wild mushroom and barley.
0:38:27 > 0:38:30That is delicious. The barley is very strong there.
0:38:30 > 0:38:32There's a kind of an echo of Scotch broth.
0:38:32 > 0:38:34Yeah, I think it would be.
0:38:36 > 0:38:41Over the hearth, a masterpiece of decorative wrought ironwork
0:38:41 > 0:38:42would have supported a spit roast
0:38:42 > 0:38:46and proclaimed the standing of its owner.
0:38:46 > 0:38:50This is an example, or representation, of a firedog.
0:38:50 > 0:38:52And the firedog would have been
0:38:52 > 0:38:54a high-status, really classy piece of art.
0:38:54 > 0:38:58And you can see the curve of the back of the head.
0:38:58 > 0:39:01It's maybe a horse or a bull with the horns sticking out,
0:39:01 > 0:39:02or maybe even a wild boar.
0:39:02 > 0:39:06But obviously something important, something symbolic.
0:39:06 > 0:39:12And if you look at the craftsmanship, these are meant to represent wealth
0:39:12 > 0:39:15and power, so it's another symbol of status.
0:39:15 > 0:39:16It's food for show, isn't it?
0:39:16 > 0:39:18- It's food as a performance. - Absolutely.
0:39:18 > 0:39:21They definitely weren't...hiding.
0:39:26 > 0:39:29A feast was a hugely important social exercise.
0:39:29 > 0:39:32It was almost a ritual in its own right.
0:39:32 > 0:39:37Everyone attending the event would have...
0:39:37 > 0:39:39understood the etiquette.
0:39:39 > 0:39:41They would have been able to read
0:39:41 > 0:39:44every nuance, every sign, every gesture.
0:39:46 > 0:39:49The leader had to be a skilled politician
0:39:49 > 0:39:51to pull it off -
0:39:51 > 0:39:56to read people correctly and make accurate assessments
0:39:56 > 0:39:58of his followers, or his would-be followers.
0:40:00 > 0:40:03Who would be served first?
0:40:03 > 0:40:06Who would get the choicest cuts of meat?
0:40:06 > 0:40:09Who would be left with the cold shoulder?
0:40:09 > 0:40:12And because it was happening publicly,
0:40:12 > 0:40:14it was open to dispute.
0:40:14 > 0:40:19Because, after all, it's a room full of fiery, hot blooded Celts
0:40:19 > 0:40:22and if one of them felt he was being slighted
0:40:22 > 0:40:24when he should have been being praised,
0:40:24 > 0:40:26then, if he felt strong enough,
0:40:26 > 0:40:29he would have the opportunity to make his feelings clear.
0:40:31 > 0:40:34But by the end of the night,
0:40:34 > 0:40:37everyone would have understood where they were -
0:40:37 > 0:40:40how they related to one another,
0:40:40 > 0:40:43who was top dog and who was at the bottom.
0:40:51 > 0:40:53Over just a few hundred years,
0:40:53 > 0:40:57the structure of power had reshaped Iron Age Britain
0:40:57 > 0:41:00from an age of elite local warriors
0:41:00 > 0:41:03to increasingly powerful Celtic chieftains.
0:41:05 > 0:41:07By around 100 BC,
0:41:07 > 0:41:12power had became concentrated in the hands of a narrow social elite.
0:41:12 > 0:41:15People who controlled such an extent of trade and territory
0:41:15 > 0:41:18that they became something new -
0:41:18 > 0:41:21the first of the mega-rich.
0:41:23 > 0:41:25And some of the evidence for that
0:41:25 > 0:41:27can be seen back here at the British Museum.
0:41:40 > 0:41:44This is a late Iron Age gold torc -
0:41:44 > 0:41:49an elaborate, lavish piece of jewellery worn around the neck.
0:41:49 > 0:41:52It's absolutely breathtaking -
0:41:52 > 0:41:54the weight of gold...
0:41:54 > 0:41:56just the lustre of it.
0:41:56 > 0:42:00It's been compared, in terms of its significance,
0:42:00 > 0:42:03as being right up there with the British Crown Jewels,
0:42:03 > 0:42:05and you can surely see why.
0:42:07 > 0:42:12It's been made by twisting individual strands of gold
0:42:12 > 0:42:15to create these corkscrewing spirals.
0:42:17 > 0:42:21And then the ends have been fitted into these round terminals.
0:42:21 > 0:42:25The goldsmith, the artist, has really gone to town
0:42:25 > 0:42:30on adding decoration to give it texture and depth.
0:42:30 > 0:42:34It dates to around 75 years BC
0:42:34 > 0:42:38and it's quite different in form
0:42:38 > 0:42:41from the earlier military art,
0:42:41 > 0:42:44like the Battersea Shield, the Kirkburn Sword.
0:42:44 > 0:42:49This is the advent of something quite new in Britain.
0:42:49 > 0:42:52This is extreme wealth - extreme showing off -
0:42:52 > 0:42:56and what you have here...
0:42:56 > 0:42:59in the owner of this
0:42:59 > 0:43:05is a man who is seeing himself - and, perhaps more importantly,
0:43:05 > 0:43:09being seen by his followers - as nothing less than a king.
0:43:14 > 0:43:17Some of the tribal territories of Britain were now ruled by men
0:43:17 > 0:43:21so powerful they even began to issue their own coins.
0:43:26 > 0:43:28Look at these.
0:43:28 > 0:43:33These are some of the earliest coins ever found in England.
0:43:33 > 0:43:36And the Celtic coin makers
0:43:36 > 0:43:39are making coins in their own image, if you like.
0:43:39 > 0:43:42They're using Celtic art.
0:43:42 > 0:43:46Rather than straightforward representations of heads,
0:43:46 > 0:43:49they're going for something abstract.
0:43:49 > 0:43:53Just like today, coins have always been
0:43:53 > 0:43:58representations of the state - often the head of state.
0:43:58 > 0:44:02And the same thing is happening here.
0:44:02 > 0:44:07This torc, which dates from the same period as these three gold coins,
0:44:07 > 0:44:11is obviously a symbol of authority.
0:44:12 > 0:44:14But this...
0:44:14 > 0:44:16is where you start to get the authority of the state
0:44:16 > 0:44:19becoming something that's transferable.
0:44:19 > 0:44:24Coins are in circulation, they're distributed.
0:44:24 > 0:44:29This is about society being permeated by the portable,
0:44:29 > 0:44:34transferable symbols of the state and of the king.
0:44:44 > 0:44:48But if there were people at the top with almost unimaginable wealth,
0:44:48 > 0:44:50there were also people at the bottom.
0:44:52 > 0:44:57And evidence for that can be found at the National Museum of Wales.
0:44:59 > 0:45:02As well as gold, every important Celtic leader
0:45:02 > 0:45:05wanted prestige goods from mainland Europe.
0:45:05 > 0:45:08Olive oil, wine, exotic tableware -
0:45:08 > 0:45:11all the accoutrements of civilization.
0:45:11 > 0:45:16To pay for it, they exported wool, animal hides, hunting dogs.
0:45:16 > 0:45:19But there was also a darker price to be paid
0:45:19 > 0:45:21for all that luxury.
0:45:30 > 0:45:34In European markets, one commodity above all else was in great demand -
0:45:34 > 0:45:38tall, strong, British manpower.
0:45:38 > 0:45:41Look at this.
0:45:41 > 0:45:44It's an iron slave chain.
0:45:44 > 0:45:47It's over 2,000 years old.
0:45:50 > 0:45:56Now this, obviously, was the part made to go round the slave's neck.
0:45:59 > 0:46:02It would fit tightly - might even make it hard to breathe.
0:46:03 > 0:46:09And just half a metre - a foot and a half, say - of iron chain
0:46:09 > 0:46:11separates each slave in the line
0:46:11 > 0:46:15as they shuffle along to wherever they're going.
0:46:17 > 0:46:19It's fantastically heavy
0:46:19 > 0:46:23and so well preserved you get a real sense...
0:46:23 > 0:46:26of what it would have felt like to have been burdened with this
0:46:26 > 0:46:31and to feel the way these would have chafed at the neck.
0:46:33 > 0:46:37For every king or queen in the Iron Age,
0:46:37 > 0:46:41there would have to have been countless, countless slaves.
0:46:41 > 0:46:44Gold jewellery, works of art -
0:46:44 > 0:46:50they give a glimpse of life for people at the top end of society,
0:46:50 > 0:46:52but it's items like this
0:46:52 > 0:46:55that brings you face to face
0:46:55 > 0:46:58with what Iron Age reality must have been like
0:46:58 > 0:47:00for those thousands and thousands of people
0:47:00 > 0:47:04who inhabited the bottom of society.
0:47:15 > 0:47:17Just a few hundred years earlier,
0:47:17 > 0:47:21many people in Britain had lived in egalitarian farming communities.
0:47:23 > 0:47:27But now, in the late Celtic Iron Age, all that had changed.
0:47:29 > 0:47:34By 75BC, Britain was a land of hard social divides.
0:47:36 > 0:47:39Kings at the top, slaves at the bottom,
0:47:39 > 0:47:43the rest of us - presumably the vast majority - somewhere in between.
0:47:43 > 0:47:45But there was another class of people.
0:47:45 > 0:47:50They were the spiritual leaders, the wise men of Celtic society.
0:47:50 > 0:47:52The Druids.
0:47:56 > 0:48:01Miranda Green is an Iron Age archaeologist and Druid specialist.
0:48:02 > 0:48:04Within the whole mix of society,
0:48:04 > 0:48:06you know, you've got kings and aristocrats,
0:48:06 > 0:48:09you've got ordinary people, you've got slaves at the bottom.
0:48:09 > 0:48:12- Where are the Druids in that picture?- Right up at the top.
0:48:12 > 0:48:16I would think probably more important than the kings or the tribal leaders.
0:48:16 > 0:48:18We know the kings listened to their advice.
0:48:18 > 0:48:20They were like the Old Testament prophets.
0:48:20 > 0:48:22And one of the things that make them important
0:48:22 > 0:48:24is that they overarch society,
0:48:24 > 0:48:26so that you might have kings of tribes,
0:48:26 > 0:48:29but the Druids would connect with each other
0:48:29 > 0:48:33through huge areas of Europe, so they acted like a kind of Celtic glue.
0:48:33 > 0:48:36So, really crucial...
0:48:36 > 0:48:38to the working of society?
0:48:38 > 0:48:40Crucial. They even intervened in cases of warfare.
0:48:40 > 0:48:43They could actually walk into the middle of a battlefield
0:48:43 > 0:48:46- and stop the war. - Right.- So they were that important.
0:48:46 > 0:48:48- OK.- Even though they didn't actually fight themselves.
0:48:48 > 0:48:53So they were absolutely to be taken seriously.
0:48:53 > 0:48:56They were. And, indeed, to go against a Druid
0:48:56 > 0:48:58would be almost to be as bad as being dead
0:48:58 > 0:49:01because you would be exiled - nobody would speak to you -
0:49:01 > 0:49:05and you were then beyond society because of the word of a Druid.
0:49:12 > 0:49:16Little evidence remains of these powerful priests of Celtic society
0:49:16 > 0:49:21beyond legends of oaks, mistletoe and golden sickles.
0:49:23 > 0:49:26But discoveries of unusual and mysterious spoons
0:49:26 > 0:49:31are thought to be connected to the indispensable art of divination.
0:49:33 > 0:49:35What is this collection of weirdness?
0:49:35 > 0:49:40Well, we have got here a pair of replica spoons
0:49:40 > 0:49:42and they are called divination spoons.
0:49:42 > 0:49:44"Divination" means telling the future.
0:49:44 > 0:49:46They were used by Druids in the Iron Age.
0:49:46 > 0:49:48One of the spoons has got a hole drilled into it.
0:49:48 > 0:49:52The other spoon is divided, in its inner surface, into four quadrants.
0:49:52 > 0:49:56- All right.- And I think that they were used together, placed like that,
0:49:56 > 0:50:00and then something blown or dripped through the hole
0:50:00 > 0:50:03and then the spoons would be opened
0:50:03 > 0:50:06to see where on the quartered surface it would fall.
0:50:06 > 0:50:07OK.
0:50:07 > 0:50:09If you want your ancestors to speak to you
0:50:09 > 0:50:12about where you should go next, where your herds should go,
0:50:12 > 0:50:15to do that you would use their bones.
0:50:21 > 0:50:23Oh, rather you than me!
0:50:26 > 0:50:30So we can see that the powder that I blew though this hole
0:50:30 > 0:50:33has not landed, as you might think, exactly opposite the hole,
0:50:33 > 0:50:36but down in this left-hand corner here.
0:50:36 > 0:50:38So we could actually try a little liquid now, couldn't we?
0:50:38 > 0:50:40This is where you come in.
0:50:40 > 0:50:42I'm guessing that's not ketchup!
0:50:42 > 0:50:45Er, no, it's not, and it's not tomato juice, it's blood.
0:50:45 > 0:50:46OK.
0:50:56 > 0:50:59- You've got, actually, quite a nice pattern in there.- Yeah.
0:50:59 > 0:51:03But it's like telling the tea leaves. You're getting this definite shape.
0:51:03 > 0:51:05So you would come to the Druids,
0:51:05 > 0:51:10or the Druids would be consulted by someone in a position of power,
0:51:10 > 0:51:12- who would ask specific questions. - Yes.
0:51:12 > 0:51:15"Why are the flocks afflicted with this disease?
0:51:15 > 0:51:18- "Should we go to war with the neighbours?"- That's right.
0:51:18 > 0:51:20And it would be in the gift of the Druid
0:51:20 > 0:51:23- to interpret this any way he wanted.- Of course.
0:51:23 > 0:51:25So if the Druid wants to go to war,
0:51:25 > 0:51:27the Druid can make that happen.
0:51:27 > 0:51:30Absolutely. And the Druids would know perfectly well
0:51:30 > 0:51:33both the questions and the answers that they were after.
0:51:33 > 0:51:34So, I think what you've got here
0:51:34 > 0:51:38is a means of manipulating the future and manipulating power.
0:51:45 > 0:51:48The Druids were men so powerful
0:51:48 > 0:51:52that even the Celtic kings danced to their tune.
0:51:52 > 0:51:56But despite their huge influence, apart from divination spoons,
0:51:56 > 0:52:00definite evidence of Druids has never been found.
0:52:02 > 0:52:05But there is one possibility.
0:52:21 > 0:52:24This is the skull of a man who died...
0:52:24 > 0:52:26around 200 years BC,
0:52:26 > 0:52:30aged between 30 and 35 years old.
0:52:30 > 0:52:36He was buried in an Iron Age cemetery in Deal in Kent.
0:52:36 > 0:52:39He has been known as the Deal Warrior,
0:52:39 > 0:52:44because with him in his grave there was a sword.
0:52:44 > 0:52:46But there's something more interesting
0:52:46 > 0:52:50and more mysterious about this character.
0:52:52 > 0:52:55When the skeleton was being excavated back in the '80s,
0:52:55 > 0:53:00the people working on it noticed that, while he was definitely male,
0:53:00 > 0:53:03the bones were slight, slender.
0:53:03 > 0:53:06In fact, somebody said of him
0:53:06 > 0:53:10that the bones were of a slightly feminine nature.
0:53:10 > 0:53:15So, something definitely un-warrior-like.
0:53:15 > 0:53:18So, what's going on? What else do we know?
0:53:18 > 0:53:25Well, he was buried wearing this elaborate, enigmatic headgear.
0:53:27 > 0:53:31It wasn't padded or lined in leather.
0:53:31 > 0:53:35It was worn directly on the head
0:53:35 > 0:53:39and we know that because traces of this individual's hair
0:53:39 > 0:53:40were found trapped in the rim.
0:53:40 > 0:53:44For that reason, and because it's so slight,
0:53:44 > 0:53:47it's highly unlikely that it was ever worn as a military helmet
0:53:47 > 0:53:52to give protection to a man's head in combat.
0:53:52 > 0:53:55The only other artefacts like it
0:53:55 > 0:53:59are the headgear worn by
0:53:59 > 0:54:04religious leaders in Roman Britain 200 years later.
0:54:04 > 0:54:07So was he something like that?
0:54:08 > 0:54:13The fascinating possibility - and it's only a possibility -
0:54:13 > 0:54:19is that this individual, in life,
0:54:19 > 0:54:23was of that most mysterious caste of people -
0:54:23 > 0:54:26a Druid,
0:54:26 > 0:54:31who walked this land 200 years before the birth of Christ.
0:54:31 > 0:54:35And, if so, what events did he witness
0:54:35 > 0:54:39and what power did he wield?
0:54:51 > 0:54:53By the time of the Celtic kings,
0:54:53 > 0:54:57the age of the hill forts was coming to an end -
0:54:57 > 0:54:59even the greatest of them.
0:54:59 > 0:55:02The mega hill forts like Danebury were in decline.
0:55:04 > 0:55:08Trade with mainland Europe had brought wealth and power -
0:55:08 > 0:55:10at least to the few.
0:55:13 > 0:55:17But those contacts were bringing Britain to the brink
0:55:17 > 0:55:18of another new age.
0:55:25 > 0:55:27Look at this.
0:55:27 > 0:55:30It's a fragment of a storage vessel.
0:55:30 > 0:55:33It was found 40-odd miles from here, on the coast,
0:55:33 > 0:55:38and it was made maybe 75 years BC.
0:55:41 > 0:55:44This vessel didn't contain local produce.
0:55:44 > 0:55:48Rather, it held something from many hundreds of miles away
0:55:48 > 0:55:51to the south on mainland Europe.
0:55:52 > 0:55:58This contained wine, possibly from the vineyards of Rome itself.
0:56:01 > 0:56:05Now, this speaks of a remarkable transformation.
0:56:05 > 0:56:10From a land 400, maybe 300 years BC
0:56:10 > 0:56:15with tribal chieftains fighting over booty
0:56:15 > 0:56:17to a land of proto-kingdoms,
0:56:17 > 0:56:20whose leaders had acquired a taste for -
0:56:20 > 0:56:22and had access to -
0:56:22 > 0:56:26the finest luxuries that the classical world could offer.
0:56:26 > 0:56:29It was the height of the Celtic Iron Age,
0:56:29 > 0:56:32with all its feasting and Druids
0:56:32 > 0:56:35and the full glory of Celtic art.
0:56:36 > 0:56:41But this represents something much more powerful, as well,
0:56:41 > 0:56:46because by now the Roman Empire was fully on the move -
0:56:46 > 0:56:50had already placed the shadow of its hand over Gaul.
0:56:50 > 0:56:55Soon, the leaders here would be tasting more than Roman wine.
0:56:55 > 0:56:58They'd be tasting Roman swords, as well.
0:56:58 > 0:57:03And that would mark the beginning of a whole new era in our history.
0:57:07 > 0:57:11'Next time, my journey continues...'
0:57:11 > 0:57:13The lesson there is, don't stand still
0:57:13 > 0:57:15if a man on a horse is coming at you with a sword!
0:57:18 > 0:57:20'..as I encounter a whole new age...
0:57:22 > 0:57:24'..of invasion.'
0:57:24 > 0:57:27These beaches were lined with thousands of British warriors
0:57:27 > 0:57:31and, out there, two legions of Roman infantry.
0:57:31 > 0:57:35And at their head - Julius Caesar, Roman general and budding emperor.
0:57:37 > 0:57:39'A time of bloody conflict.'
0:57:39 > 0:57:42These men were executed.
0:57:42 > 0:57:44Their heads were cut off their bodies
0:57:44 > 0:57:46and their heads were stuck on spikes.
0:57:46 > 0:57:49This was what would happen to you if you got in the way of Rome.
0:57:52 > 0:57:57'A moment in our history that would change the face of Britain forever.'
0:58:01 > 0:58:04If you want to follow in the footsteps of our ancestors
0:58:04 > 0:58:06then go to the website:
0:58:09 > 0:58:13..to find out how to connect with ancient Britain, in your area.
0:58:22 > 0:58:25Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd
0:58:25 > 0:58:28E-mail subtitling@bbc.co.uk