0:00:04 > 0:00:05Priceless treasures...
0:00:09 > 0:00:11..ancient ruins...
0:00:13 > 0:00:17..and the fragile remains of long-dead people.
0:00:17 > 0:00:21For archaeologists like me, the truth, literally,
0:00:21 > 0:00:23lies underneath the ground.
0:00:23 > 0:00:25Sometimes the stories that sleep underneath there
0:00:25 > 0:00:29are far more interesting than the ones that you find on the surface.
0:00:31 > 0:00:34'Archaeology isn't like written history.
0:00:35 > 0:00:37'It's the very stuff of the past.'
0:00:39 > 0:00:43That is absolutely extraordinary.
0:00:43 > 0:00:45'And that is its magic.'
0:00:47 > 0:00:51For this quest, this desire to discover the ancient world
0:00:51 > 0:00:54and possess its treasures, is hardly a new one.
0:00:55 > 0:00:58We've been at it for 2,000 years.
0:00:58 > 0:01:01'One thing that fascinates me
0:01:01 > 0:01:05'is that archaeology has its own history.
0:01:05 > 0:01:08'Varied, controversial,
0:01:08 > 0:01:12'and reaching to the very heart of our human beginnings.'
0:01:12 > 0:01:14Oh, my word!
0:01:14 > 0:01:17'Now I'm going to explore it...
0:01:19 > 0:01:22..from the very earliest archaeological expeditions...
0:01:22 > 0:01:25This is meant to be one of the nails
0:01:25 > 0:01:28with which Jesus Christ was crucified...
0:01:28 > 0:01:33'..to the exploits of the great 19th-century treasure hunters.'
0:01:36 > 0:01:41'From the rise of scientific method and the quest for objective truth...
0:01:41 > 0:01:49'to the temptations of fakery and the race for fame and glory.
0:01:49 > 0:01:53'Extraordinary stories of archaeological pioneers,
0:01:53 > 0:01:57'and the breakthroughs that built our understanding
0:01:57 > 0:02:00'of the ancient past.'
0:02:12 > 0:02:14Archaeology first began with a quest
0:02:14 > 0:02:18to discover one truth above all others.
0:02:19 > 0:02:22Direct evidence of Christ himself.
0:02:28 > 0:02:30The weather's been absolutely disgusting today.
0:02:30 > 0:02:32It's been raining, it's been freezing,
0:02:32 > 0:02:36but still there's been a steady stream of visitors to the cathedral.
0:02:39 > 0:02:47Thousands of people have come here to commune with a simple piece of cloth.
0:02:47 > 0:02:49The holy tunic of Christ.
0:02:51 > 0:02:53Religious relics like this are some of
0:02:53 > 0:02:57the first archaeological discoveries ever made.
0:03:00 > 0:03:04The tunic has been preserved here for over 1,500 years.
0:03:07 > 0:03:09Today it is so delicate
0:03:09 > 0:03:14that the cathedral only puts it on display every few decades.
0:03:16 > 0:03:19These pilgrims are drawn to its power
0:03:19 > 0:03:22as a very special ancient object.
0:03:23 > 0:03:27One that proclaims a divine truth.
0:03:38 > 0:03:41'But the tunic isn't the only relic that they have here.'
0:03:43 > 0:03:46Now, that is absolutely extraordinary.
0:03:48 > 0:03:51This is meant to be one of the nails
0:03:51 > 0:03:53with which Jesus Christ was crucified.
0:03:55 > 0:04:00And I think you get a real sense of the power that these objects,
0:04:00 > 0:04:02these religious relics, have.
0:04:04 > 0:04:08I feel quite moved even just looking at them.
0:04:10 > 0:04:13Just a simple nail.
0:04:13 > 0:04:14Thank you.
0:04:21 > 0:04:25There's no doubt for the people that flock here that these relics
0:04:25 > 0:04:29have a special religious or emotional power.
0:04:29 > 0:04:33For me, as an archaeologist, they're also precious,
0:04:33 > 0:04:36but for a slightly different reason.
0:04:36 > 0:04:38Because these objects, this nail,
0:04:38 > 0:04:43the tunic, are some of the first archaeological artefacts.
0:04:43 > 0:04:48My calling, my profession if you like, sort of starts right here.
0:04:52 > 0:04:54And that's not all,
0:04:54 > 0:04:58because in this cathedral is part of the very person who discovered them.
0:05:05 > 0:05:09This is the skull of the Empress Helena.
0:05:13 > 0:05:17Helena lived in the late third and early fourth centuries AD.
0:05:17 > 0:05:20And it was her son, the Roman Emperor Constantine,
0:05:20 > 0:05:23who first legitimised Christianity.
0:05:23 > 0:05:28Today, Helena is known as the patron saint of archaeologists.
0:05:28 > 0:05:31So it's kind of ironic that she eventually ended up
0:05:31 > 0:05:33as a religious relic herself.
0:05:36 > 0:05:41It's said that in 326 AD, Constantine sent Helena off
0:05:41 > 0:05:46to find evidence of Rome's new official religion.
0:05:49 > 0:05:53Although she was by now a very old lady, approaching 80 years of age,
0:05:53 > 0:05:56Helena dutifully set out for the Holy Land
0:05:56 > 0:05:59with an entourage of stonemasons and bishops.
0:05:59 > 0:06:05So, you could say that this was the very first archaeological expedition.
0:06:06 > 0:06:10Legend has it that, coming into Jerusalem, Helena was guided
0:06:10 > 0:06:16by supposedly divine forces to the very place of Christ's crucifixion.
0:06:18 > 0:06:20And this is where it gets interesting
0:06:20 > 0:06:24because on the site was the Temple of Venus. But not for much longer.
0:06:24 > 0:06:26Helena had it torn down
0:06:26 > 0:06:30and then she ordered her workmen to start digging.
0:06:30 > 0:06:32Eventually, they hit something.
0:06:32 > 0:06:37Three large wooden crosses, and one of those crosses was supposedly
0:06:37 > 0:06:39the cross of Jesus Christ himself,
0:06:39 > 0:06:42the cross on which he'd been crucified.
0:06:45 > 0:06:48Helena left some of the precious cross in Jerusalem
0:06:48 > 0:06:49and sent some to Rome.
0:06:52 > 0:06:55Constantine himself received one of the sacred nails
0:06:55 > 0:06:59and is said to have used it in his horse's bridle
0:06:59 > 0:07:01as a kind of magical talisman.
0:07:03 > 0:07:06The tunic and another nail came to Trier,
0:07:06 > 0:07:11the headquarters of Roman Gaul, where they've been ever since.
0:07:12 > 0:07:17These were not only the first archaeological artefacts in history,
0:07:17 > 0:07:21but also, if you believe, like the crowds that come here to Trier,
0:07:21 > 0:07:24then they were also the most important.
0:07:28 > 0:07:30From the time of Helena,
0:07:30 > 0:07:34the world of material remains would never be the same again.
0:07:35 > 0:07:39Truth could lie in the most humble of objects...
0:07:41 > 0:07:43..so long as we could find them...
0:07:44 > 0:07:48..and understand what they were telling us.
0:07:48 > 0:07:52The artefacts that our forefathers and ancestors have left behind
0:07:52 > 0:07:55are like a trail of clues leading back in time.
0:07:57 > 0:08:01That's essentially what archaeology is - remnants of a material culture
0:08:01 > 0:08:05that give us access to our history.
0:08:05 > 0:08:09They become our primary sources, witnesses to our past,
0:08:09 > 0:08:13and what we believe about the stories that they tell us make them
0:08:13 > 0:08:14very powerful indeed.
0:08:17 > 0:08:21What began with religion is a journey of discovery
0:08:21 > 0:08:25that is played out over centuries and continues today.
0:08:27 > 0:08:31Successions of archaeological pioneers,
0:08:31 > 0:08:36geniuses and mavericks who have seen in simple objects
0:08:36 > 0:08:42the keys to unlocking some of mankind's deepest secrets,
0:08:42 > 0:08:46and evidence of the forces that have created and shaped us.
0:08:56 > 0:09:00Constantine's endorsement of Christianity set the foundations
0:09:00 > 0:09:03for an undisputable religious dogma
0:09:03 > 0:09:06and the power of the mediaeval Church.
0:09:09 > 0:09:14It's very difficult to argue with a religion that deals in proof.
0:09:14 > 0:09:17And Christianity went from being an alternative religion -
0:09:17 > 0:09:18a bit wacky, a bit out there -
0:09:18 > 0:09:22to being the established religion of the Roman Empire.
0:09:22 > 0:09:26For the next thousand years, it held Europe in its vice-like grip.
0:09:26 > 0:09:29But it's the stories that we tell about these objects
0:09:29 > 0:09:32that give them their power.
0:09:32 > 0:09:34And a millennium after Helena,
0:09:34 > 0:09:38the past became far less certain than the Church would have liked.
0:09:38 > 0:09:41And the stories that we became increasingly interested in
0:09:41 > 0:09:45were not Christian ones. They came from a very pagan past.
0:09:49 > 0:09:53Scusi, dov e Piazza del Campo?
0:09:53 > 0:09:56L'arco, giu a destra.
0:09:56 > 0:09:57- Grazie.- Prego.
0:10:02 > 0:10:05What began in northern Italy in the 14th century
0:10:05 > 0:10:09in cities like Florence and Siena was a new way of thinking.
0:10:11 > 0:10:15The Renaissance fused Christian beliefs
0:10:15 > 0:10:17with a wonderfully ancient past
0:10:17 > 0:10:21and the art and religion of the classical world.
0:10:24 > 0:10:28A remote, exciting and dangerous pre-Christian past
0:10:28 > 0:10:30was out there to be discovered.
0:10:32 > 0:10:35If only you cared to look for it.
0:10:37 > 0:10:42And someone who did just that was one of my personal heroes.
0:10:42 > 0:10:48Not an artist, but the greatest pioneer of Renaissance archaeology.
0:11:02 > 0:11:07I'm here in Ancona, a busy and not very pretty port in eastern Italy.
0:11:08 > 0:11:12Seems a million miles away from the glories of Siena.
0:11:12 > 0:11:15But this is an important place for our story
0:11:15 > 0:11:19because this was the home town of Ciriaco Pizzicolli,
0:11:19 > 0:11:23a man absolutely obsessed with ancient buildings
0:11:23 > 0:11:27and somebody who would become known as the father of archaeology.
0:11:32 > 0:11:36Pizzicolli was a merchant here in Ancona during the Renaissance.
0:11:37 > 0:11:41He's not a household name, like Leonardo or Michelangelo
0:11:41 > 0:11:44but at least he has a street named after him.
0:11:48 > 0:11:50"Via Ciriaco Pizzecolli."
0:11:50 > 0:11:54Well, he's a bit of a forgotten hero of archaeology
0:11:54 > 0:11:57but it's good to see his home town haven't forgotten him.
0:11:59 > 0:12:02Right here in 1421, Pizzicolli was responsible for
0:12:02 > 0:12:07one of the great watersheds in our relationship with the ancient past.
0:12:09 > 0:12:11And it all began down here in the port.
0:12:13 > 0:12:15One day, Pizzicolli walked home past this,
0:12:15 > 0:12:18a millennium-old Roman triumphal arch,
0:12:18 > 0:12:22which still dominates the port of Ancona even today.
0:12:22 > 0:12:26Now, he must have walked past this arch thousands of times before,
0:12:26 > 0:12:30but that particular day something caught his eye.
0:12:36 > 0:12:39Maybe the evening light drew attention to it
0:12:39 > 0:12:43but he was suddenly overcome by its beauty
0:12:43 > 0:12:47and, coming closer, he was drawn to its ancient inscription.
0:12:50 > 0:12:54Pizzicolli didn't know any Latin, but he could make out one word -
0:12:54 > 0:12:56"Trajano",
0:12:56 > 0:12:59who was a Roman Emperor Trajan.
0:12:59 > 0:13:02Now, that triggered a whole series of thoughts in his mind.
0:13:02 > 0:13:06Who was this Trajan? Why was this arch built?
0:13:06 > 0:13:09It was as if the stones were whispering to him from the past,
0:13:09 > 0:13:13urging him to uncover its history and rescue it from oblivion.
0:13:20 > 0:13:23For Pizzicolli, this was an epiphany.
0:13:23 > 0:13:28He'd found his calling and he eagerly ran off to learn Latin
0:13:28 > 0:13:30so he could unravel this ancient past.
0:13:35 > 0:13:37Seems bizarre to us now, with all our museums,
0:13:37 > 0:13:41monuments and guide books, that the physical past hasn't always
0:13:41 > 0:13:46been important, hasn't always needed to be interrogated.
0:13:46 > 0:13:51But in Pizzicolli's age, the past was just there all around you.
0:13:51 > 0:13:54That's why what he tried to do was such a revelation.
0:14:02 > 0:14:07Pizzicolli set off on a mission to discover more of the ancient past
0:14:07 > 0:14:09all across the Mediterranean.
0:14:13 > 0:14:17Pizzicolli had seen arches like the one at Ancona in Constantinople,
0:14:17 > 0:14:21Alexandria and Damascus on his travels as a merchant.
0:14:21 > 0:14:25But there, they had been like derelict dumps,
0:14:25 > 0:14:27ready to be used as builders' scrap,
0:14:27 > 0:14:31but he realised they were vestiges of a lost civilisation
0:14:31 > 0:14:34on the threshold of disappearing forever.
0:14:39 > 0:14:42Only one image remains of Pizzicolli
0:14:42 > 0:14:45and it's here in his home town's museum.
0:14:48 > 0:14:50Buongiorno, professor.
0:14:54 > 0:14:59And here is the man himself, Pizzicolli. Beautiful relief.
0:14:59 > 0:15:01Wow, bello.
0:15:01 > 0:15:05'Local historian Professor Maurizio Landolfi
0:15:05 > 0:15:07'is an even bigger fan than me.'
0:15:50 > 0:15:53- Grazie, Maurizio.- Thank you.
0:16:02 > 0:16:05- Salve, Giovanni.- Buongiorno!
0:16:06 > 0:16:09- Tutto a posto? Prego, prego. - Grazie.
0:16:10 > 0:16:13'Pizzicolli's quest to save the physical remains
0:16:13 > 0:16:16'of the ancient world took him all over Italy
0:16:16 > 0:16:20'and then on to Greece, Turkey and Syria,
0:16:20 > 0:16:23'recording as many ancient ruins as he could.'
0:16:33 > 0:16:37One day a priest came across Pizzicolli sketching a temple in Italy
0:16:37 > 0:16:41and he asked him what he was doing sketching that pagan nonsense?
0:16:41 > 0:16:44And Pizzicolli's answer was rather good.
0:16:44 > 0:16:46He said he was trying to wake the dead.
0:16:48 > 0:16:52He filled notebook after notebook with detailed sketches.
0:16:53 > 0:16:58What he did was look at the wonders of past civilisations,
0:16:58 > 0:17:01record what they looked like and try to get others passionate
0:17:01 > 0:17:05about the ancient world and its importance.
0:17:07 > 0:17:10During his lifetime, Pizzicolli became a bit of a celebrity.
0:17:10 > 0:17:14He was asked to speak about what he had seen everywhere he went.
0:17:14 > 0:17:18But, unlike Helena, Pizzicolli wasn't looking for evidence
0:17:18 > 0:17:20to prove an absolute truth.
0:17:20 > 0:17:24For him, the past was a puzzle, and ancient artefacts were clues.
0:17:26 > 0:17:29Just to realise that the past was out there was enough
0:17:29 > 0:17:33to give Pizzicolli a place in archaeological history.
0:17:34 > 0:17:39Pizzicolli's way of thinking also challenged religious dogma.
0:17:39 > 0:17:43New evidence didn't prove a past, but it could rewrite it.
0:17:45 > 0:17:48And for the bishops and Popes of Renaissance Italy,
0:17:48 > 0:17:52that kind of thinking was very dangerous indeed.
0:18:07 > 0:18:10Along with other Renaissance innovators,
0:18:10 > 0:18:13Pizzicolli's thinking changed the world.
0:18:14 > 0:18:17If new discoveries were questioning old ideas,
0:18:17 > 0:18:21about everything from the human body to the cosmos,
0:18:21 > 0:18:25where did that leave something else that had always seemed fixed?
0:18:27 > 0:18:29History itself.
0:18:33 > 0:18:36The past has always exerted an incredibly powerful influence
0:18:36 > 0:18:41on the present, and that influence has taken many different forms.
0:18:41 > 0:18:45For Helena and many others like her, they thought they had found
0:18:45 > 0:18:49the source of ultimate truth in the pages of the Bible.
0:18:49 > 0:18:51By the time we get to the Renaissance,
0:18:51 > 0:18:53things were a bit different.
0:18:53 > 0:18:57The past was now a space where it was possible to seek out clues
0:18:57 > 0:18:59about where we had come from.
0:18:59 > 0:19:04And the truth, well, the truth was now far more hazy,
0:19:04 > 0:19:08far less certain and much more difficult to get a grip on.
0:19:08 > 0:19:11And this brought up a fundamental question.
0:19:11 > 0:19:16Was the past something which was just out there waiting to be discovered,
0:19:16 > 0:19:18or was it a faint canvas on which we wrote down
0:19:18 > 0:19:20our own versions of our history?
0:19:22 > 0:19:25In other words, was the past something that controlled us
0:19:25 > 0:19:27or did we control the past?
0:19:28 > 0:19:33Now, for one English monarch, this was a crucial question
0:19:33 > 0:19:35because if you could use the past,
0:19:35 > 0:19:38then it was an incredibly important propaganda tool
0:19:38 > 0:19:42and it would allow him, not only to map out England's history,
0:19:42 > 0:19:44but also its future.
0:19:52 > 0:19:55In 16th-century Britain,
0:19:55 > 0:19:59our view of the past was something that went to the very heart
0:19:59 > 0:20:02of politics and religion,
0:20:02 > 0:20:05especially if you were in the business of building
0:20:05 > 0:20:08a brand-new national identity,
0:20:08 > 0:20:12like Renaissance man, Henry VIII.
0:20:12 > 0:20:17In the 1530s, Henry famously broke with Rome.
0:20:17 > 0:20:20He wanted to divorce his first wife, Catherine of Aragon
0:20:20 > 0:20:22and marry Anne Boleyn.
0:20:22 > 0:20:27But despite some very clever and very Renaissance rhetoric,
0:20:27 > 0:20:29the Pope was having none of it.
0:20:31 > 0:20:34Henry promptly set up his own English Church,
0:20:34 > 0:20:39and the Pope retaliated by denouncing the English King as a heretic.
0:20:39 > 0:20:43Now, the English Reformation brought about the destruction
0:20:43 > 0:20:47of the monasteries and the pillaging of their treasures,
0:20:47 > 0:20:51but out of it was forged a new identity for Britain
0:20:51 > 0:20:55and one in which archaeology would play a decisive role.
0:20:59 > 0:21:05Henry decided that, along with a new Church, Britain needed a new past.
0:21:07 > 0:21:11If he could demonstrate England's ancient and independent history,
0:21:11 > 0:21:14it would help to legitimise his arguments.
0:21:14 > 0:21:19That the present Papacy was a Johnny-come-lately, compared
0:21:19 > 0:21:23to England's own connections with the original Church of Christ.
0:21:24 > 0:21:26To unearth evidence,
0:21:26 > 0:21:30he turned to his Hampton Court librarian John Leland.
0:21:33 > 0:21:36Henry ordered Leland to pilfer Britain's cathedrals and abbeys
0:21:36 > 0:21:39for their rarest books and manuscripts.
0:21:42 > 0:21:47And to use them to create a new inventory of Britain's ancient past.
0:21:48 > 0:21:53Leland scoured the country for books and manuscripts for his King.
0:21:54 > 0:21:58But freed from his library, out on the open road,
0:21:58 > 0:22:00our bookworm soon went AWOL.
0:22:01 > 0:22:05Confronted by Britain's past, Leland was taken with the same fervour
0:22:05 > 0:22:09that had struck Pizzicolli in Italy a century before.
0:22:11 > 0:22:13He wrote to the King that he was...
0:22:26 > 0:22:30Instead of just visiting dusty old monastic libraries,
0:22:30 > 0:22:34Leland began to go to ancient sites across Britain.
0:22:34 > 0:22:38He soon began to realise the English countryside
0:22:38 > 0:22:41was full of mysterious monuments and great antiquity.
0:22:43 > 0:22:47One place he came to was Badbury Rings in Dorset,
0:22:47 > 0:22:51a place we know today as the remains of an Iron Age hill fort
0:22:51 > 0:22:54created nearly 3,000 years ago.
0:22:56 > 0:23:00As the good bookworm that he was, wherever and whenever
0:23:00 > 0:23:03he came across anything interesting, Leland recorded it.
0:23:05 > 0:23:08Leland planned to use his copious notes to create
0:23:08 > 0:23:11a map of ancient England to present to Henry.
0:23:13 > 0:23:17It's doubtful that Leland really understood what he was looking at.
0:23:17 > 0:23:20He certainly didn't know very much about the Iron Age,
0:23:20 > 0:23:24but what he was was an early pioneer of fieldwork,
0:23:24 > 0:23:26putting up with whatever the weather throws at you,
0:23:26 > 0:23:29and setting down and describing what you see.
0:23:31 > 0:23:36For me, as an archaeologist, fieldwork is key.
0:23:36 > 0:23:40Every observation is like a new piece of the jigsaw of the past.
0:23:41 > 0:23:45In recording sites like Badbury Rings,
0:23:45 > 0:23:49Leland was giving birth to British archaeology.
0:23:49 > 0:23:52The more he travelled, the more he found.
0:23:52 > 0:23:57It all became too much for our pioneering librarian from London.
0:23:57 > 0:24:00Leland never fulfilled his dream.
0:24:00 > 0:24:04In 1547, Henry VIII died
0:24:04 > 0:24:07and the pressure of creating the definitive map of ancient England,
0:24:07 > 0:24:13coupled with the death of his royal master, sent the poor man mad.
0:24:13 > 0:24:16It was a case of too much information.
0:24:21 > 0:24:26Leland had however opened a new window onto a very ancient Britain.
0:24:30 > 0:24:35The trouble was that he'd simply no idea just how much of it there was.
0:24:36 > 0:24:41Even today, we're still discovering new monuments from our ancient past.
0:24:43 > 0:24:47And it wasn't as simple as creating a new story
0:24:47 > 0:24:52because there's always something that comes along to change the picture.
0:24:52 > 0:24:57Something another pioneer realised just 30 years after Leland's death.
0:25:04 > 0:25:07Here we are in the Hallows Room.
0:25:08 > 0:25:13'In 1586, a historian called William Camden created
0:25:13 > 0:25:17'a groundbreaking compendium of Britain's ancient past.'
0:25:20 > 0:25:23So, Dai, this is it. This is Camden's Britannia.
0:25:23 > 0:25:261586, first edition.
0:25:27 > 0:25:30'Camden's book of Britain listed
0:25:30 > 0:25:33'every known ancient monument in the land.'
0:25:33 > 0:25:38It starts off as one small, rather scruffy volume.
0:25:38 > 0:25:44It's work in progress. Camden invites people to add to it.
0:25:44 > 0:25:49It goes through at least six editions over 200 years.
0:25:49 > 0:25:52- Feel the weight of that. That's one volume.- That is a weighty tome.
0:25:52 > 0:25:57Now, the comparison... I mean, that is the weight of knowledge.
0:25:58 > 0:26:04'Camden's Britannia shows a very special moment in archaeology
0:26:04 > 0:26:10'at our most famous ancient monument of all - Stonehenge.'
0:26:10 > 0:26:111575.
0:26:11 > 0:26:13Oh, my word!
0:26:13 > 0:26:18This is a real landmark in the story of archaeology.
0:26:18 > 0:26:22If we look at the bottom left-hand corner of the print, we've got
0:26:22 > 0:26:26two gentlemen with shovels digging a hole in the ground.
0:26:26 > 0:26:29And on the side, a skull and some bones.
0:26:29 > 0:26:31It actually says in the text,
0:26:31 > 0:26:35"Certain it is that human bones have frequently been dug up here."
0:26:36 > 0:26:39Now, what this shows,
0:26:39 > 0:26:44human beings interacting with a site of historical significance
0:26:44 > 0:26:48and understanding that underneath the ground they can find out
0:26:48 > 0:26:52even more about the history of that place and of their country.
0:26:54 > 0:26:58So here we see what we might grandly call
0:26:58 > 0:27:01the dawn of archaeological excavation.
0:27:01 > 0:27:04I don't think it's too grand to call it that. I think it's dead right.
0:27:08 > 0:27:11By the 17th-century, the worlds of Helena
0:27:11 > 0:27:15and even Pizzicolli were starting to seem very distant.
0:27:17 > 0:27:20The past wasn't there to provide evidence of Church dogma
0:27:20 > 0:27:26but a whole new world that could be discovered and perhaps understood.
0:27:31 > 0:27:35The forefront of this new, almost scientific quest
0:27:35 > 0:27:37was a man called John Aubrey.
0:27:41 > 0:27:44Today, Aubrey is remembered for his life's work
0:27:44 > 0:27:48on the prehistoric site of Avebury in Wiltshire.
0:27:49 > 0:27:52Stonehenge is 30 miles that way,
0:27:52 > 0:27:55but this stone circle is every bit as important and enigmatic.
0:27:58 > 0:28:02Back in Aubrey's day though, it presented a very different sight.
0:28:04 > 0:28:06This place is pretty pristine now
0:28:06 > 0:28:10but in the early 17th century it was a bit of a dump -
0:28:10 > 0:28:13just a collection of houses and fields -
0:28:13 > 0:28:17and these stones here were choked and covered with weeds.
0:28:17 > 0:28:22And the locals, they'd been knocking them down to build their own houses.
0:28:22 > 0:28:27That was until 1649, when John Aubrey, a local landowner
0:28:27 > 0:28:31and keen amateur scholar, came here and discovered it whilst hunting.
0:28:31 > 0:28:34And he was intrigued by this place.
0:28:36 > 0:28:41The problem for Aubrey was that the layout of the stones
0:28:41 > 0:28:43wasn't at all clear.
0:28:43 > 0:28:47It was impossible to simply record what he saw because,
0:28:47 > 0:28:50unlike today, the place was an overgrown mess.
0:28:52 > 0:28:58What he needed was to make an accurate survey to understand it.
0:28:58 > 0:29:03'To get a handle on how he achieved that using 17th-century technology,
0:29:03 > 0:29:06'I've roped in Mark Bowden from English Heritage.'
0:29:06 > 0:29:08It's a lovely day for a bit of planning.
0:29:08 > 0:29:11- Yes, certainly is. - So which one shall we do?
0:29:13 > 0:29:16- Let's set up round here, shall we?- OK.
0:29:19 > 0:29:21Top off.
0:29:21 > 0:29:26'Aubrey used scientific instruments, a plane table and alidade.
0:29:26 > 0:29:30'Equipment more often used to lay out fashionable gardens
0:29:30 > 0:29:33'for the 17th-century gentry.'
0:29:33 > 0:29:38And that is essentially the same as Aubrey's.
0:29:38 > 0:29:40Get ourselves on the line.
0:29:42 > 0:29:45- Which bit of the stone am I going to? - Go into that corner.
0:29:45 > 0:29:48Ready when you are.
0:29:48 > 0:29:51- 17 metres.- Thank you.
0:29:52 > 0:29:55The first thing we've got here is a plane table.
0:29:55 > 0:29:57It's completely level.
0:29:57 > 0:30:00And underneath it we have our point, our zero point.
0:30:00 > 0:30:02This is the point from which
0:30:02 > 0:30:04we will measure everything else on this site.
0:30:04 > 0:30:08And the alidade is a device for measuring angles.
0:30:08 > 0:30:13If I look through this sight here from my zero point,
0:30:13 > 0:30:17I can look through the sight and I can project forward
0:30:17 > 0:30:20and get the angle of the point that I want to measure.
0:30:20 > 0:30:22There.
0:30:22 > 0:30:26Now, we need to get the distance from our zero point
0:30:26 > 0:30:29over to the point that we want to measure.
0:30:29 > 0:30:31So, Mark, could you give me the distance, please?
0:30:31 > 0:30:34- 14.4.- Thank you.
0:30:34 > 0:30:38So there is 14.4 and we've got our point.
0:30:38 > 0:30:41Now, what we do with each of the stones is
0:30:41 > 0:30:45we take four or five different points and that should give us
0:30:45 > 0:30:48an accurate depiction of what this place looks like.
0:30:48 > 0:30:51Can you move round a bit, Mark, and get the other point, please?
0:30:51 > 0:30:52'As he mapped the stones,
0:30:52 > 0:30:57'Aubrey realised that a series of complex circles were emerging.
0:30:57 > 0:31:00'Impossible to see from the overgrown ground,
0:31:00 > 0:31:03'but revealed by scientific method.'
0:31:03 > 0:31:06Well, we've done pretty well. We've got two down.
0:31:06 > 0:31:08- How many to go?- Rather a lot.
0:31:08 > 0:31:12Let's have a look at Aubrey's completed plan, shall we?
0:31:12 > 0:31:17So, we are here and these are the two stones that we've just surveyed.
0:31:17 > 0:31:19And the great thing about this is,
0:31:19 > 0:31:21although it's not planimetrically accurate
0:31:21 > 0:31:23in the way that a modern survey would be
0:31:23 > 0:31:26that we might do with electronic instrumentation,
0:31:26 > 0:31:30nevertheless, it faithfully gives a character of the site.
0:31:30 > 0:31:33The stones are not evenly spaced.
0:31:33 > 0:31:36So we're looking here at the beginnings of archaeological survey.
0:31:36 > 0:31:39- Oh, very much so. - It's extraordinary.- Yes, it is.
0:31:39 > 0:31:43It's an amazing achievement at the time and something that actually
0:31:43 > 0:31:48wasn't equalled for probably the best part of two centuries
0:31:48 > 0:31:51in terms of the accuracy of the planning.
0:31:53 > 0:31:58Aubrey's work was groundbreaking but, left to his own devices,
0:31:58 > 0:32:00his map might never have happened.
0:32:01 > 0:32:05By all accounts, Aubrey was quite lazy.
0:32:05 > 0:32:08But, luckily for us, he was also boastful too.
0:32:08 > 0:32:10He boasted to all of his friends
0:32:10 > 0:32:15that Avebury was as important as Stonehenge, and eventually,
0:32:15 > 0:32:19his boasting got to the ears of none other than King Charles II
0:32:19 > 0:32:23up in London and he invited Aubrey up there to give a lecture
0:32:23 > 0:32:26on the site, and Charles was so intrigued by it
0:32:26 > 0:32:29that he came down here two weeks later
0:32:29 > 0:32:32and was given a guided tour by Aubrey.
0:32:33 > 0:32:37Little more than a century separates the reigns of Henry VIII
0:32:37 > 0:32:41and Charles II, but they inhabited very different worlds.
0:32:44 > 0:32:48Henry breaking from medieval Church traditions,
0:32:48 > 0:32:52Charles embracing an embryonic age of science.
0:32:54 > 0:32:59It was Charles himself who commissioned Aubrey's map of Avebury
0:32:59 > 0:33:03which was presented to the newly-established Royal Society.
0:33:04 > 0:33:08Aubrey suggesting that Avebury was evidence of a culture
0:33:08 > 0:33:11predating even that of the Romans.
0:33:13 > 0:33:16'It was a watershed in archaeology.'
0:33:16 > 0:33:17Morning.
0:33:20 > 0:33:23Aubrey had observed and recorded in precise detail
0:33:23 > 0:33:26and put forward a theory to explain it
0:33:26 > 0:33:30and that was scientific thought in action.
0:33:31 > 0:33:34A world away from the religious dogma of the Church.
0:33:39 > 0:33:4317th-century archaeology was making new discoveries
0:33:43 > 0:33:47and mapping ever more distant epochs of time,
0:33:47 > 0:33:51just as explorers were mapping ever more distant lands.
0:33:53 > 0:33:56It raised new questions about our beginnings.
0:33:56 > 0:33:59We knew about the Romans from classical histories
0:33:59 > 0:34:04but what of these mysterious cultures that came before?
0:34:04 > 0:34:06Just where did it all start?
0:34:13 > 0:34:17For the Church, these questions were easy to answer.
0:34:17 > 0:34:20Adam, Eve and the tribes of Israel.
0:34:23 > 0:34:27While Aubrey was using modern scientific methods to ponder
0:34:27 > 0:34:32the ancient mysteries of Avebury, an Irish bishop was mathematically
0:34:32 > 0:34:35calculating the very age of the Earth
0:34:35 > 0:34:38and humanity itself.
0:34:39 > 0:34:41His name was Bishop Ussher.
0:34:43 > 0:34:44Scholars that preceded him
0:34:44 > 0:34:49tried to use scientific methodology, but as a churchman,
0:34:49 > 0:34:53he also had the arbiter of universal truth on his side.
0:34:53 > 0:34:55This, the Bible.
0:34:55 > 0:34:58For Ussher, and generations of Christians,
0:34:58 > 0:35:02this was the primary source of all primary sources
0:35:02 > 0:35:05and its word could be trusted implicitly.
0:35:12 > 0:35:15Ussher used events in the Bible to add up
0:35:15 > 0:35:19the entire chronology of the world, and he came up with a date.
0:35:19 > 0:35:24Mankind was created on 23rd October, 4004 BC.
0:35:28 > 0:35:33Simple, although we know now he was really quite a long way out.
0:35:41 > 0:35:44What's so fascinating about the 17th century
0:35:44 > 0:35:47are the intellectual tensions which drove it.
0:35:47 > 0:35:50On the one hand you have the Christian Church saying,
0:35:50 > 0:35:54"Look, everything you need to know is here written down in the Bible.
0:35:54 > 0:35:57"So if you want to find out about the beginnings of Earth,
0:35:57 > 0:35:59"then all you need to do is read Genesis."
0:35:59 > 0:36:01Then, on the other side,
0:36:01 > 0:36:05you have the big men of science who were still God-fearing
0:36:05 > 0:36:09but they'd come to ask the big universal questions
0:36:09 > 0:36:13through their own, natural, human curiosity.
0:36:13 > 0:36:17What was man's place in the cosmos? How did it all fit together?
0:36:17 > 0:36:21They had learned from the big lessons of the Renaissance.
0:36:21 > 0:36:25Look around you. What can you discover from what you can see?
0:36:25 > 0:36:28Seek and follow the evidence.
0:36:35 > 0:36:40By the 18th century, archaeology and religion were on a collision course.
0:36:43 > 0:36:47The Bible told you in no uncertain terms how old the world was,
0:36:47 > 0:36:49and to question it was heresy.
0:36:54 > 0:36:57But what was coming out of the ground was beginning to tell
0:36:57 > 0:37:00a very different story.
0:37:01 > 0:37:06And 18th-century gentry all wanted to own a piece of the mystery.
0:37:08 > 0:37:10Collecting became all the rage.
0:37:10 > 0:37:13What better way to show how sophisticated, cosmopolitan
0:37:13 > 0:37:15and wealthy you were than by collecting
0:37:15 > 0:37:18objects from all over the world?
0:37:18 > 0:37:19Scientific objects,
0:37:19 > 0:37:24artistic objects and even objects from the ancient world.
0:37:24 > 0:37:27This was the age of the cabinet of curiosities.
0:37:30 > 0:37:33This is Burton Constable Hall in East Yorkshire,
0:37:33 > 0:37:38the home of a landowner who had a passion for art, architecture
0:37:38 > 0:37:40and natural history.
0:37:40 > 0:37:43William Constable, whose portrait is just up there,
0:37:43 > 0:37:45was one such collector.
0:37:45 > 0:37:49He collected artefacts throughout Europe and Britain
0:37:49 > 0:37:51but he didn't collect because he was an expert
0:37:51 > 0:37:54but because he was interested.
0:37:55 > 0:37:58'The collection's curator is David Connell.'
0:38:00 > 0:38:04- So this is the cabinet of curiosities.- Wow.
0:38:04 > 0:38:07This is absolutely amazing.
0:38:07 > 0:38:11So this is a Bronze Age axe head.
0:38:11 > 0:38:13Oh, my word, look at that.
0:38:13 > 0:38:18- And here we have a toothbrush from Mecca.- Fantastic.
0:38:18 > 0:38:21And here we have the dried leg of an elk.
0:38:23 > 0:38:28'William's cabinet of curiosities is one of a very few to have remained
0:38:28 > 0:38:33'largely intact in all its glorious diversity.'
0:38:33 > 0:38:35And what is this?
0:38:35 > 0:38:38This is number 30, a brazen lance.
0:38:38 > 0:38:42Now, when I found this nearly 20 years ago
0:38:42 > 0:38:46in a box of rubbish in the attic, I had no idea what it was.
0:38:46 > 0:38:50In fact, it's from a Bronze Age burial
0:38:50 > 0:38:55that was unearthed in 1676 at Broughton Hall
0:38:55 > 0:38:57near Skipton in Yorkshire.
0:38:57 > 0:39:04So, 1676, somebody is conducting what we would recognise
0:39:04 > 0:39:07- as an archaeological excavation? - Yes.
0:39:07 > 0:39:09That's amazing.
0:39:09 > 0:39:12This is a hugely important archaeological object.
0:39:12 > 0:39:16- That's extraordinary. You found this in a box in the attic?- Yes.
0:39:16 > 0:39:18Thank you.
0:39:18 > 0:39:23'William also collected hundreds of fossils.'
0:39:23 > 0:39:25So what is this?
0:39:25 > 0:39:27That looks like some kind of fish.
0:39:27 > 0:39:31Yes, fossil fish and it's in chalk.
0:39:31 > 0:39:34- 100 million years or something? - Yes.- My word.
0:39:34 > 0:39:37So when William and others were looking at these fossils,
0:39:37 > 0:39:40what did they think they were?
0:39:40 > 0:39:42They knew that they were creatures,
0:39:42 > 0:39:44the remnants of which had been captured in stone.
0:39:44 > 0:39:46They did understand that, and we know that
0:39:46 > 0:39:48because there are labels written on them.
0:39:49 > 0:39:52'At the time, objects like these were
0:39:52 > 0:39:55'explained as evidence of the biblical flood.
0:39:55 > 0:39:59'Creatures that had failed to make it onto Noah's Ark.'
0:39:59 > 0:40:01And what's this?
0:40:01 > 0:40:04That's a fossilised bison horn.
0:40:04 > 0:40:06My word.
0:40:06 > 0:40:09It's just so extraordinarily eclectic.
0:40:09 > 0:40:11I love it for that reason.
0:40:11 > 0:40:13I love the fact that this person,
0:40:13 > 0:40:15he's living in an age of wonder, isn't he?
0:40:15 > 0:40:17That's true.
0:40:17 > 0:40:21But what it shows you is the enormous breadth of his learning.
0:40:21 > 0:40:22Absolutely extraordinary.
0:40:25 > 0:40:27'It's as if William was trying to create
0:40:27 > 0:40:31'an encyclopaedia of the world all in one room.
0:40:31 > 0:40:35'A microcosm collected and displayed.
0:40:35 > 0:40:38'Collections like these were beginning to pose some
0:40:38 > 0:40:44'awkward questions about how the world and the past fitted together.'
0:40:55 > 0:40:58Archaeology couldn't yet answer the mysteries that
0:40:58 > 0:41:01objects from the past posed.
0:41:01 > 0:41:04The biblical truth still presented
0:41:04 > 0:41:07the Western world's accepted story of the past.
0:41:07 > 0:41:09The Church's long-held dogma
0:41:09 > 0:41:13was beginning to be chipped away by science.
0:41:15 > 0:41:19This amazing little contraption is called an orrery.
0:41:19 > 0:41:24It was the physical manifestation of a really radical idea.
0:41:24 > 0:41:29It was an idea which the Roman Catholic Church absolutely hated.
0:41:29 > 0:41:32It was that the universe didn't rotate round the Earth
0:41:32 > 0:41:36but the Earth rotated around the sun.
0:41:36 > 0:41:40So if I turn this, you can see that the centre, this brass orb,
0:41:40 > 0:41:45that's the sun, and this huge globe which is rotating here,
0:41:45 > 0:41:48is the Earth, so it's completely out of scale.
0:41:48 > 0:41:51Now, this is using ideas which had been nutted out by Newton
0:41:51 > 0:41:54just up the road here in the 1680s.
0:41:54 > 0:41:58It was the idea of movement through the force of gravity.
0:42:01 > 0:42:03And it wasn't only the heavens
0:42:03 > 0:42:06that were opening up to human explorations.
0:42:08 > 0:42:11Look at these absolutely beautiful early microscopes.
0:42:11 > 0:42:15They date to the mid-18th century and they allowed people
0:42:15 > 0:42:19to view the hitherto invisible world of the very small.
0:42:22 > 0:42:25Scientific enquiry which began in the Renaissance
0:42:25 > 0:42:28was finally flexing its muscles.
0:42:33 > 0:42:37Equally significant was WHO was now having access
0:42:37 > 0:42:40and, indeed, control to this information.
0:42:40 > 0:42:43It was no longer just emperors, kings and Popes,
0:42:43 > 0:42:47but men of learning, men of science, men of medicine.
0:42:47 > 0:42:50And the curiosity that had prompted men like Pizzicolli
0:42:50 > 0:42:54and Leland to describe what they had seen was no longer enough
0:42:54 > 0:42:56for men like Copernicus and Newton.
0:42:56 > 0:43:00They wanted to understand it and work out how it all fitted together.
0:43:02 > 0:43:06Once the biblical view of the cosmos had been overturned,
0:43:06 > 0:43:09it was only time before archaeology began to seriously challenge
0:43:09 > 0:43:12the biblical view of the past.
0:43:18 > 0:43:20Here in the Suffolk in 1797,
0:43:20 > 0:43:23a discovery was made that would, in time,
0:43:23 > 0:43:28explode Bishop Ussher's 6,000-year-old chronology of the world.
0:43:29 > 0:43:32This is the quiet, unassuming village of Hoxne
0:43:32 > 0:43:36but for archaeologists like me, this place is really famous
0:43:36 > 0:43:39because it was here that one of the great breakthroughs
0:43:39 > 0:43:41in our understanding of pre-history happened.
0:43:44 > 0:43:48It was all down to antiquarian called John Frere who was intrigued
0:43:48 > 0:43:52by objects being discovered in the clay pits by local brickmakers.
0:43:59 > 0:44:00As well as the clay,
0:44:00 > 0:44:05Frere noticed that the men were turfing up triangular-shaped flints
0:44:05 > 0:44:09and there was something about them that made him look more closely.
0:44:09 > 0:44:12And, although he wasn't sure what they were,
0:44:12 > 0:44:15he instinctively knew they'd been made by human hands.
0:44:17 > 0:44:20Previously, objects like these had been explained away
0:44:20 > 0:44:24as meteorites or even thunderbolts from heaven.
0:44:25 > 0:44:30Frere knew there had to be a more earthly explanation.
0:44:33 > 0:44:36What Frere did know, and was intrigued by,
0:44:36 > 0:44:39was where these flints had come from.
0:44:39 > 0:44:42The workmen had dug down for 12 feet
0:44:42 > 0:44:45and alongside these weird triangular-shaped flints had been
0:44:45 > 0:44:49the bones of an animal that no-one could recognise.
0:44:49 > 0:44:50They had figured out it must be
0:44:50 > 0:44:53from an animal that was long since extinct.
0:44:53 > 0:44:56Now, Frere managed to join the dots.
0:44:56 > 0:44:58If something had been buried that deep,
0:44:58 > 0:45:01something that looked like it had been made by humans,
0:45:01 > 0:45:05alongside the bones of an animal that no-one could recognise,
0:45:05 > 0:45:08then they must have taken a lot longer
0:45:08 > 0:45:10than a few thousand years to get there.
0:45:13 > 0:45:18It was clear then that these handmade objects were very,
0:45:18 > 0:45:20very old indeed.
0:45:24 > 0:45:28Knowing what we know today, all this seems pretty obvious,
0:45:28 > 0:45:33but over 200 years ago, that idea was a stroke of genius.
0:45:34 > 0:45:37And a very un-Biblical one to boot.
0:45:37 > 0:45:40In here we have one of Frere's axes.
0:45:41 > 0:45:44It's absolutely beautiful.
0:45:46 > 0:45:49And also still very, very sharp.
0:45:50 > 0:45:53Frere wrote to the Society of Antiquaries here,
0:45:53 > 0:45:55telling them about his discoveries
0:45:55 > 0:45:58and also putting forward a theory about them.
0:45:58 > 0:46:01He said that these were weapons of war
0:46:01 > 0:46:03made by people who had no knowledge of metals,
0:46:03 > 0:46:06and we still have part of his letter
0:46:06 > 0:46:08in one of the minutes of the society.
0:46:10 > 0:46:16Frere wrote, "The situation in which these weapons were found
0:46:16 > 0:46:21"may tempt us to refer them to a very remote period indeed.
0:46:21 > 0:46:25"And even beyond that of the present world."
0:46:25 > 0:46:27Now, contained within
0:46:27 > 0:46:32that elegant sentence was a very radical thought indeed.
0:46:32 > 0:46:37The idea that the history of Britain went way beyond the history
0:46:37 > 0:46:41of the Normans, the Saxons, the Romans, the Celts and the Bible.
0:46:43 > 0:46:46But, as with many radical ideas,
0:46:46 > 0:46:49at the time it was completely ignored.
0:46:49 > 0:46:55But now we think of John Frere as the father of British pre-history.
0:46:59 > 0:47:02Today, we know that these axes were created
0:47:02 > 0:47:08by our early human ancestors around 400,000 years ago.
0:47:10 > 0:47:13Conservative Christians, from Helena to Ussher,
0:47:13 > 0:47:16would have turned in their graves.
0:47:16 > 0:47:20This might have been a watershed moment, but the Church's reaction?
0:47:20 > 0:47:24Well, it was exactly the same as it had been under Bishop Ussher.
0:47:24 > 0:47:28The world was 6,000 years old. End of story.
0:47:29 > 0:47:33The tide was now beginning to turn against them because,
0:47:33 > 0:47:38out of the dark earth was coming a new, different heretical story.
0:47:49 > 0:47:5418th-century archaeology was digging ever deeper back in time,
0:47:54 > 0:47:57but it still faced a problem.
0:47:57 > 0:48:00No-one knew exactly how old ancient things were.
0:48:03 > 0:48:07But a brand-new science would provide the answer -
0:48:07 > 0:48:09geology.
0:48:12 > 0:48:15It all started with a Scottish doctor,
0:48:15 > 0:48:20naturalist, chemical manufacturer and farmer, James Hutton.
0:48:20 > 0:48:23He was looking at the rock faces and he noticed how the sea
0:48:23 > 0:48:26interacted with the land and how the rocks interacted with one another.
0:48:29 > 0:48:35Hutton started studying rocks in the 1750s around his native Scotland.
0:48:35 > 0:48:38But on Britain's south coast in Dorset, there are some
0:48:38 > 0:48:43fabulous examples of the sort of beaches that fascinated him.
0:48:44 > 0:48:47By looking at layers of rock, Hutton worked out that the Earth
0:48:47 > 0:48:50hadn't been created perfectly formed.
0:48:50 > 0:48:53It was, in fact, the product of billions of years,
0:48:53 > 0:48:56of time, the elements and the odd earth tremor.
0:49:01 > 0:49:06Hutton realised these bands were layers of sediment and deduced
0:49:06 > 0:49:10it must have taken millions of years for them to become solid rock.
0:49:11 > 0:49:14Then even longer to be tilted
0:49:14 > 0:49:17and contorted by the dynamic forces of the planet.
0:49:20 > 0:49:24Hutton's discoveries would have massive implications.
0:49:24 > 0:49:26If the world really was that old,
0:49:26 > 0:49:32then archaeology can now enter the new and exciting world of deep time.
0:49:34 > 0:49:38It was the irrefutable evidence of deep time that finally
0:49:38 > 0:49:43did for the chronology of the Bible, opening up a vastness of time
0:49:43 > 0:49:47into which archaeologists could explore the past.
0:49:47 > 0:49:51But if the biblical creation story was myth,
0:49:51 > 0:49:55what did that mean for Adam, Eve
0:49:55 > 0:49:57and the beginnings of humanity?
0:50:09 > 0:50:132,000 years ago, Helena of Constantinople sought
0:50:13 > 0:50:16evidence from the Earth to prove the truth of the Bible.
0:50:17 > 0:50:20But the Earth had bitten back.
0:50:22 > 0:50:25I started my journey into the beginnings of archaeology
0:50:25 > 0:50:27with Helena's skull.
0:50:27 > 0:50:30Now I've come back to Germany
0:50:30 > 0:50:33because little more than 100 miles away from Trier,
0:50:33 > 0:50:38another skull was found that represents a very different landmark
0:50:38 > 0:50:42in our story of archaeology and its relationship with belief.
0:50:44 > 0:50:47It was here in the Neander Valley in western Germany
0:50:47 > 0:50:49that the skull was found.
0:50:49 > 0:50:53And it was here, tens of thousands of years before anyone had even
0:50:53 > 0:50:58thought about writing a Bible, that Neanderthal man walked the Earth.
0:51:02 > 0:51:06Remains of bones were discovered here in 1857
0:51:06 > 0:51:10by quarry workers who were blasting these rocks.
0:51:10 > 0:51:13They thought they had found the remains of a bear,
0:51:13 > 0:51:18but it soon became clear that they were far, far more important.
0:51:25 > 0:51:29The discovery of Neanderthal man created a storm.
0:51:29 > 0:51:32Not only was the Earth and humanity more ancient
0:51:32 > 0:51:35than anyone had thought, but perhaps
0:51:35 > 0:51:40humanity hadn't been made in a moment of creation
0:51:40 > 0:51:42but had evolved.
0:51:42 > 0:51:45One more heresy to add to archaeology's long list
0:51:45 > 0:51:48of dangerous discoveries.
0:51:49 > 0:51:54The original Neanderthal is now in the care of Dr Ralph Schmitz.
0:51:56 > 0:51:59- Hello, nice to meet you.- Good to meet you. Thanks for seeing me.
0:52:03 > 0:52:05I'm so excited to see this.
0:52:05 > 0:52:08I remember talking about this with our lecturers
0:52:08 > 0:52:10in my first week at university
0:52:10 > 0:52:14and here he is.
0:52:14 > 0:52:15So how old is this guy?
0:52:15 > 0:52:21His geological age is around 42,000 years.
0:52:21 > 0:52:24Normally, it's very, very restricted
0:52:24 > 0:52:28- and we will normally not open it but, for you, I will open it.- No?!
0:52:30 > 0:52:35- For you I will open it.- Oh, don't. The pressure. Fantastic.
0:52:36 > 0:52:39So, here we are.
0:52:39 > 0:52:43Look at that. I never thought I'd get this close.
0:52:43 > 0:52:48This is, I think, the most iconic archaeological find ever.
0:52:50 > 0:52:54To get this close is a massive privilege.
0:52:57 > 0:53:00So this discovery was a bit like dropping a bomb
0:53:00 > 0:53:02on the whole idea of creationism.
0:53:02 > 0:53:07There wasn't just one species, one type of man like Adam,
0:53:07 > 0:53:12but actually, we evolved from a number of different subspecies.
0:53:12 > 0:53:16It was clear a few weeks after the Neanderthal was found
0:53:16 > 0:53:18that it is a human being,
0:53:18 > 0:53:23but this idea was heavily attacked by other scientists.
0:53:23 > 0:53:28And completely accepted was...
0:53:28 > 0:53:31at around 1900-1902.
0:53:31 > 0:53:34And today it is clear,
0:53:34 > 0:53:38but in the early time it was very, very difficult.
0:53:39 > 0:53:43One moment. I will put on my gloves.
0:53:44 > 0:53:46So...
0:53:53 > 0:53:57My heart is actually beating for you.
0:53:57 > 0:54:01That's the inner surface of the skull.
0:54:01 > 0:54:08It shows very clearly arterial impressions of the brain
0:54:08 > 0:54:13and it's unbelievable that a Neanderthal brain sticks in here
0:54:13 > 0:54:18and all the Neanderthal's thoughts and feelings has been created here.
0:54:19 > 0:54:25It's a different world. Different thoughts. Different feelings.
0:54:25 > 0:54:30It's a human being, but at a distance of more than 40,000 years.
0:54:30 > 0:54:33Truly amazing. Thank you so much.
0:54:33 > 0:54:36I really feel like I've come face-to-face with
0:54:36 > 0:54:40one of the great moments in archaeology.
0:54:40 > 0:54:43- It's just amazing. - You are very welcome.
0:54:48 > 0:54:52The development of early archaeology ever since Helena
0:54:52 > 0:54:57has been one of continual discovery and progress.
0:54:57 > 0:55:00But the onset of scientific method and reasoning,
0:55:00 > 0:55:03from Aubrey to Hutton and Frere,
0:55:03 > 0:55:09brought a new, very different and very modern way of thinking.
0:55:09 > 0:55:12Helena asserted the story that she believed to be true
0:55:12 > 0:55:15through using objects.
0:55:15 > 0:55:19But the Neanderthal skull was a very different matter indeed.
0:55:19 > 0:55:23Here we had an object trying to tell its own story against the odds,
0:55:23 > 0:55:25against established belief
0:55:25 > 0:55:30and using evidence that contradicted what we believed at that time.
0:55:30 > 0:55:32But the Neanderthal skull also helped us
0:55:32 > 0:55:36to a new understanding of our place in the great scheme of things,
0:55:36 > 0:55:40our place in time, our beginnings,
0:55:40 > 0:55:42not just other people, but as a species.
0:55:45 > 0:55:50Archaeology had taken us through an age of wonder.
0:55:50 > 0:55:53The ideas and motivations of Helena
0:55:53 > 0:55:56and Pizzicolli.
0:55:58 > 0:56:00Of Aubrey.
0:56:01 > 0:56:05And John Frere.
0:56:05 > 0:56:08Their discoveries all endure today just as powerfully as
0:56:08 > 0:56:13when archaeology first unleashed them
0:56:13 > 0:56:16and it's those discoveries that are the foundations upon which
0:56:16 > 0:56:20we built our own relationship with the ancient past.
0:56:25 > 0:56:29'Next time, archaeology sets its sights
0:56:29 > 0:56:32'on some seriously big discoveries.'
0:56:32 > 0:56:35So you're digging and you come down to this?
0:56:35 > 0:56:39Just imagine. It must have completely freaked them out.
0:56:41 > 0:56:44'And Victorian science and technology
0:56:44 > 0:56:48'takes archaeology into a whole new age...'
0:56:48 > 0:56:50Oh, my word, look at that.
0:56:50 > 0:56:53'..as one question dominates.
0:56:53 > 0:56:57'Just where and when did civilisation begin?'
0:56:57 > 0:57:01Wow, this place is absolutely stupendous!
0:57:29 > 0:57:34Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd