0:00:03 > 0:00:07'We might be a small island but we've got a big history.
0:00:07 > 0:00:11'Everywhere you stand there are worlds beneath your feet.
0:00:11 > 0:00:15'And so every year, hundreds of archaeologists across Britain
0:00:15 > 0:00:20'go looking for more clues into our story... Who lived here? When? And how?'
0:00:20 > 0:00:25There was a blade in here...here... So he's being attacked from all angles.
0:00:25 > 0:00:30'Archaeology is a complex jigsaw puzzle, drawing everything together
0:00:30 > 0:00:35'from skeletons to swords, temples to treasure.'
0:00:35 > 0:00:38- He's biting his shield. - Biting his shield, yeah.
0:00:40 > 0:00:47'From Orkney to Devon, we're joining this year's quest... on sea, land and air.
0:00:47 > 0:00:51'We share all of the questions, and find some of the answers,
0:00:51 > 0:00:57'as we join the teams in the field Digging For Britain.'
0:01:00 > 0:01:04We know that the Romans invaded and occupied our land
0:01:04 > 0:01:08for nearly four centuries, covering it with roads and cities.
0:01:08 > 0:01:16But this year, archaeologists are uncovering surprising new evidence which challenges our preconceptions
0:01:16 > 0:01:22and offers us a fresh perspective on Roman Britain, revealing a vanished landscape.
0:01:24 > 0:01:29Even today, astonishing finds are still emerging from the soil,
0:01:29 > 0:01:34bringing us face to face with the people of Britannia.
0:01:35 > 0:01:40A newly-discovered town in rural Devon turns history on its head.
0:01:40 > 0:01:44The mystery of the 97 dead babies thickens.
0:01:44 > 0:01:50And, the Roman god buried for 1,700 years beneath a fort.
0:01:52 > 0:01:57The Roman military occupation probably began on the southeast corner of England,
0:01:57 > 0:02:02where the Romans are thought to have first landed.
0:02:02 > 0:02:06In the story of Roman Britain the mighty legions are famed,
0:02:06 > 0:02:11while its fleet, the Classis Britannica, is practically unknown.
0:02:11 > 0:02:16For nearly four centuries though, hundreds of wooden ships,
0:02:16 > 0:02:19all long vanished, patrolled the Channel.
0:02:19 > 0:02:24But I'm on my way to a dig that I'm hoping will take me straight to the control room
0:02:24 > 0:02:26of Britain's first major navy...
0:02:26 > 0:02:30bringing me closer to the man who ruled Britannia's waves.
0:02:35 > 0:02:39There's been a suggestion of a connection between the Roman navy
0:02:39 > 0:02:43and a very particular site up here on the cliffs at Folkestone.
0:02:43 > 0:02:47So this year archaeologists are excavating that site,
0:02:47 > 0:02:51hoping to uncover new evidence and test that possible connection.
0:02:52 > 0:02:56On the edge of these cliffs, volunteers are helping to unearth
0:02:56 > 0:03:00a magnificent Roman villa in Folkestone, Kent.
0:03:00 > 0:03:06First discovered in 1923, the site was re-opened last year.
0:03:06 > 0:03:10Those digging know they are probably close to the spot where the Romans
0:03:10 > 0:03:14first landed in Britain, under Emperor Claudius, in 43AD.
0:03:17 > 0:03:23The excavation of this villa on the edge of Folkestone is being directed by professional archaeologists,
0:03:23 > 0:03:28but depends on an army of local volunteers, who are all passionate about the history of their area.
0:03:28 > 0:03:36And this site occupies such an amazing place, with a spectacular view looking out over the Channel.
0:03:36 > 0:03:44Its location, and the size of this villa, makes archaeologists think it belonged to somebody important.
0:03:46 > 0:03:50I'm meeting Andrew Richardson, site supervisor since it re-opened last year.
0:03:52 > 0:03:56- The building itself looks almost palatial...- It is.
0:03:56 > 0:03:58Well, this is only a small part of it.
0:03:58 > 0:04:05This is one wing, of two wings projecting from the front of a long rectangular building.
0:04:05 > 0:04:08And you've got further blocks beyond the fence over there,
0:04:08 > 0:04:11and a third block which would have been a bath block,
0:04:11 > 0:04:15and quite a lot of that has actually gone over the cliff, has been lost to erosion.
0:04:17 > 0:04:24The extraordinary size and prime location suggest that the inhabitant was well-connected.
0:04:24 > 0:04:30So what sort of person would have lived in a villa like this, with its own bathhouse?
0:04:30 > 0:04:36Obviously somebody... Either an individual or a family of immense wealth and power.
0:04:38 > 0:04:41Somebody who's come from the empire, said, "I like this spot,
0:04:41 > 0:04:47"and I'm going to build myself a proper Roman residence."
0:04:50 > 0:04:56But something more concrete is needed to pinpoint the individual's actual identity.
0:04:56 > 0:04:59Dozens of trademarked roof tiles have come up from the soil linking
0:04:59 > 0:05:04the former inhabitant to the Roman navy, the Classis Britannica.
0:05:14 > 0:05:18These are two very special tiles, because they're stamped -
0:05:18 > 0:05:22with a circular stamp and the letters CL BR.
0:05:22 > 0:05:26- So what does this stand for? - It stands for Classis Britannica.
0:05:26 > 0:05:30- So this is the stamp of the Roman fleet in Britain?- Yes,
0:05:30 > 0:05:35and we do know that the fleet was commanded by prefects.
0:05:35 > 0:05:38So this position, the prefect of Classis Britannica,
0:05:38 > 0:05:40that's kind of equivalent to an admiral?
0:05:40 > 0:05:45Equivalent to an admiral, yeah, and perhaps commanding 30 ships and several thousand men.
0:05:45 > 0:05:48Probably its primary role was transport for the army,
0:05:48 > 0:05:53but it certainly also had a role in both patrolling the seas, and also exploration,
0:05:53 > 0:05:58establishing just how big this island the Romans had come to was.
0:06:02 > 0:06:07In the island of Britannia, whoever commanded the sea controlled the land.
0:06:07 > 0:06:12Seven possible Roman fortified harbours cluster around the Kent peninsula,
0:06:12 > 0:06:16with Folkestone in the centre, facing Boulogne.
0:06:19 > 0:06:24The quantity of the tiles found here and the villa's geographical position
0:06:24 > 0:06:27raises the tantalising possibility that this villa
0:06:27 > 0:06:30once housed the commander of the fleet.
0:06:30 > 0:06:35One suggestion is it's the admiral's, the prefect's house.
0:06:35 > 0:06:41It looks straight out to Boulogne which is the headquarters of their main fleet base, a large fort.
0:06:41 > 0:06:45Further along the coast at Dover, they've got a fort,
0:06:45 > 0:06:48and they've got another fort at Lympne to the west.
0:06:48 > 0:06:51And this is almost halfway between Dover and Lympne.
0:06:51 > 0:06:55You can imagine that, you know, the commander of what is effectively
0:06:55 > 0:06:59the most powerful military organisation in the region at the time
0:06:59 > 0:07:03is the sort of person who would have the clout to live at a place like this.
0:07:04 > 0:07:10The idea that this was the home of one of Britain's first, and most important, naval commanders,
0:07:10 > 0:07:12is incredibly exciting.
0:07:12 > 0:07:17The volunteers are re-discovering the layout of this once luxurious home.
0:07:19 > 0:07:24It is amazing just to touch a piece of archaeology - something that you know that
0:07:24 > 0:07:28you're the first person that has touched it in 2,000 years or more.
0:07:30 > 0:07:34- So, Ian, we heard you just found something?- That's right, yes.
0:07:34 > 0:07:38- A coin, probably Roman... A minim. - Just come up?- Yup.
0:07:38 > 0:07:41- So, Ian, you've just found this? - Yup.- Can I have a look?
0:07:41 > 0:07:44- Yeah.- What is it, Keith?
0:07:44 > 0:07:47I should guess it's late 3rd- or 4th-century Roman.
0:07:47 > 0:07:51Oh, I'm amazed you managed to find that, Ian, it's absolutely tiny.
0:07:53 > 0:07:56Ian's coin adds to the hundreds found here,
0:07:56 > 0:07:59suggesting the site existed for most of the Roman period,
0:07:59 > 0:08:02stretching from the Claudian invasion in 43AD
0:08:02 > 0:08:08right into the 360s - 50 years before the end of Roman Britain.
0:08:08 > 0:08:13It was forgotten for nearly 1,500 years more - and now...
0:08:13 > 0:08:15it faces destruction.
0:08:20 > 0:08:23There is a particular sense of urgency to the excavations here at Folkestone,
0:08:23 > 0:08:27because this villa is slowly but surely slipping down the cliffs into the sea.
0:08:27 > 0:08:30The bathhouse has already disappeared.
0:08:30 > 0:08:34And this is partly why so many local people have volunteered here -
0:08:34 > 0:08:38because they know that it will soon be too late.
0:08:41 > 0:08:47Project director Lesley Hardy knows that this is, in every sense, archaeology on the edge.
0:08:47 > 0:08:53This really is a rescue excavation, isn't it, because this villa is under threat.
0:08:53 > 0:08:59Yes. You can see... This is a photograph that was taken in 1924,
0:08:59 > 0:09:02and here what we've done is we've superimposed a line which shows
0:09:02 > 0:09:07the current cliff edge, and you can see how much has already been lost.
0:09:07 > 0:09:12So it looks like part of the Roman buildings have actually been lost.
0:09:12 > 0:09:14Which area is this?
0:09:14 > 0:09:17This is the bathhouse area of that block,
0:09:17 > 0:09:19and it's largely gone now over the edge of the cliff.
0:09:19 > 0:09:23It tends to go in clumps and big bites. It's just sliding down,
0:09:23 > 0:09:27sliding down, constantly, bringing all the archaeology with it.
0:09:29 > 0:09:33The sea is waiting to claim this unique site.
0:09:33 > 0:09:37In this race against time, the archaeologists must get there first,
0:09:37 > 0:09:41salvaging material forgotten for one and a half millennia,
0:09:41 > 0:09:43in search of more evidence
0:09:43 > 0:09:47that this was indeed the home of the commander of the Roman navy.
0:09:50 > 0:09:55But often in archaeology, the discovery of objects is merely page one, chapter one
0:09:55 > 0:09:57in the reappraisal of history,
0:09:57 > 0:10:01for the finds themselves frequently baffle us.
0:10:02 > 0:10:05I'm travelling towards Buckinghamshire, where, last year,
0:10:05 > 0:10:07we discovered a truly shocking mystery -
0:10:07 > 0:10:12the bones of 97 babies, which had been buried beneath
0:10:12 > 0:10:16a Roman villa called Yewden, just outside the village of Hambleden.
0:10:16 > 0:10:19There's something very strange going on there, isn't there?
0:10:19 > 0:10:2497 babies in one rural site, all about the same age.
0:10:24 > 0:10:27Horrifying conclusions were unavoidable.
0:10:27 > 0:10:31What we're dealing with is infants that died around time of birth
0:10:31 > 0:10:36and that made us think that perhaps these individuals had been deliberately killed.
0:10:37 > 0:10:38But why?
0:10:39 > 0:10:43The only explanation you keep coming back to is it's got to have been a brothel.
0:10:46 > 0:10:51The case of the 97 dead babies at Yewden Roman villa was, I think,
0:10:51 > 0:10:54the most disturbing story that we covered last year.
0:10:54 > 0:10:59And it caught the imagination of people not just in Britain but around the world.
0:10:59 > 0:11:02It really is a mystery.
0:11:02 > 0:11:04Were those babies murdered?
0:11:04 > 0:11:06And, if so, why?
0:11:06 > 0:11:11Well, when I looked at the bones more closely when we'd finished filming,
0:11:11 > 0:11:15I noticed what I thought was probably a cut mark on one of them,
0:11:15 > 0:11:19so it all sounds even more sinister and I had to investigate further.
0:11:22 > 0:11:26Hello. Hello. Simon, have you brought the bones?
0:11:26 > 0:11:28I have indeed, yes.
0:11:28 > 0:11:33'I asked two other experts in human bones, Simon Mays and Kate Robson-Brown,
0:11:33 > 0:11:36'to help me find out if those cut-marks were ancient,
0:11:36 > 0:11:40'or if they could have been made by an archaeologist's trowel.'
0:11:40 > 0:11:42What do you think of those, Kate?
0:11:42 > 0:11:44You can't quite tell how deep they go.
0:11:44 > 0:11:49So can we look at these underneath the light microscope, just to see what those cuts look like?
0:11:49 > 0:11:50I think that would help.
0:11:50 > 0:11:53Have a look and see if there's any sediment in them.
0:11:53 > 0:11:59If these cuts have got sediment in them, then that suggests they're genuine old Roman cuts.
0:11:59 > 0:12:04'The microscopic image suggests that a knife was indeed taken to this baby,
0:12:04 > 0:12:07'cutting the flesh right down to the bone.'
0:12:07 > 0:12:10Now I think you can see that one does look like
0:12:10 > 0:12:13there's sediment in it and you can almost see
0:12:13 > 0:12:16the mineral sparkle of the soil there.
0:12:16 > 0:12:19So there's definitely soil inside those cut marks.
0:12:19 > 0:12:23Right. That does suggest then that we're looking at something ancient rather than recent.
0:12:23 > 0:12:25Oh, that's really intriguing.
0:12:27 > 0:12:31The presence of the soil that they were buried in, embedded deep inside the cuts,
0:12:31 > 0:12:34strongly suggests that the cuts are very old.
0:12:34 > 0:12:37They could have been made around the time of the baby's death.
0:12:38 > 0:12:42But why might these babies have been killed?
0:12:42 > 0:12:47Romans sometimes limited family size by killing babies, especially female ones.
0:12:47 > 0:12:51The appearance of these bones can't tell us if the babies were male or female...
0:12:51 > 0:12:52but their DNA can.
0:12:54 > 0:12:58Wrapped up to prevent contamination, Keri Brown,
0:12:58 > 0:13:01an expert in ancient human DNA, chose ten of the skeletons.
0:13:01 > 0:13:06But extracting ancient DNA is a painstaking task.
0:13:06 > 0:13:09The results, however, are clear.
0:13:09 > 0:13:12Five girls...
0:13:12 > 0:13:13and five boys.
0:13:13 > 0:13:20It's only a tiny sample but now we know it wasn't just female infanticide.
0:13:23 > 0:13:27But can the artefacts found at the villa tell us if the deaths
0:13:27 > 0:13:31were close enough in time to justify the grim conclusion of murder?
0:13:31 > 0:13:36I met the archaeologist Jill Eyers to find out when the objects were produced.
0:13:39 > 0:13:43We were absolutely blessed with a wealth,
0:13:43 > 0:13:45about 34 kilograms of material that is very datable.
0:13:45 > 0:13:49Just as an example, that little vessel is a cup.
0:13:49 > 0:13:54I've got "Crobiso". It's "Crobiso M", which... M is short for MANU.
0:13:54 > 0:13:57"Manufactured by the hand of Crobiso."
0:13:57 > 0:14:01So this is a potter between 135 and 180,
0:14:01 > 0:14:06so I can say absolutely that the babies we have the dates for are 150 to 200AD.
0:14:09 > 0:14:14So many infant deaths over just 50 years in one rural site.
0:14:14 > 0:14:18It seems too many to be the result of natural causes.
0:14:18 > 0:14:19It points to foul play.
0:14:20 > 0:14:22Now when I spoke to you about this last year,
0:14:22 > 0:14:24you suggested the idea of a brothel
0:14:24 > 0:14:28as a potential explanation for a lot of unwanted children.
0:14:28 > 0:14:30Where are you now with your brothel theory?
0:14:30 > 0:14:33Do you think this is the most likely explanation?
0:14:33 > 0:14:37Well, to tell you the truth, I didn't want to favour it.
0:14:37 > 0:14:41I put it forward as a suggestion to get people going.
0:14:41 > 0:14:45Now, studying all the artefacts, all the data,
0:14:45 > 0:14:48every alternative for natural explanations I can think of,
0:14:48 > 0:14:49I'm back with the brothel.
0:14:49 > 0:14:52First of all, we've got a lot of females on site
0:14:52 > 0:14:54as shown by female artefacts.
0:14:54 > 0:14:56So are these some of the female artefacts?
0:14:56 > 0:14:59Yeah, I've just brought a couple of little things to show you.
0:14:59 > 0:15:05Beautiful little hairpins, beautiful carved items.
0:15:05 > 0:15:08A whole range of these on site.
0:15:08 > 0:15:13Jill has further evidence that she believes may bolster her theory that this was a brothel,
0:15:13 > 0:15:16a fragment of pornographic pottery.
0:15:18 > 0:15:19Oh, that is quite naughty.
0:15:19 > 0:15:21I can see what they're doing.
0:15:21 > 0:15:23So there's one person standing here.
0:15:23 > 0:15:25There's another person standing behind them.
0:15:25 > 0:15:28And something unmentionable is going on just there.
0:15:30 > 0:15:33So, a suggestive clue.
0:15:33 > 0:15:36But where would the customers have come from?
0:15:36 > 0:15:39Hambleden is in the middle of nowhere.
0:15:39 > 0:15:43That was my biggest problem when I tentatively suggested it
0:15:43 > 0:15:46because where are the clientele coming from? It's a rural location.
0:15:46 > 0:15:48Then we discovered some of the trackways.
0:15:48 > 0:15:53Trackways that lead from the river, the major arterial route in the Roman world.
0:15:53 > 0:15:57We've got a track leading from the river, right past Yewden,
0:15:57 > 0:16:00and goes directly to Dorchester.
0:16:02 > 0:16:07Jill also believes that there might once have been a ford near Yewden villa.
0:16:07 > 0:16:11Divers have told her that the Thames is unusually shallow here.
0:16:11 > 0:16:12I'm going to see for myself.
0:16:23 > 0:16:28The river really does seem shallow enough that, in Roman times, it might have been a ford.
0:16:31 > 0:16:34Perhaps passing trade had to unload here
0:16:34 > 0:16:38and then turned to Yewden brothel for some refreshment?
0:16:44 > 0:16:49Over the last year, Jill has been looking again at the finds from Yewden
0:16:49 > 0:16:53and the wider landscape and exploring her brothel idea.
0:16:56 > 0:16:59I'm intrigued by Jill's theory about Yewden being a brothel,
0:16:59 > 0:17:01but I'm not at all convinced by it -
0:17:01 > 0:17:04it seems to be based on almost entirely circumstantial evidence.
0:17:04 > 0:17:08Well, now I'm hoping to look at some hard evidence,
0:17:08 > 0:17:11in the from of artefacts from the villa excavations
0:17:11 > 0:17:15and they're held at Buckinghamshire County Museum where I'm going to meet the curator.
0:17:18 > 0:17:19'His name is Brett Thorn.'
0:17:26 > 0:17:30Brett, what do you think of Jill's theory about the villa being a brothel?
0:17:30 > 0:17:32I'm not convinced, I have to say.
0:17:32 > 0:17:34It's too far from any major population centres.
0:17:34 > 0:17:38What we have here are some objects from the excavation.
0:17:40 > 0:17:45These finely-crafted objects suggest something other than the cold-blooded murder of babies,
0:17:45 > 0:17:48a far more benign explanation.
0:17:48 > 0:17:51One that's been suggested involves the cult of the mother goddess.
0:17:51 > 0:17:54There are, from thousands of objects on the site,
0:17:54 > 0:17:59three which relate to the mother goddess cult potentially.
0:18:01 > 0:18:05A beautiful piece of pottery bears signs of this cult.
0:18:05 > 0:18:08- This is wonderful. - This is a mortarium.
0:18:08 > 0:18:09It's a grinding bowl
0:18:09 > 0:18:14and what's special about this one is the decoration you can see.
0:18:14 > 0:18:17- It's got peacocks on it.- Exactly. So the peacock is the symbol of Juno,
0:18:17 > 0:18:19a Roman goddess, who is involved with childbirth.
0:18:19 > 0:18:21Well, the top Roman goddess.
0:18:21 > 0:18:24Exactly. The Queen of the gods. yeah.
0:18:25 > 0:18:27There's more evidence as well -
0:18:27 > 0:18:31a scarab beetle evoking the Egyptian mother goddess, Isis,
0:18:31 > 0:18:33and an intriguing sherd of pottery.
0:18:33 > 0:18:39This one is a favourite and it's only a tiny fragment of a statuette.
0:18:39 > 0:18:43What you've got here is an arm holding a baby.
0:18:43 > 0:18:46I can see the little baby there in the crook of her arm.
0:18:46 > 0:18:52And this is the side of a chair. It's a woman holding, usually a baby on each breast, nursing.
0:18:52 > 0:18:54This is the Dea Nutrix, the nursing goddess.
0:18:54 > 0:18:56It looks almost like a Madonna and child.
0:18:56 > 0:19:00It's like iconography which happens in Christian times.
0:19:00 > 0:19:03Exactly, it's the mother and child. It's an eternal symbol.
0:19:03 > 0:19:07So you have a Roman mother cult.
0:19:07 > 0:19:10You have a Gaelic or Celtic mother cult.
0:19:10 > 0:19:13And then you have this carved stone scarab beetle...
0:19:13 > 0:19:15Isis is the Egyptian mother goddess.
0:19:15 > 0:19:19If you've got a cult of the mother goddess there, then...
0:19:19 > 0:19:23it could be somewhere to go for protection, for help, during times of birth.
0:19:26 > 0:19:30So perhaps women used Yewden villa as a birth centre,
0:19:30 > 0:19:31with a doctor present.
0:19:31 > 0:19:35Could this explain those cut-marks I saw on one of the baby's bones?
0:19:37 > 0:19:41One of the possible explanations for this that Simon Mays and I discussed
0:19:41 > 0:19:44was that they might have been cut marks that were made
0:19:44 > 0:19:48during an embryotomy, in order save the mother's life.
0:19:48 > 0:19:53If this was a dead baby, then that could be an explanation,
0:19:53 > 0:19:57so maybe there was something going on in terms of obstetrics.
0:19:57 > 0:19:59Somebody who was trying to help, yeah.
0:19:59 > 0:20:02Be it the priestesses of the cult or the local midwife or whoever.
0:20:02 > 0:20:06If you have women regularly coming to give birth, somebody will know what to do.
0:20:09 > 0:20:12If women from the region did come to Yewden to give birth,
0:20:12 > 0:20:18the large number of infant deaths could be explained without citing murder.
0:20:18 > 0:20:24Yet the evidence for Brett's idea is no less circumstantial than Jill's.
0:20:26 > 0:20:29So what we've got here at Yewden is an infant cemetery
0:20:29 > 0:20:34with ages at death that strongly suggest infanticide.
0:20:34 > 0:20:40But are we looking at something which is simply an extreme of what was normal for Roman society?
0:20:40 > 0:20:44Because we know that the Romans did practice infanticide.
0:20:44 > 0:20:49Or is there something else going on here to explain all of those dead babies?
0:20:49 > 0:20:53Could this have been a birthing centre or a brothel?
0:20:53 > 0:20:59Well, the evidence as it stands is, I think, inconclusive.
0:20:59 > 0:21:03I'm going to sit on the fence on this one, and wait for more evidence to come to light.
0:21:03 > 0:21:08So, at the moment, Yewden remains a bit of a mystery.
0:21:13 > 0:21:16At times, archaeology merely tantalises us.
0:21:16 > 0:21:20But I'm on my way to an entire lost Roman town
0:21:20 > 0:21:24that promises to radically rewrite the history books.
0:21:24 > 0:21:29It lies beyond a supposed boundary of Roman rule, Exeter,
0:21:29 > 0:21:33in an area where mighty legions once feared to tread.
0:21:33 > 0:21:34Or did they?
0:21:39 > 0:21:46In 2009, two metal detectorists, Jim Wills and Dennis Hewings, made an unexpected discovery
0:21:46 > 0:21:51in a field outside a tiny village in South Devon, 30 miles west of Exeter -
0:21:51 > 0:21:54a Roman coin.
0:21:54 > 0:21:56Then they found another,
0:21:56 > 0:22:00and another. They carried on finding them.
0:22:00 > 0:22:03Soon they had dozens.
0:22:03 > 0:22:06An extraordinary story was beginning.
0:22:07 > 0:22:09But this doesn't seem to make any sense.
0:22:09 > 0:22:14There aren't really meant to be any Roman settlements west of Exeter.
0:22:14 > 0:22:18The metal detectorists contacted the Portable Antiquities Scheme,
0:22:18 > 0:22:21the organisation that manages finds like these,
0:22:21 > 0:22:24made by the general public, right across the UK,
0:22:24 > 0:22:30and the people at the PAS realised that this was potentially a very important discovery.
0:22:34 > 0:22:38This March, Danielle Wootton - Devon's PAS officer -
0:22:38 > 0:22:41began leading the excavations.
0:22:41 > 0:22:46Yet more coins began to appear, suggesting an astonishing story.
0:22:46 > 0:22:49This was probably a missing Roman town,
0:22:49 > 0:22:53in a region they were never supposed to have settled.
0:22:57 > 0:23:00Danielle took me to the top of the hill to look over the fields,
0:23:00 > 0:23:05where an entire town lies waiting to be unearthed.
0:23:06 > 0:23:09This large field here is the field we can see over there,
0:23:09 > 0:23:12with the trench in. It's where we put one of the trenches.
0:23:12 > 0:23:17There's features in all these fields. We have 13 fields' worth of features.
0:23:17 > 0:23:20- And that's over a huge area, then. - Over a massive area, absolutely.
0:23:22 > 0:23:24What has been discovered of this town
0:23:24 > 0:23:26already covers many acres of land.
0:23:26 > 0:23:27And there may be more.
0:23:27 > 0:23:32Danielle knows that these now-tranquil fields were once bustling with life.
0:23:34 > 0:23:37What an amazing site. You know, sites like this always astound me
0:23:37 > 0:23:41because what you're looking at now is just a rural landscape with lots of fields.
0:23:41 > 0:23:43I know, that's the amazing thing.
0:23:43 > 0:23:45I mean it's very, very quiet and rural now
0:23:45 > 0:23:48but what we've got to try and imagine actually are houses,
0:23:48 > 0:23:51round houses, set within enclosures, little paddocks,
0:23:51 > 0:23:55where there's perhaps horses, cows, sheep, children running around,
0:23:55 > 0:23:58playing games, smoke coming up from the roofs of the houses.
0:23:58 > 0:24:00Just amazing to look out on this landscape
0:24:00 > 0:24:04and just imagine life here 2,000 years ago.
0:24:18 > 0:24:24The digging resumed in June with the help of dozens of eager local volunteers.
0:24:24 > 0:24:29Hundreds of objects - rare pieces of pottery and scores of coins -
0:24:29 > 0:24:31started to come up out of the ground.
0:24:32 > 0:24:34We've got a large selection of coins.
0:24:34 > 0:24:38Our earliest coin is a Roman Republican coin.
0:24:38 > 0:24:41It's a coin of Acilius, which dates back to 49BC.
0:24:41 > 0:24:45Oh, right. So this is... How is this getting to Britain, then?
0:24:45 > 0:24:47Britain's not part of the Empire then.
0:24:47 > 0:24:50No, absolutely not. We think what's happening here is,
0:24:50 > 0:24:52because the silver's such good quality,
0:24:52 > 0:24:55that it's staying in circulation much later on, in later centuries.
0:24:55 > 0:25:00So it's kind of the equivalent of having some Victorian change on you when you come over to Britain.
0:25:00 > 0:25:04So this is a coin that was minted in the first century BC
0:25:04 > 0:25:07- but probably came over here in the first century AD.- Absolutely.
0:25:07 > 0:25:08That's lovely.
0:25:23 > 0:25:27The coins suggest a long life for this town,
0:25:27 > 0:25:32from the first years after the invasion, until the last century of occupation.
0:25:32 > 0:25:35This was no passing encampment,
0:25:35 > 0:25:40but a substantial Romano-British settlement of almost 400 years.
0:25:40 > 0:25:45Danielle's other finds suggest that this was no rural backwater, either.
0:25:45 > 0:25:48So when you started excavating, what other artefacts did you find?
0:25:48 > 0:25:54- We've got a large selection of pottery. For instance, this is a bit of amphora handle.- Oh, lovely.
0:25:54 > 0:25:56Amphora is kind of like a big jug.
0:25:56 > 0:25:58Yeah. Big wine vessels, weren't they?
0:25:58 > 0:26:01Yeah, yeah, absolutely. And these were being imported.
0:26:01 > 0:26:03This has come from Spain.
0:26:03 > 0:26:07It's dated to the first to the second century AD.
0:26:07 > 0:26:09And it would've had, for instance, wine or olive oil
0:26:09 > 0:26:13or even this horrible thing called garum, which was rotting fish guts.
0:26:13 > 0:26:15Oh, that sounds disgusting!
0:26:15 > 0:26:17They used to put it on all their food.
0:26:17 > 0:26:20But this is a really good example of pottery coming over.
0:26:20 > 0:26:23Why? Why is it coming over here in South Devon?
0:26:23 > 0:26:25This is the really interesting thing.
0:26:26 > 0:26:31These discoveries are building a picture of a thriving town,
0:26:31 > 0:26:35but in an area always thought too dangerous to occupy.
0:26:35 > 0:26:39And the clincher is the discovery of a Roman road,
0:26:39 > 0:26:42connecting the town to the wider world.
0:26:44 > 0:26:48Danielle, this is very exciting. Did you expect to find this?
0:26:48 > 0:26:50This came up as a result of doing geophysics.
0:26:50 > 0:26:54We could see there was something traipsing along through the site,
0:26:54 > 0:26:58through the settlement, and what you can see here is a section of it.
0:26:58 > 0:27:03- Yeah.- So we're actually standing on top of a 2,000-year-old road here.
0:27:03 > 0:27:05So from the orientation of this road,
0:27:05 > 0:27:08where do you think it goes from and to?
0:27:08 > 0:27:10I suspect part of it is going to Exeter,
0:27:10 > 0:27:13probably heading out towards the coast.
0:27:13 > 0:27:15Perhaps we've got a trade route here.
0:27:15 > 0:27:19Given that we've got all this imported pottery, it would make sense.
0:27:20 > 0:27:24So far, archaeologists have found 97 coins,
0:27:24 > 0:27:27hundreds of artefacts, and even a buried Roman road.
0:27:27 > 0:27:30But towns house people.
0:27:30 > 0:27:37While I was on site, Danielle's team was uncovering the first evidence of the town's forgotten inhabitants.
0:27:37 > 0:27:40You can just see the top. We have some human remains.
0:27:40 > 0:27:43We have part of a skeleton coming up through the soil.
0:27:43 > 0:27:46- Can I... Can I get down here? - Yeah, sure.
0:27:46 > 0:27:51So this is, um... Well, the outline of a skull, so...
0:27:51 > 0:27:54so the top half or the side of the skull has been taken away.
0:27:54 > 0:27:57I think we've got some teeth down here.
0:27:57 > 0:28:01Then we're just seeing the outline of the skull coming around here.
0:28:01 > 0:28:05The people who lived, worked, and died in this forgotten town
0:28:05 > 0:28:06are coming up out of the ground,
0:28:06 > 0:28:09revealed by the archaeologist's trowel,
0:28:09 > 0:28:11unearthing a possible burial ground.
0:28:13 > 0:28:16- Is that another one over there? - And there's another one here.
0:28:16 > 0:28:18So here you can see we have the top of a skull.
0:28:18 > 0:28:23And so this is kind of throwing up even more questions than we were expecting, really.
0:28:23 > 0:28:29We were just looking for the road and now it looks like we've got possibly some kind of a cemetery.
0:28:31 > 0:28:35If this chance find is a cemetery, we will one day know much more
0:28:35 > 0:28:39about the long-vanished town and its people.
0:28:42 > 0:28:46It's so exciting being here at the beginning of something,
0:28:46 > 0:28:50which I imagine is going to turn out to be a massive archaeological story.
0:28:50 > 0:28:56I can imagine that in 10 or 20 years' time, people will be writing history books
0:28:56 > 0:28:58and will be talking about this site
0:28:58 > 0:29:05as the one that revolutionised our understanding of the Romans in the Southwest.
0:29:08 > 0:29:12I'm travelling from Exeter to Wales, to Caerleon,
0:29:12 > 0:29:15in the tracks of the mighty Second Legion Augusta,
0:29:15 > 0:29:19which abandoned Exeter in 75AD.
0:29:21 > 0:29:25This amphitheatre is part of the massive Caerleon fort complex,
0:29:25 > 0:29:29also started in 75AD, by General Frontius.
0:29:30 > 0:29:33It was first dug in 1909.
0:29:33 > 0:29:36But more than a century later, it is throwing up objects
0:29:36 > 0:29:41that breathe new life into the legion's long-dead men.
0:29:42 > 0:29:46Caerleon Roman amphitheatre is one of the great symbols of Roman Britain,
0:29:46 > 0:29:48up there with Hadrian's Wall.
0:29:48 > 0:29:52And for many local children, it's their first real experience of the Romans.
0:29:52 > 0:29:56I certainly remember coming here on a primary school field trip
0:29:56 > 0:29:58and it had a big impact on me.
0:29:58 > 0:30:03But just last year, new excavations unearthed something extraordinary -
0:30:03 > 0:30:06a warehouse full of objects
0:30:06 > 0:30:09which give us an insight into the Romans' private lives.
0:30:13 > 0:30:18Inside the warehouse, the archaeologists made an unexpected discovery -
0:30:18 > 0:30:22beautiful artefacts. Tiny clues to a bigger picture,
0:30:22 > 0:30:25which presented an intriguing mystery -
0:30:25 > 0:30:28why were they abandoned in the first place?
0:30:30 > 0:30:34The archaeologist in charge of the dig is Peter Guest.
0:30:34 > 0:30:39Peter, this is an extraordinary collection of finds to come from one excavation.
0:30:39 > 0:30:43And what you see in front of you is just a selection of the 1,200 or so
0:30:43 > 0:30:48metal and other objects that were recovered over six weeks last year.
0:30:50 > 0:30:55And I've never seen such a beautiful assortment of Roman artefacts from one site.
0:30:55 > 0:30:59Amongst them, these fish brooches.
0:30:59 > 0:31:02Originally, they would have had enamel in the eye.
0:31:02 > 0:31:05Very beautiful examples of their type
0:31:05 > 0:31:08and to find three together is extremely rare.
0:31:13 > 0:31:20These exquisite brooches probably once belonged to long-dead legionnaires and their wives.
0:31:20 > 0:31:25So, too, did this head of the goddess Minerva.
0:31:25 > 0:31:29And then this extremely nice fitting which is a...
0:31:29 > 0:31:31You can see the lion's head there.
0:31:31 > 0:31:33He's fantastic. What would that have been?
0:31:33 > 0:31:35Part of a piece of furniture?
0:31:35 > 0:31:38Probably from a piece of furniture. You can see the iron tang
0:31:38 > 0:31:40that would have gone into the side of a wooden object.
0:31:42 > 0:31:47This lovely lion's head was perhaps intended for a funerary casket,
0:31:47 > 0:31:53breaking before it could be used and ending up in the warehouse instead, with everything else.
0:31:53 > 0:31:57It seems like such a motley collection of objects. It's almost like a junk shop.
0:31:57 > 0:31:59Or possibly a lock-up kind of store, you know,
0:31:59 > 0:32:01like the things that we use today
0:32:01 > 0:32:04where if you've got too many things in your house,
0:32:04 > 0:32:09you hire a small unit and you put all the things you don't really need immediately away there.
0:32:11 > 0:32:16Amongst those objects, destined for Caerleon's Roman Legion Museum,
0:32:16 > 0:32:20was something mysterious and utterly unique -
0:32:20 > 0:32:23pieces of a Roman garment.
0:32:23 > 0:32:27They are being painstakingly conserved in Cardiff.
0:32:50 > 0:32:52Penny, what have you got here?
0:32:52 > 0:32:56This is one of the lumps that we actually excavated from Caerleon
0:32:56 > 0:33:00and, basically, it came to me like this.
0:33:00 > 0:33:02We had to sort of wrap it up carefully,
0:33:02 > 0:33:04so it could be transported.
0:33:04 > 0:33:06But when the top was taken off,
0:33:06 > 0:33:11we seem to have this extremely interesting sort of fish-scale effect,
0:33:11 > 0:33:17which has been created through very tiny sort of flat-headed pins.
0:33:17 > 0:33:20I mean, it almost looks like sequins, doesn't it?
0:33:20 > 0:33:24Yes, they are, and they've been laid on top of each other
0:33:24 > 0:33:28in such a way to move and create a sort of shimmering effect.
0:33:31 > 0:33:36Penny thinks she has a garment here unlike anything previously discovered.
0:33:38 > 0:33:42So is this unique? There's nothing like it in the whole of the known Roman Empire?
0:33:42 > 0:33:44I've never seen anything like this before,
0:33:44 > 0:33:48and, as far as I know, the curators are not aware of anything like this before
0:33:48 > 0:33:50from the Roman Empire.
0:33:50 > 0:33:52Is it some kind of armour?
0:33:52 > 0:33:57Possibly part of it, a decorative part of it.
0:33:58 > 0:34:03Another piece of this garment provides one more clue to the owner's identity,
0:34:03 > 0:34:06suggesting this could indeed have been armour.
0:34:06 > 0:34:07There was another...
0:34:07 > 0:34:11That... Oh, that's got a little face on it. So this was part of it?
0:34:11 > 0:34:16That was and it's got a solid head of Mithras attached.
0:34:16 > 0:34:18This is quite an extraordinary garment.
0:34:18 > 0:34:22It would have been wonderful with the fish scales glimmering.
0:34:22 > 0:34:25Then you've got these little details, like the head of Mithras.
0:34:25 > 0:34:29And he is a god, I think, who's particularly associated with the Roman army.
0:34:29 > 0:34:30Very much, yes.
0:34:34 > 0:34:38This tiny little head brings me closer to the person who once wore this garment,
0:34:38 > 0:34:43to the soldiers from every corner of the empire who came to Caerleon Fort
0:34:43 > 0:34:47and adopted the weird male-only warrior cult of Mithras,
0:34:47 > 0:34:50bathing themselves in bull's blood.
0:34:54 > 0:34:59This garment is a one-off, with all the individuality of a person.
0:35:03 > 0:35:08We may never know who owned this or exactly when he wore it.
0:35:08 > 0:35:10When this armour is finally restored,
0:35:10 > 0:35:15it will present cryptic clues to the crumbling of Roman power in Caerleon.
0:35:19 > 0:35:22It's thought that, by the early fourth century here,
0:35:22 > 0:35:29the Roman military presence had, if not completely disappeared, at least been significantly reduced.
0:35:29 > 0:35:35So you can imagine the people staying on, struggling to maintain what had once been a great fortress
0:35:35 > 0:35:38as buildings fell into ruins about them.
0:35:38 > 0:35:43And in a corner of a crumbling warehouse, that forgotten suit of armour.
0:35:43 > 0:35:47Well, those objects that were missed by people all those centuries ago
0:35:47 > 0:35:50were preserved for archaeologists to find.
0:35:50 > 0:35:54So after 1,700 years of oblivion they've gained a new life.
0:36:00 > 0:36:04The once-glittering armour, adorned with the head of the warrior-god Mithras,
0:36:04 > 0:36:08brings us face-to-face with the Roman soldiers of Caerleon
0:36:08 > 0:36:11and how they worshipped.
0:36:11 > 0:36:16And 70 miles away, in rural Dorset, deep inside Roman Britain,
0:36:16 > 0:36:22a site is throwing up exciting clues to a complex pattern of belief across Britannia.
0:36:28 > 0:36:32Most people know that the Romans were capable of religious intolerance,
0:36:32 > 0:36:36doing things like throwing Christians to the lions, for instance.
0:36:36 > 0:36:39But returning to Bere Regis, a site I visited last year,
0:36:39 > 0:36:44they're now finding evidence that life here was much more harmonious
0:36:44 > 0:36:47and even curiously modern.
0:36:51 > 0:36:58More than 200 students work on what is one of the country's largest digs.
0:36:58 > 0:37:03My day here is, I am told, the rainiest day in its three-year history.
0:37:03 > 0:37:08And as the day progresses, it becomes a mud-fest worthy of Glastonbury,
0:37:08 > 0:37:13trowels dredging up a mud-spattered Roman Britain.
0:37:14 > 0:37:18For the Romans, Bere Regis was probably an ideal colony -
0:37:18 > 0:37:22a profitable farmstead made rich by grain and pottery,
0:37:22 > 0:37:25with a compliant ruling class.
0:37:25 > 0:37:30By 350, Britannia was part of an officially Christian empire.
0:37:30 > 0:37:36But the truth, as site director Miles Russell knows, is much more complicated.
0:37:36 > 0:37:39Miles, where are we standing right now?
0:37:39 > 0:37:42We're standing, at the moment, in the remains of a very late Roman...
0:37:42 > 0:37:45probably not a villa as such but it is a very Romanised building,
0:37:45 > 0:37:49and this, I think, is probably our most impressive find to date.
0:37:49 > 0:37:52It's a little pendant, it's pierced in the middle there.
0:37:52 > 0:37:54This is actually a re-used coin.
0:37:54 > 0:37:59It's actually of the Emperor Magnentius in the 350s AD.
0:37:59 > 0:38:02And from our point of view, the key interest is that it's a Christian symbol.
0:38:02 > 0:38:03It's a Chi Rho...
0:38:03 > 0:38:07Yeah, so you can see the Rho and Chi,
0:38:07 > 0:38:10- so that's the first two letters of Christ's name.- Exactly.
0:38:10 > 0:38:14So someone's taken that coin and has obviously turned it into a pendant
0:38:14 > 0:38:19to identify themselves as an adherent to Christ, to the Christian God.
0:38:20 > 0:38:24But Christianity was only one religion in Dorset,
0:38:24 > 0:38:27in rainy Britannia, at this time.
0:38:27 > 0:38:30So have you got evidence of other religions, or other faiths,
0:38:30 > 0:38:33still being practised at the same time as Christianity?
0:38:33 > 0:38:37Yes, indeed, we've got this nice little bone handle,
0:38:37 > 0:38:41and you can see this female figure with a very ornate headdress
0:38:41 > 0:38:45and then a series of eagles and birds around the outer side.
0:38:45 > 0:38:46They're lovely... wow!
0:38:46 > 0:38:48This is an image of Medusa.
0:38:48 > 0:38:50I can't see any snakes round the head, though.
0:38:50 > 0:38:56No, no. I mean, it's actually her being shown as a healer, as associated with animals.
0:38:56 > 0:39:01But the key thing is this is being used at the time that someone is wearing this Christian pendant.
0:39:01 > 0:39:05If Christianity has become the state faith,
0:39:05 > 0:39:07whereby all other faiths have to be rejected,
0:39:07 > 0:39:10then this is the kind of object that shouldn't be used.
0:39:10 > 0:39:13But it's quite clear from this and from other material
0:39:13 > 0:39:16that people are still accepting of the non-Christian gods.
0:39:25 > 0:39:30It's interesting that towards the end of the Roman period on this site,
0:39:30 > 0:39:32we're seeing a spirit of religious tolerance,
0:39:32 > 0:39:36with different faiths being practised alongside each other.
0:39:36 > 0:39:40And in fact, there's a similar story right at the beginning of the Roman period.
0:39:40 > 0:39:46We don't see an abrupt transition from one lifestyle and set of rituals to another.
0:39:46 > 0:39:51And we're seeing that very clearly from the burial practices on this site.
0:39:56 > 0:40:00The archaeologists think they've found a cemetery for the elite.
0:40:00 > 0:40:06Dated to the late first century, these people would have interacted with the earliest Roman officials.
0:40:06 > 0:40:09And each is buried in a strangely contorted position,
0:40:09 > 0:40:13alongside symbols of wealth, pots.
0:40:13 > 0:40:18This is evidence of a local religion which you might have expected the Roman conquerors to stamp out.
0:40:19 > 0:40:23Miles, looking at these two burials here, there seem to be a lot of similarities.
0:40:23 > 0:40:26They're obviously both in a crouched position.
0:40:26 > 0:40:29All the burials that we get here, across this part of Dorset,
0:40:29 > 0:40:31they're all the same - they're all crouched, or sort of...
0:40:31 > 0:40:34The knees are up towards the chest.
0:40:34 > 0:40:36They're all lying on their right side.
0:40:36 > 0:40:42The head is always at the eastern end of the grave cut, so the face is facing north.
0:40:42 > 0:40:44And I think these burials show that the impact of Rome
0:40:44 > 0:40:46wasn't that extreme to begin with,
0:40:46 > 0:40:50that people are still carrying on their practices, still worshipping their gods.
0:40:50 > 0:40:54And in terms of these particular burials that we're looking at just here,
0:40:54 > 0:40:57do you think these are the elite that we're looking at?
0:40:57 > 0:41:01I think they probably are. These are the well-to-do elements.
0:41:01 > 0:41:03Possibly these are the last set of people
0:41:03 > 0:41:07who are harking back to an earlier age, to a more sort of British culture.
0:41:11 > 0:41:17So it seems that some people living here were doing very well indeed out of being part of the Roman Empire.
0:41:17 > 0:41:20But what we have to remember is that those crouch burials
0:41:20 > 0:41:24are high status - that's the wealthy elite we're looking at.
0:41:24 > 0:41:29Life wasn't nearly so rosy for everyone else, as their bones reveal.
0:41:34 > 0:41:39Dozens of other skeletons from the dig have been brought to the mobile unit on site,
0:41:39 > 0:41:46where bone expert Martin Smith is examining them for tell-tale signs of their lives and deaths.
0:41:46 > 0:41:49Martin, we've got some clues about what was going on
0:41:49 > 0:41:54with this population as they became part of the Roman world. But what do their bones tell us?
0:41:54 > 0:41:56Yeah, this individual has a few things going on here...
0:41:56 > 0:42:00This is someone who is in...sort of moving into later adolescence,
0:42:00 > 0:42:03as far as we can tell from looking at their bones.
0:42:03 > 0:42:06We've seen, in some individuals' teeth,
0:42:06 > 0:42:09these horizontal lines running across the teeth
0:42:09 > 0:42:13and what these are showing up is episodes of arrested development
0:42:13 > 0:42:19when this person was very young, so the enamel stopped developing, and then restarted again.
0:42:19 > 0:42:25So these are telling us about specific episodes of either severe illness or of malnourishment.
0:42:27 > 0:42:31The long bones seem to support this dark picture of widespread starvation,
0:42:31 > 0:42:34of lives blighted by poverty.
0:42:35 > 0:42:39This is from a child aged about nine or ten.
0:42:39 > 0:42:42If we look here, this is an X-ray of that bone.
0:42:42 > 0:42:45- Of this actual bone?- Absolutely, so that's an X-ray of the tibia.
0:42:45 > 0:42:50And I can see the... I can see the problem there immediately. I can see these tide lines in it.
0:42:50 > 0:42:53Each of these little lines, similar to what we were seeing in the teeth.
0:42:53 > 0:42:58Each of these represent a specific episode of arrested growth in that individual.
0:42:58 > 0:43:03So this person was either severely ill or really quite badly malnourished.
0:43:03 > 0:43:07So would you say that there was an unusual level of physiological stress
0:43:07 > 0:43:11- in this population during Roman times?- That's a good question.
0:43:11 > 0:43:17And it may be the case that people who were owning the villa may have been doing very well for themselves.
0:43:17 > 0:43:19But the people who were actually working the land -
0:43:19 > 0:43:22who possibly may actually have been slaves -
0:43:22 > 0:43:24may not have had the same kind of access to resources
0:43:24 > 0:43:28and the same kind of access to interesting diets and so on.
0:43:28 > 0:43:31What we're looking at here is a window onto a third-world population.
0:43:33 > 0:43:37Martin's examination of these young people's bones
0:43:37 > 0:43:41provides us with a stark reminder of a brutal world,
0:43:41 > 0:43:45a world that only archaeology can recapture.
0:43:51 > 0:43:57Throughout the Roman period, extreme poverty existed alongside great wealth.
0:43:57 > 0:44:00But it's the rich, with their sculptures and chattels,
0:44:00 > 0:44:05their trinkets and their artefacts, not the poor, who are most visible.
0:44:07 > 0:44:10300 hundred miles north, near the Scottish border,
0:44:10 > 0:44:17a recent find is a stellar example of the splendours of Roman Britain and its mighty legions.
0:44:18 > 0:44:22This beautiful helmet was found just outside the tiny Cumbrian village
0:44:22 > 0:44:24of Crosby Garrett,
0:44:24 > 0:44:27less than 50 miles from the border town of Carlisle,
0:44:27 > 0:44:32which itself nestles beneath the shadow of Hadrian's Wall.
0:44:32 > 0:44:36It was discovered in a field by a metal detectorist last May.
0:44:36 > 0:44:42At first, he was baffled by the 70 loose pieces of metal he'd found.
0:44:42 > 0:44:44He thought they were Victorian.
0:44:44 > 0:44:48But re-assembled, this proved to be an extremely rare
0:44:48 > 0:44:53Roman parade helmet, used for ceremonies and mock battles.
0:44:56 > 0:44:59Once the helmet was restored, it became, almost overnight,
0:44:59 > 0:45:05a national icon, but then, not long after, the cause of bitter controversy.
0:45:05 > 0:45:09The story of the Crosby Garrett helmet is all about money.
0:45:09 > 0:45:13First of all, the Romans' love of costly adornment
0:45:13 > 0:45:19and then, what happens when money and modern archaeology come into conflict.
0:45:20 > 0:45:25The British Museum's famous Ribchester Helmet is curated by Ralph Jackson,
0:45:25 > 0:45:29who was stunned by this one, found in Crosby Garrett.
0:45:31 > 0:45:33It was a very exciting moment.
0:45:33 > 0:45:39This was a face mask from a cavalry sports helmet, a rare find.
0:45:39 > 0:45:43Not only did we have the face mask but we had the helmet behind it
0:45:43 > 0:45:46and also the crest that went on top of it.
0:45:46 > 0:45:52These three pieces, which made a complete cavalry sports parade helmet,
0:45:52 > 0:45:57made it something truly unique. And most remarkable of all, really,
0:45:57 > 0:45:59is looking into that face from the past
0:45:59 > 0:46:02and that, of course, is the thing that grabbed everyone's attention.
0:46:06 > 0:46:11Andrew Mackay, collections manager at Carlisle's local museum
0:46:11 > 0:46:14coveted this helmet for his new Roman gallery,
0:46:14 > 0:46:16entranced by its beauty.
0:46:16 > 0:46:20The reason that they were tinned and gilded, I think,
0:46:20 > 0:46:21is to catch the light.
0:46:21 > 0:46:23So, on parade, your eyes were drawn
0:46:23 > 0:46:25to these magnificent cavalry men on horseback.
0:46:25 > 0:46:28And it was a status, saying, "These are the elite people,
0:46:28 > 0:46:30"we really need to take notice."
0:46:30 > 0:46:33And they had feathers and ribbons hanging at the back as well,
0:46:33 > 0:46:35so they really were a beautiful sight.
0:46:36 > 0:46:42The public may have assumed that the mask would soon be at a gallery for all to see.
0:46:42 > 0:46:45But the Treasure Act of 1988,
0:46:45 > 0:46:48which was passed to keep great finds in the public realm,
0:46:48 > 0:46:52only protects objects containing gold or silver.
0:46:52 > 0:46:55The helmet was made of bronze.
0:46:55 > 0:46:58The finder and the farmer, on whose land it was buried,
0:46:58 > 0:47:01were free to sell it to the highest bidder.
0:47:02 > 0:47:08Andrew launched a campaign to buy it for the new gallery of the Tullie House Museum,
0:47:08 > 0:47:13raising an extraordinary £2,000,000 in only three and half weeks.
0:47:15 > 0:47:22And finally for this morning, ladies and gentlemen, the Crosby Garrett helmet, lot number 176.
0:47:22 > 0:47:25£150,000. 150, thank you, sir.
0:47:25 > 0:47:29160, 170, 180, 190, 200.
0:47:29 > 0:47:34At the start of the auction, the price was estimated at £200,000 to £300,000.
0:47:34 > 0:47:37480,000. I've got 500,000 in a new place.
0:47:37 > 0:47:39Within seconds, bids exceeded this.
0:47:39 > 0:47:40It goes 700,000.
0:47:40 > 0:47:42800,000.
0:47:42 > 0:47:44950,000.
0:47:44 > 0:47:46More seconds passed.
0:47:46 > 0:47:49£1,000,000. 1,600,000. 1,800,000.
0:47:49 > 0:47:54A few more seconds later, the bid had topped 2,000,000.
0:47:54 > 0:47:552,000,000.
0:47:55 > 0:48:02- At £2,000,000. - Andrew had to withdraw, leaving two other bidders to battle it out.
0:48:03 > 0:48:05Sold! Thank you very much.
0:48:05 > 0:48:08APPLAUSE
0:48:08 > 0:48:13The helmet finally sold for almost £2,300,000,
0:48:13 > 0:48:16about ten times the estimated value.
0:48:16 > 0:48:19Since then, it has vanished from the public eye,
0:48:19 > 0:48:22its whereabouts a complete mystery.
0:48:22 > 0:48:25I think this story is really important,
0:48:25 > 0:48:28because it makes us look at the moral and political dimensions
0:48:28 > 0:48:32of treasure hunting and archaeology.
0:48:32 > 0:48:35And it's all about who owns our history.
0:48:35 > 0:48:41If you think, as I do, that in fact the heritage out there in the landscape belongs to all of us,
0:48:41 > 0:48:48then it seems terribly unjust that one person should be able to lay claim to a particular object,
0:48:48 > 0:48:54that that object would then disappear off into the vaults of some wealthy collector.
0:48:54 > 0:48:58But a change in the law governing treasure could stop that happening again.
0:49:03 > 0:49:09Last year there were almost 1,000 reports of discovered treasure, most made by metal detectorists.
0:49:09 > 0:49:13But these discoveries exist alongside the less glamorous toil
0:49:13 > 0:49:17of archaeologists at hundreds of digs every year.
0:49:17 > 0:49:22Along Hadrian's Wall alone, there were four huge Roman excavations this year.
0:49:24 > 0:49:27Just south, along the Roman road of Dere Street,
0:49:27 > 0:49:31I'm on my way to a dig that has thrown up astonishing evidence
0:49:31 > 0:49:37about what happened inside the forts after the Romans left Britain in 410AD.
0:49:40 > 0:49:44So what do we know about the Roman occupation of Britain?
0:49:44 > 0:49:46Well, they arrived here in 43AD.
0:49:46 > 0:49:51They ruled here and they built here for nearly four centuries.
0:49:51 > 0:49:54Then they packed up and left in 410,
0:49:54 > 0:49:57snuffing out the flame of civilisation,
0:49:57 > 0:50:01and plunging Britain into the Dark Ages.
0:50:01 > 0:50:06But what if the Romans never actually left?
0:50:06 > 0:50:12What they're finding now at Binchester raises that very possibility.
0:50:16 > 0:50:20More than 100 students work on this dig.
0:50:20 > 0:50:23But as the weather worsens, they begin leaving.
0:50:23 > 0:50:27The digging is becoming more difficult by the minute.
0:50:38 > 0:50:43At 3pm, it is judged unsafe and the dig is closed.
0:50:56 > 0:51:00I return the next day and the rain is once more falling.
0:51:00 > 0:51:04The last days of Roman Britain are emerging from the dark mud.
0:51:13 > 0:51:17It seems like there was some kind of floor surface that's been laid down,
0:51:17 > 0:51:20- re-using other stone and then this bit's been robbed out.- Yeah.
0:51:20 > 0:51:23It has long been assumed that when the Roman Empire
0:51:23 > 0:51:29stopped paying their troops, the soldiers were forced to leave, in search of a new living.
0:51:29 > 0:51:34But excavations in Binchester's barracks are illustrating an untold story,
0:51:34 > 0:51:37in which the soldiers stay on and go native.
0:51:37 > 0:51:41And the tale starts somewhere quite unremarkable,
0:51:41 > 0:51:43a hole filled with animal bones.
0:51:44 > 0:51:46So what are we standing in here?
0:51:46 > 0:51:50We're standing in a very big stone-lined pit.
0:51:50 > 0:51:53We're almost certain that what we've got here
0:51:53 > 0:51:54is evidence for a tanning industry.
0:51:54 > 0:51:57Turning cow hides into leather,
0:51:57 > 0:52:01and it's quite a complicated process, which involves soaking the hides
0:52:01 > 0:52:07in a variety of different noxious substances, scraping all the fat off the cow hides.
0:52:08 > 0:52:12This hole is certainly large enough to soak a few cow hides,
0:52:12 > 0:52:15but David Petts has other evidence to support his theory.
0:52:16 > 0:52:18The first thing is these are big holes, bit pits.
0:52:18 > 0:52:22And the other thing is we've got lots of animal bone out of these pits,
0:52:22 > 0:52:26- skull fragments and fragments of the feet.- And you've got some bones here.
0:52:26 > 0:52:28We've got a range of the things we've been finding.
0:52:28 > 0:52:30- We found this. - Part of a cow's skull.
0:52:30 > 0:52:32Cow's skull, out of this pit.
0:52:32 > 0:52:37We've got lots of other jaws, fragments of horn, of skull,
0:52:37 > 0:52:40and these exactly the kind of things you get with a tannery,
0:52:40 > 0:52:44because when you skin the cow, the skull and the feet come with it.
0:52:44 > 0:52:49David thinks he's discovered evidence of an industry
0:52:49 > 0:52:52that grew up after Rome stopped its soldiers' wages...
0:52:52 > 0:52:56and perhaps the Romans never really left.
0:52:56 > 0:53:00So you actually think it's the Roman soldiers who stayed here?
0:53:00 > 0:53:03Absolutely. When governments go, the people don't.
0:53:03 > 0:53:06The people are still there, they've still got to find a way of living, of going on.
0:53:06 > 0:53:11- No matter what happens. - And how remarkable that you've managed to identify the industry
0:53:11 > 0:53:13that they were engaged in here.
0:53:17 > 0:53:20Binchester is the largest Roman fort in County Durham,
0:53:20 > 0:53:24and only a tiny part of it has been excavated so far.
0:53:24 > 0:53:27The discovery of objects revising our understanding
0:53:27 > 0:53:31of the Roman withdrawal makes it an important site.
0:53:31 > 0:53:35More evidence is emerging out of the soil, not just of a tanning industry,
0:53:35 > 0:53:39but something even more unexpected -
0:53:39 > 0:53:45jewellery workshops continuing when civilisation was thought to have collapsed.
0:53:45 > 0:53:50We also think we're getting evidence for either very late or immediately post-Roman jet working.
0:53:50 > 0:53:56- We've actually got lumps of raw jet, so that must actually have come up from Whitby.- Yeah.
0:53:56 > 0:53:59And we've also got things like this, a fragment of a jet bangle.
0:53:59 > 0:54:03It's still unfinished, it hasn't been polished off.
0:54:03 > 0:54:06It must've been broken when it was being produced.
0:54:06 > 0:54:09So clearly it's being used by the local people.
0:54:10 > 0:54:15Specialist craftwork and a trade in jewellery after the collapse of civilisation?
0:54:15 > 0:54:19Could these really have emerged from the shadows of the Dark Ages?
0:54:20 > 0:54:24In order to see some better-preserved small finds,
0:54:24 > 0:54:29I'm visiting what was once the Commander's house, and custodian Rob Collins.
0:54:30 > 0:54:33Rob, you've got some wonderful finds here.
0:54:33 > 0:54:38Binchester has produced a load of material, really, in just the two and a half seasons we've done.
0:54:38 > 0:54:40I love these beads.
0:54:40 > 0:54:43Yes, we have a number of different beads. They're segmented beads.
0:54:43 > 0:54:46They're nice. Are they actually drilled through?
0:54:46 > 0:54:50They actually do drill through them and you get strings of them.
0:54:50 > 0:54:51That's really beautiful.
0:54:51 > 0:54:54The jet is very friable, so it breaks and splits quite easily
0:54:54 > 0:54:58if you don't know how to work it properly. It's interesting that we've got...
0:54:58 > 0:55:00specialist craftworkers on site,
0:55:00 > 0:55:04- in probably the years after the end of the Roman Empire.- Right.
0:55:12 > 0:55:16Some of this jewellery looks significantly more Roman than others.
0:55:16 > 0:55:19Officers and magistrates would have worn these crossbow brooches
0:55:19 > 0:55:23to proclaim their importance in the Roman hierarchy.
0:55:23 > 0:55:27But after 410AD, the crossbow brooch vanishes from the dig
0:55:27 > 0:55:30and the Romans who stay on here adopt a style of brooch from times
0:55:30 > 0:55:34before the army ever set foot on Britannia's shores.
0:55:34 > 0:55:39A penannular brooch, shaped like a broken circle.
0:55:42 > 0:55:46This is a terminal of a penannular brooch...
0:55:46 > 0:55:53so it would be C-shaped in its full form and that's just the tiny end of it there.
0:55:53 > 0:55:56But that's much more of a British type of object.
0:55:56 > 0:56:00And what is quite interesting is that the crossbow brooches -
0:56:00 > 0:56:03those large, honking Roman symbols of power -
0:56:03 > 0:56:05don't continue on in the post-Roman years.
0:56:05 > 0:56:07But penannular brooches do.
0:56:07 > 0:56:11Why do you think they don't continue making brooches in the Roman style?
0:56:11 > 0:56:15I suspect that the frontier is a dangerous place.
0:56:15 > 0:56:17And I think as Roman power is withdrawing,
0:56:17 > 0:56:21the people who are here need to make new alliances,
0:56:21 > 0:56:24so perhaps it's better to display your Britishness
0:56:24 > 0:56:26rather than your Roman-ness.
0:56:26 > 0:56:29- So life is changing. - Life is changing very much.
0:56:32 > 0:56:34As the archaeology at Binchester shows,
0:56:34 > 0:56:39it's much too simplistic to imagine one epoch - Roman Britain -
0:56:39 > 0:56:42suddenly ending as another - the Dark Ages - begins.
0:56:42 > 0:56:47In truth, one period always bleeds slowly into the next.
0:56:47 > 0:56:50People don't abandon their beliefs and lifestyles overnight
0:56:50 > 0:56:56and in our material culture, the past often lives on into the present.
0:56:57 > 0:57:01This church, just a few miles away from Binchester Roman fort,
0:57:01 > 0:57:03is one of the earliest in England.
0:57:03 > 0:57:07It was built by the Anglo-Saxons, using stone from the fort.
0:57:07 > 0:57:14And it represents the endless recycling of materials by subsequent generations and cultures.
0:57:14 > 0:57:20And here those Roman stones are part of a building which is still in use today.
0:57:24 > 0:57:28From this church built after the Roman withdrawal,
0:57:28 > 0:57:33to the magnificent villa near the place they probably first landed,
0:57:33 > 0:57:36the Romans are still very much with us,
0:57:36 > 0:57:40even in the soil beneath our feet.
0:57:40 > 0:57:44It always surprises me that during this period of history -
0:57:44 > 0:57:48the Roman occupation of Britain spanning nearly four centuries -
0:57:48 > 0:57:53we are still learning new information from archaeology,
0:57:53 > 0:57:59like the discovery of an unexpected Romano-British settlement to the west of Exeter,
0:57:59 > 0:58:04and here, at Binchester, what seem to be Romans staying on,
0:58:04 > 0:58:08long after their army has packed up and left.
0:58:08 > 0:58:12It brings it home to me that there are still many discoveries to be made,
0:58:12 > 0:58:16and so, even as I speak, the digging continues.
0:58:18 > 0:58:22You can get hands-on with archaeology yourself with...
0:58:23 > 0:58:26On the website, you can find events near you
0:58:26 > 0:58:29and download family activities to try at home.
0:58:51 > 0:58:54Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd
0:58:54 > 0:58:57E-mail subtitling@bbc.co.uk