0:00:02 > 0:00:03Britain has an epic history.
0:00:03 > 0:00:08But within it, there's a wealth of untold secrets still to uncover.
0:00:08 > 0:00:11It's a really key find. Find of the week!
0:00:11 > 0:00:14So every year, hundreds of archaeologists set out,
0:00:14 > 0:00:17hunting for clues to solve the mystery of who we are
0:00:17 > 0:00:20and where we've come from.
0:00:20 > 0:00:22We just found this amazing pendant.
0:00:22 > 0:00:23Over the past year,
0:00:23 > 0:00:27their discoveries have been more exciting than ever.
0:00:27 > 0:00:29This series will explore the best of them.
0:00:29 > 0:00:32- We just found a coin. - Oh, marvellous.
0:00:32 > 0:00:36Brought to you from the field in a very special way.
0:00:36 > 0:00:38Each excavation has been filmed for us
0:00:38 > 0:00:42as it happened by the archaeologists themselves.
0:00:43 > 0:00:47It looks absolutely fantastic.
0:00:47 > 0:00:50He must have had a bad day, when he never brought these back!
0:00:50 > 0:00:54Their Dig Diaries mean that we can be there
0:00:54 > 0:00:57for every crucial moment of discovery.
0:00:57 > 0:00:59Oh, wow!
0:00:59 > 0:01:00Whoa!
0:01:00 > 0:01:02Do we have a winner here?
0:01:02 > 0:01:05- I think it's stunning, yeah. - Incredible.
0:01:05 > 0:01:08Our archaeologists will be joining us here in our special lab
0:01:08 > 0:01:10to take a closer look at their finds
0:01:10 > 0:01:12and to figure out what they really mean.
0:01:14 > 0:01:16This is so exciting!
0:01:16 > 0:01:18Welcome to Digging For Britain.
0:01:29 > 0:01:32In this programme, we're joining teams of archaeologists
0:01:32 > 0:01:36across the east of Britain to share in their biggest new finds.
0:01:38 > 0:01:41We're there for the grim discovery at a Crossrail site
0:01:41 > 0:01:45that reveals the brutality of Roman rule in Britain...
0:01:45 > 0:01:49If they show signs of injury, then these are beheading victims.
0:01:49 > 0:01:51..we dive deep in the Thames,
0:01:51 > 0:01:56searching for clues to explain a mysterious naval tragedy...
0:01:56 > 0:01:57It was really amazing, actually,
0:01:57 > 0:02:00that that's been under the water for 350 years.
0:02:00 > 0:02:04..and we explore a British story in Belgium,
0:02:04 > 0:02:06as a team reveals the secret advantage
0:02:06 > 0:02:09that helped Wellington snatch victory at Waterloo.
0:02:10 > 0:02:14What you have here is basically a hollow ball, packed with gunpowder.
0:02:15 > 0:02:18To understand how these discoveries and more
0:02:18 > 0:02:22fit into the story of Britain, archaeologist Matt Williams
0:02:22 > 0:02:27and I have been given special access to the Museum of London.
0:02:27 > 0:02:29Its unique collection tells the story of the East
0:02:29 > 0:02:32from this area's earliest inhabitants.
0:02:35 > 0:02:37So these are people beginning to settle
0:02:37 > 0:02:38in the landscape around London?
0:02:38 > 0:02:41The first Londoners.
0:02:41 > 0:02:44And we'll get to see parts of the museum
0:02:44 > 0:02:46the public rarely get access to.
0:02:48 > 0:02:51There are 20,000 skeletons down here.
0:02:52 > 0:02:57Our first Dig Diary is not from Britain, it's from Belgium,
0:02:57 > 0:03:00but it explores a very British story,
0:03:00 > 0:03:02Wellington's victory at Waterloo.
0:03:04 > 0:03:08In 1815, Napoleon Bonaparte faced the Duke of Wellington
0:03:08 > 0:03:11and his European allies at Waterloo.
0:03:11 > 0:03:15Wellington's victory ended Napoleon's rule and settled
0:03:15 > 0:03:17the fate of modern Europe.
0:03:17 > 0:03:20200 years later, and the international team of archaeologists
0:03:20 > 0:03:26travelled to Waterloo to excavate the battlefield for the first time,
0:03:26 > 0:03:30hoping to understand how one farmyard had become pivotal
0:03:30 > 0:03:32to the outcome of the battle,
0:03:32 > 0:03:34and how the allied army
0:03:34 > 0:03:38successfully defended that farmyard against the odds.
0:03:40 > 0:03:42According to Wellington,
0:03:42 > 0:03:47Waterloo was, "The nearest-run thing you ever saw in your life".
0:03:47 > 0:03:51We know that his victory hinged on finding a way to get ammunition
0:03:51 > 0:03:55to his outnumbered troops stationed here at Hougoumont Farm -
0:03:56 > 0:03:59but we don't have proof for how he did it.
0:04:01 > 0:04:05Now, archaeologists from Waterloo Uncovered are searching for clues,
0:04:05 > 0:04:08and for evidence of the French onslaught
0:04:08 > 0:04:10fought off by Wellington's men.
0:04:12 > 0:04:15We've been working down in the stubble field
0:04:15 > 0:04:18for the past three days, and that was an area
0:04:18 > 0:04:21that at the time of the battle was occupied by a wood.
0:04:21 > 0:04:24The French did advance up through that wood,
0:04:24 > 0:04:28and that fight within the wood is not fully understood.
0:04:28 > 0:04:31There are some eyewitness accounts, but it's fairly vague.
0:04:32 > 0:04:35We know what Wellington's men occupied the farm,
0:04:35 > 0:04:38and now, for the first time, we can understand how fiercely
0:04:38 > 0:04:41they had to defend it, as the team's investigations revealed
0:04:41 > 0:04:44the intensity of Napoleon's opening attack.
0:04:44 > 0:04:46DETECTORS BEEP
0:04:46 > 0:04:48This tree faces onto an open area,
0:04:48 > 0:04:50where we know there was a lot of fighting.
0:04:50 > 0:04:51There would have been shooting
0:04:51 > 0:04:54coming from the wall over there, 40 yards away.
0:04:54 > 0:04:57So, either way, these trees are going to be right on the backstop
0:04:57 > 0:05:00for any sort of musketry that's going on round here -
0:05:00 > 0:05:02and, of course, at chest height,
0:05:02 > 0:05:05balls that had hit trees are going to be fired
0:05:05 > 0:05:08at human beings who're milling around these trees.
0:05:08 > 0:05:11It's pretty remarkable that, 200 years later, it's all still here.
0:05:14 > 0:05:18Wellington had 1,200 men defending Hougoumont.
0:05:18 > 0:05:22It's believed that Napoleon sent 4,000 to take it...
0:05:23 > 0:05:26..and now metal detecting is revealing definitive proof
0:05:26 > 0:05:28of that savage assault by the French.
0:05:30 > 0:05:32By the wall, picking up multiple targets
0:05:32 > 0:05:34that look like French musket balls,
0:05:34 > 0:05:38all concentrated probably within a foot square. I've picked up four.
0:05:38 > 0:05:42One of them, if you can see - that's if I don't drop it - is embedded.
0:05:42 > 0:05:45It's still got brick dust on it.
0:05:45 > 0:05:48The shot struck the southern wall, which the records say
0:05:48 > 0:05:51was where Napoleon ordered his attack to begin.
0:05:51 > 0:05:54Now, inside the farm,
0:05:54 > 0:05:57the team uncover great quantities of French musket balls,
0:05:57 > 0:06:00which reveal how desperate the Napoleon's army fought to get in.
0:06:01 > 0:06:05Further in, we're looking at a musket shot
0:06:05 > 0:06:09that has been fired at close range, it's impacted.
0:06:09 > 0:06:12So, what it looks like we've got here,
0:06:12 > 0:06:16is the French making it at least to the top of the wall
0:06:16 > 0:06:19and firing down into the enclosure,
0:06:19 > 0:06:22possibly also through the loopholes.
0:06:22 > 0:06:24All of which has got to be defended -
0:06:24 > 0:06:25so, I think what we've got
0:06:25 > 0:06:28is a picture of a very, very brutal fight on the wall top -
0:06:28 > 0:06:32much more so than the accounts, in some cases, lead us to believe.
0:06:33 > 0:06:35Records tell us that the British defence
0:06:35 > 0:06:38of the southern wall held firm.
0:06:38 > 0:06:41While on the north side of the farm, more French troops
0:06:41 > 0:06:44desperately attacked the heavy gates of the farmyard.
0:06:45 > 0:06:48It's a pretty formidable target once it's closed.
0:06:48 > 0:06:50But you have to close the gates first
0:06:50 > 0:06:53and that's where the whole battle could have turned.
0:06:53 > 0:06:56So, we're opening the gates. Check no Frenchmen... OK.
0:06:56 > 0:06:58The gates had been left open.
0:06:58 > 0:07:0230 French soldiers seized their chance and burst through.
0:07:02 > 0:07:05If reinforcements managed to join them,
0:07:05 > 0:07:08a British massacre and a French victory at Waterloo
0:07:08 > 0:07:10would have been inevitable.
0:07:12 > 0:07:13An absolute desperate fight,
0:07:13 > 0:07:16and the men who came to close this gate left that fight
0:07:16 > 0:07:18going on behind them, turned their backs on it
0:07:18 > 0:07:21and pushed the gate closed against this great press of Frenchmen
0:07:21 > 0:07:24who would seize the advantage and were trying to get in.
0:07:24 > 0:07:27So, a pretty key moment in the battle.
0:07:27 > 0:07:30According to the history books, Wellington's Coldstream Guards
0:07:30 > 0:07:34forced the gates closed and saved their army from disaster.
0:07:36 > 0:07:39But, on day seven, the team finds possible evidence
0:07:39 > 0:07:43to show that Napoleon only intensified his efforts
0:07:43 > 0:07:45to seize the farm.
0:07:45 > 0:07:49What you have here is basically a hollow ball, packed with gunpowder.
0:07:49 > 0:07:53It was fired by the French from the ridge behind the complex.
0:07:55 > 0:07:58That fire happened in the afternoon of the battle
0:07:58 > 0:08:02and the idea was, basically, to burn down the buildings.
0:08:02 > 0:08:04And they succeeded in that -
0:08:04 > 0:08:07these explosive shells set fire to the chateau, the house,
0:08:07 > 0:08:09which burned to the ground,
0:08:09 > 0:08:12and the various outbuildings were burned as well.
0:08:12 > 0:08:16And so, from this - on the face of it - fairly unexciting lump of rust,
0:08:16 > 0:08:19we've added another piece to the jigsaw
0:08:19 > 0:08:21that is the battle of Waterloo.
0:08:21 > 0:08:26Napoleon followed this barrage with an attack on the blazing farm
0:08:26 > 0:08:30by another 5,500 men.
0:08:30 > 0:08:33But Wellington could only call upon an extra 800,
0:08:33 > 0:08:36leaving him in a precarious position.
0:08:36 > 0:08:40To hold the farm, he needed to keep his outnumbered troops
0:08:40 > 0:08:42supplied with ammunition,
0:08:42 > 0:08:45and a trench dug in a sunken road at the back of the farm
0:08:45 > 0:08:48may reveal for the first time how he did it.
0:08:50 > 0:08:53I think that is the 1815 surface.
0:08:53 > 0:08:55What makes you think it's 1815?
0:08:55 > 0:08:58The pottery and the coin that came out.
0:08:59 > 0:09:01The artefacts from the bottom of this trench
0:09:01 > 0:09:03date to the year of the battle,
0:09:03 > 0:09:05showing that 200 years ago,
0:09:05 > 0:09:09the road's surface was several feet lower than it is today.
0:09:09 > 0:09:14That would have provided the Allies were crucial cover from the French.
0:09:14 > 0:09:17And the team also think that this sunken road
0:09:17 > 0:09:20gave Wellington hidden access to the farm,
0:09:20 > 0:09:24to get his supply wagons in without the French noticing.
0:09:26 > 0:09:30If you've actually got quite an enclosed hedge line
0:09:30 > 0:09:33and you've got, literally, almost a tunnel,
0:09:33 > 0:09:37then that would have given him so much better cover -
0:09:37 > 0:09:41and although it was still a feat to get the horse and wagon down here
0:09:41 > 0:09:45under French attack, and then to get it across to the gate
0:09:45 > 0:09:49and into Hougoumont Farm, it does, actually, to me,
0:09:49 > 0:09:51give me a better picture of what that...
0:09:51 > 0:09:53the surrounding must have been like.
0:09:55 > 0:10:00This dig may have finally revealed Wellington's secret advantage -
0:10:00 > 0:10:05a hidden road, that enabled him to keep his troops armed,
0:10:05 > 0:10:08to defend Hougoumont Farm,
0:10:08 > 0:10:12Defeat Napoleon and win the Battle of Waterloo.
0:10:15 > 0:10:20To explain more about how the battle was fought and its grim aftermath,
0:10:20 > 0:10:23the dig team have brought some of their finds into our lab.
0:10:26 > 0:10:29So, Charlie, how important was Hougoumont Farm in the battle here,
0:10:29 > 0:10:31in the context of Waterloo, or generally?
0:10:31 > 0:10:34Certainly for Wellington's army it was very important.
0:10:34 > 0:10:37The French are in blue and the British are in red,
0:10:37 > 0:10:42and Hougoumont, here, stands together with the wood to the south
0:10:42 > 0:10:45and the orchard in front of this ridge,
0:10:45 > 0:10:48guarding Wellington's right flank.
0:10:48 > 0:10:50Had the French got through at Hougoumont
0:10:50 > 0:10:52and seized control of that,
0:10:52 > 0:10:55they would have been able to secure, potentially,
0:10:55 > 0:10:57a battle-winning advantage.
0:10:57 > 0:11:00I think we always tend to think, or at least I always tend to think,
0:11:00 > 0:11:03of Waterloo being a battle of the British against the French.
0:11:03 > 0:11:06- But, Dominique, there were other people there as well?- Oh, yes.
0:11:06 > 0:11:09There is a lot of other nations involved in the conflict
0:11:09 > 0:11:13and you have Hanoverians, Anglo-Dutch, Brunswick,
0:11:13 > 0:11:17Belgo-Dutch and, of course, the Prussians.
0:11:17 > 0:11:20They played an essential role in the English victory.
0:11:20 > 0:11:22We've got some of the finest here.
0:11:22 > 0:11:25Dominique, can you tell me what that is?
0:11:25 > 0:11:27Well, I can tell you that it's a French musket ball,
0:11:27 > 0:11:31because it's smaller than the English one,
0:11:31 > 0:11:33- as you can see, very clearly.- Mm-hm.
0:11:33 > 0:11:36I think we've uncovered why there was an Allied victory.
0:11:36 > 0:11:38They simply had bigger musket balls!
0:11:38 > 0:11:39LAUGHTER
0:11:39 > 0:11:43And the fact that the French ones are smaller than the English one,
0:11:43 > 0:11:47means that the English could re-use French musket balls,
0:11:47 > 0:11:50which is not the case on the contrary.
0:11:50 > 0:11:52So the English could fit the smaller bullets,
0:11:52 > 0:11:54the smaller musket balls, back into your own rifle.
0:11:54 > 0:11:57Oh, so it IS a significant advantage, yeah.
0:11:57 > 0:12:00Yes, the documentary sources, the eyewitness accounts
0:12:00 > 0:12:02and the archaeological finds, they do agree on one thing -
0:12:02 > 0:12:03this was a brutal battle.
0:12:03 > 0:12:06Do we have any idea what the total human cost actually was?
0:12:06 > 0:12:11Yes, probably around 12,000 killed - and you have to add to that
0:12:11 > 0:12:15the wounded and the disappeared, so, around 50,000 people.
0:12:15 > 0:12:17And what happened to all the bodies then?
0:12:17 > 0:12:19Most of the armies would have moved on
0:12:19 > 0:12:21by the time we get round to burying the dead,
0:12:21 > 0:12:23so we're talking about local people, the farmers, peasants,
0:12:23 > 0:12:26the people who lived on the land, trying to get rid of these bodies
0:12:26 > 0:12:28that will be stinking, causing a great mess
0:12:28 > 0:12:30and getting in the way of agriculture.
0:12:30 > 0:12:32So, they're tipped into a grave and gotten rid of.
0:12:32 > 0:12:34Anything that is useful and can be used, can be sold,
0:12:34 > 0:12:35will be stripped from them,
0:12:35 > 0:12:38and the bodies will be disposed of as quickly as possible.
0:12:38 > 0:12:42Scavenging among the dead for valuables was grim enough,
0:12:42 > 0:12:45but around at the time of the Battle of Waterloo,
0:12:45 > 0:12:49this common practice took an altogether darker turn.
0:12:49 > 0:12:52I've come to see the evidence for myself,
0:12:52 > 0:12:54right in the depths of the Museum of London.
0:12:57 > 0:13:00Well, this is the Museum of London's bone store,
0:13:00 > 0:13:02and every one of these boxes
0:13:02 > 0:13:05contains at least one human skeleton.
0:13:05 > 0:13:09In total, there are 20,000 skeletons down here.
0:13:11 > 0:13:17Amongst them is remarkable evidence of a macabre but lucrative trade -
0:13:17 > 0:13:20one made possible by the vanity of London's rich,
0:13:20 > 0:13:23and the huge death rates at battles like Waterloo.
0:13:27 > 0:13:30So, this is an incredible bit of dental work that's been carried out?
0:13:30 > 0:13:32Yeah, I mean, this is remarkable.
0:13:32 > 0:13:35So this is the mandible, the lower jaw of a female,
0:13:35 > 0:13:38and she was buried at St Marylebone Church
0:13:38 > 0:13:41and we know her name because she had a coffin plate,
0:13:41 > 0:13:43and that survived in enough detail
0:13:43 > 0:13:45for us to be able to read what her name was,
0:13:45 > 0:13:48so, she's Mrs Charlotte Bampton Taylor,
0:13:48 > 0:13:52and we know that she died in 1837 and was 77 years old.
0:13:52 > 0:13:55And to be buried where she was would indicate she had money,
0:13:55 > 0:13:58she was high-status - and looking at this,
0:13:58 > 0:14:02that you can see here, which is a remarkable piece of dentistry.
0:14:02 > 0:14:05- Is that a real tooth that's there? - Yes.
0:14:05 > 0:14:08- It's a false tooth in her mouth... - Yes.
0:14:08 > 0:14:10But it looks like real human tooth?
0:14:10 > 0:14:11Yeah, it does, it's fantastic.
0:14:11 > 0:14:14So, it is a real human tooth, from somebody else,
0:14:14 > 0:14:17and it's been put into an ivory plug to fit it in,
0:14:17 > 0:14:20and then to actually stabilise it within her own mouth
0:14:20 > 0:14:22and around the teeth is this metal wire
0:14:22 > 0:14:24that's been wrapped around,
0:14:24 > 0:14:29and that, from tests, has come back as being platinum,
0:14:29 > 0:14:30So, very expensive.
0:14:30 > 0:14:35It's an extraordinary piece of 200-year-old dentistry.
0:14:35 > 0:14:38But more extraordinary still is where the tooth
0:14:38 > 0:14:39itself may have come from.
0:14:41 > 0:14:44When we see this sort of form of dentistry,
0:14:44 > 0:14:48we have a term that we relate to as "Waterloo Teeth".
0:14:48 > 0:14:51- Related to the Battle of Waterloo? - Yes.
0:14:51 > 0:14:55And that's because we know that, unfortunately,
0:14:55 > 0:14:57when these men were involved in these battles
0:14:57 > 0:15:00and somewhere such as Waterloo, you've got very high death rates,
0:15:00 > 0:15:03you've got lots of people that are dying,
0:15:03 > 0:15:07you then have an opportunity to actually claim something
0:15:07 > 0:15:09to make money, and that would be the teeth.
0:15:09 > 0:15:11Teeth were very lucrative.
0:15:11 > 0:15:15So, people would actually then go around extracting the teeth
0:15:15 > 0:15:19to then sell and use in other people's mouths.
0:15:19 > 0:15:20It's extraordinary.
0:15:20 > 0:15:23So you've got this well-heeled woman,
0:15:23 > 0:15:24- she's lost quite a few teeth... - Yes, yes.
0:15:24 > 0:15:26She's lost this tooth right in the front,
0:15:26 > 0:15:28which does affect her appearance,
0:15:28 > 0:15:30and she's paid to have this expensive dental work done
0:15:30 > 0:15:32so that she can smile at somebody
0:15:32 > 0:15:35- with a dead man's tooth in her mouth.- Yes!
0:15:35 > 0:15:38Stories like these are why I love archaeology -
0:15:38 > 0:15:43it has the power to shock us with grim revelations like this
0:15:43 > 0:15:46about what London's rich did in the name of vanity -
0:15:46 > 0:15:48and it can surprise us, too,
0:15:48 > 0:15:51with new insights into an iconic battle
0:15:51 > 0:15:55that defined Britain and Europe for centuries.
0:15:56 > 0:15:59But few of archaeology's surprises
0:15:59 > 0:16:03come as unexpectedly as in our next dig diary.
0:16:03 > 0:16:06It comes from Lenborough in Buckinghamshire,
0:16:06 > 0:16:10where one amateur made the find of a lifetime.
0:16:13 > 0:16:18In the early 11th century, marauding Vikings terrorised southern England.
0:16:18 > 0:16:23Ethelred was the Anglo-Saxon ruler who attempted to buy peace,
0:16:23 > 0:16:27paying off the invading armies with sackloads of silver.
0:16:27 > 0:16:29It was a waste of money.
0:16:29 > 0:16:33Within a generation, England was ruled by a Danish king
0:16:33 > 0:16:37and the Viking conquest was complete.
0:16:37 > 0:16:391,000 years later, in Buckinghamshire,
0:16:39 > 0:16:43an amateur metal detectorist made an astonishing discovery,
0:16:43 > 0:16:47including evidence of the desperation of the Anglo-Saxons
0:16:47 > 0:16:50in the face of the Viking threat.
0:16:50 > 0:16:53And, luckily, he had a camera with him.
0:16:55 > 0:16:59In December 2014, Paul Coleman was taking part
0:16:59 > 0:17:03in an annual metal-detectorist rally in Lenborough,
0:17:03 > 0:17:05and he was planning to call it a day.
0:17:05 > 0:17:07BEEPING
0:17:07 > 0:17:09After an hour and a half, we'd got back to the same point
0:17:09 > 0:17:11we'd virtually started from,
0:17:11 > 0:17:14and decided that with only one musket ball to show
0:17:14 > 0:17:17between three of us that there wasn't a great deal in this field,
0:17:17 > 0:17:20or if there was, it was too deep for us to pick up.
0:17:20 > 0:17:22My friend's detector interferes with mine,
0:17:22 > 0:17:27the radio frequencies are very close,
0:17:27 > 0:17:28so I asked him if he would move over.
0:17:28 > 0:17:32He said his was fine, so I should move.
0:17:32 > 0:17:34So I did, I moved four or five yards away
0:17:34 > 0:17:37and walked immediately onto a large signal,
0:17:37 > 0:17:41which turned out to be...a really large signal.
0:17:43 > 0:17:48As Paul began to dig down, he saw something unmistakable.
0:17:49 > 0:17:54So, as soon as I saw that shiny disc, I knew it was a coin.
0:17:54 > 0:17:57I also know that it was potentially more than one,
0:17:57 > 0:17:59because the signal was really large,
0:17:59 > 0:18:03so I just had an inkling that this was going to be something special.
0:18:03 > 0:18:06When I bent down to pick that one up and I saw the others,
0:18:06 > 0:18:10that's when I realised that this was a large hoard of coins.
0:18:10 > 0:18:13With the help of the Portable Antiquities Scheme,
0:18:13 > 0:18:15Paul uncovered a lead container
0:18:15 > 0:18:19overflowing with silver and gold coins.
0:18:19 > 0:18:21He could scarcely believe his eyes.
0:18:21 > 0:18:24- LAUGHTER - There's serious cash down there.
0:18:24 > 0:18:27- He had one job.- Yeah, one job. All he had to do was look after them.
0:18:27 > 0:18:31I bet he had a bad day when he never brought these back.
0:18:31 > 0:18:33Straight away they began to wonder
0:18:33 > 0:18:36where this huge fortune had come from.
0:18:36 > 0:18:40Then they spotted a clue - the name of a king.
0:18:40 > 0:18:43That looks like Ethelred.
0:18:43 > 0:18:45Is it? Is that Ethelred?
0:18:45 > 0:18:49- Well, it says on there. Can you not...?- Yeah, I think it's Ethelred.
0:18:49 > 0:18:55Ethelred was the English king from 978 AD to 1016.
0:18:55 > 0:18:59He was so desperate to end the Vikings' raids,
0:18:59 > 0:19:02he tried to pay them to go away.
0:19:02 > 0:19:05Ethelred's name is crucial to dating these coins
0:19:05 > 0:19:09to sometime in his reign, 1,000 years ago.
0:19:09 > 0:19:13- It's getting to the bottom, in't it?- It's getting dark in here.
0:19:13 > 0:19:16CHATTER
0:19:16 > 0:19:19- Be careful, cos some of them are really brittle.- Yeah.
0:19:19 > 0:19:23Light was fading. Under the guidance of an archaeologist
0:19:23 > 0:19:25from the Portable Antiquities Scheme,
0:19:25 > 0:19:27Paul and his friends worked quickly and carefully
0:19:27 > 0:19:32to rescue the treasure, but the stash seemed never-ending.
0:19:32 > 0:19:34It's a sad day when you run out of bags
0:19:34 > 0:19:36to fill silver coins up with, in't it?
0:19:36 > 0:19:39- LAUGHTER - Especially when they're that deep.
0:19:39 > 0:19:42Shall we just leave the rest, then, because we haven't got any bags?
0:19:42 > 0:19:45- Like you can afford to.- Yeah, we have.- Oh, we've got some more, OK.
0:19:45 > 0:19:48- No.- Just put less in.
0:19:48 > 0:19:51E-mail head office and see who's...
0:19:51 > 0:19:54See if they know whether the coin guy's in.
0:19:54 > 0:19:59They took the hoard back to the safety of a local farmer's kitchen
0:19:59 > 0:20:03and spent the rest of the night counting out their treasure.
0:20:03 > 0:20:075,252 silver coins,
0:20:07 > 0:20:10each one a millennium old,
0:20:10 > 0:20:12many in near-mint condition
0:20:12 > 0:20:15and priceless to historians.
0:20:15 > 0:20:17They were sent to the British Museum,
0:20:17 > 0:20:19where numismatist Gareth Williams
0:20:19 > 0:20:23began piecing together what this remarkable hoard could tell us
0:20:23 > 0:20:25about Britain 1,000 years ago.
0:20:25 > 0:20:29Now he's brought along the most revealing specimens
0:20:29 > 0:20:31for us to look at in our lab.
0:20:31 > 0:20:34Well, Gareth, these coins are looking absolutely beautiful
0:20:34 > 0:20:36now that they've been cleaned up -
0:20:36 > 0:20:39- and this is just a small sample of the collection.- That's right.
0:20:39 > 0:20:41Altogether, over 5,000 coins,
0:20:41 > 0:20:44so, one of the largest hoards of Anglo-Saxon coins ever discovered.
0:20:44 > 0:20:48- And when do they date to?- They date to the late Anglo-Saxon period.
0:20:48 > 0:20:50And we've got coins in here of two kings -
0:20:50 > 0:20:55Ethelred II, who ruled from 978-1016,
0:20:55 > 0:20:58and his successor Canute, who ruled from 1016-1035.
0:20:58 > 0:21:01We've got the savings hoard of the earlier part,
0:21:01 > 0:21:04and then a currency hoard, coins withdrawn from what was current
0:21:04 > 0:21:08at a time of burial, which is the last few years of Canute's reign,
0:21:08 > 0:21:11so probably sometime in the 1030s.
0:21:11 > 0:21:14- Can you pull out one of each ruler? - Yes, certainly.
0:21:14 > 0:21:17Here is Ethelred II.
0:21:17 > 0:21:20And here is Canute.
0:21:20 > 0:21:23Now, these aren't portraits of either of them.
0:21:23 > 0:21:28Coins of this period generally just imitate late Roman imperial designs.
0:21:28 > 0:21:31And both of those are just images of late Roman emperors
0:21:31 > 0:21:32with the king's name on.
0:21:34 > 0:21:35Canute was the Danish king
0:21:35 > 0:21:40determined to seize power in England and to establish Viking rule here.
0:21:40 > 0:21:42In desperation, King Ethelred
0:21:42 > 0:21:45resorted to throwing money at the problem,
0:21:45 > 0:21:48earning himself an unfortunate nickname.
0:21:51 > 0:21:55The English kingdom, which was more or less quite a new creation
0:21:55 > 0:21:57by the 10th century,
0:21:57 > 0:22:01was under a lot of pressure by Viking raids,
0:22:01 > 0:22:05from Viking armies, increasingly, during the reign of Ethelred.
0:22:05 > 0:22:09And we know Ethelred as Ethelred the Unready.
0:22:09 > 0:22:13The indication is that it's a contemporary nickname.
0:22:13 > 0:22:17And the response to these Viking raids
0:22:17 > 0:22:21seems to be paying in greater quantities of money
0:22:21 > 0:22:25to Vikings quite simply to go away, as well.
0:22:25 > 0:22:28And we know the Vikings don't go away,
0:22:28 > 0:22:31they see the English kingdom, which was very rich by this time,
0:22:31 > 0:22:34as a great source of...of wealth.
0:22:34 > 0:22:36The coins in this hoard
0:22:36 > 0:22:38reveal how desperate Ethelred became
0:22:38 > 0:22:42when faced with a full-scale Viking invasion.
0:22:43 > 0:22:48So, Ethelred tried paying them to go away, that didn't work,
0:22:48 > 0:22:52he tried fighting them to drive them away, that didn't work,
0:22:52 > 0:22:54but he also tried a third method,
0:22:54 > 0:22:57and that's also represented in this hoard
0:22:57 > 0:22:59by a rather unusual type of coin.
0:22:59 > 0:23:03And, you can see, this doesn't have a royal image on it.
0:23:03 > 0:23:05Yes, I can see this is a little lamb,
0:23:05 > 0:23:08he's carrying a cross under his arm,
0:23:08 > 0:23:10he's got a halo as well.
0:23:10 > 0:23:13- So we're quite clear about it being a holy lamb.- Yeah.
0:23:13 > 0:23:18This seems to be part of a sort of coordinated year of prayer
0:23:18 > 0:23:22and increased piety in the year 1009.
0:23:22 > 0:23:25The point was that the Vikings
0:23:25 > 0:23:30were seen as God's judgment on the English for their ungodly behaviour,
0:23:30 > 0:23:33and so the theory was if the English became more godly,
0:23:33 > 0:23:38maybe God would reward them for that with support against the Vikings.
0:23:38 > 0:23:41- So literally reduced to praying for help?- Exactly.
0:23:41 > 0:23:47This new hoard reveals the last hope of a desperate king.
0:23:47 > 0:23:50Coins minted with Christian imagery
0:23:50 > 0:23:54in the hope that God would help him beat the Vikings.
0:23:54 > 0:23:57But Ethelred's piety was in vain -
0:23:57 > 0:24:02Canute seized power, and the Viking conquest was complete.
0:24:04 > 0:24:06Finds like this have made it a remarkable year
0:24:06 > 0:24:09for archaeology in the east of England.
0:24:09 > 0:24:11And in London, one giant engineering project
0:24:11 > 0:24:14has offered an unparalleled opportunity
0:24:14 > 0:24:18to peel back the layers of the capital's history
0:24:18 > 0:24:22to reveal how the city first began to boom.
0:24:23 > 0:24:27Since Roman times, men and women have flocked to London,
0:24:27 > 0:24:31driving its population from 30,000 two millennia ago
0:24:31 > 0:24:33to 7,000,000 today.
0:24:35 > 0:24:38And the capital is still growing.
0:24:38 > 0:24:43This is one of its newest and biggest developments, Crossrail,
0:24:43 > 0:24:47London's high-speed underground rail network.
0:24:47 > 0:24:50It's a massive piece of civil engineering...
0:24:50 > 0:24:56but it's also a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for archaeologists.
0:24:56 > 0:25:01The vast excavations are revealing what life was like for Londoners
0:25:01 > 0:25:04as the city mushroomed over two millennia...
0:25:04 > 0:25:08but what we're also discovering is the cost in human life.
0:25:11 > 0:25:14Liverpool Street railway station
0:25:14 > 0:25:18in the very heart of the city's buzzing financial district...
0:25:18 > 0:25:22where within a week archaeologists from Crossrail
0:25:22 > 0:25:24and Museum of London Archaeology
0:25:24 > 0:25:29found a huge 17th-century graveyard right outside the train station.
0:25:33 > 0:25:35It's the first week of excavation
0:25:35 > 0:25:38with the MOLA team down here at Liverpool Street.
0:25:38 > 0:25:40Behind me, we've got the full team,
0:25:40 > 0:25:43up to 60 people every day in two shifts.
0:25:43 > 0:25:47And we've about a metre of the burial ground off so far
0:25:47 > 0:25:50and removed several hundred skeletons already.
0:25:50 > 0:25:55400 years ago, this cemetery was used to bury London's poor.
0:25:55 > 0:25:59It was a time of phenomenal population growth in the city,
0:25:59 > 0:26:02but one that left this graveyard jam-packed.
0:26:03 > 0:26:06You know, we're not looking at a lovely flat green field
0:26:06 > 0:26:08with neatly laid out rows -
0:26:08 > 0:26:10a lot of these graves are intercutting
0:26:10 > 0:26:13and right on top of each other.
0:26:13 > 0:26:16And you can see here two grave cuts
0:26:16 > 0:26:19with coffins laid side by side,
0:26:19 > 0:26:22and just here, between the legs, you can see another skull,
0:26:22 > 0:26:24showing that these two graves actually disturbed another one
0:26:24 > 0:26:27that was already in situ when they were put in.
0:26:29 > 0:26:33Skeleton after skeleton is unearthed from the densely packed graveyard
0:26:33 > 0:26:37and it becomes clear that many have something in common.
0:26:38 > 0:26:41One of the more interesting things for me personally
0:26:41 > 0:26:45is the number of older adolescents and young adults
0:26:45 > 0:26:47we're finding in this cemetery.
0:26:47 > 0:26:50Normally, this is the healthiest time of your life
0:26:50 > 0:26:51and you shouldn't be dying.
0:26:51 > 0:26:53We know that the population
0:26:53 > 0:26:56grew enormously in the time of this cemetery,
0:26:56 > 0:27:00from about 50,000 up to nearly 1,000,000 in London.
0:27:00 > 0:27:02I suspect that these are migrants coming in
0:27:02 > 0:27:05who were unprepared for the infectious diseases
0:27:05 > 0:27:09that you get within the urban landscape of London at that time.
0:27:10 > 0:27:14Diseases like tuberculosis, measles and smallpox
0:27:14 > 0:27:16killed tens of thousands every year.
0:27:18 > 0:27:21Now this dig has uncovered the young men and women
0:27:21 > 0:27:23who may have come from across Britain
0:27:23 > 0:27:27for a better life in the capital, only to die an early death.
0:27:29 > 0:27:32But there was worse to come for 17th-century Londoners,
0:27:32 > 0:27:36as the team revealed when they discovered a mass grave
0:27:36 > 0:27:39containing evidence of an even bigger killer.
0:27:39 > 0:27:42They've brought the footage into our lab.
0:27:42 > 0:27:44And we've got some more extraordinary footage
0:27:44 > 0:27:47of your finds at Liverpool Street.
0:27:47 > 0:27:50This is pits which contain the remains of numerous individuals.
0:27:50 > 0:27:54I mean, those bones are crammed in there. This looks like a mass grave.
0:27:54 > 0:27:59Yeah, it is. Some 3,000 individual burials have been excavated,
0:27:59 > 0:28:01but this one really stands out,
0:28:01 > 0:28:03because it's clearly a multiple burial,
0:28:03 > 0:28:05you know, with very many people
0:28:05 > 0:28:10being buried at the same time in a large square-cut grave.
0:28:10 > 0:28:16A gravestone found nearby offers clues to the deadly disease
0:28:16 > 0:28:19that killed the occupants of this mass grave.
0:28:22 > 0:28:28- We do have just one or two examples of gravestones from 1665.- Right.
0:28:28 > 0:28:31- This is one, isn't it, here? - Yeah - and we can relate,
0:28:31 > 0:28:36in the case of this individual, back to the burial registers
0:28:36 > 0:28:39to see that it is recorded that she died of plague.
0:28:39 > 0:28:40So, what we have here? Mary Godfree.
0:28:40 > 0:28:43That is, that's Mary Godfree -
0:28:43 > 0:28:47died, I think, 2nd of September, 1665.
0:28:47 > 0:28:50It shows she was actually a victim of the Great Plague.
0:28:50 > 0:28:53August, September of that year, you know,
0:28:53 > 0:28:56many thousands of Londoners died.
0:28:56 > 0:28:58This burial ground was one of the main places
0:28:58 > 0:29:00where those victims were buried,
0:29:00 > 0:29:02so it's quite likely we've come across evidence
0:29:02 > 0:29:04for one of these mass graves.
0:29:06 > 0:29:08The Great Plague of 1665
0:29:08 > 0:29:12was a horrific chapter in London's history.
0:29:12 > 0:29:16It killed 100,000 people within a year.
0:29:20 > 0:29:24Historic accounts famously describe cartloads of the dead
0:29:24 > 0:29:27dumped unceremoniously in giant pits...
0:29:29 > 0:29:35..but now evidence from this dig is showing us something very different.
0:29:35 > 0:29:37What we can tell is each of these individuals
0:29:37 > 0:29:39was in a coffin when they were buried.
0:29:39 > 0:29:41So, there was care being taken
0:29:41 > 0:29:43when they're being put in the ground -
0:29:43 > 0:29:45and that's perhaps something that we don't learn
0:29:45 > 0:29:48- from the historical record. - That's correct.
0:29:48 > 0:29:52Although this was a period of high mortality -
0:29:52 > 0:29:54they really struggled to keep up
0:29:54 > 0:29:57with putting the bodies below ground, which they had to do -
0:29:57 > 0:30:02they did take time just to place them in coffins
0:30:02 > 0:30:05and to lay them out carefully in the graves.
0:30:05 > 0:30:08So, to me, this shows a level of care
0:30:08 > 0:30:11that perhaps we didn't suspect beforehand.
0:30:11 > 0:30:12Some of the historical records
0:30:12 > 0:30:14- suggests that things were a bit more haphazard.- Hmm.
0:30:14 > 0:30:18Daniel Defoe, you know, describes cartloads of corpses
0:30:18 > 0:30:20being dumped, you know, into pits.
0:30:20 > 0:30:22And this is not what we're seeing here.
0:30:22 > 0:30:24It really brings it home
0:30:24 > 0:30:26what a terrible time this was for Londoners.
0:30:27 > 0:30:32This dig shows us how disease was part of everyday life
0:30:32 > 0:30:34in 17th-century London,
0:30:34 > 0:30:38but it also reveals that even when faced with a deadly epidemic,
0:30:38 > 0:30:41Londoners were still treating the dead with dignity.
0:30:43 > 0:30:46The Crossrail dig is right in the heart of the capital,
0:30:46 > 0:30:50an area that has been densely populated for thousands of years,
0:30:50 > 0:30:54where today every layer of excavation
0:30:54 > 0:30:57reveals another layer of history.
0:30:57 > 0:30:59It takes the team all the way back
0:30:59 > 0:31:03to Roman London and more tales of death,
0:31:03 > 0:31:07not from disease, this time, but deliberate violence.
0:31:11 > 0:31:14We're working on excavating this Roman road,
0:31:14 > 0:31:18which is a major Roman thoroughfare.
0:31:18 > 0:31:22Yeah, so what we've uncovered just in the last day is...
0:31:22 > 0:31:25a number of skulls appearing in this area.
0:31:25 > 0:31:27They're actually mostly upside down,
0:31:27 > 0:31:28so they're not completely obvious.
0:31:28 > 0:31:32There's literally a line stretching from there, the last one we found,
0:31:32 > 0:31:34all the way back to the end of the dig.
0:31:34 > 0:31:38The possibility is that these are beheading victims.
0:31:38 > 0:31:40Just a few days later,
0:31:40 > 0:31:45another remarkable burial shows more evidence of Roman execution.
0:31:47 > 0:31:49CHATTER
0:31:49 > 0:31:52Yeah, we've just had a really interesting find
0:31:52 > 0:31:54down here at Liverpool Street.
0:31:54 > 0:31:56We're in the eastern ticket hall excavation
0:31:56 > 0:31:59and we've just found an intact burial
0:31:59 > 0:32:02that most likely dates to the Roman period.
0:32:02 > 0:32:06And the most interesting thing about it is, you can probably see,
0:32:06 > 0:32:08the skull has been detached
0:32:08 > 0:32:11and placed between the knees of this individual.
0:32:11 > 0:32:13There could be a number of different reasons.
0:32:13 > 0:32:17The first one, obviously, is an execution and beheading.
0:32:20 > 0:32:24We know that Rome ruled its empire with an iron fist,
0:32:24 > 0:32:26but can remains like these
0:32:26 > 0:32:29really be evidence of its rough justice in Britain?
0:32:29 > 0:32:31As an osteologist myself,
0:32:31 > 0:32:34I want to see the bones with my own eyes.
0:32:34 > 0:32:38So, Don and Jay have brought one skeleton into our lab.
0:32:41 > 0:32:44It's interesting to have such explicit evidence
0:32:44 > 0:32:46of decapitation at this site.
0:32:46 > 0:32:50- And, I believe, this skeleton shows decapitation again?- Exactly.
0:32:50 > 0:32:53What we have here is the remains of a male adult
0:32:53 > 0:32:56that we found in the cemetery.
0:32:56 > 0:32:58And what's very interesting to see
0:32:58 > 0:33:03is in the neck area on the first thoracic vertebra
0:33:03 > 0:33:10we have a very clear cut mark going through the skeleton.
0:33:10 > 0:33:13For example, this facet would normally fit on here,
0:33:13 > 0:33:17but it's been sliced off by a very sharp blade,
0:33:17 > 0:33:20and this cut has properly caused
0:33:20 > 0:33:23the full decapitation of this individual.
0:33:23 > 0:33:25There's a polishing of the bone, isn't there,
0:33:25 > 0:33:28where the blade has come through here?
0:33:28 > 0:33:30So right at the base of somebody's neck.
0:33:30 > 0:33:33Do you think this would have been a blow coming in from the back, then?
0:33:33 > 0:33:37We believe so. It seems for the blade to have come in
0:33:37 > 0:33:40and to have not affected the other spinous processes,
0:33:40 > 0:33:42it seems that the neck probably was flexed,
0:33:42 > 0:33:47- in which case you'd suspect that the cut did come from...the back.- Yes.
0:33:47 > 0:33:50So, by looking really carefully at the orientation of those cuts,
0:33:50 > 0:33:54you can reconstruct the grisly last moments of that person's life.
0:33:55 > 0:33:57Severed vertebrae,
0:33:57 > 0:33:59decapitated skulls -
0:33:59 > 0:34:04it's chilling evidence of the brutal reality of Roman rule in Britain.
0:34:05 > 0:34:10But there was another side to life in the capital 2,000 years ago.
0:34:10 > 0:34:13One object in the Museum of London's collection
0:34:13 > 0:34:16reveals a touching tale of love.
0:34:18 > 0:34:21This is one of my favourite objects in the museum,
0:34:21 > 0:34:23and this is actually a tombstone.
0:34:23 > 0:34:27We can see the letters here that spell the name Claudia Martina.
0:34:27 > 0:34:31And this has been set up to her by her husband Anencletus -
0:34:31 > 0:34:33and the really interesting thing about Anencletus
0:34:33 > 0:34:35is he only has one name,
0:34:35 > 0:34:38which tells us that he's actually enslaved, he's a Roman slave.
0:34:38 > 0:34:42So that means that we had a free British woman marrying a slave?
0:34:42 > 0:34:45Yes. So Claudia Martina, her name tells us she's freeborn,
0:34:45 > 0:34:47she's married this man Anencletus,
0:34:47 > 0:34:51which was actually in defiance of social norms at the time.
0:34:51 > 0:34:53And, you know, my romantic soul likes to think
0:34:53 > 0:34:55that there's a huge love story here,
0:34:55 > 0:34:57that she defied convention to be with him.
0:34:57 > 0:34:59So, it's still a very uncommon situation, then,
0:34:59 > 0:35:01- in Roman Britain?- Yeah, absolutely.
0:35:01 > 0:35:04She would have needed permission from his owner
0:35:04 > 0:35:05to marry and live with him,
0:35:05 > 0:35:08and she would have given up her status as a Roman citizen,
0:35:08 > 0:35:11so it wouldn't have been an easy decision for her.
0:35:13 > 0:35:17But this tombstone reveals that Anencletus may have been worth it.
0:35:17 > 0:35:19Thanks to his education,
0:35:19 > 0:35:23he was elevated to a position of responsibility in local government,
0:35:23 > 0:35:28which, unusually for a slave, may have made him quite wealthy.
0:35:28 > 0:35:32Anencletus, we're told by this inscription,
0:35:32 > 0:35:35he works for the local council, so, actually, his status,
0:35:35 > 0:35:38it would have been relatively high for a slave,
0:35:38 > 0:35:42so he would have been literate, he would have been earning money,
0:35:42 > 0:35:45he could have had some wealth, he had position -
0:35:45 > 0:35:48so, really, for a woman like Claudia Martina,
0:35:48 > 0:35:52he might have been a good bet for her and to make a sound marriage.
0:35:52 > 0:35:56From merciless justice to merciless disease,
0:35:56 > 0:36:00archaeology has shown London was forged in tough times -
0:36:00 > 0:36:02but from a Roman love affair
0:36:02 > 0:36:05to Londoners' respect for their plague dead,
0:36:05 > 0:36:09it's also shown the humanity at the heart of this city's story.
0:36:13 > 0:36:17Not all archaeology involves digging into the ground.
0:36:17 > 0:36:18In the Thames Estuary,
0:36:18 > 0:36:21a team of divers is battling the elements
0:36:21 > 0:36:23to solve a maritime mystery -
0:36:23 > 0:36:27and they've sent us this dive diary.
0:36:28 > 0:36:33In 1665, Britain was gearing up for war with the Dutch,
0:36:33 > 0:36:37primarily to win back valuable trade routes to the New World.
0:36:38 > 0:36:44Among the Royal Navy's flagships was the London, a mighty gunship,
0:36:44 > 0:36:46140ft long and armed with 76 cannon.
0:36:46 > 0:36:52It's thought that on the 8th of March 1665,
0:36:52 > 0:36:55she was still crammed with guests,
0:36:55 > 0:36:57yet to disembark further down the river,
0:36:57 > 0:37:01when suddenly, in the mouth of the Thames,
0:37:01 > 0:37:04an explosion blew her to pieces.
0:37:04 > 0:37:07No-one knows what caused that explosion,
0:37:07 > 0:37:10and to have any hope of solving the mystery,
0:37:10 > 0:37:12the first challenge is to rescue the London
0:37:12 > 0:37:15from the savage currents and ravenous wildlife
0:37:15 > 0:37:19of the Thames Estuary before she's lost forever.
0:37:21 > 0:37:25In 2014, Cotswold Archaeology, Historic England
0:37:25 > 0:37:29and local Southend residents launched a rescue mission.
0:37:29 > 0:37:32The team returned in the summer of 2015,
0:37:32 > 0:37:34when they recorded this footage.
0:37:38 > 0:37:41So, this is day two, and we're back out on site of the London.
0:37:41 > 0:37:43Our main objective for this season,
0:37:43 > 0:37:46which is the excavation of the gun carriage.
0:37:46 > 0:37:49This was found at the end of last year
0:37:49 > 0:37:53and we just sort of uncovered the very top of it,
0:37:53 > 0:37:55so the priority for this season
0:37:55 > 0:38:00is to continue excavating the gun carriage.
0:38:00 > 0:38:03We are to commence dive operations now.
0:38:10 > 0:38:13Unfortunately, the wreck's location
0:38:13 > 0:38:17means that the London isn't going to give up her secrets easily.
0:38:17 > 0:38:19As you can see here,
0:38:19 > 0:38:22we're right next to the main shipping channel
0:38:22 > 0:38:27in and out of the Thames, so this is a very busy shipping lane,
0:38:27 > 0:38:30and some of the bigger ships are churning up the water -
0:38:30 > 0:38:33and we know that because when we're down there,
0:38:33 > 0:38:37visibility goes from OK to nothing,
0:38:37 > 0:38:41and the noise kind of vibrates through your chest.
0:38:41 > 0:38:46But noise and poor visibility aren't the team's biggest problems.
0:38:46 > 0:38:50As turbulence from passing ships stirs up the sediment,
0:38:50 > 0:38:53it exposes the site to the destructive forces of nature.
0:38:55 > 0:38:58So, we've got marine organisms like teredo and gribble
0:38:58 > 0:39:02that eat the wood, and that kind of just destroys it,
0:39:02 > 0:39:04and that can happen very quickly.
0:39:04 > 0:39:06So, this is what is really important -
0:39:06 > 0:39:07the work that we're doing,
0:39:07 > 0:39:10and especially recovering this gun carriage,
0:39:10 > 0:39:13because if that remains in situ as it is,
0:39:13 > 0:39:16it will not be there for very much longer.
0:39:16 > 0:39:19Despite these treacherous conditions,
0:39:19 > 0:39:22the team has recovered a wealth of finds,
0:39:22 > 0:39:24which show how the Thames silt
0:39:24 > 0:39:27can perfectly preserve the artefacts hidden beneath it.
0:39:27 > 0:39:31This looks really... In really good condition.
0:39:31 > 0:39:32You can see the grain.
0:39:32 > 0:39:35- It doesn't look like it was used very much at the time, either.- No.
0:39:35 > 0:39:38- There's not much in the way of... - Not much wear.
0:39:38 > 0:39:40- Very nice. - Yeah, nice. Well done, Steve.
0:39:40 > 0:39:42Some more recent finds.
0:39:42 > 0:39:44This is what I recovered a few weeks ago.
0:39:46 > 0:39:48A little sundial compass.
0:39:49 > 0:39:53To me, this would have been like a Rolex watch of the day.
0:39:53 > 0:39:56You would have the sundial, the compass in there, matched it up,
0:39:56 > 0:39:59that would have lifted up and they could get the dates or the time.
0:40:01 > 0:40:03Steve believes that this probably would have belonged
0:40:03 > 0:40:05to one of the higher ranking crew members..
0:40:05 > 0:40:09The chap who had this would be in the nice cabin, you know,
0:40:09 > 0:40:14far more comfortable than down towards the bilges.
0:40:14 > 0:40:18These are just a fraction of the objects recovered from the wreck
0:40:18 > 0:40:20so far, but time and tide wait for no man,
0:40:20 > 0:40:25so the team's focus soon returns to the star attraction.
0:40:25 > 0:40:29The gun carriage is the main objective of this week.
0:40:29 > 0:40:33And we've been progressively digging out that carriage
0:40:33 > 0:40:35and trying to uncover it as much as we can.
0:40:35 > 0:40:39Once we've uncovered it, the aim is to recover it.
0:40:40 > 0:40:42Working in such poor visibility,
0:40:42 > 0:40:45the team relies heavily on the underwater survey,
0:40:45 > 0:40:47which reveals much more detail
0:40:47 > 0:40:50about the location of the carriage within the wreck.
0:40:50 > 0:40:54So, this line here we think is the bottom of, you know...
0:40:54 > 0:40:58close to the bottom of the ship, and this kind of dark line here
0:40:58 > 0:41:01is where the carriages are, which looks like, well,
0:41:01 > 0:41:03what we think is the main gun bit, cos that's what we think -
0:41:03 > 0:41:06we've got the side of the ship here, lying on its side
0:41:06 > 0:41:09because the carriages are pointing downwards
0:41:09 > 0:41:11rather than lying horizontal.
0:41:11 > 0:41:13And the fact that the gun carriages,
0:41:13 > 0:41:16or at least the one that we're excavating at the moment,
0:41:16 > 0:41:19has got all its associated gun furniture, tackle,
0:41:19 > 0:41:22kind of tells us that this object, this artefact,
0:41:22 > 0:41:25hasn't moved very far from its original position.
0:41:26 > 0:41:29Finally, on the very last day of the dive,
0:41:29 > 0:41:32and after three and a half centuries lying on the seabed,
0:41:32 > 0:41:35the wooden gun carriage is rescued from the depths.
0:41:37 > 0:41:39We've finally recovered the gun carriage,
0:41:39 > 0:41:40and that was a real effort.
0:41:40 > 0:41:43It was in a really awkward position
0:41:43 > 0:41:47to try and get to the bottom of it, it was, you know,
0:41:47 > 0:41:49trapped under many artefacts, very fragile artefacts,
0:41:49 > 0:41:52so we had to recover them carefully without destroying them.
0:41:52 > 0:41:56But eventually we've got it out and strapped it up and recovered it,
0:41:56 > 0:41:58and it was a great relief when it finally broke the surface.
0:41:58 > 0:42:00It was really amazing, actually,
0:42:00 > 0:42:03to think that that's been under the water for 350 years
0:42:03 > 0:42:04and then suddenly it rises up.
0:42:06 > 0:42:10Weighing in at around a tonne, this is the first complete gun carriage
0:42:10 > 0:42:12to be recovered from the London.
0:42:12 > 0:42:16It's just one of a wealth of clues rescued from the seabed.
0:42:19 > 0:42:22Some of which offer intriguing insights into the final moments
0:42:22 > 0:42:24on board the doomed ship.
0:42:25 > 0:42:28These finds were all made in a small area,
0:42:28 > 0:42:31suggesting that the London was jam-packed
0:42:31 > 0:42:34with supplies and ammunition.
0:42:35 > 0:42:38It sounds like the gunpowder was all together then in one place,
0:42:38 > 0:42:41to cause such a massive explosion to rip this whole ship apart.
0:42:41 > 0:42:43The area that a lot of the material has come from
0:42:43 > 0:42:45is not much bigger than this table.
0:42:45 > 0:42:48These are only sort of a small selection of what we found -
0:42:48 > 0:42:52and yet we've got over 80 fragments of linstock,
0:42:52 > 0:42:54a huge number of hand spikes.
0:42:54 > 0:42:56And it's early days, but we would think
0:42:56 > 0:43:00that perhaps we've either got excess supplies on the ship
0:43:00 > 0:43:02or, because it was fairly early in the voyage,
0:43:02 > 0:43:06perhaps they were putting everything out on deck to redistribute it
0:43:06 > 0:43:09between all the guns that were on the London.
0:43:11 > 0:43:15So, the ammunition had yet to be safely stowed -
0:43:15 > 0:43:19but one find shows how the cannons would have been lit.
0:43:22 > 0:43:25An incredible achievement, to get that gun carriage out of the water,
0:43:25 > 0:43:27but here we have some of the other artefacts, as well,
0:43:27 > 0:43:28and what have we got here?
0:43:28 > 0:43:31We've got a selection of linstocks
0:43:31 > 0:43:34that were used to light the cannon from a safe distance.
0:43:34 > 0:43:37I'm intrigued by these items. How do they work?
0:43:37 > 0:43:41They are turned wooden sticks, basically.
0:43:41 > 0:43:44And you would have a rope wrapped around these,
0:43:44 > 0:43:46which we call a slow match.
0:43:46 > 0:43:49And the end of it passes through this hole here
0:43:49 > 0:43:51and is slowly smouldering away at one end,
0:43:51 > 0:43:55and then you hold it at the end and light the cannon.
0:43:55 > 0:43:59And on this particular one, we've got some scorch marks,
0:43:59 > 0:44:03obviously real evidence to show that they have been used
0:44:03 > 0:44:06and have been scorched by the slow match that was around them.
0:44:08 > 0:44:12It seems, then, that the London was crammed with ammunition,
0:44:12 > 0:44:15and she may also have been crowded with guests
0:44:15 > 0:44:17who were yet to disembark downriver.
0:44:18 > 0:44:22But the archaeologists also made further finds
0:44:22 > 0:44:24which hint at a possible cause
0:44:24 > 0:44:27of the terrible accident waiting to happen.
0:44:28 > 0:44:30There's some quite personal items, really -
0:44:30 > 0:44:32- these are little tobacco pipes, are they?- Yeah.
0:44:32 > 0:44:33Tobacco pipes, though, I mean,
0:44:33 > 0:44:35this was a ship that was going out to war,
0:44:35 > 0:44:37that obviously had cannon on board,
0:44:37 > 0:44:40you've got a ship that is packed full of gunpowder
0:44:40 > 0:44:42and you've got people smoking?
0:44:42 > 0:44:46I know, it's a bit of a recipe for disaster, really, isn't it?
0:44:46 > 0:44:50I guess health and safety might have been a bit different 350 years ago,
0:44:50 > 0:44:54but with the crew members, you've got visitors onboard,
0:44:54 > 0:44:56you've got over 300 barrels of gunpowder,
0:44:56 > 0:45:00naked flames from both the linstock and people smoking,
0:45:00 > 0:45:01from the candles,
0:45:01 > 0:45:04they're going on their outward voyage
0:45:04 > 0:45:07and then something happened and it blew up.
0:45:07 > 0:45:11So, we don't need to be necessarily looking for a suspicious reason
0:45:11 > 0:45:12for this explosion?
0:45:12 > 0:45:15It doesn't need to have been arson or done with any intent,
0:45:15 > 0:45:17it could have purely been an accident?
0:45:17 > 0:45:19I think that's probably most likely.
0:45:19 > 0:45:21And I think a really important message, as well,
0:45:21 > 0:45:25which is, "Do not get on a warship full of gunpowder and smoke."
0:45:25 > 0:45:26THEY LAUGH
0:45:26 > 0:45:27Yes!
0:45:29 > 0:45:31We may finally have a plausible theory
0:45:31 > 0:45:34to explain the London disaster.
0:45:35 > 0:45:41A flagship vessel fully loaded with gunpowder, a distracted crew,
0:45:41 > 0:45:43and someone's disastrous mistake.
0:45:46 > 0:45:48The Museum of London bone store
0:45:48 > 0:45:51holds more evidence of the dangers of naval life.
0:45:51 > 0:45:56This man served in Nelson's Navy in the 1800s,
0:45:56 > 0:45:58and lived to well over 50 -
0:45:58 > 0:46:02but his skeleton tells us that his life at sea was brutal.
0:46:04 > 0:46:06Although, obviously, we're looking at him as a skeleton, he's dead,
0:46:06 > 0:46:09what we're trying to do is look at the things
0:46:09 > 0:46:10that we can see on the bones
0:46:10 > 0:46:13to tell us what actually then may have happened in their life
0:46:13 > 0:46:14and how then they coped with it -
0:46:14 > 0:46:18and looking at his skeleton, he's remarkable,
0:46:18 > 0:46:20because when we see lots of the things that we do,
0:46:20 > 0:46:22he obviously had a hard life
0:46:22 > 0:46:25and managed to survive lots of nasty insults and impacts.
0:46:25 > 0:46:28- This collarbone has got a healed fracture in it.- Yes.
0:46:28 > 0:46:31Now, that must have happened years before this individual died,
0:46:31 > 0:46:33cos it's healed quite nicely,
0:46:33 > 0:46:36although it has never regained its original shape.
0:46:36 > 0:46:38So, these are the kind of fractures that you might sustain
0:46:38 > 0:46:40from a fall onto the shoulder.
0:46:40 > 0:46:42- Are there any other injuries? - There are.
0:46:42 > 0:46:47He's got some fractures to the ribs - again, all on one side,
0:46:47 > 0:46:50and they would appear to follow a similar pattern to the clavicle,
0:46:50 > 0:46:52so that might indicate that that's happening at the same time,
0:46:52 > 0:46:54it's the same event.
0:46:54 > 0:46:58We've then also got the fracture of the femur, we can see there...
0:46:58 > 0:47:01It does make you wonder if this all happened at the same time,
0:47:01 > 0:47:03- it's all on the right-hand side of his body.- Yes.
0:47:03 > 0:47:06And these are the kinds of fractures that you might get, for instance,
0:47:06 > 0:47:08from falling from a height. What else, Jelena, then?
0:47:08 > 0:47:12He's also got a fracture to the first metacarpal,
0:47:12 > 0:47:17and then we've got the fracture also there on the radius,
0:47:17 > 0:47:20where you tend to sort of fall, you put your hand out.
0:47:20 > 0:47:22- He's got a broken nose.- Yes.
0:47:22 > 0:47:24So, you can sort of see, there, you've again healed,
0:47:24 > 0:47:26but you've got that sort of deflection.
0:47:26 > 0:47:29Again, this is most likely not to have been caused by a fall,
0:47:29 > 0:47:31but actually to have been caused by some, how do we say,
0:47:31 > 0:47:33interpersonal aggression?
0:47:33 > 0:47:35- Punched in the face?- Yes. - JELENA LAUGHS
0:47:35 > 0:47:38With the vertebrae that you can see here,
0:47:38 > 0:47:42they are all very frilly, they shouldn't look like that.
0:47:42 > 0:47:45And then you can see where you've actually got
0:47:45 > 0:47:48some crushing of the vertebrae, so if we come there to that one...
0:47:48 > 0:47:50Oh, yes, that's lost a lot of height.
0:47:50 > 0:47:54So, a thoracic vertebra, a vertebra from the back of the chest,
0:47:54 > 0:47:56- there's a fairly normal-looking vertebra...- Yes.
0:47:56 > 0:48:00- ..and there's the one that suffered this wedge fracture.- Yes.
0:48:00 > 0:48:05So, that's been completely squashed, reduced in height,
0:48:05 > 0:48:09so he's got a whole suite of changes that you would be looking at,
0:48:09 > 0:48:12but also then you're thinking of the consequences and impact
0:48:12 > 0:48:15of how he would be able to function in a daily life,
0:48:15 > 0:48:19but also how he was functioning while he was still at sea
0:48:19 > 0:48:23and then also later on in older age, the, you know, potential pain,
0:48:23 > 0:48:25discomfort, that you might have from these.
0:48:25 > 0:48:27It's phenomenal when you're looking at the skeleton
0:48:27 > 0:48:30and you can see so many things that have affected them in life,
0:48:30 > 0:48:32but the fact that they actually were able to survive -
0:48:32 > 0:48:35and particularly when we think of the times in which they lived,
0:48:35 > 0:48:38they wouldn't have had all the things to help them that we do now,
0:48:38 > 0:48:41so that's even more amazing, that they've actually survived, really,
0:48:41 > 0:48:43so, they really were hardy and tough.
0:48:46 > 0:48:49The London set sail in 1656,
0:48:49 > 0:48:54just as our Navy began to assert its will across the world.
0:48:54 > 0:48:58Within 200 years, Britannia ruled the waves.
0:48:58 > 0:49:01Sailors like this man made that possible -
0:49:01 > 0:49:03and he was left with the scars.
0:49:06 > 0:49:09But in the mid 20th century, the tables turned,
0:49:09 > 0:49:11and Britain was on the back foot
0:49:11 > 0:49:15as it desperately defended itself against savage attacks
0:49:15 > 0:49:17by Hitler's Luftwaffe
0:49:18 > 0:49:20But one thing remained the same -
0:49:20 > 0:49:23Britons put themselves on the line for their country.
0:49:25 > 0:49:27Our next dig takes us to West Sussex,
0:49:27 > 0:49:30where archaeologists are shining a new light
0:49:30 > 0:49:34on a story we think we know so well - the Battle of Britain.
0:49:34 > 0:49:38But their new discovery reveals forgotten heroes -
0:49:38 > 0:49:40a machine and a pilot.
0:49:43 > 0:49:44EXPLOSION
0:49:44 > 0:49:50In the summer of 1940, waves of German Luftwaffe filled our skies.
0:49:50 > 0:49:53Hitler's plan - crush the smaller RAF
0:49:53 > 0:49:56and then launch a full-scale invasion.
0:49:56 > 0:50:00Standing in his way - the iconic Spitfires
0:50:00 > 0:50:03and their daring British pilots.
0:50:05 > 0:50:08But a dig on this hillside is reminding us
0:50:08 > 0:50:12that Spitfires didn't win the Battle of Britain on their own,
0:50:12 > 0:50:16and that our British pilots weren't the only heroes.
0:50:16 > 0:50:19We are excavating the remains of a Hurricane
0:50:19 > 0:50:22shot down in the Battle of Britain on the 9th of September 1940.
0:50:24 > 0:50:28Hawker Hurricanes actually shot down 50% more enemy planes
0:50:28 > 0:50:29than did Spitfires -
0:50:29 > 0:50:33yet it's the Spitfire whose name has become iconic.
0:50:34 > 0:50:38The Hurricane was, if you like, the forgotten hero
0:50:38 > 0:50:39of the Battle of Britain.
0:50:39 > 0:50:41I mean, it's not forgotten,
0:50:41 > 0:50:44but it didn't get all the glamour of the Spitfire.
0:50:44 > 0:50:48Unfortunately, this Hurricane never made it back to base.
0:50:48 > 0:50:50This is the impact crater.
0:50:50 > 0:50:51It's slightly ovalled.
0:50:51 > 0:50:54It's where the aircraft's come down and hit.
0:50:54 > 0:50:57Then, obviously, the weight of the aircraft
0:50:57 > 0:51:00has displaced all the earth and the chalk.
0:51:00 > 0:51:04We've had pistons and valves and bits of engine cases.
0:51:04 > 0:51:06Now we've cleaned it up, we can see where it is.
0:51:06 > 0:51:08We can now proceed to go down and see what else is there.
0:51:10 > 0:51:12Amongst the finds recovered
0:51:12 > 0:51:15is evidence of the sheer violence of the impact.
0:51:15 > 0:51:17This is part of the ammunition box
0:51:17 > 0:51:21that contained the 303 rounds for one of the machine guns.
0:51:21 > 0:51:24It's just a thin aluminium box, but when the aircraft crashed,
0:51:24 > 0:51:27as there was a lot of ammunition on it,
0:51:27 > 0:51:30what happened was the force pushed all the ammunition
0:51:30 > 0:51:33down into the box, and we can actually see, here,
0:51:33 > 0:51:34this is one of the bullets -
0:51:34 > 0:51:37it's actually punched its way through the box
0:51:37 > 0:51:42and made a very neat little hole there, so that's a cracking find.
0:51:42 > 0:51:4575 years to the day after the crash,
0:51:45 > 0:51:47one of the larger pieces is discovered -
0:51:47 > 0:51:49part of the propeller assembly
0:51:49 > 0:51:54from the nose of the plane and it has survived intact.
0:51:54 > 0:51:56This is where the propeller blade would go,
0:51:56 > 0:51:58so the propeller blade was sticking out here,
0:51:58 > 0:51:59and that would be rotating,
0:51:59 > 0:52:01and there'll be another one about here
0:52:01 > 0:52:02and another one about here.
0:52:02 > 0:52:06So, you've got the three-blade Rotol hub.
0:52:07 > 0:52:09Here to help with the heavy lifting
0:52:09 > 0:52:11is a group from Operation Nightingale -
0:52:11 > 0:52:13an initiative to rehabilitate British soldiers
0:52:13 > 0:52:15recently returned from active service.
0:52:15 > 0:52:18The team today is largely composed of military veterans.
0:52:18 > 0:52:19Excitingly for us,
0:52:19 > 0:52:21we've got three Polish soldiers that served in Afghanistan
0:52:21 > 0:52:24and they're working alongside British veterans,
0:52:24 > 0:52:26people who have fought in Afghanistan and Iraq,
0:52:26 > 0:52:28but also people who have served in Northern Ireland
0:52:28 > 0:52:30and, indeed, in the Falklands campaign.
0:52:30 > 0:52:31For these Polish veterans,
0:52:31 > 0:52:35this is a chance to celebrate the other unsung heroes of the story -
0:52:35 > 0:52:39the Polish pilots who fought for the Allies in Squadrons like the 303.
0:52:39 > 0:52:40APPLAUSE.
0:52:40 > 0:52:42This is great for me,
0:52:42 > 0:52:49because the pilots with Division 303 are Polish heroes.
0:52:49 > 0:52:52Polish flying heroes -
0:52:52 > 0:52:53and Sergeant Wunsche,
0:52:53 > 0:52:57this is a great, great pilot with the Squadron.
0:52:58 > 0:53:02303 Squadron was a predominantly Polish unit,
0:53:02 > 0:53:05and it became the most successful in the Battle of Britain,
0:53:05 > 0:53:09shooting down 108 German planes in a single month.
0:53:11 > 0:53:13The Polish pilots, they were almost, if you like,
0:53:13 > 0:53:15the forgotten heroes of the Battle of Britain,
0:53:15 > 0:53:17they were relatively small in number
0:53:17 > 0:53:20and what they did, just like the Hurricane, really,
0:53:20 > 0:53:22was disproportionate to their numbers,
0:53:22 > 0:53:24but they achieved an incredibly high kill score.
0:53:24 > 0:53:27Their determination to get at the enemy was second to none -
0:53:27 > 0:53:29for obvious reasons, their country being invaded -
0:53:29 > 0:53:33so, consequently, their kill rate of enemy aircraft destroyer
0:53:33 > 0:53:37was significantly higher than any other squadron.
0:53:37 > 0:53:4121-year-old Kazimierz Wunsche was a Sergeant in 303 Squadron
0:53:41 > 0:53:45when his Hurricane was shot down on the 9th of September 1940.
0:53:45 > 0:53:48Luckily he managed to parachute to safety,
0:53:48 > 0:53:50and as the presence here of his daughter
0:53:50 > 0:53:54and granddaughter testifies, he lived to tell the tale.
0:53:54 > 0:53:57He was slightly injured.
0:53:57 > 0:54:01The oil blew into his face, so he had some burns,
0:54:01 > 0:54:07and he had something injured in his leg and his back.
0:54:07 > 0:54:12But after staying in Hove Hospital for a month,
0:54:12 > 0:54:17he went back to flying and he was flying until the end of the war.
0:54:17 > 0:54:20My grandfather died when I was six months old,
0:54:20 > 0:54:22so I never got to really know him,
0:54:22 > 0:54:25and I'm amazed that we found this plane.
0:54:25 > 0:54:28The last person to see it intact before it went into the ground
0:54:28 > 0:54:30was my grandfather, and that means a lot to me.
0:54:30 > 0:54:31There's a piece -
0:54:31 > 0:54:34I think I'll remember it till the end of my days -
0:54:34 > 0:54:35it's the Morse panel.
0:54:35 > 0:54:37He would have touched that,
0:54:37 > 0:54:39he would have looked at that on a daily basis,
0:54:39 > 0:54:40every time he got into the plane.
0:54:40 > 0:54:43If his radio had gone down, that might have saved his life
0:54:43 > 0:54:48and so to see the words "Morse" and all the other bits on that piece
0:54:48 > 0:54:52is just incredible and it does make me feel a real connection with him.
0:54:53 > 0:54:57The 75th anniversary of the crash is marked by a rare sight -
0:54:57 > 0:55:02a fly-past by a fully restored original World War II Hurricane.
0:55:02 > 0:55:04You've got really quiet.
0:55:08 > 0:55:10HURRICANE ENGINE
0:55:12 > 0:55:14Now, what are you actually hoping to discover
0:55:14 > 0:55:16by undertaking an excavation like this,
0:55:16 > 0:55:18because we know that Hurricanes were used in the war
0:55:18 > 0:55:19and went down in the war
0:55:19 > 0:55:22and in fact we know that this actual Hurricane went down in the war,
0:55:22 > 0:55:24so what other information are you hoping to glean?
0:55:24 > 0:55:27This really is not going to change the story of the Battle of Britain.
0:55:27 > 0:55:29However, you can get little vignettes from it,
0:55:29 > 0:55:30and it's the personal stories.
0:55:30 > 0:55:33Occasionally you get bits of kits from the pilot.
0:55:33 > 0:55:35The ammunition will also tell you a story
0:55:35 > 0:55:37about that particular day in September 1940
0:55:37 > 0:55:39in the hope that this aircraft
0:55:39 > 0:55:42was going to bring down some of those attacking aircraft.
0:55:42 > 0:55:44I think that's really important to remember,
0:55:44 > 0:55:46that the Poles played a very big role,
0:55:46 > 0:55:48but there were pilots from Czechoslovakia, as was,
0:55:48 > 0:55:51French pilots, a couple of Americans, South Africans,
0:55:51 > 0:55:53Australians, people from all around the world
0:55:53 > 0:55:55contributing to this global effort
0:55:55 > 0:55:58to stop this hideous entity from being able to invade.
0:55:58 > 0:56:01So, this artefact, although it is just a bullet,
0:56:01 > 0:56:02it's way more than that,
0:56:02 > 0:56:05because this has got a narrative of those days in 1940
0:56:05 > 0:56:09and, you know, a critical part of our island's history, really.
0:56:09 > 0:56:11What do you think it was about the Polish pilots
0:56:11 > 0:56:13that gave them such a good kill rate?
0:56:13 > 0:56:15I think there is almost a visceral hatred
0:56:15 > 0:56:17that goes on with the Polish pilots.
0:56:17 > 0:56:19We've been talking about the defending of Britain,
0:56:19 > 0:56:20with the Battle of Britain.
0:56:20 > 0:56:23Now, the Poles didn't have that luxury in 1939.
0:56:23 > 0:56:27Their country had been invaded, it's the reason Britain goes to war,
0:56:27 > 0:56:30and so they are fighting to try and liberate their country
0:56:30 > 0:56:32and the only way they can do it at that time
0:56:32 > 0:56:35is to fight back at the Luftwaffe, and so they are a determined bunch.
0:56:35 > 0:56:37They are a group with anger.
0:56:37 > 0:56:40They are a group that perform incredibly well.
0:56:40 > 0:56:44And despite this plane crashing, of course, Wunsche himself escapes,
0:56:44 > 0:56:47and, as we saw, his daughter and granddaughter in the film,
0:56:47 > 0:56:50- I think the archaeology is very important to them.- It was.
0:56:50 > 0:56:54And to be able to have that hands-on for your family tree,
0:56:54 > 0:56:57that's a physical manifestation of your heritage
0:56:57 > 0:56:59which is really, really powerful.
0:56:59 > 0:57:01So, you are able to put your fingers
0:57:01 > 0:57:05where your grandfather or father had put his in the cockpit,
0:57:05 > 0:57:07or to look through a piece of Perspex, a bit of glass,
0:57:07 > 0:57:10so you are looking through that same viewing screen
0:57:10 > 0:57:11that your relative had,
0:57:11 > 0:57:14and that's a really strange feeling in archaeology,
0:57:14 > 0:57:16to be able to have that direct connection
0:57:16 > 0:57:18with people from the past.
0:57:19 > 0:57:23This dig has helped a family connect with their war hero
0:57:23 > 0:57:26from a brave generation,
0:57:26 > 0:57:29and reminds us all about the foreign pilots
0:57:29 > 0:57:32who risked everything to save Britain.
0:57:32 > 0:57:36It reveals the power archaeology has to tell our stories
0:57:36 > 0:57:37whatever the era,
0:57:37 > 0:57:42from a bloody battle fought in our skies in 1940
0:57:42 > 0:57:44to the brutal oppression of Roman rule.
0:57:46 > 0:57:49While from the silt of the Thames
0:57:49 > 0:57:51and from a trench in Waterloo...
0:57:52 > 0:57:56..new clues have helped us solve age-old mysteries -
0:57:56 > 0:57:59to reveal not only what came before us,
0:57:59 > 0:58:04but to show how our past still shapes who we are today.
0:58:05 > 0:58:09Next time on Digging for Britain - we are in the North scrambling
0:58:09 > 0:58:12for clues to the first Kings of Scotland...
0:58:12 > 0:58:13I think I've got it.
0:58:14 > 0:58:17..we're there for the Viking find of a lifetime...
0:58:18 > 0:58:20- Oh, wow!- Oh!
0:58:20 > 0:58:21Do we have a winner here?
0:58:21 > 0:58:25..and unearth a forgotten graveyard of ancient warriors.
0:58:25 > 0:58:29It looks absolutely fantastic.