0:00:02 > 0:00:03We might be a small island,
0:00:03 > 0:00:08but we've got a big history that's still full of mysteries.
0:00:10 > 0:00:12So every year, hundreds of archaeologists
0:00:12 > 0:00:15go out hunting for clues to our forgotten past.
0:00:17 > 0:00:19I have never seen anything like that.
0:00:19 > 0:00:22In 2016, their discoveries have been more exciting than ever.
0:00:22 > 0:00:27- It's all happening now. - You little devil!- Yeah.
0:00:27 > 0:00:30In this episode, Digging For Britain showcases the very best of them
0:00:30 > 0:00:32from the west.
0:00:33 > 0:00:36Each excavation was filmed as it happened
0:00:36 > 0:00:39by the archaeologists themselves.
0:00:41 > 0:00:44Their dig diaries mean that we can be there
0:00:44 > 0:00:47for every exciting moment of discovery.
0:00:47 > 0:00:49Cracking little find.
0:00:49 > 0:00:51Superb.
0:00:51 > 0:00:53SHE SQUEALS
0:00:53 > 0:00:55And now the archaeologists are bringing their finds,
0:00:55 > 0:00:59from pottery to metalwork to human remains,
0:00:59 > 0:01:02into our lab so that we can get a closer look at them
0:01:02 > 0:01:06and find out what they tell us about our British ancestors.
0:01:11 > 0:01:13Welcome to Digging For Britain.
0:01:26 > 0:01:29In this episode, we are joining archaeologists in the west
0:01:29 > 0:01:33as they make discoveries that will transform the history of Britain.
0:01:35 > 0:01:39On Jersey, a 2,000-year-old hoard of hidden treasure...
0:01:39 > 0:01:41- It's heavy.- Really?
0:01:41 > 0:01:44..reveals the terror of the Roman invasion.
0:01:47 > 0:01:49That is stunningly beautiful.
0:01:49 > 0:01:52In Tintagel, Cornwall, an incredible Dark Age palace
0:01:52 > 0:01:55is uncovered at the mythical home of King Arthur.
0:01:55 > 0:01:57See, I'm starting to go on flights of fancy now.
0:01:57 > 0:02:00And to me, this is where King Arthur lived.
0:02:00 > 0:02:05And on Salisbury Plain, a lost map unearths hidden trenches
0:02:05 > 0:02:09that revolutionise our view of the First World War.
0:02:10 > 0:02:13This is as if the British have captured the German trenches
0:02:13 > 0:02:14and then they have to dig in
0:02:14 > 0:02:17facing a German counterattack from up the hill.
0:02:19 > 0:02:23To put these revelations in context, I've come to Bristol Museum.
0:02:26 > 0:02:29And I've been given privileged behind-the-scenes access
0:02:29 > 0:02:34to see some of the archaeological treasures rarely seen by the public.
0:02:35 > 0:02:39But our first dig diary takes us 40 miles away...
0:02:39 > 0:02:41to Stonehenge.
0:02:46 > 0:02:503,000 years ago, our ancestors built Stonehenge
0:02:50 > 0:02:54as a site of ceremony and ritual, west of the River Avon.
0:02:56 > 0:03:00In recent years, archaeologists have come to believe that Stonehenge
0:03:00 > 0:03:05is just part of a vast sacred landscape full of monuments.
0:03:10 > 0:03:16But so far, their discoveries have mainly been to the west of the Avon.
0:03:16 > 0:03:19What lies to the east has largely been a mystery -
0:03:19 > 0:03:23until this year, when a team from Wessex Archaeology
0:03:23 > 0:03:26started digging at Bulford.
0:03:28 > 0:03:31At Bulford, just three miles away from Stonehenge,
0:03:31 > 0:03:35the discoveries were not only unexpected, they were unique.
0:03:35 > 0:03:39And they are helping to write a whole new chapter
0:03:39 > 0:03:42in the history of this archaeologically rich landscape.
0:03:44 > 0:03:46Sieve this out a bit.
0:03:46 > 0:03:48Phil Harding leads the team.
0:03:50 > 0:03:52Hi, this is Phil Harding.
0:03:52 > 0:03:54I'm talking to you on the edge of Salisbury Plain
0:03:54 > 0:03:57about three miles east of Stonehenge.
0:03:57 > 0:03:59That's in that direction there.
0:03:59 > 0:04:00And I'm working on a site...
0:04:00 > 0:04:03We've been working here since, what, just before Christmas now,
0:04:03 > 0:04:07and this is really quite an exciting site.
0:04:07 > 0:04:08Come and have a look.
0:04:13 > 0:04:17The team has uncovered something never seen in Britain before.
0:04:19 > 0:04:23A double henge - two circular banks and ditches.
0:04:24 > 0:04:29What we've found are two previously unknown henge monuments.
0:04:29 > 0:04:35This is an incredible opportunity to unravel part of the ritual landscape
0:04:35 > 0:04:36of this part of Wiltshire.
0:04:36 > 0:04:39Most importantly, just down the road from Stonehenge.
0:04:41 > 0:04:45So what Phil really wants to find out is whether this site was in use
0:04:45 > 0:04:47at the same time as Stonehenge
0:04:47 > 0:04:52and exactly what our Neolithic ancestors were doing here.
0:04:55 > 0:04:59Ground-penetrating radar reveals a series of pits
0:04:59 > 0:05:01just outside the double henge.
0:05:01 > 0:05:04That is amazing.
0:05:04 > 0:05:08Phil hopes that these will provide the evidence he needs.
0:05:08 > 0:05:10HE LAUGHS
0:05:10 > 0:05:13An axe. Excellent.
0:05:13 > 0:05:16It's a promising find.
0:05:16 > 0:05:19That is absolutely gorgeous.
0:05:19 > 0:05:24With the blade there just beautifully polished.
0:05:24 > 0:05:28Neolithic axes were incredibly important tools
0:05:28 > 0:05:31used for the clearing of trees during the earliest days of farming.
0:05:33 > 0:05:37Putting one in a pit seems like a huge sacrifice.
0:05:39 > 0:05:41There would be plenty of use left in this,
0:05:41 > 0:05:47and to place one of these in a pit, throw away a genuinely useful axe,
0:05:47 > 0:05:49why would you do it?
0:05:50 > 0:05:53As well as dozens of axe heads,
0:05:53 > 0:05:56mysterious chalk balls are found in the pits.
0:05:59 > 0:06:00Lovely.
0:06:00 > 0:06:02Oh! What a gem.
0:06:03 > 0:06:06These are finds that connect us to our ancestors,
0:06:06 > 0:06:11and for Phil it's precious evidence of what they were doing here.
0:06:11 > 0:06:15I'm sure they must have been...maybe lucky mementos, maybe superstitious,
0:06:15 > 0:06:17maybe totemic items.
0:06:17 > 0:06:19Some sort of votive offering to the gods.
0:06:19 > 0:06:21And maybe it brought them good luck.
0:06:24 > 0:06:28In one week, 40 pits are excavated.
0:06:28 > 0:06:31And what's found in each one is remarkably similar.
0:06:33 > 0:06:36This is an incredible collection of material.
0:06:36 > 0:06:38It's as though people have got a checklist
0:06:38 > 0:06:41and they are placing objects into the pit.
0:06:42 > 0:06:45These are such enigmatic clues,
0:06:45 > 0:06:49glimpses of the rituals being carried out at the double henge.
0:06:52 > 0:06:56But some of the pits contain something rather different.
0:06:58 > 0:07:01Now, that...
0:07:03 > 0:07:05..is what I call a bone.
0:07:05 > 0:07:08Hoo hoo hoo hoo!
0:07:08 > 0:07:10It's from an aurochs.
0:07:10 > 0:07:11God, look at the size of it.
0:07:13 > 0:07:15A giant prehistoric cow.
0:07:15 > 0:07:20The aurochs was not on the average Friday night takeaway menu.
0:07:20 > 0:07:22I think what we are really looking at
0:07:22 > 0:07:25is festive, feasting, celebrations.
0:07:25 > 0:07:29Who knows, might be seasonal, it might be marriage,
0:07:29 > 0:07:30it could be any other things.
0:07:30 > 0:07:34But what it is not is your day-to-day rubbish.
0:07:38 > 0:07:40This seems, then, to be a ritual site
0:07:40 > 0:07:43where our ancestors held religious feasts.
0:07:43 > 0:07:48But can Phil be sure that it's contemporary with Stonehenge?
0:07:49 > 0:07:51Can we prove that these ring ditches
0:07:51 > 0:07:55is of the same date as our Neolithic pits?
0:07:55 > 0:08:01If we can do that, then we actually find an incredible ritual complex
0:08:01 > 0:08:05of the same date as maybe Stonehenge.
0:08:06 > 0:08:10The team digs a trench across the double henge,
0:08:10 > 0:08:12looking for evidence that will give them a date.
0:08:13 > 0:08:16Phil, look at that.
0:08:16 > 0:08:17What you got there, then?
0:08:17 > 0:08:20- Pot.- Yeah, but...
0:08:20 > 0:08:21a decoration.
0:08:21 > 0:08:23Ah!
0:08:23 > 0:08:24- That is...- Yeah.
0:08:24 > 0:08:27I swear that is, that's decorated.
0:08:27 > 0:08:29You little devil, Johan.
0:08:29 > 0:08:31It's a fragment of pottery.
0:08:31 > 0:08:34Well, I'm getting really, really excited about this
0:08:34 > 0:08:36because it looks like it is decorated.
0:08:36 > 0:08:39You can see there is a bit of a ridge there and a ridge there.
0:08:39 > 0:08:44And these grooves. And I think that is the best indicator that we've got
0:08:44 > 0:08:49of grooved ware, which is the typical late-Neolithic pottery.
0:08:49 > 0:08:51That is what we want to find.
0:08:52 > 0:08:58Grooved-ware pottery like this dates from the same period as Stonehenge,
0:08:58 > 0:09:01so it strongly suggests that this double henge
0:09:01 > 0:09:03was in use at the same time.
0:09:05 > 0:09:09I've invited Phil to come into our lab with some of his finds
0:09:09 > 0:09:10to give me a fuller picture
0:09:10 > 0:09:15as to what our ancestors were really up to at this unique site.
0:09:15 > 0:09:19They are places where people are gathering together and feasting.
0:09:19 > 0:09:23They have to be ceremonial monuments.
0:09:23 > 0:09:27So, these very strange balls, what are those about?
0:09:27 > 0:09:30These are made out of chalk.
0:09:30 > 0:09:32What you'll notice, in some places - look at that -
0:09:32 > 0:09:36you can see the actual manufacturing traces.
0:09:36 > 0:09:38Chalk is a very soft rock.
0:09:38 > 0:09:41If you start beating it about too much,
0:09:41 > 0:09:44you will wear those manufacturing traces away.
0:09:44 > 0:09:47So I think that they are ritual material,
0:09:47 > 0:09:49being made for some function,
0:09:49 > 0:09:53and then they are then being placed in the pit.
0:09:53 > 0:09:56Those spheres, those balls, are special.
0:09:56 > 0:09:58Now, what about the stone tools, then?
0:09:58 > 0:10:01- These were coming out of the pits, as well.- Axes.
0:10:01 > 0:10:05Axes were incredibly powerful objects to them.
0:10:05 > 0:10:10They are almost symbolic offerings to show their wealth, their status,
0:10:10 > 0:10:14their power, because the material that is in the pits
0:10:14 > 0:10:17is the refuse, if you like, from people that are carrying out
0:10:17 > 0:10:21the ceremonies in our henge-type monuments.
0:10:21 > 0:10:23This completely unexpected discovery
0:10:23 > 0:10:26reveals a significant ritual site
0:10:26 > 0:10:31where Neolithic people gathered for ceremonies and feasting.
0:10:31 > 0:10:35By the time you've done all your post-excavation work on this,
0:10:35 > 0:10:37what are you going to add to our understanding
0:10:37 > 0:10:40of the Stonehenge landscape?
0:10:40 > 0:10:41The people at my site
0:10:41 > 0:10:46would probably have witnessed the construction of Stonehenge.
0:10:46 > 0:10:47They are just a few miles away.
0:10:47 > 0:10:52And what we've now done is we're moving our knowledge
0:10:52 > 0:10:55from the west bank of the River Avon
0:10:55 > 0:10:59and showing that equally as important is life on the east bank.
0:10:59 > 0:11:02And it just blows me over.
0:11:02 > 0:11:04I'm absolutely...
0:11:14 > 0:11:17Britain's first double henge is a massive discovery
0:11:17 > 0:11:21that, over the next few years, could fundamentally change
0:11:21 > 0:11:25our understanding of how our ancestors 4,500 years ago
0:11:25 > 0:11:27used the Stonehenge landscape.
0:11:32 > 0:11:36Our next excavation also takes place on Salisbury Plain,
0:11:36 > 0:11:38just five miles away from Stonehenge.
0:11:38 > 0:11:41But the story it's revealing is very different
0:11:41 > 0:11:44and took place just 100 years ago.
0:11:46 > 0:11:502016 was the hundredth anniversary of the Battle of the Somme,
0:11:50 > 0:11:54the bloodiest battle in the history of the British Army,
0:11:54 > 0:11:58with 60,000 casualties on the first day alone.
0:11:58 > 0:12:01Those that led the campaign have been widely criticised
0:12:01 > 0:12:03for the way the battle was fought,
0:12:03 > 0:12:07for the inexperience and inadequate training of the soldiers.
0:12:07 > 0:12:11But does archaeology support that perception
0:12:11 > 0:12:15that the young men of Britain were sent to the Western Front
0:12:15 > 0:12:17like lambs to the slaughter?
0:12:22 > 0:12:25ROCK MUSIC PLAYS
0:12:25 > 0:12:28SOLDIERS SHOUT
0:12:28 > 0:12:33Salisbury Plain. Covering an area the size of the Isle of Wight,
0:12:33 > 0:12:35for over 100 years it has been
0:12:35 > 0:12:38the site of Britain's largest military training ground.
0:12:45 > 0:12:47During World War I,
0:12:47 > 0:12:49thousands of soldiers came here
0:12:49 > 0:12:52in preparation for fighting in the trenches of northern France.
0:12:55 > 0:12:58However, it's often thought that this training
0:12:58 > 0:13:00was too short, and inadequate.
0:13:02 > 0:13:06Incredibly, a map has been uncovered in the National Archive
0:13:06 > 0:13:10that might change this perception once and for all.
0:13:10 > 0:13:13It suggests that the Army was at least planning
0:13:13 > 0:13:16to recreate German trenches of the Western Front
0:13:16 > 0:13:20in these fields so our soldiers could rehearse attacks on them.
0:13:22 > 0:13:26But were those trenches ever actually dug and used for training?
0:13:32 > 0:13:36Military archaeologist Richard Osgood has come to investigate.
0:13:36 > 0:13:39To get a map of where they've sited these practice trenches
0:13:39 > 0:13:41is really unusual.
0:13:41 > 0:13:44You've got individual notifications on the map,
0:13:44 > 0:13:46so an S is a shelter.
0:13:46 > 0:13:49MG, you might have guessed, is a machine-gun position.
0:13:49 > 0:13:54To get all that together is really, really a huge opportunity.
0:13:54 > 0:13:58But nonetheless, the map tells you about what they're MEANT to do.
0:13:58 > 0:14:01It doesn't tell you what actually does happen.
0:14:01 > 0:14:04Maybe this map was schematic, maybe it's not what's dug.
0:14:04 > 0:14:07Our job here over the next couple of weeks is really to see
0:14:07 > 0:14:09what's left under the ground.
0:14:09 > 0:14:12The ideal would be to get architecture from trenches
0:14:12 > 0:14:16and evidence for the lives of the people that were here 100 years ago.
0:14:23 > 0:14:27Trench warfare dominated World War I.
0:14:27 > 0:14:29With the invention of new powerful weapons,
0:14:29 > 0:14:32such as massed artillery bombardments
0:14:32 > 0:14:34and rapid-firing machine guns,
0:14:34 > 0:14:37soldiers were forced to dig trenches to hide in for protection.
0:14:38 > 0:14:41Soldiers could live in these trenches for weeks at a time
0:14:41 > 0:14:45before being ordered to go over the top and charge at the enemy.
0:14:46 > 0:14:49Don't know what that is.
0:14:49 > 0:14:52If Richard can prove that extensive German trench fortifications
0:14:52 > 0:14:55were recreated on Salisbury Plain,
0:14:55 > 0:14:57it's proof that the soldiers sent here
0:14:57 > 0:15:01received comprehensive training in attacking German positions,
0:15:01 > 0:15:04dispelling the notion that they were ill-prepared.
0:15:07 > 0:15:09On the first day of the dig,
0:15:09 > 0:15:11Richard's team starts to look for evidence
0:15:11 > 0:15:15of one of the German front-line trenches marked on the map.
0:15:16 > 0:15:18We're looking for a machine-gun position.
0:15:18 > 0:15:20It's marked, helpfully, MG on the map.
0:15:20 > 0:15:24Already we are finding lots and lots of traces of the architecture
0:15:24 > 0:15:27of the trench. And this is just stripping the topsoil off.
0:15:28 > 0:15:32Richard finds a post from which barbed wire would have been hung,
0:15:32 > 0:15:34cleverly designed so it could be put into the ground
0:15:34 > 0:15:36without making a noise.
0:15:36 > 0:15:38If you are putting a barbed wire fence in into no-man's-land,
0:15:38 > 0:15:41you are hitting it with a hammer and it's making a big noise.
0:15:41 > 0:15:44And snipers soon are attracted to that.
0:15:44 > 0:15:47The way they work out how to deal with that is to put these things in.
0:15:47 > 0:15:50And this will have a sort of corkscrew at the bottom.
0:15:50 > 0:15:53And to put it into the ground you put a stick through this eyelet
0:15:53 > 0:15:55and then you wind it down into the ground.
0:15:56 > 0:15:59And a few metres away, they find the barbed wire
0:15:59 > 0:16:01that it would have supported.
0:16:01 > 0:16:03You know, you look at the obstacle of that,
0:16:03 > 0:16:06imagine having that in front of the feature you're trying to take.
0:16:06 > 0:16:07It's a real impediment.
0:16:08 > 0:16:11Then, just behind where the barbed wire was found,
0:16:11 > 0:16:14they discover what they've been looking for.
0:16:14 > 0:16:17A section of a front-line German trench.
0:16:22 > 0:16:24So we're on the German front-line trenches
0:16:24 > 0:16:27and we were hoping to find the firing positions.
0:16:27 > 0:16:29Do you think we have any evidence of that, Rich?
0:16:29 > 0:16:30We've got some really good evidence.
0:16:30 > 0:16:33We've got what we've identified now as a fire step.
0:16:33 > 0:16:37A fire step is what lets you stand up out of the trench.
0:16:37 > 0:16:40So when you need to fire you can get up and fire over the top.
0:16:40 > 0:16:43And then when you finish you can get down into the relative safety
0:16:43 > 0:16:45of the extra foot-and-a-half worth of soil.
0:16:47 > 0:16:50This is clear evidence that the soldiers were training
0:16:50 > 0:16:55to capture authentically recreated front-line German trenches.
0:16:55 > 0:16:59But were the fortifications marked on the map behind the front line
0:16:59 > 0:17:01also built?
0:17:02 > 0:17:05If they were, it would prove that the soldiers were training
0:17:05 > 0:17:07not only to attack the front line,
0:17:07 > 0:17:09but also to fight right through to the rear.
0:17:13 > 0:17:17OK, so we've got this really interesting shelter.
0:17:17 > 0:17:21And importantly we've got the corrugated iron roof
0:17:21 > 0:17:23that covered the shelter.
0:17:23 > 0:17:25We've got this little step here,
0:17:25 > 0:17:28which is probably some sort of seating arrangement,
0:17:28 > 0:17:31so that with the roof above, people could sit underneath.
0:17:35 > 0:17:39Shelters like these would have offered some protection
0:17:39 > 0:17:40from the elements as well as from
0:17:40 > 0:17:43the shrapnel of artillery bombardments.
0:17:47 > 0:17:49Even more interesting is
0:17:49 > 0:17:52at the very bottom we've got all of this trample,
0:17:52 > 0:17:55which actually shows where the troops would have been walking
0:17:55 > 0:17:57during the time of using these trenches.
0:17:59 > 0:18:01The trampled floor isn't the only evidence
0:18:01 > 0:18:04that these trenches weren't just for show,
0:18:04 > 0:18:07but were used by large numbers of soldiers.
0:18:08 > 0:18:10What we're looking at, is it a latrine or not?
0:18:10 > 0:18:12It is a latrine.
0:18:14 > 0:18:18It's more of a urinal rather than a proper toilet.
0:18:18 > 0:18:22We know that because of the yellow sandy-like material at the bottom.
0:18:22 > 0:18:24That's put very politely.
0:18:24 > 0:18:26Richard is now excavating trenches
0:18:26 > 0:18:28even further back from the front line,
0:18:28 > 0:18:32and here he finds evidence of how soldiers were trained
0:18:32 > 0:18:36to continue the battle once the German trenches had been captured.
0:18:36 > 0:18:41There's a shelf facing up the hill in each of these little slots.
0:18:41 > 0:18:44This is as if the British have captured the German trenches
0:18:44 > 0:18:47and they have worked their way through the German front line,
0:18:47 > 0:18:49they've got through the reserve and support lines,
0:18:49 > 0:18:50and then they have to dig in
0:18:50 > 0:18:54facing the presumed German counterattack from up the hill.
0:18:55 > 0:18:59It's evidence that major battle simulations were taking place here.
0:19:03 > 0:19:08After two weeks they've uncovered an extensive network of trenches,
0:19:08 > 0:19:10shelters and machine-gun positions -
0:19:10 > 0:19:14a faithful recreation of what soldiers could expect to encounter
0:19:14 > 0:19:16on battlefields like the Somme.
0:19:17 > 0:19:19They utilised the high ground over there,
0:19:19 > 0:19:22they utilised the high ground in front of me
0:19:22 > 0:19:23and the hillside behind me.
0:19:23 > 0:19:25And this is just the German positions.
0:19:25 > 0:19:27This is hectares and hectares.
0:19:27 > 0:19:30It's a vast training landscape.
0:19:31 > 0:19:35It's incredible that this map had been lost,
0:19:35 > 0:19:37and without it we wouldn't have had a clue
0:19:37 > 0:19:39that so much effort had been made
0:19:39 > 0:19:42in recreating such an amazingly huge trench system.
0:19:44 > 0:19:48Richard's discovery on the ground changes World War I history
0:19:48 > 0:19:51and the view that soldiers were poorly trained
0:19:51 > 0:19:52before being sent to war.
0:19:53 > 0:19:56People that are training through this in 1915
0:19:56 > 0:19:59are getting as good an experience as they possibly can.
0:19:59 > 0:20:02This is an example of generals really trying their very best
0:20:02 > 0:20:05to give the training required for what's going to happen in 1916.
0:20:05 > 0:20:07Getting away from the idea of these chaps
0:20:07 > 0:20:09just walking around the parade square with broom handles
0:20:09 > 0:20:13and then being sent to imminent death on the Battle of the Somme.
0:20:16 > 0:20:18Even practising on Salisbury Plain,
0:20:18 > 0:20:21trench warfare must have been miserable.
0:20:21 > 0:20:24So what can archaeology tell us about the men who trained here?
0:20:27 > 0:20:29Richard has come into the lab to tell me.
0:20:29 > 0:20:31And you've got some of the artefacts here.
0:20:31 > 0:20:34Yeah, we do. This is all about morale, in many ways.
0:20:34 > 0:20:37You can be bored in the trenches, and wet and miserable,
0:20:37 > 0:20:39and the one thing you'll want to do
0:20:39 > 0:20:41if you are sitting there cold and tired is to have a brew.
0:20:41 > 0:20:44And that tin over there, that's a tin of condensed milk.
0:20:44 > 0:20:46- Right. - And the soldiers bayoneted it.
0:20:46 > 0:20:49- Yeah.- You can imagine them sitting there in the trench, need a brew.
0:20:49 > 0:20:52You pour that, the condensed milk in, chuck the tin away.
0:20:52 > 0:20:53And I think that's lovely.
0:20:53 > 0:20:56That's all about keeping sane, frankly.
0:20:56 > 0:20:59The other thing you've got connected with that sort of thing
0:20:59 > 0:21:01is that thing. I'm really pleased this was empty
0:21:01 > 0:21:03and we didn't damage it in opening it,
0:21:03 > 0:21:05because that's a tin of sardines.
0:21:05 > 0:21:07You can imagine what that would have been like a hundred years on
0:21:07 > 0:21:10if we'd opened it... But again, having things like tins of fish,
0:21:10 > 0:21:12cups of tea, will make these practice trenches
0:21:12 > 0:21:14not seem quite so bad as they might otherwise.
0:21:14 > 0:21:17They're not under fire from the Germans here, but nonetheless,
0:21:17 > 0:21:19they've got the same sort of misery of existence.
0:21:19 > 0:21:22And that's the sort of thing that's critical to get into the training.
0:21:22 > 0:21:24And what's this? This has got some writing on it.
0:21:24 > 0:21:27You can see Liverpool Reg on it.
0:21:27 > 0:21:30It's part of the King's Liverpool Regiment.
0:21:30 > 0:21:32You think of the famous Kitchener poster in 1914,
0:21:32 > 0:21:33the big recruitment one.
0:21:33 > 0:21:37- Yeah.- It's these guys, recruited in 1914,
0:21:37 > 0:21:39but we had no idea that they were pretty certainly here
0:21:39 > 0:21:42training for what became the Battle of the Somme.
0:21:42 > 0:21:43And they've left that carving behind.
0:21:43 > 0:21:45So they've just carved that in a lump of chalk.
0:21:45 > 0:21:48Bored soldier, carving their regiment into this thing
0:21:48 > 0:21:50and it ends up in the bottom of the trench.
0:21:50 > 0:21:52- But a fantastic record they were there.- Oh, it's lovely.
0:21:52 > 0:21:55We didn't know that. That's why archaeology's brilliant.
0:21:55 > 0:21:57It links you to the people and that is what's so crucial,
0:21:57 > 0:22:00that you get back to those individual stories of those guys
0:22:00 > 0:22:03who were here in the first war. After that training experience,
0:22:03 > 0:22:05they then go through to this very famous first day
0:22:05 > 0:22:07of the Battle of the Somme.
0:22:07 > 0:22:10- And for them it goes pretty well. - Really?- Yeah.
0:22:10 > 0:22:13Because there were thousands and thousands of casualties.
0:22:13 > 0:22:16Famous figure of 60,000 casualties on the first day,
0:22:16 > 0:22:19but for the Liverpool Pals, they fight alongside the French
0:22:19 > 0:22:21on the right-hand side of the British attack
0:22:21 > 0:22:22and they take all their objectives
0:22:22 > 0:22:24and they take relatively few casualties.
0:22:24 > 0:22:26And that's not the story you get
0:22:26 > 0:22:28when you think of the Battle of the Somme.
0:22:30 > 0:22:32Despite the extensive training
0:22:32 > 0:22:35that Richard has shown these soldiers received,
0:22:35 > 0:22:37training wasn't enough.
0:22:40 > 0:22:44Just a few weeks after their success on the first day of the Somme,
0:22:44 > 0:22:47the 4,000 eager young volunteers of the Liverpool Pals
0:22:47 > 0:22:50had received over 1,000 casualties.
0:22:52 > 0:22:54A shocking one in four.
0:23:14 > 0:23:17This is one of Bristol Museum's greatest treasures -
0:23:17 > 0:23:22the Thornbury Hoard. It consists of 11,460 coins
0:23:22 > 0:23:25and it was buried in the fourth century AD,
0:23:25 > 0:23:29just as the Roman army was withdrawing from Britain.
0:23:29 > 0:23:31But actually this pales into insignificance
0:23:31 > 0:23:35beside a recently discovered hoard, one of the largest ever found.
0:23:35 > 0:23:39This time dating to the first century BC,
0:23:39 > 0:23:40when Britain was on the cusp
0:23:40 > 0:23:42of being assimilated into the Roman Empire.
0:23:46 > 0:23:47The island of Jersey.
0:23:49 > 0:23:51We've got something on the surface there.
0:23:51 > 0:23:56In 2012, two metal detectorists found a massive hoard
0:23:56 > 0:23:59of 2,000-year-old coins in a potato field.
0:24:02 > 0:24:04Jersey Heritage painstakingly excavated.
0:24:06 > 0:24:11It was the world's biggest discovery of Iron Age coins ever.
0:24:13 > 0:24:17The archaeologists wanted to find out what treasures lay inside
0:24:17 > 0:24:20and what it tells us about the British Isles
0:24:20 > 0:24:23at a time when the Romans were advancing towards our shores.
0:24:26 > 0:24:28The hoard was taken to the local museum
0:24:28 > 0:24:31where conservator Neil Mahrer and his team
0:24:31 > 0:24:34began the painstaking task of clearing off the mud.
0:24:37 > 0:24:41There were an extraordinary 70,000 coins.
0:24:46 > 0:24:49And more treasure lay hidden within.
0:24:52 > 0:24:54Unusual coloured beads.
0:24:55 > 0:24:57LAUGHTER IN BACKGROUND
0:24:58 > 0:25:00Rather lovely.
0:25:04 > 0:25:07And gold and silver bracelets.
0:25:13 > 0:25:16This has been much more complicated than expected.
0:25:16 > 0:25:17We're lifting one piece at a time out,
0:25:17 > 0:25:20but everything is interlinked
0:25:20 > 0:25:22and fitted around each other.
0:25:23 > 0:25:24Ha-ha! Success!
0:25:24 > 0:25:28It's a piece of silver wire, probably from jewellery,
0:25:28 > 0:25:30just cut up and essentially just scrap metal now.
0:25:35 > 0:25:39Who would have cut up this precious metal, and why was it all hidden?
0:25:43 > 0:25:46As they dig deeper into the hoard looking for clues,
0:25:46 > 0:25:49they uncover its greatest treasure.
0:25:51 > 0:25:53- It's heavy.- Really?
0:25:53 > 0:25:55It's heavy.
0:25:55 > 0:25:58An amazing collection of thick golden torques -
0:25:58 > 0:26:00ornate neck rings.
0:26:00 > 0:26:03Only the most important people in Iron Age society
0:26:03 > 0:26:06would have worn neck rings of this thickness and weight.
0:26:12 > 0:26:14After 2,000 years in the ground,
0:26:14 > 0:26:19it's taken Neil four years carefully picking it apart
0:26:19 > 0:26:21to reveal its contents.
0:26:22 > 0:26:25We've now removed 50,000 coins,
0:26:25 > 0:26:29so we think we're five-sevenths of the way in.
0:26:29 > 0:26:32About 20,000 coins left,
0:26:32 > 0:26:35and you can see there are still a few things outstanding.
0:26:36 > 0:26:38With so much of the hoard now revealed,
0:26:38 > 0:26:42Neil has made some startling revelations.
0:26:42 > 0:26:45Well, it's the biggest coin hoard of its kind in the world.
0:26:45 > 0:26:47We know which tribe actually made it,
0:26:47 > 0:26:51because the coins that have already come off and we've cleaned
0:26:51 > 0:26:55are of a type we've seen before from the Curiosolitae tribe,
0:26:55 > 0:26:59with a head on one side and a very, very abstract horse on the other.
0:27:01 > 0:27:04The Curiosolitae were an Iron Age tribe of Celts
0:27:04 > 0:27:07that inhabit part of what is now Brittany in France.
0:27:08 > 0:27:12So why did they bury this vast treasure on Jersey?
0:27:15 > 0:27:20Neil has come into the lab with some of this amazing treasure to tell me.
0:27:20 > 0:27:21Neil, let's be clear about this,
0:27:21 > 0:27:25- this is an absolutely enormous hoard, isn't it?- It is.
0:27:25 > 0:27:27I mean, it's got to the stage now where, in this hoard,
0:27:27 > 0:27:29we've got more coins of this period
0:27:29 > 0:27:31than have been found in France at all.
0:27:31 > 0:27:34- In the whole of France? - Yeah. And as we've gone through,
0:27:34 > 0:27:36we found more and more apart from the coins.
0:27:36 > 0:27:38Torques were the big surprise for us -
0:27:38 > 0:27:41I mean, this is one of eight complete ones that we have.
0:27:41 > 0:27:42- Can I pick that up?- Yeah, please do.
0:27:42 > 0:27:46So, this is a gold Iron Age neck ring.
0:27:46 > 0:27:49- Yeah.- How do you get it onto your neck?
0:27:49 > 0:27:50They come in two halves.
0:27:50 > 0:27:53So you'd literally give it a twist like that
0:27:53 > 0:27:54and then pull apart.
0:27:54 > 0:27:56And the pattern is peculiar,
0:27:56 > 0:27:59because it's not facing the observer, it's facing the wearer.
0:27:59 > 0:28:01No, it would be inside, by your throat, yes.
0:28:01 > 0:28:02Yeah. That's beautiful.
0:28:04 > 0:28:06What about the coins themselves?
0:28:06 > 0:28:08Do they give us a clue as to the date?
0:28:08 > 0:28:11I mean, literally 99.5% of the coins in this hoard
0:28:11 > 0:28:14date to around sort of 62BC or before.
0:28:14 > 0:28:17- They're lovely.- They are beautiful faces, aren't they?
0:28:17 > 0:28:19That's a wonderful little face, on that side.
0:28:19 > 0:28:22We know that those were all made in the run-up to the invasion
0:28:22 > 0:28:24by Julius Caesar.
0:28:24 > 0:28:27So perhaps they knew that Julius Caesar was coming from the south,
0:28:27 > 0:28:28defeating tribe after tribe after tribe.
0:28:28 > 0:28:32- Mmm.- And that they hid their wealth, they actually got it offshore,
0:28:32 > 0:28:34rowed the thing to Jersey -
0:28:34 > 0:28:36that seemed to be somewhere that was quite hard to reach,
0:28:36 > 0:28:38quite hard to land, so perhaps it was somewhere to hide,
0:28:38 > 0:28:41and buried it with the idea, presumably,
0:28:41 > 0:28:43of coming back for it later, and were perhaps killed.
0:28:46 > 0:28:47The burial of the Jersey hoard
0:28:47 > 0:28:51reveals the fear that gripped the Celtic tribes
0:28:51 > 0:28:54as the Romans advanced towards our shores.
0:28:59 > 0:29:03But conversely, the Thornbury Hoard at Bristol Museum
0:29:03 > 0:29:08dates from a time when, 300 years later, the Romans were in retreat,
0:29:08 > 0:29:13showing us that the collapse of empire could be equally tumultuous.
0:29:13 > 0:29:16The Thornbury Hoard that is on display upstairs
0:29:16 > 0:29:21is just a small portion of the 11,460 Roman coins
0:29:21 > 0:29:25that were discovered, and so I've come down here to the stores
0:29:25 > 0:29:27to look more closely at some of those coins
0:29:27 > 0:29:29and find out more about the hoard.
0:29:33 > 0:29:34How was it discovered?
0:29:34 > 0:29:36It was discovered by a man
0:29:36 > 0:29:38who was digging a fish pond in his back garden,
0:29:38 > 0:29:43so he found the remains of a pot with over 11,500 coins inside.
0:29:43 > 0:29:45All of a similar type, all of a similar period.
0:29:47 > 0:29:49These coins act as a history of the Roman Empire.
0:29:51 > 0:29:53Virtually all the coins are Constantinian.
0:29:53 > 0:29:57So Constantine, the emperor that's associated with
0:29:57 > 0:30:00enabling Christianity to be worshipped across the Empire.
0:30:00 > 0:30:02And founding Constantinople?
0:30:02 > 0:30:05And founding Constantinople. So you get two types of coins.
0:30:05 > 0:30:10You get one coin in this hoard which hark back to the foundation of Rome.
0:30:10 > 0:30:11Oh, that's beautiful.
0:30:11 > 0:30:15So we've got a little wolf with Romulus and Remus underneath.
0:30:15 > 0:30:17That's a gorgeous coin - look at that.
0:30:17 > 0:30:23And there's a female personification of the new empire's capital,
0:30:23 > 0:30:27which is Constantinople, and that is Constantinopolis.
0:30:27 > 0:30:32The coins are also evidence of the Empire's decline.
0:30:32 > 0:30:35By this time, the coinage has become very debased.
0:30:35 > 0:30:37There's very little silver content
0:30:37 > 0:30:40and virtually everything is made out of copper alloy
0:30:40 > 0:30:42and also not quite as well modelled.
0:30:42 > 0:30:46So the coins are being literally debased, they are getting smaller.
0:30:46 > 0:30:48Is this the sign of a crumbling economy, then,
0:30:48 > 0:30:49as Rome goes into decline?
0:30:49 > 0:30:52Yes. They're debasing everything.
0:30:52 > 0:30:55So where are these minted then? Are they British coins in origin?
0:30:55 > 0:30:58None of the ones that I've seen are actually from Britain.
0:30:58 > 0:31:03We know that because they have little marks on the bottoms of them.
0:31:03 > 0:31:05We've done a sort of almost like an airline map
0:31:05 > 0:31:07of where these things have come from.
0:31:07 > 0:31:10And the first one that we found is Antioch, in Turkey,
0:31:10 > 0:31:14and we've got things from Thessalonica, but also Croatia.
0:31:15 > 0:31:17As part of the Empire,
0:31:17 > 0:31:21Roman Britain was connected with diverse people and cultures
0:31:21 > 0:31:23across Europe and beyond.
0:31:23 > 0:31:26And this was also a period of relative peace.
0:31:27 > 0:31:31But when the Empire crumbled, it must have been a difficult
0:31:31 > 0:31:34and even frightening experience for many people.
0:31:34 > 0:31:37And why on earth was this volume of coins buried?
0:31:37 > 0:31:41That's the 64,000 question, because we have no idea.
0:31:41 > 0:31:43This was a troubled time, wasn't it?
0:31:43 > 0:31:46So, I mean, I suppose there are numerous different reasons
0:31:46 > 0:31:49that somebody could be burying money in the ground.
0:31:49 > 0:31:51- There could.- They could be trying to hide it,
0:31:51 > 0:31:54it could be effectively banking it.
0:31:54 > 0:31:57And you kept it and you hid it from anybody you didn't want to have it.
0:31:57 > 0:32:00And that may be somebody you thought was coming to raid.
0:32:00 > 0:32:03And clearly, we have no idea why nobody collected it.
0:32:05 > 0:32:10By the fourth century AD, the Romans were pulling out of Britain.
0:32:10 > 0:32:14And whoever buried these coins never came back for them.
0:32:14 > 0:32:18Britain was plunged into a period of uncertainty for the next 600 years -
0:32:18 > 0:32:21sometimes known as the Dark Ages.
0:32:24 > 0:32:28Our next excavation provides brand-new and very strange clues
0:32:28 > 0:32:32as to how our ancestors made sense of this upheaval.
0:32:34 > 0:32:37For archaeologists, burial sites can offer precious clues
0:32:37 > 0:32:41as to how our ancestors lived and died.
0:32:41 > 0:32:45But sometimes, they also provide us with surprising insights
0:32:45 > 0:32:50into what seem to us today to be bizarre beliefs and strange rituals,
0:32:50 > 0:32:52long since forgotten.
0:33:04 > 0:33:06Deep in the Wye Valley in Hereford,
0:33:06 > 0:33:09a team of archaeologists is on their way to investigate
0:33:09 > 0:33:13an intriguing discovery near a remote cave.
0:33:14 > 0:33:17Day one. The site is up a very, very steep slope,
0:33:17 > 0:33:19which is densely wooded.
0:33:20 > 0:33:23On three sides of the site...
0:33:23 > 0:33:27there are 60-foot-high vertical cliffs.
0:33:28 > 0:33:31And immediately above the site,
0:33:31 > 0:33:33there is the opening of a small cave.
0:33:37 > 0:33:40Known locally as Merlin's Cave,
0:33:40 > 0:33:43in the 1920s, an incredible find
0:33:43 > 0:33:47of prehistoric tools, pottery and bones was made,
0:33:47 > 0:33:50revealing this to be a sacred burial site
0:33:50 > 0:33:54for our Neolithic ancestors over 4,500 years ago.
0:33:57 > 0:34:02But in 2011, a new discovery was made, purely by chance,
0:34:02 > 0:34:04just below the entrance.
0:34:06 > 0:34:08I was doing caving with one of my sons
0:34:08 > 0:34:11and we decided to try and get into this cave,
0:34:11 > 0:34:14which is about 15 foot up the cliff face,
0:34:14 > 0:34:18so I left my son sat on what was a tree throw.
0:34:18 > 0:34:22And while I was scaling the cliff here, he discovered a flint scraper,
0:34:22 > 0:34:25a really lovely flint scraper,
0:34:25 > 0:34:27and some pieces of pottery,
0:34:27 > 0:34:29and some teeth.
0:34:29 > 0:34:32Clyde took the finds to the county archaeologist.
0:34:32 > 0:34:34The pottery was prehistoric,
0:34:34 > 0:34:36the teeth were human
0:34:36 > 0:34:38and the flint was early Neolithic.
0:34:39 > 0:34:43The county archaeologist Tim Hoverd was so intrigued by the finds
0:34:43 > 0:34:45that he organised a dig to see if he could find
0:34:45 > 0:34:49whether there was a connection between these new finds
0:34:49 > 0:34:50and the ones in the cave.
0:34:51 > 0:34:54What he found was even more exciting.
0:34:54 > 0:34:56We found two human skeletons
0:34:56 > 0:34:58are laid out under two of the tree throws.
0:35:01 > 0:35:04We carbon-dated them to about 600 AD.
0:35:07 > 0:35:08This was shocking.
0:35:08 > 0:35:11Tim had expected to find Neolithic skeletons,
0:35:11 > 0:35:15but these were Dark Age skeletons from the seventh century AD,
0:35:15 > 0:35:19and they were lying outside a prehistoric burial site.
0:35:20 > 0:35:23But with such a huge time difference,
0:35:23 > 0:35:25surely there couldn't be a connection.
0:35:25 > 0:35:28Then the next piece of evidence emerged.
0:35:29 > 0:35:32One of the burials had bones deposited with it
0:35:32 > 0:35:35dated to the Bronze Age from the cave,
0:35:35 > 0:35:39so 1,200, 1,300, 1,400 years older than the burial.
0:35:40 > 0:35:42The prehistoric human bones
0:35:42 > 0:35:46seem to have been deliberately placed in the later graves.
0:35:46 > 0:35:48Whoever buried these men clearly knew
0:35:48 > 0:35:52about the earlier burials inside the cave.
0:35:52 > 0:35:56So, what we wanted to know was who these people were,
0:35:56 > 0:36:01and why they were involved with the burial in the cave.
0:36:01 > 0:36:04We know that they were doing something very strange,
0:36:04 > 0:36:06very different.
0:36:06 > 0:36:09Are these two men the only ones buried here,
0:36:09 > 0:36:12or are they part of something much bigger?
0:36:12 > 0:36:15This year, another dig was organised to find out.
0:36:17 > 0:36:20It's a very unusual place to find people being buried.
0:36:20 > 0:36:22We're on a very steep hillside.
0:36:22 > 0:36:24The soil isn't very deep.
0:36:24 > 0:36:30It's actually quite hard to make a grave deep enough to bury a body,
0:36:30 > 0:36:35and the reason we've come back here to do further investigations
0:36:35 > 0:36:40is to try and determine the extent of this burial activity.
0:36:40 > 0:36:44Do we only have two burials, or is it actually a small cemetery?
0:36:48 > 0:36:50A trench is dug a short distance
0:36:50 > 0:36:52from where the two burials were found.
0:36:57 > 0:37:00After two days of digging, they start to get results.
0:37:03 > 0:37:07We just found a human bone
0:37:07 > 0:37:11which is projecting out of the side of the section of the trench.
0:37:11 > 0:37:14It's a fragment of a large human femur,
0:37:14 > 0:37:18and we're further to the south of where the previous two burials are.
0:37:18 > 0:37:23And it's giving us an idea that the extent of this burial area
0:37:23 > 0:37:27is considerably larger than we'd seen previously.
0:37:29 > 0:37:31RATTLING
0:37:31 > 0:37:34More human remains are uncovered.
0:37:34 > 0:37:36We've just found this,
0:37:36 > 0:37:38which is a human tooth.
0:37:38 > 0:37:40It's actually a human canine,
0:37:40 > 0:37:42an adult tooth.
0:37:42 > 0:37:45And then a little bit of bone
0:37:45 > 0:37:47which is just from the path.
0:37:47 > 0:37:50Now we're finding remains of other skeletons,
0:37:50 > 0:37:54including the thigh bone of a newborn child.
0:37:56 > 0:38:00Now, up to now, all of the bones found from these burials
0:38:00 > 0:38:04have been of adults, but now we're finding evidence
0:38:04 > 0:38:09that even very young infants are being buried at this site.
0:38:12 > 0:38:15Analysis shows that these date from the same period as
0:38:15 > 0:38:18the skeletons first found beneath the cave entrance.
0:38:18 > 0:38:22It's evidence that the team has uncovered the burial ground
0:38:22 > 0:38:23of a Dark Age community.
0:38:26 > 0:38:28It's an incredibly strange discovery.
0:38:29 > 0:38:32Prehistoric burials inside the cave
0:38:32 > 0:38:36seem to have been so important to this community 2,000 years later
0:38:36 > 0:38:40that they chose to be buried close to the cave,
0:38:40 > 0:38:42even though digging graves on this steep ground
0:38:42 > 0:38:46must have been incredibly difficult.
0:38:46 > 0:38:48And another discovery is made -
0:38:48 > 0:38:50evidence that these people
0:38:50 > 0:38:54are also being buried along with bones from inside the cave.
0:38:55 > 0:38:59Now, on the top of this bone here we can see encrustation.
0:38:59 > 0:39:03And this is in fact tufa, or stalagmite,
0:39:03 > 0:39:07which is only formed inside the caves.
0:39:07 > 0:39:10This bone has come out of the cave,
0:39:10 > 0:39:14so this provides a direct link between the cave up there
0:39:14 > 0:39:17and what's been deposited down here.
0:39:20 > 0:39:22The team from Manchester University
0:39:22 > 0:39:26have discovered not only a forgotten burial ground
0:39:26 > 0:39:31but a strange funerary ritual that's been lost for 1,400 years.
0:39:31 > 0:39:33I'm interested to find out
0:39:33 > 0:39:36what the archaeologists think was going on here.
0:39:37 > 0:39:41So, you've got Dark Age burials outside the cave,
0:39:41 > 0:39:46and then inside the cave there seems to have been a lot of bone,
0:39:46 > 0:39:50human and animal bone, from much, much earlier.
0:39:50 > 0:39:52- Some period in prehistory. - From at least the Neolithic.
0:39:52 > 0:39:55It's buried with two cow bones.
0:39:55 > 0:39:59- So, this bit here?- Yeah. - So a bit of cow rib.- That one.
0:39:59 > 0:40:03And then there's the knuckle of a cow leg bone by his head.
0:40:03 > 0:40:04That he was buried with as well.
0:40:05 > 0:40:09Tim believes there could be a special connection
0:40:09 > 0:40:14between this particular man and the earlier burials inside the cave.
0:40:15 > 0:40:17And have you analysed the bones?
0:40:17 > 0:40:19What are you able to say about this individual?
0:40:19 > 0:40:22He is certainly well into his 50s,
0:40:22 > 0:40:24if not in his early 60s when he died.
0:40:24 > 0:40:28He was a very tall person, or at least he was well over six feet.
0:40:28 > 0:40:30- We can see that...- Yes.- ..with him lying out here, can't we?
0:40:30 > 0:40:33- His leg bones are... - Look at those thigh bones.- Huge.
0:40:33 > 0:40:37And the fact that he is large and robust and lived to a reasonable age
0:40:37 > 0:40:39would suggest, if nothing else, he was well fed,
0:40:39 > 0:40:43which may suggest that he was being looked after.
0:40:43 > 0:40:44So who do you think he was?
0:40:44 > 0:40:49I think just with the fact that he's buried with animal bones
0:40:49 > 0:40:53that must have come from the cave that he was actually in charge of
0:40:53 > 0:40:57looking after the contents of the cave for a period of time.
0:40:57 > 0:41:00So you're seeing this as a sort of cult centre, then?
0:41:00 > 0:41:02I think a cult is probably the way to look at it.
0:41:02 > 0:41:06They are honouring their ancestors, and they are honouring a cave
0:41:06 > 0:41:09that as far as they are concerned has been there for millennia.
0:41:09 > 0:41:12But, at the same time, both burials seem to be laid out
0:41:12 > 0:41:16in broadly speaking a Christian tradition - extended,
0:41:16 > 0:41:18with arms folded over the pelvis.
0:41:18 > 0:41:21So in that sense they're following the Christian tradition,
0:41:21 > 0:41:25but there is this little bit of prehistoric bone,
0:41:25 > 0:41:27as perhaps an indication that, OK,
0:41:27 > 0:41:30we're going to do this Christian style
0:41:30 > 0:41:33but we're going to include something from the past
0:41:33 > 0:41:36to show that we haven't forgotten about that tradition.
0:41:37 > 0:41:41The Dark Ages were a tumultuous period in British history.
0:41:41 > 0:41:43Anglo-Saxon tribes were invading
0:41:43 > 0:41:47and it was a time of great political and religious change,
0:41:47 > 0:41:49with the establishment of new kingdoms
0:41:49 > 0:41:53and pagan ideas vying with Christianity for supremacy.
0:41:54 > 0:41:57It's highly likely that these weren't Anglo-Saxons,
0:41:57 > 0:42:01these were actually the native Welsh Britons, if you like,
0:42:01 > 0:42:04and they're adapting to Christianity
0:42:04 > 0:42:07as it comes from the south and east,
0:42:07 > 0:42:09and moving up into the west,
0:42:09 > 0:42:12and they're gradually adapting.
0:42:12 > 0:42:14Such a strange site. And I think it really reminds us
0:42:14 > 0:42:17that we don't expect everybody across England and Wales
0:42:17 > 0:42:19to be doing exactly the same thing at the same time.
0:42:22 > 0:42:26The community at Merlin's Cave reached back into their past,
0:42:26 > 0:42:30combining burial practice with what seems to be an ancestor cult,
0:42:30 > 0:42:34and perhaps that provided them with much-needed reassurance
0:42:34 > 0:42:37during such an uncertain period in our history.
0:42:42 > 0:42:45After the Romans left, Dark Age Britain
0:42:45 > 0:42:49is often thought of as less civilised and more backward -
0:42:49 > 0:42:52a time when we lost cultural and trading connections
0:42:52 > 0:42:55not only with Rome, but with the world at large.
0:42:58 > 0:43:02But now a striking new discovery in Tintagel, Cornwall,
0:43:02 > 0:43:04is challenging this view.
0:43:08 > 0:43:10Tintagel is best known for
0:43:10 > 0:43:13its connections with the legendary King Arthur,
0:43:13 > 0:43:16who according to myth was conceived there.
0:43:16 > 0:43:19Well, this year, archaeologists returned to Tintagel
0:43:19 > 0:43:23hoping to investigate its rich Dark Age history
0:43:23 > 0:43:27and disentangle archaeological fact from Arthurian fiction.
0:43:38 > 0:43:42The castle remains that you can see on Tintagel today
0:43:42 > 0:43:44date from the medieval period,
0:43:44 > 0:43:47but archaeological remains from around 600 AD
0:43:47 > 0:43:49found on previous excavations
0:43:49 > 0:43:54suggest that there was once a large Dark Age settlement here.
0:43:54 > 0:43:58In 2016, archaeologists returned to Tintagel
0:43:58 > 0:44:02to explore areas of the island that had never been dug before.
0:44:02 > 0:44:05They wanted to find out what kind of settlement it was,
0:44:05 > 0:44:08but what they found took them all by surprise.
0:44:12 > 0:44:14Day one of the dig diary,
0:44:14 > 0:44:19and today we've started excavating on the eastern terrace just here,
0:44:19 > 0:44:22and over behind the castle on the southern terrace.
0:44:22 > 0:44:24We've opened up four trenches,
0:44:24 > 0:44:26and that's where we're hoping to find
0:44:26 > 0:44:27what we used to call Dark Age buildings,
0:44:27 > 0:44:30or buildings that belong to the fifth and sixth century.
0:44:35 > 0:44:37The archaeologists from English Heritage
0:44:37 > 0:44:39and Cornwall Archaeological Unit
0:44:39 > 0:44:41have barely begun to strip off the turf
0:44:41 > 0:44:44when they make their first discovery.
0:44:45 > 0:44:48We've got this possible floor layer of paving.
0:44:48 > 0:44:51Evidence for the construction of terraces.
0:44:53 > 0:44:57What it looks like is that we have three distinct flat terraces
0:44:57 > 0:45:00with slopes between at the moment which we hope,
0:45:00 > 0:45:03when we take some material away, we'll find some nice walls.
0:45:04 > 0:45:08Disappointingly, further digging reveals no traces of buildings.
0:45:08 > 0:45:14Maybe there are some terraces which are being used for small enclosures,
0:45:14 > 0:45:17maybe as cultivation plots rather than for buildings.
0:45:20 > 0:45:22But who were these cultivation plots for?
0:45:24 > 0:45:26On the south side of the island,
0:45:26 > 0:45:28they make an extraordinary discovery.
0:45:30 > 0:45:32We have three terraces,
0:45:32 > 0:45:36this being the substantial wall at the southern end,
0:45:36 > 0:45:38and leading to another wall,
0:45:38 > 0:45:41presumably for a building,
0:45:41 > 0:45:44and that leads nicely to a set of steps,
0:45:44 > 0:45:48and they lead neatly through part of the top building.
0:45:50 > 0:45:54So we think this is the building, nice level floor, steps up to it.
0:45:56 > 0:45:59This is their first big breakthrough.
0:45:59 > 0:46:03Massive one-metre thick rock walls are revealed.
0:46:03 > 0:46:06Never before has such a solid Dark Age building
0:46:06 > 0:46:09been discovered in Britain.
0:46:09 > 0:46:12Substantial build, top end.
0:46:14 > 0:46:15But what is this building?
0:46:17 > 0:46:20In their search for clues, they find a rubbish pit next to it.
0:46:20 > 0:46:24We've got an animal jawbone here, so you can see the teeth -
0:46:24 > 0:46:26something like a wild boar, perhaps.
0:46:26 > 0:46:29The remains of boar and other animals
0:46:29 > 0:46:32may be evidence of a Dark Age feast.
0:46:32 > 0:46:33I can see...
0:46:34 > 0:46:36And further surprising finds
0:46:36 > 0:46:39suggest this was a high-status building.
0:46:39 > 0:46:41THEY CHEER
0:46:42 > 0:46:44A shallow bowl, nice rim.
0:46:46 > 0:46:47Put a bit of fruit in or something.
0:46:47 > 0:46:52Oh, it's beautiful. It looks like Thracian, which is from Turkey.
0:46:53 > 0:46:55That is a beautiful thing.
0:46:56 > 0:46:58And Karl Thorpe, the small finds expert,
0:46:58 > 0:47:01is particularly excited by the discovery of
0:47:01 > 0:47:03an incredibly rare piece of glass.
0:47:03 > 0:47:04Hope you like it.
0:47:04 > 0:47:07- Oh, that is stunningly beautiful. - Yeah.
0:47:07 > 0:47:10That is definitely post-Roman glass.
0:47:12 > 0:47:15It's even a rim, which is fantastic,
0:47:15 > 0:47:20and judging from the curvature I think it is of a little cone cup
0:47:20 > 0:47:22between fifth and sort of seventh centuries AD,
0:47:22 > 0:47:25sort of Merovingian glass, originating from France.
0:47:25 > 0:47:29- For what? For...? - Most likely drinking wine.
0:47:29 > 0:47:32That is just... It is stunningly beautiful.
0:47:33 > 0:47:35The team were simply not expecting to find
0:47:35 > 0:47:38this many high-quality foreign goods.
0:47:38 > 0:47:42The people living here were clearly not only very wealthy
0:47:42 > 0:47:44but trading over vast distances.
0:47:46 > 0:47:50Got a small shard of what looks to be amphora.
0:47:50 > 0:47:53That's from the Aegean area, Eastern Mediterranean.
0:47:53 > 0:47:55Wow. Fantastic.
0:47:57 > 0:48:01By day 12, the team has unearthed the foundations of a building
0:48:01 > 0:48:0511 metres long and four metres wide.
0:48:06 > 0:48:09They are convinced that the people who lived here
0:48:09 > 0:48:11must have had immense wealth and power.
0:48:13 > 0:48:16I don't think that anything like this has been found before.
0:48:16 > 0:48:19So there were some surprised faces,
0:48:19 > 0:48:22and lo and behold it's gone on and on, so this might be the style
0:48:22 > 0:48:25for the whole precinct of buildings on the southern side.
0:48:26 > 0:48:30Substantial walls will hold up substantial roofs,
0:48:30 > 0:48:32so, yeah, it's all good.
0:48:32 > 0:48:33Very exciting.
0:48:37 > 0:48:39Further excavations throughout the rest of the summer
0:48:39 > 0:48:43revealed that this was just part of a large complex
0:48:43 > 0:48:44covering much of Tintagel.
0:48:46 > 0:48:48This has astounded the team.
0:48:48 > 0:48:50They didn't expect to find evidence
0:48:50 > 0:48:53of such a wealthy and sophisticated community
0:48:53 > 0:48:55from early Dark Age Britain.
0:48:55 > 0:49:00So do they really think they've discovered a Dark Age palace?
0:49:00 > 0:49:03And if so, what was it like to live in it?
0:49:05 > 0:49:07We can't be certain that it is a royal site,
0:49:07 > 0:49:10but whatever it was, it was a high-status site
0:49:10 > 0:49:12because we've got so much exotic material.
0:49:12 > 0:49:15Yeah. So, I mean, we saw some of this material coming out.
0:49:15 > 0:49:17Tell me about this piece of pottery.
0:49:17 > 0:49:19Yes. Well, this is very, very finely made.
0:49:19 > 0:49:23- It's probably part of...- It's very thin.- Yes, it's a fine table dish.
0:49:23 > 0:49:26A complete vessel would be quite large,
0:49:26 > 0:49:29so you've got this sort of large, expansive, quite shallow bowl,
0:49:29 > 0:49:31probably for communal feastings.
0:49:31 > 0:49:34And this is the handle of an amphora,
0:49:34 > 0:49:37which would have contained wine coming from the Aegean,
0:49:37 > 0:49:41or from Turkey, Marseilles, around the coast of Spain.
0:49:41 > 0:49:43And this is not actually from Tintagel, is it?
0:49:44 > 0:49:47This is a reconstruction of what one of these amphora from the Aegean,
0:49:47 > 0:49:51from Greece, might have looked like, but this would be for carrying wine,
0:49:51 > 0:49:54probably, but could also be for olive oil - we don't know.
0:49:54 > 0:49:57And the archaeology that you're looking at here
0:49:57 > 0:49:59of course dates to a really interesting time.
0:49:59 > 0:50:03We're looking at Britain after the collapse of the Roman Empire,
0:50:03 > 0:50:06we're looking at independent states.
0:50:06 > 0:50:09Yeah. I mean, Britain does break into lots of little states,
0:50:09 > 0:50:12like Murcia and Wessex and Kent and places,
0:50:12 > 0:50:14and Cornwall carries on in its own way,
0:50:14 > 0:50:19and this may well be a royal centre with connections far afield.
0:50:19 > 0:50:22See, I'm starting to go on flights of fancy, now, and to me
0:50:22 > 0:50:25these are the royal apartments of the palace at Tintagel.
0:50:25 > 0:50:26This is where King Arthur lived.
0:50:26 > 0:50:29Well, it has got that extraordinary association,
0:50:29 > 0:50:31from when Geoffrey of Monmouth writes about
0:50:31 > 0:50:33the history of the kings of Britain in the 12th century.
0:50:33 > 0:50:36He says that Arthur was conceived at Tintagel.
0:50:36 > 0:50:39- Yeah.- What, did he invent this?
0:50:39 > 0:50:42Had he pulled it out of various other legends? We really don't know.
0:50:46 > 0:50:49Although they may not have found evidence of King Arthur himself,
0:50:49 > 0:50:52the team have discovered that Dark Age Tintagel
0:50:52 > 0:50:58was a prosperous centre of trade and perhaps even a seat of royalty,
0:50:58 > 0:51:02a bastion against the turmoil that was engulfing Britain at this time.
0:51:08 > 0:51:10In the past, infant mortality rates
0:51:10 > 0:51:13were much, much higher than they are today.
0:51:13 > 0:51:17In the Dark Ages it is thought that perhaps half of all children
0:51:17 > 0:51:20didn't make it to adulthood, and yet,
0:51:20 > 0:51:22when you look at cemeteries from the period,
0:51:22 > 0:51:26there just don't seem to be enough juvenile and infant burials.
0:51:26 > 0:51:29So were the burial rites for children
0:51:29 > 0:51:31different to those for adults?
0:51:31 > 0:51:35It is certainly possible, and archaeologists in South Wales
0:51:35 > 0:51:38have been making some intriguing discoveries.
0:51:45 > 0:51:46Whoa!
0:51:49 > 0:51:54In the winter of 2014, record storms battered South Wales.
0:51:56 > 0:52:01They were so ferocious that they eroded the Pembrokeshire coastline,
0:52:01 > 0:52:06and human bones started to appear as the sand dunes were stripped back,
0:52:06 > 0:52:08revealing an ancient cemetery.
0:52:12 > 0:52:16These skeletons may contain precious clues about our past,
0:52:16 > 0:52:20so for the last three years, the team from Dyfed Archaeology
0:52:20 > 0:52:22has been trying to save what they can
0:52:22 > 0:52:25from this now dangerously exposed site.
0:52:25 > 0:52:27This is classic rescue archaeology.
0:52:27 > 0:52:31You can see here, the threat is obvious and happening,
0:52:31 > 0:52:33and we're just dealing with it.
0:52:35 > 0:52:37It's day three of this year's dig,
0:52:37 > 0:52:40and they are beginning to excavate the Dark Age layers
0:52:40 > 0:52:42from the seventh to the ninth centuries AD.
0:52:44 > 0:52:48One burial emerges that is incredibly unusual
0:52:48 > 0:52:51and entirely different to anything they've seen so far.
0:52:51 > 0:52:53So it seems to be a woman buried
0:52:53 > 0:52:56with a baby in the crook of her arms.
0:52:56 > 0:52:57- That's right.- That's incredible.
0:52:57 > 0:52:59Yeah. That's the baby's head, yeah?
0:52:59 > 0:53:02Skull, there.
0:53:02 > 0:53:04Pelvis in this area.
0:53:04 > 0:53:05OK.
0:53:06 > 0:53:09Here's the mother's left arm.
0:53:09 > 0:53:13Finding an infant burial from this time is extremely rare.
0:53:13 > 0:53:18Tiny bones tend to decompose quickly in many cemeteries.
0:53:18 > 0:53:19But here, the infant bones
0:53:19 > 0:53:22are perfectly preserved by the coastal sand.
0:53:24 > 0:53:26Ken, do you want to tell me what you're drawing?
0:53:26 > 0:53:33It's a grave containing the remains of what looks like an infant.
0:53:33 > 0:53:35- An infant?- A newborn, probably.
0:53:35 > 0:53:38- Yes.- Perinatal.
0:53:38 > 0:53:41Very small child - you can see the length of it.
0:53:44 > 0:53:48And incredibly, other infant burials soon begin to emerge.
0:53:50 > 0:53:53It's rare to find this quantity of infants
0:53:53 > 0:53:55in a communal cemetery.
0:53:55 > 0:53:59Doesn't matter what date it's from, they are rare to find.
0:53:59 > 0:54:01Here we've got a large number of them
0:54:01 > 0:54:04because the preservation in the sand
0:54:04 > 0:54:05has been so good for skeletal remains.
0:54:06 > 0:54:11By week three, they've found an incredible 20 infant graves -
0:54:11 > 0:54:16a sobering reminder of infant mortality rates at this time
0:54:16 > 0:54:19and an intimate insight into how parents felt
0:54:19 > 0:54:22about losing so many young children at such an early age,
0:54:22 > 0:54:241,400 years ago.
0:54:26 > 0:54:30So what we've got here is a really rather nice bone pin,
0:54:30 > 0:54:31possibly a shroud pin,
0:54:31 > 0:54:35and some of the burials we've had here you can see from the position
0:54:35 > 0:54:37of the skeleton, the feet particularly,
0:54:37 > 0:54:40that these people look like they were wrapped in shrouds
0:54:40 > 0:54:42when they were buried.
0:54:42 > 0:54:45There was one absolutely tiny little infant,
0:54:45 > 0:54:47I actually excavated it myself,
0:54:47 > 0:54:50its legs were actually crossed at the ankles, so again,
0:54:50 > 0:54:54it suggests it was wrapped before being placed in the ground.
0:54:55 > 0:54:59This pin would have been used to carefully secure the shroud
0:54:59 > 0:55:03around this dead child, before it was placed in its grave.
0:55:08 > 0:55:12And out of the sand comes an intriguing series of finds.
0:55:13 > 0:55:17This is one of a number of areas where we've had white quartz pebbles
0:55:17 > 0:55:20across the site, but they've been on the graves of infants,
0:55:20 > 0:55:23so the pebbles have been really carefully placed.
0:55:23 > 0:55:27We had one with over 100 pebbles on the top of it, densely packed,
0:55:27 > 0:55:31and obviously a lot of care invested in the grave of the baby inside.
0:55:32 > 0:55:35So what did these quartz pebbles signify?
0:55:40 > 0:55:43Dig co-director Marian Shiner and osteologist Katie Hemmer
0:55:43 > 0:55:46have come into the lab to tell me about their discoveries,
0:55:46 > 0:55:50and what they tell us about the attitude of Dark Age parents
0:55:50 > 0:55:52to the deaths of their children.
0:55:53 > 0:55:55We don't know the purpose of the quartz pebbles.
0:55:55 > 0:55:59They're found in mortuary contexts from the prehistoric period onwards,
0:55:59 > 0:56:03and they're found at other early medieval Welsh cemeteries.
0:56:03 > 0:56:06There's a passage in the Bible, in Revelation,
0:56:06 > 0:56:08which talks about the person who has found Christ
0:56:08 > 0:56:13being given a white stone, and a new name.
0:56:13 > 0:56:16There is evidence that in the late medieval period each mourner
0:56:16 > 0:56:19at a funeral brought a stone, or took a stone,
0:56:19 > 0:56:21and put it on top of the grave.
0:56:21 > 0:56:23But, you know, there must have been over 130 people
0:56:23 > 0:56:27at the funeral of that child, if that's what this signifies,
0:56:27 > 0:56:29and they are only on the children's graves.
0:56:29 > 0:56:33And they're burying very, very tiny children, infants.
0:56:33 > 0:56:35Yes, it's the thing that really strikes you about the site
0:56:35 > 0:56:36is the level of care that a lot of
0:56:36 > 0:56:39these infant and young children were buried with.
0:56:39 > 0:56:41Absolutely. I think we have to move away from old notions
0:56:41 > 0:56:45that people didn't care for their children at this time.
0:56:45 > 0:56:49They are investing the same amount of effort, if not more,
0:56:49 > 0:56:53into the burials of the really youngest members of this population.
0:56:55 > 0:56:58Discoveries like this show how archaeology
0:56:58 > 0:57:01can change the story of Britain.
0:57:04 > 0:57:07From revealing lost religious practices of the Dark Ages...
0:57:09 > 0:57:14..and turning on its head our view about how prepared our soldiers were
0:57:14 > 0:57:16when sent to fight on the Western front...
0:57:18 > 0:57:21..to the unique discovery on Salisbury Plain
0:57:21 > 0:57:24that shows the ritual landscape of Stonehenge
0:57:24 > 0:57:26was bigger than we'd ever imagined.
0:57:30 > 0:57:35Our ancestors made the country we live in today,
0:57:35 > 0:57:38and through archaeology we've been able to
0:57:38 > 0:57:44reach back through the centuries and touch their lives.
0:57:47 > 0:57:51Next week's episode of Digging For Britain comes from the north,
0:57:51 > 0:57:54and is packed with new revelations,
0:57:54 > 0:57:57from what it was like to be in the thick of a Roman attack...
0:57:57 > 0:58:01These were propelled from a hand-slung catapult
0:58:01 > 0:58:06at between 35 and 45 metres per second.
0:58:06 > 0:58:10..to the astonishing technology of the Scottish Stone Age.
0:58:10 > 0:58:14It's definitely man-made, so this is really significant.
0:58:16 > 0:58:20And the discovery of the famous monastery at Lindisfarne,
0:58:20 > 0:58:24sacked by the Vikings, and lost for over 1,000 years.