Age of Conquest Seven Ages of Britain


Age of Conquest

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BIRDS CALL, OARS SWEEP

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DAVID DIMBLEBY: A cold winter's morning before daybreak

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on the River Thames.

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On a day like this, in 1834,

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a lost treasure was to re-emerge.

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A gang of workers were starting another day

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on the banks of the Thames.

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It was dirty, unappealing work.

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Their job was to demolish the old London Bridge

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and clearing away all this sludge and muck.

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Filthy work at the best of times.

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But on this particular day,

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they made an astonishing discovery.

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HE GRUNTS

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What they had discovered, to their amazement,

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was a bronze head of the Roman Emperor Hadrian,

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part of a great statue of the emperor...

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..all its fine detail beautifully preserved.

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The hair, the eyebrows, the eyes, this great nose

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and the chin,

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part of a beautiful statue.

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And this is where our story begins.

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From the Roman occupation of 2,000 years ago

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to our own day...

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..the story of Britain is revealed through art.

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These are the greatest treasures of our nation,

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objects of beauty which give a glimpse into the British soul.

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Many treasures will be familiar.

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But others are hidden.

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Some have even left our shores,

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scattered to the four corners of the earth.

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This is the story of the Seven Ages of Britain.

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Rome.

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The heart of the mighty empire that conquered nearly all Europe.

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It was Rome that would bring order

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to the barbarian chaos of the British Isles.

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TRANSLATION FROM ITALIAN:

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Fish and chips!

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Bye!

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The Romans first invaded Britain in 55 BC.

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But it would be another 90 years

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before there was a full-scale conquest,

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under the Emperor Claudius.

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Among all the glorious monuments in Rome

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celebrating the great conquests of the Roman Empire,

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there's only one trace left of the conquest of Britain.

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And it's this tiny fragment

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of a big inscription which was put up on a triumphal arch

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to commemorate Claudius's taking the surrender of 11 British kings.

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You can just see the word "Reges Brit".

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And it cuts off there. 11 British kings.

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And saying that he brought the barbarians from across the ocean -

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that's the English Channel -

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he brought the barbarians from across the ocean

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under the authority of Rome.

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The Roman Empire was all about using power to impose order.

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Nothing captures the Roman vision better than the Pantheon,

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a temple to all the gods.

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This is the finest example of Roman art still standing in the city.

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One of the reasons the Romans had such a huge impact on Britain

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was that they, for the first time, gave us a sense of identity

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by becoming part of the Roman Empire.

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Every conquered territory had a female figure to represent it,

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and we had Britannia for Britain.

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And the coins of the second century AD

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had this portrait of Britannia on one side.

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Some say she's in mourning after defeat at the hands of the Romans.

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Some say she's at peace.

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But there it is - the enduring image of Britannia,

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which turns up, lo and behold, on our own 50 pence piece today.

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The Queen's head on one side

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and, on the other, Britannia.

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A rather different Britannia, this one.

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This is Britannia ruling the waves with her trident and her shield.

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One early and almost forgotten sculpture of Britannia

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can be found in what was once the eastern corner

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of the Roman Empire.

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In the first century AD,

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the city of Aphrodisias was famous for the brilliance of its artists.

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The fine marble quarried nearby allowed sculptors

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to capture the beauty of the human form.

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This is a stupendous collection of sculptures,

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all very lively, of Roman myths, of gods and goddesses.

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But the one I've come to see is this one over here.

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This is the story of how Rome conquered Britain

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told here, hundreds of miles away from Britain,

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as a way of demonstrating to everybody that Rome ruled us

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and had defeated us.

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This is the figure of Britannia.

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And we know it because it says over on the right there in Greek letters

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"Bretannia".

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And on this side,

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"Tiberius Claudius Caesar" - the Emperor Claudius.

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Britannia is shown in despair, perhaps pleading for her life,

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knowing she's about to be slaughtered,

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looking like a barbarian, her hair all straggling round,

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her face looking miserable, bare-breasted.

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He, on the other hand, the conqueror with his helmet,

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his right hand raised.

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There would have been a sword probably in the right hand.

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His left hand pulling her hair back,

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as though to cut her throat.

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He's got his fist there on her hair, pulling it back.

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And, important, his knee resting on her thigh,

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pinning her down to the ground.

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She's the victim, either about to be raped or to be killed.

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In any event, that is Britain, defeated by Rome.

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So much for "Britons never, never shall be slaves."

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This is how Britannia began - under the heel of the Roman Empire.

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It's not immediately obvious what Britain - cold and wet -

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had to offer Romans from the warm Mediterranean.

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But one attraction was our buried treasure.

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Where the Romans thought there was wealth to be found,

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they plundered to the far limits of their empire.

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This is Dolaucothi in West Wales,

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and with that ingenuity and energy for which they were famous,

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the Romans actually built here a seven-mile aqueduct,

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right across these hills.

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You can still just trace the line of it going into the woods there.

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And over there, there was a huge cistern

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that held up to 2,000,000 gallons of water.

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And when it was full, they opened the gates, the water

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flooded down into the valley, sweeping away trees and bushes

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and all the earth, and uncovering what they were really looking for.

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Quartz. Quartz, which contained gold.

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Some of the old Roman mining tunnels remain deep under the hillside.

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They're beautifully cut, these tunnels.

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Very damp, dripping all the time with water.

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They had to get the water out so they didn't flood.

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Slaves would have done the work, of course, not the Romans themselves.

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And you can see here, they say,

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the marks where they've cut the rock with chisels, chiselled it away -

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there we are, the marks there - to open up the space.

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Because what they were looking for were these seams of quartz,

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here is one, this whiter rock there.

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It runs up here, see, right the way up there,

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and disappears up into the roof of the cave.

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And the technique they used was very ingenious, very simple.

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It was to build fires.

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And here, on this bit of rock here, they say these are the scorch marks

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left by the fires that were built to extract the quartz.

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They built fires until it was really hot

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and then suddenly dashed water onto it, so that it burst, split open.

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They could then take the quartz away.

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Dangerous work. I wouldn't want to do it.

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A ton of good quality quartz produced under an ounce of gold.

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But it was valuable, because of course gold doesn't deteriorate,

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and the Romans wanted it to make coins and make jewellery.

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In fact, in the 1880s,

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they found - this is a replica of it -

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they found this very beautiful little brooch made from gold from here,

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because it's got a slightly pinkish colour that distinguishes Welsh gold.

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All that effort, those hundreds of people working, just to produce this.

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Over the centuries,

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hundreds of treasures from Roman Britain have been uncovered.

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And the best have ended up here.

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Sometimes, it's quite by chance that things are discovered that

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give us an idea of what life was like under the Romans.

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This great collection of silver was

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found by a farmer during the Second World War ploughing his field.

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He literally struck a piece of silver and discovered all this.

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He took it back to his farmhouse,

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and it's said he even used to eat his Christmas dinner off it.

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It wasn't until just after the war that he finally revealed

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he had it and it came here to the British Museum.

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And this is the great centrepiece of it all, the Oceanus Dish,

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a wonderful celebration of life and pleasure and enjoyment and music.

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At the heart of it, Oceanus, the god of the oceans,

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with his dolphins in his hair and a beard made of seaweed

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and various figures around of a seafaring kind.

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But the real party begins beyond.

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This was obviously used for celebration.

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All the way round, figures dancing. There is Pan.

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With his pipes. Wicked Pan.

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And over here, Hercules, you can see him with his club.

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And everywhere there are swirling, dancing men and women really having

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a ball, celebrating and drinking and dancing, and beautifully done, these

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swirling clothes, up on their toes, men with their hands in the air.

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Full of life and vitality and vivacity.

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This is absolutely singing with life.

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The Romans changed the face of England.

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They introduced a way of life imported from Italy.

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Luxurious villas decorated with beautiful mosaics.

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Nothing's left of the walls or the ceiling of the villa,

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but that doesn't matter

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because what really counts here at Bignor are the floors -

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made 1,700 years ago, tiny pieces of stone put together.

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And they are by far the best mosaics in Britain

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and, according to experts, among the most magnificent in the Roman world.

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This scene is of gladiators fighting or practising fighting

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with an umpire or a teacher.

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And they could've seen the real thing at the Roman city of Chichester.

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And if you look here, there's one gladiator

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who has the trident and the dagger,

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and the other with a sword and a shield.

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And the reason it's so fine

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is because the actual pieces of mosaic are tiny.

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They're made either of stone or of clay or of glass.

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And the frieze is supporting this most beautiful Venus.

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Wonderful, subtle colours.

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A lovely piece of work.

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It's interesting that this villa wasn't lived in by Romans.

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It was lived in by British people, British farmers.

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Rich, of course -

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prosperous people aping the habits of the conqueror.

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And they got all the advantages.

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They got central heating.

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They got baths.

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But, I mean, who on earth would live

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in an Italian villa in the British climate?

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Nobody does these days.

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There is one rather interesting concession to the British weather

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and that's this mosaic of winter.

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You can tell it's winter

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because of the leafless branch of the tree there.

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And the figure is wearing - and this is what's curious -

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what's called "birrus Britannicus",

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a special kind of British-made cloak of heavy, oiled wool

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which at this time had become so popular

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it was sold all over the Roman Empire.

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And the Emperor actually put a fixed price on it

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and charged tax on it.

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Well, you wouldn't want to go out in a British winter, would you,

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without a birrus Britannicus on. You'd be very stupid.

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At the start of the 5th century,

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the Roman Empire began to disintegrate.

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Britain found herself undefended, open to attack.

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And attacks came quickly,

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not just by one people,

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but by many.

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"Hwaet!

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"We Gardena in geardagum,

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"peodcyninga, prym gefrunon, hu oa aepelingas ellen fremedon."

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I'm trying to speak Anglo-Saxon.

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It was the language spoken 1,500 years ago here in England

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and it forms the basis of the English we speak today.

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And those lines are taken

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from one of the great Anglo-Saxon poems, Beowulf -

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not a love story, but a story of great warriors and battles,

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the kind of tale you'd tell round a blazing fire

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in the great hall on a dark night.

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Anglo-Saxon tales are often set

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in the sort of frozen wastes of the wintry north,

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because it was from Denmark and Germany

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that these new invaders came.

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The Anglo-Saxons were the next powerful influence on our country

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after the Romans.

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They gave us our language,

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and a kind of stubbornness of attitude, perhaps,

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which still forms part of our national character today.

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In the 6th century,

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the River Deben was the heartland of a powerful Anglo-Saxon king.

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On his death, the fields of Sutton Hoo above the river

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were turned into his royal burial ground.

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This is a beautiful spot,

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this golden heathland under this great East Anglian sky.

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But you need to use a bit of imagination to bring it alive.

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We're up above the River Deben here,

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that highway of the Anglo-Saxon kingdom.

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And it was up here that they dragged a boat from the river,

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laid the king to rest

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surrounded by his household goods and precious jewels,

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everything that he'd need in the afterlife.

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What a great place to bury a king.

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In 1938, work began excavating the burial ground.

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The finds were astonishing.

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-Look at that.

-Beautiful, isn't it?

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Extraordinary.

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'Molly Bevan's family owned the land

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'and she was here during the dig.

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'Even at 102, she remembers it well.'

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It was absolutely amazing.

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You couldn't believe it, because it looked so huge.

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There were quite a lot of people, I don't know how many,

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I couldn't tell you now,

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digging or brushing. In fact,

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I saw one fellow with a toothbrush doing something.

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I used to spend most of the day there

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just being amazed to see what they would find next.

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DAVID: It looks rather crumpled there, doesn't it?

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It does, yes.

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Did everything come up rather crumpled and dirty?

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Everything came up with mud all over it.

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So you never saw real gold?

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No, I never saw it until I went to the British Museum.

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-Did they look good?

-They looked all right!

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-It's tantalising, seeing it like this.

-It is.

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It's a funny business, because this is all happening

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just as we were about to go to war, wasn't it?

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Yes, it was 1939, and war was talked of all the time.

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This is the king's helmet,

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which has become the most powerful symbol of the Anglo-Saxon era.

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It's very, very fine and subtle

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because the nose and the eyebrows are actually a bird.

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The eyebrows are the wings.

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The tail of the bird makes this very neat little moustache,

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and if you look underneath,

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there are two holes, two nostrils,

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so the person wearing it could actually breathe.

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The bird's head is here,

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and he's facing this dragon,

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which makes the crest of the helmet, with these wonderful teeth.

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For my money, though, these are really, really beautiful.

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They're so fine, delicate, intricate.

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This is a shoulder clasp.

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It had a pin that went through the middle.

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So that would be on one side of a cloak, that on the other.

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It would hold the two parts of a cloak together.

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This is made of blue glass

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and garnets that were probably imported

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from Afghanistan or India.

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Not only that, the gold is actually itself cut in a kind of crisscross,

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so you get this pattern showing through the garnets.

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And then there's this. This is a belt buckle.

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Very simple - you can see the buckle-end here

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and an intricate abstract pattern.

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When you look very closely,

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you can see serpents writhing within it.

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Anglo-Saxons were very keen on their animals,

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and, my goodness, there are animals on this.

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Now, this is the top of a purse. It was a leather purse.

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And here there's a figure of a man,

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and he's fending off two wolves.

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All three of them look as if they could've been made 100 years ago.

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They're in such perfect condition.

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BIRDS CHIRP

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In the year 563, Christianity arrived in Britain.

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The new faith, which had briefly flourished under the Romans,

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would transform art.

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Pick it up there on the starboard side.

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OK, keep it together there, folks.

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St Columba, an Irish monk,

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sailed across the Irish Sea with 12 disciples

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in a boat made from animal skins.

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OK, keep it together there, folks.

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We've got a wind against us.

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Today, Captain Ivor and his crew make that trip in homage to Columba.

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How long would it have taken him, that journey across from Ireland?

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Well, it's 100 miles, so, rowing and stopping,

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you would be looking at three or four days, given good weather.

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At the time, was it a very daring passage to make?

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Was there a lot of traffic between Ireland and Scotland?

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There would have been a lot of traffic.

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The sea to a lot of people nowadays would be a forbidding place,

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but in those times, it was a highway.

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It was more dangerous to travel inland because, well, certainly

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in Ireland, the thick wooded areas, and I suppose bandits etc.

0:30:470:30:52

So the highway was the seaway.

0:30:520:30:54

And are you religious people, or do you do it for fun?

0:30:540:30:58

Some of us would be religious people.

0:30:580:31:00

We still do it for fun, even though we're religious!

0:31:000:31:04

St Columba and his monks chose to settle here,

0:31:100:31:13

on the island of Iona.

0:31:130:31:15

Thank you very much indeed. That was wonderful.

0:31:160:31:20

Goodbye.

0:31:210:31:23

St Columba was such a powerful inspiration

0:31:320:31:34

that Christianity spread from here across Scotland

0:31:340:31:37

and into Northern England.

0:31:370:31:39

And wherever it went,

0:31:390:31:41

it's left behind this powerful symbol of the stone cross.

0:31:410:31:45

This one is from the 8th century.

0:31:450:31:47

Now, new religions often build on the old.

0:31:470:31:51

And some say that this circle, which is typical of the Celtic cross,

0:31:510:31:55

actually is sending a message out about the power of the sun,

0:31:550:31:59

an old pagan message.

0:31:590:32:01

Round the front...

0:32:030:32:04

It's very, very faded, this. It's rather difficult to see.

0:32:040:32:08

But then, it is very, very old.

0:32:080:32:09

In the top there, the Virgin and child.

0:32:090:32:14

Below that, what's said to be David playing a harp

0:32:190:32:23

and another figure playing a flute.

0:32:230:32:26

Four more figures that nobody knows what they are.

0:32:260:32:29

And then more decoration down here.

0:32:290:32:31

But what's really moving, striking, about crosses like this

0:32:330:32:38

is that they were a focal point for the new religion.

0:32:380:32:41

They stood often in wild places

0:32:410:32:43

where there were no churches, no monasteries,

0:32:430:32:46

just this cross, standing as a place

0:32:460:32:50

to pray, to worship,

0:32:500:32:53

maybe to have sermons read.

0:32:530:32:56

But wherever they went, they stood as symbols of the new religion.

0:32:560:33:01

As Columba's monks, preaching conversion, headed south,

0:33:200:33:25

St Augustine arrived in England and worked his way north.

0:33:250:33:30

The two missions met in Northumbria,

0:33:380:33:41

which would become a centre of monastic learning

0:33:410:33:45

renowned throughout Europe.

0:33:450:33:47

Nowadays, we think of monasteries as places to retreat from the world.

0:33:540:33:58

But in the 7th century, monasteries were the world.

0:33:580:34:02

They were rich and powerful,

0:34:020:34:03

they had a lot of land, they had political influence.

0:34:030:34:07

They admittedly looked after the poor and were places to pray,

0:34:070:34:10

but they were also centres of knowledge.

0:34:100:34:13

They had libraries, books.

0:34:130:34:16

This one, Wearmouth-Jarrow, was among the most famous.

0:34:160:34:20

It was here that one of Britain's greatest treasures was created -

0:34:260:34:30

the work of many monks over many years,

0:34:300:34:34

an object lost from English history,

0:34:340:34:37

because no sooner was it completed

0:34:370:34:39

than it was sent away from these shores.

0:34:390:34:42

BELLS RING IN DISTANCE

0:34:500:34:52

OPERATIC ARIA PLAYS

0:35:000:35:02

In AD 716,

0:35:160:35:19

the abbot of Wearmouth-Jarrow started on a journey to Italy

0:35:190:35:23

to deliver in person

0:35:230:35:24

a gift to the Pope in Rome.

0:35:240:35:27

But the abbot died en route.

0:35:290:35:31

And today his gift is one of the most precious objects

0:35:310:35:35

in Renaissance Florence.

0:35:350:35:37

THEY SPEAK ITALIAN

0:35:450:35:47

This is the oldest complete Bible in the world.

0:36:210:36:25

And it was made in England by the monks of Wearmouth-Jarrow.

0:36:250:36:30

The cover's new. The thing is huge, almost a foot deep.

0:36:300:36:35

It weighs 75 pounds.

0:36:350:36:38

And if I can open it...

0:36:380:36:40

..this beautiful text in columns,

0:36:450:36:49

one, two...four columns.

0:36:490:36:50

Written on skin.

0:36:500:36:52

500 sheep to make this Bible.

0:36:520:36:55

And here, diagrams showing how the whole Bible is laid out,

0:36:550:37:00

the pattern they've used.

0:37:000:37:01

And then, at the very front,

0:37:040:37:06

this beautiful...

0:37:060:37:09

If I can turn it very delicately...

0:37:090:37:11

This beautiful illuminated painting

0:37:110:37:14

of a scribe sitting in his study,

0:37:140:37:18

writing the Bible...

0:37:180:37:21

..with books behind him, with his inkwell there...

0:37:230:37:26

..with a knife for making corrections.

0:37:280:37:30

And the whole thing is most wonderfully painted.

0:37:300:37:33

The colours are alive still.

0:37:330:37:36

The pink of the books,

0:37:360:37:37

the deep mahogany colour of the library cupboard, the shelves there.

0:37:370:37:42

His robe in a red, with green.

0:37:440:37:48

The gold of the halo.

0:37:480:37:50

All done by craftsmen in Northumberland.

0:37:500:37:54

700 or so pages later,

0:37:570:38:00

you come towards the end of the Old Testament

0:38:000:38:04

and arrive at the New Testament, and, once again...

0:38:040:38:09

..this beautiful page, illuminated, of Christ in majesty,

0:38:110:38:16

with two angels,

0:38:160:38:19

and with the evangelists - Matthew, Mark, with the lion, Luke and John.

0:38:190:38:26

And the whole thing is singing, coming out of the page,

0:38:280:38:32

as though it was freshly done yesterday.

0:38:320:38:35

The lovely turquoise, the darker blue inside, the pattern around.

0:38:350:38:40

The extraordinary thing is that, for centuries,

0:38:400:38:43

they thought this work was done by Italian artists, that it

0:38:430:38:47

was inconceivable it could have been done by English artists.

0:38:470:38:50

But the experts are all now agreed that this is indeed English work.

0:38:500:38:56

This is a fine example of Britain being part of Europe,

0:38:560:39:02

part of the culture of Europe,

0:39:020:39:04

1,300 years ago.

0:39:040:39:06

The British Isles was emerging

0:39:430:39:46

as a cultural force in its own right.

0:39:460:39:48

But at the end of the 8th century, it all came under threat.

0:39:480:39:54

Nordic invaders - the Vikings -

0:40:010:40:04

sailed across the North Sea to plunder Britain's riches.

0:40:040:40:09

The Vikings spread out across a terrified land,

0:40:250:40:28

raping, pillaging, burning as they went.

0:40:280:40:31

The monks of Iona all murdered.

0:40:320:40:34

The kings of Northumberland and East Anglia captured

0:40:340:40:38

and their lungs ripped from their living bodies.

0:40:380:40:41

The King of Mercia so terrified he fled.

0:40:410:40:44

Only the kingdom of Wessex,

0:40:440:40:46

which stretched from here in Oxford right down to the West Country,

0:40:460:40:50

was still just about safe.

0:40:500:40:52

At this moment, a new prince came to the throne.

0:40:520:40:55

His name was Alfred of Wessex, Alfred the Great.

0:40:570:41:02

Inside the Ashmolean Museum,

0:41:110:41:13

there's a tiny treasure that reveals Alfred's brilliance as a leader

0:41:130:41:18

and the loyalty he inspired.

0:41:180:41:21

This beautiful object is the Alfred Jewel.

0:41:280:41:33

It's the most exquisite object.

0:41:360:41:38

It's in the shape of a beast at the front here,

0:41:400:41:42

and then this lozenge shape which has got crystal on the top.

0:41:420:41:46

And inside, the figure of a sort of man holding two flowers,

0:41:460:41:53

symbolising sight -

0:41:530:41:56

clarity of vision, if you like.

0:41:560:41:59

And the beast symbolising the dangers that face Britain.

0:41:590:42:04

And round it, the words, "Alfred ordered me to be made."

0:42:040:42:11

Now, what on earth would he have done that for?

0:42:110:42:14

The answer is that these, it's thought,

0:42:140:42:17

were given to people in his kingdom

0:42:170:42:20

as tokens of loyalty,

0:42:200:42:23

of their loyalty to him and his to them,

0:42:230:42:27

to try and restore a kind of balance and order

0:42:270:42:30

against the marauding Vikings.

0:42:300:42:32

As an object, it could've just been a jewel given as a token and kept.

0:42:320:42:36

Some say it could've had a stick coming out of here

0:42:360:42:40

and be used as a pointer for reading books.

0:42:400:42:42

Whatever the use of the jewel, it's clearly a sign

0:42:440:42:47

of considerable political nous on Alfred's part,

0:42:470:42:50

because this was a token of his loyalty to you

0:42:500:42:54

if you were prepared to give loyalty back to him.

0:42:540:42:58

Under Alfred's leadership, the Viking threat was contained.

0:43:080:43:13

But peace could only be preserved

0:43:170:43:19

if people were willing to learn from the past.

0:43:190:43:22

Alfred may have saved his kingdom,

0:43:260:43:28

but he was in despair about the sorry state into which it had fallen.

0:43:280:43:32

He was particularly worried

0:43:320:43:33

that learning had gone into complete decline.

0:43:330:43:36

He said in the old days people used to read Latin,

0:43:360:43:38

they could understand the important books

0:43:380:43:40

that, in his words, it was needful for people to know,

0:43:400:43:43

and he was determined to do something about it.

0:43:430:43:46

And he took radical action.

0:43:460:43:48

We know all this because of this book.

0:43:480:43:51

This is the oldest book in the English language

0:43:530:43:57

and it's a translation by Alfred himself

0:43:570:44:01

of a book written by Pope Gregory called Pastoral Care.

0:44:010:44:06

It's written in Old English

0:44:090:44:11

and, actually, it's incomprehensible, except to the expert.

0:44:110:44:17

I can't read even a word of it.

0:44:170:44:20

It's a sort of tract about leadership.

0:44:220:44:25

It explains how, if you're a leader, you should behave,

0:44:250:44:28

how you should deal with problems, how you shouldn't become arrogant,

0:44:280:44:32

how you should be humble - all those sort of things.

0:44:320:44:34

He was very worried that people in the past had had wisdom

0:44:360:44:40

and somehow it had got lost.

0:44:400:44:42

He starts it, if I can just turn - I have to be very careful here -

0:44:440:44:48

to this front page.

0:44:480:44:50

He starts with this introduction,

0:44:500:44:52

and what he's saying is, "I want this distributed to all the bishops

0:44:520:44:57

"and I want it read to the people.

0:44:570:45:00

"I want people to learn and understand."

0:45:000:45:04

SEAGULLS SQUAWK

0:45:100:45:12

HORN BLOWS

0:45:120:45:15

'Alfred's peace was not to last.

0:45:260:45:29

'England was to be conquered one last time.'

0:45:290:45:33

Normandy was the domain of a powerful duke,

0:45:460:45:50

William the Bastard,

0:45:500:45:52

known to us today as William the Conqueror.

0:45:520:45:56

1066 is one of the easier dates to remember in British history -

0:46:070:46:11

William the Conqueror's invasion of England.

0:46:110:46:14

But what kind of man was it

0:46:140:46:16

who undertook such an extraordinary enterprise?

0:46:160:46:19

He wasn't like Alfred the Great -

0:46:190:46:21

he wasn't interested in literature and fine jewellery.

0:46:210:46:24

No, his passion is defined by something quite different.

0:46:240:46:27

By this.

0:46:270:46:29

Stone.

0:46:290:46:31

And not just any old stone,

0:46:310:46:33

but the very special stone that comes from his home town of Caen.

0:46:330:46:38

When the young William became Duke of Normandy,

0:46:460:46:49

he set about rebuilding Caen.

0:46:490:46:52

He built a vast castle.

0:46:590:47:01

And he built churches and abbeys...

0:47:060:47:09

..all with the easy-to-cut, cream-coloured stone of Caen.

0:47:100:47:15

But the most impressive of William's buildings

0:47:270:47:30

is the Abbaye aux Hommes - the Abbey for Men.

0:47:300:47:33

The style of this building is called Romanesque -

0:47:410:47:44

literally, like the architecture of ancient Rome,

0:47:440:47:47

with its great monumental pillars, the arches on the top.

0:47:470:47:52

What William was using it for was to say, "In all its magnificence,

0:47:520:47:56

"it shows I have taken charge of Normandy, built here a great state."

0:47:560:48:01

In the summer of the fateful year of 1066,

0:48:040:48:08

this abbey had been consecrated, an abbot appointed here, freeing

0:48:080:48:13

William to focus on what was to be the boldest enterprise of his reign.

0:48:130:48:18

Perhaps we in England were a little bit distracted

0:48:180:48:21

by attacks from across the North Sea to fully understand

0:48:210:48:24

the meaning of buildings like this.

0:48:240:48:26

If we had, we'd have had some inkling of what was about to hit us.

0:48:260:48:31

This is the Bayeux tapestry.

0:48:450:48:48

It was commissioned to celebrate William's conquest of England.

0:48:480:48:53

And it begins with the events that led up to it.

0:48:530:48:57

The death of Edward the Confessor, King of England,

0:48:570:49:01

and the succession of a new king, Harold.

0:49:010:49:04

It's magical to be taken back 1,000 years

0:49:090:49:12

in this dark chamber,

0:49:120:49:15

to see history spelt out for you.

0:49:150:49:18

70 metres long, right down to the end, right round and the back,

0:49:180:49:23

and the story very vividly told.

0:49:230:49:26

But at the same time, along the friezes, top and bottom,

0:49:270:49:30

wonderfully vivid pictures,

0:49:300:49:32

some of them of Aesop's fables, some of little stories,

0:49:320:49:35

some nobody knows what they are.

0:49:350:49:38

Little details of farming life here -

0:49:380:49:41

ploughing, sowing

0:49:410:49:44

and a man killing birds with a sling.

0:49:440:49:46

It's not strictly speaking a tapestry.

0:49:460:49:49

It's actually needlework, sewn with wool onto linen.

0:49:490:49:55

I suppose the story that we know best

0:50:000:50:02

begins with the death of Edward the Confessor

0:50:020:50:06

and his burial in Westminster Abbey.

0:50:060:50:09

Westminster Abbey here with the hand of God blessing it.

0:50:090:50:14

And here, Harold receiving the crown, with his orb and his sceptre.

0:50:150:50:21

People looking on.

0:50:210:50:23

And then spies come across and explain to William in Normandy

0:50:230:50:27

what's happened in England - that Harold has seized the crown.

0:50:270:50:31

And here he orders ships to be built for an invasion,

0:50:310:50:34

so the first thing, to cut down the trees

0:50:340:50:37

and start building the ships.

0:50:370:50:39

Putting aboard suits of chain mail, needing two men to carry them.

0:50:420:50:47

And spears, arrows.

0:50:480:50:50

And the last stage is to get the horses on board these longships.

0:50:510:50:57

Very tricky, and they don't look particularly happy.

0:50:570:51:00

The boats set sail, they cross over to Pevensey...

0:51:010:51:05

..land safely at Pevensey, go ashore,

0:51:070:51:09

and then the real task begins.

0:51:090:51:11

But first the army has to be fed.

0:51:110:51:14

There's a tureen there being boiled,

0:51:140:51:17

they're sort of chicken kebabs, they look like,

0:51:170:51:20

and here, William feasting with his men.

0:51:200:51:24

And then they're preparing for war.

0:51:240:51:27

They build a castle of wood at Hastings.

0:51:270:51:30

William's followers set light to some of the Anglo-Saxon houses.

0:51:300:51:34

A woman leading her child away from her burning house.

0:51:340:51:38

And then battle commences - quite slowly to start with,

0:51:380:51:43

with the cavalry charging against Harold's forces.

0:51:430:51:46

Heads chopped off, hands chopped off,

0:51:500:51:52

and the battle rages all day long.

0:51:520:51:55

In the confusion of the battle,

0:52:040:52:07

as swords and axes clang against shields,

0:52:070:52:09

a dangerous rumour sweeps William's army that he has been killed.

0:52:090:52:14

So what does he do?

0:52:140:52:16

He turns round in his saddle, lifts his helmet off

0:52:160:52:20

and shows himself to his troops,

0:52:200:52:24

and the battle goes on.

0:52:240:52:26

And then we come to the famous design of Harold with the arrow in his eye.

0:52:340:52:40

Nobody quite knows whether that is what happened.

0:52:420:52:44

And here, slaughtered.

0:52:440:52:46

I've seen this many times. Every time I see it, I have to say,

0:52:510:52:55

it just brings the whole story of William's invasion of England alive.

0:52:550:53:00

You really feel here... Because this was done by people

0:53:000:53:02

living only a few years after the event,

0:53:020:53:05

you really feel the power and the passion that went into it.

0:53:050:53:09

It's a completely magical work of art.

0:53:090:53:14

'It used to be thought that the Bayeux Tapestry was

0:53:340:53:36

'made by craftsmen from Normandy.

0:53:360:53:39

'But it is now generally accepted that it was

0:53:390:53:42

'made by nuns in Canterbury, working on the orders of their new masters.'

0:53:420:53:48

HE SPEAKS FRENCH

0:53:480:53:50

Ah, non!

0:53:530:53:55

Merci. Au revoir, merci.

0:54:260:54:29

William's rule would transform England.

0:54:430:54:46

The customs and habits of Normandy swept away the Anglo-Saxon past.

0:54:480:54:53

French would become the language of power and influence.

0:54:550:54:59

And to stamp his authority from the first,

0:55:010:55:04

William began building,

0:55:040:55:06

just as he had in Normandy.

0:55:060:55:09

The White Tower in London, one of our most famous buildings.

0:55:240:55:29

It's come to symbolise Britain and Britishness,

0:55:290:55:33

but it began life as nothing of the sort.

0:55:330:55:36

This was a symbol of Norman conquest,

0:55:360:55:38

an astonishing building on a scale that hadn't been seen

0:55:380:55:42

since the Roman conquest 1,000 years before.

0:55:420:55:45

The message -

0:55:450:55:48

"Here we are. Here we stay. Resistance is futile."

0:55:480:55:53

This is William's chapel at the heart of the tower.

0:56:160:56:18

It's more like a prison keep than a church.

0:56:180:56:21

But the interesting thing is the stone it's built of,

0:56:230:56:27

which is used right through the tower, this white stone,

0:56:270:56:30

easily carved, good for making these tops to the columns...

0:56:300:56:36

This is William's favourite stone, brought from Caen in Normandy.

0:56:380:56:43

It's not enough just to accept

0:56:440:56:46

Norman nobility, Norman clergy, the French language -

0:56:460:56:51

William was insisting we accepted his buildings too,

0:56:510:56:55

and even the very materials they were made of.

0:56:550:56:59

It's not much fun being conquered, and for Anglo-Saxon England,

0:57:080:57:12

the effect of the Norman conquest was devastating.

0:57:120:57:14

It was the end of life as they knew it. It wasn't just having

0:57:140:57:17

to give up all their land, learn a different language,

0:57:170:57:20

adopt a different style.

0:57:200:57:21

It was that everything that went before was treated as inferior,

0:57:210:57:25

and we know now that that wasn't true.

0:57:250:57:28

We've seen a thousand years of treasures,

0:57:280:57:31

everything from helmets and shields

0:57:310:57:33

to jewels and illuminated manuscripts,

0:57:330:57:35

a time of ingenuity and originality and imagination -

0:57:350:57:41

an era to celebrate.

0:57:410:57:44

In the next age - knights in shining armour.

0:57:540:57:58

Saints and miracles.

0:57:590:58:02

Royal splendour.

0:58:040:58:07

It's the age of worship.

0:58:090:58:11

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0:58:310:58:34

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