0:00:03 > 0:00:04Right across Britain,
0:00:04 > 0:00:07archaeologists are unearthing
0:00:07 > 0:00:09the relics of ancient lives.
0:00:09 > 0:00:14But so much of modern archaeology is what happens after excavation.
0:00:16 > 0:00:19Today, forensic analysis and cutting-edge science,
0:00:19 > 0:00:22as well as brand-new finds, are overturning
0:00:22 > 0:00:28what we once thought about entire eras of our ancient history.
0:00:28 > 0:00:30I'm Julian Richards, and over the years,
0:00:30 > 0:00:33I've been lucky enough to have taken part
0:00:33 > 0:00:35in some of our most important digs.
0:00:35 > 0:00:37You've not?
0:00:37 > 0:00:39A lead coffin?
0:00:41 > 0:00:44Now, I'm going back to some of my favourites,
0:00:44 > 0:00:49to discover the very latest stories of our most ancient ancestors.
0:01:04 > 0:01:09The Iron Age, a time that began 2,800 years ago.
0:01:09 > 0:01:14It's one of the most elusive periods of our ancient, prehistoric past.
0:01:14 > 0:01:17Think of the Iron Age and what comes to mind?
0:01:17 > 0:01:20Well, iron, obviously, like this iron blade,
0:01:20 > 0:01:23but also places like this, Hambledon Hill,
0:01:23 > 0:01:27where this blade was found, a massive hillfort in Dorset.
0:01:29 > 0:01:34We think of an age of rival British tribes, vying for power,
0:01:34 > 0:01:39a time of warrior heroes, wielding finely-crafted swords and shields.
0:01:41 > 0:01:44The story of the Iron Age, like much of prehistory,
0:01:44 > 0:01:47can often seem to be dominated by the stories of men,
0:01:47 > 0:01:51which means ignoring half the population of these islands.
0:01:51 > 0:01:55Over a decade ago, I was involved in two remarkable excavations
0:01:55 > 0:01:57of the burials of Iron Age women.
0:01:57 > 0:02:01Excavations that opened up windows into life and death,
0:02:01 > 0:02:06into class and society and into religion and ritual.
0:02:09 > 0:02:12One excavation discovered the remains of a teenage girl,
0:02:12 > 0:02:14crouched in a rubbish pit,
0:02:14 > 0:02:18thought at the time to be a victim of human sacrifice.
0:02:21 > 0:02:24But since the dig, a series of stunning new finds
0:02:24 > 0:02:26on the same site has forced a rethink
0:02:26 > 0:02:29and given dramatic insights into the world
0:02:29 > 0:02:32of a whole Iron Age community.
0:02:32 > 0:02:35Had this person got the use of their legs?
0:02:35 > 0:02:37They could have been paralysed.
0:02:37 > 0:02:40The other find could not have been more different.
0:02:40 > 0:02:43The grave of a high-status woman,
0:02:43 > 0:02:46buried with a lavishly worked chariot.
0:02:48 > 0:02:51Now, brand-new scientific analysis on a mirror
0:02:51 > 0:02:54buried with the woman has revealed unexpected connections
0:02:54 > 0:02:58to power and the spirit world.
0:02:58 > 0:03:03There was animal fur, lying against the mirror plate.
0:03:03 > 0:03:06We've now come to realise that these two women,
0:03:06 > 0:03:09who, a decade ago, seemed so different,
0:03:09 > 0:03:14were in fact connected by shared Iron Age beliefs.
0:03:14 > 0:03:16What's clear from these two burials
0:03:16 > 0:03:19is that archaeology doesn't end when we put our trowels away -
0:03:19 > 0:03:22in fact, it's just the beginning.
0:03:22 > 0:03:23So more than a decade later,
0:03:23 > 0:03:27I'm going back to these two women to find out what we know today,
0:03:27 > 0:03:30that we couldn't even have imagined when they were first discovered.
0:03:41 > 0:03:44Back in 2000, I was called out to the Cotswolds
0:03:44 > 0:03:47to a little town called Bourton-on-the-Water,
0:03:47 > 0:03:48where building work at a primary school
0:03:48 > 0:03:53had revealed a whole series of pits, full of Iron Age remains.
0:03:58 > 0:04:03Let me take you back almost 13 years to the dig itself.
0:04:09 > 0:04:12What I found was something quite extraordinary.
0:04:12 > 0:04:16Discoveries of complete Iron Age skeletons are quite rare -
0:04:16 > 0:04:18most people at this time were cremated
0:04:18 > 0:04:20or had their bones scattered.
0:04:20 > 0:04:24But here, I found myself joining archaeologist Paul Nicholls
0:04:24 > 0:04:28by a grave that contained a wonderfully preserved skeleton.
0:04:28 > 0:04:30This is the site, isn't it?
0:04:30 > 0:04:35It does look, doesn't it, as if...it comes right out?
0:04:35 > 0:04:38- Have you got an edge? - It's going round.
0:04:38 > 0:04:43- That looks like the edge, here. - So it's almost circular.
0:04:43 > 0:04:46It's jammed right over to one side, isn't it, yet the feet are stuck
0:04:46 > 0:04:49up against that side, the head's stuck up against this side.
0:04:49 > 0:04:52'To stand any chance of understanding this burial,
0:04:52 > 0:04:54'we had to get a clear picture of the grave.'
0:04:54 > 0:04:56When Paul and I first started looking at this burial,
0:04:56 > 0:04:59it looked as if it was a small, oval grave,
0:04:59 > 0:05:03with the skeleton crammed up against the edges of it, the head here
0:05:03 > 0:05:05and the feet up against that side, but now,
0:05:05 > 0:05:08it looks as if the skeleton might be in the top of a pit,
0:05:08 > 0:05:10maybe even a rubbish pit.
0:05:10 > 0:05:12Perhaps this person has literally been chucked out
0:05:12 > 0:05:14with some of the rubbish.
0:05:15 > 0:05:17'The skeleton shared the pit
0:05:17 > 0:05:20'with the broken remains of everyday life.'
0:05:20 > 0:05:23- Is that pottery? - Yeah, looks like it.
0:05:23 > 0:05:26It looks quite a reasonable size bit, isn't it?
0:05:26 > 0:05:29I don't know. Maybe not.
0:05:29 > 0:05:32It's classic prehistoric pottery - it's black,
0:05:32 > 0:05:34sooty,
0:05:34 > 0:05:38I assume from the fabric, from the sort of clay and what's in it,
0:05:38 > 0:05:42that someone is going to be able to tell what date that is.
0:05:42 > 0:05:45'The find was part of an Iron Age settlement
0:05:45 > 0:05:47'that had been revealed, piece by piece,
0:05:47 > 0:05:51'as the school it now lay beneath had been gradually extended.'
0:05:51 > 0:05:56The new building we've got on our right was completed in August 1996,
0:05:56 > 0:05:58the archaeologists came along and dug a trench...
0:05:58 > 0:06:04- That was the first hint.- Yes, that's right, I think over 160 postholes,
0:06:04 > 0:06:07so clearly, it was a well-established settlement.
0:06:07 > 0:06:10Fortunately, two years later, we had funding for two more classrooms.
0:06:10 > 0:06:14- That's this one here.- That's right. The ones on our right here.
0:06:14 > 0:06:18And they were completed in March 1998, but before then,
0:06:18 > 0:06:20- we had, as you can see... - More archaeologists!
0:06:20 > 0:06:24Why do you think people came to this particular spot?
0:06:24 > 0:06:27I think at that time, they'd have chosen it with care.
0:06:27 > 0:06:30To the south of us over here, we've got the River Windrush,
0:06:30 > 0:06:33which would have been useful to them, clearly.
0:06:33 > 0:06:35- This is fairly well-drained, then? - It is, yes,
0:06:35 > 0:06:39- it's a gravel bed under here. - It's a pretty good place.
0:06:39 > 0:06:42'The new discovery, though, was the first burial.
0:06:42 > 0:06:45'And now, we had the challenge of easing the skeleton
0:06:45 > 0:06:49'from a grave in which it had lain for well over 2,000 years.'
0:06:49 > 0:06:53Now, I think we might have to leave that arm in.
0:06:53 > 0:06:56- Bit peculiar-looking, isn't it? - It's not too bad.
0:06:56 > 0:07:01I think it's all there, it's just rather crushed in.
0:07:01 > 0:07:03'The skeleton was that of a girl,
0:07:03 > 0:07:06'her remains so well-preserved that it was possible
0:07:06 > 0:07:09'to reconstruct her appearance.'
0:07:10 > 0:07:14'Forensic artist Caroline Wilkinson took up the challenge.'
0:07:14 > 0:07:18This is the girl's skull from Bourton-on-the-Water.
0:07:18 > 0:07:21Some of it's missing. Part of the nasal bone is missing,
0:07:21 > 0:07:24but the majority of the skull is intact.
0:07:24 > 0:07:27There is some asymmetry in the lower jaw,
0:07:27 > 0:07:30you can see when you view it from the front
0:07:30 > 0:07:34that the centre of her chin is heading off to her right,
0:07:34 > 0:07:38although her teeth are in a central position.
0:07:38 > 0:07:42The asymmetry has to be quite marked on the skull for it to show up
0:07:42 > 0:07:46noticeably on the face. All of us have asymmetrical faces.
0:07:46 > 0:07:52Her asymmetry isn't marked enough that she'd be particularly unusual.
0:07:58 > 0:08:02What emerged was the face of a seemingly typical teenager -
0:08:02 > 0:08:05from the Iron Age.
0:08:07 > 0:08:10And here are the remains of the girl today.
0:08:10 > 0:08:14It's the first time I've seen these bones for over ten years.
0:08:14 > 0:08:16I have to say, they're beautifully conserved.
0:08:16 > 0:08:19They're stored here in the archives in Gloucester.
0:08:21 > 0:08:26Examination revealed that she was just 16 or 17 when she died
0:08:26 > 0:08:30and while the cause of her death still isn't known,
0:08:30 > 0:08:34there are signs that her short life would have been plagued by illness.
0:08:34 > 0:08:38This is one of our girl's ribs and just here, on the end of it,
0:08:38 > 0:08:41this little patch of discolouration,
0:08:41 > 0:08:44this is evidence she was suffering from some sort of lung disease.
0:08:44 > 0:08:47Now, we think that it was probably TB
0:08:47 > 0:08:51and we tried to prove it by carrying out some DNA analysis,
0:08:51 > 0:08:53but unfortunately, the DNA just didn't survive
0:08:53 > 0:08:56to give us that conclusive proof.
0:08:56 > 0:08:58But that's what we think it was.
0:08:58 > 0:09:02Actually, that's very sad, the idea of this young person
0:09:02 > 0:09:06coughing her life away in the smoke and darkness of an Iron Age hut.
0:09:06 > 0:09:11'Ever since she was discovered, we knew she was Iron Age,
0:09:11 > 0:09:16'but whether she was early Iron Age, around 700 or 800 BC,
0:09:16 > 0:09:21'or from a time much closer to the Romans, was still a mystery.'
0:09:21 > 0:09:24We didn't have any idea when during this period our girl lived.
0:09:27 > 0:09:30'Now, nearly 13 years after her discovery,
0:09:30 > 0:09:34'we've sent some of her remains to be radiocarbon dated.'
0:09:36 > 0:09:40'It turns out that she lived around 300 BC,
0:09:40 > 0:09:43'right in the middle of the Iron Age.'
0:09:45 > 0:09:49'But her world didn't seem to be one of Celtic leaders and hero warriors,
0:09:49 > 0:09:54'just an ordinary existence in a small, simple Iron Age community.
0:09:54 > 0:09:58'She might have been left in a pit with animal bones
0:09:58 > 0:10:02'and broken pottery, but why was SHE singled out for burial at all?'
0:10:11 > 0:10:14Now it seems as if she really was rather special
0:10:14 > 0:10:17because otherwise, why would she be given a proper burial
0:10:17 > 0:10:20rather than being left to simply rot away?
0:10:20 > 0:10:23Now when we first found her, there was a suggestion
0:10:23 > 0:10:27that she hadn't died of TB, but had maybe been a human sacrifice.
0:10:27 > 0:10:30Something that does happen occasionally during the Iron Age.
0:10:30 > 0:10:33If that was the case, then this place would be
0:10:33 > 0:10:36not so much a place of mourning, but of something much, much darker.
0:10:38 > 0:10:41'This is the first time I've returned to the site of the dig
0:10:41 > 0:10:42'in over a decade.
0:10:42 > 0:10:45'Since then, the school has seen a new headmaster...'
0:10:45 > 0:10:49Hello! '..And a lot more building work.'
0:10:49 > 0:10:52This has all changed quite a bit since I was here last time.
0:10:52 > 0:10:55There have been quite a few changes, I think, in the last ten years.
0:10:55 > 0:10:57To be quite honest, the only thing that I actually recognise
0:10:57 > 0:11:00around here is the roundhouse that we built all that time ago.
0:11:00 > 0:11:03And I'm amazed to see it still standing.
0:11:03 > 0:11:06That must be the building that went up
0:11:06 > 0:11:08where we did the excavation in 2000.
0:11:08 > 0:11:10That's correct. That is the actual building there.
0:11:10 > 0:11:12That went up in 2000.
0:11:12 > 0:11:14I think you found a number of artefacts in this area,
0:11:14 > 0:11:17- but the actual... - I remember this whole bit being dug.
0:11:17 > 0:11:20- That's right.- And I'm just trying to remember what it was like.
0:11:20 > 0:11:23So if that was where the excavation was...
0:11:23 > 0:11:26and that's where that first burial came from...
0:11:26 > 0:11:29- That will be Betty just there. - Betty?!
0:11:29 > 0:11:32- Betty, Bourton Betty. - Is that what she's known as?- It is.
0:11:32 > 0:11:35- And she's just inside the buildings just there.- Right.
0:11:39 > 0:11:46So today, the location of the burial pit is right...here,
0:11:46 > 0:11:50in the corner of the corridor, right outside the classroom.
0:11:50 > 0:11:53But it's actually in the layout of the whole site
0:11:53 > 0:11:57that we think there might be more clues about our girl's life.
0:11:57 > 0:12:00Often the secrets lie in the bones, but initially, there didn't seem
0:12:00 > 0:12:04to be anything particularly special about the bones of the girl
0:12:04 > 0:12:05that was found just out there.
0:12:05 > 0:12:08So archaeologists turned to the rest of the site,
0:12:08 > 0:12:11and here there was an absolute wealth of information.
0:12:11 > 0:12:14Because in this classroom, there were masses of other pits.
0:12:14 > 0:12:16There's one over here.
0:12:17 > 0:12:19There's one just beside me here.
0:12:22 > 0:12:26One over there. Another huge pit over by the wall there.
0:12:26 > 0:12:29And these pits contained pottery, animal bone -
0:12:29 > 0:12:30rubbish, in other words.
0:12:30 > 0:12:34But rubbish is what gets archaeologists very excited.
0:12:39 > 0:12:44Back in 2000, the pit's contents were sieved and examined,
0:12:44 > 0:12:47yielding plant material, including cereal crops,
0:12:47 > 0:12:50such as barley and wheat.
0:12:50 > 0:12:53There were also the bones of domestic animals,
0:12:53 > 0:12:55including sheep and cattle,
0:12:55 > 0:12:57and pieces of simple pottery.
0:13:02 > 0:13:05Chemical analysis of that pottery revealed just what
0:13:05 > 0:13:08the Iron Age villagers of Bourton had been cooking.
0:13:10 > 0:13:13This particular one is screaming animal fat at us.
0:13:13 > 0:13:16These are fatty acids and they are mainly saturated fatty acids
0:13:16 > 0:13:19that we associate with animal fats.
0:13:19 > 0:13:23There is evidence of milk fat as well as meat fat.
0:13:23 > 0:13:27So they are both eating the meat and milking the animals as well?
0:13:27 > 0:13:30- That's right.- It's fascinating, isn't it, that you can tell
0:13:30 > 0:13:34- so much just from a little piece of pottery?- That's right.
0:13:34 > 0:13:36They are very nice little time capsules of information.
0:13:38 > 0:13:40Back then, all the analysis painted a picture
0:13:40 > 0:13:43of a perfectly normal Iron Age settlement.
0:13:44 > 0:13:46But there was still a mystery.
0:13:46 > 0:13:49Because despite the large number of pits,
0:13:49 > 0:13:52we still only had one skeleton.
0:13:52 > 0:13:57A solitary girl, buried in a pit, with broken pottery and bones.
0:14:04 > 0:14:07All the evidence from that original excavation - the bones,
0:14:07 > 0:14:09the pottery - showed that this was a fairly typical
0:14:09 > 0:14:12self-sufficient Iron Age settlement.
0:14:12 > 0:14:14Nothing very unusual about it at all.
0:14:14 > 0:14:17And nothing to suggest why that girl had been chosen.
0:14:17 > 0:14:18What was clear, though, was that
0:14:18 > 0:14:21she hadn't simply been thrown out with the rubbish.
0:14:21 > 0:14:24Her burial meant something to the people who placed her in that pit
0:14:24 > 0:14:26over 2,000 years ago.
0:14:26 > 0:14:28But why was a mystery.
0:14:28 > 0:14:30We hadn't really got any idea
0:14:30 > 0:14:33and sacrifice remained just one possibility.
0:14:33 > 0:14:36But a couple of years after that original excavation,
0:14:36 > 0:14:38more work was carried out here
0:14:38 > 0:14:41which showed that she wasn't quite as alone as we had thought.
0:14:43 > 0:14:47'More construction work three years after the original dig
0:14:47 > 0:14:49'revealed more discoveries.'
0:14:50 > 0:14:53This is another building that wasn't here
0:14:53 > 0:14:54when I came here to do that first excavation.
0:14:54 > 0:14:57Because the school hall was only built in 2003.
0:14:57 > 0:14:59And of course, before that was built,
0:14:59 > 0:15:02there was another excavation and more discoveries were made.
0:15:03 > 0:15:09'What we found were yet more pits. And within them, more skeletons.
0:15:09 > 0:15:11'Eight of them.'
0:15:14 > 0:15:16So this is what was found here.
0:15:16 > 0:15:20There were complete skeletons in...this pit.
0:15:23 > 0:15:25This one.
0:15:26 > 0:15:28This one.
0:15:28 > 0:15:29One over here.
0:15:30 > 0:15:35And then there were bits of people in a whole cluster of pits
0:15:35 > 0:15:39around here, here...here.
0:15:39 > 0:15:42And then this pit right at the edge of the trench is where
0:15:42 > 0:15:45there were the remains of a baby, of a neonate.
0:15:48 > 0:15:52The new discoveries in 2003 changed everything.
0:15:52 > 0:15:54Our story of a special girl,
0:15:54 > 0:15:59possibly a solitary human sacrifice, had to be completely reassessed.
0:16:00 > 0:16:02This was an amazing discovery.
0:16:02 > 0:16:05Because suddenly it seemed as if our girl wasn't the chosen one,
0:16:05 > 0:16:10but she might have been part of a chosen few. Or even a chosen many.
0:16:10 > 0:16:14So that begs the question, was this a cemetery for the whole community?
0:16:14 > 0:16:17Or was there something very special about all the people
0:16:17 > 0:16:18that were buried here?
0:16:18 > 0:16:20And what, if anything,
0:16:20 > 0:16:23did our girl have in common with all these other people?
0:16:28 > 0:16:31Ever since that original discovery, I've been intrigued
0:16:31 > 0:16:35by the mysterious fate of that one young Iron Age girl.
0:16:37 > 0:16:40Now, with the evidence of eight new burials,
0:16:40 > 0:16:43I might at least be able to get closer to the truth.
0:16:43 > 0:16:49What did the people who lived in Bourton believe 2,300 years ago?
0:16:49 > 0:16:53And what connected the lives and deaths of these chosen few,
0:16:53 > 0:16:55as well as our original girl?
0:16:58 > 0:17:01Today, the new skeletons have been conserved
0:17:01 > 0:17:04by Gloucestershire County Council Archaeology Service.
0:17:04 > 0:17:07And we've asked forensic archaeologist Charlotte Roberts
0:17:07 > 0:17:09to make a detailed examination of them.
0:17:11 > 0:17:13What they are revealing is a pattern,
0:17:13 > 0:17:18and a possible reason why these people were marked out for burial.
0:17:18 > 0:17:23The most interesting individuals are three adult women, older adult women.
0:17:23 > 0:17:28And also a child 18 months to two years old. And we have a newborn.
0:17:28 > 0:17:32Here are some remains of that newborn. Tiny little shoulder blade.
0:17:32 > 0:17:35Yeah. I'm amazed that much has survived.
0:17:35 > 0:17:37Is there anything consistent
0:17:37 > 0:17:41about what's come out of the analysis of these burials?
0:17:41 > 0:17:45The interesting thing about this site is it's producing individuals
0:17:45 > 0:17:48who've got a range of different diseases
0:17:48 > 0:17:50affecting the bones and teeth.
0:17:50 > 0:17:52And that seems to be a consistent pattern.
0:17:52 > 0:17:54Because that first one that we found
0:17:54 > 0:17:57had the evidence of lung infection, didn't she?
0:17:57 > 0:18:00- On the ribs, yes.- Are they coming up with similar sort of things?
0:18:00 > 0:18:04We are seeing evidence of infectious disease.
0:18:04 > 0:18:07We've got another of the females who has sinusitis.
0:18:07 > 0:18:13So we've got bone formation in this sinus in the face,
0:18:13 > 0:18:15which indicates poor air quality.
0:18:15 > 0:18:21- Again, you think about the smoky hut, sinusitis, maybe TB.- Yes.
0:18:21 > 0:18:24- Right.- Obviously there's something going on within that community
0:18:24 > 0:18:27- and they are living with poor air quality.- Yeah.
0:18:27 > 0:18:29This is a child's skull, isn't it?
0:18:29 > 0:18:32Yes, this is an 18-month to two-year-old child.
0:18:32 > 0:18:39Inside the skull, you can see lots of little patches of new bone.
0:18:39 > 0:18:44Which probably represent inflammation of the brain
0:18:44 > 0:18:48that's actually affected the skull's surface.
0:18:49 > 0:18:53'But one of the skeletons revealed something even more distinctive.
0:18:53 > 0:18:55'A very marked disability.'
0:18:55 > 0:19:00If you look at her skeleton, the top half is pretty normal.
0:19:00 > 0:19:02That's what you'd expect for a female.
0:19:02 > 0:19:05But if you look at the lower half of her body,
0:19:05 > 0:19:07you can see that the bones are very wasted.
0:19:07 > 0:19:11It almost looks like an adult body from this part,
0:19:11 > 0:19:14and a child's body from here down. Because these are so thin.
0:19:14 > 0:19:18- They are not normal sized femurs, are they?- No.
0:19:18 > 0:19:21If you actually compare what the normal femur should
0:19:21 > 0:19:24look like from this site, from one of the other females,
0:19:24 > 0:19:31you will see that the normal contour of the bone has been lost.
0:19:31 > 0:19:35You see here, the muscle markings are not as prominent as here.
0:19:35 > 0:19:37What does that imply?
0:19:37 > 0:19:39Had this person got the use of their legs,
0:19:39 > 0:19:43or is that why the bones are wasted like this?
0:19:43 > 0:19:45I certainly don't think this person
0:19:45 > 0:19:49is actually using their legs as they would normally.
0:19:49 > 0:19:53They're very wasted because the muscles are not working.
0:19:53 > 0:19:59Therefore, the bones will just waste away. They could have been paralysed.
0:19:59 > 0:20:03- Yeah.- There are lots of reasons why you might get paralysed legs.
0:20:03 > 0:20:06Some rarer than others. Things like a stroke,
0:20:06 > 0:20:09though that would just affect one side of the body.
0:20:09 > 0:20:11Things like multiple sclerosis,
0:20:11 > 0:20:14motor neurone disease, polio, myelitis.
0:20:14 > 0:20:18But this has presumably happened early in life, hasn't it?
0:20:18 > 0:20:22- Because for that amount of wastage to take place...- Yeah.
0:20:22 > 0:20:25Then you start to think, well, did the community look after them?
0:20:25 > 0:20:27That's what really intrigues me,
0:20:27 > 0:20:30because it's got those interesting ideas behind it.
0:20:30 > 0:20:33Rather than it being a society where if you weren't productive,
0:20:33 > 0:20:38you were simply thrown out, you were looked after and survived.
0:20:38 > 0:20:42- Yes!- I'm surprised that so many of these are extra bones.
0:20:42 > 0:20:44I know it's only a small group, isn't it?
0:20:44 > 0:20:47But there do seem to be quite a large number of them.
0:20:47 > 0:20:49There do. We are only looking at eight individuals
0:20:49 > 0:20:52and of course that's a very small sample size.
0:20:52 > 0:20:54And then projecting your findings
0:20:54 > 0:20:57on the general Iron Age population of the area
0:20:57 > 0:21:00is rather dodgy, to say the least.
0:21:00 > 0:21:02But it is an interesting group of skeletons,
0:21:02 > 0:21:05producing a lot of evidence for disease and trauma.
0:21:12 > 0:21:15I'm really intrigued by all this new evidence for disease.
0:21:15 > 0:21:18Because when we first found our girl back in 2000,
0:21:18 > 0:21:20the only thing that seemed unusual about her
0:21:20 > 0:21:23was the fact that she was suffering from some sort of lung disease.
0:21:23 > 0:21:26But now it seems as if that might be what links her in
0:21:26 > 0:21:27with all these other people,
0:21:27 > 0:21:31all of whom seem to have signs of some sort of serious ailment.
0:21:31 > 0:21:35But then of course, that raises another idea - what was this place?
0:21:35 > 0:21:38Was this simply somewhere the injured or diseased were buried
0:21:38 > 0:21:40when they finally died,
0:21:40 > 0:21:43or was there something far more spiritual about it?
0:21:43 > 0:21:46I think what this new evidence has done is show that the idea
0:21:46 > 0:21:50of this girl being a human sacrifice can be completely dismissed.
0:21:50 > 0:21:54But it has opened up all sorts of other intriguing possibilities.
0:21:59 > 0:22:02'By examining things like pottery and bones,
0:22:02 > 0:22:05'we can get a really good handle on life in the Iron Age.
0:22:05 > 0:22:08'The sort of places people lived. What they ate.
0:22:08 > 0:22:11'The technology that they used.
0:22:11 > 0:22:14'But we are also beginning to understand more about what
0:22:14 > 0:22:18'they thought about the world that they lived in. About life and death.
0:22:18 > 0:22:20'About what they believed.'
0:22:21 > 0:22:25This is where burials are so important to the archaeologist.
0:22:25 > 0:22:29Because the way that we treat our dead says an awful lot
0:22:29 > 0:22:31about the way we see the land of the living.
0:22:33 > 0:22:35So was there also something spiritual
0:22:35 > 0:22:38linking the burials of our rather unusual people?
0:22:40 > 0:22:43Tom Moore is a specialist in Iron Age ritual.
0:22:43 > 0:22:47One of the unusual things in the Iron Age is the variation in burial rites.
0:22:47 > 0:22:50We have very distinctive rites in places like East Yorkshire.
0:22:50 > 0:22:54Very distinctive rites in Dorset. But the majority of people,
0:22:54 > 0:22:57throughout many parts of Britain, are not buried at all.
0:22:57 > 0:22:58So what about round here?
0:22:58 > 0:23:01How do people dispose of the dead around here?
0:23:01 > 0:23:03Here, most people are probably excarnated.
0:23:03 > 0:23:05That means they are probably placed in trees,
0:23:05 > 0:23:08and the remains that are left are brought back...
0:23:08 > 0:23:09So they just gently rot away?
0:23:09 > 0:23:12They gently rot away in the open, and their remains are brought back
0:23:12 > 0:23:14and deposited on the settlement sites.
0:23:14 > 0:23:17And we have that from places like Bourton-on-the-Water and Salmonsbury.
0:23:17 > 0:23:21Other people are then chosen for particular burial.
0:23:21 > 0:23:23That's the sort of interesting thing, isn't it?
0:23:23 > 0:23:25Because here we've got a group of people who,
0:23:25 > 0:23:28- they've put them into pits. - No, most people are excarnated.
0:23:28 > 0:23:31These particular people have been chosen for a distinctive rite.
0:23:31 > 0:23:32And that makes them distinctive.
0:23:32 > 0:23:35And suggests there's something distinctive about them within
0:23:35 > 0:23:38the community that leads them to get treated in a different way.
0:23:38 > 0:23:41It has intrigued us as Iron Age specialists to ask -
0:23:41 > 0:23:43why have these people been chosen in particular?
0:23:43 > 0:23:46And one of the interesting things with the material at Bourton
0:23:46 > 0:23:49is that all of the remains seem to have some kind of malady.
0:23:49 > 0:23:51They are not all the same malady.
0:23:51 > 0:23:53But it may be that these people looked different.
0:23:53 > 0:23:57Appeared different to the community. So that they were chosen.
0:23:57 > 0:24:00Now they're not necessarily being treated differently
0:24:00 > 0:24:02because they're diseased or outcasts,
0:24:02 > 0:24:06clearly the elder female has been treated well all her life.
0:24:06 > 0:24:08But they may be special within that community.
0:24:08 > 0:24:10They may be regarded as being people who have been
0:24:10 > 0:24:12touched by the gods, for instance.
0:24:12 > 0:24:14They're distinctive within that community.
0:24:14 > 0:24:16So they get treated in actually a very special way.
0:24:16 > 0:24:18That's an intriguing thought, isn't it?
0:24:18 > 0:24:21People that to us would seem perhaps less,
0:24:21 > 0:24:24they may well have been elevated by what they're suffering from
0:24:24 > 0:24:26to some special status.
0:24:26 > 0:24:29Within these communities, they may have been regarded as
0:24:29 > 0:24:32the most special people within the community. Different.
0:24:32 > 0:24:34Somehow perhaps having contact with a different world,
0:24:34 > 0:24:37having a distinctiveness within the community
0:24:37 > 0:24:39that other people didn't have.
0:24:39 > 0:24:42And this place might have been important too.
0:24:42 > 0:24:46Because in the Iron Age, water, and especially rivers,
0:24:46 > 0:24:48were also spiritually important.
0:24:48 > 0:24:51Perhaps connections to the other world.
0:24:51 > 0:24:54I can see why they call this place Bourton-on-the-Water, can't you?
0:24:54 > 0:24:57There's a stream running down through the middle of it.
0:24:57 > 0:25:01But was water something that was really important in the Iron Age?
0:25:01 > 0:25:04Was it seen as being something sacred?
0:25:04 > 0:25:07Well, it's increasingly apparent to us that in the Iron Age,
0:25:07 > 0:25:09spiritual, symbolic behaviour is everywhere.
0:25:09 > 0:25:12In the way they orientate their houses, in everything.
0:25:12 > 0:25:15But water seems to have had a particularly significant role.
0:25:15 > 0:25:18It's the place for the deposition of elaborate metalwork,
0:25:18 > 0:25:20deposition of human remains.
0:25:20 > 0:25:24- So they're putting people and special things into wet places.- Yep.
0:25:24 > 0:25:25And even recently we've realised
0:25:25 > 0:25:28that they don't seem to be eating fish in the Iron Age.
0:25:28 > 0:25:31In contrast to earlier periods and later periods,
0:25:31 > 0:25:32they're not eating much fish.
0:25:32 > 0:25:35And that might suggest to us that there are some taboos about water.
0:25:35 > 0:25:39So that something that comes out of it, you're not eating as well?
0:25:39 > 0:25:42Yes, and so it has a spiritual significance
0:25:42 > 0:25:44above and beyond other elements in society.
0:25:46 > 0:25:5013 years ago, here in Bourton, we investigated a single burial,
0:25:50 > 0:25:52of a girl.
0:25:52 > 0:25:54And at the time, we thought the reason she'd been chosen
0:25:54 > 0:25:58for burial was perhaps because she might have been sacrificed.
0:25:58 > 0:26:00That this was somehow what made her special.
0:26:00 > 0:26:03But discoveries made over this last decade have revealed that
0:26:03 > 0:26:07she wasn't the chosen one, but was part of a chosen few.
0:26:07 > 0:26:09And these new discoveries have also given us insight
0:26:09 > 0:26:14into the rituals and beliefs of the society that she lived in.
0:26:14 > 0:26:18We now know that these people had a spiritual relationship with water.
0:26:18 > 0:26:21And also, that being diseased or badly injured
0:26:21 > 0:26:24might be what singled you out as being special.
0:26:24 > 0:26:27That you were somehow touched by the gods.
0:26:30 > 0:26:33'New discoveries like those eight skeletons
0:26:33 > 0:26:36'can sometimes help us to understand
0:26:36 > 0:26:38'the complex beliefs of the Iron Age.'
0:26:40 > 0:26:44'But sometimes, it's not new discoveries
0:26:44 > 0:26:48'but new scientific analysis that can lead to fresh insights.
0:26:48 > 0:26:52'And that's what's happened in the case of another Iron Age burial.'
0:26:54 > 0:26:56Burials from the Iron Age are rare.
0:26:56 > 0:26:59And burials of women from this period are even more rare.
0:26:59 > 0:27:01What I didn't realise was,
0:27:01 > 0:27:03when we were looking at the life of this teenage girl
0:27:03 > 0:27:07from Bourton-on-the-Water, that a year later, I'd be investigating
0:27:07 > 0:27:11the life of another Iron Age woman, who lived a few generations later,
0:27:11 > 0:27:14but whose life was very, very different.
0:27:25 > 0:27:27In 2001 I drove up north,
0:27:27 > 0:27:29heading for East Yorkshire, on what was going to be
0:27:29 > 0:27:33one of the most exciting archaeological digs of my life.
0:27:44 > 0:27:48If our Bourton girl came from an ordinary village, this new find
0:27:48 > 0:27:52took me into the very highest echelons of Iron Age society.
0:27:54 > 0:27:57It was right here under my feet that we had the first hints
0:27:57 > 0:27:58of something very special.
0:27:58 > 0:28:02In 2001, of course, none of this was here. It was just a sea of mud.
0:28:02 > 0:28:05There were none of these houses, this road wasn't here.
0:28:05 > 0:28:08The clue to what we found here lies in the name that they gave to
0:28:08 > 0:28:10this little close of houses.
0:28:10 > 0:28:14Here we are - Chariot Way. Actually sends a shiver up my spine.
0:28:19 > 0:28:24Back in 2001, I arrived on site to find everyone already hard at work.
0:28:24 > 0:28:29Under a tent was a massive grave that we hoped would contain
0:28:29 > 0:28:32a rare Iron Age chariot burial.
0:28:32 > 0:28:36It was immediately clear I was NOT going to be disappointed.
0:28:40 > 0:28:43Pieces of bronze horse harness were already emerging
0:28:43 > 0:28:45from the dark earth,
0:28:45 > 0:28:48the objects confirming everything we'd hoped for.
0:28:48 > 0:28:51We did have a chariot burial.
0:28:51 > 0:28:54And I wasted no time in getting stuck in.
0:28:56 > 0:29:01I've got what was once an Iron Age cartwheel.
0:29:01 > 0:29:05But now, unfortunately, there's very little left of it.
0:29:05 > 0:29:07And the other thing that's a bit of a shame is that I hoped there
0:29:07 > 0:29:11would be traces of wooden spoke radiating out from a certain point.
0:29:11 > 0:29:12But there's not a sign
0:29:12 > 0:29:15so it looks as if it's just the remains of the iron tyre.
0:29:18 > 0:29:21There's another rather unexpected lump of iron in the middle
0:29:21 > 0:29:24of this cartwheel. I'm not sure what it is.
0:29:24 > 0:29:26(WOMAN) I've got a tree root.
0:29:28 > 0:29:30INDISTINCT MURMURING
0:29:31 > 0:29:33METAL DETECTOR BEEPS
0:29:33 > 0:29:35'The importance of this find
0:29:35 > 0:29:37'attracted a large team of specialists,
0:29:37 > 0:29:40'including experts from the British Museum.'
0:29:41 > 0:29:46'But while the BM was armed with the latest technology,
0:29:46 > 0:29:48'I had to make do with pen and paper.'
0:29:49 > 0:29:54What we think's happening is that there's a wooden yoke here.
0:29:54 > 0:29:58One wheel just here.
0:29:58 > 0:30:04And we assume another wheel overlapping it just here.
0:30:04 > 0:30:07And then there's the pole of the cart that runs right down
0:30:07 > 0:30:09the whole length of the grave.
0:30:09 > 0:30:13And the reason that the grave is so wide at this point,
0:30:13 > 0:30:17is that this is where the cart axle will lie.
0:30:17 > 0:30:24But the big puzzle is, where is the bodywork of this cart?
0:30:24 > 0:30:27It must be somewhere in this area here.
0:30:27 > 0:30:30And the big puzzle of course is, if there is a burial in here,
0:30:30 > 0:30:33if there's a skeleton, then where is that?
0:30:33 > 0:30:36Everybody seems to reckon that it's right in the middle here.
0:30:38 > 0:30:40- Think I might just lift it like that.- OK.
0:30:40 > 0:30:43'But before we could start looking for a skeleton,
0:30:43 > 0:30:45'we had to remove pieces of chariot
0:30:45 > 0:30:47'and exquisitely worked horse harness.'
0:30:49 > 0:30:53Just look at the detail and the way that's been moulded.
0:30:53 > 0:30:55This is the link.
0:30:55 > 0:30:57And that's the bit that would have been in the horse's mouth!
0:30:57 > 0:30:59Look, even more details.
0:30:59 > 0:31:01Just look at the little lobes coming up on there.
0:31:01 > 0:31:04- Have they got some coral on them as well?- I don't know.
0:31:04 > 0:31:06This is one of the finest to come from any cart burial
0:31:06 > 0:31:09from East Yorkshire. I think we can say that already.
0:31:09 > 0:31:12And it ranks alongside some of the finest
0:31:12 > 0:31:14Iron Age horse bits in Britain.
0:31:16 > 0:31:21Now, a decade later, the finds are stored at the British Museum.
0:31:21 > 0:31:24It's always fascinating to see objects once they've been conserved,
0:31:24 > 0:31:27because I remember seeing them to start with,
0:31:27 > 0:31:29as they were eased out of the earth in Yorkshire,
0:31:29 > 0:31:32and it was pouring with rain and they were covered with mud.
0:31:32 > 0:31:36But to see them now, in all their beauty, it's just astonishing.
0:31:39 > 0:31:42Finding pieces of any chariot was special.
0:31:42 > 0:31:46But this Iron Age metalwork was some of the finest ever found.
0:31:48 > 0:31:52Including one particular part that proved especially important,
0:31:52 > 0:31:56and one that for me also held a very special memory.
0:32:00 > 0:32:04I do feel very proud that I was the person that found this,
0:32:04 > 0:32:08dug it out the ground over ten years ago in Yorkshire.
0:32:08 > 0:32:12But it didn't look like that when I first found it.
0:32:12 > 0:32:14It was just like a lump of rusty corrosion.
0:32:14 > 0:32:17You couldn't even really see the proper shape of it.
0:32:17 > 0:32:21But all the work that's gone on has just revealed the shape of it.
0:32:21 > 0:32:23And the fact that it's covered,
0:32:23 > 0:32:26this iron object is covered in sheet bronze.
0:32:26 > 0:32:29So it wouldn't have looked rusty,
0:32:29 > 0:32:31it would have shone, it would've gleamed.
0:32:31 > 0:32:33Absolutely amazing.
0:32:41 > 0:32:45Of course, getting the parts out of the ground is one thing.
0:32:45 > 0:32:49But back in 2001, we knew that the only way to find out
0:32:49 > 0:32:51how they all fitted together
0:32:51 > 0:32:55was to create a fully working replica chariot.
0:32:55 > 0:32:57INDISTINCT CHATTER
0:32:57 > 0:32:59What's the greatest diameter of the axle?
0:32:59 > 0:33:03'A team of experts in ancient technology set to work
0:33:03 > 0:33:07'constructing new parts from scratch, using tools just like those
0:33:07 > 0:33:10'that would have been used in the Iron Age.'
0:33:10 > 0:33:11That's nicely split.
0:33:19 > 0:33:23'This was the first time that something this ambitious
0:33:23 > 0:33:25'had been attempted.'
0:33:25 > 0:33:27This end is still a bit soft.
0:33:27 > 0:33:30That's really going to hold anything we need it to.
0:33:30 > 0:33:34'Mike Lodes and Robert Hereford had to draw on archaeological evidence
0:33:34 > 0:33:36'from across Europe to understand
0:33:36 > 0:33:39'how it would all have fitted together.'
0:33:40 > 0:33:44You've got this repeating motif in these coins of two bows
0:33:44 > 0:33:47and most of them have a Y-shape.
0:33:47 > 0:33:50Here it is, over and over again, the same thing.
0:33:50 > 0:33:54Why don't we give it a use? Two bows.
0:33:54 > 0:33:57And some bits of cotton which suspend from the bows.
0:33:57 > 0:34:00And a floor which is actually a separate frame
0:34:00 > 0:34:03from the main frame of the cart.
0:34:03 > 0:34:10So you can actually get some sort of shock absorbency
0:34:10 > 0:34:13in all the bits and pieces that make up that.
0:34:13 > 0:34:16We don't know how it will work yet but I reckon it might be worth a try.
0:34:19 > 0:34:23This elegant solution fitted all the evidence found at Wetwang.
0:34:34 > 0:34:37Months later, the chariot was finally taking shape.
0:34:39 > 0:34:41But there was a big problem.
0:34:41 > 0:34:45No-one had quite worked out how to stop the wheels from falling off.
0:34:47 > 0:34:51The answer lay in my very own discovery.
0:34:51 > 0:34:55The mysteriously bent piece of metalwork proved to be critical.
0:34:55 > 0:34:57It was a linchpin.
0:35:02 > 0:35:05Apparently, two exact copies would be enough
0:35:05 > 0:35:07to get the chariot on the road.
0:35:09 > 0:35:12They seem to have been found in the grave,
0:35:12 > 0:35:14lying on the faces of the wheels.
0:35:14 > 0:35:20And the pin itself had this ring attached to it by corrosion.
0:35:20 > 0:35:25I've had a think about this and I've fixed it onto a rawhide washer.
0:35:25 > 0:35:29You can mould rawhide into shapes so I have moulded a loop here
0:35:29 > 0:35:30and a loop there.
0:35:30 > 0:35:37And put thongs to it so that the pin is held by the bulb in the end.
0:35:37 > 0:35:40And it will rotate a little bit, like that.
0:35:40 > 0:35:45- The pin itself fits into a slot here in the axle.- Mm-hmm.- Yeah.
0:35:45 > 0:35:48And the hole in the washer so that...
0:35:51 > 0:35:53Pin pulls into the slot.
0:35:53 > 0:35:57This thong then goes through the ring.
0:35:57 > 0:36:05And then we can tie it off into a little knot on the top there.
0:36:06 > 0:36:08And it will keep the wheel.
0:36:08 > 0:36:13- So it's making sense of all the elements?- Yes. And it's simple.
0:36:15 > 0:36:18It's very good. Absolutely ingenious!
0:36:22 > 0:36:25At last, the Iron Age chariot was complete
0:36:25 > 0:36:28with every detail as accurate as we could make it.
0:36:28 > 0:36:31The only question - would it actually work?
0:36:32 > 0:36:36The most experimental aspect of the whole thing is this, isn't it?
0:36:36 > 0:36:39- Your suspension.- Our suspension system, absolutely.
0:36:39 > 0:36:42As far as we know, we are the first people to try this.
0:36:42 > 0:36:45And it looks wonderful, all this fantastic leather strapwork.
0:36:45 > 0:36:47You've not only got vertical suspension,
0:36:47 > 0:36:49you've also got horizontal suspension
0:36:49 > 0:36:54where it's swinging to and fro in the Y-straps quite gently.
0:36:54 > 0:36:57- I'll be very interested to see whether all this works.- Walk on!
0:36:57 > 0:37:00- CLICKS TONGUE - Get on! Get on!
0:37:03 > 0:37:04Come on.
0:37:04 > 0:37:07- The suspension is fantastic. - It's good, isn't it?
0:37:07 > 0:37:11- It really soaks up all the hits. - It really does.
0:37:11 > 0:37:14We are going on very choppy ground. Oh, you're standing up! Well done!
0:37:14 > 0:37:17So this is the way to do it. You are the driver, I'm here with a spear.
0:37:17 > 0:37:20That's right.
0:37:20 > 0:37:23- It works well, doesn't it? - It does.- Get on. Go on!
0:37:25 > 0:37:29- That's feeling remarkably stable. - And we are at a canter here.
0:37:29 > 0:37:31Isn't that exciting?
0:37:31 > 0:37:35Look at that, over that rough ground and it's taken those bumps.
0:37:35 > 0:37:38It's very exciting riding on the back of the chariot.
0:37:38 > 0:37:40And when you stand up and grab hold of the strap
0:37:40 > 0:37:41and imagine what it would have been like
0:37:41 > 0:37:44to have been on that as you went into battle,
0:37:44 > 0:37:46with a spear in your hand and chariots on either side of you,
0:37:46 > 0:37:50it gives you a feeling of what warfare in the Iron Age was like.
0:37:50 > 0:37:52But it works brilliantly well.
0:37:52 > 0:37:55That suspension is wonderful because, otherwise,
0:37:55 > 0:37:57I'm sure you'd just be bounced off the back of it.
0:37:57 > 0:38:01But you really feel as if you're part of the chariot.
0:38:01 > 0:38:03'That chariot worked.
0:38:03 > 0:38:07'And in making it, we revealed the fantastic levels of craftsmanship
0:38:07 > 0:38:10'involved in the manufacture and design of the original.'
0:38:15 > 0:38:19The craftsmanship of all these objects is very clearly Iron Age.
0:38:19 > 0:38:23And the style of decoration is something that you often hear
0:38:23 > 0:38:25referred to as "Celtic".
0:38:25 > 0:38:27Which is a bit of a problem for archaeologists because
0:38:27 > 0:38:32that's got all sorts of overtones of identity rather than just style.
0:38:32 > 0:38:34But what all of these objects together do,
0:38:34 > 0:38:37is they actually pose a real problem,
0:38:37 > 0:38:40because this type of burial, chariot burial, is something that
0:38:40 > 0:38:43occurs on the Continent, around the Paris area in France.
0:38:43 > 0:38:47So what is a chariot burial doing in Yorkshire?
0:38:47 > 0:38:48And what, if anything,
0:38:48 > 0:38:51does it have to do with this whole idea of Celtic-ness?
0:38:54 > 0:38:57By the time of our Wetwang discovery,
0:38:57 > 0:38:5919 chariot burials had been found in Yorkshire.
0:38:59 > 0:39:03But hardly any had been found anywhere else in Britain.
0:39:05 > 0:39:07In the decade since the dig,
0:39:07 > 0:39:10only one more chariot burial has been discovered -
0:39:10 > 0:39:12once again, in Yorkshire.
0:39:15 > 0:39:18Melanie Giles has been trying to understand why this area
0:39:18 > 0:39:22seems to have more in common with France than the rest of Britain.
0:39:22 > 0:39:25I must admit, I never thought that we were actually going to find
0:39:25 > 0:39:28a chariot burial while we were making the series.
0:39:28 > 0:39:31- They are rare, aren't they? - They are very rare, yes.
0:39:31 > 0:39:34And East Yorkshire is really unique within Britain
0:39:34 > 0:39:36for burying people with chariots.
0:39:36 > 0:39:40The only other place where you find similar sort of burials
0:39:40 > 0:39:42is in the Paris area of France.
0:39:42 > 0:39:46But has there been any suggestion that it was a bunch of French people
0:39:46 > 0:39:49that came over here and started burying their dead in this way?
0:39:49 > 0:39:52It used to be thought that it was literally a French invasion, they
0:39:52 > 0:39:56brought across the new religion, this technology and the new art style.
0:39:56 > 0:39:59And that they had invaded the area and displaced or...
0:39:59 > 0:40:01Kicked out all the locals!
0:40:01 > 0:40:03Yes, or lorded it over them in some way.
0:40:03 > 0:40:07But that's not the case, is that? Are these people essentially local?
0:40:07 > 0:40:09We think so.
0:40:09 > 0:40:12The isotope analysis suggests that they are born
0:40:12 > 0:40:16and brought up on the Wolds. They have lived and died locally.
0:40:16 > 0:40:19But I think it's likely the idea is coming from the continent.
0:40:19 > 0:40:22There are other things coming from the continent as well.
0:40:22 > 0:40:26Most particularly the coral that we find decorating the turrets,
0:40:26 > 0:40:30the little bit of horse gear along the front of the chariot.
0:40:31 > 0:40:35These objects give the hint that ideas are also travelling,
0:40:35 > 0:40:38and you think that this is why we suddenly get this happening here?
0:40:38 > 0:40:41Yes. Those ideas are important precisely because they are exotic.
0:40:41 > 0:40:43They are special.
0:40:43 > 0:40:45They give those objects special cachet because they are
0:40:45 > 0:40:49decorated with strange substances that have come from a long way away.
0:40:49 > 0:40:53Do we get any ideas as to whether these things are made
0:40:53 > 0:40:55as a hearse, to be used once,
0:40:55 > 0:40:58or is this something this person used in life?
0:40:58 > 0:41:01I think probably their major role is to provide somebody with
0:41:01 > 0:41:04a ceremonial vehicle for travelling in style,
0:41:04 > 0:41:06because these are not vehicles of warfare.
0:41:06 > 0:41:09They are not like the descriptions of Caesar,
0:41:09 > 0:41:12of the chariots greeting him and amassing on the cliff tops.
0:41:12 > 0:41:15And from what we know of the technology,
0:41:15 > 0:41:19it's unlikely these vehicles could travel very fast.
0:41:19 > 0:41:22They can reach a decent speed, and so you could probably launch
0:41:22 > 0:41:24a spear from them, if you were so inclined.
0:41:24 > 0:41:28But of course, its final use is as a hearse or bier.
0:41:28 > 0:41:30So I think they also have this sacred quality as well,
0:41:30 > 0:41:33because they have this association with death.
0:41:36 > 0:41:40Back in 2001, all the finds from the grave
0:41:40 > 0:41:42were analysed by experts at the British Museum.
0:41:42 > 0:41:44Here is the coral.
0:41:44 > 0:41:48Foreign coral inlays confirmed the continental connections.
0:41:48 > 0:41:51So also did some tiny glass beads.
0:41:54 > 0:41:58And Iron Age curator JD Hill made another remarkable discovery that
0:41:58 > 0:42:03proved that the chariot wasn't just a hearse, it has been used in life.
0:42:03 > 0:42:07One of the rein guides had been repaired.
0:42:07 > 0:42:11As you can clearly see, that is not a coral stud.
0:42:13 > 0:42:16It looks like a glass enamel stud,
0:42:16 > 0:42:20and it's not just simply a glass enamel stud, it looks as if
0:42:20 > 0:42:24the stud itself is made potentially from several pieces of glass.
0:42:24 > 0:42:30What it is, is a little red stud which has been made by heating
0:42:30 > 0:42:36raw red glass till it gets to the consistency of putty
0:42:36 > 0:42:39and then cutting it with a knife into shape at that stage.
0:42:39 > 0:42:42Then leaving it to cool down.
0:42:42 > 0:42:46Now that enamel stud is potentially the most important find
0:42:46 > 0:42:49we've made so far from this grave.
0:42:49 > 0:42:52Because that clearly tells us
0:42:52 > 0:42:55- we are not dealing with a vehicle made for burial.- Yes.
0:42:58 > 0:43:00I love the way that archaeology works,
0:43:00 > 0:43:03because so often it really is like a detective story,
0:43:03 > 0:43:08in that it's the smallest object that provide the breakthroughs.
0:43:08 > 0:43:09'Every detail of our chariot
0:43:09 > 0:43:12'revealed something of the life of its owner
0:43:12 > 0:43:15'and the technology of this remote and distant age.'
0:43:17 > 0:43:19The discovery of the chariot told us
0:43:19 > 0:43:23a huge amount more beyond the rather obvious fact that whoever was
0:43:23 > 0:43:26buried with it was somebody of status and power in the Iron Age.
0:43:26 > 0:43:28All of the components of the chariot
0:43:28 > 0:43:31and harness fittings enabled us to reconstruct the whole thing
0:43:31 > 0:43:34and find out what it was actually like to ride in it.
0:43:34 > 0:43:37And some of the materials that were involved in its construction
0:43:37 > 0:43:40revealed connections between continental Europe
0:43:40 > 0:43:44and the people of East Yorkshire in about 200 BC.
0:43:44 > 0:43:46But what we didn't know was that as the excavation
0:43:46 > 0:43:51entered its final phase, it was going to spring one final surprise.
0:43:51 > 0:43:54Something that caused an absolute media storm.
0:43:57 > 0:44:01'Back in 2001, with all the pieces of the chariot removed,
0:44:01 > 0:44:04'the very first bones started to appear.'
0:44:04 > 0:44:07It looks as if there's quite a cavity there.
0:44:07 > 0:44:09Obviously that's not the facial bones, is it?
0:44:09 > 0:44:13- So it must be...- No, it's the top of the skull. What is it?
0:44:13 > 0:44:16- I'm trying to work out which... - It's there, is it?
0:44:19 > 0:44:21'As the soil was cleared away,
0:44:21 > 0:44:24'we got our first glimpse of the chariot's owner.'
0:44:24 > 0:44:28Here, I think we've got the lower jaw but it's all been
0:44:28 > 0:44:32quite crushed and compressed by the weight of the soil.
0:44:32 > 0:44:34It's not bad, is it?
0:44:34 > 0:44:37The ramus in here, the side of the jawbone, this strip down here,
0:44:37 > 0:44:40is really quite thin and graceful.
0:44:40 > 0:44:43Which is often a sign of it being female.
0:44:43 > 0:44:45There must be a possibility that it is female.
0:44:45 > 0:44:50But still have to wait and see. First signs suggest it could be.
0:44:50 > 0:44:51Well, at last we found some bones.
0:44:51 > 0:44:55We got our first glimpse of the person for whom this burial was intended.
0:44:55 > 0:44:58And it's a bit of a puzzle because I think we assumed that because
0:44:58 > 0:45:03this was a cart burial, or a chariot burial, then it must be for a man.
0:45:03 > 0:45:06But the first look at the bones suggests we found a woman.
0:45:08 > 0:45:11'In a male-warrior-dominated society,
0:45:11 > 0:45:14'it was the last thing that we'd expected.
0:45:14 > 0:45:19'A woman sent to the next world with her chariot, rich grave goods
0:45:19 > 0:45:21'and food for the journey.'
0:45:25 > 0:45:28'Overnight, she became a new sensation,
0:45:28 > 0:45:31'the press dubbing her "the Chariot Queen".'
0:45:33 > 0:45:35It's a very wealthy burial.
0:45:35 > 0:45:38I think there have only been seven of these that have been
0:45:38 > 0:45:41excavated in recent times, under controlled conditions like this.
0:45:41 > 0:45:44We think it's the earliest that's ever been found.
0:45:44 > 0:45:47It probably dates back somewhere around 400 BC.
0:45:51 > 0:45:54'Today, more than 12 years after being unearthed,
0:45:54 > 0:45:57'the precious remains of the Chariot Queen are kept
0:45:57 > 0:45:59'in the store rooms of the British Museum.'
0:46:06 > 0:46:07And here she is.
0:46:07 > 0:46:10Her remains have been cleaned, catalogued
0:46:10 > 0:46:12and studied in minute detail.
0:46:14 > 0:46:16And what they show us is a woman
0:46:16 > 0:46:18who was at least 40 years old when she died,
0:46:18 > 0:46:23with isotope analysis suggesting she was Yorkshire born and bred.
0:46:23 > 0:46:26But despite being very local, she lived in a world where
0:46:26 > 0:46:30surprising influences from all over Europe played a very important part.
0:46:32 > 0:46:35'This woman was one of the earliest people in Britain
0:46:35 > 0:46:38'we know to have been buried with Celtic artefacts.'
0:46:38 > 0:46:43For us, one very important question was - what did she look like?
0:46:43 > 0:46:45And that was something that we could answer,
0:46:45 > 0:46:48using her reconstructed skull and forensic science.
0:46:52 > 0:46:54What has emerged from all these studies
0:46:54 > 0:46:56are some very unexpected connections
0:46:56 > 0:46:59linking not only our Chariot Queen and the young girl,
0:46:59 > 0:47:02but all the other diseased burials from Bourton.
0:47:13 > 0:47:17'Back in 2001, Caroline Wilkinson went to work again,
0:47:17 > 0:47:19'this time on the Chariot Queen.'
0:47:22 > 0:47:24'But unlike our young girl from Bourton,
0:47:24 > 0:47:26'this skull was heavily distorted.'
0:47:28 > 0:47:32'Caroline called in forensic pathologist Dr Robert Stoddart
0:47:32 > 0:47:34'to give an expert opinion.'
0:47:34 > 0:47:39This degree of asymmetry is very unlikely to have been
0:47:39 > 0:47:42caused by post-mortem change.
0:47:42 > 0:47:45The bones are still well mineralised.
0:47:45 > 0:47:47And I think it's inconceivable
0:47:47 > 0:47:51that they could have been pushed out of shape to that degree.
0:47:52 > 0:48:00There has been some kind of expanding abnormality in this area
0:48:00 > 0:48:03which has elongated the face on the side.
0:48:03 > 0:48:07This side of the skull is abnormally long.
0:48:07 > 0:48:09That side is relatively normal.
0:48:09 > 0:48:15Now, that must have happened before the forming bones of the skull
0:48:15 > 0:48:18had begun to really fuse together.
0:48:18 > 0:48:21And things of this type are sometimes called hamartomata.
0:48:23 > 0:48:28Now the likely one that is involved here would be a hemangioma.
0:48:28 > 0:48:31Which is an abnormality in the development of blood vessels.
0:48:34 > 0:48:35'In life, this abnormal growth
0:48:35 > 0:48:39'would have dominated the Chariot Queen's appearance.'
0:48:41 > 0:48:44You can see this hemangioma would have given her distinctive
0:48:44 > 0:48:48texture and colour to the surface of her skin.
0:48:48 > 0:48:55We've got an example here of a mild case of haemangioma in a baby.
0:48:55 > 0:48:58And you can see a very lumpy,
0:48:58 > 0:49:01dark red discolouration to the surface of the skin.
0:49:01 > 0:49:04Similar to a port wine stain.
0:49:04 > 0:49:07But she would also have had quite a lumpy texture
0:49:07 > 0:49:10to the surface of the skin around this area of growth.
0:49:10 > 0:49:13Because it's got quite a large blood supply,
0:49:13 > 0:49:16an unusually large blood supply, this area
0:49:16 > 0:49:20would have grown quite quickly with the rate of the face itself.
0:49:20 > 0:49:23And would have continued through her adult life.
0:49:39 > 0:49:43More than a decade ago, we seemed to have two very contrasting burials
0:49:43 > 0:49:47that revealed entirely different Iron Age lives.
0:49:47 > 0:49:50Both of these people were buried in the middle part of the Iron Age
0:49:50 > 0:49:52but at opposite ends of the country.
0:49:52 > 0:49:55Whereas the young girl in Bourton seemed quite ordinary,
0:49:55 > 0:49:57and was buried in a rubbish pit,
0:49:57 > 0:50:00a year later at Wetwang in Yorkshire we found a rich chariot burial,
0:50:00 > 0:50:03with all sorts of wonderful continental influences.
0:50:07 > 0:50:10Since then, a new picture has emerged.
0:50:12 > 0:50:16Bourton girl and the skeletons subsequently discovered nearby
0:50:16 > 0:50:19all reveal signs of disease and disability.
0:50:21 > 0:50:24And our Chariot Queen, despite living in a very different
0:50:24 > 0:50:28cultural world and occupying a very different social class,
0:50:28 > 0:50:29had a facial deformity
0:50:29 > 0:50:32that would also have marked her out as different.
0:50:36 > 0:50:39But right now, yet another connection is developing.
0:50:39 > 0:50:44A connection that would take us deep into Iron Age ritual and belief.
0:50:58 > 0:51:02So we had the chariot and the woman who rode in it.
0:51:02 > 0:51:06Rich, someone of status, but not a queen or a warrior.
0:51:11 > 0:51:12So what power did she wield?
0:51:13 > 0:51:17Actually, there was one final unexpected clue that emerged
0:51:17 > 0:51:19right at the end of the excavation.
0:51:20 > 0:51:22An iron mirror.
0:51:22 > 0:51:27What came out of the ground in 2001 was a mass of corroded iron,
0:51:27 > 0:51:29fragile and crumbling.
0:51:29 > 0:51:32But what had been buried over 2,000 years earlier
0:51:32 > 0:51:35may have looked like this bronze replica.
0:51:35 > 0:51:39A beautiful object saying wealth and prestige.
0:51:39 > 0:51:43But was it simply part of a beauty kit, an object of vanity,
0:51:43 > 0:51:46or did it have some spiritual power?
0:51:46 > 0:51:49Was it a way of seeing into another world?
0:51:51 > 0:51:53You might have thought the speculation
0:51:53 > 0:51:56about the mirror's use could never be resolved.
0:51:56 > 0:52:00But a new investigation has made some remarkable discoveries
0:52:00 > 0:52:03that are potentially quite staggering in their implications.
0:52:10 > 0:52:11Back at the British Museum,
0:52:11 > 0:52:14and 12 years on from the original discoveries,
0:52:14 > 0:52:17JD Hill is still working on the finds.
0:52:18 > 0:52:22And the mirror is one of the most fascinating of all.
0:52:22 > 0:52:25These mirrors, are they just simply something to do with vanity?
0:52:25 > 0:52:29Are they just something to look at yourself in? Is it that simple?
0:52:29 > 0:52:33On one level, I suppose it is. A mirror is a mirror.
0:52:33 > 0:52:36And although to us an iron mirror
0:52:36 > 0:52:40doesn't appear to work very well,
0:52:40 > 0:52:43what you've got to remember is that we live in a world full plate glass.
0:52:43 > 0:52:45We have glass in the windows, we have glass in the cars,
0:52:45 > 0:52:48we have mirrors, we have office blocks all around us.
0:52:48 > 0:52:50You can't help but see yourself, can you?
0:52:50 > 0:52:52We are so used to seeing our reflection.
0:52:52 > 0:52:57In the Iron Age, you are only going to see your reflection
0:52:57 > 0:52:59in still water or polished metal.
0:52:59 > 0:53:03The question to ask about the mirror is the same question you've got to
0:53:03 > 0:53:06ask about every single other object you find in these chariot burials -
0:53:06 > 0:53:09what's the object doing in the burial?
0:53:09 > 0:53:12The more we look at chariot burials,
0:53:12 > 0:53:16the more I've come to the conclusion that these objects aren't
0:53:16 > 0:53:20simply there because they're the possessions of the person
0:53:20 > 0:53:24who owned them, they're actually all there to do a job in the next world.
0:53:25 > 0:53:28'These tiny glass beads were discovered buried
0:53:28 > 0:53:30'alongside our Chariot Queen.
0:53:30 > 0:53:33'But what was the purpose of placing them in the burial pit?
0:53:33 > 0:53:36'And did they have any connection to the mirror?'
0:53:36 > 0:53:39When they first came up there was a big question about what
0:53:39 > 0:53:43they could be. One suggestion at that stage was we are talking a tassel.
0:53:43 > 0:53:45- So something that was on there. - Beautiful.
0:53:45 > 0:53:49Imagine a tassel coming down here. Perhaps even horsehair.
0:53:49 > 0:53:52But when it came back to the lab, we looked in the X-ray
0:53:52 > 0:53:54and started the really detailed conservation,
0:53:54 > 0:53:58they were separated up here in a block.
0:53:58 > 0:54:01And that then raised other possibilities that they are not
0:54:01 > 0:54:05a tassel, they are potentially the drawstring of her bag.
0:54:05 > 0:54:08Have you any idea what the bag was made of?
0:54:08 > 0:54:11Because I notice there's lots of corrosion products here.
0:54:11 > 0:54:13There is lots and lots.
0:54:13 > 0:54:18And one of the...great things about iron is that it may be
0:54:18 > 0:54:21an awful problem to ultimately preserve it
0:54:21 > 0:54:25but the corrosion products often preserve tremendous detail
0:54:25 > 0:54:27of anything it's been lying next to.
0:54:29 > 0:54:32The mirror is still being investigated.
0:54:32 > 0:54:35But it's already given up some remarkable secrets.
0:54:36 > 0:54:40A layer of corrosion has revealed traces of organic materials
0:54:40 > 0:54:43that had once been in contact with the metal -
0:54:43 > 0:54:47evidence of textiles as well as human skin,
0:54:47 > 0:54:50perhaps from the Chariot Queen herself.
0:54:50 > 0:54:55But what was even more remarkable was evidence of fine animal fur.
0:54:55 > 0:54:59Fur that came from a protective bag.
0:54:59 > 0:55:03When they were doing the detailed conservation work it was apparent
0:55:03 > 0:55:09that there was animal fur lying against the mirror plate.
0:55:09 > 0:55:13And it has been suggested it was otter fur.
0:55:17 > 0:55:21The mirror's bag was made from the fur of the Eurasian otter.
0:55:21 > 0:55:24Lutra lutra.
0:55:24 > 0:55:28And if the findings are right, the implications are profound.
0:55:28 > 0:55:32The mirror, through the fur, is connected not to vanity
0:55:32 > 0:55:35but to the other world.
0:55:35 > 0:55:37In particular, like the otter,
0:55:37 > 0:55:41to the seemingly magical transition between land and water.
0:55:43 > 0:55:45Our world and the next.
0:55:49 > 0:55:52You don't find many otters when you dig up Iron Age sites.
0:55:52 > 0:55:57You find all sorts of other animals - weasels, polecats, pine martens -
0:55:57 > 0:56:02but you hardly ever find otter bones on Iron Age sites,
0:56:02 > 0:56:04even though we know they are there.
0:56:04 > 0:56:07- It's quite likely... - Is this another thing like the fish?
0:56:07 > 0:56:09It's very different... They are consciously not having them.
0:56:09 > 0:56:11They are not hunting them. They are not using them.
0:56:11 > 0:56:13Because I was just thinking,
0:56:13 > 0:56:17this rather strange bit of taxidermy from hunting otters in 1922
0:56:17 > 0:56:20so, you know, symbolic hunting of a strange animal
0:56:20 > 0:56:23was still going on in the 20th century.
0:56:23 > 0:56:25But all they were interested in then
0:56:25 > 0:56:27was just stuffing a tail and hanging it up.
0:56:27 > 0:56:30Whereas people in the Iron Age would have treated that animal
0:56:30 > 0:56:31in a very different way.
0:56:31 > 0:56:33Yes, it's got a practical function.
0:56:33 > 0:56:36It's going to keep your mirror safe from being scratched.
0:56:36 > 0:56:41But the choice of the animal is symbolically charged,
0:56:41 > 0:56:44as archaeologists would say.
0:56:44 > 0:56:46It comes with a whole series of
0:56:46 > 0:56:49meanings, myths, stories, connotations.
0:56:49 > 0:56:55You've chosen otter, not stoat. That's immediately saying something.
0:56:55 > 0:57:00This is a special animal you've chosen to use in this way.
0:57:01 > 0:57:07All the evidence from the Iron Age reflects the symbolic role of water.
0:57:07 > 0:57:11A world in which we see our own reflections in a forbidden realm.
0:57:13 > 0:57:16Perhaps this has something to do with the strange Iron Age taboo
0:57:16 > 0:57:18of not eating fish.
0:57:18 > 0:57:21And is why the Chariot Queen's mirror bag
0:57:21 > 0:57:24is made from the fur of an otter.
0:57:24 > 0:57:26A truly magical creature.
0:57:34 > 0:57:37It's now becoming very apparent that our so-called Chariot Queen
0:57:37 > 0:57:39was not only a woman of status
0:57:39 > 0:57:42but also someone who wielded spiritual power
0:57:42 > 0:57:45within her continentally connected Iron Age society.
0:57:45 > 0:57:49And she couldn't be more of a contrast to that young girl at
0:57:49 > 0:57:53Bourton because there is absolutely no sign of luxury in HER short life.
0:57:53 > 0:57:56And yet, whereas they are separate in status,
0:57:56 > 0:57:58they are linked in belief.
0:57:58 > 0:58:01The pits where the chosen few were buried at Bourton
0:58:01 > 0:58:05were inextricably linked with the nearby river's sacred waters.
0:58:05 > 0:58:08And 180 miles away in Yorkshire,
0:58:08 > 0:58:12the most sacredly charged object that the woman was buried with,
0:58:12 > 0:58:15the iron mirror, was wrapped in the fur of an otter.
0:58:15 > 0:58:19The creature, a strange creature seen as transcending
0:58:19 > 0:58:20two different worlds -
0:58:20 > 0:58:23the worlds of water and land - and moving between them.
0:58:23 > 0:58:27And perhaps a creature that was seen as moving between
0:58:27 > 0:58:31two other very different worlds - those of life and death.
0:58:46 > 0:58:50Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd