0:00:01 > 0:00:03BIRDSONG
0:00:06 > 0:00:08TRANSLATION FROM GAELIC:
0:01:42 > 0:01:45WIND GUSTS
0:04:22 > 0:04:25MENACING MUSIC
0:10:10 > 0:10:12BIRDSONG
0:11:41 > 0:11:46This ceramic technology, this pottery-making technology,
0:11:46 > 0:11:51came to Ireland probably around 3700 or 3800BC,
0:11:51 > 0:11:53along with the first farming communities.
0:11:53 > 0:11:56There had never been anything like it before in Ulster
0:11:56 > 0:11:59and the rest of Ireland. And...
0:11:59 > 0:12:04this first pot is sort of very typical of the first Neolithic pots.
0:12:04 > 0:12:08It would have been built out of coils of clay,
0:12:08 > 0:12:12which would have been then smoothed out -
0:12:12 > 0:12:14polishing the exterior surface -
0:12:14 > 0:12:19and then it would have been placed into a sort of a bonfire kiln.
0:12:19 > 0:12:22This would have been quite a sophisticated object.
0:12:22 > 0:12:24It would have been the equivalent of
0:12:24 > 0:12:28the mobile phone, the fancy mobile phone or the iPad.
0:12:28 > 0:12:31And it's the sort of stuff which would have been appropriate
0:12:31 > 0:12:35to have been used to mark the status of an individual.
0:12:35 > 0:12:38One of the things that really sets pots like this apart from
0:12:38 > 0:12:42earlier archaeological artefacts, at least in an Irish context,
0:12:42 > 0:12:46is the sort of ritual transformative power of fire.
0:12:49 > 0:12:53It started as clay. It's been clay which has been shaped,
0:12:53 > 0:12:55but then it's been put into a fire
0:12:55 > 0:12:58and it's brought out to be something that resembles rock.
0:12:58 > 0:13:01And this transformative change would have had
0:13:01 > 0:13:03tremendous, magical, religious significance
0:13:03 > 0:13:05for the people who made it.
0:13:08 > 0:13:12They were able to do things which they could replicate,
0:13:12 > 0:13:14and they got the same results every time.
0:13:14 > 0:13:18You're seeing the first steps, tentative steps towards
0:13:18 > 0:13:22what we would see as modern science and engineering in these pots.
0:13:36 > 0:13:41If there is probably a single message, it's an idea of permanence.
0:13:41 > 0:13:44These pots have lasted.
0:13:44 > 0:13:47Ceramics last in the ground for an extremely long period of time.
0:13:48 > 0:13:51And it shows how the Neolithic people
0:13:51 > 0:13:54have moved to a new concept of time,
0:13:54 > 0:13:56where time is linear and stretches out for ever in front of them.
0:13:56 > 0:13:58As opposed to the hunter-gatherer,
0:13:58 > 0:14:01who thinks in terms of the next season.
0:14:01 > 0:14:05But the Neolithic farmer is beginning to think in terms of
0:14:05 > 0:14:09the fertility of the land over many, many years or decades.
0:14:09 > 0:14:13They're beginning to think of passing that land on to
0:14:13 > 0:14:15their children, their grandchildren.
0:14:17 > 0:14:21Just in that single aspect, but really important aspect,
0:14:21 > 0:14:23of how they viewed time,
0:14:23 > 0:14:25we are much, much closer to a farmer
0:14:25 > 0:14:31of 5,000 years ago than that farmer was to his Mesolithic ancestor
0:14:31 > 0:14:33100, 200 or 300 years before that.
0:15:45 > 0:15:48WIND GUSTS
0:22:03 > 0:22:05It's actually a passage tomb.
0:22:05 > 0:22:09It was here some time before the Giant's Ring itself.
0:22:09 > 0:22:11What you see today, of course,
0:22:11 > 0:22:13is not the tomb as it was originally built
0:22:13 > 0:22:15because there would have been a kerb of stones
0:22:15 > 0:22:19around the outside, and that would have held in place
0:22:19 > 0:22:21a large mound over the top.
0:22:21 > 0:22:26So when you entered the passage, you really were going into the ground.
0:22:32 > 0:22:35Well, here we are at the front of the passage tomb.
0:22:35 > 0:22:37If you look over the side,
0:22:37 > 0:22:38you see there's one large stone there,
0:22:38 > 0:22:40- and another large stone here.- Yes.
0:22:40 > 0:22:43And on this side, there's another stone just here.
0:22:43 > 0:22:45We've got one stone missing,
0:22:45 > 0:22:48which could well be this one standing behind us here.
0:22:48 > 0:22:51But this stone here has slipped. And if we lift this up
0:22:51 > 0:22:53and plonk it down on top here -
0:22:53 > 0:22:56so the front of it is resting on that capstone
0:22:56 > 0:22:57and on these uprights -
0:22:57 > 0:22:59we've got a short passage.
0:23:03 > 0:23:06These stones, the ring, what's the relationship?
0:23:06 > 0:23:11Well, clearly this megalith was very important to Neolithic people,
0:23:11 > 0:23:15so important that it prompted them to come back 200 or 300 years later
0:23:15 > 0:23:18to construct this enormous embankment around the site.
0:23:18 > 0:23:21- Shall we have a look from the top? - I'd love to.
0:23:42 > 0:23:43These are farmers after all.
0:23:43 > 0:23:46And farmers have got to till the land, they've got to sow crops,
0:23:46 > 0:23:48they've got to harvest crops.
0:23:48 > 0:23:50They had to do all these other things,
0:23:50 > 0:23:52they've got to create their own living space.
0:23:52 > 0:23:55So at some time during the year,
0:23:55 > 0:23:58they must've been brought out of that labour,
0:23:58 > 0:24:01that traditional labour, to construct things like this.
0:24:01 > 0:24:05This is a major feat of organisation for the society at the time.
0:24:05 > 0:24:08So there had to be a real figure of authority there.
0:24:08 > 0:24:11Now, they could've been coerced into doing it,
0:24:11 > 0:24:15or they could've felt that this was part of their religious observance,
0:24:15 > 0:24:18or something, to construct these banks.
0:24:18 > 0:24:21But either way, there was this figure of authority,
0:24:21 > 0:24:24or figures of authority to organise these people.
0:24:44 > 0:24:47Barrie, you spent ten years excavating here,
0:24:47 > 0:24:49what was your most significant find?
0:24:49 > 0:24:52We found a large, timber enclosure,
0:24:52 > 0:24:53really substantial.
0:24:53 > 0:24:56It was nearly 100m long, nearly 70m wide.
0:25:00 > 0:25:02I mean, think about it,
0:25:02 > 0:25:04you've got to cut down the trees.
0:25:04 > 0:25:06So therefore you need axes to cut down the trees.
0:25:06 > 0:25:07So you've got to make the axes.
0:25:08 > 0:25:11Then you've got to drag those trees to the site.
0:25:11 > 0:25:13And for that, you've got to have cord and ropes.
0:25:13 > 0:25:15So ropes have to be made as well.
0:25:15 > 0:25:17It was a massive effort to do this -
0:25:17 > 0:25:20possibly 50-70,000 man-hours.
0:25:22 > 0:25:25This site was really so substantial and so big,
0:25:25 > 0:25:28you can think of it almost like a Neolithic cathedral.
0:25:28 > 0:25:32And just as cathedrals in the past were designed to awe
0:25:32 > 0:25:33and inspire,
0:25:33 > 0:25:35so, I think, was this particular site.
0:25:55 > 0:25:57What was in the centre of this important site
0:25:57 > 0:26:01was a platform in which bodies were exposed -
0:26:01 > 0:26:03a process which we call excarnation.
0:26:05 > 0:26:10You can have this visual image of bodies being left to rot
0:26:10 > 0:26:13for carrion birds coming down and pecking away at the flesh,
0:26:13 > 0:26:15maybe taking away fingers and things like that.
0:26:15 > 0:26:18But what you're left with after two or three months,
0:26:18 > 0:26:22clean bones, which were then processed.
0:26:22 > 0:26:25So it's that process of changing from
0:26:25 > 0:26:28a recognisable but dead human being
0:26:28 > 0:26:33into one which is unrecognisable, anonymous and an ancestor.