0:00:09 > 0:00:10This is St Nectan's Glen.
0:00:11 > 0:00:14It's a spectacular 60-foot waterfall
0:00:14 > 0:00:18just a few miles from Tintagel in Cornwall.
0:00:18 > 0:00:20There are stories here of Celtic water gods,
0:00:20 > 0:00:24of the sixth-century Christian martyr St Nectan and, of course,
0:00:24 > 0:00:28given its location, there's also a tale that King Arthur came here
0:00:28 > 0:00:32with his knights before going off on the quest for the Holy Grail.
0:00:33 > 0:00:37But whatever the truth behind the legends, it's clear that many people
0:00:37 > 0:00:40find their own version of sacredness in this place.
0:00:42 > 0:00:45People come here from all over the world
0:00:45 > 0:00:47and for many different reasons.
0:00:47 > 0:00:49Some come to worship God or a god,
0:00:49 > 0:00:53they might be remembering a lost loved one,
0:00:53 > 0:00:56or looking for help coping with an illness.
0:00:56 > 0:00:58I expect many arrive here just wanting some kind of comfort
0:00:58 > 0:01:01or reassurance.
0:01:01 > 0:01:02These are universal themes
0:01:02 > 0:01:06and they flow down through the centuries and millennia.
0:01:06 > 0:01:07The question is though,
0:01:07 > 0:01:11why do we regard some places as being more sacred than others?
0:01:11 > 0:01:13Why are there some sites
0:01:13 > 0:01:16that simply draw us back again, and again and again?
0:01:28 > 0:01:30Sacred Wonders of Britain
0:01:30 > 0:01:33is the story of how our island has been shaped by belief,
0:01:33 > 0:01:37from the end of the Ice Age 13,000 years ago,
0:01:37 > 0:01:41through to Henry VIII's Reformation in the 16th century.
0:01:43 > 0:01:48From the heart of our cities, to the furthest reaches of our islands.
0:01:51 > 0:01:52In this programme,
0:01:52 > 0:01:55I'll be travelling thousands of years back in time
0:01:55 > 0:01:57in search of the very first sacred wonders of Britain
0:01:57 > 0:02:01to try and reconnect with the people who built them.
0:02:03 > 0:02:06What did these ancient Britons believe?
0:02:06 > 0:02:08What sacred clues did they leave in our landscape,
0:02:08 > 0:02:11just below the surface of the modern world?
0:02:11 > 0:02:14And why do these places still resonate with us today?
0:02:26 > 0:02:30From the very beginning and for tens of thousands of years,
0:02:30 > 0:02:33our ancestors lived by hunting and gathering.
0:02:33 > 0:02:38The rituals and beliefs that they shaped and that shaped them
0:02:38 > 0:02:40were concerned with understanding
0:02:40 > 0:02:42how the world around them worked.
0:02:42 > 0:02:44So the stories that they told each other
0:02:44 > 0:02:48and passed down to the succeeding generations
0:02:48 > 0:02:49were attempts to make sense
0:02:49 > 0:02:53of why and where the springs rose up out of the ground,
0:02:53 > 0:02:57where the rivers flowed, why the forests grew,
0:02:57 > 0:03:01which of the animals were good to eat, and how to hunt them.
0:03:04 > 0:03:08Archaeologists believe that sometime around 13,000 years ago,
0:03:08 > 0:03:12a small band of these early Stone Age hunters tracked
0:03:12 > 0:03:16a reindeer herd northwards to the furthest reaches of Britain.
0:03:16 > 0:03:18At the southern tip of a retreating glacier,
0:03:18 > 0:03:21they discovered a deep chasm in the Earth.
0:03:21 > 0:03:24It offered sanctuary from the harsh world outside
0:03:24 > 0:03:29and a place to perform the rituals that would ensure a successful hunt.
0:03:34 > 0:03:36In a time when Britain was still connected to Europe,
0:03:36 > 0:03:39our Palaeolithic ancestors,
0:03:39 > 0:03:43people of the old Stone Age, roamed freely across the land.
0:03:43 > 0:03:46Bound only by the icy wastes to the north.
0:03:47 > 0:03:51Creswell Crags, just a few miles from the modern town of Worksop,
0:03:51 > 0:03:54marked the northernmost limit of their range.
0:03:56 > 0:03:59Today the crags are covered in vegetation,
0:03:59 > 0:04:03but in the late Ice Age, this was open tundra.
0:04:06 > 0:04:09And the bare cliffs would have been visible from miles away.
0:04:11 > 0:04:14A beacon for hunting parties, the steep-sided walls of the crags
0:04:14 > 0:04:18would channel game into a killing zone.
0:04:20 > 0:04:23It must have seemed like a gift from the gods.
0:04:23 > 0:04:27This place was almost too good to be true.
0:04:27 > 0:04:31A kind of Palaeolithic Coronation Street with two rows of caves
0:04:31 > 0:04:34facing each other across the way.
0:04:34 > 0:04:39Now, our ancestors didn't actually occupy both sides of the street.
0:04:39 > 0:04:42They only lived in the caves on the north side.
0:04:42 > 0:04:45The ones on the south side were left empty.
0:04:45 > 0:04:46Now, that may simply have been
0:04:46 > 0:04:50because the caves on the north side were south-facing
0:04:50 > 0:04:54and benefited from a little bit of natural warmth from the sun.
0:04:54 > 0:04:57However, something else is going on
0:04:57 > 0:05:02because one cave over here was set aside for a very special purpose.
0:05:06 > 0:05:08The Victorians named it Church Hole Cave
0:05:08 > 0:05:13because the cave mouth reminded them of the entrance to a church.
0:05:13 > 0:05:17Little did they realise how apt that name would prove to be.
0:05:18 > 0:05:23It used to be thought that life in post-Ice Age Britain was too harsh
0:05:23 > 0:05:27for cave art, but ten years ago, archaeologist Paul Pettitt and
0:05:27 > 0:05:31his colleagues discovered something extraordinary in Church Hole Cave.
0:05:31 > 0:05:36Not paintings, but a series of engravings of animals,
0:05:36 > 0:05:40etched into the rock surface with flint tools,
0:05:40 > 0:05:42clues to the mysterious hunting rituals
0:05:42 > 0:05:45and religion of our Palaeolithic ancestors.
0:05:48 > 0:05:53Was the deer the first animal to appear out of the rock wall,
0:05:53 > 0:05:54- as it were?- It was.
0:05:54 > 0:05:58We had to clamber up on to this ledge to find it,
0:05:58 > 0:06:01but when you're close and look at it in a certain light,
0:06:01 > 0:06:05it's pretty clear. But in order to do that, we need to temporarily
0:06:05 > 0:06:09turn our head torches off and if I can just use this
0:06:09 > 0:06:11raking light from a torch,
0:06:11 > 0:06:13we have this animal in this area.
0:06:21 > 0:06:25- So can you see this natural erosional hole here?- Yes.
0:06:25 > 0:06:27Right there. They've taken that to represent
0:06:27 > 0:06:31an eye indeed and there's this burrow remnant in the rock
0:06:31 > 0:06:35which they've taken to represent a mouth.
0:06:35 > 0:06:37The antler and a lovely pointed ear,
0:06:37 > 0:06:40behind you've got that modern graffiti over it,
0:06:40 > 0:06:43and then the upper line of the neck and shoulders,
0:06:43 > 0:06:45its belly and chest
0:06:45 > 0:06:48and there's its front leg.
0:06:48 > 0:06:50Back to the head again.
0:06:50 > 0:06:51If these people are hunters,
0:06:51 > 0:06:54is this an animal that they're hunting? Is that why...?
0:06:54 > 0:06:59Are they seeking to have some sort of magical power over the deer?
0:06:59 > 0:07:03Yeah, we think so. It is a form of hunting magic in a sense.
0:07:03 > 0:07:07These animals are critical to their survival. They are totally
0:07:07 > 0:07:11dependent on hunting these animals in an inhospitable world.
0:07:11 > 0:07:16These are functioning, one assumes, magical events.
0:07:16 > 0:07:19And it may well be that it's not the image itself,
0:07:19 > 0:07:22hanging there in perpetuity,
0:07:22 > 0:07:26but the act of creating that image that was important.
0:07:26 > 0:07:30Probably, it had significance for minutes, hours,
0:07:30 > 0:07:34as it was being created, while songs were being sung, dances danced,
0:07:34 > 0:07:39whatever went on, that focused clearly in this case, on a deer.
0:07:39 > 0:07:41So, if you want to hunt these animals,
0:07:41 > 0:07:43you can't see them right now,
0:07:43 > 0:07:45but you conjure them up on the wall of the cave,
0:07:45 > 0:07:48and hopefully that act makes them appear?
0:07:48 > 0:07:49Absolutely. In fact,
0:07:49 > 0:07:53these very much look like an act of creation to me.
0:07:53 > 0:07:55The natural features of the rock wall
0:07:55 > 0:07:59suggest a deer trying to come into this world.
0:07:59 > 0:08:02You help it and therefore you are helping in its birth
0:08:02 > 0:08:05and perhaps only by bringing a deer into this world
0:08:05 > 0:08:08are you allowed to remove one from it.
0:08:16 > 0:08:19Modern sculptors talk, almost fancifully,
0:08:19 > 0:08:23about the idea of the rock suggesting the shape within
0:08:23 > 0:08:26- and that they have to liberate it from the block.- Yes.
0:08:26 > 0:08:29And there's a bit of that going on here.
0:08:29 > 0:08:33It is indeed, yeah, and these places, unlike our modern religious places,
0:08:33 > 0:08:36which are created by their religions,
0:08:36 > 0:08:39here, the natural world creates a place of significance.
0:08:39 > 0:08:41It suggests these.
0:08:41 > 0:08:45Would it be fair to call this a spiritual place
0:08:45 > 0:08:48or a religious place? Is it a temple?
0:08:48 > 0:08:50It would be fair to call it a temple,
0:08:50 > 0:08:52in the sense that a temple is a place
0:08:52 > 0:08:55where this world is thought to meet another
0:08:55 > 0:08:58and things move between it and so on.
0:08:58 > 0:09:00So, yes, in that sense it is.
0:09:00 > 0:09:04But we have to remember that there were also prosaic activities here,
0:09:04 > 0:09:06people sitting down and talking,
0:09:06 > 0:09:10so rather like Jesus and the money lenders in the temple in Jerusalem,
0:09:10 > 0:09:16so temples aren't exclusively mythological, religious places.
0:09:16 > 0:09:22Again, they blur the distinctions between this world and the others.
0:09:26 > 0:09:30These hunter-gatherers weren't creating art for art's sake.
0:09:30 > 0:09:34They weren't just decorating the walls of their homes.
0:09:34 > 0:09:37For them, the engraving of those animals was an act
0:09:37 > 0:09:42that would be better described as magical or spiritual or religious.
0:09:42 > 0:09:45It was an expression of how they understood the world
0:09:45 > 0:09:49and how they understood their place within that world.
0:09:54 > 0:09:57Having made that place special and sacred,
0:09:57 > 0:10:03perhaps they deemed it no longer respectful to ever go back again
0:10:03 > 0:10:04and so it was set aside.
0:10:04 > 0:10:10It becomes a shrine. You might even call it Britain's first temple.
0:10:18 > 0:10:207,000 years passed.
0:10:20 > 0:10:23The glaciers melted and the North Sea washed away our connection
0:10:23 > 0:10:26to Europe, but for generation after generation,
0:10:26 > 0:10:31the daily lives of our ancestors carried on in much the same way.
0:10:34 > 0:10:38But around 4000 BC, all of this began to change.
0:10:38 > 0:10:41It was the coming of a whole new age,
0:10:41 > 0:10:44one that would see great monuments,
0:10:44 > 0:10:48sacred wonders, rise from the earth around Britain.
0:10:53 > 0:10:58Slowly, but surely, the new technology of farming
0:10:58 > 0:11:00began to get a foothold in Britain.
0:11:00 > 0:11:03The old ways of the hunter-gatherers were replaced.
0:11:03 > 0:11:07People were no longer just living off the land,
0:11:07 > 0:11:09they were reshaping it, redeveloping it,
0:11:09 > 0:11:12rethinking it in a way they had never done before.
0:11:12 > 0:11:15This was the Neolithic, the New Stone Age,
0:11:15 > 0:11:20and along with the new technology came new ideas and practices.
0:11:20 > 0:11:24In future centuries, great cities like Athens and Rome
0:11:24 > 0:11:28would create foundation myths to help lay claim to the land.
0:11:30 > 0:11:36In the Neolithic, the bones of the ancestors performed a similar role.
0:11:36 > 0:11:39Across Britain, the remains of the founding generation
0:11:39 > 0:11:44who'd first farmed the land were interred in great mounds and tombs.
0:11:46 > 0:11:49They still dominate our landscape today.
0:11:49 > 0:11:52One of the most striking is Wayland's Smithy,
0:11:52 > 0:11:55a long barrow and chambered tomb in Oxfordshire,
0:11:55 > 0:11:58named in later centuries after a Saxon god.
0:12:02 > 0:12:07How did farming change people's attitude to the world around them?
0:12:07 > 0:12:09Massively. If you're going to farm,
0:12:09 > 0:12:12you've got to clear the land to make room for your livestock
0:12:12 > 0:12:15and for grazing, for ploughing and sowing,
0:12:15 > 0:12:18and that means you get a taste for altering it in general,
0:12:18 > 0:12:21which is why, as soon as the Neolithic arrives in Britain,
0:12:21 > 0:12:23people go mad about monuments.
0:12:23 > 0:12:26They start putting them up in huge number,
0:12:26 > 0:12:32huge variety and huge form and this sort of thing is a classic example.
0:12:43 > 0:12:48They're fantastic. They have a presence that you just can't deny.
0:12:48 > 0:12:52- These stones are personalities, aren't they?- They are.
0:12:52 > 0:12:55When you look at them, because they're not carved,
0:12:55 > 0:12:57they're just natural boulders,
0:12:57 > 0:13:00they do suggest animal forms, or maybe people,
0:13:00 > 0:13:03glimpsed out of the corner of your eye.
0:13:03 > 0:13:07They could be totem animals or spirit animals or they could,
0:13:07 > 0:13:09and this is quite a popular theory now,
0:13:09 > 0:13:12be regarded as dead human beings that have taken the shape of stone.
0:13:12 > 0:13:16Stone is for the dead and so the bones in the tomb here
0:13:16 > 0:13:21would be surrounded by an older and more heroic form of dead people.
0:13:24 > 0:13:28Rarely do these tombs yield complete skeletons.
0:13:28 > 0:13:31Normally, it's a collection of jumbled bones.
0:13:31 > 0:13:35It's led archaeologists to believe that just as later religions
0:13:35 > 0:13:39traded in the movement of relics, so the bones of the ancestors
0:13:39 > 0:13:43were constantly being moved and handled as part of Neolithic ritual.
0:13:47 > 0:13:51The remains of the people over time then take on a different function,
0:13:51 > 0:13:55rather than the bones being part of a person's skeleton,
0:13:55 > 0:13:58they form another function, don't they?
0:13:58 > 0:13:59In their own right as bones.
0:13:59 > 0:14:04Yes, they could be a treasure house of supernatural power.
0:14:04 > 0:14:06They could be a telephone box
0:14:06 > 0:14:09through which you communicate with the divine.
0:14:09 > 0:14:14They could be a TARDIS taking you imaginatively to other worlds
0:14:14 > 0:14:16which these sacred dead now inhabit.
0:14:16 > 0:14:18Why do you think they chose
0:14:18 > 0:14:22the places they did to build these monuments?
0:14:22 > 0:14:24Because the places were special.
0:14:24 > 0:14:26We often find middle Stone Age remains
0:14:26 > 0:14:28underneath Neolithic monuments,
0:14:28 > 0:14:31proving people have been coming there a long time.
0:14:31 > 0:14:35It could be also that they're in places that marked a special event
0:14:35 > 0:14:39like a vision, or a marriage alliance, or a combat.
0:14:39 > 0:14:43And also, these are places for meeting up at times of the year,
0:14:43 > 0:14:47seasonal festivals, which are really important to farming people.
0:14:47 > 0:14:49Why's the mound so big?
0:14:49 > 0:14:53Everyone's attention is naturally drawn by that small chamber,
0:14:53 > 0:14:56but it's this footprint, it's like a church or a cathedral.
0:14:56 > 0:14:57It certainly is.
0:14:57 > 0:15:00It could be simply that it's a statement in the landscape.
0:15:00 > 0:15:01It's a declaration.
0:15:01 > 0:15:04It says, "We're here! We're brilliant!
0:15:04 > 0:15:06"We love our deities! We're good at what we do.
0:15:06 > 0:15:07"Look at it!"
0:15:13 > 0:15:16But why build these strange shapes in the landscape?
0:15:16 > 0:15:18What lies beneath them?
0:15:18 > 0:15:21Archaeologists are still piecing together clues
0:15:21 > 0:15:23to the world of the Neolithic,
0:15:23 > 0:15:25but on Dorstone Hill in Herefordshire,
0:15:25 > 0:15:28just a few months ago in the summer of 2013,
0:15:28 > 0:15:32Julian Thomas and his team made a major breakthrough.
0:15:34 > 0:15:37Beneath the remains of two Neolithic long mounds,
0:15:37 > 0:15:41they found the charred remnants of a 6,000-year-old timber hall.
0:15:44 > 0:15:47The first physical proof of something long suspected,
0:15:47 > 0:15:51that some Neolithic tombs started life as domestic buildings.
0:15:53 > 0:15:57The mound built over the timber hall at Dorstone Hill
0:15:57 > 0:16:00was bulldozed in the mid-20th century,
0:16:00 > 0:16:03but had similarities to the chambered tomb of Cairn Holy
0:16:03 > 0:16:07near Dumfries in Scotland, where I caught up with Julian.
0:16:08 > 0:16:11This timber hall then, what would that have been used for?
0:16:11 > 0:16:13Is it someone's home?
0:16:13 > 0:16:16Quite likely some people were living there at least some of the time,
0:16:16 > 0:16:19but it's bound into the life of a new community that's
0:16:19 > 0:16:22coming together at the beginning of the Neolithic and it represents
0:16:22 > 0:16:26that community in a whole series of ways, so they're gathering there,
0:16:26 > 0:16:30they're feasting there, they're engaged in a whole lot of activities,
0:16:30 > 0:16:31but the important thing is that
0:16:31 > 0:16:35it's a physical manifestation of that community in the landscape.
0:16:35 > 0:16:38So, it's a kind of cross between a community centre and a church.
0:16:38 > 0:16:41Absolutely. It's like a village hall with a religious dimension.
0:16:44 > 0:16:48But the burning of the hall is intentional.
0:16:48 > 0:16:52Yes, I think that's right, because in the long term,
0:16:52 > 0:16:57the memory of the hall becomes more valuable than the hall itself.
0:16:57 > 0:17:01Their destruction forms a kind of conspicuous consumption.
0:17:03 > 0:17:08What is it that's being remembered or made into a memorial?
0:17:08 > 0:17:10I think what's important is that this is happening
0:17:10 > 0:17:13right at the beginning of our Neolithic, so it's a founding
0:17:13 > 0:17:18generation that are being remembered. It's a group of people who brought
0:17:18 > 0:17:23a community together, who founded a new way of life and who are then
0:17:23 > 0:17:29buried in the mound and that act of foundation is of cardinal importance.
0:17:29 > 0:17:32It's then remembered for generations and generations by these people.
0:17:36 > 0:17:39The burnt timber and daub from the walls were gathered together
0:17:39 > 0:17:41and covered with turf.
0:17:41 > 0:17:45Sometime later, it was decided to encase the turf mound in stone.
0:17:49 > 0:17:53Why move to a stone element of that structure?
0:17:53 > 0:17:55I think, in a sense,
0:17:55 > 0:17:58you're moving to something that is more and more memorable.
0:17:58 > 0:18:00So it's just pragmatic,
0:18:00 > 0:18:02it's just about making something that will last?
0:18:02 > 0:18:05Well, except that the materials are important in themselves.
0:18:05 > 0:18:07They're imbued with meaning
0:18:07 > 0:18:09and perhaps also imbued with some kind of spiritual force.
0:18:14 > 0:18:18And that Herefordshire model that you've pieced together,
0:18:18 > 0:18:22does that help us to understand a place like Cairn Holy?
0:18:22 > 0:18:25For a long time, archaeologists have talked about the relationship
0:18:25 > 0:18:28between houses of the living and houses of the dead,
0:18:28 > 0:18:31that there's a very precise relationship
0:18:31 > 0:18:34between those two things and that what is important
0:18:34 > 0:18:37is this idea of the foundation of a community
0:18:37 > 0:18:40and then the veneration of that community
0:18:40 > 0:18:44as those ancestors become more and more removed from the present
0:18:44 > 0:18:48and as they take on a status which is perhaps almost that of deities.
0:18:55 > 0:18:59But belief and ritual weren't just reserved for great monuments.
0:18:59 > 0:19:04It was part of everyday life, inseparable from the world.
0:19:04 > 0:19:06Sacred places were everywhere
0:19:06 > 0:19:09and sometimes in the most unlikely of locations.
0:19:11 > 0:19:15At first glance, this field in Norfolk might appear like any other.
0:19:15 > 0:19:17Nothing out of the ordinary, you would say,
0:19:17 > 0:19:19but view it from another perspective
0:19:19 > 0:19:23and it's revealed as somewhere quite extraordinary.
0:19:34 > 0:19:36This is Grimes Graves.
0:19:36 > 0:19:39It's as though a little bit of the surface of the moon
0:19:39 > 0:19:42had been transported to Earth and covered with grass,
0:19:42 > 0:19:45but in fact, all of these craters are man-made.
0:19:45 > 0:19:48They're the surface scars of back-filled pits and shafts,
0:19:48 > 0:19:51some of them more than 40 feet deep,
0:19:51 > 0:19:55left behind by miners as they dug down into the earth
0:19:55 > 0:20:00in search of that most precious of stone age raw materials - flint.
0:20:09 > 0:20:11But there's something else going on here,
0:20:11 > 0:20:14other than the purely industrial.
0:20:14 > 0:20:17In later centuries, Christianity, Hinduism
0:20:17 > 0:20:22and Buddhism would all see sacredness in gold.
0:20:22 > 0:20:25In the Neolithic, flint axes from Grimes Graves
0:20:25 > 0:20:29held similar cultural value and have been found in burial mounds
0:20:29 > 0:20:31and ritual deposits across Britain.
0:20:36 > 0:20:42Someone who understands flint's power more than most is John Lord.
0:20:42 > 0:20:4540 years ago, he served as custodian here.
0:20:45 > 0:20:48Since then, he's dedicated his career to working out
0:20:48 > 0:20:53how our Neolithic ancestors lived their daily lives.
0:20:53 > 0:20:56How do you feel about flint, if that's not a silly question?
0:20:56 > 0:20:59I just...in love with the material, really,
0:20:59 > 0:21:02I mean you can make such beautiful things.
0:21:02 > 0:21:06This is one of mine, the sort of thing
0:21:06 > 0:21:09that may occasionally have been made at Grimes Graves,
0:21:09 > 0:21:14but I found that...that much of one of them just behind the site.
0:21:16 > 0:21:19Flint was the Swiss Army Knife of the Stone Age,
0:21:19 > 0:21:23used to cut down trees, kill game, strip meat,
0:21:23 > 0:21:27scrape hides and for a thousand other uses.
0:21:27 > 0:21:30The thing that gets me, though,
0:21:30 > 0:21:34I find that if there was an equivalent made of metal,
0:21:34 > 0:21:38I don't think it would hold my attention as long as...
0:21:38 > 0:21:42I just find that I want to look at that for a long time.
0:21:42 > 0:21:43It's good quality stuff.
0:21:43 > 0:21:45That's magical.
0:21:45 > 0:21:47NOTES RING OUT FROM FLINT WHEN TAPPED
0:21:47 > 0:21:52You could make a hit, you know. THEY LAUGH
0:21:52 > 0:21:55It's even got sound qualities apart from anything else.
0:21:55 > 0:21:57It makes music, the music of the flint.
0:22:05 > 0:22:104,500 years ago, Neolithic miners dug more than 400 vertical shafts,
0:22:10 > 0:22:14up to 12 metres deep, down into the chalk.
0:22:18 > 0:22:22Ladders and wooden platforms made extracting the rubble easier.
0:22:26 > 0:22:28Reaching the flint,
0:22:28 > 0:22:32they'd chase the seams through a maze of tunnels and galleries.
0:22:33 > 0:22:37A herculean task carried out with picks of reindeer antler.
0:22:37 > 0:22:42When it was time to abandon the pit, they'd dig another a few metres away
0:22:42 > 0:22:45and use its rubble to backfill the original mine.
0:22:47 > 0:22:50When you come here now, you've been coming here for so many years,
0:22:50 > 0:22:52what's the feeling you get?
0:22:52 > 0:22:55Well, it's just magical to be here.
0:22:55 > 0:22:57It's one of those places where you can actually feel
0:22:57 > 0:23:01that you're just a few minutes too late to see anything going on.
0:23:05 > 0:23:07There's a mystery here.
0:23:07 > 0:23:10Winning the flint from so deep underground
0:23:10 > 0:23:12involved considerable effort,
0:23:12 > 0:23:14but all around Grimes Graves,
0:23:14 > 0:23:17perfectly good flint occurs naturally on the surface.
0:23:23 > 0:23:25So why go to all the trouble of mining for it?
0:23:29 > 0:23:32So is this the only one that's preserved below
0:23:32 > 0:23:34in its Neolithic sense?
0:23:34 > 0:23:37It is pretty much the only one we can still go down into
0:23:37 > 0:23:40and get a sense of the Neolithic experience, yes.
0:23:43 > 0:23:46- Thank you.- OK, I'll follow you. Best of luck.
0:23:48 > 0:23:51- A mere 12 metres down.- OK.
0:24:11 > 0:24:13Climbing down into this mine
0:24:13 > 0:24:16is far more than a descent into an ancient flint works.
0:24:16 > 0:24:21It's one of the few, rare glimpses of the Neolithic world we have left.
0:24:28 > 0:24:30It's amazing how much lighter it is.
0:24:30 > 0:24:32You feel as if you're looking down into the pit.
0:24:32 > 0:24:35You do. Your eyes get accustomed to it eventually,
0:24:35 > 0:24:37but bear in mind that we've got this big concrete base above us.
0:24:37 > 0:24:40There would have been sunlight flooding down into the pit.
0:24:40 > 0:24:42And it would have been bright white, I suppose.
0:24:42 > 0:24:46- Yes, reflecting all the sunlight coming off it.- Gosh, it's amazing.
0:24:46 > 0:24:51I've been in here before, but you forget the extent of it.
0:24:51 > 0:24:54Yes, you've got a whole network of galleries just extending off
0:24:54 > 0:24:56and connecting with other ones.
0:24:56 > 0:24:58Disappearing off in the distance.
0:24:58 > 0:25:02Exactly, the whole hill here is just completely sort of
0:25:02 > 0:25:04a rabbit warren of tunnels.
0:25:04 > 0:25:08This is a massive impact to make on the landscape, isn't it?
0:25:08 > 0:25:14- For people who haven't really done much of that so far.- Yes.
0:25:14 > 0:25:17All the other monuments of the period relate to
0:25:17 > 0:25:19controlling the surface, modifying the surface.
0:25:19 > 0:25:22This is the first time they're going down into the ground
0:25:22 > 0:25:25and altering the whole structure of the Earth,
0:25:25 > 0:25:26so it's a major investment.
0:25:26 > 0:25:29The amount of people necessary to dig this kind of shaft out
0:25:29 > 0:25:31and then to go off into the galleries
0:25:31 > 0:25:34to actually cut down into the chalk with bone and antler tools,
0:25:34 > 0:25:35it would have been a massive effort.
0:25:35 > 0:25:39Especially when there's so much workable flint topside anyway.
0:25:39 > 0:25:42Absolutely, on the surface, in tree roots, in rivers and streams,
0:25:42 > 0:25:43you've got so much flint.
0:25:43 > 0:25:47In fact most of the flint we find on Neolithic sites around here
0:25:47 > 0:25:50is surface flint, so perhaps there has to be another reason
0:25:50 > 0:25:53for digging down and getting down to the floorstone.
0:25:53 > 0:25:55Can we go into the galleries?
0:25:55 > 0:25:58Absolutely let's crawl down into these galleries and have a look see.
0:26:04 > 0:26:05Oh, yeah.
0:26:16 > 0:26:19Why else would you dig an enormous great hole with so much effort,
0:26:19 > 0:26:20if not just to get at the raw material?
0:26:20 > 0:26:23I think it's the, actually, the act of going into the ground itself
0:26:23 > 0:26:26that's the important issue, because we're dealing with people who live
0:26:26 > 0:26:28on the ground surface, they never...
0:26:28 > 0:26:30You know, we've got cellars, subways,
0:26:30 > 0:26:33a whole range of subterranean features today. They didn't.
0:26:33 > 0:26:37So coming down here, it's a different temperature,
0:26:37 > 0:26:40it's dark, it's the unknown.
0:26:40 > 0:26:43Sounds are muffled, you're really leaving the known world,
0:26:43 > 0:26:44your familiar world
0:26:44 > 0:26:48and you're entering into a really alien environment.
0:26:48 > 0:26:50And why do that, why make your life hard and uncomfortable?
0:26:50 > 0:26:53That's what obviously makes the flint extremely important,
0:26:53 > 0:26:55it's this...that hard-won nature of it,
0:26:55 > 0:26:57it's the effort of coming down 12 metres,
0:26:57 > 0:27:00digging these galleries out and extracting it
0:27:00 > 0:27:02that makes it a far more important thing,
0:27:02 > 0:27:05so it's not really from an economic point of view,
0:27:05 > 0:27:08it's really from perhaps a spiritual point of view.
0:27:08 > 0:27:12It's difficult to get your head around the idea of
0:27:12 > 0:27:17making things hard. We're all about labour saving,
0:27:17 > 0:27:19but to have an objective which is,
0:27:19 > 0:27:21if it's not difficult and a challenge,
0:27:21 > 0:27:23it's not worth winning the stuff.
0:27:23 > 0:27:26Well, I think when we look at a lot of the galleries today,
0:27:26 > 0:27:29they're really restricted spaces, they're really narrow,
0:27:29 > 0:27:31they're really difficult to get into.
0:27:31 > 0:27:34And the only two bits of evidence that we've got from miners
0:27:34 > 0:27:37or people who seem to have been crushed by chalk in the Neolithic,
0:27:37 > 0:27:39both from Sussex, seem to be young females,
0:27:39 > 0:27:44so I sort of think whether this might actually be some form of initiation,
0:27:44 > 0:27:47because most early farming societies,
0:27:47 > 0:27:50they have some kind of ceremony moving from childhood to adulthood.
0:27:50 > 0:27:52Going down into the mine,
0:27:52 > 0:27:55crawling off into these dark, unknown spaces, extracting the flint
0:27:55 > 0:27:58and coming up onto the surface might be a rebirth,
0:27:58 > 0:28:00it might be your entering into adulthood
0:28:00 > 0:28:03and you'll enter a different stage in your life.
0:28:03 > 0:28:07So the people coming down here are minors with an 'o'
0:28:07 > 0:28:09as well as miners with an 'e'?
0:28:09 > 0:28:11Yeah, I think it's at all levels of society,
0:28:11 > 0:28:12but seems to be the younger ones
0:28:12 > 0:28:15who were coming down into these unknown and dark spaces.
0:28:18 > 0:28:22Is there archaeological evidence of more going on down here
0:28:22 > 0:28:23than just mining?
0:28:23 > 0:28:26Yes, there is. In a number of these galleries,
0:28:26 > 0:28:28when they seem to have been finished,
0:28:28 > 0:28:31they're leaving their antler picks, all their sort of tools
0:28:31 > 0:28:33in quite large numbers at the end of the gallery.
0:28:33 > 0:28:35And again today, that makes no sense to us,
0:28:35 > 0:28:37because these are still viable tools.
0:28:37 > 0:28:40It would be like modern miners leaving all their pickaxes behind,
0:28:40 > 0:28:44but I think it might be a sense of either having worked down there,
0:28:44 > 0:28:48those tools are spiritually polluted, you can't take them somewhere else,
0:28:48 > 0:28:49but it may also be a thank you,
0:28:49 > 0:28:51you're giving something back to the ground
0:28:51 > 0:28:54for all the things that you've taken up onto the surface.
0:29:03 > 0:29:05Oh, look at that!
0:29:05 > 0:29:06Quite amazing, isn't it?
0:29:06 > 0:29:09Wow! How long have they been there?!
0:29:09 > 0:29:10They haven't left the mine,
0:29:10 > 0:29:13they've been down here for 5,000 years, since they were last used.
0:29:13 > 0:29:16Everything we think about is history has happened
0:29:16 > 0:29:17while that antler has lain there,
0:29:17 > 0:29:20while empires rose and fell
0:29:20 > 0:29:23and wars were fought, these just lay here in the dark.
0:29:23 > 0:29:27They've been waiting here for their owners to return and never have.
0:29:27 > 0:29:28How fantastic.
0:29:28 > 0:29:32You're talking about that being set down by a Neolithic hand
0:29:32 > 0:29:35and then nothing.
0:29:35 > 0:29:40Nobody touches it for 5,000 years. That's...
0:29:40 > 0:29:43- Something else.- That really is Neolithic right there.
0:29:49 > 0:29:52Oh, it really is like coming back into the world, isn't it?
0:29:52 > 0:29:55- Feel the heat as you're coming out. - Totally different atmosphere.
0:29:58 > 0:30:00Oh, very good.
0:30:02 > 0:30:04Fine.
0:30:27 > 0:30:30The flint mines of Grimes Graves were part of a belief system that
0:30:30 > 0:30:35centred on the relationship between people and the world around them.
0:30:35 > 0:30:38It was the act of winning the flint from deep underground
0:30:38 > 0:30:40that was all important.
0:30:40 > 0:30:43That's what helped to make the final product so valued.
0:30:51 > 0:30:53But beliefs change and in the world above,
0:30:53 > 0:30:57the time for worshipping communal ancestors in their stone tombs
0:30:57 > 0:30:58had passed.
0:31:00 > 0:31:02The ancient dead were still important,
0:31:02 > 0:31:05but no longer part of daily life.
0:31:05 > 0:31:07They could rest in peace.
0:31:08 > 0:31:11A new society was emerging based on ruling elites,
0:31:11 > 0:31:15who claimed descendancy from their own personal ancestors.
0:31:19 > 0:31:22I've been in here a few times over the years.
0:31:22 > 0:31:24This is West Kennet Long Barrow, one of the biggest
0:31:24 > 0:31:27and best preserved in the whole of Britain.
0:31:27 > 0:31:30There are other similar long burial mounds
0:31:30 > 0:31:32within a couple of miles of this site.
0:31:32 > 0:31:36They were in use for about a thousand years
0:31:36 > 0:31:40and then around maybe 2600 BC, everything changed.
0:31:40 > 0:31:43The great tombs like this one were sealed up.
0:31:43 > 0:31:45The chambers were backfilled with rubble
0:31:45 > 0:31:47and, in the case of West Kennet,
0:31:47 > 0:31:51these enormous sarsen stones were dragged in front of the entrance.
0:31:51 > 0:31:52Meanwhile, just down the road,
0:31:52 > 0:31:56one of the greatest civil engineering projects of the age
0:31:56 > 0:31:59was under way - the henge and stone circles of Avebury.
0:31:59 > 0:32:02It was as though a line was being drawn under the old religion
0:32:02 > 0:32:05and the time of the stone circles had begun.
0:32:20 > 0:32:23Stone circles were aligned on the sky,
0:32:23 > 0:32:26somewhere far beyond the reach of dead hands.
0:32:26 > 0:32:29You could say that it was the start of a new idea,
0:32:29 > 0:32:33one that still resonates for people today.
0:32:33 > 0:32:37The sense that the spirits of the dead, their souls, were no longer
0:32:37 > 0:32:42among us, but gone to somewhere else, another realm entirely.
0:32:42 > 0:32:46Something or someone had inspired Britain
0:32:46 > 0:32:51to go mad for turning stones on end to form circles. Many are small -
0:32:51 > 0:32:55something a few strong lads might throw up in a weekend,
0:32:55 > 0:32:57but others are vast,
0:32:57 > 0:33:00and the biggest of all is Avebury...
0:33:02 > 0:33:07..the largest stone circle in Europe. A world-class wonder.
0:33:07 > 0:33:13Its great outer circle alone once held around 100 standing stones.
0:33:13 > 0:33:16Within those lay two more inner circles and within them,
0:33:16 > 0:33:22laid out in rectangles and curving rows, even more stones.
0:33:22 > 0:33:24Everywhere you looked,
0:33:24 > 0:33:27it seemed great boulders were being turned up on end.
0:33:27 > 0:33:30The landscape was being redefined
0:33:30 > 0:33:34and at Avebury, the raw material was very close at hand.
0:33:35 > 0:33:39This forgotten little field shows what the Neolithic landscape
0:33:39 > 0:33:41would have looked like.
0:33:41 > 0:33:44It's covered, littered, in sarsen boulders.
0:33:44 > 0:33:47Sarsen is old English and it means troublesome stone.
0:33:47 > 0:33:50They described them that way because, when they were ploughing,
0:33:50 > 0:33:53they would often hit these stones lying just below the surface
0:33:53 > 0:33:56and the plough would be damaged, so troublesome stones.
0:33:56 > 0:33:59But for the ancients, for the people in the Neolithic,
0:33:59 > 0:34:02they were clearly something else, there was a power they felt
0:34:02 > 0:34:08and they were compelled to set some of them up on edge in great circles.
0:34:16 > 0:34:20It's as though stone was a living force and, at Avebury, that energy
0:34:20 > 0:34:24was being harnessed in a more spectacular way than ever before.
0:34:24 > 0:34:26This was nothing less than
0:34:26 > 0:34:30the creation of an entire ceremonial landscape,
0:34:30 > 0:34:34one that included old monuments like West Kennet Long Barrow
0:34:34 > 0:34:37and new wonders like Silbury Hill.
0:34:43 > 0:34:48To better understand how people moved between these ritual sites,
0:34:48 > 0:34:51archaeologist Nick Snashall walked me from the Sanctuary,
0:34:51 > 0:34:55once a great timber circle now marked by concrete posts,
0:34:55 > 0:35:00through West Kennet Avenue, a massive double line of sarsen stones
0:35:00 > 0:35:03that leads up to the Avebury henge and stone circle.
0:35:08 > 0:35:12Do you think we have any hope as 21st-century people
0:35:12 > 0:35:17of experiencing this monument the way Neolithic people did?
0:35:17 > 0:35:22I think it's difficult to cast from our minds the 21st century,
0:35:22 > 0:35:28but what we can do is, when we come here, is walk through the monuments,
0:35:28 > 0:35:31spend time in them and try to get a sense of how,
0:35:31 > 0:35:34if you like, the physicality of it, the architecture of it,
0:35:34 > 0:35:36how that affects how you feel,
0:35:36 > 0:35:40what you see, sometimes what you might hear
0:35:40 > 0:35:45and put yourself in the place of the people who put these stones up
0:35:45 > 0:35:49and a sense of the physicality of the effort that went into it.
0:35:49 > 0:35:52And so very, very different from Neolithic people
0:35:52 > 0:35:55for whom the world is without architecture?
0:35:55 > 0:35:59We walk all the time through a built-up landscape,
0:35:59 > 0:36:01but theirs is devoid of that.
0:36:01 > 0:36:04Yes, it's an extraordinary thing to try to get your head round,
0:36:04 > 0:36:06because we're so very used to it,
0:36:06 > 0:36:09that when people came to places like this,
0:36:09 > 0:36:11particularly having stone architecture,
0:36:11 > 0:36:14it's such a different world. So to come to places
0:36:14 > 0:36:18that have these enormous stones that have been re-erected
0:36:18 > 0:36:21and to have your movement directed in this way,
0:36:21 > 0:36:24will be a whole different sort of experience for people.
0:36:30 > 0:36:33And the way it doesn't take motorway straight lines,
0:36:33 > 0:36:36it's unnecessary kinks in it?
0:36:36 > 0:36:38Yeah. I think what they're doing
0:36:38 > 0:36:41is they're taking you on a journey through the landscape.
0:36:41 > 0:36:45We're never going to quite understand exactly what that journey is,
0:36:45 > 0:36:49but they certainly appear to be directing or manipulating
0:36:49 > 0:36:51people's experience of what's happening here.
0:36:55 > 0:36:59So here in front of us is the end of the avenue
0:36:59 > 0:37:03as it meets the henge banks, goes past the ditch
0:37:03 > 0:37:08and then you're into the great outer circle of stones of Avebury itself.
0:37:08 > 0:37:12So, after all that long walk, this should have been the first moment,
0:37:12 > 0:37:14the only time when the people in the procession
0:37:14 > 0:37:17would actually see what they were walking towards?
0:37:17 > 0:37:20That's right. It's the great reveal at the end of it all.
0:37:20 > 0:37:22You snaked your way through the landscape,
0:37:22 > 0:37:25and here are the henge banks in front of you.
0:37:26 > 0:37:29Have to wonder if it was a good place to arrive at
0:37:29 > 0:37:31or if it had another connotation altogether?
0:37:31 > 0:37:34They might have been quite fearful by the time they got here.
0:37:34 > 0:37:38Uh-huh. Just depends what actually happens behind that bank.
0:37:38 > 0:37:39Exactly.
0:37:42 > 0:37:45Today, our eyes are drawn to the stones themselves,
0:37:45 > 0:37:50but 4,500 years ago, it would have been Avebury's great henge,
0:37:50 > 0:37:54the surrounding ditch and bank, that set pulses racing.
0:37:56 > 0:37:58The ditch that I'm walking along is about four metres deep,
0:37:58 > 0:38:00but when it was freshly cut,
0:38:00 > 0:38:03it was more than twice that depth, it's just silted up.
0:38:03 > 0:38:08So, in the Neolithic, I would have been standing against a sheer wall
0:38:08 > 0:38:12ten metres high, 30 feet and more.
0:38:12 > 0:38:15Now, you've also got to do away with, in your mind's eye,
0:38:15 > 0:38:18this V shape and the green of the grass
0:38:18 > 0:38:20because, when it was new,
0:38:20 > 0:38:23it was straight-sided, dropping straight down on the vertical
0:38:23 > 0:38:26and shining white because of the chalk.
0:38:26 > 0:38:29It would have looked like the world's biggest polo mint lying
0:38:29 > 0:38:34in the grass and all of it achieved without any metal tools whatsoever.
0:38:34 > 0:38:39You're talking about men, women and children using the sweat
0:38:39 > 0:38:42and the muscle of their backs to dig this out with antler picks
0:38:42 > 0:38:46and shovels or spades made from the shoulder blades of cattle.
0:38:46 > 0:38:48It's simply unbelievable.
0:38:54 > 0:38:57The great ditch may bring to mind a defensive moat,
0:38:57 > 0:39:00but look more carefully at the way it's been constructed
0:39:00 > 0:39:02and you see another purpose entirely.
0:39:07 > 0:39:09What we're looking at is an earthwork
0:39:09 > 0:39:12that's the inversion of what you'd normally expect.
0:39:12 > 0:39:14If you want to make an earthwork
0:39:14 > 0:39:16to keep things on the outside from getting inside,
0:39:16 > 0:39:20you put the ditch on the outside, the bank on the inside.
0:39:20 > 0:39:24What we have here is a ditch on the inside and a bank on the outside.
0:39:24 > 0:39:27So it's almost so the purpose of the earthwork is to control
0:39:27 > 0:39:30and contain whatever is inside.
0:39:32 > 0:39:35Keeping something in as opposed to keeping something out?
0:39:35 > 0:39:36Exactly!
0:39:36 > 0:39:41And we know or we can suspect, given the fact that what we see
0:39:41 > 0:39:42inside the stone settings,
0:39:42 > 0:39:45that they're not trying to keep cattle or people inside,
0:39:45 > 0:39:48they're trying to keep the stones inside,
0:39:48 > 0:39:51they're perhaps trying to keep that sort of power,
0:39:51 > 0:39:54that aura, that extreme sacredness.
0:39:54 > 0:39:58They're using this henge earthwork as a kind of boundary,
0:39:58 > 0:40:01as a wrapping to separate off
0:40:01 > 0:40:05this eminently sacred space from the rest of the landscape.
0:40:11 > 0:40:15Archaeologists believe the massive ditch and bank of the henge
0:40:15 > 0:40:18were constructed around 2500 BC,
0:40:18 > 0:40:19possibly to contain
0:40:19 > 0:40:24already sacred and more ancient monuments that lay within.
0:40:24 > 0:40:26One of the oldest is known as The Cove.
0:40:29 > 0:40:32Originally made up of three stones, today only two survive.
0:40:35 > 0:40:39The Cove formed a box that some believe may have been meant
0:40:39 > 0:40:41to represent a chambered tomb.
0:40:41 > 0:40:45There's no denying that these stones have a presence?
0:40:45 > 0:40:49Yes, it's very true, I mean especially with a block like this,
0:40:49 > 0:40:53you really do feel its very sort of physical presence.
0:40:53 > 0:40:56Even by Avebury standards, this is colossal.
0:40:56 > 0:41:00It is. It's certainly the biggest stone in the complex.
0:41:00 > 0:41:03We know through excavation that there's at least
0:41:03 > 0:41:06another three metres of this stone set in the ground.
0:41:06 > 0:41:10So we're potentially talking about only being able to see
0:41:10 > 0:41:13- half of this boulder. - It could well be, yes.
0:41:13 > 0:41:14Yes, that's right. We're looking
0:41:14 > 0:41:19at a block that is in the order of 100 tonnes, maybe 100 tonnes plus.
0:41:19 > 0:41:24It could therefore be the largest megalith within the British Isles.
0:41:29 > 0:41:32It is just a wonder. And even as a 21st century person,
0:41:32 > 0:41:36you come and you see them and they just beggar belief?
0:41:36 > 0:41:38They do! Especially when you get close to the stone,
0:41:38 > 0:41:41when you really feel its scale, feel its presence,
0:41:41 > 0:41:45it almost seems unbelievable that people have the kind of capacity
0:41:45 > 0:41:50to sort of manhandle, haul this thing, set it upright in the ground.
0:41:50 > 0:41:54We know that they didn't quite get it positioned correctly
0:41:54 > 0:41:56within the stone hole, but I suspect when it fell in,
0:41:56 > 0:42:00they were probably just so relieved, that no-one was
0:42:00 > 0:42:03going to worry about the fact that it had a slight lean to it.
0:42:03 > 0:42:05Yeah, think of it,
0:42:05 > 0:42:09to be amongst that crowd or in the onlookers,
0:42:09 > 0:42:14to hear that thing drop down into the pre-prepared socket,
0:42:14 > 0:42:15you know, boom!
0:42:15 > 0:42:18This is the kind of thing that would have been remembered,
0:42:18 > 0:42:22this is the kind of thing that would have entered history and mythology,
0:42:22 > 0:42:25the act of moving and erecting this great stone.
0:42:25 > 0:42:27So, in a way, the people might have been
0:42:27 > 0:42:30so impressed by this single object, that that might have been
0:42:30 > 0:42:33part of the inspiration for building here?
0:42:33 > 0:42:34It could well have been, yes,
0:42:34 > 0:42:37I mean, this may have been the place that was marked out as being special
0:42:37 > 0:42:41simply because it had this sort of configuration of very large
0:42:41 > 0:42:45or very sort of distinctive or notable stones. And that could have
0:42:45 > 0:42:49been what afforded this place this sort of special or sacred character.
0:42:52 > 0:42:53Excavations have shown that,
0:42:53 > 0:42:56even after the great circle had been completed,
0:42:56 > 0:42:58stones continued to be erected
0:42:58 > 0:43:01and re-erected for hundreds of years to follow.
0:43:01 > 0:43:03It seems the whole point of Avebury
0:43:03 > 0:43:06was to be involved in a great communal effort
0:43:06 > 0:43:10that must have drawn people from far and wide.
0:43:12 > 0:43:15Like the cathedral builders of the Middle Ages,
0:43:15 > 0:43:17many of those toiling in the ditches of Avebury
0:43:17 > 0:43:21or hauling great stones into place could not have expected
0:43:21 > 0:43:25to have seen the monument finished within their lifetime.
0:43:25 > 0:43:28This was an act of devotional labour.
0:43:28 > 0:43:30Society was clearly changing.
0:43:30 > 0:43:35Mobilising this amount of effort required someone to be in charge.
0:43:35 > 0:43:38A leader capable of wielding enormous power,
0:43:38 > 0:43:42who could unite diverse groups of people to a common cause.
0:43:46 > 0:43:50Further clues to how these communities were brought together
0:43:50 > 0:43:54and what beliefs they shared are being revealed in new discoveries
0:43:54 > 0:43:56at the northernmost tip of Britain.
0:44:02 > 0:44:05It's tempting to think of Orkney as remote,
0:44:05 > 0:44:07but it's worth remembering
0:44:07 > 0:44:11that the first farmers arrived here over 5,500 years ago.
0:44:11 > 0:44:15They crossed the Pentland Firth from mainland Scotland with
0:44:15 > 0:44:19their livestock and seed crops and they spread out across the islands.
0:44:19 > 0:44:22No doubt lives were hard and lifetimes short,
0:44:22 > 0:44:26but the land was fertile and there was wood for fuel
0:44:26 > 0:44:29and soon they began to channel their energies
0:44:29 > 0:44:32into reshaping the world around them.
0:44:36 > 0:44:40Much of their effort was focused on the Ness of Brodgar,
0:44:40 > 0:44:45a thin strip of land that separates the lochs of Stenness and Harray.
0:44:45 > 0:44:48The great chambered tomb of Maeshowe was built
0:44:48 > 0:44:51and two magnificent stone circles -
0:44:51 > 0:44:55the Standing Stones Of Stenness and the Ring of Brodgar.
0:44:55 > 0:44:59These are among the oldest henge monuments in Britain
0:44:59 > 0:45:03and recent research is revealing how and why they were built.
0:45:04 > 0:45:07The Ring of Brodgar is a true circle.
0:45:07 > 0:45:12It's 100 metres across, there were originally 60 stones in the circle,
0:45:12 > 0:45:14they're very evenly spaced.
0:45:14 > 0:45:17In terms of the design and execution,
0:45:17 > 0:45:19it's a work of some technical precision,
0:45:19 > 0:45:23but it's more complicated than that. Every stone in the circle is unique.
0:45:23 > 0:45:26They're different sizes, they're different shapes, but best of all,
0:45:26 > 0:45:29each has been quarried from a different part of Orkney.
0:45:34 > 0:45:39In recent years, some of those quarry sites have been found.
0:45:39 > 0:45:43One of them is six miles away on a remote coastal hillside,
0:45:43 > 0:45:46above the remains of the Neolithic village of Skara Brae.
0:45:48 > 0:45:50- Look at that.- Look at this, yes.
0:45:52 > 0:45:55That's just a Ring of Brodgar stone lying down.
0:45:55 > 0:45:58Yes, this very slanted top to it.
0:45:58 > 0:46:00Point on it.
0:46:00 > 0:46:03Fantastic, isn't it?
0:46:03 > 0:46:05That's amazing and it does just look like
0:46:05 > 0:46:08they walked away from it for whatever reason.
0:46:08 > 0:46:11They got it this far and then...
0:46:11 > 0:46:13And just left it here, but look at these ones.
0:46:13 > 0:46:17When you're very used to seeing the Ring of Brodgar,
0:46:17 > 0:46:19it's so strange to then get a glimpse of...
0:46:19 > 0:46:22It's almost behind the scenes.
0:46:22 > 0:46:24Yes, it's what went before.
0:46:24 > 0:46:27What's the significance of the stone from here?
0:46:27 > 0:46:31Why come looking for stone so far away from where you're building?
0:46:31 > 0:46:34Well, we think it was because communities
0:46:34 > 0:46:36and different parts of Orkney
0:46:36 > 0:46:39were bringing stone from near where they lived
0:46:39 > 0:46:43to express this coming together of community and different identities
0:46:43 > 0:46:46and you could do that because the stones are all slightly different
0:46:46 > 0:46:48depending on where they're quarried from.
0:46:48 > 0:46:52And you can actually see the technique that they were using,
0:46:52 > 0:46:55these stones that are poking out from underneath are its trestle,
0:46:55 > 0:46:59so this is what it's being slid onto, so what you're seeing is something
0:46:59 > 0:47:03quite extraordinary that we don't normally get a glimpse of at all.
0:47:03 > 0:47:08The process of moving it must have been every bit as impressive,
0:47:08 > 0:47:12really, as seeing it in its socket at the circle.
0:47:12 > 0:47:14The hundreds of people,
0:47:14 > 0:47:17the ropes or the timber or whatever else was in play.
0:47:17 > 0:47:21Cos what the people would remember wouldn't be the finished monument,
0:47:21 > 0:47:24they would, but what they really would remember would be the effort.
0:47:24 > 0:47:27And they would tell stories about how Dad was involved in that
0:47:27 > 0:47:30or Grandad was involved, that's what they would remember,
0:47:30 > 0:47:33- not the monument. - Yes, they would be remembering
0:47:33 > 0:47:35that journey, the length of time it took
0:47:35 > 0:47:38and the stories that were told as that journey was taken
0:47:38 > 0:47:41and the story that that journey became.
0:47:44 > 0:47:48A long time ago, there was a race of giants that lived in Orkney.
0:47:48 > 0:47:50Great, bad-tempered, blustering creatures,
0:47:50 > 0:47:55but they did like to come together and dance.
0:47:55 > 0:47:57And one night they gathered together
0:47:57 > 0:47:59on a plain between two bodies of water.
0:47:59 > 0:48:04And they danced in a great circle round and round and round.
0:48:04 > 0:48:07As the fiddler stood playing the fiddle,
0:48:07 > 0:48:10they got faster and faster, dancing more and more.
0:48:10 > 0:48:13And they were enjoying themselves so much
0:48:13 > 0:48:17that they lost track of time and, before they knew what happened,
0:48:17 > 0:48:21the sun rose and they were all turned to stone.
0:48:21 > 0:48:25And there they remain to this day, only now we call them
0:48:25 > 0:48:30- the Ring of Brodgar - Whose story is that?
0:48:30 > 0:48:34Well, we can trace the story probably back to the Vikings, but
0:48:34 > 0:48:41they could have heard the story from the Picts who were here before them.
0:48:41 > 0:48:45You do wonder how and when the original truth gets lost?
0:48:45 > 0:48:47There must have been a time when the circles were in use
0:48:47 > 0:48:49by the people who'd built them
0:48:49 > 0:48:52and those stories would have been passed on, that explanation,
0:48:52 > 0:48:56but somewhere along the line, that truth gets dropped
0:48:56 > 0:48:58and is replaced by something much more fanciful.
0:48:58 > 0:49:01Well, the Vikings would have been interpreting it
0:49:01 > 0:49:04in a way that they understood from their own culture,
0:49:04 > 0:49:06and there are lots of stories
0:49:06 > 0:49:10about giants and trolls being turned to stone,
0:49:10 > 0:49:12so maybe they were hearing stories
0:49:12 > 0:49:19about these stones representing people or representing the ancestors
0:49:19 > 0:49:23and they just put their own understanding on it.
0:49:23 > 0:49:28Maybe at the very least, people are remembering that sense
0:49:28 > 0:49:31in which the stones were regarded as having a life.
0:49:31 > 0:49:35Yeah, I think it's quite...quite likely. You'd have this memory
0:49:35 > 0:49:40of them representing someone or somebody or something. Um...
0:49:40 > 0:49:45and I think that that would come across in the stories,
0:49:45 > 0:49:47so, yeah, it is possible.
0:50:09 > 0:50:12The people living closest to the quarry,
0:50:12 > 0:50:16at least as far as we know, were those at Skara Brae.
0:50:16 > 0:50:18Now this village laid buried beneath sand dunes
0:50:18 > 0:50:23for 4,500 to 5,000 years until a great storm one night in 1850
0:50:23 > 0:50:28scoured away the sand and returned this to the daylight.
0:50:28 > 0:50:33There are eight houses surviving intact connected by low passageways.
0:50:33 > 0:50:35They're built of beach stone
0:50:35 > 0:50:39and they're the perfect response to the Orkney weather,
0:50:39 > 0:50:43but it seems to me that if you were going to send a stone
0:50:43 > 0:50:46to be incorporated into the great circle at Brodgar,
0:50:46 > 0:50:51then you'd want something more substantial, more special.
0:50:51 > 0:50:53So maybe it was the people here
0:50:53 > 0:50:57who cut a stone from the quarry and hauled it to Brodgar
0:50:57 > 0:51:00to say this is us, we are here too,
0:51:00 > 0:51:06the people and the place of Skara Brae signified for ever in stone.
0:51:11 > 0:51:15Many archaeologists now believe that constructing the Ring of Brodgar
0:51:15 > 0:51:19helped bind the different communities of Orkney together.
0:51:19 > 0:51:22How to create larger social groups
0:51:22 > 0:51:25was a problem being faced across Britain.
0:51:25 > 0:51:28Massive building projects like Stonehenge and Avebury
0:51:28 > 0:51:31required huge numbers of people to come together
0:51:31 > 0:51:33and work peaceably side by side.
0:51:36 > 0:51:40Orkney already had a model for social harmony, the very houses
0:51:40 > 0:51:45themselves with the central hearth round which a family could gather.
0:51:45 > 0:51:49It appears to have been an idea that spread beyond the islands,
0:51:49 > 0:51:52as across Britain, excavations of large timber circles and shrines
0:51:52 > 0:51:56have revealed scaled-up versions of the floor plan of the Orkney house.
0:51:58 > 0:52:01These were places where great crowds could meet
0:52:01 > 0:52:04and think of themselves as part of one household.
0:52:06 > 0:52:07At the end of their lives,
0:52:07 > 0:52:11the timber monuments were enclosed in great stone circles and henges,
0:52:11 > 0:52:15sanctifying the Orkney idea of the house for all time.
0:52:17 > 0:52:19Back on the islands, the idea
0:52:19 > 0:52:23of the house as a home for a whole community took a new direction.
0:52:25 > 0:52:26It had long been thought
0:52:26 > 0:52:29that the two great stone circles of Stenness and Brodgar
0:52:29 > 0:52:33were the focus of ceremonial life in Stone Age Orkney,
0:52:33 > 0:52:35but a chance discovery has revealed
0:52:35 > 0:52:38that they were part of something much bigger.
0:52:38 > 0:52:41There's a low hill between the two circles that everyone thought
0:52:41 > 0:52:45was just something left behind by the glaciers. In fact,
0:52:45 > 0:52:48it's almost entirely man-made.
0:52:48 > 0:52:51Emerging from beneath it is a complex of buildings of such
0:52:51 > 0:52:54a scale, of such sophistication that they would have dwarfed
0:52:54 > 0:52:58anything else on Orkney, in Britain, perhaps even in the whole of Europe.
0:52:58 > 0:53:02The so-called Temple of Ness of Brodgar is revolutionising
0:53:02 > 0:53:06our understanding of spiritual and sacred life in the Neolithic.
0:53:09 > 0:53:11Archaeologist Nick Card and his team
0:53:11 > 0:53:15have revealed at least a dozen large house-like buildings
0:53:15 > 0:53:17that appear to have been used as temples.
0:53:19 > 0:53:24Nick, why is all of this where it is?
0:53:24 > 0:53:26Why did they choose this location for it all?
0:53:26 > 0:53:28Well, I think you've just got to look around, Neil,
0:53:28 > 0:53:31you've got this amazing natural amphitheatre
0:53:31 > 0:53:34created by the hills running all the way round.
0:53:34 > 0:53:38And then this thin spit of land of the two lochs on either side,
0:53:38 > 0:53:42you really do feel central to the whole landscape.
0:53:42 > 0:53:45And what this landscape seems to reflect almost
0:53:45 > 0:53:48is this kind of microcosm of the wider world,
0:53:48 > 0:53:51land, water, land and then beyond that the sea.
0:53:51 > 0:53:53So before there was anything here,
0:53:53 > 0:53:56before there was a stone circle or a building,
0:53:56 > 0:53:57just the shape of the landscape here
0:53:57 > 0:54:00would have attracted people or caught their attention?
0:54:00 > 0:54:02I think so. It's quite unique.
0:54:02 > 0:54:07Each building at the Ness of Brodgar differs slightly in style,
0:54:07 > 0:54:09which has led Nick and his team to conclude
0:54:09 > 0:54:11that, just as with the Ring of Brodgar,
0:54:11 > 0:54:13different communities from across Orkney
0:54:13 > 0:54:17were building their own structures within the complex.
0:54:17 > 0:54:22Do you get any sense of what kind of religion or science or magic
0:54:22 > 0:54:25was being practised here?
0:54:25 > 0:54:28It's difficult to know, we'll never know for sure!
0:54:28 > 0:54:32But you look at the alignments of some of these buildings,
0:54:32 > 0:54:35which align with the mid-winter solstice
0:54:35 > 0:54:40and the summer equinox, etc.
0:54:40 > 0:54:43I'm sure that the celestial bodies must have
0:54:43 > 0:54:45formed some part of that religion.
0:54:45 > 0:54:48But I think what the Ness also probably represents
0:54:48 > 0:54:53is a place where people came, maybe during particular times of the year,
0:54:53 > 0:54:54during rites of passage,
0:54:54 > 0:54:58maybe to do with death, maybe with birth,
0:54:58 > 0:55:00maybe with healing and it's all those different aspects.
0:55:00 > 0:55:04Do you think what was going on here, what with the Ring of Brodgar
0:55:04 > 0:55:07and Stenness and this complex,
0:55:07 > 0:55:10that the fame of the Ness of Brodgar
0:55:10 > 0:55:14would have spread right through Britain and beyond,
0:55:14 > 0:55:17people would have known this was here?
0:55:17 > 0:55:20I think that at some stage of the Ness's life
0:55:20 > 0:55:22when you have this kind of massive walled enclosure,
0:55:22 > 0:55:24with these magnificent buildings,
0:55:24 > 0:55:26really nothing quite like them known elsewhere,
0:55:26 > 0:55:29that the Ness would have been almost a pilgrimage site
0:55:29 > 0:55:32from people coming right the way across Britain.
0:55:32 > 0:55:34Orkney and the Ness of Brodgar
0:55:34 > 0:55:37would have been right up there at the pinnacle,
0:55:37 > 0:55:40you know, rivalling Stonehenge at some stage of its life.
0:55:40 > 0:55:45So something starts here, I mean, is this the origin...
0:55:45 > 0:55:49point of a religion and a way of understanding the world?
0:55:49 > 0:55:53Well, I think when you look at henge monuments,
0:55:53 > 0:55:56which again are this kind of pan-British phenomenon,
0:55:56 > 0:55:59the earliest dates we have are from Orkney.
0:55:59 > 0:56:03And you think that to go along with that, there was these perhaps
0:56:03 > 0:56:06religious ideas that were being transmitted.
0:56:06 > 0:56:08That's amazing though to think that
0:56:08 > 0:56:12something that ended up finding its way throughout Britain
0:56:12 > 0:56:15might have been kicked off in these islands?
0:56:15 > 0:56:17Well, it's been suggested before
0:56:17 > 0:56:21that Orkney really does turn the map of Britain on its head.
0:56:21 > 0:56:26Gosh, so whatever it was, it was someone here that had the idea?
0:56:26 > 0:56:30Well, you sometimes think that it must have been
0:56:30 > 0:56:34maybe an individual that kind of started off this kind of idea,
0:56:34 > 0:56:39why build a henge monument? What was the kind of forces behind that?
0:56:39 > 0:56:42Gosh, it's like there was a messianic figure here,
0:56:42 > 0:56:48some inspirational spiritual leader here, you know, 4-5,000 years ago?
0:56:48 > 0:56:49It's one interpretation!
0:56:54 > 0:57:00Around 2300 BC, the Ness of Brodgar was deemed no longer of use.
0:57:00 > 0:57:02The buildings were filled with rubble and mud
0:57:02 > 0:57:07and in one final glorious act of conspicuous consumption,
0:57:07 > 0:57:10500-odd head of cattle were sacrificed
0:57:10 > 0:57:11to the decommissioning feast
0:57:11 > 0:57:15in what sounds like the biggest barbecue of all time.
0:57:21 > 0:57:26I believe something profound began on Orkney around 5,000 years ago.
0:57:26 > 0:57:28It reflected a fundamental change
0:57:28 > 0:57:32in the way people understood the world and their place within it.
0:57:32 > 0:57:36It found expression, at least in part, in great building projects,
0:57:36 > 0:57:40chamber tombs and then circles of massive stones.
0:57:40 > 0:57:42And having begun on Orkney,
0:57:42 > 0:57:45it then spread the length and breadth of Britain.
0:57:45 > 0:57:47But I can't shake off the idea that,
0:57:47 > 0:57:50if you could follow the path all the way back to the beginning,
0:57:50 > 0:57:52it would lead to someone.
0:57:52 > 0:57:54Some great visionary and thinker,
0:57:54 > 0:57:57and the message that they had to give
0:57:57 > 0:58:00changed the world for the people around them.
0:58:00 > 0:58:04Now, we know the names of some of the great visionaries of history,
0:58:04 > 0:58:07but the mystic of Orkney must remain anonymous.
0:58:12 > 0:58:16Next week, my journey continues into the age of metal.
0:58:16 > 0:58:19As new technologies and beliefs flood into Britain,
0:58:19 > 0:58:24our ancestors seek meaning and solace in the natural world.
0:58:24 > 0:58:28But beyond the horizon, the power of Rome is rising.