0:00:02 > 0:00:05At Dundee's Centre for Anatomy and Human Identification
0:00:05 > 0:00:10the history cold case team is about to take on a dramatic new case
0:00:10 > 0:00:14surrounding a major, unsolved archaeological mystery.
0:00:14 > 0:00:18Our next case? Wonderful name, it's called Windy Pits.
0:00:18 > 0:00:22We've got human remains that are spanning across 3,000 years.
0:00:22 > 0:00:25Setting up a mobile forensic lab
0:00:25 > 0:00:28they'll investigate the puzzling remains of more than 20 people
0:00:28 > 0:00:31discovered here in underground caves.
0:00:31 > 0:00:34They're believed to be some of the oldest human bones
0:00:34 > 0:00:36ever found in Britain.
0:00:36 > 0:00:40Location - even better. The remote North Yorkshire Moors.
0:00:40 > 0:00:43- Oh, my neck of the woods.- In winter.
0:00:43 > 0:00:44Potholing.
0:00:44 > 0:00:47Who are they, and why are their bones here?
0:00:47 > 0:00:51It perhaps would have taken four or five people to hold him down.
0:00:51 > 0:00:54Are the caves simply Iron Age graveyards,
0:00:54 > 0:00:56or is there a more sinister explanation
0:00:56 > 0:00:59for how this became the final resting place of so many people?
0:00:59 > 0:01:03If these bones came up as a forensic case,
0:01:03 > 0:01:04I would be advising the police
0:01:04 > 0:01:07that we need to look at this a lot more closely.
0:01:07 > 0:01:09The investigation will shine a light
0:01:09 > 0:01:12on a long-forgotten period of our ancient history.
0:01:14 > 0:01:16A time of brutal rituals
0:01:16 > 0:01:19and bizarre beliefs,
0:01:19 > 0:01:22when people lived in fear of what lay beneath the surface of the earth.
0:01:22 > 0:01:25The coup de grace - there'll be a great spurt of blood!
0:01:25 > 0:01:28Can modern forensics finally solve the mystery
0:01:28 > 0:01:31of what happened at the Windy Pits?
0:01:31 > 0:01:34And what dark and surprising new truths will emerge
0:01:34 > 0:01:36about how we lived 2,000 years ago?
0:01:56 > 0:01:59The skeletons at the centre of this investigation
0:01:59 > 0:02:03were excavated from an extraordinary network of limestone caves,
0:02:03 > 0:02:08carved deep into the landscape of the North York Moors.
0:02:08 > 0:02:12There are believed to be 22 people among the remains.
0:02:12 > 0:02:15But information about who they were and how they died
0:02:15 > 0:02:18has remained tantalizingly beyond our reach.
0:02:22 > 0:02:24With so many questions still unanswered,
0:02:24 > 0:02:27local archaeologists carefully lay out the bones again
0:02:27 > 0:02:29in a mobile forensic unit
0:02:29 > 0:02:31close to where they were first excavated.
0:02:35 > 0:02:37They hope a brand new investigation,
0:02:37 > 0:02:39using science as well as historical analysis,
0:02:39 > 0:02:42will help explain what happened here.
0:02:45 > 0:02:48Well, this is interesting.
0:02:48 > 0:02:51Forensic anthropologist Dr Xanthe Mallett
0:02:51 > 0:02:54arrives to make the first visual assessment of the bones,
0:02:54 > 0:02:59before reporting back to team leader Professor Sue Black in Dundee.
0:02:59 > 0:03:01There's a huge amount of work to do here.
0:03:01 > 0:03:06There's going to be 22 individuals we believe, maybe more, maybe less,
0:03:06 > 0:03:10but you've got to ask what they're doing out on the middle of North Yorkshire Moors.
0:03:10 > 0:03:14And when you've got 3,000 years' worth of history involved,
0:03:14 > 0:03:18I can't for a moment imagine what that's going to turn into.
0:03:22 > 0:03:24Archaeologist Graham Lee brings Xanthe up to speed
0:03:24 > 0:03:29with how this unique, unusual hoard of human remains was discovered.
0:03:29 > 0:03:32Been looking forward to you coming in actually,
0:03:32 > 0:03:35because this is a real puzzle we've got going on here.
0:03:35 > 0:03:38What do you know about them?
0:03:38 > 0:03:41All of the bones here have come from things called windy pits
0:03:41 > 0:03:44which are natural fissures where the rock has cracked apart
0:03:44 > 0:03:49and created some quite deep caverns in the edge of the valleys.
0:03:49 > 0:03:53And when people started exploring the Windy Pits
0:03:53 > 0:03:56they started finding these fragments of human bone.
0:03:56 > 0:03:59The remains are thought to span several thousand years,
0:03:59 > 0:04:02from Roman times right back to around 2,000 BC.
0:04:02 > 0:04:05The team wants to focus their enquiry
0:04:05 > 0:04:08on a group of four individuals
0:04:08 > 0:04:11that were found together in one of the deepest caves,
0:04:11 > 0:04:12known as Slip Gill.
0:04:12 > 0:04:16All of these come from just one of the windy pits, Slip Gill,
0:04:16 > 0:04:21which is one of the deepest and steepest of the fissures.
0:04:21 > 0:04:24These have been radiocarbon dated
0:04:24 > 0:04:27to about the middle of the first century BC,
0:04:27 > 0:04:32to the beginning of the second century AD.
0:04:32 > 0:04:37They were found in a heap at the bottom of the windy pit
0:04:37 > 0:04:41and it's virtually a sort of, I don't know... 23, 25-metre drop,
0:04:41 > 0:04:44pretty much straight down from the entrance.
0:04:44 > 0:04:47So they've all ended up being squashed together
0:04:47 > 0:04:50at the bottom, together with rocks and other debris.
0:04:51 > 0:04:54The suggestion has been made that it could be a family.
0:05:02 > 0:05:05But why might a family end up dead in a cave?
0:05:05 > 0:05:09At the site where they were found, Xanthe sees for herself
0:05:09 > 0:05:13why these mysterious caves are called the Windy Pits.
0:05:13 > 0:05:17We're now above Slip Gill,
0:05:17 > 0:05:21which is one of the deepest windy pits.
0:05:21 > 0:05:24Can you see the... All the vegetation's moving here
0:05:24 > 0:05:29and that's a result of the hot draught coming up from the mouth of the windy pit.
0:05:29 > 0:05:32I can see why this would have been a really mysterious place.
0:05:32 > 0:05:34- It looks spooky, doesn't it? - It does, yes.
0:05:34 > 0:05:38- Oh, you can feel the warm air from here really well, can't you? - Straight away.- Yeah.
0:05:38 > 0:05:44The human bones found in Slip Gill date from around the first century AD.
0:05:46 > 0:05:49There was a series of expeditions into these fissures,
0:05:49 > 0:05:52say, through the 1950s.
0:05:52 > 0:05:54I'm not sure that you would look at them
0:05:54 > 0:06:00- and say that everyone is necessarily clad that appropriately for caving.- No.
0:06:00 > 0:06:04- Some hard hats...- Yep.- ..And some ropes, that's pretty much it, and a spade.
0:06:04 > 0:06:07And they were the people that recovered
0:06:07 > 0:06:10the bits and pieces of the bodies from the bottom.
0:06:10 > 0:06:13Since being found in the 1950s,
0:06:13 > 0:06:16the bones have been the subject of much study and debate.
0:06:16 > 0:06:19But the job of this new investigation
0:06:19 > 0:06:21is to look at the evidence again with fresh eyes,
0:06:21 > 0:06:24and without being influenced by any previous theories.
0:06:37 > 0:06:39Back in the mobile laboratory,
0:06:39 > 0:06:43Xanthe begins the task of making sense of the puzzling remains.
0:06:43 > 0:06:47She will look for signs that could confirm age, gender
0:06:47 > 0:06:48and any evidence of trauma.
0:06:48 > 0:06:53But the incompleteness of the skeletons will prove a major hurdle
0:06:53 > 0:06:56in trying to establish the identities of the dead.
0:06:56 > 0:07:00Not very much here with this one.
0:07:00 > 0:07:03No skull, no pelvis,
0:07:03 > 0:07:06not very much at all.
0:07:06 > 0:07:11Initially, we're looking... certainly at an adult individual.
0:07:13 > 0:07:17Pretty... Pretty robust femur,
0:07:17 > 0:07:21been reconstructed slightly,
0:07:21 > 0:07:25so first gut feeling would be that this is probably a male.
0:07:25 > 0:07:28Luckily we've got quite a bit of the skull on this one,
0:07:28 > 0:07:31so this might actually work for reconstruction.
0:07:31 > 0:07:34As her initial examination continues
0:07:34 > 0:07:38she spots a curious injury on the jawbone of the one of the males.
0:07:39 > 0:07:44Now, that might be our first sign of significant trauma.
0:07:44 > 0:07:47This is a... It looks like a sharp-force trauma
0:07:47 > 0:07:49to the side of the mandible,
0:07:49 > 0:07:51which would just be along your jaw line.
0:07:51 > 0:07:55This is not an injury that's happened a reasonable time before death
0:07:55 > 0:07:58and the bone has started to regenerate.
0:07:58 > 0:07:59So...
0:08:02 > 0:08:05Initial impression would be that this is an injury
0:08:05 > 0:08:07that could have occurred around the time of death.
0:08:07 > 0:08:11So at least one of the four people from Slip Gill
0:08:11 > 0:08:14may not have died of natural causes.
0:08:14 > 0:08:16So we've got some interesting elements mixed in,
0:08:16 > 0:08:18we've got some sharp-force trauma...
0:08:20 > 0:08:21on a fairly robust group.
0:08:23 > 0:08:25It's interesting.
0:08:25 > 0:08:30By forensically retracing events around the scene of death
0:08:30 > 0:08:33and gaining clues as to who these people were in life,
0:08:33 > 0:08:36can they uncover what happened here?
0:08:37 > 0:08:39This case promises to drag the team back
0:08:39 > 0:08:43to a largely-unrecorded period of our history.
0:08:43 > 0:08:46It's a rare opportunity to build a personalized account
0:08:46 > 0:08:50of life and death in Britain 2,000 years ago.
0:08:59 > 0:09:01Back at Headquarters in Dundee,
0:09:01 > 0:09:05they must first agree on the direction the investigation will take.
0:09:06 > 0:09:09Xanthe brings Professor Sue Black up to speed,
0:09:09 > 0:09:12along with Professor Caroline Wilkinson,
0:09:12 > 0:09:15who's in charge of facial reconstruction.
0:09:15 > 0:09:16One of the cave sites
0:09:16 > 0:09:19is literally just kind of like a hole in this bowl in the earth.
0:09:19 > 0:09:23Basically, it goes straight down, it's like a chimney
0:09:23 > 0:09:26and so people have obviously been deposited in here
0:09:26 > 0:09:27and we're not sure why.
0:09:27 > 0:09:30To help understand the shape and size
0:09:30 > 0:09:33of the Slip Gill cave where the four skeletons were found,
0:09:33 > 0:09:35Xanthe shows them a 3-D reconstruction.
0:09:35 > 0:09:38The CGI will really help you get a kind of visual
0:09:38 > 0:09:41on the type of system we're talking about.
0:09:42 > 0:09:46So this is kind of open, desolate moorland.
0:09:46 > 0:09:50- This is going down into the cave, so you can see the shaft.- That's good.
0:09:50 > 0:09:53It's huge, isn't it? It's amazing.
0:09:53 > 0:09:57So, you can see how bodies would have tumbled down here,
0:09:57 > 0:10:01once they get kind of down the channel and over that ridge,
0:10:01 > 0:10:03this is where they would have landed.
0:10:03 > 0:10:06Presumed to be the bones of a man, a woman and two teenagers,
0:10:06 > 0:10:09the obvious questions is, why?
0:10:09 > 0:10:12You've got to wonder why they're putting people in here.
0:10:12 > 0:10:13Is this ritualistic?
0:10:13 > 0:10:18Is this just vindictive of people just being, you know, murdered and, in essence, hidden?
0:10:18 > 0:10:20- You're concealing them. - Exactly, yeah.
0:10:20 > 0:10:24To try and get some concrete answers about who these people were,
0:10:24 > 0:10:28bone samples taken in the field will go forward for forensic testing.
0:10:30 > 0:10:33DNA is the obvious one.
0:10:33 > 0:10:36Obviously, are we looking for a biological relationship
0:10:36 > 0:10:39which ties all or any of four individuals? Yeah.
0:10:39 > 0:10:43Carbon dating has already been carried out on the bones
0:10:43 > 0:10:46placing then around the turn of the first century AD.
0:10:48 > 0:10:52- So that really only leaves us with stable isotopes.- Indeed.
0:10:52 > 0:10:55Yep. So, obviously, with that, we're going to be wondering
0:10:55 > 0:10:57are they local, were they always local?
0:10:57 > 0:10:59- It'll tell us a bit about diet as well.- Exactly.
0:10:59 > 0:11:03And possibly quality of life, standard, that kind of thing as well.
0:11:03 > 0:11:06- OK.- So, with me doing the stable isotopes.
0:11:09 > 0:11:11So besides all of the tests we can do
0:11:11 > 0:11:14we really need to look at the context, the wider context.
0:11:14 > 0:11:18Who was potentially using this as a burial site,
0:11:18 > 0:11:21- deposition site, or was this accidental?- Why.
0:11:21 > 0:11:23Why? The bigger picture.
0:11:23 > 0:11:26It's a real kind of intriguing puzzle, isn't it?
0:11:26 > 0:11:29- Yes, it's not... It's not normal. - No.- No, it isn't normal.
0:11:29 > 0:11:32- No, nothing normal about this. - So there is a story.
0:11:32 > 0:11:35It's about finding out what the most likely story is.
0:11:35 > 0:11:38The damaged jawbone belonging to the teenage male
0:11:38 > 0:11:40is the only hard evidence they have so far
0:11:40 > 0:11:44that this might not be a straightforward or innocent burial.
0:11:44 > 0:11:47But it's enough to rouse Sue's suspicions.
0:11:47 > 0:11:49The likely scenario's sounding as if
0:11:49 > 0:11:52what we've got is a suspicious situation,
0:11:52 > 0:11:57where four individuals are found at the bottom of a very long shaft,
0:11:57 > 0:11:58in the middle of remote moors,
0:11:58 > 0:12:00but there are other caves around it,
0:12:00 > 0:12:03where obviously something untoward must have gone on
0:12:03 > 0:12:05at different times in history.
0:12:11 > 0:12:13One of the first tests is DNA.
0:12:16 > 0:12:22This could establish if the skeletons have more than their final resting place in common.
0:12:22 > 0:12:28Are they a family? Do we have mum, dad and two adolescent children?
0:12:28 > 0:12:31The only way we're going to be able to find that out
0:12:31 > 0:12:34is if we can extract DNA, and we can match them through DNA.
0:12:34 > 0:12:38But the older the bones, the harder it is to get meaningful results
0:12:38 > 0:12:41and science alone won't be enough to solve this case.
0:12:44 > 0:12:46The carbon dating places our skeletons
0:12:46 > 0:12:48in the early part of the Roman occupation.
0:12:48 > 0:12:51But if our people were locals,
0:12:51 > 0:12:53theirs would likely be a very pre-Roman way of life,
0:12:53 > 0:12:58much as people had existed in and around the moors for millennia.
0:12:58 > 0:13:01Xanthe has come to a traditional Iron Age village
0:13:01 > 0:13:04to meet archaeologist Steve Sherlock.
0:13:04 > 0:13:07She wants to understand how our people from Slip Gill
0:13:07 > 0:13:10might have lived, and why their remains would be in a cave.
0:13:13 > 0:13:16The individuals from Windy Pits - would they have lived somewhere like this?
0:13:16 > 0:13:20They'd have lived in this sort of environment and structures.
0:13:20 > 0:13:26- How many people would have lived in a house like this?- One family, but about eight to ten people.
0:13:26 > 0:13:29And how many houses like this would have made up a community?
0:13:29 > 0:13:33There could have been four or five houses like this in a busy village.
0:13:33 > 0:13:36- That's quite a large community then. - Indeed it is.
0:13:36 > 0:13:38And we mustn't just think of this one community,
0:13:38 > 0:13:42- there would be another one quite close by. - And they would've interacted?
0:13:42 > 0:13:46They would've traded, farmed and communicated, supported and helped each other.
0:13:46 > 0:13:49We're talking about a society, not individual groups.
0:13:50 > 0:13:52During the Iron Age,
0:13:52 > 0:13:55the Britain population topped three million people.
0:13:55 > 0:13:59This was a sophisticated culture and society.
0:13:59 > 0:14:04Steve explains how the part of the moors where the Windy Pits are located
0:14:04 > 0:14:07were a sort of no-man's-land between two competing Celtic tribes.
0:14:08 > 0:14:10The windy pits are an interesting area
0:14:10 > 0:14:13because they're on the North Yorkshire Moors
0:14:13 > 0:14:17which are, let's say, a neutral area between the tribes to the south called the Parisi
0:14:17 > 0:14:19and the tribes to the north, of the Brigantes.
0:14:19 > 0:14:23So it's probable that the Parisi were using the Windy Pits.
0:14:23 > 0:14:27They're the people that are having sites and activities
0:14:27 > 0:14:32- on the southern parts of the North Yorkshire Moors.- Would the two different tribes have fought?
0:14:32 > 0:14:36There may well have been territorial differences, but there's no evidence for battles as such.
0:14:36 > 0:14:41Curiously, Steve is convinced that caves would not normally have been used for burials,
0:14:41 > 0:14:44or deposition, as archaeologists call it.
0:14:44 > 0:14:49The normal burial rite may well have been cremation scattering the ashes to the wind,
0:14:49 > 0:14:51or being buried at locations nearer to the settlements,
0:14:51 > 0:14:54a long way away from the Windy Pits.
0:14:54 > 0:14:56So it's a really different type of deposition?
0:14:56 > 0:15:00It's a different deposition in terms of choosing a location
0:15:00 > 0:15:02and potentially only choosing certain people
0:15:02 > 0:15:04to be buried at those points.
0:15:04 > 0:15:07So people aren't living in the immediate vicinity?
0:15:07 > 0:15:10It's taken a lot of people a lot of effort to bury people there.
0:15:10 > 0:15:14Indeed. That tells you there's a religious action to this,
0:15:14 > 0:15:17choosing people, location, for a special reason.
0:15:17 > 0:15:22This points to the discovery of the skeletons at Slip Gill
0:15:22 > 0:15:26being something unusual and special, even for Iron Age society.
0:15:28 > 0:15:33How did the bodies end up several feet down in the dark, and why?
0:15:33 > 0:15:36Might the bones finally give up some answers?
0:15:42 > 0:15:45Back at Dundee HQ, the team is desperate for a new lead.
0:15:47 > 0:15:50They assemble to receive the results of the DNA analysis.
0:15:50 > 0:15:55Dr Ian Barnes from Royal Holloway, University of London,
0:15:55 > 0:15:58has the difficult task of trying to answer the question
0:15:58 > 0:16:01of whether the 2,000 year-old bones at Slip Gill
0:16:01 > 0:16:04come from people who were genetically related.
0:16:04 > 0:16:06We're hanging on your every word
0:16:06 > 0:16:10in the hope that you give us something phenomenally exciting...
0:16:10 > 0:16:13And...over to you!
0:16:13 > 0:16:19- Um.- Yeah.- That face says everything. Go on.- OK. So...
0:16:19 > 0:16:23We've had a couple of goes at getting DNA from this material
0:16:23 > 0:16:25and there's just nothing that is reliable.
0:16:25 > 0:16:29It looks to us like there's multiple sequences
0:16:29 > 0:16:31laid over the top of each other
0:16:31 > 0:16:33- so we think it's just contamination. - OK.- OK.
0:16:33 > 0:16:37But I don't think there's any, um, real DNA from those individuals
0:16:37 > 0:16:39in the samples that you gave us.
0:16:39 > 0:16:42It's disappointing news.
0:16:42 > 0:16:45Ian thinks that the bones may have become contaminated,
0:16:45 > 0:16:47making it impossible to answer
0:16:47 > 0:16:51whether the male, female and teenagers are related.
0:16:51 > 0:16:53So it doesn't really help the story in any way,
0:16:53 > 0:16:58because potentially they could still be family and linked genetically,
0:16:58 > 0:17:01- we just can't tell.- Yeah.
0:17:01 > 0:17:05Well, that's disappointing, but so be it. That's the way science goes.
0:17:05 > 0:17:07- Thank you very much. - Thanks for that, Ian.
0:17:07 > 0:17:08Right, sorry about that.
0:17:08 > 0:17:11Good to speak to you. Thanks again. Take care. Bye.
0:17:19 > 0:17:21With DNA having failed to provide any leads,
0:17:21 > 0:17:24Sue feels it's time she examined the bones herself.
0:17:28 > 0:17:30To scour them for possible causes of death,
0:17:30 > 0:17:34she starts by looking at the injury to the jawbone of the teenage male.
0:17:34 > 0:17:39Her experience alerts her to how serious a blow this could have been.
0:17:40 > 0:17:43It's one of the most dangerous places for men who are shaving -
0:17:43 > 0:17:44just right there.
0:17:44 > 0:17:47Because if you put your finger just lightly on there,
0:17:47 > 0:17:50you'll feel an artery, pulsing underneath
0:17:50 > 0:17:52and the facial artery comes up just on there.
0:17:52 > 0:17:55Just perfectly where that is, may I say.
0:17:55 > 0:17:58So that what you have is a real nick into the bone.
0:17:58 > 0:18:03That's not a thin-bladed implement, we've got a large blade.
0:18:03 > 0:18:07So whether you're talking...axe, you're talking machete,
0:18:07 > 0:18:09something that is a large blade.
0:18:09 > 0:18:11It's not like a little, thin kitchen knife,
0:18:11 > 0:18:14because you have a wide entrance
0:18:14 > 0:18:17and a narrow point at which it's come to a stop,
0:18:17 > 0:18:20before it's been pulled out.
0:18:20 > 0:18:24And so that when that implement has come up onto that jaw line,
0:18:24 > 0:18:28what it's then done is, it's caused fracturing to run across here
0:18:28 > 0:18:33and up there and then up towards the base of this tooth.
0:18:33 > 0:18:35Sue believes this wasn't self-inflicted.
0:18:35 > 0:18:38He may have been murdered.
0:18:38 > 0:18:41It certainly will have caused a lot of pain and a lot of bleeding.
0:18:41 > 0:18:44It could have resulted in death.
0:18:44 > 0:18:46This has been caused by somebody else.
0:18:46 > 0:18:49Somebody has inflicted this on this individual
0:18:49 > 0:18:51and it's a young individual.
0:18:52 > 0:18:59And then, on the leg bones of the adult male, she spots more suspicious marks.
0:18:59 > 0:19:01This is a pattern that's quite consistent
0:19:01 > 0:19:04with a fracture occurring in what's called a green bone.
0:19:04 > 0:19:07So it behaves very differently from an old bone
0:19:07 > 0:19:12that doesn't have much water content and organic material still left in it.
0:19:12 > 0:19:15What we don't have is any evidence of healing.
0:19:15 > 0:19:19So this is consistent with the person - perhaps dead,
0:19:19 > 0:19:21perhaps not quite dead -
0:19:21 > 0:19:23being dropped down onto a height.
0:19:23 > 0:19:25There's no proof yet,
0:19:25 > 0:19:29but Sue feels that taking all the evidence so far,
0:19:29 > 0:19:33a picture of suspicious death is definitely emerging for this group.
0:19:33 > 0:19:37If these bones came up as a forensic case
0:19:37 > 0:19:40I would be advising the police to look at this a lot more closely.
0:19:40 > 0:19:43There's something very suspicious going on here.
0:19:43 > 0:19:44You might cut yourself shaving,
0:19:44 > 0:19:48but you sure as heck don't cut yourself shaving at that depth.
0:19:48 > 0:19:51So that the sharp trauma injury, if nothing else,
0:19:51 > 0:19:53is decidedly suspicious.
0:20:00 > 0:20:03Xanthe has an agonizing wait to return to Slip Gill.
0:20:03 > 0:20:04She's keen to test the theory
0:20:04 > 0:20:07that the breaks on the leg bones of the adult male
0:20:07 > 0:20:10could have been caused by falling into the cave.
0:20:10 > 0:20:13But the caves are an important roosting site for bats
0:20:13 > 0:20:17and access is restricted.
0:20:17 > 0:20:20Finally, Spring arrives and she's able to meet up again
0:20:20 > 0:20:23with archaeologist Graham Lee and local caver Martin Roe.
0:20:23 > 0:20:27Lovely to meet you. Is it dangerous in there? Have you got any idea?
0:20:27 > 0:20:31For anybody that didn't have the right equipment and knew how to use it then potentially it is,
0:20:31 > 0:20:35because just behind me here is a 16-metre drop straight to the floor.
0:20:35 > 0:20:39- That is deep, isn't it? Straight down?- Straight down, yeah.
0:20:39 > 0:20:42Even an experienced caver like Martin
0:20:42 > 0:20:44thinks twice about entering Slip Gill.
0:20:44 > 0:20:49He'll carefully descend to show Xanthe the inside of the cave
0:20:49 > 0:20:51via a camera attached to his helmet.
0:20:51 > 0:20:54For the first time, she will see the real anatomy
0:20:54 > 0:20:56of the final resting place of the skeletons.
0:20:58 > 0:21:02The first few metres of Slip Gill are on a shallow incline
0:21:02 > 0:21:05before Martin reaches the main shaft.
0:21:05 > 0:21:08- MARTIN ON RADIO: - 'Just to let you know what I'm doing.
0:21:08 > 0:21:10'I'm moving towards the top of the big drop'
0:21:10 > 0:21:14and you should be seeing the big, dark hole in front of me.
0:21:14 > 0:21:16- Yep.- Look at that.
0:21:16 > 0:21:19- That's like going into the abyss, isn't it?- Yep.
0:21:19 > 0:21:22Yeah, you can see, there's nothing under him there.
0:21:22 > 0:21:27The cave is 16-metres deep, certainly a potentially fatal drop.
0:21:27 > 0:21:29A series of overhanging rocks
0:21:29 > 0:21:33make the final descent particularly perilous.
0:21:39 > 0:21:40That must be pretty scary in there.
0:21:40 > 0:21:44- It's pitch black, except for that little light coming from the head-torch.- Yep.
0:21:47 > 0:21:51Oh, dear! That wasn't very clever!
0:21:51 > 0:21:54So he's going to be now touching down where the bodies were found,
0:21:54 > 0:21:57- on that kind of scree slope?- Exactly.
0:22:01 > 0:22:03So I'm at the bottom now.
0:22:03 > 0:22:05'What I'll do now is I'll turn on the big light'
0:22:05 > 0:22:09and show you how far I've come down from the surface.
0:22:09 > 0:22:12XANTHE ON RADIO: 'OK, great. Thanks.'
0:22:21 > 0:22:22- Oh, wow!- Wow, look at that!
0:22:22 > 0:22:25It's an extraordinary place,
0:22:25 > 0:22:29and one that's remained unchanged for thousands of years.
0:22:35 > 0:22:38- That is a long way.- So you can see the nature of the fissure.
0:22:38 > 0:22:41That's very... It's very slim on the way down, isn't it?
0:22:41 > 0:22:45- Yeah, it is. It's a very narrow slot. That's fantastic.
0:22:45 > 0:22:49And this ties in with the idea that our man fell from a height.
0:22:51 > 0:22:53So once the body went in there,
0:22:53 > 0:22:55it's going to slide down that chimney,
0:22:55 > 0:22:58bounce off some rocks, off the ledge, and land at the bottom?
0:22:58 > 0:23:01- Down on this scree slope down here. - That's it.
0:23:01 > 0:23:05Wow! I just can't imagine anyone getting out of that alive.
0:23:07 > 0:23:10Xanthe's happy that the man's injuries
0:23:10 > 0:23:13are consistent with the cave being the scene of death.
0:23:14 > 0:23:17But why were these people here?
0:23:17 > 0:23:20What was the significance of this place?
0:23:22 > 0:23:27Oh There he is, hello! How are you doing?
0:23:27 > 0:23:30I'm a bit sweaty. But in one piece.
0:23:30 > 0:23:33Quite relieved to have you back with us.
0:23:33 > 0:23:34Yeah, very much so.
0:23:36 > 0:23:38- Well done.- Hey!
0:23:41 > 0:23:45Meanwhile in Dundee, Caroline is beginning the facial reconstruction.
0:23:45 > 0:23:50None of the four skeletons in the group has a complete skull,
0:23:50 > 0:23:52but Caroline is hoping there are enough pieces
0:23:52 > 0:23:54to rebuild the face of the adult male.
0:23:57 > 0:24:01Well, we've got quite a lot of pieces
0:24:01 > 0:24:05and it looks like, when you hold them next to each other,
0:24:05 > 0:24:06that they do fit -
0:24:06 > 0:24:09that piece clearly fits against there.
0:24:09 > 0:24:14And we've got large sections that have already been reassembled
0:24:14 > 0:24:17that need a little bit of adjustment,
0:24:17 > 0:24:21but again, you've got other large pieces that fit.
0:24:21 > 0:24:23But this isn't really a problem for us
0:24:23 > 0:24:25because we can scan them with the scanner
0:24:25 > 0:24:28and then you can see the join lines on the scan
0:24:28 > 0:24:30and we can just adjust the piece in the computer
0:24:30 > 0:24:32so it makes it a whole lot easier
0:24:32 > 0:24:36than having to get rid of this glue and re-glue it.
0:24:36 > 0:24:40But one crucial part of his skull is missing.
0:24:40 > 0:24:45I notice we've got no nasal bones, just at the top of the nose here,
0:24:45 > 0:24:49which are quite important in predicting the nose.
0:24:49 > 0:24:52But that seems like the only bit of the nose that's missing,
0:24:52 > 0:24:54so we can do some estimation from that.
0:25:00 > 0:25:03Now that Caroline has examined the 2,000 year-old skull,
0:25:03 > 0:25:06she will use some very 21st century technology to rebuild it.
0:25:15 > 0:25:18Xanthe's research has indicated
0:25:18 > 0:25:22caves were not usually used in Iron Age burial practices.
0:25:22 > 0:25:27So, she needs to continue on the trail of investigating why a cave like Slip Gill
0:25:27 > 0:25:30would have been significant.
0:25:30 > 0:25:33She travels to the Dales to meet Tom Lord from Lancaster University.
0:25:33 > 0:25:35Thank you very much.
0:25:35 > 0:25:38And, er, we've got a rather atmospheric day to visit a cave.
0:25:38 > 0:25:44Tom believes that for our ancestors, caves had special significance.
0:25:44 > 0:25:50Ooh, look at this. It's certainly very dark and imposing.
0:25:50 > 0:25:55We're going underground, literally into another world, an underworld.
0:25:55 > 0:25:58- And is that how our ancestors would have seen this place?- I think so.
0:25:58 > 0:26:01- Lights on?- Lights on.- OK.
0:26:01 > 0:26:05Helmet... And we're going into the underworld.
0:26:05 > 0:26:07OK. Yes, please!
0:26:12 > 0:26:15It gets darker, gradually.
0:26:15 > 0:26:18It gets dark immediately, doesn't it?
0:26:18 > 0:26:20O-K.
0:26:24 > 0:26:28The cave is wet, it's dripping...
0:26:28 > 0:26:32Tom has found evidence pointing to how caves were used in the Iron Age,
0:26:32 > 0:26:35including human bones and artefacts.
0:26:35 > 0:26:39He thinks the way in which precious objects like these were placed
0:26:39 > 0:26:44suggests that caves were spiritually very important.
0:26:44 > 0:26:47That's a perforated piece of red deer antler.
0:26:47 > 0:26:51- This isn't a bone that I recognise. - It's red deer antler.
0:26:51 > 0:26:54If you hold it up, can you see the careful hole drilled through it?
0:26:54 > 0:26:57You can see it's been drilled through.
0:26:57 > 0:27:00- Its probably been on a shaft. - Is this a weapon of some sort?
0:27:00 > 0:27:03- It might be used as a hammer.- Yeah.
0:27:03 > 0:27:05And this was on a ledge about 45-feet down,
0:27:05 > 0:27:09so it could only have been put down, it couldn't have fallen there.
0:27:09 > 0:27:14But this would've been valuable. Someone's gone to a lot of time to make this into a hammer...
0:27:14 > 0:27:17You're not going to leave that down a cave without good reason.
0:27:17 > 0:27:20Tom believes valuable objects were placed in caves
0:27:20 > 0:27:25perhaps as votive offerings, or as part of rituals.
0:27:25 > 0:27:28What we might be seeing, down some of these deep shafts,
0:27:28 > 0:27:31beginning about 5,000 years ago,
0:27:31 > 0:27:36- is actual sacrifice of human and animals at certain times.- Oh!
0:27:36 > 0:27:38So these could be offerings to the Gods?
0:27:38 > 0:27:42- Offering to the gods of the... - Underworld?- Of the underworld.
0:27:42 > 0:27:46This idea of an underworld crops up throughout history
0:27:46 > 0:27:48and across cultures.
0:27:51 > 0:27:54And caves were seen as portals to a mysterious place
0:27:54 > 0:27:56between the surface world and another.
0:27:57 > 0:28:00Tom's evidence also suggests a new explanation
0:28:00 > 0:28:03for how the Slip Gill individuals may have died.
0:28:05 > 0:28:08He believes they may have been part of some kind of ritual sacrifice.
0:28:10 > 0:28:12The archaeologists tell us
0:28:12 > 0:28:16that there's a distinct possibility that there's a ritualistic element
0:28:16 > 0:28:21to the way in which these individuals have landed up in these caves.
0:28:21 > 0:28:25We unquestionably have got evidence of interpersonal violence
0:28:25 > 0:28:28before these individuals have met their death.
0:28:28 > 0:28:31There's some evidence of when they've gone down the pit
0:28:31 > 0:28:34there is long-bone fracturing because of the drop,
0:28:34 > 0:28:37but there's no evidence that those have healed.
0:28:37 > 0:28:40If they've been alive at the bottom of the pit, it's not for very long.
0:28:40 > 0:28:44But, you know, that's just looking at the evidence from the bones,
0:28:44 > 0:28:47I think it's most likely that they were killed
0:28:47 > 0:28:48before they went down the pit.
0:28:50 > 0:28:52To test this new theory
0:28:52 > 0:28:56that the people of Slip Gill were consciously sacrificed,
0:28:56 > 0:29:00the bones are sent to the nearby Ninewells hospital for CT scanning.
0:29:01 > 0:29:06This should reveal new information not visible to the naked eye.
0:29:06 > 0:29:12The evidence already points to the adult male having fractured his leg,
0:29:12 > 0:29:15but Sue and her colleague, Dr Roos Eisma,
0:29:15 > 0:29:17now spot some new evidence,
0:29:17 > 0:29:20this time on the thigh bone belonging to the adult female.
0:29:24 > 0:29:26Look on that femur -
0:29:26 > 0:29:29that's a beautiful butterfly-type fracture.
0:29:29 > 0:29:32That's the kind of fracture that is green bone.
0:29:32 > 0:29:33So it's bone that's gone down
0:29:33 > 0:29:36that's still got all its pliability and its plasticity,
0:29:36 > 0:29:40and it's fractured. It produces just such a different pattern.
0:29:40 > 0:29:45So, like the other femur, I think that's a perimortem,
0:29:45 > 0:29:48a "round about the time of death" type fracture.
0:29:48 > 0:29:49Isn't that interesting?
0:29:51 > 0:29:53They found exactly the same type of break
0:29:53 > 0:29:56in the male and female adult thigh bones,
0:29:56 > 0:29:58caused around the time of death.
0:30:00 > 0:30:02Sue doesn't think it is just a coincidence.
0:30:04 > 0:30:08She thinks it could point to a deliberate attempt to immobilise the two adults.
0:30:09 > 0:30:15You know, we've got two femora now that have got perimortem trauma.
0:30:15 > 0:30:18Why just in one bone?
0:30:18 > 0:30:22Why is it just the leg that's broken?
0:30:22 > 0:30:25- In more or less the same place. - In more or less the same place, yeah.
0:30:29 > 0:30:31It just makes you wonder
0:30:31 > 0:30:35if that's part of the incapacitation of the individual. I don't know.
0:30:35 > 0:30:38You don't tend to run very fast if you've got a broken leg.
0:30:40 > 0:30:42This new evidence begs the question,
0:30:42 > 0:30:45what method could have been used to do this?
0:30:45 > 0:30:47Were there weapons available back then
0:30:47 > 0:30:50which could fit this pattern of trauma?
0:30:50 > 0:30:53And then, there is also the injury on the jaw of the teenage boy.
0:30:53 > 0:30:56Could this tie in with those seen on the adults?
0:30:57 > 0:31:00It could be the same implement that causes both sharp force
0:31:00 > 0:31:01and blunt force trauma.
0:31:01 > 0:31:04It just depends which bit you hit it with.
0:31:04 > 0:31:07So, the back of an axe causes blunt force trauma,
0:31:07 > 0:31:10but the front of an axe causes sharp force trauma.
0:31:10 > 0:31:14We have what we think is evidence of sharp force trauma on the mandible,
0:31:14 > 0:31:18so it could be the same implement that can cause it,
0:31:18 > 0:31:19but just used in a different way.
0:31:19 > 0:31:24The breaks to the femurs on both the adults support the idea
0:31:24 > 0:31:26that the skeletons died at the same time
0:31:26 > 0:31:29and, possibly, by the same method.
0:31:30 > 0:31:32It's a breakthrough for the team.
0:31:32 > 0:31:36This and the potentially fatal blow to the head on the teenage boy
0:31:36 > 0:31:39now leads to new questions.
0:31:41 > 0:31:47If we are now looking at human sacrifice, how and why did they die?
0:31:51 > 0:31:54Xanthe takes these latest findings to Professor Miranda Aldous Green
0:31:54 > 0:31:58from Cardiff University, an expert in Iron Age rituals.
0:32:00 > 0:32:03She agrees that the skeletons show signs
0:32:03 > 0:32:06of having been ritually sacrificed.
0:32:06 > 0:32:09Given the fact that you seem to have repeated injuries
0:32:09 > 0:32:12and given where they've been put, in a cave system,
0:32:12 > 0:32:17that rings warning bells, in terms of possible sacrificial activity.
0:32:17 > 0:32:20The fact that it is going on over a long time
0:32:20 > 0:32:22suggests that this place is special
0:32:22 > 0:32:26and particular people who have met deaths in a ritualistic way
0:32:26 > 0:32:28may have been placed there deliberately.
0:32:28 > 0:32:32Miranda believes that some uniquely-preserved bodies,
0:32:32 > 0:32:34found not in caves, but in marshland
0:32:34 > 0:32:40could offer an explanation for exactly how and why the Slip Gill individuals met their death.
0:32:40 > 0:32:44We have a particular group of individuals, called Bog Bodies,
0:32:44 > 0:32:48which are found in swamps or marshes all over North-West Europe.
0:32:48 > 0:32:55A lot of them, interestingly, are quite young and show signs of traumatic injury,
0:32:55 > 0:32:59sometimes over time, but then would lead to their death.
0:32:59 > 0:33:02What types of injury are you seeing?
0:33:02 > 0:33:06Well, persistently, hanging and garrotting -
0:33:06 > 0:33:09various forms of suffocation. You do get bloodletting.
0:33:09 > 0:33:12Some have been disembowelled, throats cut, but there
0:33:12 > 0:33:14is this very strong evidence, from the European Iron Age
0:33:14 > 0:33:17and into the Roman period, of people who,
0:33:17 > 0:33:20every so often, were chosen for some reason
0:33:20 > 0:33:23to be sacrificed in a particularly spectacular way
0:33:23 > 0:33:25and thrust deep into a marsh.
0:33:25 > 0:33:27So, you are looking at marsh bodies,
0:33:27 > 0:33:29but the individuals I am looking at are from a cave.
0:33:29 > 0:33:32- Would that be considered ritualistic?- I think so.
0:33:32 > 0:33:36The whole thing with bogs and caves is that they are so-called
0:33:36 > 0:33:38liminal places, they are edgy places,
0:33:38 > 0:33:41they are on the boundaries between the material world
0:33:41 > 0:33:42and the world of the dead.
0:33:46 > 0:33:52Bog bodies discovered the world over provide historians with ample evidence about human sacrifice.
0:33:53 > 0:33:57Much of the soft tissue remains, revealing crucial forensic details.
0:33:58 > 0:34:01One of the most famous is Lindow Man,
0:34:01 > 0:34:05who is thought to date from the same period as the Windy Pits skeletons.
0:34:05 > 0:34:10- Ooh, now, that's Lindow Man? - Yes, indeed. From Cheshire.
0:34:10 > 0:34:15Found in August, 1984, when peat-cutting was going on.
0:34:15 > 0:34:16He was found in the peat
0:34:16 > 0:34:18and he had been bludgeoned hard on the head twice.
0:34:18 > 0:34:23- Right.- And then he had been garrotted and his throat cut.
0:34:23 > 0:34:26And he had various other traumas, as well.
0:34:26 > 0:34:30He had been kneed in the back, as though somebody had forced him to kneel down.
0:34:30 > 0:34:32- So, all sorts of other injuries. - Beautifully preserved.
0:34:34 > 0:34:37Yes. And he was probably of quite high status.
0:34:37 > 0:34:39His moustache was very carefully trimmed,
0:34:39 > 0:34:42using shears, which were an expensive piece of kit,
0:34:42 > 0:34:46and his fingernails showed that he had never done any manual work.
0:34:46 > 0:34:49He was about 25 years old, so he would have been in prime condition.
0:34:49 > 0:34:52Who knows who he was? He could have been a hostage,
0:34:52 > 0:34:55he could have been some kind of criminal, but more likely,
0:34:55 > 0:35:00he had chosen to be a sacrifice, I suspect, at a time of great crisis.
0:35:02 > 0:35:04Having studied the evidence in detail,
0:35:04 > 0:35:08Miranda has come up with a scenario of what happened during an Iron Age human sacrifice.
0:35:08 > 0:35:12And it all centres on the idea of overkill.
0:35:12 > 0:35:15If you're going to sacrifice me, what are you going to do?
0:35:15 > 0:35:23I might drug you, give you some herbs or some psychotropic substance to make you more acquiescent.
0:35:23 > 0:35:25You might struggle otherwise.
0:35:25 > 0:35:29- And then, I would then turn you round, away from me...- Right.
0:35:29 > 0:35:34..give you two hard blows on the skull. That will crack the skull,
0:35:34 > 0:35:39by which time you are stunned, perhaps hovering on the edge of consciousness,
0:35:39 > 0:35:42and beginning to weave around. Don't forget this is theatre.
0:35:42 > 0:35:45- Lots of people watching.- We're putting on a show.- It's important.
0:35:45 > 0:35:49The next thing I'm going to do is to garrotte you.
0:35:50 > 0:35:52- Oh! OK.- Twist that.
0:35:54 > 0:35:59I'm going to leave that in place, so you are now on the verge of death, but not quite dead.
0:35:59 > 0:36:01OK, hold that thought.
0:36:02 > 0:36:05And then, the coup de grace. I will slit your throat.
0:36:05 > 0:36:09And because of the garrotte, there will be a great spurt of blood
0:36:09 > 0:36:12and a great cheer from all the community. And the sacrifice will be complete.
0:36:12 > 0:36:15- Now, I'm dead, for sure.- Indeed.
0:36:15 > 0:36:20Why so many ways of doing it? You've drugged me, strangled me, now you're slitting my throat.
0:36:20 > 0:36:25It's partly because the overkill violence is necessary
0:36:25 > 0:36:28for the sacrifice to be really effective.
0:36:28 > 0:36:32Look at the investment of time and trouble and effort there has been in sacrificing you.
0:36:32 > 0:36:37But also, I've got to represent the entire community, who are sacrificing you,
0:36:37 > 0:36:42perhaps to cleanse the community of all their sins and wickednesses and ills and pollution.
0:36:42 > 0:36:47So if you don't have a marshy environment, you've only got the caves. What would happen then?
0:36:47 > 0:36:50The death would happen, the killing would happen outside the cave
0:36:50 > 0:36:52and you would then be deposited.
0:36:52 > 0:36:58- There must be rituals and prayers and fires, perhaps feasting.- Really?
0:36:58 > 0:37:02All to do with sending your soul to that place where it can't do any more harm.
0:37:02 > 0:37:03The community is cleansed.
0:37:05 > 0:37:09And Miranda also believes that other rituals linked to sacrifice,
0:37:09 > 0:37:11such as removing the soft tissue from a corpse,
0:37:11 > 0:37:14can leave marks on the bones, too.
0:37:14 > 0:37:18But the condition of the bones from Slip Gill remain a challenge
0:37:18 > 0:37:22in the battle to resurrect a compelling scenario for how these people died.
0:37:31 > 0:37:36Caroline's colleague Dr Chris Ryan has the task of reassembling the head of the adult male
0:37:36 > 0:37:38before he can start work on his face.
0:37:39 > 0:37:44Here we've got all the fragments reassembled
0:37:44 > 0:37:48into approximately the shape of the skull.
0:37:48 > 0:37:51As you can see, there's quite a large chunk of the right-hand side
0:37:51 > 0:37:57of the cranium missing and some of the facial skeleton,
0:37:57 > 0:37:59but we can....
0:37:59 > 0:38:02Because we have the left-hand side quite intact,
0:38:02 > 0:38:07we can estimate much of this by mirroring parts of the skull from one side to the other.
0:38:07 > 0:38:12The green is just estimation of all the missing parts.
0:38:12 > 0:38:16There's not enough of the mandible just to mirror it,
0:38:16 > 0:38:21because we only have this chin area and three teeth.
0:38:21 > 0:38:26The next stage will be to add layers of muscle and skin.
0:38:26 > 0:38:32Soon, the face of the man who died at Slip Gill will emerge.
0:38:35 > 0:38:39So, if our people at Slip Gill were sacrificed,
0:38:39 > 0:38:43were they members of the local community or were they outsiders?
0:38:45 > 0:38:50The team hopes the stable isotope analysis of the bones could shed some light on this.
0:38:51 > 0:38:54If chemical signatures from the teeth and bones
0:38:54 > 0:38:57are consistent with those found around the Yorkshire Moors,
0:38:57 > 0:39:02then it will indicate the skeletons were born and then lived in the local area.
0:39:04 > 0:39:08This could support Miranda's idea of community sacrifice.
0:39:11 > 0:39:16Sue assembles the team for the results.
0:39:16 > 0:39:20What they basically showed was a very good quality sample.
0:39:20 > 0:39:23- Typical grain-based diet, almost no marine.- OK.
0:39:23 > 0:39:25So that's quite interesting.
0:39:25 > 0:39:29What it also showed was that they were local to the area.
0:39:29 > 0:39:35Now the particular band they fall closest to is actually very localised to where they were found.
0:39:35 > 0:39:40- It makes it more likely to be ritual than, um, just vindictive.- Yeah.
0:39:40 > 0:39:42Yeah. I suppose it does.
0:39:42 > 0:39:44Our Slip Gill people were locals,
0:39:44 > 0:39:47and there was possible violence around the time of their death.
0:39:47 > 0:39:53But if they were human sacrifices, did they offer themselves up willingly or were they executed?
0:40:00 > 0:40:05Despite the evidence that's now building, Sue is reluctant to conclude a theory of foul play
0:40:05 > 0:40:07until she has more proof.
0:40:10 > 0:40:13'We're not ruling out the fact that it isn't necessarily ritual.'
0:40:13 > 0:40:18We're not ruling out all these possibilities, because your imagination could run wild.
0:40:18 > 0:40:21We're going to try and keep it as focused as we can.
0:40:21 > 0:40:28As archaeologists say, got to bear ritual in mind, but what do the physicality of the bones tell us?
0:40:28 > 0:40:32Is there anything on there that supports this or refutes it?
0:40:34 > 0:40:38Until now, the team has focused on the four individuals from Slip Gill.
0:40:39 > 0:40:44But 18 more skeletons were found in other Windy Pits caves around the same area.
0:40:45 > 0:40:49Sue now turns her attention to some of these other remains.
0:40:52 > 0:40:54It's an adult.
0:40:58 > 0:41:04There's a lot of fracturing, so a lot of the joints have actually, where the sutures have sprung.
0:41:04 > 0:41:09You can see that fracture again dissipating out into that suture,
0:41:09 > 0:41:12with a lot of fracturing going on here,
0:41:12 > 0:41:15so that the blow is to that point there.
0:41:15 > 0:41:17So it's coming in round about here.
0:41:19 > 0:41:23So again, I think we've got evidence in at least the three of these
0:41:23 > 0:41:27of some form of blunt force trauma.
0:41:27 > 0:41:29This was a male. An adult male.
0:41:29 > 0:41:33This damage to these other skulls from a neighbouring cave
0:41:33 > 0:41:38could mean that the other Windy Pits were used for rituals and sacrifices.
0:41:38 > 0:41:41And as Sue starts to look at= the remains of a skeleton from yet another cave,
0:41:41 > 0:41:47she notices some even more worrying marks on one of the shin bones.
0:41:47 > 0:41:50This is a bit of tibia - this is a bit of the shin bone.
0:41:50 > 0:41:53It's got a bit of damage at the top and at the bottom.
0:41:54 > 0:41:55And there's...
0:41:57 > 0:42:00..there's three, what looks like three...
0:42:03 > 0:42:05..parallel lines.
0:42:06 > 0:42:09Well, those are not natural.
0:42:09 > 0:42:12They're not rodent activity, either.
0:42:12 > 0:42:16Those look like they could well be knife marks,
0:42:16 > 0:42:19or at least a sharp blade.
0:42:19 > 0:42:22These are parallel cut marks.
0:42:22 > 0:42:23These are...
0:42:24 > 0:42:28..a repeat of the same action, in the same place.
0:42:28 > 0:42:34I used to work in a butcher's shop before I started my academic career,
0:42:34 > 0:42:39and I can remember having to take pieces of meat off cow bones and such things
0:42:39 > 0:42:42and these are the kind of marks that you leave behind
0:42:42 > 0:42:46as you're paring away the muscle, to take it away from the bone.
0:42:46 > 0:42:48That may well be...
0:42:48 > 0:42:51No, it tends to make you want to go too far,
0:42:51 > 0:42:55because what you end up doing is you want to go down the sensationalist route
0:42:55 > 0:42:59and the last thing forensic wants to do is go down a sensationalist route,
0:42:59 > 0:43:04but it looks like muscle's been removed.
0:43:04 > 0:43:07Why do you remove muscle from a human bone?
0:43:09 > 0:43:11I don't know.
0:43:11 > 0:43:13I think we could all surmise.
0:43:13 > 0:43:16If these are indeed blade marks,
0:43:16 > 0:43:21the investigation looks set to take an even more sinister direction.
0:43:21 > 0:43:24The word that everybody wants to say
0:43:24 > 0:43:26is the one that we're not going to say,
0:43:26 > 0:43:30which is cannibalism, because there's no evidence of that.
0:43:30 > 0:43:32All you have is evidence of cut marks.
0:43:32 > 0:43:35We don't know what that meat was being used for.
0:43:39 > 0:43:41But nevertheless. it's a chilling turn in the story.
0:43:41 > 0:43:47Xanthe wants to establish what cutting marks on bone could mean
0:43:47 > 0:43:50and travels to Oxford University to meet Dr Rick Shulting,
0:43:50 > 0:43:53an expert in prehistoric archaeology.
0:43:53 > 0:43:57If I saw these kind of marks on an animal bone, I would think butchery.
0:43:57 > 0:43:58But this is human,
0:43:58 > 0:44:01so why are we getting these marks on a human leg bone?
0:44:01 > 0:44:06It's unlikely that they were eating the flesh of this person,
0:44:06 > 0:44:08like you would with an animal, because we have
0:44:08 > 0:44:11questionable evidence for cannibalism at this time here.
0:44:11 > 0:44:16If this was in the Neolithic, we might think of, sort of, trying to
0:44:16 > 0:44:21deflesh the bones to make them clean, as a part of joining the ancestors.
0:44:21 > 0:44:24But how does removing the soft tissue from the bones
0:44:24 > 0:44:26help people go to their ancestors more quickly?
0:44:26 > 0:44:30Some people in different times and parts of the world, believed that
0:44:30 > 0:44:35death is a process and it's not complete until the putrefaction
0:44:35 > 0:44:38of the body is completed and you're left with the clean bones.
0:44:38 > 0:44:41And at that point, the soul, if you speak of it as that,
0:44:41 > 0:44:42ascends to the ancestors.
0:44:42 > 0:44:46And sometimes there is an interest in hastening that process
0:44:46 > 0:44:48by disarticulation and defleshing.
0:44:49 > 0:44:52According to Rick, the practice of removing flesh
0:44:52 > 0:44:55is unlikely to be a sign of cannibalism,
0:44:55 > 0:44:58but was a way of allowing the dead to cross over to the next world.
0:44:58 > 0:45:02But there were also more sinister explanations.
0:45:03 > 0:45:05We have to be open to various possibilities.
0:45:05 > 0:45:07Some of them might deal with
0:45:07 > 0:45:10the negative side of things, the dark side, if you will.
0:45:10 > 0:45:13And there is some evidence for slightly strange
0:45:13 > 0:45:16and odd things going on with human remains in the Iron Age
0:45:16 > 0:45:18in different parts of Britain
0:45:18 > 0:45:22that sometimes involve taking the body apart
0:45:22 > 0:45:23and moving bits of it around.
0:45:23 > 0:45:26The skull, especially, seems to receive special treatment.
0:45:30 > 0:45:33So the cutting marks could fit in with the idea
0:45:33 > 0:45:35of ritual dismemberment after death.
0:45:35 > 0:45:38But how would the marks have been caused?
0:45:38 > 0:45:40To find out, Xanthe and Rick head to a local butcher.
0:45:44 > 0:45:45It is just about free.
0:45:45 > 0:45:48Let me just take off the last few bits.
0:45:48 > 0:45:53Now, actually you can see I have left some marks all along that edge.
0:45:53 > 0:45:56You can see all of my butchery marks going along there.
0:45:56 > 0:46:00Would I use a tool like this to get rid of the rest of this soft tissue,
0:46:00 > 0:46:02which I have, kind of, left behind?
0:46:02 > 0:46:06Possibly, but the other possibility is a stone tool might be used,
0:46:06 > 0:46:09which we know people were still making and using in the Iron Age.
0:46:09 > 0:46:12So kind of scraping it. That would save my knife.
0:46:12 > 0:46:14I do have something with me that we could have a go with.
0:46:14 > 0:46:17Save your lovely sharp blade.
0:46:17 > 0:46:21It's not necessarily the sharpest, but it does have one nice edge here,
0:46:21 > 0:46:24and you'll get a sense of what it's like to use that.
0:46:24 > 0:46:27So I am going to hold this nice and steady, I guess,
0:46:27 > 0:46:31and then just, what, scrape the soft tissue off?
0:46:31 > 0:46:33You need to get a good hold of it, don't you?
0:46:34 > 0:46:40There we go. It's actually pretty efficient. I am quite impressed.
0:46:40 > 0:46:41Much sharper than I expected.
0:46:49 > 0:46:52That's where a lot of the muscle attachments are joining to the bone,
0:46:52 > 0:46:55just around the ends and, of course,
0:46:55 > 0:46:57that's exactly where we saw them on the human bone.
0:46:57 > 0:46:59You can actually see now,
0:46:59 > 0:47:01I've left some quite deep grooves.
0:47:04 > 0:47:07Xanthe has produced exactly the same marks on the pig bone
0:47:07 > 0:47:10that she found on the human leg bone.
0:47:10 > 0:47:14Rick wants to demonstrate one very specialised type of defleshing -
0:47:14 > 0:47:17removing the skin from a person's scalp.
0:47:17 > 0:47:20- All the way up?- All the way up.
0:47:20 > 0:47:23Why would you do that to a human head?
0:47:23 > 0:47:26The head is very important in many societies.
0:47:26 > 0:47:29We have a good case for it being important in Iron Age Britain
0:47:29 > 0:47:31and Iron Age Europe, in general.
0:47:31 > 0:47:36Are there any examples from the UK where the soft tissue has been moved from the head?
0:47:36 > 0:47:40There's a few cases. There's one from St Albans,
0:47:40 > 0:47:45where they seem to have had a defleshed head, in a place quite near a temple complex, actually,
0:47:45 > 0:47:47which maybe speaks again of why you're doing this.
0:47:47 > 0:47:51The idea of trophy heads or, possibly, as a punishment.
0:47:51 > 0:47:54We have another case up in the north of Scotland, on the Moray Firth,
0:47:54 > 0:47:58- where again, we have a child, in this case.- Oh, really?
0:47:58 > 0:48:00It looks like the skull has been cleaned back,
0:48:00 > 0:48:04so they are interested in having this white clean bone to display, presumably.
0:48:04 > 0:48:06So, it's really rare?
0:48:06 > 0:48:09It is. There aren't many cases. It's not a normal practice,
0:48:09 > 0:48:12so it's a very special person, or somebody that's done something
0:48:12 > 0:48:15terribly wrong, or being made an example of.
0:48:15 > 0:48:20Xanthe has discovered that de-fleshing the dead
0:48:20 > 0:48:22was practised in Iron Age Britain.
0:48:22 > 0:48:25Sometimes, it was associated with funerary ritual,
0:48:25 > 0:48:27but maybe it served another purpose.
0:48:30 > 0:48:33Human skeletal remains recovered from Windy Pits
0:48:33 > 0:48:36show that some individuals most likely met a violent end,
0:48:36 > 0:48:39possibly as part of a ritual sacrifice.
0:48:39 > 0:48:43We know that at least one person had their flesh cut from the bone,
0:48:43 > 0:48:45before ending up in a cave
0:48:45 > 0:48:47waiting to be discovered thousands of years later.
0:48:50 > 0:48:53Until now, all the people whose bones were found
0:48:53 > 0:48:56in the caves on the moors have remained anonymous.
0:48:58 > 0:49:03But finally, the face of one of them is taking shape...
0:49:03 > 0:49:06The adult male from Slip Gill.
0:49:06 > 0:49:09Our biggest problem with this skull was that it was
0:49:09 > 0:49:13in multiple fragments and we didn't have very much of the mandible.
0:49:13 > 0:49:18So Chris has done a fantastic job at reconstructing the mandible, from just a bit of chin,
0:49:18 > 0:49:22which is remarkable. And getting the whole of the cranium together
0:49:22 > 0:49:25in lots of pieces is also quite a difficult job.
0:49:25 > 0:49:29From that, it's the same process as it would be for any reconstruction -
0:49:29 > 0:49:31building the muscles and putting skin on.
0:49:31 > 0:49:34So, the biggest challenge was the state of the skull.
0:49:34 > 0:49:37Well, let's have a look at the skin.
0:49:37 > 0:49:41And he's turning into an interesting-looking individual.
0:49:41 > 0:49:44Wow, that's not what I was expecting to see, at all.
0:49:44 > 0:49:49He actually looks quite masculine, really,
0:49:49 > 0:49:52and I wasn't expecting him to look that masculine.
0:49:52 > 0:49:57Cos the top of his head is quite... gracile really, isn't it?
0:49:57 > 0:49:59And then he's got this big heavy jaw at the bottom.
0:49:59 > 0:50:03And really small ears. Why really small ears?
0:50:03 > 0:50:10- Small ears, small nose, height wise.- I quite like him.- Good.
0:50:12 > 0:50:14We've got a pretty reasonable face
0:50:14 > 0:50:18out of really quite badly-conditioned skull.
0:50:20 > 0:50:22The completion of the facial reconstruction
0:50:22 > 0:50:25marks the end of the investigation.
0:50:26 > 0:50:29The team will now report their findings to the local community.
0:50:35 > 0:50:39Xanthe and Sue have come to Duncombe House, not far from the Windy Pits.
0:50:41 > 0:50:44They're here to return the skeletal remains to the local archaeologists
0:50:44 > 0:50:48and to present the case results.
0:50:48 > 0:50:51Although they've made great strides,
0:50:51 > 0:50:54Sue is concerned that they don't have enough evidence on the bones
0:50:54 > 0:50:57to confirm that the man of Slip Gill was sacrificed.
0:51:01 > 0:51:04Xanthe has gone away and done a lot of historical research
0:51:04 > 0:51:06with a lot of people who know a lot about this area.
0:51:06 > 0:51:10So we've gone back to the Slip Gill skeletons,
0:51:10 > 0:51:16we've had a look through them again, just to be sure, just to be certain.
0:51:19 > 0:51:24Sue looks at the Slip Gill remains one last time...
0:51:27 > 0:51:33..and she notices something on the skull of the adult male that they missed before.
0:51:34 > 0:51:36What have you found?
0:51:36 > 0:51:44I don't know, but... This is sitting there.
0:51:44 > 0:51:47- There's one line cut mark along there...- It's quite deep.
0:51:47 > 0:51:49- There's another below it.- Yep.
0:51:49 > 0:51:52And another one below that.
0:51:52 > 0:51:55Sue has found several parallel cutting lines
0:51:55 > 0:51:57around the top of the skull.
0:51:59 > 0:52:03You have a cut mark that is - if I turn you round a bit -
0:52:03 > 0:52:05you have got cut marks that are coming here
0:52:05 > 0:52:07and then some that are back there.
0:52:09 > 0:52:13It looks like Sue has detected signs of scalping on the adult male.
0:52:15 > 0:52:19As Xanthe discovered, this practice of removing hair and skin
0:52:19 > 0:52:22from the top of the head did happen in Iron Age Britain
0:52:22 > 0:52:25and may have been part of ritualised killings.
0:52:33 > 0:52:36For Sue, it's enough to finally to bring the events
0:52:36 > 0:52:39surrounding the death of this man into focus.
0:52:41 > 0:52:47I'm not a great supporter of defleshing and sacrifice and ritual, all sorts of things,
0:52:47 > 0:52:49as anyone will tell you that knows me.
0:52:49 > 0:52:52But sometimes, when you're faced with information
0:52:52 > 0:52:55'and you go through all the possible outcomes,'
0:52:55 > 0:52:57sometimes there's only one left.
0:53:00 > 0:53:05These findings will have an even deeper significance for the local community
0:53:05 > 0:53:08and the experts who have been studying the remains for decades.
0:53:08 > 0:53:13We've waited a long time to get some more information about the remains from the Windy Pits,
0:53:13 > 0:53:14so this is very important.
0:53:14 > 0:53:20There's lots of unknown questions that, hopefully, we'll get some answers to today.
0:53:27 > 0:53:30Sue and Xanthe explain the twists and turns in the case
0:53:30 > 0:53:33that led to the conclusion that this was not a natural burial.
0:53:35 > 0:53:39Did they go up there knowing what was going to happen to them?
0:53:39 > 0:53:42Or did they go up there in some way incapacitated?
0:53:42 > 0:53:49They're not being used as a normal deposition site for burials, so...
0:53:49 > 0:53:52..potentially caused by that, because it does fit there
0:53:52 > 0:53:54really rather nicely.
0:53:55 > 0:53:59Then the moment comes for Sue to announce her last-minute discovery.
0:53:59 > 0:54:02It takes an incredible amount of persuasion
0:54:02 > 0:54:07for me to want to talk about sacrificing people to gods
0:54:07 > 0:54:11and placing them down portals, so they don't come back.
0:54:11 > 0:54:15It just makes me uncomfortable. But then, this morning,
0:54:15 > 0:54:19we had a look a little bit closer at some of the areas,
0:54:19 > 0:54:24as we were laying out the skeletons, and we came across something that we hadn't noticed before.
0:54:24 > 0:54:28And it was all to do with this man.
0:54:28 > 0:54:34On this man, and on his head only, we have evidence of defleshing.
0:54:37 > 0:54:42We have parallel scratch marks that are of a similar width
0:54:42 > 0:54:46in various parts across his skull. They're very, very delicate,
0:54:46 > 0:54:51but they are there. If they're defleshing,
0:54:51 > 0:54:57for whatever reason, they're only defleshing around the head,
0:54:57 > 0:55:01almost in the sense of a scalping. The defleshing isn't on the face
0:55:01 > 0:55:05and it isn't on the back of the head. It's just around the area of the crown.
0:55:05 > 0:55:09- So they put a blade in and just scrape?- Scrape.
0:55:11 > 0:55:14The cutting marks on the skull are the final piece of evidence
0:55:14 > 0:55:19that at least one of the Slip Gill skeletons was almost certainly ritually killed.
0:55:21 > 0:55:22It's a terrifying story.
0:55:22 > 0:55:25We have placed him into an environment
0:55:25 > 0:55:29which is a really rather scary, spooky sort of place,
0:55:29 > 0:55:32that must have had some importance in the local community.
0:55:32 > 0:55:36He's been taken there, perhaps immobilised,
0:55:36 > 0:55:40he's been murdered, one can assume, whether by one people or by a community,
0:55:40 > 0:55:46and then he's gone through a ritual removal of his scalp.
0:55:46 > 0:55:48So his scalp has been scraped away.
0:55:50 > 0:55:57But now, it's time for the team to reveal the face of the man whose life ended in such violence.
0:55:57 > 0:56:00Because we only have one skull,
0:56:00 > 0:56:03there was only one face we were able to reconstruct.
0:56:03 > 0:56:05So do we want to see what he looked like?
0:56:05 > 0:56:06ALL: Yes.
0:56:06 > 0:56:07Yeah. Go on, then.
0:56:24 > 0:56:26He has quite a rugged face, hasn't he?
0:56:26 > 0:56:30He looks like he was a pretty robust individual, doesn't he?
0:56:30 > 0:56:35I quite like him. Slight asymmetry in the orbits.
0:56:35 > 0:56:37Quite highly-defined cheekbones.
0:56:37 > 0:56:39If you were walking round Helmsley today
0:56:39 > 0:56:46and saw someone looking like that, you wouldn't look twice, would you?
0:56:48 > 0:56:50When you think what he may have gone through
0:56:50 > 0:56:53and you have to ask, why was he chosen?
0:56:53 > 0:57:00What was so important about him? Was it because he was important in the area that he was selected?
0:57:00 > 0:57:03We will never know. That is about conjecture.
0:57:03 > 0:57:07But what we do know is that he suffered blunt-force trauma,
0:57:07 > 0:57:12we know that his skull was defleshed.
0:57:17 > 0:57:20Following the story and hearing more today,
0:57:20 > 0:57:23it's been absolutely fascinating. It's filled in a lot of the picture.
0:57:23 > 0:57:27That was really amazing, absolutely fascinating.
0:57:27 > 0:57:30The facial reconstruction was wonderful.
0:57:30 > 0:57:34The actual face brought it all very much home.
0:57:34 > 0:57:38He's a very human face and why did they do to him what they did?
0:57:38 > 0:57:43The possibility remains that the other skeletons found with this man
0:57:43 > 0:57:45also met the same tragic end.
0:57:47 > 0:57:52We've added a dimension to this that we never anticipated we would.
0:57:52 > 0:57:56And it's a first for me. I've never been involved in something
0:57:56 > 0:58:00that has involved this sort of a ritual, if you like.
0:58:00 > 0:58:03It does still make me uncomfortable, I really don't like the words,
0:58:03 > 0:58:06but at the end of the day, the bones have the evidence
0:58:06 > 0:58:09and the evidence speaks for itself.
0:58:11 > 0:58:15The human remains presented to the team were not a recent discovery,
0:58:15 > 0:58:18but it took modern forensics to bring back to life
0:58:18 > 0:58:21a tragic story that's 2,000 years old.
0:58:25 > 0:58:27Next time... The team's biggest challenge yet.
0:58:27 > 0:58:31100 skeletons found in York. The trail provides a new perspective
0:58:31 > 0:58:33on the English Civil War...
0:58:33 > 0:58:37In the last battle between Christ and the forces of Anti-Christ...
0:58:37 > 0:58:40..through one man's extraordinary battle to survive.
0:58:40 > 0:58:44- That is outrageous.- If I take it off at the shoulder, you will die.
0:59:04 > 0:59:07Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd
0:59:07 > 0:59:11E-mail subtitling@bbc.co.uk