0:00:45 > 0:00:48This afternoon before you came in,
0:00:48 > 0:00:51I'd been taking one of those nostalgic walks
0:00:51 > 0:00:53which I occasionally, I'm afraid, indulge in.
0:00:53 > 0:00:55And this one is my favourite one.
0:00:55 > 0:00:59It takes me down by the Embankment by the Thames
0:00:59 > 0:01:05opposite that extraordinary building, the National Liberal Club,
0:01:05 > 0:01:10then I walk along from that point towards Westminster.
0:01:10 > 0:01:13And as I approach Westminster, on my right, there is
0:01:13 > 0:01:17a very remarkable building indeed.
0:01:17 > 0:01:21And with that building, I have all sorts of affinity.
0:01:21 > 0:01:26I tell you - first of all, biological affinity.
0:01:26 > 0:01:30That building was being built at the time that I was born.
0:01:30 > 0:01:33It was being built here and I was born in place called Glasgow.
0:01:33 > 0:01:34You know Glasgow?
0:01:34 > 0:01:35Indeed.
0:01:35 > 0:01:37Well, I was being born in Glasgow
0:01:37 > 0:01:42when that building was being born here in London. New Scotland Yard.
0:01:42 > 0:01:43New Scotland Yard.
0:01:43 > 0:01:48That building has two great round towers, one at each corner,
0:01:48 > 0:01:53facing upon the river and in one of those towers it so happens -
0:01:53 > 0:01:56and this is a matter of purely personal interest -
0:01:56 > 0:02:03that I spent my first hours and days and weeks as
0:02:03 > 0:02:06a professional archaeologist.
0:02:06 > 0:02:09At that time, in spite of the fact that most of the building was
0:02:09 > 0:02:13occupied by the Metropolitan police force,
0:02:13 > 0:02:16somehow or other, by some contrivance over there,
0:02:16 > 0:02:19this tower had been partially allotted
0:02:19 > 0:02:21to an obscure Royal Commission -
0:02:21 > 0:02:25the Royal Commission On Historical Monuments for England.
0:02:25 > 0:02:28They allotted me to the editorial staff
0:02:28 > 0:02:34and the editorial staff of those days were one man - Alfred Clapham -
0:02:34 > 0:02:39later on SIR Alfred Clapham, who immediately became my closest
0:02:39 > 0:02:43friend and remained my closest friend until he died 20 years ago.
0:02:43 > 0:02:46Well, I remember on one occasion,
0:02:46 > 0:02:51Clapham - we always called each other by our surnames to
0:02:51 > 0:02:55the end of our days - he died with my surname on his lips
0:02:55 > 0:02:59and we used to have this little conversation for ten minutes,
0:02:59 > 0:03:03ten minutes precisely, about some irrelevant subject.
0:03:03 > 0:03:09On one occasion he, a Yorkshireman, told me about a very
0:03:09 > 0:03:16remarkable ancient monument, a series, enormous series, miles long,
0:03:16 > 0:03:21of earthworks in northern Yorkshire at a place called Stanwick.
0:03:22 > 0:03:26Our conversation was interrupted, I remember, by the fact
0:03:26 > 0:03:29that across the adjacent Westminster Bridge past
0:03:29 > 0:03:36the statue of Boadicea, there was marching a battalion of infantrymen
0:03:36 > 0:03:40in khaki - it was just two days before the opening
0:03:40 > 0:03:43of the First World War and the troops were assembling.
0:03:43 > 0:03:46And we looked at that and forgot Stanwick.
0:03:46 > 0:03:51And then, my mind is a blank in this respect,
0:03:51 > 0:03:54for, say, nearly 40 years,
0:03:54 > 0:03:57and then nearly 40 years later,
0:03:57 > 0:03:58after two world wars
0:03:58 > 0:04:01and all sorts of minor sub-adventures
0:04:01 > 0:04:04or non-adventures in peace time,
0:04:04 > 0:04:08I found myself back in London, sitting in my room
0:04:08 > 0:04:11at the University Of London,
0:04:11 > 0:04:15where apparently I was some sort of professor, one of those things
0:04:15 > 0:04:20and my door opened and in came
0:04:20 > 0:04:24a man whom I recognised as the Chief Inspector Of Ancient Monuments,
0:04:24 > 0:04:29the man in charge of all the ancient buildings in the country.
0:04:29 > 0:04:36And he said he'd come... I said, "Do you represent the King?"
0:04:36 > 0:04:37He looked rather like it.
0:04:37 > 0:04:42And he said, "No, not exactly, but I represent the Ministry Of Works.
0:04:42 > 0:04:48"And I've come to you with a petition." And the petition was this.
0:04:48 > 0:04:54In the following year - it was 1950 - but in the following year, 1951, it
0:04:54 > 0:05:00had been intended, it WAS intended, to hold a Festival Of Britain.
0:05:00 > 0:05:07A sort of centenary of the great exhibition in Hyde Park in 1851,
0:05:07 > 0:05:14and the site chosen was precisely opposite the...New Scotland Yard,
0:05:14 > 0:05:16on the other side of the Thames.
0:05:16 > 0:05:20And it may be that there was a remote association in my mind
0:05:20 > 0:05:24between the two, but anyway, his petition was this.
0:05:24 > 0:05:30"The Ministry Of Works, representing the government, offer you
0:05:30 > 0:05:36"the excavation, the means to excavate, any site you like,
0:05:36 > 0:05:43"in England, provided it's available, at any cost that you like to name."
0:05:43 > 0:05:48Well, of course, this sort of thing happens to you in a dream
0:05:48 > 0:05:51and here it was - the world on a plate.
0:05:51 > 0:05:56And he said, he went on to say, "Don't hurry with your answer.
0:05:56 > 0:06:00"It's a big question. Take your time."
0:06:00 > 0:06:02And I said, "I'll tell you now."
0:06:02 > 0:06:07My mind went back over those 40 years in that flash of an instant
0:06:07 > 0:06:12to our little conversation all those years ago in the turret,
0:06:12 > 0:06:19in the tower, corner tower of New Scotland Yard, and I said,
0:06:19 > 0:06:24"I'll do the earthworks at Stanwick." Then I added,
0:06:24 > 0:06:26"I've never been there, I've never seen them,
0:06:26 > 0:06:29"but if they are what I think they are said to be,
0:06:29 > 0:06:33"well, they're a alleged to be, then I can't do them
0:06:33 > 0:06:39"unless I have the whole finances of what is left of the British Empire
0:06:39 > 0:06:40"to work upon.
0:06:40 > 0:06:45"But since you offer me those finances, I'm prepared to say yes.
0:06:45 > 0:06:49"What about going up there and having a look at the place next week?"
0:06:49 > 0:06:51Next week we went.
0:06:51 > 0:06:55Northern Yorkshire, five miles from Darlington.
0:06:55 > 0:07:00The rain's streaming down like an oriental monsoon.
0:07:00 > 0:07:03We were in gumboots and Macintoshes and things
0:07:03 > 0:07:07and we climbed for mile after mile after mile across walls,
0:07:07 > 0:07:11through hedges, over earthworks which seemed interminable.
0:07:11 > 0:07:14Banks and ramparts, ditches of various kinds,
0:07:14 > 0:07:18an integral work of defence of some kind or other.
0:07:18 > 0:07:21Who built it? No-one knew.
0:07:21 > 0:07:25No-one knew what it contained, although of course, as one began to
0:07:25 > 0:07:29think over it, one came to certain provisional conclusions.
0:07:29 > 0:07:31Which you're obviously not going to tell me right now.
0:07:31 > 0:07:35Er, no. It wouldn't be artistic to tell you at this stage
0:07:35 > 0:07:38but the...
0:07:38 > 0:07:42When we got down to work, one had to ask that question, now
0:07:42 > 0:07:48where in six miles are you going to dig in the hope of finding anything?
0:07:48 > 0:07:50You don't just dig in the blue,
0:07:50 > 0:07:55you take a place where there is an entrance, an entrance,
0:07:55 > 0:07:59through which traffic must have converged.
0:07:59 > 0:08:03It's at the entrance that in ancient times the passers-by, or the
0:08:03 > 0:08:07people coming in, would throw away their cigarette packets and so on.
0:08:07 > 0:08:11You can imagine them throwing away their rubbish or sticking up things
0:08:11 > 0:08:14that they wanted to attract the attention of others.
0:08:14 > 0:08:18I put my principal diggers on to the entrance.
0:08:18 > 0:08:23We carved into it - I shall never forget this - it was a deep, great,
0:08:23 > 0:08:27deep ditch ending at a causeway, ending abruptly at a causeway.
0:08:27 > 0:08:30It was carved past the...in the rock.
0:08:30 > 0:08:34It had been filled since ancient times by marsh,
0:08:34 > 0:08:36by liquid mud, a pool.
0:08:38 > 0:08:43And I shan't forget sitting there and watching my foreman,
0:08:43 > 0:08:47an expert foreman of mine who'd been with me for many years in this
0:08:47 > 0:08:54country, digging there, and suddenly stopping with his pick in midair.
0:08:54 > 0:08:57He was about to bring it down and he stopped.
0:08:57 > 0:09:01And looking over his shoulder, there was a sword,
0:09:01 > 0:09:08a full-length sword in its scabbard, lying in the mud, intact.
0:09:08 > 0:09:14A Celtic sword in a sheath - not of metal as they ordinarily are,
0:09:14 > 0:09:17but in a sheath of wood.
0:09:17 > 0:09:19And when you say Celtic sword, Celtic to me
0:09:19 > 0:09:25suggests wild Scotsman with kilts and hairy knees coming
0:09:25 > 0:09:28tearing down from the Highlands and invading England.
0:09:28 > 0:09:33Celtic is a word, now, which suggests northern,
0:09:33 > 0:09:35but how are you using the term?
0:09:35 > 0:09:39I'm using it in a wider sense. Are you a Celt?
0:09:39 > 0:09:40No, I'm an Icelander, sir.
0:09:40 > 0:09:42Icelander.
0:09:42 > 0:09:43We have 40% Celtic blood in us.
0:09:43 > 0:09:47Yes. I knew you were tainted.
0:09:47 > 0:09:51Well, immediately I did two things.
0:09:53 > 0:09:56I sent for my assistant director,
0:09:56 > 0:10:00and got her to go to the village to instruct the local carpenter
0:10:00 > 0:10:04to make an oblong box, a sort of little coffin box,
0:10:04 > 0:10:07which would take the sword
0:10:07 > 0:10:09when I lifted it.
0:10:09 > 0:10:13Secondly, I made a tracing of the outline of the sword in case
0:10:13 > 0:10:16anything should happen to it, while it still lay in the mud
0:10:16 > 0:10:19before we touched it.
0:10:19 > 0:10:23And then finally, the little box arrived in about half an hour,
0:10:23 > 0:10:24done very quickly.
0:10:24 > 0:10:27The village carpenter brought the box along,
0:10:27 > 0:10:33and the foreman and I lifted, very carefully, this wooden sword
0:10:33 > 0:10:37scabbard, containing the iron sword, up in our hands
0:10:37 > 0:10:43and laid it gently, very gently indeed, into the box,
0:10:43 > 0:10:49still covered with its mud and bolstered with wet moss
0:10:49 > 0:10:52and so on to keep it wet in transit.
0:10:52 > 0:10:56I rang up the British Museum laboratory in London and said,
0:10:56 > 0:11:01asked the chief man there, Dr Plenderleith,
0:11:01 > 0:11:03very skilful chemist,
0:11:03 > 0:11:09to be good enough to wait until my messenger had arrived.
0:11:10 > 0:11:14I sent my assistant up with this box,
0:11:14 > 0:11:16wrapped up exactly as it was found
0:11:16 > 0:11:19in the next train.
0:11:19 > 0:11:21She arrived that evening with the box
0:11:21 > 0:11:25and as the chemist, Dr Plenderleith, told me afterwards,
0:11:25 > 0:11:27and actually he has written,
0:11:27 > 0:11:32the preservation of this remarkable relic was due entirely to the fact,
0:11:32 > 0:11:35of course, that we took those precautions, that we
0:11:35 > 0:11:38had prevented the wood from drying and splitting as it would have done.
0:11:38 > 0:11:40Now why did you find this sword so remarkable?
0:11:40 > 0:11:42It's in the British Museum now.
0:11:42 > 0:11:44It has a pride of place there, but there are surely
0:11:44 > 0:11:49lots of swords 2,000 years old and older than 2,000 years.
0:11:49 > 0:11:51Why were you so excited when you found it?
0:11:51 > 0:11:53I'll tell you. For two reasons.
0:11:53 > 0:11:56- First... Excited is not the word I use.- Why not?
0:11:56 > 0:12:00I'm never excited. I don't believe... No scientist is ever excited.
0:12:00 > 0:12:03Don't use the word. It's a terrible word...Mag!
0:12:05 > 0:12:11But the point is that it was of interest for two reasons.
0:12:11 > 0:12:16First of all, so far as I know, it's the only wooden scabbard of its
0:12:16 > 0:12:22kind found in this country, or found, so far as I know, anywhere else, too.
0:12:22 > 0:12:25Wood doesn't last in most European soils.
0:12:25 > 0:12:28This had been preserved by the accident of its having fallen
0:12:28 > 0:12:31originally, or been thrown originally,
0:12:31 > 0:12:33into this great heap of wet mud
0:12:33 > 0:12:37which had kept it airtight for 19 centuries.
0:12:37 > 0:12:40Secondly, I'll tell you.
0:12:40 > 0:12:47Close alongside this scabbard, there lay a human skull,
0:12:47 > 0:12:50which had been severed from the body - the body was not there,
0:12:50 > 0:12:52there were no signs of the body -
0:12:52 > 0:12:56about the third or fourth cervical vertebra.
0:12:56 > 0:13:02And prior to that, the owner of the skull had been killed by being
0:13:02 > 0:13:07struck violently with a sword or an axe, probably a sword,
0:13:07 > 0:13:11three times upon his skull, across the eyes and the forehead
0:13:11 > 0:13:14and a slice off the top of his skull.
0:13:14 > 0:13:18He'd been executed and beheaded
0:13:18 > 0:13:22and his head had been strung up there on a pole at the gate
0:13:22 > 0:13:27in accordance with ancient Celtic custom.
0:13:29 > 0:13:34Many tribes, many ancient tribes used to do that sort of thing
0:13:34 > 0:13:37to their foes or to their victims. Well, it went on here
0:13:37 > 0:13:43in London till the 18th century when heads were exposed on Temple Bar.
0:13:43 > 0:13:45Same sort of thing.
0:13:45 > 0:13:51Another, an older and a more brutal age. Well, there it was.
0:13:51 > 0:13:54We had a picture of the whole thing.
0:13:54 > 0:13:56This post, standing up beside the gate
0:13:56 > 0:14:01when everybody could see it with the skull of the executed man
0:14:01 > 0:14:03on the top of it
0:14:03 > 0:14:07and the sword hanging down from it
0:14:07 > 0:14:12in token of the dead man's rank
0:14:12 > 0:14:15And origin. It's a remarkable thing.
0:14:15 > 0:14:18There it is in the British Museum. You can go and see it.
0:14:34 > 0:14:36Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd