- hace 1 día
SUSCRIBETE PARA ESTAR AL DIA CON LOS PROGRAMAS.
Categoría
📺
TVTranscripción
00:00Back in 1980, I graduated here at Cambridge University with dreams of becoming a great archaeologist.
00:11With a degree in archaeology and anthropology in hand, my career path seemed set.
00:17Some of you may realise I got a little sidetracked, but I have never lost my passion for the secrets and treasures which lie buried beneath our feet.
00:26So now, some years later, I'm dusting off my trowel and embarking on an epic archaeological adventure across Britain.
00:38Do you know what the Latin for hangover is?
00:41What?
00:41Crapula.
00:43I'll be joined by my friend and expert in the field, Raksha Dave.
00:47I'm so, so happy for you.
00:49Together, we'll work alongside the teams of experts and volunteers at some of the nation's most fascinating dig sites.
00:57Raksha, look at this. It's like the moon.
01:00Welcome to the Iron Age.
01:01Oh, I've got a shiver. I've got a proper shiver.
01:04On a mission to reveal hidden wonders that could rewrite our history.
01:09Oh, look.
01:10Oh, my God.
01:11Hey, look at this.
01:12This week, we're in Dorset, excavating a mysterious Iron Age cemetery.
01:20Oh, look, look, look, look, look.
01:22It's a beautiful thing, isn't it?
01:23It really is.
01:24I'm going to cry.
01:25That's it.
01:27Where the story of an extraordinary group of powerful women, many of them related, is coming to light.
01:34Oh, my God.
01:38How did they live?
01:40How did they love?
01:42And what dark secrets still lie buried with them?
01:58See all these fabulous fields?
02:00You can't believe that maybe below them, there's kinds of glimpses of history.
02:05It's fabulous.
02:06I'm so happy.
02:07But I just wondered, you know, where are you taking me?
02:09Where are we going?
02:10I'm really excited because I'm taking you to this amazing site.
02:14Last year, they're excavated over 30 skeletons.
02:17Oh, wow.
02:18That's a lot of people.
02:19Yeah.
02:20They learnt so much about the women in the Iron Age, and it's full of powerful women who just own the land.
02:29You just knew how to lure me back in, didn't you?
02:32This is the one.
02:33We're just 15 miles west of Bournemouth, but heading almost 2,000 years back in time, in search of a unique female-centric tribe called the Jiratrigas, who inhabited this region in the Iron Age, when a rich patchwork of tribes covered Britain.
02:51But first, we need to actually get there.
02:57Oh!
02:58I'm sorry.
02:59LAUGHTER
03:00I mean, it's a little bit off the beaten track.
03:04Why are you not driving?
03:05I can't drive.
03:07What?
03:07I've never learnt.
03:09But do you know what?
03:09I quite like it.
03:10You driving me around, it's great.
03:12I've got a little hat on and a chauffeur.
03:14LAUGHTER
03:15Honestly, I feel really excited.
03:20It's like you find the new zest for life when you get to look back at the past.
03:24Actually, look at this.
03:25It's like the moon.
03:26Welcome to the Iron Age.
03:30And what are we looking at here?
03:31What are we looking at?
03:31People's homes?
03:32No, you're actually stood on top of an Iron Age cemetery.
03:36Oh, I've got a shiver.
03:37I've got a proper shiver.
03:38This is very exciting.
03:40For the next three days, we're joining the team from the University of Bournemouth
03:44as they excavate over 3,000 square metres of farmland
03:48where the Jiratrigans once lived and buried their dead.
03:55With women often ignored in history and with few written records of the tribe,
04:00this team's excavations and analysis of the skeletal remains
04:04are not only providing a vital insight into life here,
04:07they're revealing a tribe in which women may have held real power.
04:13Something unique in our understanding of Iron Age Britain.
04:18This is all chalk bedrock.
04:20It's very good for preserving bones.
04:22Hello, Miles.
04:23Hello.
04:24Sandy.
04:25Good to meet you.
04:25Nice to meet you.
04:28I'm so excited.
04:28So tell me what I'm standing on.
04:30It's like a couple of thousand years old?
04:32Yeah, essentially we're looking at an Iron Age site
04:34that's just over 2,000 years old.
04:36And are you learning new stuff?
04:38Absolutely, yeah.
04:39And every dig contributes new material to our understanding,
04:42but this site in particular is bringing up a whole new wealth of data.
04:45I'm genuinely excited about this site
04:48because it's rewriting women and children back into the archaeological record.
04:52OK, I need to help.
04:54Where shall I go?
04:54I think, Raksha, if you can head over into that top corner over there,
04:58Lewis and Connor are excavating a burial with a pot.
05:02Sandy, Megan and Ruby have got an area they've just started to expose over there,
05:05which I think could be quite interesting.
05:08I'm off.
05:09Megan, Ruby, where are you?
05:11Student Ruby and supervisor Megan have just started digging an oval feature.
05:21Right, I'm ready to learn.
05:23I'm here.
05:23That's your beck and call.
05:26And what do you think that might be here?
05:27We might have a possible local Jewish island burial here.
05:31Oh, I suddenly have a completely different attitude to the whole thing.
05:34OK, it's like a dead person here.
05:35Absolutely.
05:36So, normally, our orientation for Duratridian graves
05:43will be head towards the north-east and then facing north.
05:48So, we'd expect the skull to be up here if this is a grave.
05:52So, no compasses in that time,
05:54because the clever Vikings hadn't turned up yet.
05:57How would they know which way north?
05:58Just using the stars and the sun?
06:00Yeah, yeah.
06:01So, how long would it take to dig this out, do you think?
06:06The aim is to do it as quickly but as delicately as possible,
06:09because, ultimately, if this is a person, they deserve that respect.
06:13I love those words.
06:15I love that you said that.
06:16Thank you very much.
06:16It's so great.
06:17I also love your hair.
06:18I think I'm going to go home with red hair.
06:22It's simply extraordinary to think that this site
06:25was once home to a thriving farming community
06:28settled here in a banjo enclosure,
06:31so-called because of its distinctive shape.
06:35At some point, we know the tribe moved to nearby land,
06:39reusing this area to bury their dead.
06:41And the discovery of jewellery, pottery and coins here
06:45allude to a distinct and sophisticated group of people.
06:49This remarkable large-scale Iron Age burial ground
06:54now offers us a privileged insight into Dura-Treegian life.
07:01Oh, Miles, we are very excited.
07:04Excellent.
07:05Look here.
07:06So you've got a classic, well, hopefully a classic Dura-Treegian burial.
07:09So what do we know about the Dura-Treegians?
07:11We know a lot.
07:12They are very culturally distinct with their pottery.
07:15Their house styles are quite different, their coinage is different,
07:17but the key thing is that they bury their dead in quite large numbers.
07:21The Dura-Treegians seem to like cemeteries and graves,
07:24though we know we've got the physical evidence.
07:26And for us, that's a godsend,
07:28because the history of people is written in their bones.
07:31So we're actually getting for the first time a sense of
07:33what people are like, what they ate, what their disease is,
07:36they were affected by, what injuries they sustained in life.
07:38All this kind of data is just coming from this one particular part of the country.
07:41What are you thinking that you will find?
07:43What have you predicted that you're going to find?
07:45Well, the great thing about the Dura-Treegian burials
07:47is that they are pretty much unpredictable,
07:50but they do have things that sustain them on the journey to the afterlife.
07:55We don't know much about their religion,
07:56but we often find a joint of pork, sometimes a joint of beef.
08:02We sometimes have a drinking vessel, a cup by them.
08:05Alcohol?
08:05Yeah, oh yeah, very much.
08:07We found wine cups in some of them,
08:09so there's a sense of, you know, you've got your pork,
08:12you've got your wine, and off you go.
08:14It's not bad for the afterlife, is it?
08:16But it's that great sense of, you know,
08:18that there is another stage in their journey.
08:21Death is not the end, that they're going somewhere else.
08:26Across the cemetery,
08:27Raksha is helping the excavation of a pot
08:29that could contain food intended for that post-death voyage.
08:34That's black burnish wear.
08:36It's a shame that it's not complete,
08:38but it's in pretty good nick, I would say.
08:43The pot is in a grave directly beside buried remains,
08:47and helping to examine the skeleton
08:49is osteoarchaeologist Dr Martin Smith.
08:53I mean, first of all, anyone looking at this
08:55can probably recognise fairly quickly
08:57that these are human bones
08:59from the shape of the lower jaw,
09:02the mandible, that we can see there.
09:03Well, I know somebody would like to see this.
09:05Sandy!
09:05Yeah?
09:06You're going to miss out on the action!
09:08Oh!
09:11Oh, babe!
09:13Look at that!
09:14I know.
09:15And has it been buried with...
09:17I don't know what the word is to use, reverence.
09:19Has it been treated kindly?
09:21Yeah, I think that's probably a really nice way
09:23to put it, actually,
09:24because they've been laid in the ground
09:26in a very respectful manner.
09:29They're probably not burying them with a pot
09:31for its own sake.
09:32It's what's in the pot.
09:33You know, there's food in there.
09:35Food is love.
09:37Do the knees look bent up?
09:39Does it look like almost in the foetal position,
09:41or have I made that up?
09:43No, that's absolutely right.
09:44We can see that both knees are very, very tightly bent.
09:48The question there is,
09:49how do you get a body into a position
09:50that's as tight as that?
09:52We think what they're doing is they're wrapping their dead.
09:54We think they're burying them in shrouds
09:56or some sort of wrappings,
09:58which is helping to keep them in this very tight position.
10:01I mean, it's amazing,
10:02because it's almost womb-like, isn't it?
10:04It's almost.
10:04It is.
10:05The team have found dozens
10:07of these foetal position burials here.
10:09They're distinctly geratregian
10:11and often suggest reverence and love.
10:15So how old is this skeleton there, Martin?
10:17Well, in terms of this person's age at death,
10:19if we look at the lower jaw there,
10:21we can see this person's teeth.
10:23But these are better than mine, darling.
10:24How...why is that...how...I mean, how is that possible?
10:27Just because these people,
10:28they haven't got access to sugars,
10:30they haven't got access to very finely ground flours,
10:32finely ground carbohydrates,
10:34and so, you know, I'm always struck
10:36by how lovely prehistoric people's teeth are.
10:39But also, if we look at the back of the jaw,
10:41they haven't got their third molar yet.
10:43This person is probably 16, 17.
10:46But I love that this 17-year-old matted.
10:48It matted to somebody.
10:49I mean, but what about 17, though?
10:52Is that very typical for some to have died at that age?
10:56On the one hand, yes,
10:58but most of the adults that we're finding,
11:00they've lived to somewhere between 35 and 50.
11:04We've had a small number of people of a really advanced age,
11:08so we had an older adult female.
11:10She actually had lived long enough
11:12to get quite severe osteoporosis.
11:14Oh, wow.
11:15This is someone who would qualify for a bus pass
11:17and a heating allowance in our society.
11:19I mean, I love her already.
11:21I never even met her, I love her.
11:22We carefully bag the bones and teeth
11:26because, as Raksha explains over a cuppa,
11:29thanks to modern science,
11:31they can reveal astonishing information.
11:34We now have this raft of scientific techniques
11:38to kind of push the story even further,
11:41and that's what they've been doing here.
11:43The most amazing thing about this site
11:45is that the women had power.
11:48And how do you know that from bones?
11:50I love that.
11:51So they actually took 55 skeletons
11:53and DNA tested them
11:55and found that the women that were buried here
11:59were related to each other.
12:01OK, so they're local.
12:02However, the men weren't.
12:05The men are imported.
12:06Tourists!
12:07They are.
12:08Most of the grave goods
12:09are found with women that are of high status.
12:14So here, the women are rocking it.
12:16They have the power.
12:17The men, they are being brought in.
12:20I love this.
12:20Like a delivery.
12:21Yes.
12:22Yes.
12:22Like a prehistoric deliveroo.
12:27Communities and families
12:29centred around powerful women.
12:30It's been happening for centuries, of course.
12:33But proving it happened in Iron Age Britain,
12:36well, this is a revelatory discovery.
12:39Now, where's my trowel?
12:42So what do you think?
12:43Would you like to come back
12:44as a volunteer next year with us?
12:46Do you know, it has been a fantasy of mine forever.
12:48I loved, loved, loved studying it.
12:50In fact, when I finished my degree,
12:52I went to see my tutor
12:53and I said I'd like to stay on and do my PhD.
12:55And she said,
12:56Sandy, have a glass of sherry,
12:58sit down and stick to acting.
12:59And, you know,
13:01I've followed her advice,
13:03but I sometimes wonder
13:04if I was at a crossroads in that moment
13:06and I shouldn't have done something else.
13:08Well, it's never too late, clearly.
13:14Is it all right sometimes just to use your hand?
13:16It's sometimes the safest, to be honest,
13:19if we think there's going to be bone.
13:20How do you know if it's bone?
13:23Oh, what have you got there?
13:25I don't know.
13:26What, is that bone?
13:27It's got this line going down it here.
13:29What does that look like, a suture of a cranium?
13:32Potentially, yeah.
13:33Oh, it's a skull?
13:35Yeah.
13:35OK.
13:36That is where we'd expect it to be,
13:38on something like this.
13:40Wow.
13:41That's...
13:41That's up there on breathtaking moments of your life.
13:45That's...
13:46So now, if we're going to touch bone,
13:49we'll put gloves on.
13:49I'm literally shaking.
13:51Oh, my God.
13:52I just need to lie down.
13:54Are you OK?
13:59The weirdest feeling about finding somebody so long deceased
14:04is that I'm pretty sure I've never felt quite so alive.
14:09So that's...
14:10That's an extraordinary dichotomy, those two things.
14:13It's incredible.
14:14Thank you, guys.
14:17It's great.
14:19This is nice.
14:33The peaceful quiet.
14:36I've got a complaint, though.
14:37Oh, why?
14:38I like the set-up, right?
14:39But these mugs you chose, they don't fit in the cup holder.
14:42What is the point of that?
14:43Well...
14:44You put your trowel in, you put your trowel in.
14:46Yes.
14:47It's a trowel holder, right?
14:48A trowel holder.
14:50Trowel's a funny word.
14:52It is.
14:53Trowel.
14:54I like mattock.
14:55What's your favourite archaeology word?
14:57Flange.
14:58Flange?
14:59Yeah.
15:00You know, on a jug.
15:02Yeah.
15:02That's a lovely flange.
15:04You've got a nice flange on you, you have.
15:06Exactly.
15:06That's lovely.
15:07I like that.
15:07So, coming back into the archaeological field, has that ignited your passion?
15:12I was going to say, first of all, it's your fault, right?
15:14We met in London, perfectly nice place for a drink, and now look at the state of me.
15:19I love it.
15:22I think my flange is a tiny bit chafed, but it's amazing.
15:31I mean, you feel exhausted at the end of the day.
15:34But elated, right?
15:35Elated and thrilled, and a head full of images of the past, and a weird energy for life, even
15:45though you've been surrounded by death.
15:48It's incredible.
15:49And the exciting thing is there's still so much more to be discovered in this ancient
15:55cemetery of the Iron Age Juratricas tribe we're investigating in Dorset.
16:00So, as I check on Megan and Ruby's progress in the grave, where I've discovered a skull,
16:06Raksha's using her professional prowess to help extract the pot buried beside the skeleton
16:11of a youngster.
16:13What we're doing is we're trying to stabilise the pot before we lift it.
16:17Well.
16:17Do you know what?
16:21It's like delivering a baby.
16:24Right.
16:25This pot is a wonderful example of a grave good, an item buried with the dead.
16:31But before Raksha can examine its condition, she first needs to empty it.
16:38I don't know if I should comment, but I think your lunch looks a little dry.
16:45Well, it might be lunch.
16:47Oh, OK.
16:48On the insides of this.
16:50Do you want to do the final inside scoops of this?
16:53Remind me of the context of finding it.
16:55So this was with a child and the pot was by the side of its head.
17:03So the pot can be significant of the individual, could be also offerings for that person to take to the afterlife with them.
17:13So they're with provisions.
17:14So there's all of these things that have been thought about for the child.
17:22You can't bear to think of it.
17:23I mean, it's a lovely thought though, isn't it?
17:25It's a lot of love and care being put into that one thing.
17:29Which really does make examining this pot all the more nerve-wracking.
17:34It's very careful.
17:35There you go.
17:36Really?
17:37Yeah.
17:38Don't trust me.
17:39Yeah.
17:40You're the first person to hold it like that since somebody did 2,000 years ago.
17:46Wow.
17:47That is a responsibility.
17:50It's touching to think a mother may have used this to send food for her child into the afterlife.
17:57The pot itself is known as black burnished ware, something of a tribal speciality.
18:03In fact, so skilled were the Juratregians in its production, they traded it across Britain.
18:09And after the Roman invasion in 43 AD, it spread across the empire.
18:14So I've travelled to one of their main trading ports.
18:17London?
18:18Portsmouth?
18:19No.
18:20Hangardsbury Head, just east of modern-day Bournemouth.
18:25This is a double dike, which sounds like a fun light out for some, but in the Iron Age
18:30it was an incredibly impressive fortification.
18:33It would have been a third as high again, with a huge palisade of wooden spikes, built to
18:40protect a settlement of hundreds of houses all the way to the sea.
18:48Hard to imagine now, but this was the largest international trading port of Iron Age Britain.
18:55It was the focal point between life in Britain and life on the continent, and in would come
19:00the Roman ships with olive oil and fish sauce and wine.
19:04And in return, the settlement sent out its very special pottery, black burnished ware.
19:11Now, there's not so much of it made today, but we're going to have a go.
19:15And for that, we're going to need a very small dike indeed.
19:18Hey, Dan.
19:19Hi, Sandy.
19:20Hi.
19:21I've come for me lesson.
19:22Dr Hayden Scott Pratt is an experimental archaeologist.
19:27He's going to show me how the Duratresians made their beautiful pottery.
19:32Today, we're going to have a go at making black burnished ware.
19:34Now, it's actually really difficult to make.
19:36I've only succeeded at making it once.
19:37How long have you been trying?
19:38Quite a long time.
19:39OK.
19:40Right.
19:41Today's the day.
19:42Today's the day, right.
19:43So, start by just depressing your thumb into the middle.
19:45Yeah.
19:46And gently pinching outside.
19:47So, it's called a pinch pot.
19:48Well, it feels nice.
19:49It's lovely, isn't it?
19:50It's such a pleasure to do.
19:51I don't know why I've never done this.
19:53Now, what I want you to do is to use your thumb and just smooth that across.
19:57So, we don't have any bulges in the pot.
19:58Because when you come to fire, it needs to be an even thickness.
20:00Right.
20:01What will happen if there are bulges?
20:02It'll probably explode.
20:03I know.
20:04The stakes are really high.
20:05This is a very, very gentle part at the beginning.
20:07You know, we make these pots, they're lovely.
20:08And then we put them in and expose them to extreme heat.
20:11Do you hear it?
20:12Can you hear it?
20:13Oh, yeah.
20:14Gunshot.
20:15It's really quite loud.
20:16The thing we ultimately want to make is black burnished ware.
20:18Yeah.
20:19So, I've understood all three of those words, but not in a row.
20:22Yes.
20:23What is it exactly?
20:24So, burnishing is where you get a small pebble, like this one.
20:27A smooth pebble.
20:28And you rub it across the surface of the pot.
20:30And it smooths all the bits of sand, bits of silica, into the same direction.
20:34It gives it a lovely, lustrous, shiny colour to it.
20:36The black bit comes from when we fire it in the kiln.
20:39To create the distinctive black look, the kiln will be starved of oxygen during firing.
20:44But, before we fire anything, my creation needs to dry for days.
20:50Fortunately, in the spirit of television, Hayden had made some earlier.
20:54So, here is your wacky stick.
20:56I mean, you're so technical.
20:57That's it.
20:58Good, firm whack.
21:01Oh, it's quite…
21:02Wow.
21:03Okay.
21:04Turns out, making pots is more violent than I'd expected.
21:07A few more over this side.
21:08Yeah.
21:09That's it.
21:10It's not nothing.
21:11That's it.
21:12Now, I should be able to lift that off now.
21:15Ready?
21:16Yeah.
21:17Oh, this is quite scary.
21:24Oh, that's a good sound.
21:25Yeah.
21:26I heard something.
21:27You hear that?
21:28Look!
21:29I spoil you.
21:30Oh.
21:31Oh.
21:32Oh.
21:33That is a high-fired black burnishware wine vessel.
21:36And it's the second time ever that we've managed to do that.
21:39Oh, well done.
21:40I'm so glad I was here.
21:41No, even better.
21:43We also have…
21:46Oh, wow.
21:47A flagon for you to pour it out of.
21:49Oh.
21:50May I take this to show my friend Raksha?
21:52You can take both of these, so you can pour it out of an actual reconstructed flagon into a reconstructed cup.
21:57Now, just need some wine.
22:00While I've been auditioning for the Great Pottery Throwdown…
22:05Meg and Ruby have been busy excavating the skeleton that we discovered.
22:10Wow!
22:12You guys did not hang around!
22:14The wonderful thing is she…
22:15I mean, I say she.
22:16I was going to say she looks so peaceful, but she?
22:18Is it she?
22:19We think we're going with she.
22:21There are some markers on the skeleton that kind of indicate potential masculinity and femininity.
22:27The eyebrow ridge, the nuchal crest right at the back, and the mandible seem quite gracile, quite feminine.
22:34Gracile is a wonderful word, isn't it?
22:35Yes.
22:36I love that.
22:37That's what we try to say, gracile or robust rather than male and female.
22:39Okay.
22:40I'm going to get down on the front, I think.
22:42Okay.
22:43So, yeah, we've got these hands coming up here, these arms.
22:45Oh, my goodness.
22:46And it makes us think that we've got a position just like sleeping.
22:51So, maybe a little bit like this, which is really lovely.
22:55Start in here.
22:56Yeah.
22:57Just brushing.
22:58Absolutely.
22:59And follow those bones.
23:01We need to find where they go.
23:03Exactly right.
23:04There's definitely bone.
23:06It's got that spongy look to it, doesn't it?
23:08What's…
23:09That one looks kind of interesting, actually.
23:11Well, look there.
23:12Is there something darker?
23:14Oh, I can see it from here.
23:16Yeah, we've got…
23:17It looks like a pin of some sort.
23:18Yeah, it does, doesn't it?
23:19Very thin bit of copper alloy.
23:21Wow.
23:22Can I brush some of the loose?
23:24That would be very helpful, thank you.
23:26There we go.
23:28That's kind of underneath there now.
23:30Oh, look, look, look, look, look.
23:31It's looking like a fibula brooch.
23:34Something special is beginning to emerge from the soil.
23:37Even the professionals can't wait to share the news.
23:40Miles, do you want to come over and have a look at this?
23:43What have you got?
23:44It's all pretty.
23:46Right, brilliant.
23:47What do you think?
23:48See, that's a really nice brooch, isn't it?
23:50Hang on, why is everybody coming to this?
23:52You have to lie down.
23:53You have to lie down.
23:54You have to have reverence.
23:55Oh!
23:56Assume the position.
23:57Oh!
23:58Here they have a brush.
23:59Look at that.
24:00Whoa!
24:01I mean, the interesting thing as a personal effect,
24:03something that they've worn in life,
24:05that's something that's been attached to them in death
24:06and it's still closed.
24:07The last person to close that was the mourner
24:09who placed it on this individual
24:11and put them into the ground.
24:12It's been closed for 2,000 years.
24:14Oh, right, sir.
24:15I'm so happy for you.
24:17I'm so, so happy for you.
24:20Your first dig as well.
24:22Oh, it's incredible.
24:23Honestly, it's been one of the most exciting days of my life.
24:26I feel really tearful.
24:28I'm having to learn archaeological patience.
24:31Each item is measured and its position carefully recorded.
24:34It's so considered, all of it.
24:36It shows just so much love.
24:39Yeah, and we still do it now, don't we?
24:42Just buried in different positions, that's all.
24:44But we still do the same practices.
24:47It's a right, proper send-off.
24:49Yeah, it is a right, proper send-off.
24:52The paperwork complete.
24:54Now we can finally start extracting the brooch.
24:57OK.
24:58Oh!
24:59Oh!
25:00Oh!
25:01Oh!
25:02Oh!
25:03Oh!
25:04Oh!
25:05Oh!
25:06Oh!
25:07Oh!
25:08Oh!
25:09Oh!
25:10Oh!
25:11Oh, baby!
25:12Look!
25:13Look at the shower!
25:14It is, isn't it?
25:15Oh!
25:16Oh!
25:17Oh!
25:18Oh!
25:19Oh!
25:20Can you see there?
25:21Yes, there's a bit of, like, the patina is still on the top of it.
25:23That is remarkable.
25:25I mean, a remarkable tribute to the woman who's lying here.
25:28Clearly, it's been loved by somebody.
25:30And a remarkable tribute to the craftsperson who made this in the first place.
25:34Oh, I'm gonna cry.
25:35That's so bad.
25:38We've all been there.
25:39Have you?
25:40Maybe.
25:41Oh, I don't feel so bad in that.
25:42Look at that.
25:49Thank you, team.
25:50Thank you.
25:51Honestly, I will never forget this.
25:52It was fantastic, and I will never forget you.
25:54Thank you.
25:57With so much love shown in these burials, it's tempting to think we aren't so different from
26:02the Juratregians.
26:03But archaeology is full of surprises.
26:07Gosh!
26:08Just 30 metres away from the grave I've been working on, Supervisor Lorraine has alerted
26:15us to a gruesome discovery at the bottom of a vast pit.
26:20Oh, it's deep.
26:21It certainly is.
26:22Oh, wow!
26:23That's a long way down, Raksha.
26:26Tell me what we're looking at.
26:28I've got somebody who's face down in the middle of this almost vertical shaft.
26:36Yeah.
26:37In a very ungainly position, because actually there are legs and arms everywhere.
26:42What do you think is going on?
26:44They've got their arms underneath them, and they've got one leg sticking right up.
26:50So they've, I'd say, been pushed in.
26:53Horrible!
26:54An observation I can make even from this distance is if we look at the person's right arm bone
27:00at the top, if we look at the top of the bone, we can see that that ball, it hasn't finished
27:05fusing yet.
27:06It hasn't joined on.
27:07This is a 16 or 17-year-old.
27:08Oh.
27:09Below these peaceful Dorset fields, our investigation into an Iron Age cemetery used by the Juratrigas
27:24tribe has just unearthed a disturbing discovery.
27:29The remains of a teenager at the bottom of a two-and-a-half-metre man-made pit.
27:34They weren't treated very nicely, and also their legs and arms are in very strange positions.
27:41There is an inkling that they might be tied behind, so it's a violent death.
27:48So this is the thing, is that this has very purposefully been made.
27:54You don't dig through bedrock and look at these sides, they're almost vertical.
27:59It would have been very hard to open this up.
28:01The stuff around it is midden material, so it's literally chucking somebody in rubbish.
28:06This is very, very grim to see.
28:08These don't look like the nearest and dearest sending their dead relative onto a happy afterlife.
28:15Two extremes, right?
28:16Yeah.
28:17So you've got one part where they're burying that child with care.
28:22This one...
28:24Chucked in.
28:25Chucked in.
28:26Like rubbish.
28:27The comparison to the loved and considered burial I'd discovered earlier in our dig is stark.
28:33But it transpires this is not the first pit death the team have uncovered here.
28:39So, while I head to the university laboratory to find out more, Raksha continues the investigation with Miles.
28:46So I think the thing about these pits, the really large ones, is they're not for storage, they've been cut specifically for an event like this.
28:53And the idea at the time seems to be to have a death, an execution, but done in as public a way as possible so people can observe it.
29:01They can actually see them being put to death and then thrown in.
29:04That person's been sacrificed, that means the crops won't fail next year.
29:07I'm wondering if the people at the bottom of these are not local, would my assumption be correct?
29:13I suppose if they're going to have an act of human sacrifice, they're not going to do it to one of their own.
29:19Might be someone who spent a lot of their life being enslaved or being a captive, being not from this area.
29:24There are some things we can probably say and reconstruct about it.
29:28So, if you go around the side of the pit, Raksha, to about there, you're probably standing in the position now where 2,000 years ago this individual was put to death in a very public way and then thrown in.
29:43I literally have got goosebumps all the way up my arms, I'm like shivering.
29:48There are things like this that make us realise they're not like us, they do things different, their perception of the world is very, very different.
29:55And they do commit acts like this, which to us is completely abhorrent, it's just...
30:01Brutal.
30:03I've travelled to the University of Bournemouth for further scientific analysis of another Duratregian victim.
30:10This skeleton was also found in a pit and may hold clues to our teenager's fate.
30:17This is an adult woman aged something like 28 to 30 when she died.
30:22She will have died sometime between the end of the 2nd century BC and sometime during the 1st century BC.
30:28I'm astonished by how specific you've been able to be about lots of things.
30:32Can you tell me, do we know if she is local?
30:35We've got DNA results for this individual.
30:39She is not related to anyone else at the site that we have the DNA for.
30:44So she's not part of this community, so genetically she's an outsider.
30:49We can see if we look at the bones of her arms, these are points of muscle attachment and these tell us that she's had a physically hard life.
30:57And we can see this time and again throughout her skeleton.
31:01These are signs of really advanced osteoarthritis of the spine.
31:06She has the spine of someone who's spent 40 years digging up the roads.
31:12She's got multiple ruptures in her discs throughout her spine.
31:15So pain, we're talking about pain.
31:17Very painful.
31:18She's carried really heavy loads over and over again over a long period.
31:23If we look at this bone in her upper spine...
31:26So where are we talking about, kind of here?
31:28It's just under the base of the skull.
31:30If we look here, you can see what looks like a crack in the bone, but we've looked at this under high magnification.
31:37It's not a crack, it's a slice, it's a cut into the bone.
31:41So somebody's either cut her throat or certainly they've cut her neck.
31:46How does this compare to what's being found at the moment?
31:50We've found another instance last year of an individual face down at the bottom of a pit.
31:56And then, of course, we've found our example this year.
32:00And so this really is intriguing.
32:02There is a saying that one's an incident, two's a coincidence, three's a pattern.
32:06Right.
32:07So the women are in charge, probably.
32:09They seem to be being buried with nice things, but they're not very nice to outsiders.
32:13Is that a sort of picture?
32:15That is certainly how it looks, which raises questions about what was the status of these people we're finding in pits.
32:24They seem to be people who've had to work very hard and are exposed to violence and maybe from elsewhere.
32:31So when you put all these circumstances together, it fits the interpretation of these being enslaved individuals.
32:40Sadly, this same picture of violence is becoming increasingly evident back at the dig site, where Megan and Raksha have been continuing to excavate the teenage skeleton.
32:52We've possibly identified some trauma to one of the arms to maybe indicate some kind of struggle before they went into the pit.
33:01It's a radial fracture, isn't it?
33:02It's a radial fracture, isn't it?
33:03Mm-hm.
33:04So they've either suffered that as they've been pushed in or it's a blocking blow to stop them from being, like, hit in the face or something.
33:14Mm-hm.
33:15Are we still going on the hypothesis that this person is, like, late teens?
33:21Yeah, we think that they are around 15 to 16 years old.
33:25I mean, like, 15, 16, that actually breaks my heart because I have a son who's 16 years old
33:32and I actually can't bear thinking that he would be at the bottom of this pit.
33:37I just...it's too much for me.
33:41I really think Sandy should see this.
33:43She'd be absolutely fascinated, but I think also I just want to get this person out of here
33:49and give them back their story and almost for us to give them back their life
33:54after they've had such a gruesome death.
33:59I have to say I'm finding it hard to square these sacrifices with the love shown to tribe members.
34:07It slightly blows your mind being here. I have got a million questions.
34:14You could be here forever and maybe never fully understand the complexity
34:18of the society that we're digging into.
34:26The sight! I am very conflicted about it.
34:29I love them, but at the same time I'm scared by them because of all of the violence.
34:35I mean, if you're not from round here, then, you know...
34:39Just look at that vertical shaft.
34:41So tell me, tell me exactly. Analyse that shaft for me. Come on.
34:44So it's kind of like, you know, makes me think of torture,
34:48horrible things happening to that person and then just being chucked in there.
34:53They're not an adult. They are a teenager.
34:58And that pit is just open to see that grisly display.
35:01I get the conflicted thing. I really do.
35:03Because there's something so beautiful and peaceful about, you know,
35:07one of the women being buried. It's exquisite and it suggests love.
35:11And then if you're not with us, you're 100% against us and we're going to get you.
35:17The remains of the teenager have now been fully exposed.
35:20And as perhaps happened around 2,000 years ago, a crowd gathers to witness the event.
35:30Oh, the pit of doom.
35:35Doesn't the atmosphere change in here when you get down here?
35:38It is completely different.
35:41I feel like it's fine, sort of fine looking down, even though you feel sad,
35:45but it feels claustrophobic. It feels frightening, actually, to be honest.
35:48What's the next step?
35:51Well, I think we're a little bit concerned, aren't we?
35:54Unfortunately, we're at a point where we've made every conceivable record
35:59and we are now at a stage where we have to lift the skeleton
36:03and we have to carefully and systematically dismantle it.
36:08And we will start with the skull.
36:10It could come apart as you put your hands on it.
36:12Yeah. It may well do.
36:14This body has been out in the open.
36:17It's been weathered.
36:19There's been lots and lots of weight on top of it from all of the layers.
36:24It could be crushed.
36:26So we might not be able to extract the whole skull whole.
36:30OK. But we're going to try our very best.
36:32We're going to try, yeah.
36:33So what we can do to hopefully mitigate the risk of it collapsing entirely
36:38is to carefully bandage around the skull.
36:45In theory, it should now lift out.
36:49It looks very crushed though, doesn't it, the whole body?
36:51Yeah. Yeah.
36:52It's not in very good nick at all.
36:55You can see it kind of like quite brittle and fragmentary and, yeah, it's not in good shape at all.
37:03We need to designate a skull lifter.
37:05Rakshar, I think.
37:08You can do this, Rakshar.
37:09OK.
37:10My hands are too big for this.
37:11Yep.
37:12Can you tell me?
37:13It's short places.
37:14Yeah.
37:15It's very, very tight in here, isn't it?
37:16If we're lucky, we'll get a glimpse of the face as it comes out of the ground and before it goes into the box.
37:20OK, so I've got a good grip on that now.
37:27And I think if you get the chin, Rakshar...
37:35Oh, what's happening?
37:36It's happening.
37:38Oh, my God.
37:50Our dig has reached a crucial moment.
37:54Around two millennia ago, a teenager met a violent end and was thrown into this deep pit.
38:03Doesn't the atmosphere change in here when you get down here?
38:06It feels frightening, actually, to be honest.
38:09After days of painstaking excavation, we're finally ready to carefully extract the fragile remains.
38:15In theory, it should now lift out.
38:20Could come apart as you put your hands on it?
38:23Yeah.
38:24It may well do.
38:25But if we're lucky, we'll get a glimpse of the face as it comes out of the ground and before it goes into the box.
38:32You can do this, Rakshar.
38:34OK, so I've got a good grip on that now.
38:38And I think if you get the chin, Rakshar...
38:43Oh, what's happening? What's happening?
38:52The face.
38:54Hopefully the first time in...
38:56Oh, my God.
38:57...two millennia.
38:59And then...
39:01Quick, Sandy, give us the box.
39:02We're going to place it carefully in the box.
39:03OK, I've got to get my hands out now.
39:18That's this. We've done it.
39:20Sorry.
39:22That was amazing. Can you take them up?
39:26Have you got it?
39:27Cut the weight, yeah.
39:33The poor thing.
39:37I'm sorry. I don't know why that one's upset me more than anything we've seen.
39:43You were so lovely and kind, John.
39:45We forget we do this quite often as professional archaeologists, but it's always special and emotional.
39:56Try and get as much out as we can today and his journey will continue.
40:03I thought you were beautiful, John. Thank you for that.
40:05Well, thank you for helping. It was a good team effort.
40:09No, is that weird?
40:11No.
40:13Like I could see the child.
40:15Oh, my God, I feel really upset though.
40:18That I wasn't expecting.
40:20I'm really sorry.
40:22Don't you apologize?
40:24I'm so proud of you.
40:26Oh, my God.
40:27There's no question that I now wonder at that crossroads in my life whether I should have decided that actually I wanted to be an archaeologist because there is nothing I like better than diving back into the past and really researching something.
40:45But on a human level, the thing I feel is I'm now a grandmother. I have four grandchildren. And I feel the grief. This is a cemetery.
40:51I feel the generations when we come across a child who's been buried here. That hurts me. And that's an astonishing thing to be still feeling the pain 2,000 years later.
41:06By removing the teenager from that grisly pit, I take consolation from the idea that once the remains are analyzed and studied, they'll be laid back to rest in the earth here.
41:18Their humanity restored.
41:22And although perhaps 2,000 years have passed, we're able to tell the story of real people who had lives filled with emotion.
41:39I've learned such a lot about how the Juratregians lived and died. But what happened to this mysterious tribe?
41:47An answer may lie in the middle of the cemetery, where the team have discovered a grave that was laid after the traditional Juratregian burials.
41:57This one looks different to all the others.
41:59Yes.
42:00This one looks like a square, like almost like there was a coffin because there's a square thing.
42:06Oh, very good.
42:08Yes, Miles is not saying a word.
42:09Absolutely. No, it's more familiar.
42:11You recognise that as a grave.
42:14Yeah.
42:15Because it's very much the modern convention of digging deep, digging a rectangular cut.
42:20And you're right, it is basically the coffin has decayed, but we know that the coffin was there because we're getting these coffin nails.
42:27Oh, wow.
42:29That's vicious.
42:30I mean, you have to think about the lid though, right?
42:33It must have been really chunky to have a nail that big.
42:37That's very kind of, you're not coming out, isn't it?
42:39That's very, that's, I mean, yes.
42:41Yeah, I mean, it is a very, very solid construction, but of course it doesn't survive in the chalk at all.
42:45But can I just say, like, how robust this individual is, because he must have been quite strong, right? And tall.
42:55This is not a Juratregian then?
42:57No, no. So the actual style of the burial, the nature of it, we can say confidently this is a Roman or a Romano-Britain.
43:04This is somebody who's dying around about sort of 200 to 300 AD.
43:08That's when Christianity is becoming the state religion of the Roman Empire.
43:14We know the Romans invaded Britain in 43 AD.
43:18Many of the native tribes adapted to the newcomers, blending cultures to become Romano-British.
43:25Miles suspects this possible descendant of the Roman invaders offers clues as to what eventually became of the Juratregas tribe.
43:35One of our big questions is what happens to the Juratregas.
43:38Their cultural traditions, their burial styles, we can see carry on for some time after the Romans invade.
43:43The Romans just like exploiting landscape and making money.
43:46But they don't seem to have changed much in the way of life for people up here.
43:50The Juratregians are burying their dead in crouched burials.
43:53They're still living in the same way for about 200 years after the invasion.
43:56So we're seeing the Iron Age slowly morph into the Roman period.
44:02It's absolutely fascinating.
44:03But something major happens about 300 AD, about the time that this chap is being buried here.
44:08This whole landscape becomes depopulated.
44:11There's more Roman buildings being created.
44:15There's more sense of this becoming Roman.
44:17And I guess our theory is a bit like the Highland Clearances
44:20in that wealthy landowners are coming in, they're taking over the land,
44:23they're dispossessing the locals.
44:25And that's really the significant time of change.
44:28About almost three centuries after the Romans arrive,
44:31that's when the Juratregians finally come to an end.
44:35So we may never know exactly what happened to the tribe,
44:38but I like to think the future archaeological work of Miles and the team
44:43will finally put the pieces of this puzzle together.
44:47Which leaves me one last task before the dig closes for the season,
44:51to toast the lives of the Juratregas and all buried here.
44:56So Sandy, I want to introduce you to the archaeologist tradition.
45:00Yeah.
45:01You are now fully fledged, right?
45:03Thank you, yeah.
45:05This is the dirty drink.
45:07Oh, I love it. In black burnished ware.
45:11Yeah.
45:12That I pulled out of the furnace myself.
45:15Let's do it.
45:16In the finest wines.
45:19I mean, I'm going to be honest with you, it was £6.95, but, you know.
45:26I don't know what the Celtic people would have said,
45:28but mud in your eye.
45:30Bottoms up.
45:33Mmm.
45:34Wow, that's...
45:36I mean, that's...
45:37Whoa!
45:38That is...
45:39Oh, save me from shit wine!
45:43But do you know what?
45:44I've had a great time.
45:45I've had a wonderful time.
45:47And can I just say,
45:49to all the people whose lives we have uncovered
45:52and revealed back to the sun,
45:54here's to you.
45:57Cheers, ladies.
45:58Bottoms up.
46:03Don't keep drinking it.
46:06Strip out your pancreas.
46:08What do you think?
46:10What are you doing?
46:11're known as candidly.
46:13Why?
46:14Because I love on the same side.
46:15It's not easy, doesn't see me at least.
46:17Or I came to heaven,
46:18she liked mygeeker and made it.
46:20You know I mean,
46:21시�umps,
46:23пост градuzzleฬ tw prioritize?
46:24And you know I don't have to wait and see.
46:24Next, you know I have to take the ice to get thrown out.
46:26Get some Bears!
46:28I forget to me,
46:29then you know I won't be giving well.
46:31Now, I think you know i'll be a holy one,
46:32and then you get a riverroom box.
46:33Gracias por ver el video.
Recomendada
56:35
|
Próximamente
42:01
28:48
42:01
29:20
44:39
43:00
20:18
54:59
44:37
1:03:02
23:42
43:46
55:02
1:06:38
50:22
44:09
57:20
45:27
21:25
46:55
21:06
Sé la primera persona en añadir un comentario