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Countryfile - Stonehenge
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00:00So now we know for sure that modern-day Britain, England, Wales, Scotland are all represented here.
00:05This is obviously long before the concept of kind of countries, but it does show that
00:10people are connected and they are coming together in Salisbury Plain.
00:30The unmistakable towering megaliths of Stonehenge, Joe, honestly, it is such a privilege to get
00:54to stand so close to these iconic stones.
00:57It's amazing, isn't it?
00:58Look, it's been nearly 10 years since Countryfire was last here, a blink of an eye in the history
01:03of the stones, but for those studying this ancient site, it's been a decade of discovery.
01:08Yes, and recent findings actually offer fresh insight into this world-renowned monument
01:13and its importance as a centre of congregation on an international scale.
01:17Britain's most famous prehistoric monument has adorned Salisbury Plain in Wiltshire for almost
01:305,000 years.
01:32But the story of this monument is far from complete.
01:43Does that suggest that maybe these have been here for thousands of thousands of years?
01:48That's the point, exactly.
01:50This is an amazing story.
01:53It comes from about 450 miles away.
01:56My goodness, that's a long way from Salisbury.
01:58The sound that is coming off all of this work.
02:04When you use the stone axes, that's a noise that hasn't been heard in this landscape for 5,000
02:09years.
02:10It's epic.
02:11Technology has allowed us to really narrow it down and say with some certainty, this is
02:17where they came from.
02:18Can't be a bit of science.
02:19Can't be a bit of science.
02:22And down on Adam's farm this week, there's a new arrival.
02:25I'm really looking forward to seeing it.
02:29My word, Dale.
02:30He's magnificent, isn't he?
02:31He's a serious bot, isn't he, Adam?
02:33Goodness me.
02:34With the winter solstice just a week away, this feels like a good time to return to Stonehenge.
02:54These stones have stood in this windswept landscape for millennia, perfectly aligned to Earth's
03:00movement around the sun.
03:02But Stonehenge isn't just ancient history, it's a constantly unfolding story with every
03:16new discovery reshaping our understanding of these incredible megaliths.
03:24What we do know is Stonehenge was built in stages from around 3000 to 2400 BC.
03:31It started as a circular earthwork of ditch and bank, developing over six centuries into
03:37the great stone monument we see today.
03:41There are two main types of stone here.
03:43The enormous sarsens that form the outer ring and the five towering trilithons, and the smaller
03:50blue stones that sit within them.
03:52But what's so fascinating is there is just so much we do not know.
03:58I mean, why was it built?
04:00Was it a temple, a burial ground, or a place of healing and pilgrimage?
04:04And how did they get these stones, some weighing over 30 tonnes, here in the first place?
04:19Since I was last here with Countryfile in 2016, archaeologists have made a remarkable series
04:24of discoveries, revealing not only where the stones came from, but why this spot may have
04:32united communities from across ancient Britain.
04:36Here to guide me through this decade of discovery is English heritage archaeologist Dr. Jennifer
04:42Wexler.
04:43What's been really amazing is we have a lot of new scientific techniques that really allow
04:47us to understand and study the stones, but in a way that doesn't damage them.
04:52Stonehenge is a completely unique circle.
04:54As you can see around us, the stones are actually shaped to fit together.
04:58If you look, you can see that over there, for example, they're using what we call mortise
05:03and tenon technology to fit the stones together.
05:06So we have these notches where the bottom stones fit into the lintels.
05:11They literally look like Lego pieces that click together.
05:14But these are towering seven-metre-tall stones, weighing between 20 and 30 tonnes, placed
05:21in a very specific pattern.
05:23And Jennifer, how were the stones aligned and what does that tell us about how this place
05:29might have been used?
05:30Well, we're actually standing in the perfect position because we are on the solstice alignment
05:35right here and you can see a sun corridor through the centre of the monument.
05:39So it runs from the heal stone, which is just at the entrance outside the circle, to just
05:44behind you, where we have the tallest trilithon, the three stones that stand up.
05:49And I think what's really interesting is, you know, we have some really crazy weather
05:52going on here.
05:53Yeah.
05:54It doesn't feel very close to the summer solstice right now, does it, with snow coming in?
05:58No, but it does make you realise why people would perhaps worship the sun on Salisbury Plain.
06:05Because the sun was incredibly important to the people who built Stonehenge.
06:08The people who built Stonehenge were early farmers.
06:11You know, their livelihoods really dependent on the sun doing its job.
06:15These people are putting huge effort into this and none of this is by accident.
06:18It would be impossible to do this by accident.
06:20Yeah.
06:21And Jennifer, do we know where these big sarsen stones came from?
06:24Yes.
06:25There's been an extremely exciting discovery.
06:27And really it's a detective story because there was a core that was drilled at Stonehenge
06:32in 1958 as part of conservation work.
06:34They had to shore up one of the stones with some metal.
06:36So they took a core and it actually went with the man who did it to America.
06:40Okay.
06:41And then recently it was donated back to us a few years ago.
06:44And this was amazing because it allowed geologists to actually have a look at the inside of one
06:50of these stones, which is so important because you can actually look at the geochemical composition
06:54of the stones for the first time.
06:57And they found an exact match at the west woods.
07:00This incredible discovery made just three years ago revealed that the massive sarsen stones
07:06came from 15 miles to the north.
07:09It's the kind of breakthrough that shows how fast the story of Stonehenge can change.
07:15And seeing where these incredible megaliths originated is too good an opportunity to miss.
07:24Archaeologist Lawrence Shaw from Forestry England has offered to guide me to the site where they
07:29were painstakingly extracted from the landscape.
07:32Lawrence, I've heard that there was back in the 50s a core sample taken from one of the
07:38the Stonehenge sarsen stones and that sort of put this area in the frame.
07:42But how do we know it was definitely this area?
07:44There was a project led by the University of Brighton and they were doing something called
07:47portable x-ray fluorescence.
07:49So this is...
07:50Easy for you to say.
07:51It's a bit of a device.
07:52It looks a bit like a phaser from Star Trek.
07:54Nice.
07:55And you can place it on a stone.
07:56It'll give you the geochemical signature of that stone.
07:58Wow.
07:59So what they've done then is gone about looking at sarsen spreads like we have here at Westwood
08:05to look to see where they can find the same signature.
08:09And what they found is that Westwood is most likely the source of these massive sarsens
08:14that we have at Stonehenge because it has almost identical geochemical signature.
08:18Wow.
08:19So it's like DNA for rocks.
08:20Exactly that.
08:21And we've got a very strong match here.
08:22Yeah, exactly.
08:23Stronger than anywhere else.
08:24Stronger than anywhere else.
08:25So we had an inkling it might have been here, but the technology has allowed us to really
08:29narrow it down and say with some certainty, this is where they came from.
08:32Can't beat a bit of science.
08:33Can't beat a bit of science.
08:35Sarsen stones are a type of sedimentary rock that take thousands of years to form.
08:43Look at these.
08:44Okay, they're getting bigger now.
08:45This is more like it.
08:46That's it.
08:47And yeah, you get the idea of the sort of scale that you might expect.
08:49Yeah.
08:54This is one.
08:55This is what's brought us here.
08:56And this is what's been bringing people here for thousands of years.
08:59The raw material.
09:00For some reason I expected to see one towering over us, but of course that's because I've
09:05been conditioned by seeing Stonehenge.
09:06Actually, they would have just been scattered randomly.
09:09That's it.
09:10And there are thousands around us at the moment.
09:12We just can't see them.
09:13They are in the ground.
09:14They are buried.
09:15They're covered in soil.
09:16And there are some absolute monsters.
09:17But the ones we see today are ones that have been tampered with.
09:20In more recent history, particularly the Victorian era, there was a quarry here.
09:24If you and I had to work out how to move this now, potentially 15 miles as the crow flies,
09:29I've got no idea how we'd begin.
09:30How do you think they managed it?
09:32It's a really interesting question.
09:33It's something we're actually looking at at the moment as a future project, but we're
09:35thinking about rollers.
09:37We're thinking about sledges.
09:38But even if we want to move just something like this, we've worked out we need 150 people
09:43to drag it.
09:44So...
09:45Just 150 people that someone's got to grow food for and organise.
09:49It's a massive effort, isn't it?
09:50It's a massive effort.
09:51And the other thing you've got to remember, the stones we see at Stonehenge as they are
09:54now are actually smaller than they would have been when they arrived.
09:56Because we know from excavations that they're facing them and they're shaping them outside
09:59of the monument itself.
10:01So when they leave westwards, they're even bigger.
10:03They're in their raw form.
10:04Yeah, exactly.
10:14Moving these sarsens 15 miles must have required monumental feats of logistics and physical effort.
10:24But as I'll discover later, some of the stones used at Stonehenge had an even longer journey.
10:31We are just a week away from one of the most momentous days of the year for Stonehenge.
10:46The winter solstice.
10:48It's then, on the shortest day of the year, the setting sun aligns perfectly with the great stones.
10:55The megaliths acting as an ancient solar calendar.
10:59This annual spectacle has drawn people here for thousands of years.
11:04Archaeologist Win Scutt, curator of Stonehenge for charity English Heritage, has, along with his colleagues,
11:10uncovered many secrets from those ancient times.
11:14So Win, describe mid-winter to me here at Stonehenge and all those festivities.
11:20Well, it must have been an incredible place that everybody looked forward to coming to.
11:24But to come here to celebrate the ancestors at Stonehenge, but also to spend time in these houses.
11:31Is this what their dwellings would have looked like?
11:34Yes, these temporary dwellings that they had at Durrington Walls is exactly what they looked like.
11:39It's a reconstruction, but it's based on the ground plan that we found.
11:43So people weren't actually living here. We know they were coming from afar. How do we know?
11:48We think they're just coming here for the mid-winter festival.
11:51And we know that because we've examined the pigs.
11:56When I was... I know, I know.
11:58When we were excavating here at Durrington Walls a few years ago, I was lucky enough to be on those excavations.
12:03And the ground outside these houses was black, organic soil.
12:09And inside that were hundreds, thousands of pig bones.
12:13Right.
12:14And it was basically their feasts. But the pigs were eight months old.
12:18And we know that the sows, Faro, have their babies in the spring.
12:22So this tells us that they were eating these pigs at mid-winter.
12:26And no doubt for the whole mid-winter solstice celebrations.
12:30There's no other evidence that would give an indication that they're here the rest of the year.
12:34So these seem to be just seasonal occupation here.
12:37All of these layers of evidence and detail that you can use to fill in the blanks and paint this picture is just exquisite.
12:46What was it like finding all of these?
12:48Oh, absolutely amazing.
12:49I think that's one of the greatest archaeological experiences I've ever had in my life.
12:53Really?
12:54Just kneeling there and troweling and finding arrowheads in amongst these pig bones.
12:58Some of them embedded in the bones.
13:00So it looks like they are hunting them for sport.
13:02Because if you just want to kill a pig, there are easier, quicker ways of doing it.
13:06Could that have been a part of the celebrations, the festivities of it all?
13:09I think so.
13:10I think there's a whole load of things going on here that isn't just feasting.
13:14These are young families who are celebrating, meeting each other for the first time in a year or longer.
13:19Establishing relationships.
13:21They're dancing.
13:22They're singing.
13:23It really does sound like a great party for mid-winter.
13:27Yes, it's Glastonbury in the 26th century BC.
13:30And everything that could go along with that.
13:33That's the incredible thing.
13:35It's how strong society was at that time.
13:39You know, these weren't isolated people.
13:41But they're walking for hundreds of miles, no horses, to get here to share this fantastic experience.
13:48In that same archaeological dig that uncovered evidence of the workers' huts, traces of another type of Neolithic building were discovered.
14:01It's now the focus of an ambitious project led by experimental archaeologist Luke Winter.
14:07His team are working with the same skills, materials and even the same tools used here more than 5,000 years ago.
14:17Luke, what a hive of activity. What exactly is being built here?
14:22So this is the very beginnings of a long-term project to reconstruct a Neolithic hall.
14:28So a late Stone Age building, the evidence for which was discovered at Durrington Walls.
14:33And within Durrington Walls is this footprint.
14:36Four very large square post holes surrounded by up to 45, maybe more, other post holes in a sort of organic shape around the edge.
14:47It's about 14 metres long by about 12 metres wide.
14:50And from that very limited evidence, I have to try and work out what could have stood,
14:55how tall those posts could have been, and the kind of structure that could have stood above.
15:00And we're trying to use traditional methods and skills to take whole timbers, shape them,
15:06put them in the ground and build something incredible.
15:09So we have all of these Neolithic tools, but I do have to point out this one, not so much.
15:15So the beginning of this process, we have some essential modern groundworks going on.
15:21And in about a week's time, all of that should disappear.
15:24And we return to hauling things by hand, lifting things in with muscle power and traditional tools.
15:31The sound that is coming off all of this work is incredible. It's actually really beautiful.
15:37It's amazing, isn't it? And it's really sort of notable when you turn up because, of course,
15:41usually modern building sites are filled with machinery and generators.
15:45Drilling. Yeah. Yeah.
15:46But when you use the stone axes, that's a noise that hasn't been heard in this landscape for 5,000 years.
15:51It's epic.
16:00Volunteers begin with steel tools whilst learning their woodworking skills.
16:04Once they graduate to stone tools, an extraordinary level of data collection begins.
16:10We're recording the person that's doing it. We've got some of the biometrics of those people.
16:16We're recording the tool, its weight, its dimensions, how many times it hits the wood.
16:22No.
16:23The cubic volume of wood each below removes.
16:27And what we're trying to do really is to get a sort of fine resolution of what it is to use stone tools on a serious project.
16:34It's so rare for something like this to happen.
16:37It's a real opportunity to capture as much data as we can.
16:40So you might wonder why on earth we do that.
16:43But I suppose the point is to be able to say how long it might have taken Neolithic people to not just construct this building,
16:50but to build much larger timber monuments.
16:54How many volunteers would you say you've got working on this?
16:57Because this is brilliant that everyone wants to get involved.
17:00Yeah, we tend to have on a daily sort of basis, we have 25 to 30 people.
17:04And then we have other volunteers that come in more sporadically.
17:07But we need them all. It's a huge project.
17:11Roz Sutton and Emma Gregor are part of the vital volunteer workforce.
17:16Roz and Emma.
17:20Oh, hello.
17:22What are we doing with this log?
17:24We are notching and then we're going to do a few other bits and pieces so that we are taking this from a round log as it is now into a square or rectangular beam.
17:34The notch is the first step of many in the laborious process.
17:40It creates an entry point from which the remaining wood can be chopped away more easily.
17:46Just hit like that.
17:49So I'm going in at a slight angle?
17:51Yes, slight angle is good.
17:52Would you like to go?
17:53Oh yes, of course.
17:54Right.
17:55Oh, I feel like I'm not hitting the same point as much as you were.
18:00No, you're fine.
18:01You're fine.
18:02You're doing brilliantly.
18:03You're doing well.
18:05Oh, you've got to put some muscle into it, haven't you?
18:07You do.
18:11How many notches would we do on a log like this?
18:1430 to 40.
18:16How long is it taking to do each notch times about 30?
18:20For one person probably at least a couple of days.
18:23Right.
18:24Yeah.
18:25But it makes you really appreciate the know-how, the effort, the care that's gone into building.
18:32You re-evaluate time as well, I have found.
18:36Yeah.
18:37Because if we were building this with all the technology available today, we'd just put it through a sawmill, wouldn't we?
18:44And in a couple of minutes it would be done.
18:46But we are taking a couple of days to do the same job.
18:49Ooh, you're nearly there.
18:50Nearly there.
18:51Can I have a go with the stone tools to see how it would have been?
18:57Ooh.
18:58We have two different types of stone axes here.
19:01We've got quite a heavy one and we've got quite a light one.
19:04And which would you prefer?
19:06I'll have a way of them.
19:07Yes, definitely.
19:08I love the craftsmanship on the axe themselves.
19:11I'm going to go for the lighter one.
19:16Definitely feels a bit harder.
19:18Yeah.
19:21And I feel like I have a little less control over exactly where to place it.
19:25Yes.
19:26Yeah.
19:28The blades on the two are very different actually.
19:31So whereas that's a wedge shape, on the steel it's more of a point.
19:34So they cut very differently.
19:37This definitely takes it up a notch.
19:39Yeah.
19:40I do apologise. Sorry.
19:46Why is this an important project to you, Emma?
19:48For me, I've been sort of really keen to learn historic crafts and heritage crafts and anything like that.
19:54And this project is doing all of that.
19:56And getting to experience this with tools, both modern and sort of replicable tools as well, it's just absolutely fantastic.
20:05It's a chance of a lifetime really.
20:07I don't think anybody's ever going to ask me if I'd like to build a Neolithic building ever again.
20:13So why wouldn't you come and do it?
20:16With my small contribution to the build noted and logged.
20:22So in one minute, 33 seconds, you did 150 blows.
20:29I'll leave the modern day experts to continue with this incredible Stone Age build.
20:35It's very tempting to think of 5,000 years ago as a very long time ago.
20:43And it's very tempting to think of the people that lived then as very different to ourselves.
20:48And actually, they're really not.
20:50Stonehenge, you look at what they're creating in stone.
20:54What must they be doing in timber, which is far more easily shaped.
20:58And I just feel that this project will start to sort of highlight some of that sophistication and that refinement.
21:04That's the mission.
21:14From ancient traditions to new beginnings, Adam's busy getting everything ready to welcome new life down on the farm.
21:22Today is one of those days when there seems to be a job to do in every field.
21:38Right, that's the trailer on. I'll just go and get Gwen the sheepdog.
21:42I've got rams to take out into one field.
21:47Good job. Good job.
21:49Haven't we got some jobs to do?
21:50Different rams to put into another.
21:53And there's a lorry on its way that's delivering our new Highland bull.
21:58It's a busy time of year, but every job feeds into one goal.
22:02Bringing new life onto the farm.
22:05What we do now shapes which animals give birth and when.
22:10So task number one is getting our sheep sorted, so they're in the best possible shape for lambing next year.
22:15So in this field we've got our Copswold sheep, our rare breeds, so I'm going to round them up and take the ram out.
22:23So this is where Gwen comes into her own.
22:25I send her up the field, bring them back down into the handling pens and take him out.
22:29So Gwen, come by.
22:37We keep around 250 commercial ewes on the farm.
22:43Plus around 100 rare breed sheep from 10 different breeds.
22:46Good girl.
22:51These Cotswolds will be the first of our flocks to give birth next February.
22:57Right, here we go.
22:59We stagger our lambing throughout the season.
23:02It not only spreads the workload, but helps us protect ourselves a bit from the market price swings.
23:09Each group of ewes is at a slightly different stage, almost like chapters in the same story.
23:15Instead of everything bursting into life in one go, the lambs arrive at a nice steady rhythm.
23:20Right, so these are our Cotswold sheep, famous for their beautiful, long, lustrous wool.
23:28And the ram has been with them for a couple of cycles, so sheep ovulate every 17 or 18 days.
23:35That's when they can conceive.
23:37So this is the ram, the daddy, and you can see he's got this paint on his chest.
23:43And that's so that when he mates with them, he leaves a mark on the ewes rump.
23:46And we started off with yellow, and then we changed it 18 days later, and now he's marked some red.
23:53And because we know when we change the colours of the paint, we know pretty much when they're going to give birth.
23:59So now the ram has done his job for the season, he's hopefully got all the ewes in lamb.
24:04His job is done, so I've got some ram lambs next door that'll keep him company, so I'll just take him out.
24:10And then he'll live for the rest of the winter and the summer until we need to use him again next year.
24:16OK, mate.
24:21Go on then.
24:23I've used the Cotswold ram with the Cotswold ewes to keep the bloodline of this rare breed going.
24:28Good boy.
24:30I've got a different breeding plan for our commercial ewes, as they're kept for meat and wool rather than conservation.
24:36Right, I reckon that's about the right spot.
24:42I've limed up two smart rams to bring the traits I want into the breeding flock.
24:48Resilience against worms being one of the main ones.
24:50But I've got to check the boys over first.
24:53In here, we've got our Romney rams.
24:59And the Romney might work.
25:02As you can see, a powerful sheep.
25:05Let me just bring them back out here.
25:06Now that's it, steady, steady, steady, steady, steady, steady, steady, steady.
25:13Steady.
25:19The Romney are powerful sheep.
25:24Well, I just made a hash of that, but I'm fine.
25:26I just knocked me over.
25:28But they are powerful animals.
25:30And the way to control a sheep is to hold them under the chin.
25:33But you've got the better of me.
25:35Here you go, right, now then.
25:37Right, I'm in charge, fella.
25:39Here we go.
25:41So, really big, strong sheep.
25:43They've got a very good meat cover, so they're good at producing lamb.
25:47But also, they give birth easily.
25:50A lot of the bigger, more commercial breeds have great big, wide shoulders.
25:54And they produce a tremendous, meaty lamb.
25:57But that causes problems when the ewe is trying to give birth to the lamb.
26:02Whereas the Romney has got narrow shoulders.
26:05Legs are closer together.
26:06Slightly narrower head.
26:07That also comes for easy lambing.
26:10But then grows like stink.
26:12And is a really good, strong sheep.
26:16Now that I've checked their condition, I can paint them up.
26:22Right then, mate.
26:25I'm going to get that worked right into his wool.
26:29Because these two rams are going out with about 50 ewes now.
26:34Right then, boys. Be good.
26:41These Romney rams are going in with last year's ewe lambs, our shearlings.
26:45And if all goes to plan, they'll be giving birth around March.
26:54You can see when you turn the rams out with a flock of ewes, they immediately come round the rams.
27:00You know, some of them are likely to be ovulating in season now.
27:03And they work hard, these Romneys, and they've already marked up four.
27:08Right, I'll leave them to it.
27:10My final job with the sheep is to check on a flock of ewes that will be the last to lamb on the farm.
27:20They won't go to the ram for another couple of weeks, because right now they need to graze on our crop of grass and sand foin.
27:27The ewes are way in the distance there on the top of the hill.
27:33The sand foin has been a really useful crop for us.
27:38Great for the soil and excellent at helping control black grass, a weed that competes strongly with wheat and barley.
27:44I'm grazing our main commercial flock on it to get them in peak condition before pregnancy.
27:53With the drought that we had this summer, our ewe flock suffered really.
27:56We had to start feeding them hard food, there was just no grass at all.
28:00Now what we want is for the ewes to be in very good condition to be able to conceive lots of lambs.
28:06And what we want is them to ovulate well, and they call it flushing.
28:09So you put them on really good pastures a couple of weeks before they go with the ram and right through tupping.
28:15So it's flushing them, producing lots of eggs that will conceive and produce lots of lambs, hopefully.
28:20And this sand foin, because it's got such a good nutrient base, is a really good quality crop to do that with.
28:28So I've just caught one so that I can feel her body condition.
28:32Since the summer, you know, this sheep would have been really lean.
28:35She'd have been skinny, rearing her lambs.
28:37I can feel her ribs, her loin, her rump, and I can tell how podgy she is.
28:44And so what I want is for her to be a condition score of about three.
28:48So one being very lean and five being fat.
28:51I want her about in the middle, two and a half, three ideally.
28:54And this sheep, I would say, is ideal.
28:57And she's pretty much average to what's in this field.
29:00So this sand foin has done a great job and now in perfect order.
29:07In a couple of weeks, I'll put these ewes with our Hampshire rams.
29:14So that's three sheep flocks all checked.
29:17The Cotswolds, the Romneys and these.
29:19And they'll all be lambing at different times.
29:21February, March and then this lot in April.
29:24And they're all looking good.
29:25Right, I'll head back to the farm.
29:32Lambs aren't the only new life Adam is hoping for on his farm.
29:37We'll be catching up with him a little later for the arrival of his new Highland bull.
29:41Stonehenge may be around 5,000 years old, but new discoveries over the past decade have unearthed fresh secrets.
29:56Earlier, English heritage archaeologist Dr Jennifer Wexler explained the recent revelation of the Sarsen Stone's origin.
30:03Yet it seems the blue stones may have had an even more extraordinary journey to get here.
30:10These are really interesting and important stones to the site.
30:15And the thing that's amazing about them is that they've done a huge amount of work to source where these stones have come from.
30:20This has been debated about by archaeologists for a number of years.
30:24And they have found now specific quarry sites in the Presilly Hills in southwestern Wales.
30:30So that's about 150 miles away.
30:33So they actually found stone tools that they were using.
30:37So things like stone wedges and hammer stones and also some of their snack food.
30:42What?
30:43They were eating hazelnuts.
30:45You know, hazelnuts were kind of the snack food of prehistory.
30:47So we really found a kind of moment in time where people were getting these stones and then bringing them all the way here.
30:55But that process is still a little bit of a mystery because originally archaeologists thought they might come via sea routes,
31:02that we haven't found sturdy enough boats.
31:05We think it's potentially more likely that they're doing an overland route.
31:08But then if you walk that route, it's at least a month.
31:11Right.
31:12Probably more if you're driving down these stones.
31:13Yeah, if you've got a backpack or one of these in, yeah.
31:14But this would have been probably an occasion because I think it's easy for us because we always, you know, in modern culture we think about efficiency, right?
31:21Like how quickly can we do things?
31:23But that's not necessarily the case with these people, you know.
31:25This would have been an occasion getting stones from a place that might have had a lot of special meaning to them.
31:30But they clearly were special because they're going out of their way to get them.
31:33And it turns out that one of the most special stones, the altar stone, comes from even further away.
31:42This is an amazing story because it's a new story. We just discovered this in the last year.
31:48Geologists had been kind of suspicious of this stone for quite a long time.
31:52Originally they thought it had kind of been picked up in Wales along the coast with the blue stones.
31:57Actually, it comes from the Arcadian Basin in northeastern Scotland.
32:02Northeast Scotland?
32:03Northeast Scotland.
32:04My goodness, that's a long way from Salisbury.
32:06About 450 miles away.
32:08So this is our farthest flung stone found on site.
32:12And, you know, archaeologists, we don't really know how it got here.
32:16Was this stone, was it something that came over, overground all the way from Scotland?
32:20Yeah.
32:21The amount of time that would have taken, the amount of communities involved would have been tremendous.
32:25And you can picture it going through other monumental sites from this period of time.
32:29And that would have really been something to kind of move through all these different groups of people to get here.
32:35So now we know for sure that sort of modern day Britain, England, Wales, Scotland are all represented here.
32:41It's worth pointing out, you know, this is obviously long before the concept of kind of country.
32:44Sure.
32:45But it does show that people are connected and they are coming together in Salisbury Plain.
32:49But who were the people making these remarkable journeys?
32:56And why were they coming here?
33:03Something that people don't realise about Stonehenge is that if we just look across, you can see the earliest bit of the site,
33:10which is the earthworks, the kind of bank and ditch.
33:13Oh, yeah. Yeah, just there.
33:14Just there.
33:15But then just inside of it are a series of holes.
33:19And these actually contain cremation burials.
33:22So when people ask, what is Stonehenge?
33:25In the earliest phases, Stonehenge is a cemetery.
33:28Oh, wow. Okay.
33:29It's a place to honour the ancestors.
33:32And what's really fascinating is when they did chemical analysis of the cremated remains,
33:39and they realised that these people don't come from here.
33:43They didn't live here in Salisbury Plain.
33:46They actually came from the west, possibly Cornwall, possibly Wales.
33:51So we think that they were actually maybe brought to the site and deposited here on purpose.
33:56Can you map the genetics of people that are coming here?
33:58There is a big change that happens within like a hundred or two hundred years.
34:04Yeah.
34:05So we start to get a new group of people coming into this landscape.
34:08And perhaps they're attracted by the famous Stonehenge to come here.
34:11And they're coming from Europe.
34:13So we have a new group of people coming from Europe.
34:15And they have what we call step DNA.
34:17So DNA that it comes from sort of Eastern Europe.
34:21And with them, they bring new technology, which is metalworking technology,
34:25and new cultural ideas.
34:27So we actually, the best example of them is all around us in the surrounding landscape.
34:32We have lots of burial mounds.
34:34And actually there's one right there.
34:36You can see it's quite a big one.
34:38And there's over 400 of these.
34:40400?
34:41Yes.
34:42Gosh, okay.
34:43So it's one of the biggest burial grounds in Europe from this period of time.
34:46So from these new discoveries, we really do see this as a place that is mapping human development over time.
34:53New ideas, new technologies and techniques coming into this area.
34:57Definitely.
34:58I think it's really a place where people are coming together and meeting and exchanging these ideas.
35:10I guess you could say the story of this site is far from set in stone.
35:15I'm sorry, surprises around every corner.
35:17And what do we have here?
35:19Another discovery is the Countryfile calendar for 2026.
35:22If you want to get your hands on a coffee, here's John with all the details.
35:27It costs £11.99, which includes UK delivery.
35:32You can go to our website, bbc.co.uk forward slash Countryfile, where you'll find a link to the online order page.
35:41Or you can call 0330-333-4564 to place your order by phone.
35:51Standard geographic charges will apply to both landlines and mobiles.
35:56The phone line will be available from Monday to Friday, 9am to 5pm, and Saturdays from 10am to 4pm.
36:07If you prefer to order by post, then send your name, address, and a cheque to BBC Countryfile calendar,
36:14PO Box 25, Melton Mowbray, LE 13 1ZG, and please make your cheques payable to BBC Countryfile calendar.
36:26A minimum of £5.50 from the sale of each calendar will be donated to BBC Children in Knee.
36:38While we continue to unearth new discoveries, Adam's gearing up for his new arrival.
36:46I might have had a bumpy start to the day, thanks to one particularly feisty ram.
36:53But I've worked my way through the flocks, getting each group set up so he can stag a lambing from late winter into spring.
37:01It's all part of laying the groundwork for the burst of new life I'm hoping to see on the farm.
37:06I'm also really hoping for some new Highland calves next year.
37:11And to make it happen, we've got a new bull arriving soon.
37:15And I have to say, I'm pretty excited about it.
37:22Before my new Highland bull arrives, I've just made a quick detour to come and check on my lovely Suffolk Punch mare, Lexi.
37:29Hello, Lexi.
37:33The exciting thing is, with Lexi, is that she's pregnant again.
37:40She's looking really fit and well.
37:42And you can now start to see her bulge.
37:45She's getting a bit of a belly on her, which is really exciting.
37:48Of course, the gestation period of a horse is pretty much 12 months.
37:53So out of all the animals on the farm, you have to wait the longest for a horse to give birth.
37:58And so she's due next May, June time.
38:02But she's in really good order.
38:04She's in fine fettle, aren't you?
38:06Loves her apples.
38:07And of course, the Suffolk Punch is still critically rare.
38:11I think they had maybe 35, 40 foals last year that were registered.
38:15So as many foals as we can get on the ground, fit and healthy, is really important.
38:20And ideally, what we want is females, fillies, that will go on and give birth themselves in the future.
38:26Right, I'll leave Lexi to it and go and see if that bull's arrived.
38:31Stay there. Good girl.
38:32Lexi's new foal is still a few months off yet.
38:39But the arrival I've been waiting for has just turned up.
38:44Our new Highland bull, delivered by Dale, the livestock manager from Cannon Hall Farm in Yorkshire.
38:50Hello, Dale.
38:51Hiya, Adam.
38:52By word, are you exhausted?
38:53Yeah, it's been a long old drive, but we're here.
38:56And we've got all his papers, he's all sorted.
38:57Great, so he's had all his movement licences and he got all his blood tests done.
39:01Yeah, absolutely, he's good to go.
39:03Fantastic, wonderful.
39:04Let's head him out.
39:13I'm really looking forward to seeing him.
39:17My word, Dale, he's magnificent, isn't he?
39:20He's a serious boy, isn't he, Adam?
39:21Goodness me.
39:22He's come all the way from Scotland.
39:25He's been up in Oban at the minute, yes.
39:27Scotland, Yorkshire to here.
39:28He's been on a long road trip, yeah.
39:31He's been seeing lots of ladies and hopefully he'll be just as good for yours.
39:34Great.
39:35So tell me about him, Dale.
39:36His name's Ted.
39:37He is, yeah.
39:38This is Ted.
39:39He was actually born on our farm in Yorkshire.
39:41I think I was there the day he was born, actually.
39:43Really?
39:44Yeah, as a little lad.
39:45We knew pretty soon on that he was going to be a fairly decent bull.
39:48He won at the Yorkshire show, best bull.
39:50Did he?
39:51Yeah.
39:52And he even went up to the Oban sale in Scotland, where he came third.
39:56Did he?
39:57Which we were very, very happy with.
39:58But you didn't sell him?
39:59No, no, we didn't sell him.
40:00He's a very, very special bull to us.
40:02Well, I've got two heifers for him to go to, and then our Black Highland bull is obviously
40:07dad to them, so we can't keep him anymore.
40:09Yeah.
40:10A couple more cows for him to go to next year.
40:12So, and you're happy for us to keep him for a couple of years?
40:15Absolutely, yeah.
40:16You use him as you need to, and look after him, and we're more than happy.
40:19Right.
40:20He's very quiet, isn't he?
40:21Very placid.
40:22Considering that there's two lovely young females there for him, I think he's behaving
40:26very, very well, yeah.
40:27So, he's a quiet, nice bull, which is a lot of the work, isn't it, you know?
40:31It is, really.
40:32I always think the Highlands, it's a good job they're as placid as they are, because they've
40:35got these horns, and they do know how to use them if they really want to.
40:38They're really strong male horns, different to the cow's horns that are up and turned
40:42up like that.
40:43Exactly, yeah.
40:44Right.
40:45Let's hope we can get him in here.
40:50That's the last thing to take off is his nose ring.
40:52There you go.
40:53He's free to go.
40:55He's a good boy.
40:58It's lovely to have such a quiet animal.
41:03Let's see how he gets on with the ladies' dale.
41:10He's more interested in his belly.
41:11He's gone over to a bucket that hasn't actually got anything in it.
41:14Well, yeah.
41:15He's definitely keen on the bucket and the grass more than the girls at the minute, but
41:18I think you'll find he'll change his mind quite quickly.
41:21So these heifers are just two and a half years old, so gestation period being nine months.
41:26Hopefully he'll serve them within the next couple of weeks and we'll have calves on the
41:31ground next summer.
41:32Yeah.
41:33He's a proven worker.
41:34He'll have calves arriving the beginning of next year up in where he's just been, so
41:38there should hopefully be no problems for you, Adam.
41:40So he's been leaving his genetics all over the country.
41:42Exactly.
41:43Ted's road trip, we're calling it.
41:45Lucky boy.
41:46Thank you so much, Dale.
41:47No problem.
41:48Really, really appreciate it.
41:49Right.
41:50Let's head off.
41:53Well, there's been plenty going on today, but hopefully we've got a very full calendar
41:57of births to look forward to next year, with lambs being born late winter, early spring
42:02and then through the springtime, and then late spring, early summer, Lexi's foal, and then
42:07hopefully two gorgeous highland calves in the summer months next year.
42:11So fingers crossed, everything goes to plan.
42:24Well, here today at Stonehenge, it is bright and fresh and beautiful, but it is freezing.
42:29But let's see what the weather has in store for us.
42:31In the week ahead, here is the Countryfell forecast.
42:41Hi again.
42:42Good evening.
42:43It's been a very wet month so far across northern and western areas of the UK.
42:48In fact, some spots have already seen a month or nearly a month's worth of rainfall and we've
42:54still got the second half of the month still to go.
42:57There is more rainfall certainly in the next 24 hours.
42:59Two amber weather warnings in force for that heavy rain, but there's a lot more to come
43:04still as we head through the rest of the week.
43:06And some of the heaviest again across parts of western Wales, northwest England and northwest
43:10Scotland, as much as 100 to 200 millimetres for some spots.
43:14Certainly here.
43:15Anyway, this is our first amber warning across the Cumbrian Fells.
43:19That's in place until six o'clock tomorrow evening.
43:21200 millimetres of rainfall possible.
43:23It's enough to cause some flooding and, of course, plenty of disruption too.
43:27And the rain is just set to continue overnight tonight here.
43:30So some heavy downpours at times, but it is clearing away from Northern Ireland and from
43:35much of Scotland too.
43:36Could be a few showers out towards the west, but clearing skies here and a chillier start
43:40to the day tomorrow.
43:41Of course, it's still dry across the southeastern quadrant, but here's our second amber warning.
43:47That comes into force overnight.
43:49It's valid until nine o'clock tomorrow evening, as much as 100 millimetres of rainfall across
43:54southwest Wales.
43:55Now, of course, that's not as much as the Cumbrian Fells, but the ground is already so saturated.
43:59Here, again, it's likely to cause more problems.
44:02But here's the position of our band of rain as we head through Monday across southwest
44:06England through Wales up towards northern England too.
44:09It's dry with some sunny spells towards the north of our front and also across the far
44:14south and the east, and the air is still mild for this time of year.
44:18Now, our weather front is going to slowly creep its way further southwards and eastwards
44:22as we head through Monday night and into Tuesday.
44:24It's quite a chilly start towards the north of the front.
44:26We're likely to see some patches of mist and fog around as well.
44:29Most of this rain tended to be light in patches.
44:32It gradually stalls and then clears its way further south and east.
44:35Some showers again across parts of northwest Scotland, but there will be some sunshine around.
44:39For many, it's a fairly decent day of weather to, if a little cooler.
44:436 to 11 degrees Celsius, still mild across the far southeast corner.
44:48But as the front clears on Tuesday night, then we could be in for a touch of frost.
44:52Low single figures, so chilly start to Wednesday.
44:54But you can see what's happening on Wednesday here.
44:56Some more fronts moving in from the Atlantic.
44:59Now, nothing too heavy on this, but there will be some showers, possibly some longer spells of rain around at times.
45:05Likely to still be dry and bright across parts of East Anglia through to southeast England.
45:10Still that southwesterly wind and the air is still mild for the time of year.
45:14You can see those temperatures start to creep up again.
45:17Now, on Wednesday into Thursday, all of that rain is just going to tend to pep up again with this front.
45:22It's a waving front. It could develop a centre of low pressure on it.
45:25So again, some of the rain threatens to be really rather heavy at times.
45:29At the moment, we think that it will be mostly across these areas, but keep an eye on the forecast.
45:33It could change again, brisk southerly winds blowing in the air.
45:37Very mild again for the time of year.
45:39So 13 degrees Celsius towards the south, a little cooler further north.
45:43It could stay largely dry across the far north of Scotland.
45:46Now, if you're looking for something a little drier, then our rain clears away on Thursday.
45:51A nice gap between systems. Yes, it's unsettled again into next weekend, but Friday should be largely dry.
45:57And there'll be some sunshine around as well.
45:59Still some more showers out towards the far north and west.
46:02Here are the temperatures.
46:03You can check the forecast for your local area, of course, on the BBC weather app.
46:08Bye for now.
46:10We've been exploring Stonehenge, a 5,000 year old story that's still revealing itself.
46:26This is our farthest flung stone. It comes from the Orcadian Basin in northeastern Scotland.
46:32You're doing well.
46:34Oh, you've got to put some muscle into it, haven't you?
46:36You do.
46:38Even now, these ancient stones draw communities from across Britain and beyond to gather in ritual and celebration.
46:55But their services host a quieter kind of congregation on a microscopic scale.
47:01David Hill is one of Britain's leading lichenologists.
47:06He's back at Stonehenge for the first time in 20 years.
47:10It's a rare chance for him to continue his study of the stone's living skin.
47:16Well, it's still dark, the sun hasn't come up yet, but I'm here this early because I've been promised an illuminating encounter with perhaps the oldest inhabitant of this ancient monument.
47:39Why is it we're here at this time, first thing?
47:42Well, we're here because these stones aren't completely dead. They're really alive.
47:48Covering all over this are lichens of all sorts of different kinds, which reflect UV light.
47:55And you can see the different colours they come up.
47:58Oh, look at that.
47:59Look at this.
48:00It's amazing.
48:01You're seeing views of lichen in that light that you wouldn't see in daylight?
48:05Yes, and it's been an aid to helping identify them because there are so many.
48:11There are about 2,000 species in Britain.
48:13Whoa!
48:14We've got about 70 on these stones.
48:16Oh, wow!
48:17And they are really quite hard to identify, so we need every trick we can think of to help us.
48:23And one of those is to shine a UV light on them.
48:26But go back to square one, David. Why should we care about lichen?
48:38Lichens are extraordinary organisms because they are fungi.
48:43Are they?
48:44Most fungi decompose things.
48:47They rot dead plants and other organic matter.
48:50But lichens have gone a different way of life.
48:53What they've done is to not wait until the thing is dead.
48:57They are actually living off little microscopic algae.
49:01So they only need water and sunlight and very few mineral nutrients.
49:08And they can just be sitting there as a fungus and pretending to be a plant.
49:11And suddenly you look at these stones in a completely different way.
49:14They are sort of this living ecosystem.
49:16That's right.
49:17These extraordinary organisms have been growing here for centuries.
49:26In a place famous for its history, they are a reminder that Stonehenge is still an evolving, living monument.
49:34And David is one of only two people to have ever surveyed the lichen on the stone surface.
49:42Ah, look at this. This one. This one is a good one.
49:46You see all the little black dots?
49:48They are what we call the fruiting bodies.
49:51And those fire off spores of the fungus into the air.
49:55And they drift away to land somewhere else to make another lichen somewhere else.
50:01Wow. What is this one?
50:03This one has got a lovely Latin name.
50:05OK, go on.
50:06Called Buellia subdisciformis.
50:10It's only normally found on the seashore.
50:13And there's masses of it here.
50:15The other lichen that we see is tufted one.
50:18And that's a seashore lichen too, the rock ivory.
50:21And just growing here about half a dozen species which are only normally seen on the seashore.
50:28Because of moisture? What do you think is behind that, David?
50:30Is it like a sort of a sea cliff almost, these big stones?
50:33I think it probably is, yes.
50:34And this is a very exposed area that's been like this for thousands of years.
50:40So I imagine that as far as the lichen's concerned, it might as well be at the seashore.
50:45Because the wind is coming straight across the Atlantic, over the Salterbury Plain and straight onto the stones.
50:50I can see you light up. You're very excited about that, aren't you?
50:52Yeah. The other thing is that there's a cluster of ten or more species that are otherwise very rare in Britain.
50:59Perhaps ten or twenty recordings over the years.
51:03So what is the chance of them landing on this small patch in Stonehenge?
51:08Does that suggest that maybe these sort of populations have been here for thousands of thousands of years?
51:15That's the point, exactly. The reason it's been possible is because the stones have been here for so long.
51:22Wow. We've had five thousand years of opportunity for spores to arrive here.
51:28Yes, so it's something you cannot recreate quickly unless you've got a spare five thousand years to hand.
51:32That's right.
51:33And essentially, it's not just rare, but it just shows how precious this site is.
51:37Exactly.
51:38This monument may be covered in lichen, but identifying them is no easy task.
51:49David is one of the very few who can distinguish between the thousands of species.
51:54And he's received special permission to take samples from the stones.
51:59The sample I collected from the stone is now under the microscope and I'm now going to cut a section through the black fruiting body.
52:14Oh my goodness, that tiny thing, you're cutting it into slivers?
52:17Yeah. Then we take the section and we can put it onto a slide.
52:22Ah, okay. So we're getting a cross section and this is going to tell us a lot about it.
52:26So what I'm going to do is to do a test for the different chemical substances in the lichen.
52:33Every lichen's got its own combination of particular substances and that helps us narrow down what the possible chemicals are inside.
52:42If you'd like to look through there, Joe.
52:45Put your glasses on and you're using a microscope.
52:47At the same time.
52:48Double action.
52:49You can say what colour it has gone.
52:50It's gone as sort of a green-yellow and that gives you a clue as to which lichen it is.
52:55Exactly.
52:56Exactly.
52:57Wow.
52:58So having done all of this, you've analysed it, you've sliced it up, you've tested it with chemicals.
53:03Do you now know exactly what it is?
53:04Yes.
53:05Nearly tricked me in the field, but now I'm certain.
53:08It is Boelia saxorum, which is a species which is only found in Stonehenge, Avebury and the Sarsen stones in Britain.
53:17Incredible what I find.
53:19The stones have been here for 5,000 years and because of the numbers of species which are normally found on the coast and because having so many rare species present, it makes the collection of lichens on Stonehenge of international importance for the conservation of lichens.
53:43So is it a privilege to be able to survey?
53:44It's a huge privilege.
53:45Yes.
53:46Earlier, I learned of remarkable evidence uncovered through archaeological digs, findings that show ancient people gathered here for feasts and celebrations, especially at the time of the winter solstice.
54:14Just kneeling there and troweling and finding arrowheads in amongst these pig bones, that's one of the greatest archaeological experiences I've ever had in my life.
54:24Great.
54:25Together with the pig bones and arrowheads, many fragments of ceramics were also unearthed.
54:35Flo Brooks is a volunteer for English heritage who specialises in the recreation of that pottery.
54:45I'm making a grooved ware pot, which is what Neolithic people were making at the time of Stonehenge.
54:52I can see there's all sorts of pots around here.
54:55It's amazing to sort of paint this picture of how this place would have been lived in.
55:00Yes.
55:01A pot like this, who would be eating from it?
55:04How would they be eating?
55:06In these, they found the residue of dairy, and we think that's because they were making cheese in them.
55:15The reason we think it was cheese is because they were lactose intolerant.
55:20People couldn't drink raw milk, so they think they were making cheese, which makes it safe for them.
55:25So this pot that you're recreating now, the etchings, the markings that you're making, they're based on pots that have been found?
55:33Yes.
55:34What I'm doing is I'm just marking out the grooves in this pattern, this traditional pattern.
55:40Oh, this is lovely.
55:41So I've got a nice little pointed stick, and all I'm doing is drawing lines that are parallel to the marking out that I've done.
55:50I'll just do this one panel, and then you can have a go on the next one.
55:55How does that sound?
55:56That sounds like I can just about handle it.
55:58I think you'll be fine.
56:00Thank you, Flo.
56:01Right.
56:03I really love the atmosphere in here, that cosiness, but also imagining the life that would have been inhabiting this place.
56:14Yes, absolutely.
56:15And you can imagine there might have been children learning to do all the things, people coming back from building the henge who might be tired and hungry.
56:24So the big pots might have been standing by the fire with a nice big stew in, ready for the people who've been outside in the cold.
56:32I mean, coming in from the cold, from the rain, sharing some cheese, spending some time together, it's not so different from the way that we like to live our lives.
56:41Absolutely. They are like us, but just without some of our technology.
56:48Oh, Flo, it's wonderful. These ones are a little thicker, but it's very therapeutic, isn't it?
56:55Yeah, and theirs would not all have been identical.
56:58I'll take that.
57:00Yeah, it's the imperfections that make it so perfect.
57:02Well, absolutely, yes.
57:04Vic, how's it going?
57:19Not wanting out the cold, Jo.
57:20Look at you, you found the right spot. I mean, it's freezing out there. How's it been?
57:24You know what? It has been so fascinating taking this journey through Neolithic times, but I really love that some things will just always remain a mystery. How's it been for you?
57:34Well, there's no shortage of remarkable history here, and yet weirdly it's lichen that has given me a new perspective on this as like a living monument. Remarkable.
57:42Well, that's it for this week.
57:44Next week, Anita, Matt and Adam will be celebrating a Cornish Christmas in Cadwyth.
57:50We've got some fish to sort out, so you've got to put them on, otherwise you'll get wet.
57:53We've got the wellies and everything, right, OK.
57:59Tinder!
58:02That's a good job, James, but it looks a lot heavier now it's on the ground.
58:05I've done my job, I'm leaving it up to you.
58:08This is proper graft, this is.
58:12Look at that!
58:13Amazing!
58:15Brilliant!
58:16That's next Sunday on BBC One at five past five.
58:20We hope you can join us then.
58:21See you.
58:22See you.
58:23Oh, now I thought you might have got a few marshmallows if you weren't tempted.
58:29Keep up to date with all the news from the beautiful game with Football Daily.
58:32Listen now on Sounds.
58:34And it's party time for Amanda and Alan with a special Spanish Christmas.
58:39Join the fun on iPlayer now.
58:41And here next, the fun comes to the Antiques Roadshow in a Toys and Childhood special.
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