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00:00This land we call home has a rich and varied history, stretching back thousands of years.
00:16But hidden below the surface are some amazing treasures just waiting to be found.
00:22Oh my gosh, that's insane!
00:24That's really cool!
00:25So each year across the country, archaeologists dig underground and dive underwater.
00:35Searching for fresh discoveries.
00:38The most amazing thing in British archaeology.
00:41Uncovering traces of ancient lives.
00:44Somebody's played in joy, I'm sure.
00:46And finding fascinating objects.
00:49Such exquisite detail.
00:51This year I'll be meeting the archaeologists and looking at some of their most incredible finds.
01:00I mean that is stunning.
01:02While Dr. Tori Herridge is travelling the length of the country to some spectacular locations.
01:09Or I'll be dropping in on some of this year's most fascinating digs.
01:14Oh my gosh, can you see that?
01:17It's just brilliant.
01:19Oh my goodness.
01:21Every dig provides a new piece in the puzzle of Britain's forgotten past.
01:26This is the epic and unfolding story of our islands.
01:33Welcome to Digging for Britain.
01:48In this episode, archaeologists go searching for the fabled ancient Tin Isles.
01:54Oh my gosh!
01:55That is a Bronze Age fingerprint.
01:56Yeah.
01:57Shining a light on the crucial role Cornwall played in the Bronze Age.
02:02It's just destroyed the thing completely.
02:06Two huge Roman swords.
02:08What's the chances of me on my second time detecting to find such a wonderful item?
02:13Wow.
02:14Give us a new insight into life in Roman Gloucestershire.
02:18What incredible objects.
02:20And an ancient fort surprises the archaeologists.
02:25What seems obvious often isn't.
02:27And this truth is lying in the soil.
02:29The West has some of our moments.
02:58The West has some of our most dramatic stretches of coastline.
03:04Places that were once connected into ancient trade routes.
03:10Linking Britain across the seas with the wider world.
03:18For our first dig, Torrey heads to the Cornish coast to St. Michael's Mount.
03:24Three miles east of Penzance.
03:32This island has been a medieval monastery.
03:35A Norman fortress and the site of a civil war siege.
03:39But long before it became a symbol of faith or power, some archaeologists think it may have played a very different role.
03:51As a vital hub in an ancient trading network of tin.
03:56A resource that fuelled the Bronze Age.
04:06Tin ore is the crucial material ancient metal workers refined to create tin.
04:11Which, when mixed with soft copper, creates bronze.
04:14A harder, more durable alloy that shaped daily life in the ancient world.
04:22Cornwall was once home to some of the richest tin ore deposits in Europe.
04:26And Cornish ore was in demand across the Mediterranean.
04:30But the true location of one of the main centres where this ore was processed and traded remains a mystery.
04:40For years, people have claimed that St. Michael's Mount is the Lost Island Ictis.
04:45The legendary trading hub for tin in the ancient world.
04:49It all hinges on the writings of Pythias.
04:52An ancient Greek explorer who visited Britain in around 320 BC.
04:57He wrote of locals carting tin across to an island called Ictis.
05:02Over a sand bar that appeared at low tide.
05:06And the similarities with this island are uncanny.
05:19Now, in the first research excavation ever carried out on the island,
05:23a team from Durham University and the National Trust
05:27is investigating what role St. Michael's Mount may have played in the Cornish tin trade.
05:33In particular, they're looking for evidence that tin ore was processed,
05:38refined into tin ingots and then traded here during the Bronze Age.
05:43Leading the dig is archaeologist Ben Roberts.
05:46What was it that was so special about Cornish tin?
05:50Cornish tin was prized because of its purity.
05:53And this would have been valued by bronze smiths all over Europe.
05:57The time we're talking about when there's a huge boom in bronze use,
06:01where everyone has apparently got access to as much bronze as they want.
06:05That seems to have been driven by these incredibly rich tin sources
06:10that we're getting in Cornwall and Devon.
06:12The archaeologists think tin ore mined on the mainland was hauled across to the island at low tide when the causeway was exposed.
06:23Why on St. Michael's Mount and not on the mainland where all of the tin ore deposits are?
06:28You can get tin ore almost anywhere in Cornwall.
06:32And so there's no central production, but the distribution points have to be central
06:37because your traders had to find the place to trade and this is easily the most visible place from the sea to reach.
06:45Here you've got the ideal mooring place for your boats.
06:48And the fact that we're on a tidal island is going to make everyone feel a bit safer.
06:53When the tide has gone out, you can bring the tin across the land to St. Michael's Mount in quantity.
06:59And then when the tide came in again, everyone is feeling that little bit safer.
07:04Negotiations can begin and then the boats can be loaded up with tin and sail off.
07:09Ben's theory is strengthened by a discovery made in 2009 when head gardener Darren Little uncovered a remarkable horde of Bronze Age artefacts.
07:25Darren, along with Jim Parry from the National Trust, has brought some of those finds to show me.
07:30Look at this.
07:32This is some really rather beautiful Bronze Age metalwork, what's called a Meldrift socketed axe.
07:39Darren did an amazing job in finding.
07:41But this piece here in particular is what really stumped us and stumped some of the other metalwork professionals
07:47because there's nothing that we know like this that's been found.
07:50Well, it's obviously a buckle and it looks modern.
07:52Exactly. So, considering we're on St. Michael's Mount, the thinking was that could this be a Civil War buckle?
07:56But hang on, why is it with something that's so clearly Bronze Age?
08:01So, with a bit more research in other hordes, they've found small bits of something very similar,
08:08but nothing with these beautifully pin-in sized decoration lines that run around the edges.
08:15So, really rather special piece.
08:17How did you feel? I mean, my heart would have been racing.
08:19My heart was racing, yeah.
08:21I remember calling the wife, you know, she was saying an old teaser and I said,
08:24I can't come out at the moment, you know, I'm still working, you know,
08:27found a few things and I'll be home shortly.
08:29And, yeah, so it's a one in a lifetime chance of finding something like that.
08:32It is.
08:34Found another 50 odd items of chisels, axe heads, pommels, bits of swords, ingots.
08:43While the horde is intriguing, the archaeologists need to find more than finished bronze items
08:48to prove their theory that tin oil was processed into tin here.
08:54The team are concentrating on two areas where earlier geophysical surveys revealed features
09:00that might be ancient structures.
09:04And, almost immediately, the first trench begins to deliver.
09:08The team's pottery specialist is Imogen Morris.
09:15We've got lots of Bronze Age pottery.
09:17Here we've got a rimshed.
09:18Oh, yes. I can see the rim.
09:20It's got no decoration and this sort of pottery is called plainware.
09:25Because it's plain.
09:26Pretty plain, yeah.
09:27And this would have been quite a large vessel, quite a simple vessel.
09:31So, it would have been for cooking.
09:33Yeah.
09:34Everyday uses, yeah, perhaps about that high.
09:36A solid cooking pot.
09:38But not all of the pottery is plainware.
09:42We've got quite a beautiful shirt.
09:44So, put your fingers in there.
09:47Oh, my gosh.
09:48That is a Bronze Age fingerprint.
09:50And they would have gone all the way round the edge?
09:51That's it, yeah.
09:52It's quite unusual to get decoration,
09:53so we're quite lucky to get one that's got those finger pinches.
09:56That's incredible.
09:57It really connects you.
09:58Yes.
10:01The discovery of the pottery suggests there was considerable activity on the island during the Bronze Age.
10:10But the team still need evidence of tin ore processing.
10:14Nearby, archaeologist Alan Williams is taking a closer look at some of the finds.
10:20Wonderful stone tools.
10:22I do like the look of these.
10:24Some of the most exciting finds we've made at St Michael's Mount.
10:27Can I pick it up?
10:28Absolutely.
10:29And you can see it fits really nicely in the hand.
10:32Yes.
10:33So, if this has been used for crushing tin ore, we would expect that it would be embedded in between the grains.
10:38Yes.
10:39Because it's really, really hard.
10:40But to show that, we need to analyse the edge of the rock and compare it to the general background in the rock.
10:48Geologist Sean Cleveland has been working on the analysis of the stone tools using a specialist x-ray machine.
10:57It can detect the amount of tin on specific parts of the stone.
11:01If they were used to crush tin ore, he should see significantly higher readings along the working edge of the stone.
11:11The result we got from the general background in this rock was what, Sean?
11:15100 to 150 ppm.
11:17Okay.
11:18Amazing.
11:19Where's the edge of the rock?
11:20And Sean?
11:211,884 ppm.
11:22Oh!
11:23Okay.
11:24So like a whole ten times more.
11:25At least.
11:26And we've seen even higher values on other stones.
11:29So it's very strong evidence that this is used for tin ore processing.
11:33You got it.
11:34Absolutely.
11:35It's the first evidence ever that the St Michael's Mount was processing tin ore and was part of the tin trade of the Bronze Age.
11:43It's magical that someone used this to grind tin ore on this island 3,000 years ago.
11:55The high levels of tin found on the edges of the crushing stones is evidence that tin ore was being processed.
12:02Here on the island.
12:08Could this spot on St Michael's Mount mark the origin of the ictus myth?
12:16Not just the name from legend, but a real place.
12:19And for Cornish Tin, the gateway to the ancient world.
12:23Cornish Tin helped usher in a new age, transforming tools, farming and society itself.
12:36Professor Stuart Pryor is finding out why tin was so important with an experiment that takes us back thousands of years to reveal the knowledge and skills of the ancient metal workers.
12:49I'm fascinated by experimental archaeology, recreating how things were made in the past.
12:59So I've asked metalworking expert Mark Vivian Penny to help me cast a set of bronze axe heads to see if we can create a tool that's genuinely strong and durable.
13:13Mark, I see there's a lot of raw materials on the floor in front of you. What have we got?
13:19So this is copper.
13:21Wow.
13:23In order to make that copper stronger, because copper bends, you would need tin.
13:29So this is tin. I'll hand you some gravelly bits.
13:32So again, the search for raw materials, add a bit of tin.
13:36Tin will make good working bronze, which is what the Bronze Age people use to make all their tools and their weapons.
13:42And this is bronze.
13:46So.
13:47That's much heavier, isn't it?
13:48It is, isn't it?
13:49And obviously much stronger, right?
13:50Very strong material.
13:52And you can sharpen it up really sharp and it will keep its edge quite a long time.
13:57So if we start with copper and then we want to add tin, how do we know what the proportion is that they need to add to make the perfect axe?
14:07The best working tool bronze is made with 10% tin.
14:12And they would have tried and tested different ways of doing it.
14:16And you'd know when you've got it wrong because the metal becomes brittle if there's too much in it.
14:20And if it's just too little in it, it won't make any difference at all.
14:24So it's not just a case of adding copper and tin together.
14:27You've got to get those proportions right.
14:29Exactly.
14:31Arm's on.
14:32How it's on.
14:37We're casting three different types of axe heads.
14:41One with too little tin.
14:43One with too much.
14:44And one with just the right amount.
14:4710%.
14:49Using a modern furnace to speed things up, the metals are heated to over a thousand degrees Celsius.
14:56It is unbelievably hot.
14:59It's going to get hotter.
15:01Once molten, the mix is poured into moulds.
15:05Here comes the crucible.
15:07Which has melted to the bottom of the furnace.
15:10It's so hot.
15:14You can see why they thought it was magical.
15:17That is beautiful.
15:24Once the metal has hardened, the axe head can be removed from the mould.
15:28Wow.
15:30This is the bronze one.
15:32Look at that.
15:34That's the axe.
15:36Which I'm now going to put in that bucket to cool.
15:40There we go.
15:44Look at that lovely gloss.
15:46It's almost golden, isn't it?
15:48So all that heat and all that work, and you get this beautiful axe head at the end.
15:52Well done.
15:56Can't wait to see the finished product.
16:00Whilst I sharpen the bronze axe head, Mark is busy casting more.
16:07Some are just pure copper, and the others are laden with tin.
16:12We've got the axes.
16:14What's the next step?
16:15How do we test to see what's the strongest?
16:17Well, if we hit them with a hammer.
16:19Bronze-aged hammer.
16:20Bronze-aged hammer.
16:21We can find out how much damage they would take.
16:25So this is the copper one.
16:26We'll try that one.
16:28So...
16:33A few dents.
16:34A few dents in it, yeah.
16:36So this has almost no tin in it.
16:38That one's almost pure copper.
16:40But it does make a serviceable axe, but not a very hard-wearing, resistant one.
16:44Don't want to hit the next one.
16:46Well, this one's got just the right amount of tin in it.
16:49So let's have a go with the hammer.
16:53You can really hear that ringing, can't you?
16:55That's a beautiful axe, that one.
16:58It's virtually no dents in this.
17:00You can really see that it rings like a bell.
17:03It's a much more sturdier material.
17:05It's a beautiful golden colour.
17:07You can imagine this in the hands of the warriors at the time.
17:10Exactly. Yeah?
17:11It's amazing.
17:13We did this experiment to find out what's the right proportion of copper and tin.
17:18This one's got no tin in it, and this one's got far too much tin in it.
17:22We'll do the hammer test, and we'll see what happens.
17:27Oh, no!
17:29It's just destroyed the thing completely.
17:32Yeah.
17:33My God, it's incredible.
17:34It is.
17:35That is completely useless.
17:36It is.
17:37Chocolate axe.
17:38Chocolate axe.
17:39Yeah?
17:40Chocolate axe.
17:41Waste of time.
17:42It is.
17:43It is.
17:44It is.
17:45It is.
17:46It is.
17:47It is.
17:48If you've got a 10% or you've got something that's not functional at all.
17:50Exactly.
17:51Yeah?
17:52Can I try the other one?
17:53See how bad that one is.
17:54Yeah.
17:55Come on.
17:56We'll see if we've done a better job.
17:57Ready?
17:58Yeah.
18:00It's destroyed as well.
18:01Destroyed as well.
18:02That is hopeless.
18:03Yeah?
18:04It's amazing.
18:05That sounds great.
18:06So we've done a really good job with this one, but this one, you can see, if you don't get that 10% mixture right, you get complete dross.
18:12Yeah.
18:13Yeah? It's just amazing. But I do feel like I'm a bronze smith, eh?
18:18Congratulations.
19:20It's an evidence-based discipline, and sometimes that evidence challenges our preconceptions. In fact, that's when I find it most exciting.
19:28Now, some years ago, I visited a medieval priory site in Haverford West, and we thought we knew what was going on there.
19:35But Professor Naomi Sykes is visiting the lab where the analysis is revealing an unexpected story.
19:43As a zoo archaeologist and scientist, I'm interested in those moments when science begins to challenge what we think archaeology is telling us.
19:56And it's in the lab during post-excavation analysis that the real story often emerges.
20:04And this one begins in the medieval period.
20:13When Digging for Britain visited Haverford West, an incredible story was emerging.
20:23That is beautiful.
20:24That is beautiful. Look at that.
20:29Evidence for the long-lost Dominican friary of St. Saviour's, which had been hidden for centuries.
20:34The whole building would have been impressive, indicative of a high-status monastic building.
20:41Almost 300 burials were recovered, giving us our first glimpse into the lives of the medieval friars and the local townsfolk that they serve.
20:49At the time, archaeologists thought that they were looking at a friary and its cemetery.
20:55But now, post-excavation research at Cardiff University is rewriting the story, revealing a site that may have been far more than just a burial ground.
21:10Lab analysis of the skeletons reveals that several individuals had endured serious, life-threatening injuries.
21:19That raises new questions about who they were and why they were buried in this friary cemetery.
21:26Dr. Keira O'Brien-Butler is part of the investigation team.
21:33This is a male, a middle-aged male, who has suffered severe sharp force trauma that is nearly sliced off the back of the skull there.
21:41This one is a sharp force trauma as well, probably from a projectile.
21:45So they've survived these injuries for quite some time after.
21:47Wait, they survived this?
21:49Yes, yes. So this is healed. It has kind of reattached to the back of the skull there.
21:54And they've lived for possibly years after these injuries occurred.
21:58And that's not the only thing they have that's healed.
22:01They broke their jaw at some point in their life as well.
22:03So look at this. There's quite severe trauma there as well that's totally changed the angle of the jaw.
22:09Would this have affected their ability to eat?
22:11Yes, definitely, I think. But interestingly, despite this, we still have some evidence for quite a rich diet in this individual.
22:17So we have some pathology of the vertebrae there called DISH, where these two vertebrae have fused and it happened all up the spine as well.
22:25This is associated in modern clinical practice with diabetes and obesity.
22:30And in the past, we associate it with monastic diets.
22:33So quite rich, fatty foods, alcohol consumption, red meat.
22:37They could have been at the site and enjoying a similar diet being looked after by the monks.
22:41OK, so is this an isolated instance amongst the population that you've been looking at?
22:45No. So we have a lot of evidence for traumatic injuries and care in this population.
22:50This individual has a bit of iron embedded in the back of their femur, so the back of their upper thigh.
22:56That likely is from a projectile and we can see the bone is healing.
22:59They also had lots of healed fractures throughout the rest of their skeleton.
23:03So healed fractures of the feet, ribs and also of the hands.
23:07So evidence for quite rough lives, but some healing as well.
23:10Kira believes the fact that these people survived such severe injuries and showed signs of a rich, fatty diet
23:21suggests they were being cared for and supported within the community.
23:27But who were they? Where had they come from?
23:30And how had they ended up in a friary cemetery?
23:34To find more answers, the team at Cardiff University is using isotope analysis.
23:39The technique examines chemical traces in bones and teeth to reveal clues about a person's origins and movements.
23:48Leading the work is archaeological scientist Professor Richard Madgwick.
23:55Isotope analysis can tell us a whole range of aspects about human lives.
24:00Whilst the science behind it can be a bit complex, the principles are really very simple.
24:05You are what you eat, you are where you eat, and to some degree you are how you eat.
24:09So every time humans consume food and drink, chemical signals from those products enter the body,
24:14enter our skin, our hair, our nails, and, handily for archaeologists, our bones and our teeth.
24:20So by analysing tiny fragments, we can reconstruct all sorts of aspects about movement, diet and health in the past.
24:27Different chemical elements preserved in bones and teeth can reveal detailed clues about past lives.
24:36In particular, strontium and oxygen can be analysed together to show where a person was born and grew up.
24:47Strontium gives us a geological signal for where individuals were during the development of their teeth.
24:54And oxygen gives us a climatic signal relating to temperature and rainfall.
24:58So they work together well in terms of looking at origins.
25:02We've boxed the approximate local range here for not just Haverford West, but probably more broadly Wales.
25:10And we can see the diversity within that local range hints that they're not all directly from Pembrokeshire.
25:15We've got quite a few individuals that sit outside of that local range and they must have come from further afield.
25:22So do we have any idea where they might have come from?
25:25The fact that these oxygen values are really very high, they're beyond what we would think could be achieved in Wales,
25:33hints that they come from a more westerly zone like Ireland.
25:37And we know historically that there are some strong links between Pembrokeshire and Ireland.
25:42So, I mean, it's tantalising, but I think it's highly likely these individuals have come from there originally.
25:47The lab has transformed the story of the Dominican friary of St. Saviour's.
25:57The bones, once thought to tell a simple monastic tale, now reveal lives touched by trauma, care and resilience.
26:05Far from just a cemetery, the evidence suggests that this was a place where Dominican friars treated the sick and injured,
26:13welcoming people from across Britain and beyond.
26:16And it's only due to the power of science, by combining osteology, isotopes and history,
26:23that we can build a more complete picture of a medieval community.
26:26Reams of stories reeled me in, cocked my ear and hooked my chin.
26:37A Friday dinner, a fist-struck sinner, pull me down, Lord, put me in.
26:46Every year, seasoned archaeologists across Britain unearth objects that tell stories of the past.
26:58But some remarkable discoveries are made by enthusiastic amateurs.
27:05Now we're catching up with a spectacular discovery, a chance find that turned out to be something of national importance.
27:16The story began in 2023 in a quiet field on the edge of the village of Willersie, 30 miles north-east of Gloucester.
27:32Novice metal detectorist Glenn Manning was looking forward to his day.
27:40As he began his afternoon sweep, he had no idea he was about to make a discovery that would offer a rare glimpse into the Roman period.
27:53Just after lunch, I came up here and I remember the organiser shouting to me,
28:01people have already done that, you need to go over to that part of the field and have a look.
28:06But something just told me, just carry on doing what you're doing.
28:10The metal detector all of a sudden picked up a signal, but it was a little bit jumpy,
28:14so I dug down into the ground, probably about 8 to 10 inches,
28:18and using my hand-held pin-pointer, I came across what just looked like old metal that had a slight point to it.
28:27But the patina on it told me that it was something like copper.
28:32I thought, this looks like a sword, but what's the chances of me, on my second time detecting, to find such a wonderful item?
28:41And in fact, Glenn had uncovered not one, but two ancient swords.
28:48Far longer than the gladius, the short, stabbing sword usually associated with Roman soldiers,
28:55Glenn had found something remarkable.
28:58I didn't know how to feel. That's the funny thing. I was quite calm.
29:03My feelings obviously have changed now because I understand how rare it is to find something like that.
29:08There's a lot of historic value. There's a lot of learning to be done in relation to these swords.
29:13When Glenn first discovered the swords, they were so muddied and corroded, it was impossible to tell much about them.
29:22But now, after being carefully conserved and x-rayed, the weapons are finally giving up their story.
29:29Historic England conservator Carla Graham and Carinian Museum director Emma Stewart have brought them to the Digging for Britain tent.
29:45Hello.
29:47I've been looking forward to this. I mean, what incredible objects.
29:51These are very long swords, aren't they?
29:53I mean, obviously, Romans had lots of different types of swords. The gladius was a short one, wasn't it?
29:57Yes.
29:57This isn't a gladius.
29:58No. So, these are spather, so they're kind of much longer.
30:02They would be carried by cavalrymen on horseback.
30:04OK.
30:04And what we still have, which you can see on the surface here, is that we've got the remains of the wooden scabbard.
30:11The wood's decayed away, but the rust has preserved the wood grain, so we've got it on here and on the hills as well.
30:18And on this particular sword, the much, kind of, very bright orange, that's the remains of the wood there as well.
30:24And we've also got, at the ends here, these beautiful shapes that were attached to the wooden scabbards
30:29and would have protected the soldiers from getting stabbed by their own.
30:32It's very lethal when you're on a horse.
30:34Yes.
30:35You don't want that, do you?
30:36A horse as well, so.
30:36So, yes.
30:37So, these are obviously copper alloy. They would have been bright and shiny, wouldn't they?
30:40Very bright and shiny, and they're decorated.
30:43And the swords themselves, the Carinion Museum asked us if we could x-ray them.
30:47And what was really exciting about the x-rays is it shows that they're quite different.
30:52Have you got the x-rays?
30:53I have got the x-rays.
30:54Can we have a look at them?
30:54Yes, you certainly can.
30:56So, we did a little bit of enhancement.
30:59So, there are some lines coming through here.
31:01Yes.
31:01You can see some lines going down, a bit like a herringbone pattern.
31:05Yeah.
31:06And that shows that this one is pattern welded.
31:09It would have looked amazing.
31:12It's basically lots of either strips or rods of metal, which were woven, hammered together,
31:17and then a cutting edge put on the outside.
31:20And the reason that we're seeing it in the x-ray is because there's a differential corrosion,
31:23which is fantastic because it shows up this pattern very well.
31:27Isn't that amazing?
31:27Because, I mean, you cannot see that, can you?
31:29There's nothing to see that.
31:30I mean, you've got the grooving down the centre, but that's not the pattern.
31:34The only way you can see it is in this x-ray.
31:37And what's interesting is one is pattern welded and the other one isn't.
31:41So, it's higher status, this one.
31:43Are we looking at objects that seem to have gone into the ground in a fairly pristine condition?
31:48Yes, they've been deliberately buried.
31:52They're very carefully placed so they've not been lost.
31:54They haven't been bent and destroyed.
31:57You can see some potential textile remains, so we're not quite sure if they were bound together.
32:01Could have been wrapped in fabric as well.
32:02Could have been wrapped in fabric, could have been part of the scabbard.
32:06In the ground, they were lying one on top of the other next to the fragments of a bowl here.
32:12Tell me about this bowl, because, I mean, this is part of the same group of objects.
32:16What does this tell us?
32:18This is quite high status in the same way as the pattern welded sword.
32:21It's really beautifully decorated.
32:23It's obviously quite fragmentary now because this was slightly above the swords,
32:27so this suffered the damage first.
32:29Some of the pieces were ploughed out, unfortunately.
32:31But you can see some beautiful decoration in this deliberate circular pattern.
32:36There's no need to do this for functionality.
32:38Can I handle these things?
32:39You are more than welcome to, yes.
32:41Thank you very much.
32:42So, it looks like it would have had quite high sides.
32:44Yes, this is a fragment of the rim, because you can see that lovely lip around the edge there.
32:50And it's got some pattern or some ghost of something here.
32:53Yes, that's right.
32:54This was revealed at conservation, and the conservators had to clean off the mud and the earth and everything.
32:59And it would appear that this piece, which we originally thought was part of the scabbard,
33:03actually fits perfectly in that piece there.
33:06So, I saw that and I thought it was a coin.
33:09It's not a coin, then.
33:09It's not a coin, it's a piece of decoration by the looks of things around this rim area.
33:14Given that it's decorated and you can tell a certain amount about its style,
33:18does that help you to date it as well?
33:20It's probably contemporary with the swords, so late 3rd century, around 290.
33:25And then what's that?
33:26So, this piece, it's a different type of metal.
33:29So, you've just felt the rim.
33:31If you have a feel of that, you can feel it's thicker.
33:33Oh, it's thicker and heavier.
33:34It's not as beautifully polished.
33:36This would have been a lidded bowl with something inside it, deposited inside it.
33:41It may have been a ceremonial deposit with these being deliberately buried.
33:45That's a possibility.
33:46Yeah.
33:47You've got to think about all the possibilities, haven't you?
33:49And you've got a find like this where you don't know the wider context.
33:52It's kind of delightfully mysterious.
33:54I really, I want to know, I really want to know why these objects are buried together.
33:59And wonderfully well preserved.
34:00And even though they look like rusty objects, there's quite a lot of metal still in there.
34:05And you can tell by the weight.
34:07I can let you feel the weight of this sword here.
34:13That is heavier than I expected.
34:15That actually is quite a lot heavier.
34:18And that's this beautiful pattern-welded sword, isn't it?
34:21It is.
34:21Yeah.
34:22Nearly 2,000 years old.
34:24It is curious, because they are objects on their own.
34:28They don't have a context.
34:29I mean, do we even know if there was any Roman cavalry in the area?
34:32There were.
34:32There was a Roman cavalry base just outside of Carinium, which is Simon Sester, which is not too far away.
34:38Okay.
34:38Later in the Roman period, there is evidence of Roman military.
34:41But there is an interesting shift because there was quite a lot of banditry along the Foss Way.
34:46And civilians were known to carry cavalry swords.
34:50It's possible that two soldiers may have been killed.
34:53And this is the wares that were dumped because if civilians were found with this type of material and there were two soldiers dead, then you can trace it to them.
35:02They're hiding the evidence.
35:03That's a possibility.
35:05But it's looking like, in terms of the whole context, you've clearly got Roman military kit here.
35:11There was something special about these swords, something special about this bowl, for somebody to deposit them all together.
35:16So, why did they do it?
35:18I mean, we'll never know, will we?
35:20But what we do know is that they never came back.
35:23But what we do know is that they never came back.
35:53Each new artefact can be a source of insights into ancient lives and technologies.
36:17But sometimes researchers face a challenge with objects that are so fragile that they're actually impossible to handle.
36:31Archaeology isn't just about making new discoveries.
36:35We can employ technology now to study, recreate and even handle objects that were dug up a long time ago.
36:44Archaeologist Meg Russell is looking at how cutting-edge techniques are helping to unlock secrets about Roman surgery.
36:56I'm fascinated by objects from the past and it's only natural to want to pick them up.
37:02But some artefacts are so fragile that even the lightest touch can cause damage.
37:07And when you can't handle them safely, it becomes much harder to understand how they worked or what they were used for.
37:13One hundred and twenty-five years ago, a remarkable set of Roman surgical tools was pulled from a river.
37:23After spending centuries submerged, the bronze instruments are now so corroded and fragile that touching them risks further deterioration.
37:30At the University of Exeter, researchers are pioneering techniques that let them peer beneath those corroded layers to reveal the metalwork underneath.
37:41Clues that could transform our understanding of how these tools were designed, manufactured and used.
37:48Professor Rebecca Fleming is on hand to explain.
37:55These Roman surgical instruments are found in the River Walbrook in London.
38:01And we've got a scalpel handle, we've got two needles and we've got two very thin probes and a slightly larger spoon as well.
38:12Wow, some of these are so delicate and tiny.
38:15Yeah.
38:16I'm starting to see a few little details.
38:18How difficult is it to work with artefacts that you can't touch yourself?
38:23I think it's particularly difficult in this case because these are tools that we use for surgical operations.
38:28And if we can't get the feel of them and try them out in various ways and really get a sense of exactly how they were constructed,
38:35that limits our possibilities in terms of understanding them in various ways.
38:39What methods can we use to understand them better?
38:42The technique that we use more particularly here is 3D scanning, like a CT scan.
38:47A sort of 3D x-ray for objects, which really gives you a very detailed picture of the surface, all of its different imperfections,
38:56any details of crafting, which is invaluable for us.
39:00And is there anything that you specifically hope the CT scans might show us today?
39:04Yes, definitely.
39:05So as you can see, this scalpel handle would have originally been an iron or steel blade,
39:11and clearly that is replaced pretty regularly.
39:14So a lot of attention would have gone into thinking about how to make the holder.
39:19And then thinking about these two needles, this looks very straightforward.
39:23This one has something quite different going on in terms of where it might have been threaded.
39:28So it would be interesting to look at that.
39:32Curator Megan Woolley from the Devon & Exeter Medical Heritage Trust is the only person permitted to handle these fragile instruments.
39:41She is securing each one in inert foam and covering with acid-free tissue to create a custom support so it can be scanned safely.
39:57Placed on a rotating platform, this high-resolution scanner will capture every tiny detail.
40:03It's a painstaking process, with each scan taking more than seven and a half hours.
40:14These look fantastic, Rebecca.
40:16This is a full-on grayscale image containing all of the data.
40:21You can already start to see some of the detail in terms of the scoop of the spoon and the different sort of eyes of the needle.
40:30Things that are darker are denser and we can visualise that much more clearly in different colours.
40:35Look at that! That's fantastic!
40:38The blue is the densest and then green and then going less dense orange and yellow.
40:45There are two things that are of significance.
40:48One of which is about the object in its original form and maybe it was actually intentional that parts of it were less dense, parts of it were more dense in terms of strength or in terms of balance.
40:59Particularly for scalpels, balance is very important.
41:03And then the other thing is conservation and looking after these objects now, you can see if there's a particular area of weakness.
41:10So it's obviously valuable information for the curators.
41:16And that's not all.
41:18These scans are so data rich that they can be sent straight to the engineering lab.
41:23Oh my gosh, look at these!
41:24Where 3D printers machine precise replicas, allowing us to finally get hands-on with incredibly detailed copies.
41:34It's really fascinating to see the processes at work and even more interesting to see the results in various ways.
41:41This is that complex needle that we talked about.
41:44Now you can get really to grips with the complexities of it, so it's got a sizeable hole there which you could thread in various different ways.
41:50And then it's also got a hole here.
41:53That second hole is a surprise.
41:56You couldn't see it in the actual artefact itself at all.
41:59We haven't been able to find anything that looks exactly the same.
42:04There's clearly more to that than just sewing up bandages.
42:08I love that now you can tell a little bit more potentially about function of these objects.
42:12I mean this must just lift a lot of limitations for you with what you can and can't see with the real thing.
42:19Yeah, exactly. And you can start to think about the scalpel handle.
42:23You can see the sort of thought that's gone into this.
42:25You have the flatten and then you have something that you can hold.
42:28The blades would have been put there.
42:30This would have opened and you'd use this to pull it apart and then it would snap back together.
42:34And this is obviously very practical.
42:37So this is in a resin but you can do 3D printing in metal.
42:41So you could try and print it in bronze and then get a nice scalpel blade.
42:47Put it in the hand of a surgeon practicing today and see what they made of it.
42:52We've got the texts that talk about different sorts of operations.
42:54So do the tools seem to be appropriate for the kind of practices that are being described?
43:04The more I handle these tools, the more I see how technology is bridging the gap between the past and present.
43:13And it's not just medical instruments. This technology can be applied to all kinds of items.
43:18By recreating them and putting them to use, we bring multiple disciplines together, opening up endless possibilities to explore and understand ancient artefacts in entirely new ways.
43:32To learn these things in the world, we bring together these tools and ideas on the place.
43:38Oh, raising the dead.
43:53Raising the dead.
43:55Raising the dead.
43:58Every year, across the west, archaeologists embark on new digs.
44:10Sometimes they set out with a good idea of what they might find, but when the digging
44:15starts they have to be ready for their theories to be turned on their heads.
44:23For our next dig, Tori is heading to the wild south-west coast of Wales, to Buckspool in Pembrokeshire.
44:44This has to be one of the most spectacular and precarious sights I've ever filmed at.
44:49This whole area is an active military training zone, and because it's off limits to the public,
44:54the archaeology here has stayed remarkably intact.
45:01Perched on a headland jutting into the Celtic Sea, a team of archaeologists and military
45:06veterans are investigating two circular structures.
45:16On the air, the site shows all the hallmarks of a promontory fort dating back over 2,000
45:22years to the Iron Age.
45:34This stretch of coastline was once dotted with promontory forts, remote and exposed
45:40to the elements.
45:44But what were they for, and who might have lived in a place like this?
45:48Archaeologist Richard Osgood is leading the dig.
45:53Richard, this is properly spectacular.
45:57This is just gorgeous.
46:00It's such an elemental place, isn't it?
46:02It's really, really beautiful.
46:03This is Buckspool Promontory Fort.
46:05That has an awful lot of information in the name on a promontory.
46:09Yep.
46:10We can't argue with that.
46:11That's true.
46:12Is it a fort?
46:13Good question.
46:14I think this is more about impressing your neighbours, having big ditches and ramparts for
46:17sure, but this is a showy thing, so I think it's much more than defensive and military.
46:22So this is the way in?
46:23It is the way in.
46:24You can see the big ditch here and the embankment behind it.
46:27It would have been, I think, quite a bit deeper and you would have had a higher rampart
46:31behind with a big timber palisade and the massive timber gateway that we're standing under
46:36at the moment.
46:37So this would have been hugely impressive.
46:39When you paint that picture there, you just realise, you know, not only how monumental that
46:43I would have felt, but coming in from this kind of relatively flat land to dramatic deep-sided
46:48ditches.
46:49Yeah.
46:50Towering gates.
46:51Great wall in front.
46:52You wouldn't be able to see anything ahead of you.
46:54You have no idea what's coming next.
46:56Everything from this point onwards is a surprise when you get into the settlement.
47:05Because of its location, the archaeology here has remained largely unexplored.
47:11But early surveys and aerial imagery suggest that this is the footprint of two Iron Age
47:20roundhouses.
47:21We're now within the settlement area.
47:25We've come through these Iron Age defences and we're into the excavation proper of these
47:29structures.
47:30So you've got this circle defined by these blocks of limestone, but it cuts through a little
47:33passageway into a second one.
47:35So you're looking at a figure of eight of these two circular structures.
47:38They seem big.
47:39Is that big for a roundhouse?
47:40Not especially big for a roundhouse.
47:42There are two courses at least, going around there, sat on top of the bedrock and forming
47:46this arc, presumably once of a circle.
47:49There's a big tumble of rock there.
47:51That's bedrock.
47:52So this is where it gets confusing because if this is a roundhouse, the last thing you
47:56want is that as your floor.
47:58So I'm not entirely convinced, even if there's a scree of earth put over it, that that is a floor.
48:03Iron Age roundhouses typically had a single entrance and a stone half in the centre for cooking and heating.
48:15We've not got those elements that would just scream roundhouse at you.
48:18I think it's more than that because you've got this arc of stones in a couple of courses.
48:23But I've not got that half.
48:25The entranceway is probably there, but is it actually connecting you with a third structure?
48:28In which case you've got three cells connected to another.
48:31But is that the sort of thing you get in the living structure?
48:34I don't think it is.
48:39And the mystery deepens as none of the small finds appear to have any connection to the Iron Age.
48:49What have you been finding then?
48:50Coins.
48:51Lots of coins here today.
48:52It's unbelievable.
48:53I found nine this morning.
48:55I found a couple around here and some over there.
48:57It's just odd that they're like around here.
49:01It's really odd, isn't it?
49:02This is some kind of roundhouse.
49:04This would be where the door would be roughly, isn't it?
49:07Sort of coming in here.
49:08Yeah, that way, yeah.
49:09Yeah, coming in that way.
49:10So it's a bit of a mystery.
49:12I mean, it does feel like this place is turning up unexpected things.
49:18And even more unexpected is that these coins all date from the Roman occupation of Britain.
49:26It's a twist that changes the story.
49:30Archaeologist Fran Murphy is trying to piece together the puzzle.
49:34Oh, wow.
49:35Okay.
49:36It's just like bag after bag of coins.
49:38So those are just some of the selection that have been found.
49:43This coin is Emperor Constantine and he is 4th century.
49:48Also, we've had coins of Corrosius.
49:51Okay.
49:52And when's Corrosius?
49:53Late third.
49:54This is a lovely coin.
49:56You can really see the profile of the head there.
49:58Is that one next to it also?
49:59Well, this is a little minim.
50:01What's a minim?
50:02This is the smallest denomination.
50:05Just a few millimetres in diameter.
50:08What is interesting is that we don't normally find these coins when they're difficult to
50:12find.
50:13But equally, the numbers that we're finding them.
50:15So if you were coming here to ask the gods to help you in something, you use your lowest
50:20denomination coin.
50:22It's like throwing a penny or a 2p into a wishing well.
50:25Is that what they're doing?
50:26Is that why we're getting this big concentration of coins?
50:29Alongside the coins, the team is unearthing a considerable amount of pottery.
50:41We have probably now got one of the biggest assemblages of Roman pot from South West Wales
50:46from this small site.
50:48The quantity itself is gobsmacking.
50:50The number of rim sherds.
50:52A lot of it is black burnished ware.
50:54Some of the wares we just don't see round here.
50:59One thing that's really interesting is all these objects are broken and there is a theory
51:03that you're planting materials in pits as an offering for future prosperity, depositing
51:09bits of everything they need for life as an offering with a coin, bringing goods which
51:15they want to deposit in this area because it has some significance.
51:21Having uncovered the pottery and more than 160 coins, the team is beginning to think this
51:27place may have held a special spiritual significance long after the Iron Age during the later Roman
51:34period.
51:37And the landscape itself may help explain why this spot held such power.
51:46Archaeologist Toby Driver is a specialist in Welsh hillforts.
51:51It's just so dramatically vertical on either side.
51:57It's a different life you have here.
51:58It's a cultural phenomenon living on the coast in prehistory and Roman times here.
52:05We know Celts saw their gods residing in remote, dangerous places and nowhere is that more dramatic
52:12than at the coast.
52:16We have antiquarian writers describing this, the slam of waves into these coastal chasms
52:22being like gunshots and these enormous sprays of foam with rainbows being cast.
52:26Now, we understand what a rainbow is today, but 2,000 years ago, what on earth do they
52:30think about that?
52:31Were the gods angry at particular times of year, particular seasons?
52:34In most of the ancient world, people are chucking stuff into chasms, sacrifices, offerings
52:43as well.
52:44And that may have been a very important part of what Buxpool was 2,000 years ago.
52:49Imagine walking over that rock arch, the waves are booming, the spray is coming up and catching
52:58the light.
52:59It would feel like you're passing into a different world here.
53:01Yep.
53:02We've just learned more about Buxpool in the last two weeks than we have in decades.
53:07But all that new knowledge, we've got to process it, we've got to think of new ways
53:11to understand this life at the edge of the coast.
53:19So, what seemed like quite a simple story is actually turning out to be far more complicated,
53:27mysterious.
53:28Absolutely.
53:29And that is why you dig.
53:31Because it looked really logical, you've got a promontory fort, you've got geophysics,
53:34you've got LiDAR, load of circles, roundhouses, people living in here in the Iron Age job done.
53:39And it's not like that.
53:40There's so much more complexity here.
53:43That's what really excites about archaeology, isn't it?
53:45Because what seems obvious often isn't, and this truth is lying in the soil.
53:55While the promontory fort may still have its roots in the Iron Age, Richard now thinks
54:01that by the Roman period, this place was evolving into something different.
54:10A place where offerings may have been made to the gods, all perched on the very edge between
54:16the known world and the spiritual realm.
54:20The promontory fort at Buckspool is a great example of how archaeology can challenge our
54:32expectations and our ideas about the past.
54:37Turning a simple story into something more complex and compelling.
54:42Richard went in with an idea.
54:51He thought he was going to be excavating Iron Age roundhouses.
54:54In this promontory fort and it would help them understand the nature of what was going
54:57on there.
54:58And then they started digging, and the finds are Roman, overwhelmingly Roman, nothing that
55:05could be definitively tied to the Iron Age.
55:08I always enjoy it when archaeologists find something they're not expecting.
55:12The richness of this site astounded all of the archaeologists working there.
55:18All of these Roman coins, a really huge number of them, including really small denominations.
55:23This is not like a wealthy hoard that has been stashed somewhere, it's small change stuff.
55:28But of course, that Roman date doesn't mean that that site didn't exist and wasn't occupied
55:35in the Iron Age.
55:36So the crucial thing here will be all of the post-excavation analysis that Richard and his
55:41team will do, and then we'll get a much bigger picture and we'll know how long that settlement
55:45lasted, how far back in time it goes, whether it does extend right back into the Iron Age
55:49as well.
55:50Yeah, and what it was.
55:51I think that's the big overwhelming question is like, still, what was it?
55:55Definitely a watch this space situation, I think, with this promontory fort.
56:08Here on Digging for Britain, we're not accustomed to blowing our own trumpet.
56:13It's more tuneful than I thought it would be.
56:17But what a year it's been.
56:19The most amazing thing in British archaeology.
56:25We've seen evidence of life here stretching back further than ever before.
56:30This stuff was already fossilised by the time dinosaurs were walking around.
56:33Some finds were a privilege to uncover.
56:35You were the first person to see that for 1,400 years.
56:38That is phenomenal.
56:40Others were best left alone.
56:42This is a bottle of 85-year-old beer.
56:44Yeah, I think that can stay in there.
56:46But each one sheds new light on the stories of people who lived and died on these shores.
56:51We live for those whose stories lie with buried by the future swans.
57:01It really brings back a lot of humanity to what we're studying, thinking about how they
57:05may have lived, how they may have died.
57:08He's a child buried with weapons as the man that he would have become.
57:12He's been subjected to surgery?
57:14Yes.
57:15I wonder who he was?
57:15It's amazing to touch the past in such a personal way.
57:26We've discovered that our ancient ancestors weren't all that dissimilar to us.
57:27They liked to kick back and relax.
57:41In their leisure time, they're sitting beside the hearth, they're playing games.
57:46They had a sense of the aesthetic.
57:48Such a poignant connection to this person.
57:50All that's surviving in the grave of them is their incredible style.
57:54And they entrusted their legacy to those who followed them.
57:58It's a treasured item that has passed down through the generations.
58:01Yeah.
58:02It's an heirloom.
58:03Yeah.
58:04All across Britain, archaeologists continue to dig for clues to past lives.
58:11Who knows what treasures are waiting to be unearthed next year?
58:16Our bodies reveal the truth, helping victims' families get justice for their murdered loved
58:26ones on iPlayer.
58:28On BBC Sounds, Hugh Fernie.
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