- 19 hours ago
Digging For Britain - Season 101 Episode 2 - Our Rarest Find And Biggest Dig
Category
🎥
Short filmTranscript
00:00This land we call home has a rich and varied history stretching back thousands of years.
00:14But hidden below the surface are some amazing treasures just waiting to be found.
00:20Oh my gosh, that's insane.
00:22That's really cool.
00:23So each year across the country, archaeologists dig underground.
00:30And dive underwater.
00:33Searching for fresh discoveries.
00:36The most amazing thing in British archaeology.
00:39Uncovering traces of ancient lives.
00:42Somebody's played in joy, I'm sure.
00:44And finding fascinating objects.
00:47Such exquisite detail.
00:51This year I'll be meeting the archaeologists and looking at some of their most incredible finds.
00:57I mean that is stunning.
01:01Well, Dr Tori Herridge is travelling the length of the country to some spectacular locations.
01:07We're already dropping in on some of this year's most fascinating digs.
01:12Oh my gosh, can you see that?
01:16It's just brilliant.
01:17Oh my goodness.
01:19Every dig provides a new piece in the puzzle of Britain's forgotten past.
01:25This is the epic and unfolding story of our islands.
01:30Welcome to Digging for Britain.
01:45This week on Digging for Britain.
01:48In Norfolk, archaeologists find a mysterious block containing metal.
01:52I don't know.
01:53I mean, I like the design of it.
01:55And a CT scan.
01:58Look at that.
02:00Reveals a once-in-a-lifetime find.
02:04The most amazing thing I've ever seen in British archaeology.
02:10In Kent, Tori investigates an Iron Age settlement on top of the White Cliffs.
02:15This gold coin is right on that era of Julius Caesar's crossing.
02:20And discovers a tribe that seemed quite Roman long before Britain became part of the Empire.
02:27The Romans haven't conquered, but their culture has.
02:31And we go behind the scenes.
02:33Morning all.
02:34Let's do the morning brief then.
02:36At one of the largest and most complex archaeological excavations in British history.
02:41I have never seen anything like this.
02:44I mean, I've got goosebumps.
02:45Phenomenal.
02:45Every so often, something turns up which is just utterly extraordinary.
03:03Something the archaeologists will describe as a once-in-a-lifetime find.
03:09And that is the case for this next discovery, which is not only unique in Britain,
03:14and it's unique in Europe.
03:17And I just feel so lucky to be getting such an early glimpse of it,
03:22and then to be sharing that with you.
03:31We're heading to a location which is 20 miles outside Thetford.
03:35Earlier this year, a team from Preconstruct Archaeology were carrying out a routine excavation
03:44in advance of construction of a new housing development.
03:492,000 years ago, this was the territory of the Ikeni tribe.
03:56They lived here during the Iron Age.
04:08As the dig got underway, there didn't seem to be anything of real significance.
04:13But dig leader Peter Crawley had a sneaking suspicion that there was something here.
04:19It felt like one of these sort of special sites that you do get every so often.
04:24I don't know, there was sort of a gut feeling, something special about this one in particular.
04:28I just had a good feeling about it.
04:32And it wasn't long before archaeologist Richard Thorpe found something out of the ordinary
04:38with his metal detector.
04:39So, you know, I'm sort of detecting along, and I detect this very large signal
04:45while I was instantly excited, because I knew we had something special.
04:49They dig down in the spot where Richard found his strong signal
04:53and film the exciting moment of discovery.
04:56This looks like the base of the bowl, that looks like a bowl.
04:59At first, the team believes they have perhaps a pile of metal bowls,
05:04buried together as a hoard.
05:06And the top bit?
05:07I don't know. I mean, I like the design of it.
05:12But one of the finds is covered with intriguing decoration.
05:16Oh, wow.
05:17Oh, my God.
05:17That's obviously going to be a separate thing.
05:19I don't know.
05:20Oh, do you think it's one of those...
05:22Like, oh, I heard Carnix.
05:24Oh, oh, my God.
05:26Best possible.
05:28The team are excited about this possibility.
05:30If they're right, this could be an incredibly rare Iron Age object, a Carnix.
05:37This is a type of decorated trumpet.
05:41Iron Age tribes from Italy to Scotland use them to intimidate enemies
05:46and rally warriors on the battlefield.
05:49Only one Carnix has ever been found in Britain,
05:53and in fact, even then, it was only part of one.
05:56That's about the right size.
06:03It's only part.
06:04Yeah, that was, I was thinking.
06:06Here is heading to the...
06:07There is the half.
06:08Nice.
06:10I mean, if you found a Carnix, then you...
06:12I've won.
06:13Yeah, I just quit.
06:14I quit arguing.
06:15It's done.
06:16Yeah.
06:16With such a potentially important find,
06:22the team makes the decision to block lift the entire horde at the same time.
06:27You get a bit of that.
06:28We just lay it across there.
06:30They dig around the horde and cover it in plastic wrap to keep it secure.
06:35It doesn't have to be all the way down.
06:37It is certainly the best thing I've ever found as an archaeologist
06:40and probably will be the best thing I will find as an archaeologist as well.
06:45You know, it's a dream come true, really.
06:48They send the block to be x-rayed to see what's hidden inside.
06:55But there are so many objects packed closely together,
06:58it's hard to make sense of the image.
07:01At this point, project officer Gary Trimble is beginning to wonder
07:05if the horde could contain something even rarer than a Carnix.
07:10The results weren't conclusive,
07:12but they give some tantalising sort of evidence
07:15that we may actually have, rather than a Carnix,
07:19it may be a boar standard.
07:25Standards like this, topped with the figurine of a boar,
07:29were carried into battle by Celtic tribes.
07:35We've got a quandary.
07:39Is it a Carnix, or could it be another object of INA state,
07:43a boar standard?
07:45If it does turn out to be a Carnix,
07:48it'll be a really significant find,
07:50and these are extraordinarily rare.
07:53Now, if it turns out to be a boar standard,
07:57that's even rarer.
07:58To find out which of these two exceptionally rare objects
08:03they're dealing with,
08:04the team turns to more advanced imaging,
08:07taking the block to a local hospital
08:08for an out-of-hours CT scan.
08:11And they film the moment as the exciting results emerge.
08:16I love modern technology,
08:20because it's just started working.
08:22Oh!
08:24Look at that.
08:26That is absolutely exceptional.
08:32What is that thing, this thing here?
08:34Yes, look.
08:35We're going to have to dig it out and find out, aren't we?
08:38Wow.
08:39That's really outstanding, isn't it?
08:41It's got cut-out decoration on it.
08:46That detail is extraordinary.
08:49It's beyond, it's absolutely beyond belief.
08:53I mean, this isn't even what's a lifetime occurrence, is it?
08:56This is rarer than that.
08:57Yes, it's rarer than that.
08:59It's rarer than that.
09:00It's rarer than that.
09:00This is several people's lifetimes.
09:04It is the most amazing thing
09:08I've ever seen in history.
09:11The CT scan reveals the mystery object is a Bohr standard.
09:24The very first one ever found in Britain.
09:31But there was more.
09:34Hidden deeper inside the horde,
09:36there is also a Carnix.
09:39And it's the most complete Carnix ever found
09:45in the whole of Europe.
09:47Two of the rarest objects from the Iron Age
09:51found together.
09:56Conservator Jonathan Clarke
09:57is excavating the block
09:59under controlled conditions in the lab.
10:02So these are the objects that have been removed so far from the block.
10:11We've got multiple shield bosses,
10:13some of which were stacked on top of each other.
10:15But then, of course, we have the Bohr standard here,
10:18which you can see this wonderful-looking Bohr's head.
10:23And I don't know whether you can make out a tusk at the end here,
10:26with this lovely snout here,
10:28and wonderful curled designs surrounding the mouth here.
10:32And the eye would have had something in there,
10:35possibly an organic material or a dissimilar metal.
10:38So it really would have stood out again
10:40on this shiny copper alloy object.
10:42Jonathan has carefully extracted the Bohr standard from the horde.
10:51But there's still a lot of work to do on the Carnix.
10:56What we've got here is the bell of the Carnix,
11:00which goes from its neck all the way around here
11:03with a crest on its back,
11:04which has got this open-work decoration in it.
11:07The Carnix itself is kind of in this roaring, open-mouthed state here,
11:13with just the top jaw and the bottom here.
11:16And here we've got the wonderful little eye just visible there,
11:19which is remarkable survival.
11:21And you can even see along here
11:23the sort of serrated edge of its open mouth.
11:26As soon as you see it,
11:27you can't help kind of being not only impressed with it,
11:30but kind of charmed by it at the same time.
11:32The Carnix is made from extremely thin sheets of metal,
11:39which have become very brittle after 2,000 years in the ground.
11:44You can see a large fissure and crack going along
11:47on the bell of the Carnix there,
11:49which is a really good way of seeing quite how thin the metalwork is.
11:55It can be quite a prescient task.
11:58You're aware of the risks at all times.
12:05This is the most complete Carnix ever found,
12:08with the pipe, mouthpiece and bell all uniquely intact.
12:17You can see the face is really emerging here.
12:21You can see a ridge, the sort of brow of its eye here.
12:24You're really getting a sense of the Carnix's face, really.
12:31You can't help but kind of stare at its eye when you're working on it,
12:35kind of looking face-to-face with it.
12:41To think of it as a musical instrument
12:43just adds this layer to it, it really does.
12:48It wasn't just decorative.
12:50It had life and screamed and made noise.
12:55In the 1st century BCE, the writer Diodorus Siculus
12:59wrote that the Carnix produced
13:01a harsh sound which suits the tumult of war.
13:06We're in the early days of this excavation
13:09and have so much to discover and find out about it.
13:13The work's sort of only just begun, really.
13:19The micro-excavation will take another four weeks.
13:27So, in the meantime,
13:28I've invited archaeologist Gary Trimble
13:31and Carnix expert Fraser Hunter
13:33to the Digging for Britain tent,
13:34and they've brought a modern reconstruction
13:37of one of these trumpets.
13:41Fraser, Gary.
13:42I mean, this is one of these
13:44once-in-a-lifetime discoveries, surely.
13:46There's not many of these that have turned up.
13:48Absolutely not, no.
13:49We have our fair share of hoards in Norfolk,
13:52but this is so, so different.
13:54Yeah.
13:54And really, really, really special.
13:56And this is the most complete one in Europe?
13:58Yes.
13:58I mean, this is astonishing.
14:00It is astonishing.
14:00What a find.
14:01What a find, indeed.
14:02And you've got the Boer Standard.
14:03I mean, what does it represent?
14:06What does the Boer mean?
14:07Do we know?
14:08Boers, if you think of what boers do in the wild,
14:10it's the strength and the ferocity,
14:12but also the cunning.
14:13So, boers are very fierce animals
14:15to face it in the hunt.
14:16So, the symbolism of a boer
14:18is a lot about, they say, the strength of it,
14:21a very appropriate adversary in battle.
14:24This is the CT scan we had of the bloc.
14:28The boer's head standard there.
14:29And then the shield bosses,
14:32some of them stack within each other,
14:34you know, sort of together.
14:36And then this is the upper part
14:39of the tubing of the carnics.
14:41Just coming round here?
14:42Yes.
14:42Yeah.
14:43And under here,
14:44you've got the belly of the carnics.
14:47Hidden under there?
14:48Yeah.
14:48Yeah.
14:49I mean, you've got the whole thing.
14:51It looks like it.
14:52So, this is another first.
14:54This is the only one
14:55where we can be confident
14:56the tube ties into the instrument.
14:57And here.
14:58You have the complete tube
14:59bent in half.
15:00That's it.
15:01As we can see,
15:02this is an instrument standing,
15:03yeah, about this kind of height,
15:04originally.
15:05Yeah, yeah.
15:05So, one time we can really see
15:06this is the height of the carnics.
15:08And it shows the mouthpiece
15:09is in line with the tube.
15:11You would play this
15:12leaning backwards like that.
15:13Yeah.
15:14It just confirms that.
15:15And do you think
15:15these are deliberately placed
15:17or is it just about
15:17putting objects in a hole in the ground?
15:19I'll be sure it's a votive deposit.
15:21You know, this has been
15:22put in the ground
15:23for the deities,
15:24for the gods.
15:26And we think it's
15:26a deliberate placement
15:27of these shield bosses
15:28over the bell of the carnics.
15:31In other words,
15:31to quieten it down.
15:32It really feels like
15:33it's shielding the head.
15:34It's really protecting the head.
15:35It's a very careful deposit.
15:37It's just fantastic, isn't it,
15:38to be able to
15:39use these technologies,
15:41which, you know,
15:42originally medical technologies
15:43were licking inside
15:44people's bodies,
15:44but you can lick inside
15:46blocks of earth
15:47and actually see
15:49what objects you've got there.
15:50And when do you think
15:51this dates to?
15:5450 BC, AD 50,
15:56it's in that bracket somewhere.
15:57Yeah, it's such a crucial time,
15:59isn't it?
15:59Because you've got
16:00Julius Caesar coming over,
16:02having a look at Britain.
16:04That's right.
16:04Yeah, it's a time of change
16:06and a time of turmoil
16:07and so much to go on,
16:08especially in the south
16:08and east of England
16:09with all this impact
16:10to the Roman world.
16:12Yeah.
16:12Warfare and military prowess
16:14is a key part of that.
16:15So the drama
16:16of something like
16:17the Karnix
16:17and the Boer Standard
16:18in any battle,
16:20in any army,
16:21showing off
16:21in one of those things.
16:22These would have been
16:22spectacular objects.
16:24Yeah, yeah.
16:24And this is very much
16:26part of that story,
16:27isn't it?
16:31Both the Karnix
16:32and Boer Standard
16:33will soon be
16:34fully excavated
16:36and cleaned.
16:37It's incredible
16:43to imagine
16:44these fearsome beasts
16:46towering over
16:47an Iron Age army
16:48up to two or three metres
16:50in the air
16:51with the Karnix
16:52blasting across
16:54the battlefield.
16:56This is by far
16:58the most complete
16:59and well-preserved Karnix
17:01ever discovered.
17:02It adds to our knowledge
17:04of these incredible instruments
17:06and provides us
17:07with an iconic image
17:09of the Iron Age.
17:16As for what
17:17these trumpets
17:17sounded like,
17:19it's time to find out
17:20as musician
17:22and PhD student
17:23Letty Stott
17:24is about to
17:25transport us back
17:27into the Iron Age.
17:28It's more tuneful
17:43than I thought
17:44it would be.
17:44and aÃ
18:00and
18:00and
18:01I'll hold something right cold
18:24You've achieved my love
18:31And I am sold
18:38And my story will grow old
18:44But you'll make us from gone
18:48Our next dig is one of the biggest excavations that's ever been carried out in Britain
19:04It allows archaeologists to look at a whole landscape as it changes through time over thousands of years
19:11Now there are hundreds of archaeologists working on this site
19:15Racing to record thousands of finds and features
19:19And keeping pace with a complex construction project
19:23We're heading to Suffolk and the village of Sizewell
19:3020 miles east of Ipswich
19:32Here construction is well underway on the new Sizewell C nuclear power plant
19:41It's one of Britain's biggest infrastructure projects
19:46But before the construction really gets going
19:49Archaeologists are on site to explore and record the heritage here
19:54More than 200 archaeologists from Oxford Cotswold Archaeology
20:06Are busy uncovering traces of human activity stretching back thousands of years
20:11Across 70 sites
20:20They're excavating more than 2 million square metres
20:24Making this one of the largest and most complex archaeological projects ever undertaken in Britain
20:34And working at this scale offers archaeologists an unprecedented insight into Suffolk's long history
20:45For archaeologist Rosanna Price, it's a job that's close to home
20:53I was born and raised in Suffolk
20:57This is where I'm from
20:58And it's quite beautiful to be back actually
21:01We're joining Rosanna for an exclusive behind-the-scenes tour
21:08Right guys, morning all
21:11Let's do the morning brief then
21:13Every day starts the same way
21:15In the nerve centre
21:17Make sure they are suited for the job
21:18How do you do this?
21:19We have to do one of these every day on every site
21:22Please ensure you're always wearing the correct and intact PP whilst on site
21:26The team depends on meticulous coordination and communication
21:31Housekeeping, walkways need to be kept clear, especially in doorways
21:35Cleaner supplies are provided for everyone to use
21:38We've got a lot of trainees
21:40Come on all the time
21:42They need a bit of mine
21:43They need a bit of mine
21:44They need a bit of mine
21:45Marvelous
21:46That's cracking
21:47Cheers guys
21:48Everyone's ready to go and start another day
21:49And just like that more than 200 archaeologists file out and disperse across the huge site
21:56So everyone's now just going to go out, get in their trucks, head over to their sites, get digging
22:06In her role as archaeological engagement manager, Rosanna checks in regularly with each of the digging teams
22:13This means she's uniquely positioned to give us an exclusive glimpse of the huge range of discoveries being made here
22:21We've got sort of 20 places to visit in a week
22:24And they are spread across a massive area in Suffolk County
22:29I mean this is the biggest infrastructure project for a generation
22:36Rosanna's first stop is at a site uncovering evidence of some of the earliest permanent homes in Suffolk
22:42When people were settling down, swapping hunter-gatherer lifestyles for farming during the Neolithic
22:49Hi Dan
22:51Archaeologist Dan Pond is leading this area
22:54This is looking different, you finished it?
22:56We have finished our post hole structure now, yeah, it's all good to go
23:00These holes would have held upright posts, supporting the walls of what was once a Neolithic building
23:07This is our second structure, it's made up of about 20 or so post holes
23:11Wow
23:12You don't get many of these buildings surviving
23:13That's fantastic
23:14I know, yeah, incredibly rough
23:16Early Neolithic buildings tend to be long and rectangular halls
23:21A circular building of this size at this time is very unusual
23:25So there aren't any reconstructions of what it might have looked like
23:30But we do know the occupants were still relying on stone tools
23:34This is absolutely stunning
23:37It's wonderful, it's an early Neolithic polished stone axe head
23:41But this edge is just exquisite, isn't it?
23:44It's perfect
23:45Quite a high status, presumably, object because it's so beautifully crafted
23:50So this is something pretty fancy
23:52Have you found anything more domestic?
23:54We found a lot more pottery
23:55I've got a couple sheds here
23:56So this is early Neolithic pottery
23:58This is 4,000 to 3,500 BC
24:01Really, really elaborate design
24:03So this piece here is 6,000, 5,500 years old?
24:10Yep, I survived all this time
24:12That is phenomenal
24:14This is the earliest pottery
24:17Our earliest finds we've had on the project
24:20I mean, people were living, creating these 6,000 years ago
24:23Absolutely stunning
24:24The Sizor project is vast
24:29And the team are uncovering evidence from many different periods
24:33Very satisfying to watch the site develop over time, isn't it?
24:38Oh, definitely
24:39You get quite mostly attached to it
24:40Like most sites I've been on
24:42They've just been one specific time period
24:44Like either Roman or medieval
24:46But with this, it's a complete landscape
24:48And that landscape is really the history of people in East Anglia
24:54The archaeologists are spread out over such a wide area
24:57They keep in touch using their phones
25:02And while this team are busy investigating traces of the Neolithic
25:06Rosanna receives an exciting update from her colleague, Will Stibley
25:11Oh, that is fantastic
25:13They've got a collared urn
25:15And I imagine there's got to be, presumably, a cremation in there
25:18Will looks very happy with himself
25:21I think we'd better go and have a look in person
25:26It can take more than 20 minutes to drive between the sites
25:30Yeah, one of those times when having to go up 5 to 10 miles an hour is really tantalising
25:37Because you've got this thing, you want to go and see it
25:39What can you do, I guess? You've got to stick to the speed limit
25:42In the Neolithic, some people were buried together in large communal graves
25:51Like this chambered tomb in Orkney
25:55But as time wore on, we start to see graves of individual people
26:01In the Bronze Age
26:02Yeah, this is fantastic
26:05So Will only started here yesterday and he's immediately discovered this
26:08He started on this site
26:09And that's such a classic manoeuvre
26:11To turn up and get something
26:12And wow, look at this
26:14Oh, you've done a beautiful job as well
26:17I mean, it is just stunning, isn't it?
26:19And it so clearly is early Bronze Age
26:21From this massive collar here
26:23I mean, it's so exciting just to be the first person to see something like this in, what, three and a half thousand years
26:28Yeah
26:29It's the reason I got into archaeology, to do things like this
26:32It looks like there might be some impressed twine decoration around the rim that's already peeking through
26:37So yeah, it's going to be really exciting once we've dug a little bit more out to see if there's any more decoration
26:42And if it's mirrored on the accessory vessel as well
26:45This cremation is two miles away from the Neolithic building found at the first site
26:50And it's much later in time
26:53But so far it's the earliest evidence of human activity that they're finding in this part of the landscape
27:00It's quite interesting that here we have almost no evidence of early Neolithic activity
27:06We have very little evidence right up until about two and a half thousand BC
27:10When we start getting much more early Bronze Age activity
27:13And it seems to be a real gap in the landscape here
27:15This is an area that they just don't seem to be using or visiting during the early Neolithic
27:21It's not until the early Bronze Age that we see any significant activity here
27:26So there does seem to be significant variation over time in the parts of the landscape that people are exploiting
27:32This is just an amazing addition to the story of Cy as well
27:36The story of Suffolk people through time
27:39Seeing all these little patches of excavation coming up in the landscape
27:45This is amazing, this is actually my history coming to life in front of me
27:49We'll rejoin Rosanna later in the programme
27:53When even more of Suffolk's rich history is revealed
27:57This is amazing!
27:59Sounds like it might be something pretty good
28:00The East of Britain has always been the front line between our islands and the continent
28:20Sometimes bearing the brunt in times of conflict
28:23At other times benefiting from peaceful connections and commerce
28:29If I can't jump just push and shove
28:34Throughout the centuries this proximity to Europe has had a unique impact on the communities that lived here
28:44As our next dig shows
28:50Tory Herridge is heading to Folkestone
28:54Ten miles west of Dover
29:05The white cliffs that run along the South East Coast
29:09Are one of Britain's most recognisable landscapes
29:12They are the first thing anyone sees when travelling across the Channel from France
29:20Even Roman generals
29:31It was these white cliffs that Julius Caesar described
29:35When he tried but failed to invade the British Isles in 55 BC
29:38He described people at the top there fiercely ready and waiting to throw rocks down the troops below
29:45But little is known about those defiant people on the cliff tops
29:51Who lived here along the South Coast of Britain during
29:56The Iron Age
29:57A team from Canterbury Archaeological Trust is in their third year of excavations at the site
30:05They want to find evidence of this Iron Age community
30:10And investigate what their lives and culture were like before the Romans invaded
30:15Geophysical surveys at the cliff tops reveal at least three Iron Age roundhouses that once stood right here
30:26Archaeologist Andrew Mackintosh is leading the dig
30:29What a view
30:32It's such an amazing view
30:34Off and on cleared days you'll see the white cliffs over in France there as well
30:38Julius Caesar, you know, sort of remarked on, you know, populated Iron Age settlement here
30:43And I think this is probably the settlement that he was talking about when he was looking at these cliffs and seeing how populated it was here
30:52Since they started excavating the site the team have unearthed hundreds of quern stones
30:59Heavy circular stones used to grind grain into flour
31:03But here these quern stones were used to line drains gutters and post holes
31:11Even I would recognize that as a quern stone
31:13So I mean this is fairly typical of a late Iron Age rotary quern stone
31:18It's a big big slab of rock isn't it?
31:21It is
31:23Turling that round the weight of it grinding
31:25Yeah, they're very heavy so this is one part of two stones that would have turned against one another
31:29We suspect this might be the top half of one of the quern stones
31:33So this one has had quite a lot of work on it
31:36Hollowing out this top
31:38You can see chisel marks where they've started to work in
31:42It's been discarded at some point something's gone wrong at the last minute in manufacture
31:46It may be that on the underside here
31:49That it's split at some point when they've tried to shape it
31:54And then it's no longer functional for its purpose
31:56So this wasn't being used here as part of the daily milling activity of a settlement
32:01You're saying it's being made here
32:03Yeah, because there's so many we find here
32:07The querns were shaped from local sandstone
32:10Which arose naturally out of the cliffs and onto the beach right below the site
32:17They've got quern stones coming out of their ears like broken ones
32:20Yeah, which is kind of really impressive
32:22But I mean this raw material if it's available
32:25Everything has got here somehow it's come up off the beach
32:28So you're going to utilize this raw material
32:30So exactly waste not what not right?
32:32So yeah, you've got it you might as well use it
32:34Indeed and that's more than any one settlement would need for themselves
32:37So the people here are making quern stones to be traded elsewhere
32:39Yeah, they're being traded inland, possibly overseas
32:43The Iron Age people living here had such an excess of quern stones
32:50They must have been trading them
32:53And small finds from the site are helping archaeologist Rich Best
32:58Pieced together a picture of cross-channel connections long before the Romans invaded Britain
33:08So pre-conquest, what have we got from that period?
33:11Do these stuff here, should you tell us something about that time?
33:14So this gold coin is an import from northern France and sort of Flanders area
33:20And dates to 58 to 54 BC
33:23Oh right, wow!
33:24So it's right on the sort of the era of Julius Caesar's crossing
33:28There's a lot of stuff going on
33:30Like a lot of fighting going on between the Gauls over there and the Romans, right?
33:34Yeah, yeah
33:35Do you think news of that would have been coming with these coins?
33:36Absolutely, yeah
33:37I think it's quite easy to think of Britain in that period is quite isolated
33:41When really, particularly in Kent and here, it's a hop across the channel
33:45Which I think is something that people do quite regularly
33:47And then with that, the stories of what's happening
33:50So you've got what is clearly sort of ceramics, pottery stuff, yeah?
33:53Yeah, absolutely
33:55So here we've got parts of amphora
33:58The minute you say that word, I assume it's come from far away
34:01Absolutely
34:02Is it Roman?
34:03It is, so these are used for importing wine, olive oil and sort of fish sauce
34:09And we think these were imported around 150 BC
34:13Oh, so before, so pre-Roman conquest Britain
34:16Yeah, we think of sort of olive oil and wine and fish sauce as a characteristically Roman thing
34:21But there is evidently a demand for it pre-Conquest
34:24Whether they're using that as a way to express, you know, how close they are to Rome
34:28And, you know, their connections
34:30Rome is encroaching basically
34:32Yeah, yeah
34:33And what else have we got in here?
34:34This is quite different over here, this darker stuff
34:36Yeah, so this is locally made, but it's imitating Roman styles
34:42So they go for rather than bowls and jars, it's sort of flatter dishes and things like that
34:46So this is someone over here basically trying to make some fancy Roman plates
34:51Yeah, and what's so significant about this, particularly for this site, is that here they are starting to sort of imitate the Roman wares quite a while before anywhere else in Kent
35:03So here that is occurring sort of 25-30 AD
35:08Whereas elsewhere in Kent you only see it post-conquest, so maybe up to sort of 60 AD
35:14That's interesting
35:15So here they're kind of ahead of the game
35:17Right, that's interesting because like the Romans haven't conquered
35:20No, but they're adapting
35:22The culture has in some ways
35:24Adopting a lot of what the Romans would bring
35:27Ahead of the army comes the ideas
35:29Yeah, absolutely
35:44What's being discovered here at this site is quietly rewriting what we know about Iron Age Britain
35:49Yes, there's plenty of evidence of connection across the channel to ancient Gaul
35:53But there's also something else
35:56There's a tantalising connection to Rome
35:59The people of Kent were enjoying fine wines, fine pottery
36:03But also maybe taking on the ideas of Rome
36:07This part of Britain was Romanising before a Roman soldier even set foot upon British soil
36:13And the beach is lifting me, ashes reaching me, wind is holding me, time is folding me
36:27Under the trees, down through the lean, onto the path that you came to that day
36:34Archaeology often involves recovering tiny fragments then painstakingly piecing them together until something wonderful emerges
36:55Archaeologist Meg Russell has been looking into a particularly delicious puzzle
37:00I've come to Museum of London Archaeology storage warehouse where today new discoveries are being made by examining old finds
37:14Back in 2021 a team from Museum of London Archaeology unearthed thousands of tiny fragments of ancient wall plaster
37:21They all came from a commercial building that once stood on the banks of the river Thames during the Roman period
37:36Now, materials specialist Han Lee is painstakingly piecing this puzzle back together
37:41To improve our understanding of the colours and patterns used in Romano-British interior design
37:50Hi Han
37:51Hi, how are you?
37:52Wow, this looks absolutely fantastic
37:55What is it that we're actually looking at here?
37:57Well, we're looking at a nearly 2,000 year old Roman painting painted during the early Roman period in London
38:04It's absolutely beautiful
38:06Han has more than 10,000 pieces of wall plaster to arrange
38:13They make up 20 separate decorated walls, each with a different intricate design
38:19My eyes do not want to leave this beautiful detail
38:23Can you talk me through some of the things that we're looking at here?
38:26Absolutely, so you've got a beautiful candelabra here
38:28With these two knots, do you see?
38:30Yes
38:31Of course, the string is dangling down to little dots of pearl
38:35Those are pearls?
38:36They are, yes
38:37Oh, wow
38:38And over here, where we thought were grapes initially
38:41It's actually part of a mistletoe
38:43Which is quite a popular thing in Roman culture itself
38:47Yeah, that's beautiful
38:49I'm looking at this, but I'm side-eyeing this beautiful, is it a daisy?
38:53It is a daisy, and this daisy is actually our star piece
38:57So everyone remembers the daisy during the period of excavation
39:00Because this was one of the most sort of vibrant pieces found
39:03And I'm just looking at these little dots here
39:06Are they imitation stone?
39:08They are, it's imitation marble, pink imitation marble
39:10It gives you that illusion of a much more expensive piece of building material
39:15By painting this plaster wall to look like more expensive and higher status stone
39:21The artist has given us clues as to what stone buildings really looked like
39:26As well as the aspirations of the Romano-British occupant
39:30Now this is some beautiful imitation stonework
39:33This is actually imitating Egyptian red palfrey
39:37It looks almost identical to the actual stone, doesn't it?
39:40It really does
39:41Yeah, just see how tiny bits and pieces of the crystals in the stone
39:46Are done so intricately and so carefully
39:49It must have taken forever
39:51By examining each fragment in minute detail
39:55Han is also discovering tiny inscriptions
39:58Which reveal even more about the artists themselves
40:02We're now in your office
40:04What have we got in front of us?
40:06Well, you see the letters here
40:08Look at the font
40:09It's beautifully done, isn't it?
40:11Even the T itself
40:13Has a thin to thick to thin kind of stroke to it
40:18And it says F-E-C-I-T
40:21Has made this
40:22And if you imagine
40:24When I was talking about the way that it was scored in
40:27That could only be done
40:29When the plaster was still soft
40:31Now who do you think would do that
40:33But the painter
40:34You're not telling me this is a painter's mark?
40:36This is a painter's signature mark
40:38Or the group signature mark
40:40But how brilliant is that?
40:42There's not many of these
40:44In fact, very few examples
40:46Can we prove that the painter
40:48Has scored it in when the plaster was soft?
40:50That's amazing
40:52What Han and his team have done here is more than conservation
41:04It's transformation
41:08Finishing this puzzle has given us a unique window into the taste, ambition and styles of Romano-British London
41:14The landscape of Britain's East has changed many times through the centuries
41:28From the draining of marshes in the fens
41:32To the arrival of Christianity
41:35But every time a new generation starts changing the landscape
41:42There's the potential that precious traces of the past may be lost
41:47It's the job of archaeologists to record and preserve the past
41:57And on our next site that's happening on an unprecedented scale
42:03We're returning to Sizewell where Rosanna Price is giving us an exclusive glimpse behind the scenes
42:13Of one of the biggest digs to take place in Britain
42:19Offering a fascinating insight into Suffolk's long history
42:23This is a once in a lifetime opportunity isn't it?
42:33To have this vast project revealing archaeology in Suffolk
42:38We've got everything the full span
42:42One of the biggest challenges facing the team
42:45Is working around all the heavy machinery on the site
42:53We're surrounded by bollards and trucks and plants
42:58And I mean there's a bloke here coming towards us in a massive HGV
43:01There's dumpers and diggers
43:04It is incredible what people can do when they work together
43:08On a vast construction like this
43:10So we're constantly working alongside active and moving plant
43:24One of the main reasons for the PPE
43:26But you can never forget that you've got a schedule
43:29You are trying to meet a program
43:31And there's also
43:33A great sense of teamwork and collaboration
43:36Here the team has made an incredible discovery
43:42Thanks to waterlogged conditions
43:44And amazing preservation of timber
43:48This artifact dates to the Iron Age
43:54Hi Jas
43:55Hello
43:56Wow, that is sensational
43:58I had heard that you had a ladder
44:00Yeah
44:01But you really do
44:02Definitely a real ladder
44:03Yeah
44:05Big plank here, big plank there
44:07And they've bored through
44:10This sort of circular rung
44:12From one side to the other
44:13Yeah, I mean at the moment
44:15The idea is that
44:16It would have been a big water hole well kind of thing
44:18And they've put a ladder in there to get down to it
44:20If the water level was really low
44:21I mean at the moment you can see
44:23That it's already starting to fill up
44:24Yeah, fill up
44:25This is such a tangible link to the past
44:27Isn't it?
44:28Yeah
44:29I have never seen anything like this
44:30This is fantastic
44:31What a wonderful find
44:34Local production and manufacture would have been important in the Iron Age
44:38Everyone would have been involved with craft in some way
44:42But there was some mass production too
44:46And that became supercharged in the Roman period
44:53Naomi
44:54Hi Rosanna
44:55This is looking a lot clearer than it did when I saw you a couple of weeks ago
44:58Yes, I know
44:59We've revealed the full floor
45:01So this lovely levelled floor
45:03Which has lined all the way out both of these flues
45:06So really excited
45:09It's a Roman kiln
45:11And some of the pottery from the last firing has survived inside
45:15So in a very small amount of space right at the bottom of the chamber
45:19It was just chock full of pot
45:21Fragments of pot
45:22None of them seem to be in situ or full vessels
45:25But as you can see in our flue
45:27We still have some pot fragments sticking out
45:29Some massive bits actually in context in here
45:32Yeah, there's so much of it
45:33Which has been amazing and so lovely
45:37This is one of our nicest bits of pot
45:39Wow, that's gorgeous
45:40Lovely decoration
45:41Stunning, isn't it?
45:42So we've had
45:43We've found that all throughout the whole future
45:45So we know that they've definitely been making that here
45:47Very high quality
45:49Probably very expensive
45:50This is really impressive
45:51Yes
45:52That's the kind of thing you would have on a table
45:53Yeah
45:54In a fancy, fancy home
45:55High faces
45:56Yeah
45:57I mean that I think was quite uncommon
45:58If we do find other pieces of that around the country
46:02It might have been made in this kiln here
46:04So that's really lovely to see
46:06What a delightful thing to uncover
46:07Mm-hmm
46:08On a vast site like this
46:12It's important to keep track of where everyone is
46:18You've got to go through the security portal
46:20You've got to prove who you are
46:22Get your ID out
46:23It's a definite feeling that you're stepping into the SizeWell world
46:30So everybody has to sign in when they get to site
46:32Everybody
46:33This is the visitor log
46:35So we know who's here
46:37This is the one that shows that everybody knows where to muster
46:40If there's an emergency
46:41And then these two show that you've been briefed for any potential hazards
46:45Either in the compound or on site
46:50Right
46:51We're all signed in
46:52We can go and see the archaeology
46:53This excavation is so large that the environment varies hugely from place to place
47:09From deep mud to gravel and even sand
47:13And here the archaeologists are excavating a graveyard
47:18Which dates to the centuries after the Roman period in Britain
47:23Known as the early medieval period
47:26It's like being at the beach, isn't it?
47:28The sandy soil here is acidic, dissolving away bone mineral
47:41These haunting shadows are called sand skeletons
47:47Archaeologist Frankie Wildman is leading this excavation
47:50Ah, so this one's really clear
47:53Yes
47:54You can see the legs here and the pelvis
47:57Yes, that's it
47:58So you've got the pelvis here
48:00So you've got the left side and the right side
48:03You've got the right leg running down here
48:05And you've got the left leg running down here
48:07Ah, that's beautiful
48:09And of course, these beautiful beads
48:11Look at those
48:12Yes
48:13And the sunlight as well
48:14Yeah, they're absolutely gorgeous
48:15So these are Baltic amber beads
48:18Which provides us an indication that there was a connection with the North Atlantic
48:24So Scandinavia
48:25This was an interchangeable point
48:27So you're looking at a west-east grave
48:30Yep
48:31Which is the precursor to Christianity coming in
48:35But you're also keeping the old ways as well
48:39So having the personal effects with the skeleton as well
48:43So this is why we've got these beautiful beads having been found
48:47Such a poignant connection to this person
48:49All that's surviving in the grave of them is their incredible style
48:53Yes, absolutely
48:56The team are unearthing dozens of sand skeletons
48:59But there's one that dwarfs them all
49:05A horse burial
49:07Ah, wow
49:09That is so much more defined than when I last saw it, isn't it?
49:11It's awesome, isn't it?
49:12Yeah, well done, Josh
49:13Really cool
49:14We've got the front legs here
49:16Yep
49:17And the hind legs coming round here
49:19And you've just got the shadow of the spine
49:21Yep
49:22You've got enough of that surviving leg to work out the height of this, surely?
49:26Yes, so provisionally there's a height of around about 1.4 metres
49:30Okay
49:31Which in horse terms is about 13 hands
49:33Oh, a little pony
49:34I mean, these horse burials certainly more so than other animals
49:38Are seen as companions for the afterlife, so to speak
49:41So more than likely you would have had a grand procession
49:45That would have happened to the person next door
49:47And then they would have had the horse laid to rest with that person
49:51And it isn't long before the team discover that the horse wasn't buried on its own
49:58There are human remains here too
50:00This is a very high status Anglo-Saxon burial
50:05Oh, this is amazing
50:07So, we're in the big ring ditch feature, the big grave area
50:12And they've got something sort of this size
50:15And we don't know what material it is yet
50:18But as they're uncovering it, it starts off white
50:21And within sort of 30 seconds of being oxidised
50:24It's turning grey down into black
50:28I mean, immediately on the phone to the specialist to see what it is
50:31Could be silver, guys
50:35Could be silver, could be silver
50:37Which would be right next to...
50:40Banky's just speaking to our specialist back in the office
50:44To find out what this might be
50:46How we might treat it immediately
50:48Sounds like it might be something pretty good
50:52What it might mean about the grave
50:54But the most important thing for us right now is
50:56To know how to look after it as best we can immediately
50:59Because it's clearly changing as soon as it's hitting the air
51:05Freaking cool!
51:06Go on, what did they say?
51:07And that sounds like silver
51:08Oh, well
51:09So, we've potentially got a small silver artefact
51:14Finding something like this is...
51:16I mean, I've got goosebumps
51:17Phenomenal! Wow!
51:19The grave goods are dissolving before their eyes
51:23But the presence of silver emphasises the status of this burial
51:28To find what could be a princely burial
51:31In such a high status Anglo-Saxon cemetery
51:34Is nationally significant, internationally significant
51:37And the team here going down in two and a half centimetre spits
51:40To try and catch every bit of information that they possibly can
51:43The team has now made hundreds of discoveries
51:49Spanning some 40,000 years of Suffolk's history
51:53From the Stone Age to the modern day
51:56Rosanna's come to the tent to show me some of the latest finds
52:08Rosanna, you've got some bits from Sizor
52:12I mean, it's an enormous site
52:13I can't believe the size of it
52:15The width of the geography and the breadth of time
52:20Is almost overwhelming
52:22The amount of information that we can take from it
52:25And learn and interpret
52:26It's just amazing to be able to see what's happening
52:28Across a whole landscape like that
52:30I mean, that's the value of these big digs
52:32That you're not just opening up a small area
52:34You're actually able to see what people are doing
52:36Right across that landscape
52:37Yeah, absolutely
52:38I mean, you would say
52:39Well, if you dig a big enough hole
52:40Then you'll find something
52:41And we've dug a massive hole
52:42And we've found everything
52:43Yeah
52:44So you've got some objects to show that depth of time
52:48Yes
52:49So this is about 40,000 years old
52:52This is a Neanderthal hand axe
52:54Isn't that amazing?
52:55It is
52:56It's absolutely incredible
52:58I mean, 40,000 years ago
53:00Takes us back way beyond the peak of the last ice age
53:03We're into Britain being a completely different landscape
53:06Yeah, absolutely
53:07There are no modern humans here
53:08It's just Neanderthals
53:09When you hold it in your hand even now
53:11You can feel how usable it is
53:13You know, for butchery
53:15Yeah
53:16For working fibres
53:17Maybe even for woodworking
53:18It's still a perfectly usable tool
53:20It's just incredible
53:21That's amazing
53:22OK, so 40,000 years ago
53:23And then actually we're getting relatively close to the present now
53:27Yep, a little 4000 BC sort of era
53:29Yeah
53:30So these leaf-shaped arrowheads
53:31This one in particular
53:32I just think it's just incredible
53:34It's so fine
53:36So fine
53:37So thin
53:38And completely symmetrical
53:40It's kind of shocking to look at things like this
53:43And realise that they were such violent items
53:46There's a tension, isn't there, between admiring the beauty of it
53:49And then realising actually that that is designed to pierce flesh
53:53Yeah
53:54And kill something
53:55Yes
53:56Yeah, yeah
53:57These are a little Iron Age coin hoard
53:59These are so cool as well
54:00The detail on these is exquisite
54:02Oh, wow
54:03Yeah
54:04Yeah
54:05Don't you love it?
54:06Isn't it lovely?
54:07A little horse
54:08A little horse
54:09So I can see his front legs there and his back legs there
54:11And then there are some other little details on it
54:15So when does that date to?
54:17I think it's about 20 BC to 50 AD
54:20Sort of that real transitionary period as the Romans are coming over to Britain
54:23These finds beautifully illustrate how culture changes over the centuries
54:30Iron Age coins give way to Roman brooches
54:34And as the Roman Empire fades from memory
54:37We find Anglo-Saxon weapon burials
54:40And then there are exquisite medieval finds
54:45This is so cool I have to show you this
54:48So this looks quite sombre to look at it
54:51It looks very dark
54:52Yeah
54:53It's a pilgrims badge
54:55Or it would have been a necklace
54:56And if you now pick that up and hold it up to the light
55:01Oh, wow
55:02Okay, so it is glass, isn't it?
55:04It's glass, yep
55:05And this is amazing
55:06So we do have the same iconography
55:09Exactly the same
55:10But only from Eastern Europe and Russia
55:13Really?
55:14And there's, we think at the moment
55:16Only about one or two of these in Western Europe
55:18Including this one
55:19In the whole of Western Europe?
55:20Not just Britain?
55:21So this is, I mean this is really special then I find
55:24Yeah
55:25Almost unique
55:26I mean I presume it's not made locally
55:28I presume it's come from elsewhere
55:30We think imported from Venice
55:31We think it's Venetian glass
55:32Yeah, yeah
55:33And presumably, very sadly for them
55:35They've just dropped it
55:36They must have been annoyed, wasn't they?
55:38Keeping it as a talisman, yeah
55:39It's a beautiful object
55:40If it was gifted to them
55:41We can have all kinds of imaginative interpretations
55:43That's a really special thing
55:45Yeah
55:46Wow
55:47What's this thing, Rosanna?
55:48Oh, this is a lead seal matrix
55:49So it would have been used for impressing into wax
55:52For sealing letters and things like that
55:54Wow
55:55It's got a flutterly in the middle
55:56It's got writing right on the outside
55:58Yeah, and this is very cool
55:59So it says the seal of Matilda, daughter of Godwin
56:03I can see the Matilda there, I think
56:06Yeah, in reverse
56:07Yeah
56:08And what's awesome about it is obviously we get a lot of information about men
56:11Yeah
56:12In the record
56:13But Matilda was obviously quite an important woman
56:15She's got her own seal
56:16Important enough to have her own seal
56:17Yeah
56:18And presumably she's writing documents and sealing them
56:21She'd be elite, yeah
56:22To have a seal like that
56:23Or if she can write letters and has a seal in the 13th century
56:26Yeah, yeah
56:27Yeah, she must have been
56:28That's amazing too
56:29Must have been pretty elite
56:30So we're coming closer to the modern days
56:32And then we're right up to 20th century
56:34Yeah
56:35So this is World War II evidence
56:37This is a bottle of beer
56:38Still with the beer in it
56:39And that's actually the beer still in it?
56:40Yeah
56:41Yes
56:42Yeah, I don't think I'd like to try that
56:4385 year old brew
56:44I think that can stay in there
56:46Is that a compass?
56:47Yeah, this is quite beautiful
56:48That's lovely
56:49Can I pick it up?
56:50Yes, absolutely
56:51It's not too fragile
56:52And it still opens and closes
56:53Oh
56:54I think it was a World War I issue
56:56Okay
56:57And that someone has then either reused it or been gifted it
57:00Yeah, yeah
57:01For World War II because we found it in a World War II context
57:03Yeah
57:04And it does say USA Knight
57:06So it's American?
57:07It's American, yeah
57:08Yeah
57:09That's a beautiful object
57:10Lovely
57:13So we've got
57:14Wow
57:15What have we done?
57:1640,000 years of history on the table
57:20And all human life is here
57:22Yeah
57:23You know, from conflict
57:25And to just domestic issues
57:27To eating
57:29To how you want to design yourself and how you want to look
57:33Self-care
57:34Yeah
57:35Death
57:36It's all there
57:38All uncovered at Sizewell
57:40Next time on Digging for Britain
57:57Archaeologists in the Cotswolds unearth a unique find
58:01We could see this carved bone object
58:04I've never seen anything like it before
58:06A dig in Oxford teaches us a lesson about students of the past
58:11We actually have a pier and we're calling it Smokers Corner
58:14Where you would just chuck your place back at pipes
58:16And in Kent
58:17That is a plated gold discroach
58:20Archaeologists uncover spectacular Anglo-Saxon burials
58:24It's a child with weapons
58:26Which is extraordinary
58:27Wild adventures for people at the locker heads with each other
58:34Bear Grylls seeks to challenge and heal family rifts on iPlayer
58:38On BBC Sounds, Kimberly Wilson untangles our mental health
58:43Making the complex manageable
58:45Comedy next here on 2 we've dug up an old relic
58:48Victor Meldrew is back
58:50In the sun to lay us dead out in the sun
58:56In the sun to lay us dead out in the sun
Comments