- 2 days ago
Category
🚗
MotorTranscript
00:00This land we call home has a rich and varied history stretching back thousands of years.
00:12But hidden below the surface are some amazing treasures just waiting to be found.
00:20Oh my gosh so each year across the country archaeologists dig underground and dive underwater searching for fresh discoveries the most amazing thing in British archaeology uncovering traces of ancient lives somebody's played in joy unsure and finding fascinating objects such exquisite detail.
00:50This year I'll be meeting the archaeologists and looking at some of their most incredible finds.
00:57I mean that is stunning.
01:00While 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?
01:15It's just brilliant.
01:17Oh my goodness.
01:19Every 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.
01:46This 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.
02:03The 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.
02:26The Romans haven't conquered but the culture has.
02:30And we go behind the scenes.
02:33Morning all.
02:34Let's do the morning brief then.
02:35At one of the largest and most complex archaeological excavations in British history.
02:41I have never seen anything like this.
02:43I mean I've got goosebumps.
02:44Phenomenal.
02:45Yeah.
02:58Every so often something turns up which is just utterly extraordinary.
03:03Something the archaeologists will describe as a once in a lifetime find.
03:08And that is the case for this next discovery.
03:11Which is not only unique in Britain.
03:14It's unique in Europe.
03:16And I just feel so lucky to be getting such an early glimpse of it.
03:21And then to be sharing that with you.
03:24We're heading to a location which is 20 miles outside Thetford.
03:39Earlier this year a team from Preconstruct Archaeology were carrying out a routine excavation
03:45in advance of construction of a new housing development.
03:502,000 years ago.
03:53This was the territory of the Aikani tribe.
03:59They 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.
04:20It felt like one of these sort of special sites that you do get every so often.
04:23I don't know there was sort of 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.
04:40So you know I'm sort of detecting along.
04:43And I'd take this ray large signal while I was instantly excited.
04:47Because 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.
04:58That 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.
05:08I mean I like the design of it.
05:12But one of the finds is covered with intriguing decoration.
05:15Oh wow.
05:16Oh my god.
05:17That's obviously going to be a separate thing.
05:18I don't know.
05:19I don't know.
05:20I don't know.
05:21Oh do you think it's one of those?
05:22Blah!
05:23Like a carnix.
05:24Oh!
05:25Oh my god.
05:26It's possible.
05:28The team are excited about this possibility.
05:30If they're right, this could be an incredibly rare Iron Age object.
05:35A carnix.
05:38This is a type of decorated trumpet.
05:41Iron Age tribes from Italy to Scotland use them to intimidate enemies and rally warriors on the battlefield.
05:50Only one carnix has ever been found in Britain.
05:53And in fact even then, it was only part of one.
05:59That's about the right size.
06:03It's only high.
06:04Yeah, that's what I was thinking.
06:06Here is heading to the...
06:07There is the Alf.
06:08Nice.
06:09I mean if you've found a carnix then you...
06:12I've won.
06:13Yeah.
06:14I just quit.
06:15I've done it.
06:16Yeah.
06:19With such a potentially important find, the team makes the decision to block lift the entire horde at the same time.
06:27You get a bit of that.
06:28I'll 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 and probably will be the best thing I will find as an archaeologist as well.
06:45You know, it's a dream come true really.
06:49They send the block to be x-rayed to see what's hidden inside.
06:52But there are so many objects packed closely together, it's hard to make sense of the image.
07:01At this point, project officer Gary Trimble is beginning to wonder if the horde could contain something even rarer than a carnix.
07:09The results weren't conclusive, but they give some tantalising sort of evidence that we may actually have rather than a carnix, it may be a boar standard.
07:25Standards like this, tops with the figurine of a boar, were carried into battle by Celtic tribes.
07:31We've got a quandary. Is it a carnix or could it be another object of INA state, a boar standard?
07:45If it does turn out to be a carnix, it'll be a really significant find and these are extraordinarily rare.
07:52Now, if it turns out to be a boar standard, that's even rarer.
07:57To find out which of these two exceptionally rare objects they're dealing with, the team turns to more advanced imaging, taking the block to a local hospital for an out of hours CT scan.
08:12And they film the moment as the exciting results emerge.
08:16I love modern technology because it's just started working.
08:23Look at that.
08:26That is absolutely exceptional.
08:32What is that thing, this thing here?
08:35We're going to have to dig it out and find out, aren't we?
08:38Wow.
08:40That's really outstanding, isn't it?
08:42It's got cut-out decoration on it.
08:46That detail is extraordinary.
08:49It's beyond, it's absolutely beyond belief.
08:53Yeah.
08:54I mean, this isn't even once a lifetime archaic, is it?
08:56This is rarer than once a lifetime.
08:57Yes.
08:59It's rarer than once a lifetime.
09:00It's rarer than once a lifetime.
09:01It's rarer than once a lifetime.
09:03It's rarer than once a lifetime.
09:05It is the most amazing thing I've ever seen in British archaeology.
09:16The CT scan reveals the mystery object is a Bohr standard.
09:24The very first one ever found in Britain.
09:27But there was more.
09:28Hidden deeper inside the Horde, there is also a Carnix.
09:40And it's the most complete Carnix ever found in the whole of Europe.
09:46Two of the rarest objects from the Iron Age found together.
09:53Conservator Jonathan Clarke is excavating the block under controlled conditions in the lab.
10:01So these are the objects that have been removed so far from the block.
10:11We've got multiple shield bosses, some of which were stacked on top of each other.
10:15But then, of course, we have the Bohr standard here, which, um, you can see this wonderful-looking Bohr's head.
10:22And I don't know whether you can make out a tusk at the end here with this lovely snout here.
10:28And wonderful curled designs surrounding the mouth here.
10:32And the eye would have had something in there, possibly an organic material or a dissimilar metal.
10:38So it really would have stood out again on this shiny copper alloy object.
10:42Jonathan has carefully extracted the Bohr standard from the Horde.
10:49But there's still a lot of work to do on the Carnix.
10:55What we've got here is the bell of the Carnix, which goes from its neck all the way around here,
11:03with a crest on its back, which has got this open-work decoration in it.
11:06The Carnix itself is kind of in this roaring, open-mouthed state here,
11:12and with just the top jaw and the bottom here.
11:15And here we've got the wonderful little eye just visible there,
11:19which is remarkable survival.
11:21And you can even see along here the sort of serrated edge of its open mouth.
11:26As soon as you see it, you 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 the bell of the Carnix there,
11:49which is a really good way of seeing quite how thin the metal work is.
11:55It can be quite a precious task.
11:58You're aware of the risks at all times.
12:05This is the most complete Carnix ever found,
12:09with the pipe, mouthpiece and bell all uniquely intact.
12:13You can see the face is really emerging here.
12:17You can see a ridge, this sort of brow of its eye here.
12:21We're really getting a sense of the Carnix's face, really.
12:27You can't help but kind of stare at its eye when you're working on it,
12:30kind of looking face to face with it.
12:31To think that it was a musical instrument just adds this layer to it, it really does.
12:48It wasn't just decorative, it had life and screamed and made noise.
12:53In the first century BCE, the writer Diodorus Siculus wrote that the Carnix produced a harsh sound which suits the tumult of war.
13:05We're in the early days of this excavation and have so much to discover and find out about it.
13:13The work sort of only just begun, really.
13:15The micro-excavation will take another four weeks.
13:27So in the meantime, I've invited archaeologist Gary Trimble and Carnix expert Fraser Hunter to the Digging for Britain tent.
13:35And they've brought a modern reconstruction of one of these trumpets.
13:38Fraser, Gary. Hello there.
13:42I mean, this is one of these once-in-a-lifetime discoveries, surely.
13:46There's not many of these that have turned out.
13:48Absolutely not, no.
13:49We have our fair share of hoards in Norfolk, but this is so, so different.
13:53Yeah.
13:54And really, really, really special.
13:55And this is the most complete one in Europe?
13:57Yes.
13:58I mean, this is astonishing.
13:59It is astonishing.
14:00What a find.
14:01What a find, indeed.
14:02And you've got the boar standard.
14:03Yeah.
14:04I mean, what does it represent?
14:05What does the boar mean?
14:06Do we know?
14:07Boars, if you think of what boars do in the wild, you know, it's the strength and the ferocity, but also the cunning.
14:13So boars are very fierce animals to face it in the hunt.
14:16So the symbolism of a boar is a lot about, they say, the strength of it, a very appropriate adversary in battle.
14:23This is the CT scan we had of the bloc.
14:27Yeah.
14:28The boar's head standard there.
14:29And then the shield bosses, some of them stack within each other, you know, sort of together.
14:37And then this is the upper part of the tubing of the carnics.
14:41Just coming round here.
14:42Yes.
14:43Yeah.
14:44And under here, you've got the belly of the carnics.
14:47Hidden under there.
14:48Yeah.
14:49Yeah.
14:50I mean, you've got the whole thing.
14:51It looks like it.
14:52See, this is another first.
14:53Yeah.
14:54This is the only one where we can be confident the tube ties into the instrument.
14:57And here.
14:58You've got the complete tube bent in half.
15:00That's it.
15:01As we can see, this is an instrument standing, yeah, about this kind of height originally.
15:04Yeah, yeah.
15:05So one time we can really see, this is the height of a carnics.
15:08And it shows the mouthpiece is in line with the tube.
15:11You would play this leaning backwards like that.
15:13Yeah.
15:14It just confirms that.
15:15And do you think these are deliberately placed or is it just about putting objects in a hole in the ground?
15:19I'll be sure it's a votive deposit.
15:21You know, this has been put in the ground for the deities, for the gods.
15:25And we think it's a deliberate placement of these shield bosses over the bell of the carnics.
15:30In other words, to quiet it down.
15:32It really feels like it's shielding the head.
15:34Yeah.
15:35It's really protecting the head.
15:36It's a very careful deposit.
15:37It's just fantastic, isn't it, to be able to use these technologies, which, you know,
15:42originally medical technologies were looking inside people's bodies, but you can look inside blocks of earth
15:47and actually see what objects you've got there.
15:50And when do you think this dates to?
15:5350 BC, AD 50, it's in that bracket somewhere.
15:57Yeah.
15:58It's such a crucial time, isn't it?
15:59Because you've got Julius Caesar coming over, having a look at Britain.
16:03That's right.
16:04Yeah.
16:05It's a time of change and a time of turmoil and so much going, especially in the south and east of England,
16:09with all this impact to the Roman world.
16:11Yeah.
16:12You know, warfare and military prowess is a key part of that.
16:15So, the drama of something like the carnics and the Boer Standard in any battle, in any army,
16:21showing off in one of those things.
16:22These would have been spectacular objects.
16:24Yeah, yeah.
16:25And this is very much part of that story, isn't it?
16:27Both the carnics and Boer Standard will soon be fully excavated and cleaned.
16:42It's incredible to imagine these fearsome beasts towering over an Iron Age army,
16:49up to two or three metres in the air, with the carnics blasting across the battlefield.
16:55This is by far the most complete and well-preserved carnics ever discovered.
17:02It adds to our knowledge of these incredible instruments and provides us with an iconic image of the Iron Age.
17:16As for what these trumpets sounded like, it's time to find out.
17:21As musician and PhD student Letty Stott is about to transport us back into the Iron Age.
17:42It's more tuneful than I thought it would be!
17:44Yeah!
17:51To personen and Shilido
17:53Isn't it –
17:54To personen and humanity
17:56gnarly
17:57Tıl
17:58H
18:09Gnarly
18:10Gnarly
18:12Han
18:13100
18:15By
18:17I'll hold something right cold
18:25You've experienced my love
18:36I am sold
18:40And the story will grow old
18:44That you'll make this fucking cold
18:59Our next dig is one of the biggest excavations
19:02that's ever been carried out in Britain.
19:05It allows archaeologists to look at a whole landscape
19:08as it changes through time over thousands of years.
19:12Now, there are hundreds of archaeologists working on this site
19:16racing to record thousands of finds and features
19:20and 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.
19:47But before the construction really gets going,
19:50archaeologists are on site to explore and record the heritage here.
19:55More than 200 archaeologists from Oxford Cotswold Archaeology
20:06are busy uncovering traces of human activity stretching back thousands of years.
20:11Across 70 sites, they'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.
20:49For archaeologist Rosanna Price, it's a job that's close to home.
20:56I was born and raised in Suffolk.
20:58This is where I'm from.
20:59And it's quite beautiful to be back, actually.
21:02We're joining Rosanna for an exclusive behind-the-scenes tour.
21:09Right, guys, morning all. Let's do the morning brief, then.
21:14Every day starts the same way in the nerve centre.
21:17Make sure they are safe for the job.
21:19Just to end this briefing.
21:21We have to do one of these every day on every site.
21:23Please ensure you're always wearing the correct and intact PP whilst on site.
21:27The team depends on meticulous co-ordination and communication.
21:32Housekeeping, walkways need to be kept clear, especially in doorways.
21:36Cleaning supplies are provided for everyone to use.
21:39We've got a lot of trainings.
21:41The round number is changed.
21:42Come on all the time.
21:43They need to update them.
21:45Marvellous. That's cracking. Cheers, guys.
21:48Let everyone's ready to go and start another day.
21:51And just like that, more than 200 archaeologists file out and disperse across the huge site.
21:57So 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,
22:09Rosanna 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.
22:34Rosanna'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 postal structure now, yeah. It's all good to go.
22:59These 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.
23:35This 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? It's perfect.
23:45Quite a high-status, presumably, object because it's so beautifully crafted.
23:50So this is something pretty fancy. Have you found anything more domestic?
23:54We found a lot more pottery. I've got a couple of sheds here.
23:57So this is early Neolithic pottery. This is 4,000 to 3,500 BC.
24:02Really, really elaborate design.
24:04So this piece here is 6,000, 5,500 years old.
24:11Yep, I survived all this time.
24:13That is phenomenal.
24:15This is the earliest pottery, our earliest finds we've had on the project.
24:21I mean, people were living, creating these 6,000 years ago.
24:24Absolutely stunning.
24:25The Sizor project is vast, and the team are uncovering evidence from many different periods.
24:35Very satisfying to watch the site develop over time, isn't it?
24:38Oh, definitely. You get quite emotionally attached to it.
24:41Like most sites I've been on, they've just been one specific time period,
24:45like either Roman or medieval.
24:47But with this, it's a complete landscape,
24:49and that landscape is really the history of people in East Anglia.
24:52The 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.
25:27It can take more than 20 minutes to drive between the sites.
25:32Yeah, one of those times when having to go up 5 to 10 miles an hour
25:36is really tantalising,
25:38because you've got this thing, you want to go and see it.
25:40What can you do, I guess? You've got to stick to the speed limit.
25:43In 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 in 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, and that's such a classic manoeuvre,
26:11to turn up and get something.
26:12Oh, 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 from this massive collar here.
26:24I mean, it's so exciting just to be the first person to see something like this
26:28in, what, three and a half thousand years?
26:29Yeah.
26:30It's the reason I got into archaeology, to do things like this.
26:32It looks like there might be some impressed twine decoration
26:35around 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
26:40to see if there's any more decoration,
26:42and if it's mirrored on the accessory vessel as well.
26:46This cremation is two miles away from the Neolithic building
26:50found at the first site, and it's much later in time.
26:54But so far, it's the earliest evidence of human activity
26:57that they're finding in this part of the landscape.
27:01It's quite interesting that here we have almost no evidence
27:04of 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.
27:13It seems to be a real gap in the landscape here.
27:16This is an area that they just don't seem to be using or visiting
27:19during the early Neolithic.
27:21It's not until the early Bronze Age that we see any significant activity here.
27:25So there does seem to be significant variation over time
27:29in the parts of the landscape that people are exploiting.
27:32This is just an amazing addition to the story of Si's Well,
27:36the story of Suffolk people through time.
27:38Seeing all these little patches of excavation coming up in the landscape,
27:44this is amazing.
27:45This is actually my history coming to life in front of me.
27:48We'll rejoin Rosanna later in the programme,
27:52when even more of Suffolk's rich history is revealed.
27:56This is amazing.
27:57Sounds like it might be something pretty good.
27:59The East of Britain has always been the front line between our islands and the continent,
28:03sometimes bearing the brunt in times of conflict,
28:10at other times benefiting from peaceful connections and commerce.
28:16Throughout the centuries this proximity to Europe has had a unique impact on the communities that lived here.
28:23As our next dig shows.
28:48Tori Herridge is heading to Folkestone, 10 miles west of Dover.
28:57The white cliffs that run along the South East Coast are one of Britain's most recognisable landscapes.
29:13They are the first thing anyone sees when travelling across the Channel from France.
29:21Even Roman generals.
29:24It was these white cliffs that Julius Caesar described when he tried but failed to invade the British Isles in 55 BC.
29:39He 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 clifftops who lived here along the South Coast of Britain during the Iron Age.
29:57A team from Canterbury Archaeological Trust is in their third year of excavations at the site.
30:04They want to find evidence of this Iron Age community and investigate what their lives and culture were like before the Romans invaded.
30:19Geophysical surveys at the clifftops reveal at least three Iron Age roundhouses that once stood right here.
30:25Archaeologist Andrew Mackintosh is leading the dig.
30:30What a view.
30:32It's such an amazing view.
30:34Often on cleared days you'll see the white cliffs over in France there as well.
30:38Julius Caesar remarked on a populated Iron Age settlement here and 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 heavy circular stones used to grind grain into flour.
31:03But here these quern stones were used to line drains gutters and post holes.
31:10Even I would recognise 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?
31:20It is.
31:21You've been turning that round the weight of it grinding.
31:24Yeah 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 you can see chisel marks where they've started to work here.
31:41It'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 that it's split at some point when they've tried to shape it.
31:54And then it's no longer functional for its purpose.
31:57So 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.
32:05The querns were shaped from local sandstone which 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.
32:21Yeah. Which is kind of really impressive.
32:23But I mean this raw material if it's available everything has got here somehow it's come up off the beach.
32:29So you're going to utilise this raw material.
32:31So exactly waste not what not right.
32:32So yeah you've got it you might as well use it.
32:34Indeed.
32:35And that's more than any one settlement would need for themselves.
32:37Yeah.
32:38So the people here are making quern stones to be traded elsewhere.
32:41They're being traded inland possibly overseas.
32:46The Iron Age people living here had such an excess of quern stones they must have been trading them.
32:55And small finds from the site are helping archaeologist Rich Best piece together a picture of cross-channel connections long before the Romans invaded Britain.
33:08So pre-conquest what have we got from that period are these stuff here should tell us something about that time.
33:14So this gold coin is a import from northern France and sort of Flanders area and dates to 58 to 54 BC.
33:23Oh right wow.
33:24So it's right on the sort of the that 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.
33:35Do you think news of that would have been coming with these coins.
33:37Absolutely.
33:38Yeah.
33:39I think it's quite easy to think of Britain in that period is quite isolated.
33:42When really particularly in Kent and here it's a hop across the channel which I think is something that people do quite regularly.
33:48And then with that the stories of what what's happening.
33:50So you've got what is clearly sort of ceramics pottery stuff.
33:53Yeah.
33:54Absolutely.
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.
34:02So yeah.
34:03Is it Roman?
34:04It is.
34:05So these are used for importing wine, olive oil and sort of fish sauce.
34:09And we think these were imported around 150 BC.
34:12Oh so before.
34:13So it's pre Roman conquest Britain.
34:15Yeah.
34:16We think of sort of olive oil and wine and fish sauce as a characteristically Roman thing.
34:20But 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 and you know their their connections.
34:31Rome is encroaching basically.
34:32Yeah.
34:33And what else have we got in here?
34:34This is quite different over here this darker stuff.
34:36Yeah.
34:37So 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.
34:47So this is someone over here basically trying to make some fancy Roman plates.
34:51Yeah.
34:52And 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 whereas elsewhere in Kent you only see it post conquest.
35:12So maybe up to sort of 60 AD.
35:14That's interesting.
35:15So here they're kind of ahead of the game.
35:17Right.
35:18That's interesting because like the Romans haven't conquered.
35:20No.
35:21But they're adapting.
35:22The culture has in some ways.
35:23Adopting.
35:24Yes.
35:25A lot of what the Romans would bring.
35:27Ahead of the army comes the ideas.
35:29Yeah.
35:30Absolutely.
35:31What'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.
35:54But there's also something else.
35:56There's a tantalising connection to Rome.
35:59The people of Kent were enjoying fine wines, fine pottery but 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.
36:14And 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.
36:35Archaeology 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.
37:05I've come to Museum of London Archaeology's 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.
37:24They 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 to improve our understanding of the colours and patterns used in Romano-British interior design.
37:49Hi Han.
37:51Hi, how are you?
37:52Wow.
37:53This 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.
38:12They make up 20 separate decorated walls, each with a different intricate design.
38:20My 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.
38:27So, you've got a beautiful candelabra here with these two knots.
38:30Do you see?
38:31Yes.
38:32Of course, the string is dangling down to little dots of pearl.
38:35Those are pearls?
38:36They are, yes.
38:37Oh, wow.
38:38Yeah.
38:39And over here, where we thought were grapes initially, it's actually part of a mistletoe,
38:43which is quite a popular thing in Roman culture itself.
38:48Yeah, that's beautiful.
38:49I'm looking at this, but I'm side-eyeing this beautiful, is it a daisy?
38:54It is a daisy, and this daisy is actually our star piece.
38:57So, everyone remembers the daisy during the period of excavation, because this was one
39:01of 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.
39:09It's imitation marble, pink imitation marble.
39:11It gives you that illusion of a much more expensive piece of building material.
39:16By painting this plaster wall to look like more expensive and higher status stone, the
39:23artist has given us clues as to what stone buildings really looked like, as well as the
39:27aspirations of the Romano-British occupant.
39:30Now, this is some beautiful imitation stonework.
39:34This is actually imitating Egyptian red porphyry.
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 are done so intricately
39:48and so carefully.
39:49It must have taken forever.
39:51By examining each fragment in minute detail, Han 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, look at the font.
40:09It's beautifully done, isn't it?
40:12Even the T itself has a thin to thick to thin kind of stroke to it.
40:18And it says F-E-C-I-T has made this.
40:22And if you imagine when I was talking about the way that it was scored in, that could only
40:28be done when the plaster was still soft.
40:31Now, who do you think would do that but the painter?
40:34You're not telling me this is a painter's mark?
40:37This is a painter's signature mark or the group signature mark.
40:41But how brilliant is that?
40:43There's not many of these.
40:45In fact, very few examples can be proved that the painter has scored it in when the
40:50plaster was soft.
40:51That's amazing.
40:52What Han and his team have done here is more than conservation.
41:05It's transformation.
41:08Finishing this puzzle has given us a unique window into the taste, ambition and styles of
41:14Romano-British London.
41:23The landscape of Britain's East has changed many times through the centuries.
41:29From the draining of marshes in the fens, to the arrival of Christianity.
41:39But every time a new generation starts changing the landscape, there's the potential that precious
41:45traces of the past may be lost.
41:52It's the job of archaeologists to record and preserve the past.
41:59And on our next site, that's happening on an unprecedented scale.
42:07We're returning to Sizewell, where Rosanna Price is giving us an exclusive glimpse behind
42:12the scenes of one of the biggest digs to take place in Britain.
42:20Offering a fascinating insight into Suffolk's long history.
42:29This is a once in a lifetime opportunity, isn't it?
42:32To have this vast project revealing archaeology in Suffolk.
42:38We've got everything the full span.
42:43One of the biggest challenges facing the team is working around all the heavy machinery on the site.
42:53We're surrounded by bollards and trucks and plant.
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 on a vast construction like this.
43:21So we're constantly working alongside active and moving plant.
43:24One of the main reasons for the PPE.
43:27But you can never forget that you've got a schedule.
43:29You are trying to meet a program.
43:31And there's also a great sense of teamwork and collaboration.
43:40Here, the team has made an incredible discovery,
43:43thanks to waterlogged conditions and amazing preservation of timber.
43:48This artifact dates to the Iron Age.
43:55Hi, Jess.
43:56Hello.
43:57Wow.
43:58That is sensational.
43:59I had heard that you had a ladder.
44:01Yeah.
44:02But you really do.
44:03Definitely a real ladder.
44:05Yeah.
44:06Big plank here, big plank there.
44:08And they've bored through this sort of circular rung from one side to the other.
44:14Yeah.
44:15I mean, at the moment the idea is that it would have been a big water hole well kind of thing
44:19and they've put a ladder in there to get down to it if the water level was really low.
44:22I mean, at the moment you can see that it's already starting to fill up.
44:26This is such a tangible link to the past, isn't it?
44:28Yeah.
44:29I mean, I have never seen anything like this.
44:30This is fantastic.
44:31What a wonderful find.
44:32Local 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.
44:59I know.
45:00We've revealed the full floor.
45:02So, this lovely levelled floor which is lined all the way out both of these flues.
45:07So, really excited.
45:10It's a Roman kiln and some of the pottery from the last firing has survived inside.
45:16So, in a very small amount of space, right at the bottom of the chamber, it 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, we still have some pot fragments sticking out.
45:29Yeah, some massive bits actually in context in here.
45:32Yeah, there's so much of it, which has been amazing and so lovely.
45:37This is one of our nicest bits of pot.
45:39Wow, that's gorgeous.
45:40With some lovely decoration.
45:41Stunning, isn't it?
45:42So, we've found that all throughout the whole future.
45:45So, we know that they've definitely been making that here.
45:48Very high quality, probably very expensive.
45:50This is really impressive.
45:52That's the kind of thing you would have on a table.
45:54Yeah.
45:55In a fancy, fancy home.
45:56Yeah.
45:57I mean, that I think was quite uncommon.
45:59If we do find other pieces of that around the country, it might have been made in this kiln here.
46:05So, that's really lovely to see.
46:07What a delightful thing to uncover.
46:08Mm-hm.
46:11On a vast site like this, it's important to keep track of where everyone is.
46:19You've got to go through the security portal.
46:21You've got to prove who you are, get your ID out.
46:24It's a definite feeling that you're stepping into the size well world.
46:27So, everybody has to sign in when they get to site.
46:33Everybody.
46:34This is the visitor log, so we know who's here.
46:37This is the one that shows that everybody knows where to muster if there's an emergency.
46:41And then these two show that you've been briefed for any potential hazards, either in the compound or on site.
46:51Right.
46:52We're all signed in.
46:53We can go and see the archaeology.
46:54This excavation is so large that the environment varies hugely from place to place.
47:10From deep mud to gravel and even sand.
47:14And here the archaeologists are excavating a graveyard.
47:20Which dates to the centuries after the Roman period in Britain, known as the early medieval period.
47:27It's like being at the beach, isn't it?
47:29The sandy soil here is acidic, dissolving away bone mineral.
47:41These haunting shadows are called sand skeletons.
47:48Archaeologist Frankie Wildman is leading this excavation.
47:53Ah, so this one's really clear.
47:54Yes.
47:55Can you see the legs here and the pelvis?
47:58Yes, that's it.
47:59So you've got the pelvis here, so you've got the left side and the right side.
48:04You've got the right leg running down here.
48:07And you've got the left leg running down here.
48:09Ah, that's beautiful.
48:10And of course, these beautiful beads.
48:12Look at those in the sunlight as well.
48:15Yeah, they're absolutely gorgeous.
48:16So these are Baltic amber beads, which provides us an indication that there was a connection with the North Atlantic, so Scandinavia.
48:25This was an interchangeable point.
48:28So 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, so having the personal effects with the skeleton as well.
48:44So this is why we've got these beautiful beads having been found.
48:47Such a poignant connection to this person, all that's surviving in the grave of them is their incredible style.
48:53Yes, absolutely.
48:54The team are unearthing dozens of sand skeletons.
49:02But there's one that dwarfs them all.
49:05A horse burial.
49:08Ah, wow.
49:09That is so much more defined than when I last saw it, isn't it?
49:12It's awesome, isn't it?
49:13Yeah, well done, Jack.
49:14Really cool.
49:15You've got the front legs here.
49:16Yep.
49:17And the hind legs coming round here.
49:20And you've just got the shadow of the spine.
49:22Yep.
49:23You've got enough of that surviving leg to work out the height of this, surely?
49:27Yes, so provisionally there's a height of around about 1.4 metres.
49:31Okay.
49:32Which in horse terms is about 13 hands.
49:34Oh, a little pony.
49:35Hi.
49:36I mean, these horse burials certainly, more so than other animals, are seen as companions
49:40for the afterlife, so to speak.
49:42So, more than likely, you would have had a grand procession that would have happened to
49:47the person next door, and then they would have had the horse laid to rest with that person.
49:55And it isn't long before the team discover that the horse wasn't buried on its own,
49:59there are human remains here too.
50:01This is a very high-status Anglo-Saxon burial.
50:06Oh, this is amazing.
50:08So, we're in the big ring ditch feature, the big grave area, and they've got something sort
50:14of this size, and we don't know what material it is yet, but as they're uncovering it, it
50:20starts off white, and within sort of 30 seconds of being oxidised, it's turning grey down into
50:28black, I mean, immediately on the phone to the specialist to see what it is.
50:35Could be silver, guys.
50:36Could be silver.
50:37Could be silver.
50:40Which would be right next to...
50:41Frankie's just speaking to our specialist back in the office to find out what this might be.
50:46Oh, this is amazing.
50:47How we might treat it immediately.
50:51Sounds like it might be something pretty good.
50:53Yeah.
50:54What it might mean about the grave, but the most important thing for us right now is to know
50:57how to look after it as best we can immediately, because it's clearly changing as soon as it's
51:02hitting the air.
51:05Frickin' cool.
51:06Go on, what did they say?
51:07And that sounds like silver.
51:08Oh, wow.
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.
51:18Wow.
51:19The grave goods are dissolving before their eyes, but the presence of silver emphasises the
51:26status of this burial.
51:28To find what could be a princely burial in such a high status Anglo-Saxon cemetery is nationally
51:35significant, internationally significant.
51:37And the team here going down in two and a half centimetre spits to try and catch every
51:42bit of information that they possibly can.
51:47The team has now made hundreds of discoveries spanning some 40,000 years of Suffolk's history
51:53from the Stone Age to the modern day.
51:58Rosanna's come to the tent to show me some of the latest finds.
52:10Rosanna, you've got some bits from the size of it.
52:13I mean, it's an enormous site.
52:14I can't believe the size of it.
52:16The width of the geography and the breadth of time is almost overwhelming, the amount
52:23of information that we can take from it and learn and interpret.
52:27It's just amazing to be able to see what's happening across a whole landscape like that.
52:31I mean, that's the value of these big digs, that you're not just kind of opening up a
52:34small area.
52:35You're actually able to see what people are doing right across that landscape.
52:38Yeah, absolutely.
52:39I mean, you would say, well, if you dig a big enough hole, then you'll find something.
52:42And we've dug a massive hole and we found everything.
52:44Yeah.
52:45So you've got some objects to show you that depth of time.
52:49Yes.
52:50So this is about 40,000 years old.
52:53This is a Neanderthal hand axe.
52:55Isn't that amazing?
52:56It is.
52:57It's absolutely incredible.
52:58I mean, 40,000 years ago takes us back way beyond the peak of the last ice age.
53:04We're into Britain being a completely different landscape.
53:07Yeah, absolutely.
53:08There are no modern humans here.
53:09It's just Neanderthals.
53:10When you hold it in your hand even now, you can feel how usable it is, you know, for butchery,
53:15for working fibres, maybe even for woodworking.
53:18It's still a perfectly usable tool.
53:20It's just incredible.
53:21It's amazing.
53:22OK, so 40,000 years ago.
53:24And then actually, we're getting relatively close to the present now.
53:27Yep.
53:28A little 4000 BC sort of era.
53:30Yeah.
53:31So these leaf-shaped arrowheads, this one in particular, I just think it's just incredible.
53:34It's so fine.
53:36So thin, and completely symmetrical.
53:41It's kind of shocking to look at things like this and realise that they were such violent items.
53:46There's a tension, isn't there, between admiring the beauty of it and then realising actually
53:51that that is designed to pierce flesh.
53:54Yeah.
53:55And kill something.
53:56Yes.
53:57Yeah.
53:58These are a little Iron Age coin hoard.
54:00These are so cool as well.
54:01The detail on these is exquisite.
54:03Oh, wow.
54:04Yeah.
54:05Yeah.
54:06Don't you love it?
54:07Isn't it lovely?
54:08A little horse.
54:09So I can see his front legs there and his back legs there.
54:12And 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, sort of that real transitionary period as the Romans
54:23are coming over to Britain.
54:26These finds beautifully illustrate how culture changes over the centuries.
54:31Iron Age coins give way to Roman brooches.
54:34And as the Roman Empire fades from memory, we find Anglo-Saxon weapon burials.
54:41And then there are exquisite medieval finds.
54:46This is so cool.
54:47I 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 pilgrim's badge.
54:55Well, it would have been a necklace.
54:57And if you now pick that up and hold it up to the light.
55:00Oh, wow.
55:01OK, 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, exactly the same, but only from Eastern Europe and Russia.
55:13Really?
55:14And there's, we think at the moment, only about one or two of these in Western Europe, including this one.
55:19In the whole of Western Europe, not just Britain.
55:22So this is, I mean, this is really special then, I find.
55:25Yeah.
55:26Almost unique.
55:27I mean, I presume it's not made locally.
55:29I presume it's come from elsewhere.
55:31We think imported from Venice, we think it's Venetian glass.
55:33Yeah, yeah.
55:34And presumably, very sadly for them, they've just dropped it.
55:37They 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, we can have all kinds of imaginative interpretations.
55:44That's a really special thing.
55:45Yeah.
55:46Wow.
55:47What's this thing, Rosanna?
55:48Oh, this is a lead seal matrix.
55:50So it would have been a news for impressing into wax, for sealing letters and things like that.
55:55Wow.
55:56It's got a fledgly in the middle.
55:57It's got writing right on the outside.
55:59Yeah, and this is very cool.
56:00So it says, the seal of Matilda, daughter of Godwin.
56:04I 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.
56:13Yeah.
56:14But Matilda was obviously quite an important woman.
56:15She's got her own seal.
56:16Important enough to have her own seal.
56:17Yeah.
56:18So presumably, she's writing documents and sealing them.
56:22She'd be elite, yeah.
56:23To have a seal like that.
56:24Well, 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, and then we're right up to 20th century.
56:35Yeah.
56:36World War Two evidence.
56:37This is a bottle of beer.
56:38Still with the beer in.
56:39And that's actually the beer?
56:40Yeah.
56:41Still in it?
56:42Yes.
56:43Yeah, I don't think I'd like to try that.
56:4485 year old brew.
56:45I think that can stay in there.
56:47Is that a compass?
56:48Yeah, this is quite beautiful.
56:49That's lovely.
56:50Can I pick it up?
56:51Yes, absolutely.
56:52And it still opens and closes.
56:53Oh.
56:54I think it was a World War One issue.
56:57Okay.
56:58And that someone has then either reused it or been gifted it.
57:01Yeah, yeah.
57:02For World War Two, because we found it in a World War Two context.
57:04Yeah.
57:05And it does say USA Knight.
57:07So it's American?
57:08It's American, yeah.
57:09Yeah.
57:10That's a beautiful object.
57:13Lovely.
57:14We've got...
57:15Wow.
57:16What have we done?
57:1740,000 years of history on the table.
57:20And all human life is here.
57:22Yeah, yeah.
57:23You know, from conflict and to just domestic issues, to eating, to how you want to design
57:32yourself and how you want to look.
57:34Self-care.
57:35Yeah.
57:36Death.
57:37It's all there.
57:39All uncovered at Sizewell.
57:44Next time on Digging for Britain, archaeologists in the Cotswolds unearth a unique find.
58:01We could see this carved bone object.
58:04I've never seen anything like it before.
58:07A dig in Oxford teaches us a lesson about students of the past.
58:11We actually have a pier, and we're calling it Smoker's Corner, where you would just chuck
58:15your clay tobacco pipes.
58:16And in Kent.
58:17That is a plated gold disc grove.
58:20Archaeologists uncover spectacular Anglo-Saxon burials.
58:24It's a child with weapons, which is extraordinary.
58:27I'm going to search for we to start.
58:31Wild adventures for people at locker heads with each other.
58:35Bear Grylls seeks to challenge and heal family rifts on iPlayer.
58:39On BBC Sounds, Kimberly Wilson untangles our mental health, making the complex manageable.
58:46Comedy next here on 2, we've dug up an old relic.
58:49Victor Meldrew is back.
58:50The sun to lay us dead out in the sun.
58:52The sun to lay us dead out in the sun.
58:56The sun to lay us dead out in the sun.
Comments