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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.
00:22So each year across the country archaeologists dig underground and dive underwater searching for fresh discoveries.
00:38The most amazing thing in British archaeology.
00:41Uncovering traces of ancient lives.
00:44Somebody's played in joy I'm sure.
00:46And finding fascinating objects.
00:49Such exquisite detail.
00:51This year I'll be meeting the archaeologists and looking at some of their most incredible finds.
00:59I mean that is stunning.
01:02While Dr Tori Herridge is travelling the length of the country to some spectacular locations.
01:09Where I'll be dropping in on some of this year's most fascinating digs.
01:14Oh my gosh can you see that?
01:17It's just brilliant.
01:19Oh my goodness.
01:21Every dig provides a new piece in the puzzle of Britain's forgotten past.
01:27This is the epic and unfolding story of our islands.
01:33Welcome to Digging for Britain.
01:47This week on Digging for Britain.
01:51Archaeologists in the Cotswolds.
01:53Well it's definitely open doesn't it?
01:55Unearthed a unique find.
01:57We could see this carved bone object.
02:00I've never seen anything like it before.
02:03A dig at the University of Oxford.
02:06We've just been uncovering loads and loads of pure untouched medieval archaeology.
02:11Shows student life hasn't changed much.
02:14We have a pier and we're calling it currently Smoker's Corner.
02:17And in Kent.
02:18Wow.
02:19That is plated gold discroach.
02:23Archaeologists discover spectacular Anglo-Saxon burials.
02:28A child with weapons which is extraordinary.
02:31A child with weapons which is extraordinary.
02:35one.
02:36One.
02:47One.
02:48One.
02:49Over the centuries, the sea has shaped so much of the story in these islands.
03:08And it was in the shipyards of the south coast that Britain's position as a naval power was forged, as our first dig shows.
03:19We're heading to the New Forest and the village of Buckler's Hard, 12 miles south of Southampton.
03:33Buckler's Hard sits on the banks of the River Bewley, surrounded by ancient woodland.
03:41It was perfectly positioned to become a vital centre of shipbuilding.
03:46When Britain's imperial ambitions were expanding at the end of the 18th century, Torrey is finding out more.
03:58This place is beautiful.
04:06These two lines of idyllic cottages run straight down to the river.
04:11But had you come here just two or three hundred years ago, and this quaint and sleepy little scene would have looked totally different.
04:19A bustling hive of activity, a centre of modern manufacturing, where some of Britain's most important and famous ships were built.
04:29By the 18th century, Buckler's Hard was a thriving shipbuilding hub.
04:39And at the centre of it all was master shipwright, Henry Adams.
04:44He and his sons oversaw the building of an incredible 55 ships.
04:49Perhaps the most famous was the HMS Agamemnon, captained by a young Horatio Nelson early in his career.
04:59It was while on this ship that he'd lost the sight in his right eye at the Battle of Calvi.
05:06Nelson would be reunited with the Agamemnon when it formed part of his fleet at the Battle of Trafalgar in 1805.
05:14Four years later, while on a mission in South America, the Agamemnon ran aground off the coast of Uruguay and was abandoned.
05:25Archaeologist John Adams is leading a team investigating the construction and later demise of this mighty ship.
05:33To do this, they're excavating the slipway where the HMS Agamemnon was built.
05:38The ship was built.
06:09So this slipway here, it's under the water now.
06:12It is.
06:13Would it have gone into the water deliberately for tidal purposes?
06:16It would.
06:16Because as you're building the ship on the slipway, you've got to then slide the ship into the water.
06:21So the slope has got to be precise so that you don't have the ship breaking away on its own halfway through building.
06:27Conversely, that it will move when you want it to at the end of the building process.
06:31And both of the things happened, you know, so by experience they've worked out the right angle.
06:36OK, so what could this tell us that you don't already know?
06:39Well, we've got slipway structures from this period in other shipyards, but most of them are under bricks and concrete.
06:45So here we've got the entire structure that has essentially been left since the major shipbuilding finished after the end of the Napoleonic Wars.
06:54But is there anything that this can tell you that a historical document can't?
06:59Ah, well, what they proposed and what they actually did are two different things, and we see that all the time.
07:06When they actually come to do it, the real world imposes.
07:09So the archaeological reality is always slightly and interestingly different from a lot of the historical, theoretical stuff.
07:17Rodrigo Ortiz-Vasquez is part of the team excavating the slipway, with the aim of working out how such vast ships could be supported in the soft clay riverbed.
07:34So one of the things that you look at this timber is that it's been really, really nicely worked underneath.
07:39It's very flat. It's been laid on top of a gravel layer that they've been digging out.
07:44So they've really thought how to keep it from sinking.
07:46It's so much more than just hacking down some massive trees and shoving it in the mud.
07:50Oh, absolutely. And if this goes wrong, if this is not laid properly, the whole ship is not going to be built correctly.
07:55So this is really important stuff. And it's still in place, you know.
07:59This is from the 1700s and it's still there.
08:05The architecture of the slipway is helping the archaeologists understand how the Agamemnon was built.
08:11And some of the smaller finds offer a tantalising connection to the ship, including copper plating that would have been used to protect wooden holes from shipworm and barnacles.
08:24That square nails would be going through. So this would be fastened to the side of the ship to basically create an anti-fowl layer.
08:32So this is definitely contemporary to all the shipbuilding.
08:34How do you know this is contemporary with the Agamemnon period?
08:37Well, this has got like a very particular way of being rolled out and you've got marks that look like old tool marks.
08:43And also the main giveaway is these square nail holes that are those there.
08:50We've got this bundle of square nails that were found together.
08:53So it would have gone in something like that.
08:54Exactly. Yeah.
08:55You have other big finds. This is definitely, you know, shipwright related like this.
09:00That's a big iron fastening nail.
09:03Fastening nail.
09:04Some of them would be even longer than other.
09:05It had to fasten two things together, two big timbers.
09:07So a double layer timber.
09:09Exactly.
09:09Other small finds are helping Rodrigo build a picture of the industry and who was working here.
09:19Other stuff that we have contemporary are these clay pipes.
09:21Yes.
09:22This was definitely being, you know, smoked by somebody who was working on a ship.
09:26Other really exciting things here is this.
09:29This is called part of an onion bottle.
09:31What was in it?
09:32Well, it could have been port. It could have been wine.
09:34This is all coming out of the mud around the slipway.
09:37Exactly.
09:37And what you're seeing here is a workforce that seems to be smoking and drinking on the job.
09:42Well, it did happen.
09:43Yes.
09:44And also, you've got to think, it was quite a big workforce.
09:46So you have hundreds of people working at the same time.
09:49So unavoidably, they would break stuff and just throw it on the side.
09:54The slipway is helping archaeologists understand the Agamemnon's origins.
09:59But they also want to learn more about her end.
10:02Her remains have lain off the coast of Uruguay since 1809.
10:08It's the only surviving wreck of a ship built at Buckler's Hard.
10:13So diving this piece of maritime heritage has been crucial to the archaeologist's research.
10:21This is the timber.
10:23This is the famous timber.
10:24And I'm touching history here.
10:26Mary Montague Scott, director of Buckler's Hard Maritime Museum, was part of the dive team.
10:32So you're on a mission to piece together the history of the Agamemnon, I guess.
10:41Absolutely.
10:42So this is to honour this incredible ship that was Nelson's favourite.
10:45And he was on it for three and a half years.
10:47It's where he lost his eye at the Battle of Calvi.
10:49And he writes about it as his favourite ship.
10:53It was the one where he had success.
10:55And then he took that success on to become our leading, you know, admiral in history.
11:06What kind of ship was the Agamemnon?
11:08She is a 64-gun, ardent class ship.
11:12And they were designed by the famous designer Thomas Slade.
11:16And he produced these drawings.
11:18And they were given this same set of plans to all the shipyards to build from,
11:22which is amazing because they're not that detailed, but they just knew how to build ships.
11:27So you have this plan.
11:28This is almost like the kind of the basic blueprint, but it's not the whole story.
11:31Yeah, and that's where the archaeology comes in.
11:33Exactly where the archaeology comes in.
11:36Mary and the team were able to map out key features of the Agamemnon on the dive.
11:42This is the cannonballs.
11:44Look at those.
11:44You can see these big concentric balls.
11:47And they all concreted together by age of time.
11:52The dive was a rare chance to gather as much information about the ship as possible,
12:00because the wreck is under threat.
12:04It was covered by mussels that have been recently eaten by an invasive whelp,
12:10and so that has uncovered the wood for the first time.
12:13OK, so that's exposed again.
12:14It's more exposed.
12:15And always vulnerable to bounty hunters, and over time people do take things.
12:19So recording it now, before it disappears, is the best way to do it.
12:23Mary was able to rescue some incredible artefacts from the decaying hulk,
12:31helping us understand how the Agamemnon was constructed.
12:34This is a piece of the copper plating that covered the entire hull of the ship.
12:41And there were 3,000 pieces of copper sheet that went on to the Agamemnon.
12:47These little broad array marks are just, they're so fresh.
12:52It's 200 years ago that was cut in there.
12:54This is sitting on the seafloor and it's still there now.
12:56Brilliant.
12:57It's just lovely.
13:00The finds, both on land and at sea,
13:04are certainly helping us understand the construction of this mighty gunship.
13:12But with further dives of the wreck planned,
13:14the investigation into how the Agamemnon was built is far from over.
13:27The British landscape is peppered with reminders of how our ancestors honoured their dead through the ages.
13:53Murials are not just about death.
14:03They tell us a lot about how people lived.
14:06And now we're returning to a site that I visited last year
14:09where some incredible new finds have been discovered
14:12that cast light on people's status, their identity and even family connections.
14:23For our next dig, we're returning to rural Kent,
14:2810 miles south of Canterbury.
14:33In the centuries after the Roman army left Britain in 410 CE,
14:39new kingdoms would emerge across Britain
14:42in the early medieval period.
14:45There are so few written records from this time
14:55that historians used to call it the Dark Ages.
14:59But archaeology can illuminate this period.
15:03In Kent, a team from the University of Lancaster
15:06has been excavating this extraordinarily rich cemetery
15:09for the last three years.
15:11Hi, Alice.
15:17Hi, how are you?
15:17I'm good, yes.
15:18You've been hunting Anglo-Saxons again?
15:20We've been hunting Anglo-Saxons again, and we've found some.
15:25Last year, I joined lead archaeologist Duncan Sayre and his team
15:29as they uncovered some astonishing finds.
15:34There you go, there's a knife.
15:37Isn't this the best Anglo-Saxon soldier you've ever seen?
15:40I've never seen anything like that.
15:42That's so well preserved.
15:44Wow, she's got so many objects buried with her.
15:47I can see beads.
15:49There's glass beads here.
15:54The team shone a light on the Anglo-Saxon people who lived here.
16:02It's been a bit of a black hole as far as history is concerned.
16:05It's often called the Dark Ages.
16:06It is, yeah.
16:07Yeah, exactly.
16:07Yeah, we're really getting close to these people, aren't we?
16:16This year, Duncan and the team are back at the same site,
16:19excavating an even larger area,
16:22revealing several high-status burials
16:25spanning the 5th to 7th centuries.
16:27They're starting to suspect that these graves could have contained members of one powerful Anglo-Saxon dynasty.
16:37And this extraordinary burial is the first piece of evidence.
16:41You can see that he is not much shorter than I am.
16:54He is probably around six foot in height, which is an astonishing thing for the 6th century.
17:01He is quite an old chap, and I think that's part of why he is so well furnished with weapons.
17:09We've got a shield boss, but what's astonishing about this shield boss is that we've got a series of rivets here and here.
17:18So these go through the shield board.
17:20We don't see those.
17:21They're not very common at all, so it's a decorated shield.
17:23And next to him, with his arm over the top of it, all the way across here, we can see this sword.
17:38Anglo-Saxon swords are quite rare and considered to be a marker of status.
17:45But Duncan is also interested in the placement of the weapons in the grave.
17:53The spear across that line of his body, all the way down here, and that emotive, almost hugging of the sword there, is a real characteristic of these 6th century burials.
18:05I think it shows how important that object was to him and to the community.
18:15So we're probably looking at an elder, a leader, a significant member of this elite family that are buried here.
18:21And, of course, in this cemetery, we've got probably six, seven, even eight generations.
18:32Not far from this grave of what seems to be a significant individual, the team find a smaller burial.
18:38It's a young person, it's a child, but we can age it quite specifically, because we've got these, these unfused ends here to the long bones.
18:49So we can suggest that this, probably, boy is aged between about 12 and 14.
18:55So a child with weapons, which is, which is extraordinary.
18:58Most of the individuals in this cemetery are male, but in one grave, the skeleton of a young woman is found with impressive grave goods.
19:19The archaeologists are wondering if all of these people could have belonged to the same prominent family.
19:26Student River Busby and archaeologist Andrew Richardson are just lifting an object that looks very special.
19:35OK. Wow. OK.
19:39That is a plated disc brooch.
19:41That is stunning.
19:42That is going to be very late 6th century, or very early 7th century, around about 600.
19:50It's just incredible to see and to get the chance to excavate, and it's just truly incredible.
19:56You were the first person to see the front of that for 1,400 years.
20:00Yeah.
20:01That is phenomenal to get to experience that.
20:03It's once in a lifetime.
20:05So they're using exotic raw materials, garnets, which might come from as far afield as Sri Lanka, gold, silver.
20:16None of this can be naturally sourced in Kent, but they're making a distinctively Kentish object,
20:22and almost certainly they're being distributed as gifts by the Kentish royal dynasty.
20:27So her wearing that is a symbol of her connection to that dynasty.
20:34Oh, wow.
20:35Oh, that's amazing.
20:38You've got all the little gold circles in there.
20:40Yeah.
20:41And you've got the three garnets.
20:44Wow.
20:44What a magnificent find.
20:48First skeleton.
20:49Yeah.
20:50First ever dig.
20:51Yeah.
20:52Yeah.
20:54Yeah, it's all downhill from now.
20:56Duncan and site supervisor Gemma Sweeney have brought some of this year's remarkable finds to the tent.
21:09What have we got here?
21:12We've got a child's burial.
21:13Yeah, he's between six to eight years old and he's still got a lot of baby teeth.
21:17But what, by the look of the sign?
21:19Yeah, he's absolutely touching.
21:20This individual's turn.
21:21But what he's got, or what they have got here, is this absolutely massive...
21:24That's a buckle.
21:25That is a belt buckle.
21:25Can I hold that?
21:26You can, absolutely.
21:27What's it made of, Duncan?
21:28It is made of silver.
21:30Oh.
21:30It's a solid silver belt buckle.
21:32So it's not only a big buckle for a small child, it's got a precious metal artefact.
21:38And you can see this is decorated.
21:39Yeah.
21:40There's little ring and dots all the way around the interior placement of that enamel, which is lovely.
21:44So it's really unusual to get grave goods and status grave goods.
21:49Absolutely, precious metal artefacts like that with a child is really interesting.
21:53And it's part of the same story that we have with this child.
21:57How old is this individual to begin with?
21:59Between 10 to 12.
22:00Okay.
22:01Yeah.
22:02And you've got weaponry.
22:03We've got weaponry.
22:04So we've got a shield boss with studs.
22:07It's a decorated shield boss.
22:09So it's a kind of grave goods that you would expect with an adult male burial.
22:13Exactly.
22:13Yeah.
22:14So this is going to have to be the question.
22:16Were these people buried with the artefacts of the families they're associated with?
22:21Or the people that they were going to become if they became adults?
22:24Yeah, this is...
22:25So there's a symbolic role here to these decorated weapons.
22:28And you've got three swords.
22:30We also have three swords.
22:31So one last year.
22:32Three this year.
22:33From last year to shame.
22:35So this here is the scabbard mouth, effectively, the scabbard opening.
22:40Oh, is it?
22:40Okay.
22:41Yeah.
22:41And that's made of copper and it's gilt.
22:44So it's got this gold over the top of it.
22:47Yeah, just gleaming through.
22:48Exactly.
22:48So what's interesting about this, we've got objects of different dates.
22:54So probably something that is 6th century and something that's a bit earlier, maybe late
22:595th or early 6th century.
23:00Yeah.
23:00Coming together to make one composite object that is a sword.
23:03So an old sword with a new scabbard, maybe?
23:05They really like old swords.
23:06So do you think the blade of the sword would have been you and then it's got old decoration
23:11on it?
23:11I wouldn't be surprised if they wanted to make it look like it was Grandad's sword because
23:15Grandad's sword was given down through that line.
23:18Maybe Grandad's sword is with him in the grave.
23:20Oh, okay.
23:21So he could be buried with a sword and take the bits of it off and put it on a new sword.
23:26So a sword almost has two lives, one in the afterlife in the grave and one of them in the above
23:32ground community as well.
23:33I mean, you start to think about dynasties, don't you?
23:36You start to wonder whether you've got an extended family through time in that cemetery.
23:40We often forget that, don't we?
23:42We accidentally call it the dark ages a generation or two ago.
23:45Yeah.
23:45But there's nothing dark about any of this.
23:47It's dark historically, but not archaeologically.
23:50Yes.
23:50It's amazing.
23:51Yeah.
23:51I dreamt I flew with the saints last night I know them all by wingsides And up there
24:12it just doesn't count for naught Whether you're clever or wise
24:20From historic cathedral cities to spa and university towns, the South has plenty of historic urban
24:31centres.
24:32And beneath their streets are traces of the people who once lived there.
24:42Our next dig is a really unusual one, taking place in an Oxford college.
24:48And the archaeologists were really limited in terms of where they could dig and how big
24:55the trenches could be.
24:57It was a bit like keyhole surgery, but they got an astonishing glimpse of student life through
25:04the centuries.
25:05This dig takes us right into the heart of Oxford's Dreaming Spires.
25:15Today, Trinity College is part of the university, a thriving centre of learning, just as it was
25:22700 years ago in the medieval period.
25:35When it was first established in the late 13th century, this site was known as Durham College
25:42and was a place of learning for Benedictine monks.
25:47The college's heating system is being updated, which involves drilling boreholes into its iconic
25:54lawns.
25:55But before they can make changes to these historic grounds, archaeologist Jamie Williams has been
26:01given a rare opportunity to find out how student life has changed over the centuries.
26:09In the last few weeks, we've just been uncovering loads and loads of pure, untouched medieval
26:14archaeology in the centre of Oxford, which is pretty rare, pretty cool.
26:21Jamie filmed his discovery of medieval finds, including thimbles, clasps used to protect the pages
26:29of valuable books, pottery, and even some jewellery.
26:35The medieval ring was just amazing.
26:38It's very personal.
26:39The ring is such a personal piece of history.
26:42I'm sure they were gutted that they lost it, but I'm very happy that I found it.
26:52But the peaceful order of Oxford's religious colleges would eventually be disrupted.
26:57The Reformation saw the closure of this Benedictine monastery in 1538.
27:04Then, in 1555, wealthy landowner Thomas Pope established Trinity College on the same site.
27:14Jamie wants to find out how daily life might have changed for Trinity's new students.
27:20With the gap of the Reformation, the college went from being an almost like closed-off place for monks
27:26to a place of learning with Trinity College.
27:30And the finds kind of represent that, because you can have these imported wares
27:34and students coming in from all over Europe,
27:36and you start to feel like this closed-off world has just become an open place for learning
27:41than it was before when it was a monastery.
27:43And Jamie's finding plenty of evidence that the students of 17th-century Oxford
27:53were quick to jump on a new trend.
27:59Some of the finds we're finding in huge quantities are some of the clay tobacco pipes,
28:03which basically are like single-use vapes now, you know.
28:05They would have put the pipe, broken off the length they wanted, thrown that on the floor.
28:09We actually have a pit, which is just outside the college gates,
28:13and it is just completely filled, and we're calling it currently Smoker's Corner,
28:16because it's the closest point you can get to the grass,
28:19where you would just chuck your, which are effectively single-use vapes,
28:22just into the original pit.
28:23So that probably would have been where they were doing a lot of smoking back in the day.
28:32Now that he's carried out some post-excavation research,
28:35Jamie has brought his finds to the tent to tell me more about Trinity College's past residence.
28:44We had a lot of layers.
28:46Yeah.
28:46It was kind of like an urban archaeology dig on a rural site,
28:49but in the centre of Oxford, so it was kind of a...
28:52It was kind of an odd one, but it was really, really fun to untangle.
28:54Yeah, and you've got some amazing objects, so take me through them then.
28:58What have we got here? Are these the earliest ones?
29:00We've got some lovely little book clasps.
29:03That is so sweet.
29:05It might still have some remnants of some wood in this one as well.
29:09Oh, that was amazing.
29:09Which is really cool.
29:11Do you know when, within the medieval period, these might date to?
29:1413th century, but obviously the book could have deteriorated,
29:17or they could have fallen off years later, you know, so...
29:19It's just this amazing history of learning at Oxford.
29:22Yeah, yeah.
29:22I love it, I love it.
29:23So do you think that was a fairly smooth transition then,
29:26from it being a Benedictine college, you know, a place of learning,
29:30to then being re-founded?
29:32Well, there was a ten-year gap between when it was re-founded,
29:35but it's definitely gone from this sort of ecclesiastical, closed-off space
29:38where monks would have learnt, and then you have Trinity College,
29:41which would be more open to the public.
29:42What's that? Is that a glass?
29:44Yeah, so this is just an example of some of the high-status glass
29:47that you had on site.
29:47That probably would have been somewhere around 17th, 18th, 19th century.
29:51There's some fine dining going on.
29:52There's a lot of fine dining, yeah.
29:53Some of the artefacts Jamie found shone a light
29:58on Trinity College's enterprising neighbours.
30:02These are glass bottle sills,
30:04so they would have been stamped onto the bottle when the bottle was made,
30:09and they have some initials in.
30:10So this is WMA, it's William and Anne Morrell,
30:13and the crown represents the Crown Tavern,
30:15which is the pub it actually came from.
30:17How do you know these names?
30:18Because, well, they are documented on licences.
30:22So Anne Morrell, she actually applied for a 10-year licence
30:25to sell wine in Oxford in 1659.
30:29So you've matched this up with historical records?
30:32Yes, because she took out a liquor licence in her own name.
30:35She was a widow at the time.
30:36And then she married William Morrell,
30:38and in 1660, with the restoration of the monarchy,
30:41they changed the name to the Crown Tavern.
30:4319 years after, so in 1679,
30:46Anne was widowed again.
30:48Right.
30:48She ended up, this is lovely, this is a glass seal.
30:51This is from when she was widowed for a second time.
30:53Oh my goodness, so we're getting these snapshots of her life here.
30:56Yeah, so she's still running the pub.
30:58This is 1687.
31:00She died in either 1695 or 1696,
31:03and she ended up handing the pub down to her daughter-in-law.
31:08I love this sort of stuff.
31:09I love the history.
31:10It's something that you can actually, like,
31:12grasp and go home and look at.
31:13Ooh.
31:14It's just, yeah.
31:14Amazing to have so many beautiful finds
31:16that, you know, give us a little wind day
31:18into this history of the Oxford Colleges.
31:21Yeah.
31:21Yeah.
31:21Let blisters be teachers
31:30With blessings bestowed
31:35Let the darkness restore us as seers
31:42I'll make these pathways
31:46I'll make these pathways my companions
31:49Be witness by what cannot be seen
31:58Be peregrine, be pasture
32:04Be tiny, be vast, be as soft as green moss
32:16I am fascinated by burial archaeology
32:31By what human remains, human bones can tell us about people in the past
32:35And then the objects that are buried with individuals as well
32:40They can tell us about culture, community and individuals
32:44And at this next dig
32:47One person was buried with an object that is so special
32:52That at this point in the investigation
32:54We think it's completely unique
32:57Our next dig takes us to the village of Broadway in the Cotswolds
33:0620 miles south of Worcester
33:09Broadway is often called the Jewel of the Cotswolds
33:15And it was in this idyllic village that just over a century ago
33:20Pioneering female archaeologist Nancy Smith
33:23Led the discovery of the remains of ancient ditches
33:27Buildings and burials
33:29Thought to date
33:30To the Roman period
33:33The site excavated by Nancy Smith is now earmarked for development
33:43But before construction can begin
33:45A team from Worcester Archaeology
33:48Are investigating what may still be hidden underground
33:51Initial surveys suggested that they might find a handful of isolated burials
34:00But the archaeologists soon realised
34:04That they were dealing with a vast Roman cemetery
34:06Jamie Wilkins has been leading the investigation
34:10In total we've had 76 graves
34:14But most of them have been localised to this area here
34:17And as you can see some of the grave cuts around us
34:20This is really, really significant
34:28To have such a dense cemetery
34:31Nothing has been seen in the county before like this
34:34To find such a large cemetery on this site
34:41Is really interesting
34:43Because it gives us quite a large population sample
34:46Of the people who were living and working in this settlement
34:50Some of these burials seemed very unusual
34:54We've also had a really high number of what we'd class as deviant burials
34:59Some of our deviant burials have been decapitations
35:03And we might have seen the skull placed by the feet or by the knees
35:07And some where the skull hasn't been in the grave at all
35:10Deviant or irregular burials
35:17Are simply those considered to be unusual
35:19That might include decapitated remains
35:23Or a body buried face down
35:26It's easy to assume this relates to punishment in some way
35:30But some of these graves suggest that something different
35:35May have been happening here
35:37And one particular burial has grabbed Jamie's attention
35:41When we first started excavating that grave
35:45We could see this sort of carved bone object
35:48Underneath the skull
35:50This is the grave of a female individual
35:56Buried face down
35:57And there's an artefact under her skull
36:02The archaeologists filmed the moment
36:05This remarkable item was recovered
36:08And we could see this circle dot pattern
36:11And it was really quite exciting
36:13To find an object like that does not happen every day
36:21I've never seen anything like it before
36:23What we could see on site was that this box was still sealed
36:27And so we weren't prepared to open the box on site
36:30Jamie knew this mysterious box was something very special
36:36And in fact it's unique
36:39Nothing like it has been seen in British archaeology before
36:43And in the lab it was finally time to open it
36:48And look inside
36:50Jamie and his colleague Laura Griffin
36:57Have brought in that extraordinary find
37:00And a few others
37:01Where should we start do you think
37:07Should we start with the centrepiece
37:09With this incredible artefact
37:11I've never seen a box like this before
37:13I can't find any other examples that look similar at all
37:18Really?
37:18You get wooden boxes that have bone veneer strips on them
37:22That are decorated with ring and dot decoration
37:24But I haven't found any examples of a solid bone box
37:27It comes really quite smoothly
37:30Yeah it slides backwards
37:31It's really got a smooth action on it
37:33Isn't that amazing?
37:33Yeah
37:34I mean it's so beautifully made
37:36Was there anything in it?
37:38We had it x-rayed
37:39Yeah
37:39And it looked like there might be something in it
37:41But it turned out just to be soil
37:42I mean you imagine there must have been something
37:44That meant something to somebody
37:46Just something special
37:47Yeah absolutely
37:48And what's really interesting about the box
37:50Is it was deposited as a grave good
37:52It has meaning then doesn't it?
37:54Absolutely it was definitely special to that individual
37:56And we believe that they were a young female
37:5925 to 30
38:00Right
38:01And the pathology on the skeleton
38:03Indicated that this female
38:05Had some inflammatory reactions on the arm and the leg
38:08Okay
38:09So it's tempting to think that maybe this box
38:12Contained like an ointment or something
38:14That maybe they would have been using on themselves
38:17I mean we can only speculate
38:18In the absence of evidence from the box itself
38:21Absolutely
38:21But it's a good suggestion
38:23Yeah because
38:24If she's got inflammatory changes in the bones
38:26Absolutely
38:26And because the box was empty
38:28And the soil was described as being quite greasy
38:31You know we're not sure whether there might be a link there
38:34Oh who knows
38:35It's so curious isn't it
38:37And it's a beautiful thing
38:38And then you've always got more questions
38:39And you can't answer them
38:41Can I pick it up?
38:42Yeah
38:42Yeah
38:43So it is actually really robust
38:45And robustly made
38:47Yeah
38:48Out of a single bone
38:49So I can see that actually it's not panels joined together
38:52No it's a single
38:53And do we know what kind of bone it is?
38:55We've had it tested and it's come back as roe deer
38:57Oh it's absolutely gorgeous
38:59Let's have a look at some of the other artefacts
39:01I mean it does look stylistically connected with things like bone combs
39:06This comb was also from the cemetery
39:07We think it's a similar date to the box
39:10These bone combs I absolutely love them and they do go through time
39:13But this one is actually quite ornate isn't it compared with others?
39:16It's got stylised horse heads on the end plates
39:19And do we know when that dates to?
39:22From the sort of later 4th century
39:24So late Roman
39:25Yeah
39:26And then you've got some copper alloy objects as well
39:30This brooch was from a grave next to the grave that this one was in
39:34And there's some idea that they're associated with each other
39:36Right
39:36But the brooch is much earlier in date
39:38Okay
39:39So the brooch is 1st to 2nd century
39:41Oh wow
39:42In a 4th century cemetery
39:44Yeah
39:44Which would suggest that it's a treasured item again that has passed down
39:47It's an antique
39:48It's an heirloom
39:49Yeah
39:50Over generations
39:50Now the cemetery has already thrown up some surprises
39:54But you've got some unusual burials too
39:57Around 20% of our burials in the cemetery are what we might call alternative burials
40:02Yeah
40:02And this includes decapitations
40:05But also prone burials
40:07Where the individual has been buried lying face down
40:10It's very easy to assume that there's something about these burials
40:14Which is odd and perhaps even sinister
40:15Absolutely
40:16But actually we're seeing a lot of these alternative burials
40:20With grave goods
40:21Yeah
40:22Which might indicate that it's not a punishment
40:24It's just a practice
40:25Yeah
40:26So for example the grave which contained the box here
40:29This was a prone burial
40:30That young woman was buried face down
40:33And that box had been deliberately placed under her right cheek
40:36Really
40:37Underneath the skull
40:37Yeah
40:38Burial which contained that lovely bone comb
40:40This was a decapitation burial
40:42The comb had been placed at the top of the vertebrae where the skull should be
40:47It seems to be that it's part of a respectful way of burying somebody
40:51If you've got grave goods in there as well
40:53Potentially yeah
40:54And what's interesting is that whilst it's not exclusive to Britain
40:58It does seem to be something that characterises Romano-British cemeteries
41:04Yeah
41:05Which is really interesting
41:06It's absolutely fascinating
41:08And there will be more fascinating details to emerge
41:11And indeed more details did emerge when Worcester archaeology expanded their dig
41:27Right next to the cemetery they uncovered a vast Roman settlement
41:34It covers quite a large area
41:39Over four football pitches in total
41:41The sheer density and quantity of the archaeology was massively unexpected
41:46And another mysterious bone object has appeared from the ground
41:54A couple of days ago we made this really exciting find
41:59This was caked in mud and we couldn't really see anything other than it's just been another
42:04Fragment of animal bone
42:05But then as it started to dry out the holes were revealed
42:09And what we actually think this is is a carved bone flute
42:12I've never discovered a musical instrument on site before
42:17It's really quite special and it gives us that human connection
42:20Perhaps this was played more in leisure and for fun
42:24Rather than what we see across the rest of the site
42:27Which is just work
42:28With just a fragment of this ancient instrument surviving
42:39Professor Stuart Pryor is investigating how it would have been made
42:43And how it might have sounded
42:45I'm interested in experimental archaeology
42:53Recreating how artefacts might have been made in the past
42:56It's amazing
42:59And I've got plenty of experts to call upon to lend a hand
43:03Dr Simon Wyatt, an expert in ancient music
43:09Is going to help me explore how this piece of bone was turned into an instrument
43:13With this end missing
43:20We cannot be sure how it was sounded at all
43:23But we can do some experiments with the bones we have with us
43:27And we can demonstrate several different methods of using it as an instrument
43:31So we can actually hear what it may have sounded like
43:35Absolutely
43:35For the first time in 1500 years maybe
43:39Amazing
43:39The find is made from a metacarpal, the foot bone of a sheep
43:46And Simon has pre-boiled a leg from the butchers to soften the sinews
43:51Allowing him to cut off the meat
43:54This end should come off easier
43:58And it will demonstrate that hole at the end
44:00Which is part of the artefact
44:02And so that hole in the end is actually part of the structure of the bone
44:06Rather than anything to do with water
44:09So that happens naturally as part of the growth of the animal
44:11Absolutely
44:11Rather than it being something that's been drilled as part of the manufacture process
44:15Absolutely
44:16I guess it makes the job a bit easier
44:18It does, yeah
44:19Next we will need to drill our finger holes
44:23Employing the same technology that was available at the time
44:27Working on the premise that this is either late Roman or Anglo-Saxon
44:33And so we're going to try and do it with a bow drill
44:37Okay
44:38It's not too difficult actually
44:44It's quite easy to do isn't it
44:45As long as you've got the technique and the technology
44:48Yep
44:51Oh yes
44:51And then you have a little look
44:54Cool, look at that
44:56Now that we have our finger holes
45:01We need to investigate how the flute may have sounded
45:04One way to create a note is by blowing it across the top
45:09The most simple form of wind instrument
45:13Is known as an end blowing flute
45:15Where you are blowing against the edge
45:18What, a bit like blowing across the top of a milk bottle or a bottle?
45:21Absolutely, yes, yes, yes
45:22It's easy to make
45:24But hard to play
45:26Oh
45:28So that's it, right
45:31That is now potentially an instrument
45:34As the simplest version, yes
45:35Go for it
45:36Let's see this in action
45:37Almost there
45:41But it hadn't got a proper tone
45:42But what I could do
45:44Is show you it with one that is almost the same
45:46Except slightly larger bone
45:48Yep
45:49The end blown flute does make a sound
45:57But it isn't very loud
45:58So Simon is going to show me
46:01Some other ways this bone flute may have been played
46:04In the late Roman period
46:05They could have had a little duct
46:08Like a modern day recorder
46:10Which would look like this
46:12That's more familiar
46:13You've got a piece of wood
46:14That is cut at an angle
46:15So it directs your breath
46:17Exactly where you want
46:19So it's not as hard to play
46:21The duct flute certainly produces a clearer sound
46:33But there's one last way this instrument might have been played
46:37And it involves inserting a reed
46:40Okay
46:41I've cut a tiny notch
46:43And if you look
46:44It lifts up
46:45And when you put it in your mouth
46:47It vibrates
46:49So it's like a clarinet reed
46:51Held in place there
46:52Just simply with a little bit of beeswax
46:54So
46:55You're going to encapsulate the reed
46:58And seal your lips
46:59Yep
47:00And then blow
47:00Hard
47:01Lift the finger
47:05Once you've lifted
47:08Yes
47:10You can feel the vibration
47:11Yeah
47:11I can feel the vibration
47:12I can see how it works
47:14It's just amazing
47:15That was an amazing experiment
47:27I'm amazed at how versatile this piece of bone could be
47:31I can just imagine a shepherd playing music to his sheep in the late Roman or early Saxon period using a bone flute just like this
47:39Field archaeology brings evidence to light
47:57Excavations reveal the physical traces of ancient lives
48:02But then analysis using the latest scientific techniques can help build an even more vivid picture of the past
48:14Modern archaeological sciences and conservation allow us to extract so much more information from sites now than we could in the past
48:31We can see details that would have been overlooked sometimes even destroyed
48:36So when archaeologists came across a very high status iron age burial
48:42With a strange lump in it that clearly contained metal
48:47They knew that these precision techniques would be essential to untangling the mystery
48:53Our next story takes us to Hearn Bay
49:01Just ten miles north of Canterbury
49:04Where archaeologists were excavating a site before work could begin on a new housing development in this seaside town
49:12They discovered a settlement and cemetery that dated all the way back
49:18To the Iron Age
49:20Back in 2024
49:24The archaeologists were using metal detectors on site
49:28And picked up strong signals from one grave
49:31So it was clear that metal grave goods were present alongside these pots
49:38And the archaeologists decided to block lift a whole segment
49:42And carried out an x-ray
49:44The images revealed an incredible knot of metal items mingled with cremated human remains
49:51Now conservationist Dana Goodburn-Brown
49:58Is carrying out a detailed micro-excavation
50:02This process is like taking apart a very complicated puzzle
50:09And Dana's keeping her eye out for tiny clues as she works on the block
50:13Like here there is a structure like that
50:17Dana and her colleague Marie Lasseau
50:20Work for hours every day
50:22Peeling off layers of soil
50:24Deciphering this archaeological riddle
50:27After two weeks the grave goods are exposed
50:35For the first time in 2000 years
50:37This is a big copper alloy scabbard
50:46In the Iron Age they had bronze scabbards for their iron swords
50:52And we can see it sort of bends back here
50:55And comes up, bends down, comes around here and out to the other side of this
51:00And then the iron sword seems to be beneath it
51:05Dana suspects the sword and scabbard might have been deliberately bent
51:12As part of an Iron Age funeral rite
51:15Where weapons would have been decommissioned or killed before being buried
51:20This decoration is on the scabbard
51:23On the outer portion of the top bit here of the scabbard
51:26Doesn't seem to follow all the way around
51:28But it's just ever so beautiful and special
51:31And this is on a weapon
51:34But it's obviously they cherished this
51:37And it was felt to be worthy of high status decoration
51:41Dana and Marie record every layer that they excavate
51:48And they keep samples for analysis
51:50Each tiny piece of information will tell us more about the items in this burial
51:56Say if I preserve textile or preserve leather
52:04That's telling us that this person was laid to rest with either folded textiles
52:09Or a leather bag perhaps that held the cremated remains
52:13That's why it's so important why we're saving and labeling every little bit as we go down
52:21Because the scientists and other teammates might be able to help piece together the jigsaw from their specialism
52:27Other people will maybe say something different about the soil and the plant
52:35And pull out seeds that flowers were involved or something like that
52:39So yeah, it's from that moment in time where the cremated bones are interred with objects
52:43That was felt important to go to the afterlife with this person
52:48Marie has found some delicate fragments of wood
52:55Which could have been part of a scabbard
52:58Taking them into this acid-free tissue paper
53:01And then we will be able to bring it to the lab and look at it under microscope
53:06So fingers crossed
53:08These tiny fragments I collected can tell us a lot more
53:13If that's really wood grain preserved in the corrosion
53:18It could tell us about the way the scabbard was built
53:22It's like an untold story that is slowly being revealed under your eyes
53:29And it's like a dialogue, a discussion with the past
53:35And that's really the beauty of this work
53:38As Dana and Marie continue working
53:42They encounter a problem
53:44The scabbard can't be lifted without damaging the iron sword and cremated bone
53:50There's bones over here and bone there
53:53But it's coming under
53:55But again, as the sword and the scabbard are bent
54:01It could be that there was a gap under and the bones have slid under
54:05They can't risk excavating down any further
54:11So they try a different approach
54:13Rather than trying to lift out the scabbard and the sword
54:20I'm going to use polyurethane foam that expands
54:23That people use in buildings sometimes as installation
54:25So we're going to spray that all over
54:28And then put a board on top of that
54:30We're going to put ratchet tape all around
54:32This is the scary bit
54:34We're going to flip it
54:36And then we're going to excavate it from the other side
54:39By flipping over the block
54:44It will be possible to safely unearth more of the artefacts
54:47We've been days at this
54:55And really I don't feel very much closer to it
54:58So if we turn it over
54:59I'm hoping we can maybe find some of the missing elements
55:02That help us understand what was here
55:04The plan works
55:08They can now excavate from the other side
55:12Safely revealing more precious items
55:15And preserving the bone fragments
55:17Dana and Dan Worsley
55:26Who originally found the burial deposit
55:28Have brought the block into the tent
55:30To show me what they've discovered so far
55:33Dan, Dana
55:38Do we know when this dates to?
55:41Have you got an idea?
55:41I'm thinking at the moment about 30 BC through to 60 AD
55:45Late Iron Age into when actually the Romans arrive
55:48And we become part of the Roman Empire
55:50Yeah
55:51So you obviously came across this and decided to block lift it
55:55So it was part of a larger cremation
55:58So there's eight vessels that are surrounding this in the centre of it
56:01And so once we'd excavated everything down to what we were comfortable dealing with in the field
56:06We then decided to block lift
56:08It's so complicated as well because everything's lying one on top of another
56:12And you know if you were to move something you might damage the thing it's lying next to
56:16So what can we see here then?
56:18We've got a vessel here
56:20So this is flipped
56:21We're under the grave
56:23We're underneath looking up
56:24Yeah
56:24Because we've done one side and then we've flipped it over
56:27We've got a picture of the actual pit
56:30So Dan, show us what it looked like an excavation then
56:33So yes, lots of vessels
56:35Yeah, so that's the vessel that's still attached to the block lift
56:39So that was in the centre of a cremation cemetery with 14 other cremations
56:43But they were all either unearned or single or two vessels per grave
56:48Nothing compared to this
56:50So this is the richest one
56:51Do you think it's a founder grave?
56:53You know, sometimes you get these kind of founder burials
56:56And then other burials placed around them
56:58It's certainly a high status grave in that cemetery
57:02And all the others were centred around it
57:04Yeah
57:04So
57:04This is the sword we're looking at, is it?
57:06Yeah
57:07The handle of the hilt is here
57:09Yeah
57:09And it comes this way
57:11And then it comes around there
57:12And then it bends back here
57:14Then it bends down there
57:15So that's been deliberately bent?
57:16Yeah
57:17Yeah, it's the killing of the sword
57:18The killing of the sword
57:20But that's as far as I know
57:21They bent it around
57:22They bent it around again
57:23And then back on itself
57:24Yeah
57:25So the sword is iron or steel
57:29Then what about this copper alloy?
57:31What's that?
57:32It's a scabbard
57:33That's a scabbard
57:33Yeah
57:34So the sword is out of the scabbard as well
57:36So it's been taken out and both of them bent
57:38Really strange
57:42But fascinating
57:43Next time on Digging for Britain
57:53A forgotten royal estate yields hidden treasures
57:57Never seen anything like it in my 30 years of digging
58:00In Fife, a Pictish stronghold
58:03The best thing I've ever found on a dig
58:05I've never found anything this cool
58:07Reveals a chapter lost to history
58:09This site is incredible
58:11And Torrey finds that Sunderland's industrial heritage
58:15We've officially got our very first Roman pint
58:18Goes back further than anyone thought
58:21The Romans were here
58:23Come and search for we who search
58:28And look in for a scholar land
58:32I dig for those who store his life
58:37In very past
58:39The future's one
58:40And dig for us
58:43As we have done
58:45To lay the dead out in the sun
58:49To lay us dead out in the sun
58:53So we will be born
58:55To lay us dead out in the sun
58:55commands to try
58:58To lay us dead in the sun
59:00To lay us dead in the sun
59:02Welcome back
59:03Let's take a due
59:03To lay Mormon
59:04To lay us dead in,ır
59:05To lay us dead in the sun
59:06We look back into the sun
59:08For temos before
59:09Of course
59:09Of course
59:11We answer
59:11To lay us dead
59:11To lay us dead in the sun
59:12To lay us dead in the sun
59:14So we combo and are not
59:15medo
59:15To lay us dead inuges
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