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00:04Stonehenge. Eighth wonder of the world. Built over 4,000 years ago before the invention of
00:13metal tools or the wheel. Mysteries still shroud this engineering marvel. Many of its giant stones
00:23come from quarries more than 200 miles away. How in the world did they move these stones?
00:34One new theory. Could the stones have been brought here by boat? Now, a team of international
00:43experts have come together to find out by building a prehistoric boat from scratch.
00:50The difficulty is whether a boat can be stitched together with stuff like this.
00:57Loading it with a two-tone megalith. There's no way of getting the stone back up.
01:01And crossing some of the most dangerous waters in the British Isles. Let's go, let's go.
01:07Can this crew finally solve the enduring mystery?
01:10Starboard side, hold the water. Everybody's questioning, is this going to work? Is this
01:14going to happen? We don't have a shot and the wind just picked up.
01:261,500 tons of stone. Balanced like a house of cards on Salisbury Plain in southern England.
01:35Its purpose has puzzled archaeologists for centuries.
01:42Some say it's a site of sacrifice. Others, a gateway to the afterlife.
01:53But everyone agrees, Stonehenge is an engineering marvel.
02:00It was made up of almost 84 giant sarsen stones, towering over 80 smaller bluestones.
02:13Dragging and raising these massive sarsen stones from local quarries was an extraordinary achievement.
02:21But a geological discovery, around 100 years ago, reveals the bluestones journey to be just as remarkable.
02:28We know the bluestones came from Wales because they've got this really distinctive scholarship.
02:35There is one place in the UK where these particular stones are found, 200 miles away, in Presley, Wales.
02:46I mean, the obvious question is, given that when we look around, we've got huge stones, which are relatively local,
02:52is why they went to the trouble of going so far to get these much smaller ones.
02:59The mystery is, how were the stones moved here?
03:04Hauling these two-ton stones over land seems impossible, especially without wheels.
03:11There's an alternative possibility, transporting the stones by sea.
03:17But how do you prove this?
03:20We have no archaeological evidence of the kind of craft that people were traveling in the late Neolithic.
03:27No boat has been found from the time of Stonehenge that could have carried two-ton stones from Wales to
03:33the monument.
03:37But a series of archaeological discoveries offers a tantalizing clue.
03:44Three of the oldest seaworthy vessels ever found in Europe.
03:49They date to the Bronze Age, just 800 years after Stonehenge.
03:56Experts believe their sophisticated designs would have taken centuries to perfect.
04:02So, is it possible that a crude version of these boats existed at the time Stonehenge was built?
04:08They would have sewn plank boats, simpler, shorter, maybe not as wide, but still perfectly capable of transporting a bluestone
04:19from Wales to Stonehenge.
04:22Now, an international team of archaeologists and engineers is putting this theory to the ultimate test.
04:30They'll try to reconstruct a prehistoric boat, put a two-tone bluestone in it, add a crew, and see if
04:39they can paddle it along the coast of Wales to Stonehenge.
04:45A long list of things could go wrong, but if the team is successful, it could be proof that the
04:52stones came to Stonehenge by boat.
04:57The task of creating the vessel falls to expert boat builder, Matt Newland.
05:02We've got a length of 13 metres, a beam of 2.45 metres, and as I say, a boat weight
05:10of about 2,000 kilos.
05:12His design is based on the 4,000-year-old Bronze Age boat.
05:17It's a very basic shape, similar to what's been found around the coast.
05:23The boat will be built up from its keel plank.
05:28A set of seven ribs laid onto this to create a frame.
05:34Planks are then placed against the ribs and stitched together to create the sides.
05:42It sounds simple enough, but Matt's never attempted this kind of build before.
05:47He's not even sure it'll float.
05:50And the flat hull could make steering impossible.
05:54Paddling her with any kind of crosswind or headwind or any wind is going to want to slew the boat
06:00round crossways onto the wind and get blown around like a leaf on the water.
06:07Now the team needs a modern edition, an experienced skipper.
06:12New York-based Captain Tizak Gomez is a skilled open-water rower.
06:17Starboard side, hold water.
06:20Let's go, let's go.
06:22For Gomez, it's the challenge of a lifetime.
06:26You don't realize what Stonehenge is or means until you're actually there.
06:34It's like, wow, these stones were moved here somehow, way, shape, or form.
06:44The bottom of the original Bronze Age boat was carved from a single oak weighing up to six tons.
06:50I had a lot of respect for the people who carved that kind of thing with an axe.
06:54But the team only has three boat builders.
06:59And the clock is ticking.
07:02The boat must launch in three months.
07:06Before winter sets in and the window closes for another year.
07:10The only way they'll be ready is to use laminated wood for the boat's base.
07:15And it will easily, easily carry three tons.
07:18Hopefully.
07:21And one other concession.
07:23To save time, they will use modern tools.
07:27I think the principal thing we're setting out to prove here is whether the whole concept is possible.
07:35Now, there are certain things we can do with technology to make it realistic.
07:39But those in themselves don't affect the way we can judge the success or failure of the project.
07:50No nails or screws are used.
07:55That's actually nice and tight there, yeah?
07:59Instead, planks are stitched together with thin branches that come from a type of tree called a U.
08:04The thing to remember is not to bend, to twist the end, because you want the end to be rigid.
08:10So you can use the needle for feeding it through.
08:13Richard Dera is an expert in ancient woodworking.
08:16You can sort of get that to bend up as tight as you want.
08:20Yeah.
08:20The thicker end, you've got to do a little bit more work.
08:23Right.
08:25The difficulty is whether a boat that's going to weigh with the stone six or so tons can be stitched
08:32together with stuff like this.
08:41220 kilos and not technically broken.
08:46We've gone to a point where we know that the U is theoretically strong enough to stitch this boat together.
08:52Definitely.
08:53But now there's another problem.
08:55Finding enough U.
08:57We're going to need virtually a kilometer of this stuff, all flexible and ready to go.
09:02The team go for something more common, but the same strength, hemp rope.
09:08But unlike you, the hemp rope won't stay fixed.
09:11We can't get a knot tight enough.
09:13If you pull on it tight, it'll just fall out.
09:17It's a major problem.
09:19If they can't figure out a way to keep the ropes in place, the whole project could fall apart before
09:26it ever makes it to shore.
09:36Expert boat builders attempt to solve a prehistoric mystery.
09:42How did dozens of two-ton rocks get to Stonehenge?
09:52But this megalithic move is only one of the puzzles that the international team must solve.
09:59They also want to figure out how the 35 massive sarsen lintel stones were erected once they got to Stonehenge.
10:08I want to see the stone bare.
10:09Okay.
10:10After 25 years of research, it's a question that still troubles engineer Rob Roy.
10:16Down with the east and up with the west.
10:19Rob's testing a theory as to how the Stonehenge builders raised five enormous lintels
10:25to create the iconic stone arches known as trilithons.
10:30At Stonehenge, you've got 30 standing stones and 30 lintels in the top, plus the five horseshoe trilithons.
10:37My main interest was, how in the world did they move these stones?
10:40I've been fascinated in trying to replicate how they might have done it by hand,
10:44using materials available to Neolithic people to whip wood and rope.
10:49He and a team of volunteers in upstate New York tried to raise a lintel across two giant uprights
10:56to create a trilithon.
10:59The lintel weighs a crushing 5.4 tons.
11:04There's no evidence as to how the stones at Stonehenge were lifted,
11:08but Rob's figured out a way of raising his, simply and efficiently.
11:13He's calculated that by strapping a 32-foot-long lever to the stone,
11:17a handful of volunteers can rocket back and forth.
11:26As one side of the stone is lifted, a gap opens up under the stone.
11:32Timber is pushed into the hole.
11:37The stone is then rocked the other way, and another gap opens.
11:42More timber is added.
11:44Slowly, the stone rises.
11:54We have to remember that they did this perhaps as many as 35 times at Stonehenge.
12:00They knew what they were doing.
12:01They go ahead and do it.
12:03It takes Rob's team a day to raise the lintel to the correct height of 8 feet.
12:11Now, they need to slide the 5-ton stone on top of the uprights to form a trilithon.
12:18It's a dangerous experiment.
12:21Any mistakes could prove fatal.
12:29Back at the boat build, the team struggles to keep the hemp ropes that bind the boat's sides together in
12:35place.
12:36They resort to using another piece of ancient technology.
12:42Prehistoric adhesive.
12:43The main ingredient is four parts of pine resin, so one part charcoal rabbit droppings, and one part beeswax.
12:53So it's four to one to one.
13:00The ropes are fixed.
13:05Now, they need to seal the gaps between the planks.
13:09It's tight as it'll go, isn't it?
13:12Basically, we were trying to draw the two sides of the planks together as tightly as we can,
13:15because obviously that makes it watertight then.
13:20Will this hold in treacherous conditions?
13:24Across the Bristol Channel, it's a nasty stretch of water.
13:28With a three-ton stone in the middle of the boat, dragging it to the bottom.
13:33I don't know.
13:34I'll check my life insurance.
13:38All right, boys.
13:39Hey, how are you doing?
13:404,000 years ago, moss plugged the holes.
13:45The team needs to seal any gaps between the planks the same way.
13:51Jack Grass has brought along a hair-like moss, polytrichum, that can be woven into a tight cord.
13:58Would it swell up with the water and...
14:00Yeah, if you put it in really dry, and then it's got wet, particularly with salt water, it probably does
14:06tighten up,
14:07but, you know, sort of, you know, expand a little bit.
14:14Okay, it's not dry.
14:16It's certainly better.
14:17Hey, that's a lot better, isn't it?
14:19It's working.
14:21But will the fibers hold up in rough seas?
14:36A team of boat builders tackles a prehistoric mystery.
14:40How did ancient Britons transport over 150 tons of bluestone over 200 miles to Stonehenge?
14:52Stonehenge itself is a place shrouded in mystery.
14:56The monument we see today evolved over 800 years.
15:02The first stones on site were bluestones, brought around 3,000 B.C.
15:1056 of them were arranged in a wide ring.
15:13Then, 500 years later, five massive trilithons and a ring of arches are built out of local sarsen stone.
15:26The bluestones are rearranged to form a double ring.
15:33We know the bluestones came from Wales.
15:38What was it that made these stones special for them to bring them here?
15:43So what are the associations?
15:44Perhaps those mountains were seen as particularly important in origin myths or some kind of mythology.
15:58We're looking to the west.
16:00We're looking to where the sun sets.
16:01Now, maybe people saw that as looking back into the world of the ancestors,
16:07into the world that they will all eventually travel.
16:11One theory is that the bluestones represent the souls of the dead
16:15who have gone to the land of the setting sun.
16:20Whatever their true meaning,
16:22these stones were so important
16:24that people shed sweat and perhaps even blood to get them here.
16:34200 miles away in Cardigan, Wales.
16:37The boat build nears completion.
16:42Now, it's time to test it.
16:44I'd be amazed if there weren't some leaks.
16:47The question is, are they manageable?
16:49Is it slow enough for one bucket an hour?
16:51Or is it ten buckets a minute?
16:53If it's ten buckets a minute, we're in trouble.
16:56As the tide comes in, the team watches and hopes.
17:07She's floating.
17:09Yeah.
17:15We've got a leak.
17:17The boat will soon be weighed down with a two-ton stone and 14 crew.
17:22Even a slow leak could be fatal.
17:25It's bubbling now, so maybe you've got something going on.
17:31The team must find solutions quickly.
17:50We're trying to sort out the buoyancy tanks at the moment.
17:53Make sure that she doesn't go to the bottom if anything happens.
17:56The bags are added.
17:59There's just one thing left to do.
18:02Give the boat a name.
18:05Holgar, the Welsh word for curious.
18:11I just think the craftsmanship on this boat is phenomenal.
18:15It's handled the few days we've tested her.
18:17And the sea trials prove that she can handle what we want her to handle.
18:22So, safe passage to England.
18:35Now, the team faces a new problem.
18:38How do you load a stone without a crane?
18:42The boat will be out further at the back part, and so hopefully it will be left.
18:45We'll find out.
18:46And I'm sure you're better educated than I am.
18:49Matt DeJong is an engineer specializing in historical structures.
18:53Nowadays, you can't help but use the technology that you've learned.
18:57And to actually design something trying to forget all that is actually quite a difficult process.
19:04There's no evidence of how the ancients did this.
19:07But Matt comes up with an ingenious plan that uses only Neolithic technology.
19:17He will hoist the stone up a large ramp, slide the boat underneath, and then use the rising tide to
19:27bring them together.
19:28We might have to do a bit of trial and error with the levering system to make sure we can
19:32actually get it up the ramp.
19:40But almost immediately, things go wrong.
19:44A big storm is brewing.
19:48The boat threatens to crash against the ramp.
19:52Captain Gomez won't risk it.
19:55Looks like the gusts are picking up 56, so this whole operation might have to get cancelled.
20:02We're going to have to call it.
20:03We've got to at least move the boat and give it a shot, so it's close enough to see.
20:06Well, we don't have a shot.
20:08We have, once the boat's underneath, there's no way of getting the stone back up.
20:12And the wind just picked up.
20:14The ramp team disagrees.
20:17What danger are you predicting in this ring?
20:20Just if anything goes wrong, if the stone is...
20:23We're, I'm in charge of this part, and I'm completely in control of it.
20:27I'm not, you know, I will stop anything at any point when I'm not happy.
20:31Let's get everybody in.
20:32If this is a go, I need to hear everybody say it's a go.
20:36With such high stakes, they put it to the boat.
20:39Yep, yep.
20:41Yep.
20:42All right.
20:42Let's move the boat.
20:52That's as far as we got.
20:54It's the same rope as the other side.
20:57We need two people each side to leave her.
21:03Stand by the boiler line.
21:05All right, keep the starboard tight.
21:07Bring it in.
21:08So this is the last few inches.
21:10It's a tense time.
21:13The surf is lifting the boat.
21:14It would be good if we could move the boat on in.
21:18The boat is just inches from the stone.
21:21Get a little bit of the clearance under there.
21:22Now make fast.
21:23Make fast.
21:25We're in.
21:27It holds.
21:29What a good man.
21:30Well done.
21:30Well done to you.
21:31That was fantastic.
21:32Yep.
21:33Fine ship, boat ready for sea.
21:36It couldn't have worked better, really.
21:38In this wind, we were all a bit scared, I think.
21:43With the stone on board, the team is about to embark on a journey not taken in perhaps four millennia.
21:53A team of experts has successfully built a boat modeled on a 4,000-year-old relic and loaded it
22:00with a two-ton bluestone.
22:03Now ahead of them is the hazardous journey from the west of Britain to Stonehenge.
22:13The journey is split into eight legs.
22:15They start along the Atlantic coast of South Wales.
22:19Then they'll attempt to cross the perilous Bristol Channel before making their way up the fast-flowing River Avon to
22:27Bath, a few miles from Stonehenge.
22:42So, I just want to put all the hands in to a successful voyage on three.
22:47One, two, three.
22:49All right, seated positions.
22:54Captain Tizak Gomez assembles his crew of 13 experienced rowers.
23:02This first leg of the journey is seven and a half miles from the safety of the river to the
23:07port of Bury.
23:15Stop inside. Pick up the stroke.
23:20We're fine with the bank in your own way.
23:22Copy that.
23:24Yes, yes. All received. Many thanks. Standing by Channel 7.
23:27Safety officer Gary Beauvoir stays close.
23:32He's ready to pull the plug at the first sign of trouble.
23:37Point side, row. Left side, row.
23:45Stop inside. Pick up the stroke.
23:52Holgar leaves the protected waters of the estuary.
23:57It's actually moving quite well.
23:59You can see the moving water moving past.
24:02So far, the boat holds up under the weight of the two-ton stone and the fast-racing tide.
24:11Take some water, nibble on some food.
24:15All right, rowers, pick it up a little bit. We only have an hour's wind with the Bury ports.
24:20The gates of Bury Harbor close after the tide turns.
24:24If they don't reach Bury in time, they will be trapped outside and dragged out to sea.
24:30We have a limited time to get into the harbor.
24:33We're going to try and squeeze in as close as possible.
24:36The team must paddle against the tide.
24:4019 minutes till the gate closes.
24:43As Bury port comes into view, time is running out.
24:47We're getting a little bit of a flow out.
24:50That's all the water rushing out of the harbor.
24:54After three back-breaking hours, they make it.
24:58Fenders out.
25:01First leg.
25:03Done.
25:05It was pretty impressive.
25:07I got goosebumps just having the most primitive technology I've ever worked with.
25:13Everybody's questioning, is this going to work?
25:15Is this going to happen?
25:17Living history in our hands, a theory in our hands.
25:20Since we proved it.
25:22There is little time to celebrate.
25:25The second stage from Bury to Oxwich is more than twice the distance.
25:30A total of 19 miles across treacherous seas.
25:38And an Atlantic storm is blowing in.
25:46The safety team travels ahead to check conditions.
25:50It's too windy.
25:51These conditions are too windy for us to be out in.
25:54Oh, yes.
25:54Yeah.
25:55You've got an average of four, in between four and seven knots tied.
26:00It's not feasible for that vessel to be out there.
26:04It is too dangerous for Holgar to go out.
26:14The ancients could have waited out the storm.
26:18Gomez can't.
26:19He only has his crew for 10 days.
26:23If he waits, they won't make it to Stonehenge in time.
26:27He reluctantly decides to move the boat by land further down the coast.
26:3972 hours later, the crew resumes their journey.
26:43Stay in the middle of the channel.
26:47We've got muddy waters.
26:52Stay close to that buoy.
26:55Pull it right close.
26:56Aim right for it.
26:59This leg is 11 miles long through open water to Cardiff.
27:07There's that little surge.
27:10Let's go.
27:11Let's go.
27:12Muscle it in.
27:13Pull hard.
27:24We are 3.2 nautical miles from Cardiff.
27:31Over.
27:32Port side.
27:32Way off.
27:33Starboard side.
27:34Pull us through.
27:40Exhausted, the crew finally makes it.
27:43Way off.
27:44Oars up.
27:46It takes five hours.
27:48Cheers.
27:49Hip, hip.
27:49Hooray.
27:50Hip, hip.
27:51Hooray.
27:51Hip, hip.
27:52Hooray.
27:53Nice job, crew.
27:58But after being battered by the seas, Holgar's taken on a lot of water.
28:05And the journey is only half complete.
28:10There's some places where the seam has come undone a little bit.
28:17It's to be expected.
28:18The only thing in there is the moss.
28:20So as the water rushes through it, it kind of cleans out the seam itself.
28:26They try to stop the leaks with moss, because tomorrow, Holgar and her crew face their toughest
28:32test yet, crossing 18 miles of the perilous Bristol Channel.
28:40Twice a day, water levels can rise and fall over 40 feet.
28:46The lethal currents could push the boat to the breaking point.
28:54A team of rowers attempts to bring a bluestone 200 miles from Wales to Stonehenge.
29:04But what about the other stones at the monument?
29:08How were sarsen stones, weighing up to 19 tons, lifted 24 feet in the air without cranes or pullers?
29:18Experts believe it took over two weeks to raise these lentils.
29:26Rob Roy and his team took a day to raise their lentil.
29:30But now, to complete the iconic arches, they must move it onto the two uprights.
29:36Okay, ease it down, please.
29:38Gently.
29:40Oh, it's a thing of loveliness.
29:43After years of experimenting, Rob's come up with what he thinks is the simplest way to get the
29:48lintel on the uprights.
29:50He believes Stonehenge's builders may have done something similar.
29:55His plan is to raise the lintel above the level of the uprights,
29:59then push it down a ramp into place.
30:03Let us know when you're high enough, because I'm worried about, you know, too steep.
30:09Yep.
30:10The levers have moved.
30:12We better let it down.
30:17But there's a problem.
30:19The stone doesn't slide down the ramp.
30:21They try using fat.
30:24It should reduce friction.
30:34The lintel slides down the wooden ramp.
30:40Well, we weren't able to move it without the lard.
30:42So the lard seems to be really an important component.
30:48But it gets stuck again, this time on the stone upright.
30:54It's just inches out of position.
30:58We're perfectly aligned over stone A, but we're bottomed out on stone B.
31:03So we're going to try to lift it a little bit,
31:05and then this team is going to see if they can get it parallel.
31:10Okay, down with the lever.
31:12Ready?
31:13Okay.
31:14It's up.
31:15It's up.
31:16Okay, keep going.
31:17A little more.
31:20That's it.
31:21Perfect.
31:22Perfect.
31:23That's perfect.
31:25Pretty damn good.
31:27We'll get your talent down already.
31:29The beam supporting the ramp is removed.
31:32Moving on.
31:33Two, three.
31:39Result?
31:41One Stonehenge trial-a-thon.
31:44It takes less than two days to erect the stone.
31:49But Rob Roy believes his Stonehenge counterparts
31:51would have done it much more efficiently.
31:55They're approaching it in a professional manner,
31:57like a cathedral building team.
31:59We're approaching it in an amateurish manner,
32:01and we're learning as we go.
32:13It is day six of the team's mission
32:15to move a Blue Stone by boat to Stonehenge.
32:20All right, seated positions.
32:22Paddles up.
32:25Take the stern line.
32:27Board side in.
32:29Now, the crew attempts the most dangerous part of the voyage,
32:34crossing the Bristol Channel.
32:37They'll head from Cardiff on the west coast
32:40to Portishead on the east.
32:4518 miles of some of the most challenging waters in Britain.
32:49We're getting a little bit of current.
32:50James, stay close to that buoy.
32:52The channel has some of the strongest tides in Europe.
32:56Let's bring it up, power seven.
32:58They can easily pull a boat off course.
33:00Together now, on the stroke.
33:02It's also one of the busiest shipping lanes in the country.
33:08The boat's already taking on water.
33:11Can it withstand the passing wake of modern shipping?
33:14Let's go, let's go.
33:16Muscle it in.
33:19Just as they reach the deepest part of the channel,
33:22the tide turns, pushing them in the wrong direction.
33:26There's a little bit of current pushing us to Newport over there.
33:32Try and aim a little south of that.
33:38The crew's top speed is about five and a half miles per hour.
33:42But they are fighting a current of up to nine miles per hour.
33:46All going.
33:47Very all going.
33:49Drifting into the middle of the shipping lane.
33:52See us drifting down?
33:56Holgar's becoming a safety hazard.
34:02We've covered just two nautical miles in the last hour,
34:06so we're going to prepare to pass a tow line.
34:10Roger.
34:11Copy that.
34:12Discovery vessel is standing by to receive tow line.
34:18Stand by to make way.
34:20It's a frustrating moment, but there's no choice.
34:24Mind the wake.
34:27We are a white search and rescue vessel,
34:31and it's towing a small, 40-foot wooden Stone Age vessel.
34:40Once safely past the shipping lanes,
34:43Holgar's released from the tow line.
34:45Please be ready to drop the line.
34:47Drop the line, never.
34:52Let's go. Pull hard.
34:56That's it.
34:56That's it.
34:58There's that little surge.
35:00This is the first time a prehistoric boat
35:03has carried a bluestone across the Bristol Channel
35:05since Stonehenge was built.
35:08That's well there.
35:09Hold that course.
35:12A grueling six hours and 18 miles later,
35:15the crew pulls into dock.
35:18Port side, power of one.
35:20Starboard side, power of eight.
35:23It's an incredible achievement.
35:25Well done, crew.
35:27Very nicely executed.
35:29Extremely impressed.
35:31You can see the reactions that Neolithic voyagers would have had
35:35with the currents.
35:36It's really interesting to see the vessel respond really well.
35:39They prove that a prehistoric boat could cross the Bristol Channel.
35:50Now, they have two days to push upriver toward Stonehenge.
35:55But the exhausted crew are about to hit a wall of water.
35:59Jesus.
36:01Thanks for the heads up.
36:07Polgar survives the treacherous journey across the Bristol Channel.
36:14The two-ton bluestone is still safely on board.
36:18Having traveled a total of 95 miles,
36:21now the crew heads inland,
36:23up the River Avon to Bristol.
36:25How are we feeling this morning?
36:28Good.
36:29That's looking good.
36:33It takes them three and a half hours
36:35and puts them less than 50 miles from Stonehenge.
36:41The following morning brings bad news.
36:45Days of rain during the wettest August in 100 years
36:48has turned the river into a fast-flowing torrent.
36:52This is obviously the heaviest rainfall we've had
36:57on any of the legs of the trip.
36:59Our last goal is to try and reach bath,
37:01and I think we have that capacity
37:04and that ability with us right now.
37:06Their final destination is Cainchem Lock,
37:09just short of Bath.
37:14Experts believe that the bluestones
37:16were brought ashore at Bath
37:17and carried the final stretch
37:19by both land and water.
37:23To the Holga and to our predecessors.
37:26Holga!
37:29Starboard side, push off together.
37:39Despite the conditions,
37:41the team refuses to give up.
37:45Exhausted by days of rowing,
37:47they head out into the swollen river.
37:56Despite giving everything they've got,
37:59they're overwhelmed by the flow of water.
38:01All right, bring it down, power of water.
38:06They make for the safety of a lock.
38:14The team's safety officer delivers the final blow.
38:19We've just been notified that there are
38:22amber warning boards been put up.
38:26We've seen the flow increase dramatically.
38:29The river for us now is impossible.
38:35This river will be flooded for days.
38:39Gomez and his crew are out of time.
38:47We've made it as far as humanly possible.
38:50The conditions are dangerous, so this is where we draw the line and say this is what was possible.
39:02I'm really proud of the crew, I'm really proud of the vessel.
39:05It wasn't failure on our end, it was the non-cooperation of the weather that made it impossible to continue
39:12our journey.
39:15Holgar, the prehistoric wooden boat, is within 40 miles of Stonehenge.
39:24For the team, it's proof positive that their theory is valid.
39:29The Bluestones could have traveled from Wales to Stonehenge by sea over 4,000 years ago.
39:36It's an extraordinary achievement.
39:44While the boat is taken by road back to Wales, one challenge remains.
39:52Matt DeJong and his team will lift the Bluestone into the same position as they appear at Stonehenge,
39:59using an A-frame, which existed at the time of Stonehenge.
40:04This rope goes over the top of the A-frame, comes down and is attached to the beam here,
40:08so ideally that should lift up at this point and cause the rotation about the pivot.
40:13Take up the slack very gently.
40:18Keep easing it up, rolling.
40:21Yeah, again, pulled.
40:25P!
40:272-6-P!
40:292-6-P!
40:31Keep it going, keep it going, keep it going.
40:35Hey!
40:35Let's go and hold it there.
40:36Woo!
40:37Woo!
40:42The team transported this Bluestone over 120 miles from Wales in the west of Britain
40:48and has successfully shown that Bluestones could have come to Stonehenge by sea.
40:54Well done, crew!
40:57How the Bluestones could have been loaded into boats.
41:01How the Bluestones were raised.
41:03And how the massive sarsen lentils were lifted into place once they arrived at Stonehenge.
41:09That's it!
41:13The challenges have revealed the engineering genius of ancient man.
41:20And there is no greater epitaph than this.
41:235,000 years later, their memory is still set in stone.
41:282,000 years later, their memory is still set in stone.
41:312,000 years later, their memory will match the rest.
41:311.
41:315,000 years later, their memory will be as full of weapons per day, even as we are
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