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Digging For Britain S13E06
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00:06This land we call home has a rich and varied history stretching back thousands of years.
00:16But hidden below the surface are some amazing treasures just waiting to be found.
00:25So each year across the country archaeologists dig underground and dive underwater.
00:35Searching for fresh discoveries.
00:38The most amazing thing in British archaeology.
00:41Uncovering traces of ancient lives.
00:44Somebody's played in joy I'm sure.
00:46And finding fascinating objects.
00:49Such exquisite detail.
00:53This 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.
01:10We're already dropping in on some of this year's most fascinating digs.
01:15Oh my gosh can you see that?
01:17It's just brilliant.
01:19Oh my goodness.
01:20Every dig provides a new piece in the puzzle of Britain's forgotten past.
01:27This is the epic and unfolding story of our islands.
01:34Welcome to Digging for Britain.
01:47In this episode archaeologists go searching for the fabled ancient Tin Isles.
01:54Oh my gosh.
01:55That is a Bronze Age fingerprint.
01:56Yeah.
01:58Shining a light on the crucial role Cornwall played in the Bronze Age.
02:03It's just destroyed the thing completely.
02:06Two huge Roman swords.
02:09What's the chances of me on my second time detecting to find such a wonderful item?
02:13Wow.
02:14Give us a new insight into life in Roman Gloucestershire.
02:18What incredible objects.
02:20And an ancient fort surprises the archaeologists.
02:25What seems obvious often isn't and there's truth is lying in the soil.
02:30Oh.
02:31Oh.
02:34No.
02:37Oh.
02:39Oh.
02:39No.
02:39Ahn.
02:40Oh.
02:41Oh.
02:43Oh.
02:43Oh.
02:44Oh.
02:45Oh.
02:59dramatic stretches of coastline places that were once connected into ancient
03:07trade routes linking Britain across the seas with the wider world
03:17for our first dig Torrey heads to the Cornish coast to St Michael's Mount
03:24three miles east of Penzance
03:32this island has been a medieval monastery a Norman fortress and the site of a civil war siege
03:43but long before it became a symbol of faith or power some archaeologists think it may
03:49have played a very different role as a vital hub in an ancient trading network of tin
03:57a resource that fueled the Bronze Age
04:06tin ore is the crucial material ancient metal workers refined to create tin which when mixed with
04:13soft copper creates bronze a harder more durable alloy that shaped daily life in the ancient world
04:22Cornwall was once home to some of the richest tin ore deposits in Europe and Cornish ore was in demand
04:28across the Mediterranean but the true location of one of the main centers where this all was processed
04:35and traded remains a mystery
04:40for years people have claimed that St Michael's Mount is the lost island ictus the legendary trading hub for
04:47tin in the ancient world it all hinges on the writings of Pythias an ancient Greek explorer who visited Britain
04:55in
04:55around 320 BC he wrote of locals carting tin across to an island called ictus over a sandbar that appeared
05:04at low tide
05:06and the similarities with this island are uncanny
05:19now in the first research excavation ever carried out on the island a team from durham university
05:26and the national trust is investigating what role St Michael's Mount may have played in the Cornish tin trade
05:33in particular they're looking for evidence that tin ore was processed refined into tin ingots
05:40and then traded here during the bronze age
05:43leading the dig is archaeologist Ben Roberts
05:47what was it that was so special about
05:49Cornish tin
05:50Cornish tin was prized because of its purity and this would have been valued by bronze smiths all over Europe
05:56the time we're talking about when there's a huge boom in bronze use
06:01where everyone has apparently got access to as much bronze as they want
06:05that seems to have been driven by these incredibly rich tin sources that we're getting in Cornwall and Devon
06:13the archaeologists think tin ore mined on the mainland was hauled across to the island at low tide when the
06:20causeway was exposed
06:23why on St Michael's Mount and not on the mainland where all of the tin ore deposits are
06:28you can get tin ore almost anywhere in Cornwall and so there's no central production
06:34but the distribution points have to be central because your traders had to find the place to trade
06:41and this is easily the most visible place from the sea to reach
06:45here you've got the ideal mooring place for your boats
06:49and the fact that we're on a tidal island is going to make everyone feel a bit safer
06:53when the tide has gone out you can bring the tin across the land to St Michael's Mount in quantity
06:59and then when the tide came in again everyone is feeling that little bit safer
07:04negotiations can begin and then the boats can be loaded up with tin and sail off
07:12Ben's theory is strengthened by a discovery made in 2009
07:16when head gardener Darren Little uncovered a remarkable hoard of Bronze Age artefacts
07:25Darren along with Jim Parry from the National Trust has brought some of those finds to show me
07:31look at this this is some really rather beautiful Bronze Age metal work what's called a meldrift socketed
07:38axe that Darren did an amazing job in finding but this piece here in particular is what really stumped us
07:45and stumped some of the other metal work professionals because there's nothing that we know like this
07:50well it's obviously a buckle and it looks modern exactly so considering we're on St Michael's Mount
07:55the thinking was that could this be a civil war buckle but hang on why is it with something that's
08:00so
08:00clearly Bronze Age so with a bit more research in other hordes they've found small bits of something
08:07very similar but nothing with these beautifully pin in size decoration lines that run around the edges
08:15so really rather special piece how did you feel i mean my heart would have been racing my heart was
08:20racing yeah it was um i remember calling the wife you know she was saying old teaser and i said
08:24i can't
08:25come out at the moment you know i'm still working you know found a few things and i'll be home
08:29shortly
08:29and yeah so it's a one in a lifetime chance of finding something like that it is found another
08:3450 odd items of chisels axe heads pommels and bits of swords ingots
08:43while the horde is intriguing the archaeologists need to find more than finished bronze items
08:48to prove their theory that tin ore was processed into tin here
08:54the team are concentrating on two areas where earlier geophysical surveys revealed features
09:00that might be ancient structures
09:04and almost immediately the first trench begins to deliver
09:11the team's pottery specialist is imogen morris
09:15we've got lots of bronze age pottery here we've got a rim shed yes i can see the rim it's
09:20got no
09:21decoration and this sort of pottery is called plainware because it's it's plain really plain yeah
09:27and this would have been quite a large vessel quite a simple vessel so it would have been for
09:32cooking yeah everyday uses yeah perhaps about that high that's solid cooking pot but not all of the
09:40pottery is plainware we've got quite a beautiful shirt so if you put your fingers in there oh my gosh
09:48that
09:49is a bronze age fingerprint and they would have gone all the way around the edge that's it yeah it's
09:52quite unusual to get decoration so we're quite lucky to get one that's got those finger pictures
09:56incredible really connect with you yes
10:03the discovery of the pottery suggests there was considerable activity on the island
10:08during the bronze age but the team still need evidence of tin ore processing
10:14nearby archaeologist alan williams is taking a closer look at some of the finds wonderful stone
10:21tools i do like the look of these some of the most exciting finds we've made at st michael's mount
10:27can i pick it up absolutely ah and you can see it fits really nicely in the hand so if
10:33this has been
10:33used for crushing tin ore i would expect that it would be embedded in between the grains because it's
10:39really really hard but to show that we need to analyze the edge of the rock and compare it to
10:46the
10:46general background in the rock geologist sean cleveland has been working on the analysis of the stone tools
10:54using a specialist x-ray machine it can detect the amount of tin on specific parts of the stone
11:02if they were used to crush tin ore he should see significantly higher readings along the working
11:08edge of the stone a result we got from the general background in this rock was what sean
11:15100 to 150 ppm okay amazing whereas the edge of the rock and thrown it 1884 ppm oh okay so
11:24like a
11:24whole 10 times at least more and we've seen even higher values on other stones so it's very strong
11:30evidence that this is used for tin or processing you got it absolutely it's the first evidence ever
11:36that the saint michael's mount was processing tin ore and was part of the tin trade of the bronze age
11:44it's magical that someone used this to grind tin ore on this island 3000 years ago
11:55the high levels of tin found on the edges of the crushing stones
12:00is evidence that tin ore was being processed here on the island
12:08could this spot on saint michael's mount mark the origin of the ictus myth
12:16not just the name from legend but a real place and for cornish tin the gateway to the ancient world
12:27cornish tin cornish tin helped usher in a new age transforming tools farming and society itself
12:36professor stuart pryor is finding out why tin was so important with an experiment that takes us back
12:43thousands of years to reveal the knowledge and skills of the ancient metalworkers
12:54i'm fascinated by experimental archaeology recreating how things were made in the past
13:03so i've asked metalworking expert mark vivian penny to help me cast a set of bronze axe heads
13:10to see if we can create a tool that's genuinely strong and durable
13:15mark i see there's a lot of raw materials on the floor in front of you what have we got
13:19so this is
13:21copper wow in order to make that copper stronger because copper bends you would need tin so this is
13:30tin i'll hand you some some gravelly bits again the search for raw materials yeah add a bit of tin
13:35tin tin will make good working bronze which is what the bronze age people use to make all their tools
13:42and their weapons and this is bronze so that's much heavier isn't it it is and obviously much stronger
13:50right very strong material and you can sharpen it up really sharp and it will keep its edge quite a
13:56long
13:56time so if we start with copper and then we want to add tin yeah how do we know what
14:03the proportion is
14:04that they need to add to make the perfect axe the best working tool bronze is made with ten percent
14:11tin and they would have tried and tested different ways of doing it and you'd know when you've got
14:17it wrong because the metal becomes brittle if there's too much in it and if it's just too little
14:22in it won't make any difference at all so it's not just a case of adding copper and tin together
14:26you've got to get those proportions right exactly arms on how it's on
14:37we're casting three different types of axe heads
14:41one with two little tin one with too much and one with just the right amount ten percent
14:49using a modern furnace to speed things up the metals are heated to over a thousand degrees celsius
14:57it's unbelievably hot it's going to get hotter once molten the mix is poured into molds
15:05here comes the crucible which has melted to the bottom of the furnace it's so hot
15:14you can see why they thought it was magical that is beautiful
15:24once the metal has hardened the axe head can be removed from the mold
15:30wow this is the bronze one look at that
15:35so that's the axe she's now going to put in that bucket to cool
15:43there we go look at that lovely gloss
15:46it's almost golden isn't it so all that heat and all that work and you get this beautiful
15:51axe head at the end well done thank you can't wait to see the finished product
16:00it's
16:00whilst i sharpen the bronze axe head mark is busy casting more
16:07some are just pure copper and the others are laden with tin
16:12we've got the axes what's the next step how do we test to see what's the strongest
16:17well if we hit them with a hammer bronze age hammer bronze age hammer we can find out how much
16:22damage
16:23they would take so this is the copper one we'll try that one so
16:28a few dents a few dents in it yeah so this has almost no tin in it that one's almost
16:38pure copper
16:39but it does make a service relax but not a very hard wearing resistant one don't want to hit the
16:45next
16:45one well this one's got just the right amount of tin in it so let's have a go with the
16:51hammer
16:53okay you can really hear that ringing can't you that's a beautiful axe that one
16:58it's virtually no denseness you can really see that it rings like a bell it's a much more sturdier
17:04material it's a beautiful golden color you can imagine this in the hands of the warriors at the
17:10time exactly yeah it's amazing we did this experiment to find out what's the right proportion
17:16of copper and tin this one's got no tin in it and this one's got far too much tin in
17:22it do the hammer
17:23test and we'll see what happens oh no it's just destroyed the thing completely yeah my god it's
17:33incredible that is completely useless it is chocolate axe yeah chocolate axe waste of time you'd be very
17:41disappointed if you'd been sold that wouldn't you so you've got to get that mixture right you've got
17:47to get that 10 or you've got something that's not functional at all exactly yeah can i try the other
17:53one see how bad that one is yeah we'll see if we've done a better job ready yeah no it's
18:00destroyed as
18:01well destroyed that is hopeless yeah it's amazing that sounds great so we've done a really good job with
18:07this one but this one you can see if you don't get that 10 mixture right you get complete dross
18:13yeah
18:13yeah it's just amazing but i do feel like i'm a bronze smith right hey congratulations thank you
18:32you
18:32you can see the sun is shining if you're ready
18:34when do i can see the moon and you see me someday you can take the road that takes you
18:41to the stars
18:41now i can take the road that takes you to the stars throughout the west of britain archaeologists
18:52have long uncovered fragments of the lives that have gone before us
18:57but the dig itself is only ever the beginning of the story
19:04next we follow up on an excavation that took place in the town of haverford west in wales
19:1110 miles north of pembroke
19:19archaeology is an evidence-based discipline and sometimes that evidence challenges our preconceptions
19:25in fact that's when i find it most exciting now some years ago i visited a medieval priory site in
19:32haverford west and we thought we knew what was going on there but professor naomi sykes is visiting the
19:39lab where the analysis is revealing an unexpected story
19:48as a zoo archaeologist and scientist i'm interested in those moments when science begins to challenge
19:54what we think archaeology is telling us
19:58and it's in the lab during paste excavation analysis that the real story often emerges
20:08and this one begins
20:12in the medieval period
20:19when digging for britain visited haverford west an incredible story was emerging
20:24that is beautiful look at that evidence for the long lost dominican friary of saint saviors
20:33which had been hidden for centuries the whole building would have been impressive indicative of a
20:38high status monastic building almost 300 burials were recovered giving us our first glimpse into the
20:45the lives of the medieval friars and the local townsfolk that they serve
20:50at the time archaeologists thought that they were looking at a friary and its cemetery
20:56but now post excavation research at cardiff university is rewriting the story revealing a
21:02site that may have been far more than just a burial ground
21:10lab analysis of the skeletons reveals that several individuals had endured serious life-threatening injuries
21:18that raises new questions about who they were and why they were buried in this friary cemetery
21:26dr kira o'brien butler is part of the investigation team
21:34this is a male a middle-aged male who has suffered severe sharp force trauma that is nearly sliced off
21:40the back of the skull there this one is a sharp force trauma as well probably from a projectile
21:45so they've survived these injuries for quite some time after wait they survived yes yes so this is
21:51healed uh it has kind of reattached to the back of the skull there and they've lived for possibly years
21:56after these injuries occurred and that's not the only thing they have that's healed they broke their
22:02jaw at some point in their life as well so look at this there's quite severe trauma there as well
22:07that's totally changed the angle of the jaw would this have affected their ability to eat yes
22:12definitely i think but interestingly despite this we still have some evidence for quite a rich diet in
22:17this individual so we have some pathology of the vertebra there called dish where these two
22:23vertebrae have fused and it happened all up the spine as well this is associated in modern clinical
22:28practice with diabetes and obesity and in the past we associate it with monastic diets so quite rich
22:34fatty foods alcohol consumption red meat they could have been at the site and enjoying a similar diet
22:40being looked after by the monks okay so is this an isolated instance amongst the population that you've
22:45been looking at no so we have a lot of evidence for traumatic injuries and care in this population
22:50this individual has a bit of iron embedded in the back of their femur so the back of their upper
22:55thigh
22:56that likely is from a projectile and we can see the bone is healing they also had lots of healed
23:01fractures throughout the rest of their skeleton so healed fractures of the feet ribs and also of the
23:07hands and so evidence for quite rough lives but some healing as well
23:14kira believes the fact these people survived such severe injuries and showed signs of a rich fatty diet
23:21suggests they were being cared for and supported within the community
23:27but who were they where had they come from and how had they ended up in a friary cemetery to
23:35find more
23:35answers the team at cardiff university is using isotope analysis the technique examines chemical
23:42traces in bones and teeth to reveal clues about a person's origins and movements
23:48leading the work is archaeological scientist professor richard madgwick
23:55the isotope analysis can tell us a whole range of aspects about human lives whilst the science behind
24:02it can be a bit complex the principles are really very simple you are what you eat you are where
24:07you
24:07eat and to some degree you are how you eat so every time humans consume food and drink chemical signals
24:13from those products enter the body enter our skin our hair our nails and handily for archaeologists
24:19our bones and our teeth so by analysing tiny fragments we can reconstruct all sorts of
24:24aspects about movement diet and health in the past different chemical elements preserved in bones and teeth
24:33can reveal detailed clues about past lives in particular strontium and oxygen can be analysed together
24:42to show where a person was born and grew up strontium gives us a geological signal for where individuals
24:52were during the development of their teeth and oxygen gives us a climatic signal relating to temperature
24:57and rainfall so they work together well in terms of looking at origins we've boxed the approximate
25:03local range here for not just haverford west but probably more broadly wales and we can see the
25:11diversity within that local range hints that they're not all directly from pembrokeshire we've got
25:16quite a few individuals that sit outside of that local range and they must have come from further
25:22afield so do we have any idea where they might have come from the fact that these oxygen values are
25:28really very high they're beyond what we would think could be achieved in wales hints that they come from
25:35a more westerly zone like ireland and we know historically that there are some strong links between
25:41pembrokeshire and ireland so i mean it's tantalizing but i think it's highly likely these individuals
25:46have come from there originally the lab has transformed the story of the dominican friary
25:55of saint saviors the bones once thought to tell a simple monastic tale now reveal lives touched by
26:02trauma care and resilience far from just a cemetery the evidence suggests that this was a place where
26:10dominican friars treated the sick and injured welcoming people from across britain and beyond
26:17and it's only due to the power of science by combining osteology isotopes and history that we can
26:23build a more complete picture of a medieval community rings of stories reeled me in cocked my ear and hooked
26:36my chin
26:37a friday dinner a friday dinner a fish truck sinner pull me down lord put me in
26:53every year seasoned archaeologists across britain unearth objects that tell stories of the past
27:01but some remarkable discoveries are made by enthusiastic amateurs
27:10now we're catching up with a spectacular discovery a chance find that turned out to be something of
27:16national importance
27:22the story began in 2023 in a quiet field on the edge of the village of willersie
27:3030 miles northeast of gloucester
27:36novice metal detectorist glenn manning was looking forward to his day
27:43as he began his afternoon sweep he had no idea he was about to make a discovery
27:48that would offer a rare glimpse into the roman period
27:56just after lunch i came up here and i remember the organizer shouting to me people have already done
28:02that you need to go over to that part of the field and have a look
28:06but um something just told me just carry on doing what you're doing
28:11the metal detector all of a sudden picked up a signal but it was a little bit jumpy
28:15so i dug down into the ground probably about eight to ten inches and using my handheld pin
28:21pointer i came across what just looked like old metal that had a slight point to it
28:28but the patina on it told me that it was something like copper
28:33i thought this looks like a sword but what's the chances of me on my second time detecting to
28:39to find such a wonderful item and in fact glenn had uncovered not one but two ancient swords
28:49far longer than the gladius the short stabbing sword usually associated with roman soldiers glenn had
28:56found something remarkable i didn't know how to feel that's the funny thing i was quite calm my
29:04feelings obviously have changed now because i understand how rare it is to find something like
29:08that there's a lot of historic value there's a lot of learning to be done in relation to these swords
29:15when glenn first discovered the swords they were so muddied and corroded it was impossible to tell much
29:21about them but now after being carefully conserved and x-rayed the weapons are finally giving up their
29:28story historic england conservator carla graham and carinian museum director emma stewart have brought
29:40them to the digging for britain tent oh hello hello i've been looking forward to this i mean what
29:50incredible objects these are very long swords aren't they i mean obviously roman's had lots of different
29:55types of swords the gladius was a short one wasn't it this isn't a gladi no so these are spather
30:00so
30:00they're they're kind of much longer they were carried by cavalry men on horseback okay and what we
30:06still have which you can see on the surface here is that we've got the remains of the wooden scabbard
30:11the woods decayed away but the rust has preserved the wood grain so we've got it on here and on
30:17the
30:17hills as well and on this this particular sword the much kind of very bright orange that's the remains
30:22of the wood there as well and we've also got at the ends here these beautiful shapes that were attached
30:28to the wooden scabbards and would have protected the soldiers from getting stabbed by their own
30:33it's very useful when you're on a horse yes you don't want that do you so yes so these are
30:38obviously
30:38copper alloy they'd have been bright and shiny wouldn't they very bright and shiny and they're
30:42decorated and the swords themselves the carinian museum asked us we could x-ray them and what was
30:49really exciting about the x-rays is it shows that they're quite different have you got the x-rays i
30:53have got the extra look at them yes you certainly can so we did a little bit of enhancement so
30:59there are
31:00some lines coming through here yes you can see some lines going down a bit like a herringbone
31:05pattern yeah and that shows that this one is pattern welded it would have looked amazing
31:12it's basically lots of either strips or rods of metal which were woven hammered together and then
31:18a cutting edge put on the outside and the reason that we're seeing it in the x-ray is because
31:23there's
31:23a differential corrosion which is fantastic because it shows up this pattern very well i mean you cannot see
31:29that can you there's nothing to see that i mean you've got the grooving down the center but that's
31:33not the pattern the only way you can see it is in this x-ray and what's interesting is one
31:39is pattern
31:40welded and the other one isn't so it's higher status this one are we looking at objects that seem to
31:45have gone into the ground in a fairly pristine condition yes they've been deliberately buried
31:52they're very carefully placed so they've not been lost they haven't been bent and destroyed
31:56you can see some potential textile remains so we're not quite sure if they were bound
32:01so they could have been wrapped in fabric as well could have been wrapped in fabric
32:04and could have been part of the scabbard in the ground they were lying one on top of the other
32:08yeah um next to the fragments of a bowl here tell me about this bowl because i mean this is
32:15part
32:15of the same group of objects what does this tell us this is quite high status in the same way
32:20as the
32:20pattern welded sword it's really beautifully decorated it's obviously quite fragmentary now because this
32:25was slightly above the swords so this suffered the damage first some of the pieces were plowed out
32:30unfortunately but you can see some beautiful decoration in this deliberate circular pattern
32:36there's no need to do this for functionality can i handle these you are more than welcome to yes
32:41very much so it looks like it would have had quite high sides yes this is a fragment of the
32:47rim
32:48so you can see that lovely lip around the edge there and it's got some pattern or some ghost of
32:52something here yes that's right this was revealed at conservation and the conservators had to clean
32:58off the mud and the earth and everything and it would appear that this piece which we originally
33:02thought was part of the scabbard actually fits perfectly in that piece there so so i saw that
33:08and i thought it was a coin it's not a coin then it's not a coin it's a piece of
33:11decoration by the looks
33:12of things around this rim area given that it's decorated and you can tell a certain amount about
33:17its style does that help you to date it as well it's probably contemporary with the swords so
33:23late third century around 290 and then what's that and so this piece it's a different type of metal so
33:30you've just felt the rim if you have a feel of that you can feel it's thicker oh it's thicker
33:34and heavier
33:34it's not as beautifully polished this would have been a lidded bowl with um something inside it
33:39deposited inside it um it may have been sort of ceremonial deposit with these being deliberately buried
33:45that's a possibility yeah you've got to think about all the possibilities haven't you and you've
33:49got a find like this where you you don't know the wider context it's kind of delightfully mysterious
33:54i really i want to know i really want to know why these objects were buried together and wonderfully
34:00well preserved and even though they look like rusty objects there's quite a lot of metal still
34:04in there and you can tell by the weight i can let you feel the weight of this sword here
34:13that is heavier than i expected that actually is quite a lot heavier and that's this beautiful
34:20pattern welded sword isn't it it is yeah nearly 2 000 years old it is curious because they are
34:27objects on their own they don't have a context i mean do we even know if there was any roman
34:31cavalry in the area there were there was a roman cavalry base just outside of corinium which is simon
34:36sesta which is not too far away okay um later in the roman period there is evidence of roman military
34:42but there is an interesting um shift because there was quite a lot of banditry along the fosse way
34:47and civilians were known to carry cavalry swords it's possible that two soldiers may have been killed
34:53and this is the wares that were dumped because if civilians were found with this type of material and
34:58there were two soldiers dead then yeah and you can trace it to them they're hiding the evidence
35:03that's that's a possibility but it's looking like in terms of the whole context you've clearly got
35:09roman military kit here there is something special about these swords something special about this
35:14bowl for somebody to deposit them all together why did they do it i mean we'll never know will we
35:20but what we do know is that they never came back
35:33i'll hold something like cold you've excused my love
36:11each new artifact can be a source of insights into ancient
36:16ancient lives and technologies but sometimes researchers face a challenge with objects that are so
36:24fragile that they're actually impossible to handle
36:31archaeology isn't just about making new discoveries we can employ technology now to study recreate and even
36:41handle objects that were dug up a long time ago archaeologist meg russell is looking at how
36:47cutting-edge techniques are helping to unlock secrets about roman surgery
36:57i'm fascinated by objects from the past and it's only natural to want to pick them up but some artifacts
37:03are so fragile that even the lightest touch can cause damage and when you can't handle them safely
37:09it becomes much harder to understand how they worked or what they were used for
37:16125 years ago a remarkable set of roman surgical tools was pulled from a river
37:22after spending centuries submerged the bronze instruments were now so corroded and fragile
37:28that touching them risks further deterioration.
37:33At the University of Exeter, researchers are pioneering techniques
37:37that let them peer beneath those corroded layers to reveal the metalwork underneath.
37:43Clues that could transform our understanding of how these tools were designed, manufactured and used.
37:52Professor Rebecca Fleming is on hand to explain.
37:57These Roman surgical instruments are found in the River Walbrook in London.
38:02And we've got a scalpel handle, we've got two needles and we've got two very thin probes and a slightly
38:11larger spoon as well.
38:13Wow, some of these are so delicate and tiny. I'm starting to see a few little details.
38:19How difficult is it to work with artefacts that you can't touch yourself?
38:23I think it's particularly difficult in this case because these are tools that we use for surgical operations
38:28and if we can't get the feel of them and try them out in various ways and really get a
38:34sense of exactly how they were constructed,
38:36that limits our possibilities in terms of understanding them in various ways.
38:40What methods can we use to understand them better?
38:42The technique that we use more particularly here is 3D scanning, like a CT scan, a sort of 3D X
38:49-ray for objects,
38:50which really gives you a very detailed picture of the surface, all of its different imperfections,
38:56any details of crafting, which is invaluable for us.
39:00And is there anything that you specifically hope the CT scans might show us today?
39:05Yes, definitely. So as you can see this scalpel handle would have originally been an iron or steel blade
39:12and clearly that is replaced pretty regularly, so a lot of attention would have gone into thinking about how to
39:18make the holder.
39:19And then thinking about these two needles, this looks very straightforward.
39:23This one has something quite different going on in terms of where it might have been threaded,
39:28so it would be interesting to look at that.
39:33Curator Megan Woolley from the Devon and Exeter Medical Heritage Trust is the only person permitted to handle these fragile
39:40instruments.
39:45She is securing each one in inert foam and covering with acid-free tissue to create a custom support so
39:52it can be scanned safely.
39:58Placed on a rotating platform, this high-resolution scanner will capture every tiny detail.
40:06It's a painstaking process, with each scan taking more than seven and a half hours.
40:15These look fantastic, Rebecca.
40:17This is a full-on grayscale image containing all of the data.
40:21You can already start to see some of the detail in terms of the scoop of the spoon and the
40:27different sort of eyes of the needle.
40:29Things that are darker are denser and we can visualise that much more clearly in different colours.
40:36Look at that! That's fantastic.
40:39The blue is the densest and then green and then going less dense orange and yellow.
40:45There are two things that are of significance, one of which is about the object in its original form.
40:52And maybe it was actually intentional that parts of it were less dense, parts of it were more dense in
40:57terms of strength or in terms of balance.
41:00Particularly for scalpels, balance is very important.
41:03And then the other thing is conservation and looking after these objects now, you can see if there's a particular
41:09area of weakness.
41:10So it's obviously valuable information for the curators.
41:16And that's not all. These scans are so data rich that they can be sent straight to the engineering lab.
41:23Oh my gosh, look at these!
41:26Where 3D printers machine precise replicas, allowing us to finally get hands-on with incredibly detailed copies.
41:35It's really fascinating to see the processes at work and even more interesting to see the results in various ways.
41:42This is that complex needle that we talked about.
41:44Now you can get really to grips with the complexities of it.
41:47So it's got a sizeable hole there which you could thread in various different ways.
41:51And then it's also got a hole here.
41:53That second hole is a surprise.
41:56You couldn't see it in the actual artefact itself at all.
41:59We haven't been able to find anything that looks exactly the same.
42:04There's clearly more to that than just sewing up bandages.
42:08I love that now you can tell a little bit more potentially about function of these objects.
42:14I mean this must just lift a lot of limitations for you with what you can and can't see with
42:19the real thing.
42:19Yeah, exactly. And you can start to think about the scalpel handle.
42:23You can see the sort of thought that's gone into this.
42:25You have the flatten and then you have something that you can hold.
42:28The blades would have been put there.
42:30This would have opened and you'd use this to pull it apart and then it would snap back together.
42:35And this is obviously very practical.
42:37So this is in a resin but you can do 3D printing in metal.
42:41So you could try and print it in bronze and then get a nice scalpel blade,
42:47put it in the hand of a surgeon practicing today and see what they made of it.
42:52We've got the texts that talk about different sorts of operations.
42:55So do the tools seem to be appropriate for the kind of practices that are being described?
43:04The more I handle these tools, the more I see how technology is bridging the gap between the past and
43:10present.
43:13And it's not just medical instruments. This technology can be applied to all kinds of items.
43:20By recreating them and putting them to use, we bring multiple disciplines together, opening up endless possibilities to explore and
43:29understand ancient artifacts in entirely new ways.
43:51They were made responsibly Всё.
44:02every year across the west archaeologists embark on new digs
44:10sometimes they set out with a good idea of what they might find but when the digging starts they
44:16have to be ready for their theories to be turned on their heads for our next dig Torrey is heading
44:25to the wild south west coast of Wales to Buckspool in Pembrokeshire this has to be one of the most
44:46spectacular and precarious sites I've ever filmed at this whole area is an active military training
44:52zone and because it's off limits to the public the archaeology here has stayed remarkably intact
45:01perched on a headland jutting into the Celtic Sea a team of archaeologists and military veterans are
45:08investigating two circular structures from the air the site shows all the hallmarks of a promontory
45:20fort dating back over 2,000 years to the Iron Age
45:33this stretch of coastline was once dotted with promontory forts remote and exposed to the elements
45:43but what were they for and who might have lived in a place like this archaeologist Richard Osgood is
45:51leading the dig Richard this this is properly spectacular this is just gorgeous it's such an
46:01elemental place isn't it really really beautiful this is Buckspool promontory fort that has an awful lot
46:06of information in the name yeah on a promontory yep we can't argue with that that's true is it a
46:12fort
46:13good question I think it's more about impressing your neighbors having big ditches and ramparts for
46:17sure but this is a showy thing so I think it's much more than defensive and military so this is
46:23the way
46:23in it is the way in you can see the big ditch here and the embankment behind it it would
46:28have been I think
46:28quite a bit deeper and you would have had a higher rampart behind with a big timber palisade and the
46:35massive timber gateway that we're standing under at the moment so this would have been hugely
46:38impressive you paint that picture there you just realize you know not only how monumental that would
46:44have felt but coming in from this kind of relatively flat land turned dramatic deep sided ditches yeah
46:49towering gates great wall in front we'd see anything ahead of you you have no idea what's coming next
46:56everything from this point onwards is a surprise when you get into the set
47:05because of its location the archaeology here has remained largely unexplored
47:13but early surveys and aerial imagery suggest that this is the footprint of two iron age roundhouses
47:27so you've got the circle defined by these blocks of limestone but it cuts through a little acid way
47:34into a second one so you're looking at a figure of eight of these two circular structures they seem
47:39big is that big for a roundhouse not especially big for a roundhouse there are two courses at least
47:44going around there sat on top of the bedrock and forming this arc presumably once of a circle there's a
47:50big tumble of rock there that's bedrock so this is where it gets confusing because if this is a
47:54roundhouse the last thing you want is that as your floor so I'm not entirely convinced even if there's
48:00a scree of earth put over it that that is a floor iron age roundhouses typically had a single entrance
48:10and a stone half in the center for cooking and heating we've not got those elements that would just scream
48:18roundhouse at you I think it's more than that because you've got this arc of stones in a couple
48:23of courses but I've not got that half the entranceway is probably there but is it actually connecting
48:28you with a third structure in which case you've got three cells connected to another but is that the
48:33sort of thing you get in the living structure I don't think it is and the mystery deepens
48:41as none of the small finds appear to have any connection to the iron age
48:49what have you been finding then coins lots of coins here today it's unbelievable I found nine
48:54this morning found a couple around here and some over there this is odd that they're like
49:00around here it's really odd isn't it if this is some kind of roundhouse this would be where the
49:06door would be roughly isn't it sort of coming in here yeah yeah coming in that way so it's a
49:11bit
49:11of a mystery I mean it does feel like like this place is turning up unexpected things and even more
49:19unexpected is that these coins all date from the Roman occupation of Britain it's a twist that changes
49:27the story archaeologist Fran Murphy is trying to piece together the puzzle oh wow it's just a bag
49:37after bag of coins so those are just some of the selection that have been found this coin is Emperor
49:45Constantine and he is 4th century also we've had coins of Corrosius okay when's Corrosius late third
49:54this is a lovely coin you can really see the profile of the head there and is that one next
49:59to it also well this is a little minim what's a minim this is the smallest denomination just a few
50:06millimeters in diameter what is interesting is that we don't normally find these coins when they're
50:12difficult to find but equally the numbers that we're finding them so if you were coming here to
50:18ask the gods to help you in something you use your lowest denomination coin it's like throwing a
50:24WP into a wishing well is that what they're doing is that why we're getting this big concentration of
50:29coins alongside the coins the team is unearthing a considerable amount of pottery we have probably
50:42now got one of the biggest assemblages of Roman pot from southwest Wales from this small site the
50:48quantity itself is gobsmacking the number of rim sherds a lot of it is black burnished where some of the
50:55wears we just don't see one thing that's really interesting is all these objects are broken and
51:02there is a theory that you're planting materials in pits as an offering for future prosperity depositing
51:09bits of everything they need for life as an offering with a coin bringing goods which they want to deposit
51:17in
51:17this area because it has some significance having uncovered the pottery and more than 160 coins the team is
51:26beginning to think this place may have held a special spiritual significance long after the iron age during
51:33the later Roman period and the landscape itself may help explain why this spot held such power
51:46archaeologist Toby driver is a specialist in Welsh hillforts it's just so dramatically vertical on either side
51:57it's a different life you have here it's a cultural phenomenon living on the coast in prehistory and Roman times
52:03here
52:04we know Celts saw their gods residing in remote dangerous places and nowhere is that more dramatic than at the
52:13coast
52:16we have antiquarian writers describing this the slam of waves into these coastal chasms being like
52:23gunshots and these enormous sprays of foam with rainbows being cast now we understand what a rainbow is
52:28today but 2000 years ago what on earth do they think about that were the gods angry at particular times
52:33of
52:33year particular seasons and most of the ancient world people are chucking stuff into chasms sacrifices
52:42offerings as well and that may have been a very important part of what Buckspool was 2000 years ago
52:51imagine walking over that rock arch the waves are booming the spray is coming up and catching the lights it
52:59would feel like you're passing into a different world here yep we've just learned more about Buckspool
53:05in the last two weeks we have in decades but all that new knowledge we've got to process it we've
53:10got
53:10to think of new ways to understand this life at the edge of the coast so what seemed like quite
53:23a simple
53:24story is actually turning out to be far more complicated mysterious absolutely and that is
53:29why you dig because it looked really logical you're the promontory fort you've got geophysics you've got
53:35lidar motor circles round houses people living in here in the iron age job done and it's not like that
53:41there's so much more complexity here that's what what really excites about archaeology isn't it
53:45because what seems obvious often isn't and the truth is lying in the soil while the promontory fort may
53:57still have its roots in the iron age Richard now thinks that by the Roman period this place was
54:04evolving into something different a place where offerings may have been made to the gods all perched on
54:15the very edge between the known world and the spiritual realm the promontory fort at Buckspool is a great
54:29example of how archaeology can challenge our expectations and our ideas about the past turning a
54:38simple story into something more complex and compelling
54:49Richard went in with an idea he thought he was going to be excavating iron age roundhouses in this
54:55promontory fort and it would help them understand the nature of what was going on there and then they
54:59started digging and the finds Roman overwhelmingly Roman nothing that could be definitively tied to the
55:07iron age I always enjoy it when archaeologists find something they're not expecting the richness of this
55:14site astounded all of the archaeologists working there all of these Roman coins a really huge number
55:21of them including like really small denominations this is not like a kind of a wealthy hoard that has
55:27been stashed somewhere it's kind of small change stuff but of course that Roman date doesn't mean that
55:33that site didn't exist and wasn't occupied in the iron age so the crucial thing here will be all of
55:39the post excavation analysis that Richard and his team will do and then we'll get a much bigger picture
55:43and we'll know how long that settlement lasted how far back in time it goes whether it does extend
55:48right back into the iron age as well yeah and what it was I mean that's I think that's the
55:52big overwhelming
55:52question is like still what was it definitely I watched this space yeah situation I think this
55:59promontory fort here on digging for Britain we're not accustomed to blowing our own trumpet it's more
56:22British archaeology we've seen evidence of life here stretching back further than ever before this
56:30stuff was already fossilized by the time dinosaurs were walking around some finds were a privilege to
56:35uncover you were the first person to see that for 1400 years that is phenomenal others were best left
56:41alone this is a bottle of 85 year old beer yeah I think that can stay in there but each
56:47one sheds new
56:47light on the stories of people who lived and died on these shores it really brings back a lot of
57:02humanity to what we're studying thinking about how they may have lived how they may have died it's a
57:08child buried with weapons as the man he would have become he's been subjected to surgery yes I wonder
57:15who he was
57:24it's amazing to touch the past in such a personal way
57:35we've discovered that our ancient ancestors weren't all that dissimilar to us they liked to kick back and relax
57:42in their leisure time they're sitting beside the hearth they're playing games they had a sense of
57:48the aesthetic such a poignant connection to this person all that's surviving in the grave of them is
57:53their incredible style and they entrusted their legacy to those who followed them it's a treasured item
58:00has passed down yeah it's an heirloom yeah all across britain archaeologists continue to dig for clues to
58:10past lives who knows what treasures are waiting to be unearthed next year
58:16and dig for those whose stories lie with buried past and future's one and dig for us as we have
58:37done to lay the dead out in the sun to lay us dead out in the sun
58:45and dig for those who know what's going on in the sun
58:45and dig for those who know what's going on in the sun
58:46and dig for those who know what's going on in the sun
58:46and dig for those who know what's going on in the sun
58:46and dig for those who know what's going on in the sun
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