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Digging for Britain - Season 13 - Episode 04: England's Last Anglo-Saxon King and Scotland's First Whisky
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00:06This land we call home has a rich and varied history stretching back thousands of years.
00:15But hidden below the surface are some amazing treasures just waiting to be found.
00:22Oh my gosh, that's insane. That's really cool.
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.
01:09Where I'll be 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.
01:21Every dig provides a new piece in the puzzle of Britain's forgotten past.
01:27This is the epic and unfolding story of our islands.
01:34Welcome to Digging for Britain.
01:47This week on Digging for Britain.
01:51Hidden treasures are discovered on a forgotten royal estate.
01:55Fantastically well preserved.
01:56Linked to the last Anglo-Saxon king of England.
01:59Never seen anything like it in 30 years of digging.
02:02While in Fife, a hilltop dig.
02:04I've never found anything this cool.
02:07It's mid my year.
02:08Somebody's played in joy, I'm sure.
02:10Reveals precious insights into the ancient Picts.
02:13Oh wow.
02:14This site is incredible.
02:16And Tori discovers that Sunderland's industrial heritage.
02:21Look how it is.
02:22Look how it was.
02:24Has very ancient roots.
02:27You can't argue with that, can you?
02:29The Romans were here.
02:32The Romans were here.
02:51From Hadrian's Wall to the Norman ramparts of Bamburgh Castle, the north-east of Britain bears witness to centuries of
03:00conquest and resistance.
03:06But sometimes it's not the landmarks themselves, but the surrounding countryside that can reveal important clues to Britain's tumultuous past.
03:22Our first dig takes us to Skipsey, 16 miles north of Hull.
03:32Here, a huge mound of earth marks where Skipsey Castle once stood.
03:39Built by a Norman knight, Drogo de la Bervière, to enforce his claim to this territory.
03:46The doomsday book states that Drogo was granted huge swathes of land here after the Norman conquest in 1066.
03:55But it also reveals who owned this area before the invasion, during the early medieval period.
04:08This land once included a settlement called Cleeton, belonging to the last Anglo-Saxon King of England, Harold Godwinson.
04:20After Harold was defeated by William the Conqueror, this estate disappeared without a trace.
04:30Now a team of students from the University of York are excavating in the fields surrounding Skipsey Castle, hoping to
04:38find Harold Godwinson's lost estate.
04:42And for some of them, it's their very first time on a dig.
04:48You're like, wow, this piece of wood is like hundreds of years old and I'm touching it and it's very
04:55cool.
04:56We found a few pieces of pottery around and one right here as well.
05:00So we're thinking, you know, people could have lived around here.
05:04Jim Leary is leading the dig and they're already finding traces of early medieval life here.
05:12When we first excavated this area, we found a long building and what's clear is that we have an oven
05:20at one end of the building.
05:22The oven has been fired to such a high degree, in fact, that the domed structure has gone a bright
05:28red colour like modern bricks.
05:30And you can see it all around.
05:32The stone, which would have been the floor of the oven, is burnt to such a high degree that it's
05:37thermally fractured.
05:38The question is, what were they using the oven for?
05:45The answer actually came from the floor over here.
05:49So we've just moved into the other end of the building.
05:53And all throughout this area, we have really interesting seeds.
05:59These are little charred grains. They look a little bit like mouse poos in my hand.
06:03But actually, these give us the answer because every one of these cereal grains are sprouting just slightly.
06:10This is a malting oven.
06:12And this floor here is most likely the germinating floor to go with it.
06:16So this is a malt house. In other words, they were making beer here.
06:21In malting, grain is allowed to germinate, then growth is arrested by drying the grain in a kiln.
06:28It was a common process, but actual evidence of Anglo-Saxon malt houses is rare.
06:34I think this is only the second one to have been excavated in the country.
06:38Not only does it tell us about the brewing process, but it also tells us that this settlement is no
06:45ordinary settlement.
06:46It has got to be high status.
06:48We've got to be in the middle of a large, important estate.
06:53Maybe even a royal estate.
06:58But this large malt house isn't the only indication that this might be the princely estate the archaeologists are hunting
07:05for.
07:09There's another, more mysterious building emerging.
07:17This is a square building that's been cut down into the ground, and what we're looking at is effectively a
07:24cellar for it.
07:25Post holes are beginning to appear in the corners, and we think that we might well be looking at a
07:31tower,
07:32which once again points to this being a high status site.
07:36The floor is just coming through here.
07:39What's amazing is that it was actually a really well-made mortared floor.
07:43So this is a well-made building.
07:45So we've got a mortar-lined cellar.
07:49Fantastically well preserved.
07:50Never seen anything like it in my 30 years of digging.
07:59It's so tempting to try and relate some of these high status structures to Hal Godwinson himself.
08:07Maybe with radiocarbon dating and further work on this, we will get there.
08:12The malt house and tower are indicative of a high status site, but Jim is particularly excited by one much
08:21smaller find.
08:25This is one of my absolute favourite finds from the site this year.
08:29This is a piece of amber.
08:32The only reason they would be working this piece of amber is to turn it into some jewellery, into a
08:38bead for a necklace or whatever.
08:41So this is a piece of jewellery in the process of being made, but for some reason was lost.
08:47Which is our fortune because we found it over a thousand years later.
08:54We don't find pieces of amber like this.
08:57This is the real standout find from this season, and I will remember it for a very long time.
09:08It's another small piece of evidence which, alongside the malt house and tower, suggests this was an important place.
09:16It could be that lost royal estate.
09:22Professor Stuart Pryor is investigating how a fragment of amber might have been turned into Anglo-Saxon jewellery.
09:32I'm interested in experimental archaeology, recreating how artefacts may have been made in the past.
09:39That's amazing.
09:41And I've got plenty of experts to call upon to lend me a hand.
09:48I've invited Sue Heaser, an expert on Anglo-Saxon jewellery, to help me investigate how the piece of amber from
09:55Holderness might have been worked.
09:58Amber is one of the glories of the Anglo-Saxons, the early Anglo-Saxons in particular.
10:03And it just makes this glorious colour.
10:06You've got an amazing collection of amber in front of me here.
10:09Where does it all come from?
10:11It's almost certain that most of the amber used by the Anglo-Saxons came from the Baltic.
10:16It's the biggest area.
10:18And it's the resin of pine trees.
10:20Around about 35 million years ago, these trees fell, they exuded sap.
10:27And amber floats in water.
10:28And they would float ashore.
10:30And you can pick it up on the beach in North Norfolk and right up the Northumbrian coast.
10:36And what a delight to pick up a piece like this.
10:41How do we turn this raw material into something that you'd want to wear on your necklace?
10:46You can cut it. It's quite soft.
10:49So you can see that just with an ordinary knife, you can actually shape it quite successfully.
10:56I then move on to a finer...
10:59Finer file.
11:00...file. And do it again.
11:06So here it is.
11:07And you can see now, that area is now beginning to look quite polished, quite shiny.
11:12It's sort of more satin, but we want to go to a glass dish.
11:16So one more trick up our sleeves.
11:18Charcoal dust.
11:20This is very messy.
11:22You sprinkle a bit out and then you get your piece of amber.
11:26And you rub it like that.
11:28Or you could use ash.
11:30Ash does it too.
11:33Once the amber is nice and shiny, the hole is drilled so that it can be threaded onto a necklace.
11:40Doing this by hand would have been painstaking.
11:44But Sue has experimented with another Anglo-Saxon innovation.
11:48Basically, you're using a bit of ancient technology again.
11:51The Anglo-Saxons would have had bow drills, wouldn't they?
11:53So you could have quite easily done it this way.
11:56Yes.
12:00The Anglo-Saxons would have set their amber alongside decorative glass beads.
12:06So to finish our necklace, Sue starts making some.
12:11This is instead of a little furnace made of mud and cow dung.
12:16OK.
12:16It's slightly more convenient.
12:18So here we go.
12:19I'm going to light it and it'll be very noisy.
12:25Sue takes a metal bar called a mandrill.
12:28This has been dipped into a clay mixture called slip, which prevents the glass from sticking to it.
12:36She then starts to wind the glass around the mandrill.
12:42before plunging it into a pot of sand to cool.
12:49Right, so now time to have a look and see what it's like.
12:53Mm-hm, I can't wait to see.
12:54Aha.
12:55And that's still hot, right?
12:57No, no.
12:58All fine.
12:58OK.
12:59Great.
12:59Yes.
12:59Oh, that is so beautiful.
13:01That almost looks amber-coloured, doesn't it?
13:03It does, yes.
13:04Yeah?
13:04Yes.
13:05And there's the dark green one.
13:07That's incredible.
13:07Look at that.
13:08With the yellow wave going all round it.
13:10You are so clever.
13:12So now what we do is we soak them in water.
13:16OK.
13:16To get rid of the slip.
13:17Right.
13:18So we pop them in there.
13:20Once they've soaked, the slip will have dissolved away.
13:23And out.
13:24The bead will come off.
13:25You can pull it.
13:25I use some pliers and rubber gloves handy.
13:29There.
13:29Off it came.
13:31And there is your finished...
13:33There's the finished bead.
13:35Early medieval bead.
13:44That's the beginning of your Anglo-Saxon necklace.
13:53I can really see now why amber was such a prized possession
13:57and why people wore it as ornamentation.
14:00Combine it with a few simple glass beads
14:03and you've got amazing necklaces
14:05that can be passed down through your family for years.
14:08These are just so beautiful
14:10and it really brings the past
14:13and the colour of the past to life.
14:39Archaeology can help us to write the histories of people
14:42who left little in the way of written records.
14:47People like the Picts, whose name comes from a Roman description,
14:52Picti, meaning painted ones.
14:55It was a generic term used for anyone living beyond
14:59the northern border of the Roman Empire in Britain.
15:03These people successfully defended their land against Roman invaders
15:08and laid the foundations for medieval Scotland.
15:12And yet, they remain mysterious in many ways.
15:19Our next dig sees us travelling right up to the north into what's now Scotland
15:25to try to track down those ancient people, the Picts.
15:29Now, they are famously elusive in archaeology.
15:33We often only find scant remains.
15:37But this site yielded a wealth of finds.
15:44This investigation is taking place on East Lomond Hill in Fife,
15:49just over 20 miles north of Edinburgh.
15:52This hill is strategically located,
15:55and from its windswept heights,
15:57you can see for miles across the surrounding landscape.
16:01In the Iron Age, a hill fort was built here,
16:04but the team are focusing on evidence of its continued occupation
16:09into the Roman period and beyond.
16:15The Picts are assumed to be the descendants of Iron Age people,
16:19with various Pictish kingdoms vying for power
16:22throughout the first millennium.
16:25Up on East Lomond Hill,
16:27a team from Aberdeen University,
16:30along with local volunteers,
16:33have been working in all conditions.
16:35John, are you having a good time here?
16:37Oh, I'm having a wonderful day.
16:39Love it.
16:40Searching for a Pictish settlement.
16:42Oh, look at that, we've just found a nail.
16:45Oh, wow, really?
16:45I think that's the nail head.
16:47That's so cool.
16:50Most of what we know about the early Picts
16:53comes from what the Romans wrote of their military encounters.
16:57But what's emerging here
16:59is precious evidence of daily life in a Pictish settlement.
17:03I think I've found an incredible polished bead,
17:06and it's got sort of incised design on it as well.
17:09It's complete and absolutely stunning.
17:11Oh, it's absolutely beautiful, Jamie.
17:13Well done.
17:14Are you excited about that?
17:15It's made my year, I think.
17:19The sight hasn't disappointed.
17:22More and more evidence of Pictish life is emerging.
17:29Gordon Noble is leading the dig.
17:34So this site is an amazing vantage point,
17:36so we can see across to the Firth of Forth,
17:39where the Romans had their northernmost frontier,
17:42and in the post-Roman period,
17:44this would have been a really strategic location,
17:47looking over to the area where the Northumbrians
17:51and the Britons occupied.
17:54It's hard to appreciate today with such a quiet, serene location,
17:57but this would have been a really, really busy,
17:59thriving settlement in this Pictish period.
18:01So this site is really special and really interesting
18:04because we still have so few settlements from this time period,
18:08but to have this site here where we've got, you know,
18:10dozens and dozens of buildings is really super exciting.
18:17This is Trench 7, our largest trench,
18:19and we're quite excited about what's showing up here.
18:22So we've got a large stone foundation coming around here,
18:26up this way, and then arcing back around.
18:29So it seems to be one end of a very large stone building,
18:32so that's really, really exciting.
18:34And then we've got traces of peeping beginning to show up in the centre,
18:38and then just over here,
18:41we've got the stone-built fireplace.
18:45You can just see the kerb stones here beginning to emerge,
18:48and this is where people in the Pictish period
18:51have sat around their fire.
18:53And we had quite a few exciting finds
18:55beginning to show up in the floor layers of this building.
19:03It's really unusual to uncover quite so many artefacts in a Pictish site,
19:08but this dig is revealing a wealth of clues.
19:14And one find is particularly evocative.
19:18So it's a little piece of stone,
19:20and it's one of the most exciting finds we've had on the dig so far.
19:26So we can see an eye here, a second eye, the nose here,
19:31and what we think might be here,
19:34just represented by these little notches at the top of the stone.
19:38So it appears to be a little face, a human face.
19:41And this came just from the floor layers inside the building here.
19:46So we can just imagine someone in the Pictish period
19:49sitting around the hearth inside this building,
19:52maybe just doing a little practice piece
19:54to create this human-like appearance.
19:57The face of a Pict, potentially.
20:03Find specialist Leanne Demey is bringing the evidence together
20:07and getting close to the lives of the ancient Picts.
20:11There's been lots of things coming up from this trench,
20:14lots of evidence of domestic activities.
20:17This is just one of many game encounters we have from the site.
20:21They come in all different shapes and sizes.
20:23Some have been intentionally shaped, just like this one here.
20:27Others are just more like polished pebbles.
20:29We have some really lovely polished stone balls as well.
20:31So it's just given us an idea that in their leisure time
20:35they're sitting beside the hearth, they're playing games.
20:40This is possibly the star find from this year.
20:44So this is an Ibex-headed pin.
20:46It's really rare,
20:47and it's possibly only the second one we know from Scotland.
20:50And it would have been worn to fasten a garment.
20:54Somebody's pride and joy, I'm sure.
21:02Site directors Gordon Noble and Joe Fitzpatrick
21:06have brought more of their impressive Pictish finds to the tent
21:10so that I can get a closer look.
21:14Oh, wow.
21:16This site is incredible, isn't it?
21:18I mean, I'm so excited to see these finds.
21:20You've been in search of the Picts again, which is what I expect.
21:24Yeah, this is a wonderful site.
21:26It's a wonderful range of finds that really tell us
21:29everything from the domestic life of the Picts
21:33through to warfare, gaming and dress accessories.
21:39So what have we got there? What's that?
21:40Yeah, so...
21:42That's pretty special.
21:43This is in two pieces.
21:45So one of the students found this bottom bit of a pin.
21:49Yeah.
21:49And two days later, one of our local volunteers, Mike,
21:52found the top part.
21:54And hey, Presto, it's a dress pin.
21:56And actually, the detail on that top is quite incredible.
22:01Let's have a look at that.
22:02And you can only see it close up.
22:04Oh, wow.
22:06That is lovely.
22:07Is it copper alloy?
22:09No, it's silver.
22:10It's silver.
22:11It's silver.
22:12There are actually, finally, silver objects in site,
22:14which tells you a bit about the wealth of the people
22:16who are living there.
22:17Oh, my goodness.
22:18They have these objects and they lose them
22:20and, you know, they don't spend that much time actually recovering them.
22:24But those are incredibly rare.
22:26I mean, there's only a few handful of these silver pins known
22:29and they're usually from hordes.
22:31Right.
22:32So to actually find them in a settlement site, again,
22:34shows you just how important the site is.
22:37Right.
22:37Tell me about this metalwork, then.
22:39It's from a really well-sealed context,
22:41from a floor layer of a probably 6th, 7th century building.
22:45Really?
22:45Next to a few other objects.
22:47And we've got no parallels from Scotland on this time period.
22:51Yeah.
22:51So probably largely, you know, an agricultural tool,
22:55a construction tool, but, you know, maybe a weapon as well.
22:58You could do someone some damage with it.
22:59You certainly could.
23:00Yeah.
23:00With the weight of that, you could do something.
23:02Yeah.
23:02Yeah.
23:03What is that?
23:04It looks like a doorknob.
23:06Well, I don't need you to say that
23:08because it's called a doorknob spear butt.
23:11And these are iconic artifacts of this time period.
23:16So, again, it does literally look like a doorknob.
23:19But it's the bottom of a spear?
23:20The bottom of a spear.
23:21And it's got a real weight to it.
23:22And it's also hollow, but it has been used.
23:25We found traces of wood inside.
23:26So when does this date to?
23:27Do we know?
23:28Probably the 3rd, 4th century.
23:30So it's in that kind of late Roman phase.
23:32Yeah.
23:32And the Romans were causing some trouble.
23:34Oh, yes.
23:35Absolutely.
23:36This site seems to emerge in the kind of mid-3rd century,
23:39just, you know, a generation or so
23:41before that first mention of the Picts.
23:44So it could be a kind of centralised settlement
23:46that's emerging after that kind of Roman military influence
23:50begins to wane at this kind of northern frontier.
23:53But it happens again, doesn't it?
23:54It keeps on happening.
23:56Yeah, I mean, there are campaigns.
23:57The Romans keep thinking we need to go and sort this out.
23:59Absolutely, yeah.
24:00And the Picts resist.
24:01Yeah, I mean, there's still campaigns mentioned
24:03into the 4th century.
24:04Yeah.
24:05And the Picts are the real enemies by that time period.
24:09But it's interesting because the Romans actually mention
24:11the Caledoni, which are the kind of predecessors of the Picts,
24:15having spears with these kind of spheres at the base.
24:18Do they?
24:19And they rattle during battles.
24:22Yeah.
24:22But it is a hollow object.
24:23Do you think they're beating their shields at them?
24:25They're putting things inside them.
24:26Yeah.
24:27They're shaking and making a noise.
24:28So you can imagine lots of these shh, shh, shh.
24:30Yeah.
24:31They come to worlds and you can't see them,
24:33but you know they're coming.
24:33But you could hit it on your shields as well, couldn't you?
24:36Psychological warfare, wasn't it?
24:37Yeah.
24:38Adding some noise to the battlefield.
24:41So it is this mysterious period of time
24:43where you don't have much in the way of written records,
24:46but now we're getting more and more archaeological evidence
24:50of these people getting closer to the Pictish kings.
25:06And we are still making this idea.
25:07So, what are you doing?
25:12Thank you, Father.
25:12Very nice to have you done.
25:12Thank you, Father.
25:22Let's do this.
25:23these lands, thriving in the harsh, windswept uplands of the northeast, and making the most
25:34of the fertile lowlands, as one community certainly did on the banks of the River Tay
25:45in eastern Scotland, home to the tumbling ruins of Lindor's Abbey.
25:58This was a centre of faith, but also a thriving agricultural and industrial landscape.
26:09In the medieval period, Dr Tori Herridge is finding out more.
26:18When we think of medieval monks, we often picture men of quiet devotion, faith,
26:23simplicity, perhaps a bit of chanting, cut off, though, from the outside world.
26:29But within these ivy-clad walls lies a very different story.
26:33The monks of Lindor's Abbey were no ordinary holy men.
26:41In 1494, the monastery entered the history books, when Friar John Corr was listed in tax records
26:48as a maker of aqua vitae.
26:51It's the first written record of whisky-making in Scotland.
26:57The men here were Tyranensian monks, and, unlike many other religious orders, they believed that
27:03hard work cleansed the soul.
27:06Now, archaeologists are looking for the evidence that the medieval monks here were forerunners
27:11of the whisky trade.
27:14Trench supervisor, Zan Wodji, is excavating down to the medieval layers.
27:19Hey, hello, what is this?
27:22Ah, so this is a coin, so hopefully when we pull this out, we can get a date on when
27:28potentially
27:28this was built and what layer we're at.
27:31So you'd be happy with, what, 14th century?
27:33Yeah, that's our hope.
27:34Is it fragile?
27:35It's very fragile, hence why I'm wearing gloves here.
27:38Oil from the human skin can affect copper alloy, so we're going to try to take it out without
27:43touching it with our hands.
27:47It's coming.
27:51And then here we go.
27:52Okay.
27:54If we can get that clay off, it should give us a better face than this guy.
27:57And then we just slowly put it into our bag here.
28:03The coin was confirmed to be from the reign of James III, who ruled Scotland in the late
28:0915th century, shortly before that first written mention of the monks making whisky.
28:17The Tyranensians were known to be astute businessmen involved in trade and commerce.
28:23Well, we found some very, very interesting pieces.
28:26Site director Alison Beach is talking me through the evidence.
28:32So this is an object that is probably from the 12th or the 13th century.
28:38Oh, wow.
28:39A lot older.
28:39A lot older.
28:40And if I wanted to make a wild interpretation, maybe a little bit of evidence that this room
28:45had been used for business even earlier.
28:48If it's a short cross coin, they should say Henricus Rex on it, because all proper short
28:53cross coins have that inscription.
28:55Henricus Rex being?
28:56King Henry I.
28:57So that gives us nice dating.
28:59It has to come after the very end of the 12th century.
29:04So as we've gone down in that nice trench behind us, we found continued evidence of the monastery's
29:11involvement in commerce, or at least in accounting.
29:14The monastery is business.
29:15And monasteries are always big business.
29:17And so we know from 15th century documents that the monks here were engaging really actively
29:23on a large scale in distilled spirits.
29:27Whilst evidence that the monks were trading is emerging, the evidence for whiskey making
29:33itself is still scarce.
29:37Archaeologist Darlene Brooks-Hedstrom has unearthed an intriguing find.
29:43Hello.
29:44Hiya.
29:45Hiya.
29:46This looks cool.
29:49It is.
29:50This is a barrel band, and we've spent the morning exposing it, and we can see that it...
29:58Yeah, it is complete.
29:59That's the barrel.
30:00Well, okay, that's not there.
30:02Unfortunately, that's not there.
30:05So it's just one band around there.
30:07So you have more than one.
30:09So far, so maybe as we go down below, we might have other ones.
30:13It's very odd to just have one band, so maybe there's more underneath the deposit.
30:17Is it fragile?
30:19Is it going to come out in one piece?
30:20I think it's going to come out in one piece.
30:21We've worked through it pretty carefully with it.
30:40You did it!
30:44You need a bigger tray.
30:45We are going to need a bigger tray.
30:47There we go.
30:48There we go.
30:49The first barrel band.
30:51It is the first barrel band.
30:53From Lindor's Abbey.
30:53It is.
30:54Hopefully not the last.
30:56Hopefully not the last.
30:57So then we'll go down, and maybe we'll find some more, which I hope we will.
31:05This barrel band hasn't turned out to be medieval, but the finds from the site are starting to provide archaeological
31:12evidence that matches the written records.
31:15Clues, clues to the business acumen of this holy order, who hold the record for Scotland's earliest known whisky production.
31:24The monks of Lindor's Abbey were not just men of prayer.
31:28They were farmers, craftsmen, savvy businessmen, and the unlikely pioneers of Scotland's most iconic spirit.
31:35And the Abbey's legacy still ripples through Scotland's heritage.
31:45Everyone goes against the wind sometimes, when the shipping for cars drum.
31:55Said we were landlocked and stuck to this side.
32:00Guess they'd never heard of a swinging throng.
32:09Across the north-east and beyond, archaeology is transforming the way we understand the past.
32:18Every find adds to an increasingly detailed picture.
32:25Finding an archaeological artefact is only ever the beginning, because then we have to work out how to look after
32:32it, how to curate it, how to conserve it, to make it accessible to the public and for future research.
32:39But with decades of archaeological discoveries piling up, museums have reached a crisis point.
32:48Archaeologist Meg Russell is looking at a bold new project, tackling this challenge.
32:56Across the country, about 60% of local museums have declared themselves full.
33:03And Gloucester Museum is one of them.
33:12Curator Lizzie Johansson-Hartley hasn't been able to accept any new items for over three years.
33:24Wow.
33:26Literally boxes to the ceiling in here.
33:28There's everything that we're looking at formally catalogued.
33:31In the 160 years of the museum, we've never had a full inventory of everything.
33:36We don't often know exactly what is in every single box, so that is what we need to do.
33:42And how does it get to this state?
33:45How are we here?
33:46There are hundreds of boxes being found through commercial development and archaeology.
33:51And in planning law, it says that they have to go somewhere publicly accessible.
33:56About 40 years ago, everyone went, museums!
33:58But actually, we don't have the space or funding to be able to continue accepting in perpetuity.
34:04There's got to be a limit somewhere.
34:09How much material do you have here?
34:11We're talking over 750,000 objects as a whole, and the boxes falling apart.
34:17Unfortunately, some of them are full to the brim and overflowing, others are half full, and some of them have
34:23one tiny little shard of pottery inside them, and it's a massive box.
34:27So the use of space isn't great.
34:33If museums are unable to accept more archaeological material, future finds could be left uncatalogued, and vital opportunities to further
34:43our understanding of the past will be missed.
34:49But one solution to this national crisis has been made possible by lottery funding.
34:55The museum has taken over a disused retail outlet at the local shopping centre, where a massive sorting operation has
35:03begun.
35:05Lizzie has enlisted an army of volunteers who are painstakingly repacking every item.
35:13I didn't expect there to be this much stuff. Like, I've never seen so many finds in one place.
35:19These boxes are from 1969, and we do find things from 1969, like newspapers that we always give a read
35:26through.
35:27So they are just little boxes of time.
35:29Yeah, they're nuggets of history, and you're understanding the archaeologists that put them there in the first place.
35:39I'm currently on summer break from uni, where I study archaeology, and wanted to get some practical work.
35:45And it's not very often that you get an opportunity to see the archival side of things.
35:51Yeah, well, it's building responsible archaeologists, because you're understanding what you are excavating, what's going to happen to it.
35:58And, you know, we're not just treasure hunting, we're wanting to understand the artefacts themselves.
36:07The sorting process isn't just helping the museum rediscover and catalogue priceless artefacts.
36:13It's also benefiting the volunteers.
36:16Why has it been so important for you to be a part of this project? What does it mean to
36:20you?
36:20I've come back home to Gloucester after a long, long time, and it feels like it's being part of a
36:25community and understanding my roots as somebody that grew up here.
36:29So it's just lovely.
36:33From a very young age, I really liked history.
36:36I've just got a really good mind for remembering things.
36:40And since leaving college, no-one would give me a chance to work.
36:44And then I came here with my mum, and they were happy to have me, and I've been going ever
36:49since.
36:49So coming here has given me the chance to prove myself to people, and it shows that I'm dedicated to
36:55this process, because I've been going for such a long time now.
36:58I'm sure one day you'll be able to go into a museum and say, that was the one bit that
37:02I bagged myself.
37:04Mm-mm.
37:07And how does this help long-term with your storage?
37:11We believe that we are going to be hitting about a 50% space-saving of boxes by the end
37:16of the project.
37:17Wow, 50%. That would be brilliant.
37:21Across the UK, archaeological material is piling up, and with nowhere to go, it's a challenge that we can no
37:28longer ignore.
37:31But Gloucester are proving that the answer is not just more shelves.
37:34It's about rethinking the system, involving communities, and treating stored collections, not as a burden, but as a vital resource
37:42for the future of archaeology.
37:54At the edge of time, there's a silent cry.
38:04We blocked off the road, nowhere to go.
38:15The landscape of the north-east bears traces of an earlier way of life.
38:22From patterns of farming, to burial mounds, and ancient monuments.
38:34Archaeology can be wonderfully democratising.
38:37We can look at the lives of kings and queens, the nobility, the social elite, but we can also see
38:46ordinary people in the past.
38:51Our next dig takes us back into prehistory, to meet a community in the uplands that straddle the border between
38:59England and Scotland.
39:02In the Cheviot Hills.
39:06These hills were created by volcanic activity some 400 million years ago.
39:12The igneous rocks here include granite and tuff, as well as a fine-grained rock called felsite.
39:19And the red felsite here is quite special.
39:23It's perhaps most recognisable as the red surface of the Mao leading up to Buckingham Palace.
39:33Felsite has been extracted from this quarry for more than 80 years, and there are plans to expand.
39:41Before that can happen, a team of archaeologists is investigating the site.
39:47Finding evidence going back 4,000 years.
39:53To the Bronze Age.
40:00The archaeologists have been working on this hillside for 17 years, uncovering traces of prehistoric settlement and farming.
40:09The discoveries include a Bronze Age monument called a ring cairn.
40:17Archaeologist Clive Waddington is leading the dig.
40:21You can see its circular shape, and there's a very rough kerb, and this is the original entrance here.
40:28So, you would have entered in, in this direction.
40:32What we've got here is a pit.
40:33This is just inside the entrance, and there was some burnt human bone just to the side of it here.
40:39And we think this is a threshold deposit.
40:41So, when people come into ceremonial monuments or religious monuments,
40:45they pass through into the world of the spirits, the world beyond.
40:52We'd pass over the threshold deposit, and you can see there's quite a large pit here.
41:00And although we didn't find any human remains in it, we did find its flint tool.
41:05And, of course, flint's very hard.
41:06It's non-perishable, and it looks like it was chipped yesterday.
41:11I think what we're learning from this archaeology is that people are moving into these uplands.
41:18They're investing a huge amount of time and energy and labour.
41:22And I think what that's reflecting is social stability, but also probably quite a wealthy population.
41:29They're investing a lot in the landscape and for the long term.
41:37OK, we'll pop it on there.
41:41Just 20 metres from the ring cairn, Clive and his team find more evidence, this time in the form of
41:49pottery.
41:58This pot's a puzzle at the moment.
42:00It's very coarse.
42:01It doesn't appear to be decorated, but it's substantial.
42:05I suspect it could be some kind of urn.
42:09And they're usually associated with burials.
42:12They often contain cremations.
42:18So there's some bone fragments coming through now, sort of below the pot,
42:23which means it does look like it's containing a cremation.
42:29Yep, that's bone.
42:32We've got another cremation, guys.
42:36The remains of these people have lain here for 4,000 years.
42:40And it's quite amazing, really, to be able to touch the past, you know, in such a personal way.
42:49Clive captured the moment that he and his team had been waiting for.
42:58One, two, three, three.
43:04Oh, it's got it, I'll look.
43:05oh wow definitely cremation in there you get the camera
43:14there was two cremations in that one one above the other
43:17and the beautiful pot the complete pot is after that far pit
43:26clive has brought that extraordinarily complete cremation urn to the tent
43:33look at this incredible urn that's completely intact isn't it yeah that is pretty much how
43:39it came out the ground except it was inverted so it was the other way around but it was incredibly
43:43well preserved it's about 4 000 years old you can see it's decorated it's got this cord impressed
43:49decoration that's been twisted is it just a piece of string or is it um i think it's probably wrapped
43:54around a stick and and then they pressed it in so we've got some of the human remains how many
43:59individuals are in there one one have you done everything you need to do it doesn't matter if
44:03you touch them okay i mean there's no dna anyway is there because it's cremated yeah okay so it's a
44:10ball and socket joint part of the ball and it's small and it's got a fovea so it's the femur
44:17that's quite small so we think this is a probably a teenager yeah young teenager it's unfused so the
44:24cartilage plate would have been there still so yeah it's definitely a youngster this is what i
44:30like about cremation so you've only got small pieces but you can still tell something on these
44:34remains here you can probably see little bits of green on them which suggests there was some copper
44:41in there this is a piece of skull and there's a little green spot just there probably from some
44:48copper object that was on the burial yeah and you know during the cremation process it may have
44:53burnt away or got lost in the funeral pyre yeah but i think what it suggests is that the individual
44:58had some kind of amulet or ornamentation to help them on their journey in the afterlife yeah maybe
45:04almost a magical item yeah it's the sort of ghost of an object isn't it yeah i'm intrigued by this
45:10you've
45:10got a young person buried in what we could say is a fairly high status burial context in this beautiful
45:17urn is this pushing it too far but does it suggest that this young person was somebody important had
45:24had relatively high status and that if it's a young person with high status that must be inherited surely
45:29they haven't earned it yet i presume well i think i think you're probably bang on with that but also
45:35i
45:35think it's just showing the extent to which you know parents want to ensure that their children
45:40that they give them the maximum protection and help in their journey into the afterlife yeah
46:00archaeology can bring us close to our ancestors to individuals but it can also help tell a bigger story
46:11and in more recent centuries the northeast of britain was a focus for heavy industry including steel
46:20working and shipbuilding but it turns out that the industrial routes here go much deeper
46:30on the banks of the river weir in sunderland traces of an unexpected past are emerging
46:38tori is following the winding river banks in search of a forgotten industry
46:46going back nearly 2 000 years to the roman period
47:03these unassuming river banks have been overlooked by archaeologists for centuries their secrets hidden in mud
47:09and silt but now thanks to the local community an extraordinary new site is being uncovered
47:19and it all started with a series of mysterious stones found on the river bank
47:28archaeologist gary bankhead has long suspected that the romans occupied this area
47:33and now he thinks he's found the evidence
47:38what is so special about this place yeah well apart from being beautiful it's these objects and this one's
47:44literally just being found it's a romano british period whetstone that's wet with an h right
47:50for sharpening blades yeah so every farmstead every villa every military complex every roman fort is
47:57going to have a lot of blaze to be sharpened right absolutely so what is so interesting and important
48:01about you know a roman whetstone well by itself very little however this foreshore is littered with
48:08many many more and they are all over the place there's one okay there's a double one there's
48:13another single one hundreds literally hundreds how many when you say hundreds how many 765 so that
48:19one there is the 765th whetstone that we found here which is incredible number yeah how does that
48:25compare to other sites of the known whetstones found in the british isles you can probably total about
48:30350 across the whole country yeah okay that is big that's a lot right so what does that tell you
48:36we're pretty sure we've we've stumbled upon a romano british west stone production site
48:40across the river that sandstone rock outcrop is where we believe they were being manufactured
48:45the quality of the sandstone itself it has to be the amount of quartz in there and probably felt
48:51spar as well that just lends itself to being a perfect material to sharpen bladed weapons and tools
48:58these ones are the broken ones so the second they drop on the floor and snap in half they are
49:03useless
49:04so these are all the discards effectively from what must have been a much larger industry then so
49:09you if you're throwing away these ones you must have plenty of other ones to send off in good nick
49:13that's right and we believe that because of this location in the river seagoing vessels would have been
49:18coming up the northeast coast during the roman period but this landing area that seems to be where
49:24seagoing vessels could reach at low water they would then be an exchange of goods and these would be
49:30shipped perhaps down to london where they would be traded across the roman empire what is it then
49:35that you're hoping to find you've got all the whetstones why are you here now what are you digging
49:40for you need to find the whetstones being produced in situ in a context that we can sort of date
49:45and
49:46that will inform whether or not it's roman or british yeah if there was a massive factory here
49:51producing these whetstones in roman britain it should have left its mark and that's what you're looking
49:56for this has to be the missing piece of the jigsaw if gary and his team are to prove this
50:04was a roman
50:05whetstone production site they'll need to find other signs of roman activity so archaeologists
50:12from durham university along with local volunteers have dug trenches along the river banks
50:18but they're at the mercy of the tides and can only dig four days every month
50:24so i'm lending orla a hand in the trenches before the tide comes back in
50:32what do you think that is
50:34it's a tile yeah exactly what's that well it's like ceramic to me isn't it yeah
50:41it's very thick gary yeah i promise we didn't fix it but orla has just uncovered this
50:49well she just said we need a bit of pottery and then this turned up yeah wow look at that
50:55look
50:55at the curve look at the angle we have so little date and evidence this is fantastic thanks well
51:01done all yeah good job but it's not just on the riverbank that the team are finding evidence of roman
51:09industry down on the foreshore they are discovering ancient stone anchors suggesting that this place
51:18was a stopping point for boats yes
51:26having already found a surprising number of anchors at this spot gary and his team of experienced divers
51:34are extending their search deeper into the river
51:41and for that i've got to kit up myself
51:46really exciting moment we had a pre-arranged signal with the two uh divers who've gone in
51:51and a boy has popped up and they were instructed if he found something significant almost certainly an
51:58anchor that's what they were briefed to search for pop up a boy and let me know and i will
52:02go across and
52:03examine it because what is the significance of these stone anchors how many have you found
52:07to date we found 10 and that is an incredible amount that's double anything that's being found
52:12in the whole of europe so in themselves they are incredibly important this would represent the 11th
52:18and i can't wait to find out okay i've got comms on so if you want i can give you
52:24an update as we're
52:25going to guide you through the discovery yes
52:32gary is actually connected to the shore via a cable where i can actually listen in
52:36but it's a little bit having like having him on a tether
52:42right here we go
52:48it's quite hard to hear gary it's um slightly distorted lime oh oh he said
52:55you just said looks like an anchor but it's not
53:02there's three divers out there you can just see their bubbles all homing in onto that boy
53:12wow wow we just said wow
53:21you got something yeah oh my gosh can you see that look at this
53:39how heavy is it uh i reckon you could probably do it i got it again you got it sure
53:43yes okay cool
53:48i mean this could be 2 000 years old i mean look at that how does this compare then to
53:54the other
53:54ones you found it's shape it's size it's form that single large hole the chisel marks the tool marks
54:01it's it's almost identical yeah it's pretty hefty that's for sure shall i um wake it up while you get
54:06yourself out that'd be great okay let's do that take care of that mud yes
54:16the stone anchors like this have been in use since when the bronze age right earlier probably
54:20earlier yeah probably earlier right so it's probably on its own quite hard to date by themselves
54:25these have the form of a bronze age anchor the typology suggests they are late bronze age and that
54:31would be you know wonderful but it's sitting in amongst all of these wet stones and the two have
54:37to be linked it just speaks of this industry this huge production site of roman period wet stones
54:43this perfect mix of everything coming together there would have been ample manpower we have hadrian's wall
54:49only 20 miles to the north with the roman forts there's sufficient wet stones made at this location to
54:56serve the entire roman empire and that is no exaggeration of course the romans had to have been
55:01here but you know you could speculate all you like but until you find the evidence for it yeah then
55:06it's
55:07just a speculation absolutely so it wasn't until we dug trench one our 1am was to find roman material
55:13culture and right at the very bottom after we've gone through all of the layers of previous history did we
55:19find our very first coin our roman period kind look what charlie's just found well pleased with that
55:26you will be mate that's brilliant guys we've officially got our very first roman coin look at that
55:34oh and there it is there it's an a3 coin so a bronze coin and it has emperor valenzon which
55:42probably
55:42dates about 83 40 that's a fourth century coin see that is definitive you can't argue with that can you
55:48it's like the romans were here yes gorgeous little faint yeah
56:05so this was a very interesting site and you got right stuck in this was brilliant how did that come
56:14to light how did they know that there was archaeology this is a really interesting story
56:18the local archaeology group were convinced that there was a roman bridge in the area did not
56:24find the bridge but they spotted these rather unusual rectangular stones and these weren't known
56:31of before no one had bothered looking very quickly became clear that what they had here was something
56:37that was completely out of the ordinary and so you know a whetstone is a really fundamental tool if you
56:43are using iron knives you have to sharpen them and here they had not just one but several and not
56:48just
56:49finished wet stones in every single stage of the production it's quite exciting it's always like the
56:54beginning of an investigation the beginning a new discovery as it's emerging yeah i mean that's just
56:58it this is a very very new story there's definitely an interesting question to answer here and i think it's
57:04exciting to tap into that as an early stage in the investigation where it's been recognized that there is a
57:10focus of
57:11activity on the riverbank there's something going on with the vessels in the river as well with all
57:15these stone anchors there as well there's definitely a bigger story here yeah exactly and i think also
57:21just like you know the whetstones in general deserve more attention you know people get fixated on the
57:25kind of fancy pots but it's a whetstone that is the fundamental tool in your toolkit you cannot run
57:31uh you know an iron age industry you cannot keep an iron age army a roman army yeah going without
57:38something that sharpens your blade and i think that's that's it to me like it's literally like
57:42people go oh okay you know you're convincing me it's all about the uh the stone industries in the british
57:46isles as far as i'm concerned next time on digging for britain tori visits a site with an opulent roman
58:02bathhouse it does not look like it's 2 000 odd years old archaeologists uncover a mysterious mass grave
58:11we're dealing with a very traumatic event and we journey back 300 million years this stuff was
58:18already fossilized by the time dinosaurs were walking around to uncover a lost prehistoric world
58:23that helped forge britain's industrial past such exquisite detail
58:35i dig for those whose stories live in very past futures one and dig for us
58:47as we have done to lay the dead out in the sun to lay us dead out in the sun
58:58is
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