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Digging for Britain - Season 13 - Episode 06: A Cornish Legend and an Ancient Wishing Well
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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.
01:09Or 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.
01:47In this episode, archaeologists go searching for the fabled ancient Tin Isles.
01:53Oh 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.
02:05Two huge Roman swords.
02:08What'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.
02:57The West has some of our memorials,
02:59the most dramatic stretches of coastline.
03:03Places that were once connected into ancient trade routes,
03:09linking Britain across the seas with the wider world.
03:17For our first dig, Torrey heads to the Cornish coast
03:21to St Michael's Mount,
03:23three miles east of Penzance.
03:32This island has been a medieval monastery,
03:35a Norman fortress and the site of a civil war siege.
03:43But long before it became a symbol of faith or power,
03:47some archaeologists think it may have played a very different role,
03:51as a vital hub in an ancient trading network of tin,
03:56a resource that fuelled the Bronze Age.
04:06Tin ore is the crucial material ancient metal workers refined to create tin,
04:11which, when mixed with soft copper, creates bronze,
04:15a 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,
04:26and Cornish ore was in demand across the Mediterranean.
04:30But the true location of one of the main centres where this ore was processed and traded remains a mystery.
04:39For years, people have claimed that St Michael's Mount is the lost island Ictis,
04:45the legendary trading hub for tin in the ancient world.
04:49It all hinges on the writings of Pythias,
04:52an ancient Greek explorer who visited Britain in around 320 BC.
04:56He wrote of locals carting tin across to an island called Ictis,
05:02over a sandbar that appeared at low tide.
05:05And the similarities with this island are uncanny.
05:19Now, in the first research excavation ever carried out on the island,
05:23a team from Durham University and the National Trust
05:27is 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,
05:38refined into tin ingots and then traded here during the Bronze Age.
05:43Leading the dig is archaeologist Ben Roberts.
05:46What was it that was so special about Cornish tin?
05:50Cornish tin was prized because of its purity,
05:53and 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
06:10that we're getting in Cornwall and Devon.
06:13The archaeologists think tin ore mined on the mainland
06:16was hauled across to the island at low tide when the causeway 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.
06:32And so there's no central production, but the distribution points have to be central
06:37because 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.
06:48And the fact that we're on a tidal island is going to make everyone feel a bit safer.
06:52When 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.
07:11Ben's theory is strengthened by a discovery made in 2009 when head gardener Darren Little
07:18uncovered a remarkable hoard of Bronze Age artefacts.
07:24Darren, along with Jim Parry from the National Trust, has brought some of those finds to show me.
07:31Look at this.
07:33This is some really rather beautiful Bronze Age metalwork, what's called a Meldrift socketed axe.
07:39Darren did an amazing job in finding.
07:41But this piece here in particular is what really stumped us and stumped some of the other metalwork professionals
07:47because there's nothing that we know like this that's been found.
07:50Well, it's obviously a buckle, and it looks modern.
07:52Exactly. So, considering we're on St Michael's Mount, the thinking was that could this be a Civil War buckle,
07:57but hang on, why is it with something that's so clearly Bronze Age?
08:01So, with a bit more research, in other hoards they've found small bits of something very similar,
08:07but nothing with these beautifully pin-in sized decoration lines that run around the edges.
08:14So, really rather special piece.
08:17How did you feel? I mean, my heart would have been racing.
08:19My heart was racing, yeah.
08:21I remember calling the wife, you know, she was saying,
08:23I can't come out at the moment, you know, I'm still working, you know, found a few things and I'll
08:28be home shortly.
08:29And yeah, so, it's a one in a lifetime chance of finding something like that.
08:33Found another 50 odd items of chisels, axe heads, pommels, bits of swords, ingots.
08:43While the hoard is intriguing, the archaeologists need to find more than finished bronze items
08:48to prove their theory that tin oil was processed into tin here.
08:54The team are concentrating on two areas where earlier geophysical surveys revealed features that might be ancient structures.
09:04And, almost immediately, the first trench begins to deliver.
09:10The team's pottery specialist is Imogen Morris.
09:15We've got lots of Bronze Age pottery.
09:17Here we've got a rim sherd.
09:18Oh yes, I can see the rim.
09:20It's got no decoration and this sort of pottery is called plainware.
09:25Because it's plain.
09:26Pretty plain, yeah.
09:27And this would have been quite a large vessel, quite a simple vessel.
09:31So, it would have been for cooking, everyday uses, yeah, perhaps about that high.
09:36A solid cooking pot.
09:38But not all of the pottery is plainware.
09:42We've got quite a beautiful sherd.
09:44So, put your fingers in there.
09:47Oh my gosh!
09:48That is a Bronze Age fingerprint.
09:50And they would have gone all the way around the edge?
09:51That's it, yeah.
09:52It's quite unusual to get decoration, so we're quite lucky to get one that's got those finger pinches.
09:56That's incredible! That's so cool!
09:57It really connects you.
09:58Yes!
10:02The discovery of the pottery suggests there was considerable activity on the island during the Bronze Age.
10:09But the team still need evidence of tin ore processing.
10:14Nearby, archaeologist Alan Williams is taking a closer look at some of the finds.
10:20Wonderful stone tools.
10:22I do like the look of these.
10:23Some of the most exciting finds we've made at St Michael's Mount.
10:27Can I pick it up?
10:27Absolutely!
10:28And you can see it fits really nicely in the hand.
10:32So, if this has been used for crushing tin ore, we would expect that it would be embedded in between
10:38the grains,
10:38because it's really, really hard.
10:40But to show that, we need to analyse the edge of the rock and compare it to the general background
10:47in the rock.
10:49Geologist Sean Cleveland has been working on the analysis of the stone tools using a specialist X-ray machine.
10:57It 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 edge of the
11:09stone.
11:11The result we got from the general background in this rock was what, Sean?
11:15100 to 150 ppm.
11:17Okay, amazing.
11:18Where's the edge of the rock and Sean?
11:211,884 ppm.
11:23Oh, okay, so like a whole ten times more.
11:25At least.
11:26And we've seen even higher values on other stones.
11:29So, it's very strong evidence that this is used for tin ore processing.
11:33You got it!
11:34Absolutely.
11:35It's the first evidence ever that the St Michael's Mount was processing tin ore and was part of the tin
11:42trade of the Bronze Age.
11:44It's magical that someone used this to grind tin ore on this island 3,000 years ago.
11:55The high levels of tin found on the edges of the crushing stones is evidence that tin ore was being
12:02processed here on the island.
12:08Could this spot on St Michael's Mount mark the origin of the ictus myth?
12:15Not just a name from legend, but a real place.
12:19And for Cornish tin, the gateway to the ancient world.
12:27Cornish 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 thousands of
12:44years to reveal the knowledge and skills of the ancient metal workers.
12:54I'm fascinated by experimental archaeology, recreating how things were made in the past.
13:02So, I've asked metalworking expert Mark Vivian Penny to help me cast a set of bronze axe heads to see
13:10if 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 copper.
13:22Wow.
13:23In order to make that copper stronger, because copper bends, you would need tin.
13:29So, this is tin. I'll hand you some gravelly bits.
13:32So, again, the search for raw materials, add a bit of tin.
13:36Tin will make good working bronze, which is what the Bronze Age people use to make all their tools and
13:42their weapons.
13:44And this is bronze.
13:47That's much heavier, isn't it?
13:48It is, isn't it?
13:49And obviously much stronger, right?
13:50Very strong material.
13:52And you can sharpen it up really sharp and it will keep its edge quite a long time.
13:56So, if we start with copper and then we want to add tin, how do we know what the proportion
14:03is that they need to add to make the perfect axe?
14:07The best working tool bronze is made with 10% tin and they would have tried and tested different ways
14:14of doing it and you'd know when you've got it wrong because the metal becomes brittle if there's too much
14:20in it and if it's just too little in it, it won't make any difference at all.
14:23So, it's not just a case of adding copper and tin together. You've got to get those proportions right.
14:28Exactly.
14:31How it's on.
14:32How it's on.
14:37We're casting three different types of axe heads. One with too little tin, one with too much and one with
14:45just the right amount, 10%.
14:49Using a modern furnace to speed things up, the metals are heated to over a thousand degrees Celsius.
14:56It is unbelievably hot.
14:59It's going to get hotter.
15:01Once molten, the mix is poured into moulds.
15:04Here 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 mould.
15:29Wow.
15:30This is the bronze one.
15:32Look at that.
15:35That's the axe, which I'm now going to put in that bucket to cool.
15:43There we go.
15:44Look at that lovely gloss. It's almost golden, isn't it?
15:48So, all that heat and all that work, and you get this beautiful axe head at the end.
15:53Well done.
15:55Can't wait to see the finished product.
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.
16:13What's the next step?
16:15How do we test to see what's the strongest?
16:17Well, if we hit them with a hammer...
16:19Bronze-aged hammer.
16:20Bronze-aged hammer, we can find out how much damage they would take.
16:24So, this is the copper one. We'll try that one.
16:28So...
16:33A few dents.
16:34A few dents in it, yeah.
16:35So, this has almost no tin in it.
16:37That one's almost pure copper.
16:39But it does make a serviceable axe, but not a very hard-wearing, resistant one.
16:44Don't want to hit the next one.
16:45Well, this one's got just the right amount of tin in it.
16:49So, let's have a go with the hammer.
16:53You can really hear that ringing, can't you?
16:55That's a beautiful axe, that one.
16:58It's virtually no dents in this.
17:00You can really see that it rings like a bell.
17:03It's a much more sturdier material.
17:05It's a beautiful golden colour.
17:07You can imagine this in the hands of the warriors at the time.
17:10Exactly.
17:10Yeah?
17:11It's amazing.
17:12We did this experiment to find out what's the right proportion of copper and tin.
17:18This one's got no tin in it, and this one's got far too much tin in it.
17:22We'll do the hammer test, and we'll see what happens.
17:27Oh, no!
17:29It's just destroyed the thing completely.
17:32Yeah.
17:33My God, it's incredible.
17:34It is.
17:34That is completely useless.
17:36It is.
17:37Chocolate axe.
17:38Yeah?
17:38Chocolate axe.
17:39Waste of time.
17:40You'd be very disappointed if you'd been sold that, wouldn't you?
17:44So you've got to get that mixture right.
17:46You've got to get that 10%, or you've got something that's not functional at all.
17:50Exactly.
17:51Yeah?
17:52Can I try the other one?
17:53See how bad that one is.
17:54Yeah.
17:55We'll see if we've done a better job.
17:56Ready?
17:57Yeah.
17:59No, it's destroyed as well.
18:01Destroyed as well.
18:01That is hopeless.
18:02Yeah.
18:03It's amazing.
18:04That sounds great.
18:05So we've done a really good job with this one.
18:08But this one, you can see, if you don't get that 10% mixture right, you get complete dross.
18:12Yeah.
18:13Yeah?
18:13It's just amazing.
18:15But I do feel like I'm a Bron Smith, eh?
18:17Hey!
18:19Congratulations.
18:46MUSIC CONTINUES
18:49Throughout the west of Britain, archaeologists have 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.
19:28Now, some years ago, I visited a medieval priory site in Haverford West and we thought we knew what was
19:34going on there.
19:35But Professor Naomi Sykes is visiting the lab 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 what we think archaeology
19:56is telling us.
19:58And it's in the lab, during post-excavation analysis, that the real story often emerges.
20:19When digging for Britain visited Haverford West, an incredible story was emerging.
20:24That is beautiful. Look at that.
20:29That is beautiful.
20:29Evidence for the long-lost Dominican friary of St Saviars, which had been hidden for centuries.
20:35The whole building would have been impressive, indicative of a high-status monastic building.
20:41Almost 300 burials were recovered, giving us our first glimpse into the lives of the medieval friars and the local
20:47townsfolk 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
21:02a site 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.
21:19That raises new questions about who they were and why they were buried in this friary cemetery.
21:26Dr Keira 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.
21:41This one is a sharp force trauma as well, probably from a projectile.
21:45So they've survived these injuries for quite some time after.
21:48Wait, they survived this?
21:50Yes.
21:50So this is healed.
21:51It has kind of reattached to the back of the skull there.
21:54And they've lived for possibly years after these injuries occurred.
21:58And that's not the only thing they have that's healed.
22:01They broke their jaw at some point in their life as well.
22:03So look at this.
22:04There's quite severe trauma there as well that's totally changed the angle of the jaw.
22:09Would this have affected their ability to eat?
22:11Yes, definitely, I think.
22:13But interestingly, despite this, we still have some evidence for quite a rich diet in this individual.
22:17So we have some pathology of the vertebrae there called DISH, where these two vertebrae have fused and it happened
22:24all up the spine as well.
22:26This is associated in modern clinical practice with diabetes and obesity, and in the past we associate it with monastic
22:32diets.
22:33So quite rich, fatty foods, alcohol consumption, red meat.
22:37They could have been at the site and enjoying a similar diet being looked after by the monks.
22:41OK, so is this an isolated instance amongst the population that you've been looking at?
22:45No, 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.
22:59They also had lots of healed fractures throughout the rest of their skeleton, so healed fractures of the feet, ribs,
23:05and also of the hands.
23:07So evidence for quite rough lives, but some healing as well.
23:14Kira believes the fact that these people survived such severe injuries and showed signs of a rich, fatty diet suggests
23:21they 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?
23:34To find more answers, the team at Cardiff University is using isotope analysis.
23:40The technique examines chemical traces 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.
24:00Whilst the science behind it can be a bit complex, the principles are really very simple.
24:05You are what you eat, you are where you eat, and to some degree you are how you eat.
24:09So every time humans consume food and drink, chemical signals from those products enter the body, enter our skin, our
24:16hair, our nails, and handily for archaeologists, our bones and our teeth.
24:20So by analysing tiny fragments, we can reconstruct all sorts of aspects about movement, diet, and health in the past.
24:30Different chemical elements preserved in bones and teeth can reveal detailed clues about past lives.
24:38In particular, strontium and oxygen can be analysed together to show where a person was born and grew up.
24:47Strontium gives us a geological signal for where individuals were during the development of their teeth.
24:54And oxygen gives us a climatic signal relating to temperature and rainfall.
24:58So they work together well in terms of looking at origins.
25:01We've boxed the approximate local range here for not just Haverford West but probably more broadly Wales.
25:09And we can see the diversity within that local range hints that they're not all directly from Pembrokeshire.
25:15We've got quite a few individuals that sit outside of that local range and they must have come from further
25:22afield.
25:22So do we have any idea where they might have come from?
25:25The fact that these oxygen values are really very high, they're beyond what we would think could be achieved in
25:32Wales,
25:33hints that they come from a more westerly zone like Ireland.
25:37And we know historically that there are some strong links between Pembrokeshire and Ireland.
25:42So, I mean, it's tantalising but I think it's highly likely these individuals have come from there originally.
25:51The lab has transformed the story of the Dominican friary of St Saviars.
25:57The bones, once thought to tell a simple monastic tale, now reveal lives touched by trauma, care and resilience.
26:05Far from just a cemetery, the evidence suggests that this was a place where Dominican friars treated the sick and
26:12injured,
26:12welcoming people from across Britain and beyond.
26:17And it's only due to the power of science, by combining osteology, isotopes and history,
26:23that we can build a more complete picture of a medieval community.
26:28Dreams of stories reeled me in
26:32Cocked my ear and hooked my chin
26:36A Friday dinner
26:39A fish truck sinner
26:41Pull me down, Lord, put me in
26:52Every year, seasoned archaeologists across Britain unearth objects that tell stories of the past.
27:01But some remarkable discoveries are made by enthusiastic amateurs.
27:09Now we're catching up with a spectacular discovery, a chance find that turned out to be something of national 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.
27:35Novice metal detectorist Glenn Manning was looking forward to his day.
27:42As he began his afternoon sweep, he had no idea he was about to make a discovery that would offer
27:49a rare glimpse into the Roman period.
27:56Just after lunch, I came up here and I remember the organiser shouting to me,
28:01people have already done that.
28:02You need to go over to that part of the field and have a look.
28:07But something just told me, just carry on doing what you're doing.
28:10The metal detector all of a sudden picked up a signal, but it was a little bit jumpy, so I
28:15dug down into the ground, probably about eight to ten inches.
28:18And using my handheld pin pointer, I came across what just looked like old metal that had a slight point
28:26to 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 find
28:39such a wonderful item?
28:41And in fact, Glenn had uncovered not one, but two ancient swords.
28:48Far longer than the gladius, the short stabbing sword usually associated with Roman soldiers, Glenn had found something remarkable.
28:59I didn't know how to feel.
29:00That's the funny thing, I was quite calm.
29:03My feelings obviously have changed now because I understand how rare it is to find something like that.
29:08There's a lot of historic value, there's a lot of learning to be done in relation to these swords.
29:14When Glenn first discovered the swords, they were so muddied and corroded, it was impossible to tell much about them.
29:22But now, after being carefully conserved and x-rayed, the weapons are finally giving up their story.
29:34Historic England conservator Carla Graham and Carinian Museum director Emma Stewart have brought them to the Digging for Britain tent.
29:46Hello.
29:48I've been looking forward to this. I mean, what incredible objects.
29:51These are very long swords, aren't they? I mean, obviously Romans had lots of different types of swords.
29:56The gladius was a short one, wasn't it? This isn't a gladius.
29:58No, so these are spather, so they're kind of much longer, they would be carried by cavalrymen on horseback.
30:04OK.
30:05And what we still have, which you can see on the surface here, is that we've got the remains of
30:10the wooden scabbard.
30:11The wood's decayed away, but the rust has preserved the wood grain, so we've got it on here and on
30:17the hills as well.
30:17And on this particular sword, the much, kind of very bright orange, that's the remains of the wood there as
30:23well.
30:24Yeah. And we've also got at the ends here these beautiful shapes that were attached to the wooden scabbards
30:29and would have protected the soldiers from getting stabbed by their own.
30:33It's very useful when you're on a horse.
30:34Yes. You don't want that, do you?
30:36So, yes.
30:37So these are obviously copper alloy, they would have been bright and shiny, wouldn't they?
30:41Very bright and shiny, and they're decorated.
30:43And the swords themselves, the Carinean Museum asked us if we could x-ray them,
30:47and what was really exciting about the x-rays is it shows that they're quite different.
30:52Have you got the x-rays? I have got the x-rays.
30:54Can we have a look at them? Yes, you certainly can.
30:56So, we did a little bit of enhancement.
30:59So there are some lines coming through here?
31:01Yes. You can see some lines going down, a bit like a herringbone pattern.
31:05And that shows that this one is pattern welded.
31:09It would have looked amazing.
31:12It's basically lots of either strips or rods of metal, which were woven, hammered together,
31:18and then a cutting edge put on the outside.
31:20And the reason that we're seeing it in the x-ray is because there's a differential corrosion,
31:24which is fantastic because it shows up this pattern very well.
31:27Isn't that amazing? Because you cannot see that, can you?
31:29There's nothing to see that. You really can't see it.
31:31I mean, you've got the grooving down the centre, but that's not the pattern.
31:34The only way you can see it is in this x-ray.
31:37And what's interesting is one is pattern welded and the other one isn't.
31:41So it's higher status, this one.
31:43Are we looking at objects that seem to have gone into the ground in a fairly pristine condition?
31:49Yes. They've been deliberately buried.
31:52They're very carefully placed so they've not been lost.
31:54They haven't been bent and destroyed.
31:56You can see some potential textile remains so we're not quite sure if they were bound together.
32:01Could have been wrapped in fabric as well.
32:03Could have been wrapped in fabric, could have been part of the scabbard.
32:06In the ground they were lying one on top of the other, next to the fragments of a bowl here.
32:13Tell me about this bowl, because this is part of the same group of objects.
32:17What does this tell us?
32:18This is quite high status in the same way as the pattern welded sword.
32:21It's really beautifully decorated.
32:23It's obviously quite fragmentary now because this was slightly above the swords so this suffered the damage first.
32:29Some of the pieces were ploughed out unfortunately.
32:31But you can see some beautiful decoration in this deliberate circular pattern.
32:36There's no need to do this for functionality.
32:38Can I handle these things?
32:40You are more than welcome to, yes.
32:41Very much.
32:42So it looks like it would have had quite high sides.
32:45Yes.
32:46This is a fragment of the rim, so you can see that lovely lip around the edge there.
32:50And it's got some pattern or some ghost of something here.
32:53Yes, that's right.
32:54This was revealed at conservation and the conservators had to clean off the mud and the earth and everything.
32:59And it would appear that this piece, which we originally thought was part of the scabbard, actually fits perfectly in
33:05that piece there.
33:07So I saw that and I thought it was a coin. It's not a coin then.
33:10It's not a coin. It's a piece of decoration by the looks of things around this rim area.
33:14Given that it's decorated and you can tell a certain amount about its style, does that help you to date
33:19it as well?
33:20It's probably contemporary with the swords, so late 3rd century around 290.
33:25And then what's that?
33:26And so this piece, it's a different type of metal.
33:30So you've just felt the rim. If you have a feel of that, you can feel it's thicker.
33:33Oh, it's thicker and heavier.
33:34It's not as beautifully polished.
33:36This would have been a lidded bowl with something inside it, deposited inside it.
33:41It may have been sort of ceremonial deposit with these being deliberately buried.
33:45That's a possibility.
33:46Yeah, you've got to think about all the possibilities, haven't you?
33:49And you've got a find like this where you don't know the wider context.
33:52It's kind of delightfully mysterious. I really, I want to know.
33:56Yes.
33:56I really want to know why these objects are buried together.
33:59And wonderfully well pursued.
34:01And even though they look like rusty objects, there's quite a lot of metal still in there.
34:05And you can tell by the weight.
34:07I can let you feel the weight of this sword here.
34:13That is heavier than I expected.
34:15That actually is quite a lot heavier.
34:18And that's this beautiful pattern-welded sword, isn't it?
34:21It is.
34:22Yeah.
34:22Nearly 2,000 years old.
34:25It is curious because they are objects on their own.
34:28They don't have a context.
34:29I mean, do we even know if there was any Roman cavalry in the area?
34:32There were.
34:32There was a Roman cavalry base just outside of Carinium, which is Simon Sesta, which is not too far away.
34:38Later in the Roman period, there is evidence of Roman military.
34:42But there is an interesting shift because there was quite a lot of banditry along the Foss Way.
34:47And civilians were known to carry cavalry swords.
34:50It's possible that two soldiers may have been killed.
34:53And this is the wares that were dumped.
34:55Because if civilians were found with this type of material and there were two soldiers dead, then you can trace
35:01it to them.
35:02They're hiding the evidence.
35:03That's a possibility.
35:05But it's looking like, in terms of the whole context, you've clearly got Roman military kit here.
35:11There is something special about these swords, something special about this bowl for somebody to deposit them all together.
35:17Why did they do it?
35:18I mean, we'll never know, will we?
35:20But what we do know is that they never came back.
35:32I won't be able to participate.
35:41I won't be able to swap parties because we have the odd moments of the word guy.
35:52I won't be able to do it, but see things like me have been一樣ed in the drugiej notes.
36:11Each new artefact can be a source of insights into ancient lives and technologies.
36:18But sometimes researchers face a challenge with objects that are so fragile that they're
36:25actually impossible to handle.
36:32Archaeology isn't just about making new discoveries.
36:35We can employ technology now to study, recreate and even handle objects that were dug up a
36:42long time ago.
36:43Archaeologist Meg Russell is looking at how cutting edge techniques are helping to unlock
36:49secrets about Roman surgery.
36:56I'm fascinated by objects from the past and it's only natural to want to pick them up.
37:02But some artefacts are so fragile that even the lightest touch can cause damage.
37:07And when you can't handle them safely it becomes much harder to understand how they worked or
37:13what 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 are now so corroded and fragile
37:28that touching them risks further deterioration.
37:33at the University of Exeter researchers are pioneering techniques that let them peer beneath those
37:39corroded layers to reveal the metalwork underneath.
37:43Clues that could transform our understanding of how these tools were designed, manufactured and used.
37:51Professor Rebecca Fleming is on hand to explain.
37:56These Roman surgical instruments are found in the river Walbrook in London and we've got a scalpel handle, we've got
38:04two needles and we've got two very thin probes and a slightly larger spoon as well.
38:12Wow, some of these are so delicate and tiny.
38:16I'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 and if
38:29we can't get the feel of them and try them out in various ways and really get a sense of
38:34exactly how they were constructed, that limits our possibilities in terms of understanding them in various ways.
38:39What 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
38:48-ray for objects which really gives you a very detailed picture of the surface, all of its different imperfections, any
38:56details of crafting which is invaluable for us.
39:00And is there anything that you specifically hope the CT scans might show us today?
39:04Yes, definitely. So as you can see this scalpel handle would have originally been an iron or steel blade and
39:12clearly that is replaced pretty regularly so a lot of attention would have gone into thinking about how to make
39:18the 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, so it would
39:29be 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
39:51it can be scanned safely.
39:57Placed on a rotating platform, this high-resolution scanner will capture every tiny detail.
40:05It's a painstaking process with each scan taking more than seven and a half hours.
40:14These look fantastic, Rebecca.
40:17This is a full-on greyscale image containing all of the data. You can already start to see some of
40:23the detail in terms of the scoop of the spoon and the different sort of eyes of the needle.
40:29Things that are darker are denser and we can visualise that much more clearly in different colours.
40:35Look at that! That's fantastic!
40:38The 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 and
40:51maybe it was actually intentional that parts of it were less dense, parts of it were more dense in terms
40:57of 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, so 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!
41:25Oh 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. Now you can get really to grips with the complexities of
41:47it, so 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. That second hole is a surprise. You couldn't see it in the
41:57actual artefact itself at all.
41:59We haven't been able to find anything that looks exactly the same. There's clearly more to that than just sewing
42:07up bandages.
42:08I love that now you can tell a little bit more potentially about function of these objects.
42:13I mean this must just lift a lot of limitations for you with what you can and can't see with
42:18the real thing.
42:19Exactly, and you can start to think about the scalpel handle. You can see the sort of thought that's gone
42:24into this.
42:25You have the flatten and then you have something that you can hold. The blades would have been put there.
42:29This would have opened and you'd use this to pull it apart and then it would snap back together.
42:34And this is obviously very practical. So 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, put it in the
42:47hand 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. So do the tools seem to be appropriate for
42:59the 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,
43:25opening up endless possibilities to explore and understand ancient artefacts in entirely new ways.
44:01Every year across the West, archaeologists embark on new digs.
44:10Sometimes they set out with a good idea of what they might find.
44:14But when the digging starts, they have to be ready for their theories to be turned on their heads.
44:22For our next dig, Torrey is heading to the wild south-west coast of Wales, to Buckspool in Pembrokeshire.
44:43This has to be one of the most spectacular and precarious sites I've ever filmed at.
44:49This whole area is an active military training zone and because it's off limits to the public,
44:54the archaeology here has stayed remarkably intact.
45:00Perched on a headland jutting into the Celtic Sea,
45:04a team of archaeologists and military veterans are investigating two circular structures.
45:16From the air, the site shows all the hallmarks of a promontory fort dating back over 2,000 years
45:24to 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?
45:49Archaeologist Richard Osgood is leading the dig.
45:53Richard, this is properly spectacular.
45:57This is just gorgeous.
46:00It's such an elemental place, isn't it? It's really, really beautiful.
46:03This is Buckspool Promontory Fort.
46:04That has an awful lot of information in the name on a promontory.
46:09Yep.
46:10We can't argue with that.
46:11That's true.
46:11Is it a fort?
46:12Good question.
46:13I think this is more about impressing your neighbours,
46:16having big ditches and ramparts for sure, but this is a showy thing.
46:19So I think it's much more than defensive and military.
46:22So this is the way in?
46:24It is the way in.
46:24You can see the big ditch here and the embankment behind it.
46:28It would have been, I think, quite a bit deeper
46:29and you would have had a higher rampart behind with a big timber palisade
46:34and the massive timber gateway that we're standing under at the moment.
46:37So this would have been hugely impressive.
46:38When you paint that picture there, you just realise, you know,
46:41not only how monumental that would have felt,
46:44but coming in from this relatively flat land to dramatic deep-sided ditches.
46:49Yeah.
46:49Towering gates, great wall in front.
46:53You wouldn't be able to see anything ahead of you.
46:54You have no idea what's coming next.
46:56Everything from this point onwards is a surprise when you get into the settlement.
47:05It's a surprise when you get into the settlement.
47:06Because 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.
47:24We're now, within the settlement area, we've come through these Iron Age defences
47:27and we're into the excavation proper of these structures.
47:29So you've got this circle defined by these blocks of limestone,
47:32but it cuts through a little passageway into a second one.
47:35So you're looking at a figure of eight of these two circular structures.
47:38They seem big. Is that big for a roundhouse?
47:40Not especially big for a roundhouse. There are two courses, at least, going around there,
47:45sat on top of the bedrock and forming this arc, presumably once of a circle.
47:49There's a big tumble of rock there. That's bedrock.
47:51So this is where it gets confusing, because if this is a roundhouse,
47:55the last thing you want is that as your floor.
47:58So I'm not entirely convinced, even if there's a scree of earth put over it, that that is a floor.
48:07Iron Age roundhouses typically had a single entrance,
48:10and a stone hearth in the centre for cooking and heating.
48:15We've not got those elements that would just scream roundhouse at you.
48:19I think it's more than that, because you've got this arc of stones in a couple of courses,
48:24but I've not got that hearth. The entranceway is probably there,
48:27but is it actually connecting you with a third structure,
48:29in which case you've got three cells connected to another,
48:32but is that the sort of thing you get in the living structure? I don't think it is.
48:39And the mystery deepens, as 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.
48:53I found nine this morning. Found a couple around here and some over there.
48:57It's just odd that they're, like, around here.
49:01It's really odd, isn't it? If this is some kind of roundhouse, this would be where the door would be,
49:07roughly, isn't it? Sort of coming in here.
49:08Yeah, that way. Yeah, coming in that way.
49:10So it's a bit of a mystery. I mean, it does feel like this place is turning up unexpected things.
49:18And even more unexpected is that these coins all date from the Roman occupation of Britain.
49:25It's a twist that changes the story.
49:30Archaeologist Fran Murphy is trying to piece together the puzzle.
49:35Oh, wow. OK. It's just that bag after bag of coins.
49:38So those are just some of the selection that have been found.
49:43This coin is Emperor Constantine, and he is 4th century.
49:49Also, we've had coins of Carousius.
49:51OK, and when's Carousius?
49:53Late third.
49:54This is a lovely coin. You can really see the profile of the head there.
49:57And is that one next to it, also?
49:59Well, this is a little minim.
50:02What's a minim?
50:03This is the smallest denomination.
50:05It's just a few millimetres in diameter.
50:09What is interesting is that we don't normally find these coins.
50:11One, they're difficult to find.
50:13But equally, the numbers that we're finding them.
50:16So if you were coming here to ask the gods to help you in something,
50:19you use your lowest denomination coin.
50:22It's like throwing a penny or a 2p into a wishing well.
50:26Is that what they're doing?
50:27Is that why we're getting this big concentration of coins?
50:33Alongside the coins, the team is unearthing a considerable amount of pottery.
50:41We have probably now got one of the biggest assemblages of Roman pot from south-west Wales,
50:46from this small site.
50:47The quantity itself is gobsmacking.
50:50The number of rim sherds.
50:52A lot of it is black burnished ware.
50:54Some of the wares we just don't see around here.
50:59One thing that's really interesting is all these objects are broken.
51:02And there is a theory that you're planting materials in pits as an offering for future prosperity.
51:09Depositing bits of everything they need for life as an offering with a coin.
51:14Bringing goods which they want to deposit in this area because it has some significance.
51:20Having uncovered the pottery and more than 160 coins,
51:25the team is beginning to think this place may have held a special spiritual significance
51:31long after the Iron Age during the later Roman period.
51:36And the landscape itself may help explain why this spot held such power.
51:46Archaeologist Toby Driver is a specialist in Welsh hillforts.
51:51It's just so dramatically vertical on either side.
51:57It's a different life you have here, it's a cultural phenomenon,
52:00living on the coast in prehistory and Roman times here.
52:04We know Celts saw their gods residing in remote, dangerous places,
52:10and nowhere is that more dramatic than at the coast.
52:16We have antiquarian writers describing this.
52:19The slam of waves into these coastal chasms being like gunshots,
52:23and these enormous sprays of foam with rainbows being cast.
52:26Now we understand what a rainbow is today, but 2000 years ago,
52:29what on earth do they think about that?
52:31Were the gods angry at particular times of year, particular seasons?
52:38In most of the ancient world, people are chucking stuff into chasms,
52:41sacrifices, offerings as well.
52:44And that may have been a very important part of what Buxpool was 2000 years ago.
52:50Imagine walking over that rock arch, the waves are booming,
52:56the spray is coming up and catching the lights.
52:58It would feel like you're passing into a different world here.
53:01Yep. We've just learned more about Buxpool in the last two weeks than we have in decades.
53:07But all that new knowledge, we've got to process it, we've got to think of new ways
53:11to understand this life at the edge of the coast.
53:22So what seemed like quite a simple story is actually turning out to be far more complicated, mysterious.
53:28Absolutely. And that is why you dig, because it looked really logical.
53:33You've got a promontory fort, you've got geophysics, you've got LiDAR, motor circles, round houses,
53:37people living in here in the Iron Age, job done. And it's not like that.
53:41There's so much more complexity here.
53:43I think that's what really excites about archaeology, isn't it?
53:45Because what seems obvious often is, and there's truth, is lying in the soil.
53:55While the promontory fort may still have its roots in the Iron Age,
53:59Richard now thinks that by the Roman period, this place was evolving into something different.
54:09A place where offerings may have been made to the gods, all perched on the very edge between the known
54:16world and the spiritual realm.
54:26The promontory fort at Buxpool is a great example of how archaeology can challenge our expectations
54:33and our ideas about the past, turning a simple 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.
54:54In this promontory fort and it would help them understand the nature of what was going on there.
54:59And then they started digging and the finds were Roman.
55:04Overwhelmingly Roman. Nothing that could be definitively tied to the Iron Age.
55:08I always enjoy it when archaeologists find something they're not expecting.
55:12The richness of this site astounded all of the archaeologists working there.
55:18All of these Roman coins, a really huge number of them, including really small denominations.
55:24This is not like a wealthy horde that has been stashed somewhere. It's small change stuff.
55:28But of course, that Roman date doesn't mean that that site didn't exist and wasn't occupied in the Iron Age.
55:35So the crucial thing here will be all of the post-excavation analysis that Richard and his team will do.
55:42And then we'll get a much bigger picture and we'll know how long that settlement lasted,
55:46how far back in time it goes, whether it does extend right back into the Iron Age as well.
55:49Yeah, and what it was. I mean, I think that's the big overwhelming question is like, still, what was it?
55:55Definitely a watch this space situation, I think, with this promontory fort.
56:08Here on Digging for Britain, we're not accustomed to blowing our own trumpet.
56:14It's more tuneful than I thought it would be.
56:18But what a year it's been.
56:20The most amazing thing in British archaeology.
56:24We've seen evidence of life here stretching back further than ever before.
56:30This stuff was already fossilised by the time dinosaurs were walking around.
56:33Some finds were a privilege to uncover.
56:35You were the first person to see that for 1400 years.
56:38That is phenomenal.
56:40Others were best left alone.
56:42This is a bottle of 85-year-old beer.
56:44Yeah, I think that can stay in there.
56:46But each one sheds new light on the stories of people who lived and died on these shores.
57:00It really brings back a lot of humanity to what we're studying, thinking about how they may have lived,
57:06how they may have died.
57:08It's a child buried with weapons as the man that he would have become.
57:12He's been subjected to surgery.
57:14Yes.
57:15I wonder who 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.
57:40They liked to kick back and relax.
57:42In their leisure time, they're sitting beside the hearth, they're playing games.
57:47They had a sense of the aesthetic.
57:48Such a poignant connection to this person.
57:50All that's surviving in the grave of them is their incredible style.
57:54And they entrusted their legacy to those who followed them.
57:58It's a treasured item that has passed down through the generations.
58:02Yeah, it's an heirloom.
58:03Yeah.
58:05All across Britain, archaeologists continue to dig for clues to past lives.
58:11Who knows what treasures are waiting to be unearthed next year?
58:36To lay us dead out in the sun.
58:45years old are in theryth, they'll be avec him and after the nature of his wife.
58:46Yeah, it's not an heirloom.
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