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Digging for Britain - Season 13 - Episode 02: Our Rarest Find and Biggest Dig
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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!
00:24That'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.
01:49In Norfolk, archaeologists find a mysterious block containing metal.
01:54I don't know.
01:55I mean, I like the design of it.
01:57And a CT scan.
02:00Look at that.
02:02Reveals a once in a lifetime find.
02:06The most amazing thing I've ever seen in British archaeology.
02:12In Kent, Tori investigates an Iron Age settlement on top of the White Cliffs.
02:17This gold coin is right on that era of Julius Caesar's crossing.
02:22And discovers a tribe that seemed quite Roman long before Britain became part of the Empire.
02:28The Romans haven't conquered, but the culture has.
02:32And we go behind the scenes.
02:35Morning all.
02:36Let's do the morning brief then.
02:37At one of the largest and most complex archaeological excavations in British history.
02:42I have never seen anything like this.
02:45I mean, I've got goosebumps.
02:46Phenomenal.
02:59Every so often something turns up which is just utterly extraordinary.
03:04Something the archaeologists will describe as a once in a lifetime find.
03:10And that is the case for this next discovery.
03:13Which is not only unique in Britain, it's unique in Europe.
03:18And I just feel so lucky to be getting such an early glimpse of it.
03:23And then to be sharing that with you.
03:32We're heading to a location which is 20 miles outside Thetford.
03:40Earlier this year, a team from Preconstruct Archaeology were carrying out a routine excavation
03:46in advance of construction of a new housing development.
03:512,000 years ago, this was the territory of the Icane tribe.
04:00They lived here during the Iron Age.
04:09As the dig got underway, there didn't seem to be anything of real significance.
04:15But dig leader Peter Crawley had a sneaking suspicion that there was something here.
04:22It felt like one of these special sites that you do get every so often.
04:25I don't know, there was a gut feeling, something special about this one in particular.
04:29I just had a good feeling about it.
04:33And it wasn't long before archaeologist Richard Thorpe found something out of the ordinary.
04:40With his metal detector.
04:42So, you know, I'm sort of detecting along.
04:45And I detect this very large signal while I was instantly excited.
04:49Because I knew we had something special.
04:51They dig down in the spot where Richard found his strong signal
04:55and film the exciting moment of discovery.
04:58This looks like the base of a bowl, that looks like a bowl.
05:01At first, the team believes they have perhaps a pile of metal bowls,
05:06buried together as a hoard.
05:08And the top bit?
05:09I don't know. I mean, I like the design of it.
05:14But one of the finds is covered with intriguing decoration.
05:17Oh, wow.
05:18Oh, my God.
05:19That's obviously going to be a separate thing.
05:20I don't know.
05:21I don't know.
05:22Oh, do you think it's one of those?
05:24Like, oh, like a carnix.
05:26Oh.
05:27Oh, my God.
05:27Best possible.
05:29The team are excited about this possibility.
05:32If they're right, this could be an incredibly rare Iron Age object, a carnix.
05:39This is a type of decorated trumpet.
05:43Iron Age tribes from Italy to Scotland use them to intimidate enemies
05:48and rally warriors on the battlefield.
05:51Only one carnix has ever been found in Britain.
05:55And in fact, even then, it was only part of one.
06:00That's about the right side.
06:02One.
06:05It's only part.
06:06Yeah, that was I was thinking.
06:08Here is heading to the...
06:09Here is the half.
06:10Nice.
06:11I mean, if you've found a carnix, then you've...
06:14I've won.
06:15Yeah, I just quit.
06:16I've done it.
06:17It's arguing what he's done.
06:18Yeah.
06:20With such a potentially important find,
06:23the team makes the decision to block lift the entire horde at the same time.
06:29You get a bit of that.
06:30We just lay it across there.
06:32They dig around the horde and cover it in plastic wrap to keep it secure.
06:36Yeah, it doesn't have to be all the way down.
06:38It is certainly the best thing I've ever found as an archaeologist
06:41and probably will be the best thing I will find as an archaeologist as well.
06:47You know, it's a dream come true, really.
06:50They send the block to be x-rayed to see what's hidden inside.
06:57But there are so many objects packed closely together,
07:00it's hard to make sense of the image.
07:02At this point, project officer Gary Trimble is beginning to wonder
07:07if the horde could contain something even rarer than a carnix.
07:12The results weren't conclusive,
07:14but they give some tantalising sort of evidence
07:18that we may actually have, rather than a carnix,
07:21it may be a boar standard.
07:27Standards like this, topped with the figurine of a boar,
07:31were carried into battle by Celtic tribes.
07:39We've got a quandary.
07:41Is it a carnix or could it be another object of INA state, a boar standard?
07:47If it does turn out to be a carnix,
07:49it'll be a really significant find and these are extraordinarily rare.
07:55Now, if it turns out to be a boar standard, that's even rarer.
07:59To find out which of these two exceptionally rare objects they're dealing with,
08:05the team turns to more advanced imaging,
08:08taking the block to a local hospital for an out-of-hours CT scan.
08:13And they film the moment as the exciting results emerge.
08:20I love modern technology because it's just started working.
08:26Look at that.
08:28That is absolutely exceptional.
08:33What is that thing, this thing here?
08:36Yes, look.
08:37We're going to have to dig it out and find out, aren't we?
08:40Wow.
08:40That's really outstanding, isn't it?
08:44It's got cut-out decoration on it.
08:47That detail is extraordinary.
08:51It's beyond, it's absolutely beyond belief, this.
08:54Yeah.
08:55I mean, this isn't even once a lifetime occurrence, is it?
08:58This is rarer than that.
08:59Yes.
09:00It's rarer than that.
09:02This is several people's lifetime.
09:05This is the most amazing thing I've ever seen in British archaeology.
09:19The CT scan reveals the mystery object is a Bohr standard.
09:25The very first one ever found in Britain.
09:32But there was more.
09:35Hidden deeper inside the Horde, there is also a Carnix.
09:43And it's the most complete Carnix ever found in the whole of Europe.
09:49Two of the rarest objects from the Iron Age, found together.
09:58Conservator Jonathan Clarke is excavating the block under controlled conditions in the lab.
10:09So these are the objects that have been removed so far from the block.
10:12We've got multiple shield bosses, some of which were stacked on top of each other.
10:16But then of course we have the Bohr standard here, which you can see this wonderful looking Bohr's head.
10:25And I don't know whether you can make out a tusk at the end here with his lovely snout here.
10:30And wonderful curled designs surrounding the mouth here.
10:34And the eye would have had something in there, possibly an organic material or a dissimilar metal.
10:40So it really would have stood out again on this shiny copper alloy object.
10:47Jonathan has carefully extracted the Bohr standard from the Horde.
10:53But there's still a lot of work to do on the Carnix.
10:58What we've got here is the bell of the Carnix, which goes from its neck all the way around here
11:04with a crest on its back,
11:06which has got this openwork decoration in it.
11:08The Carnix itself is kind of in this roaring open mouth state here.
11:14And with this, the top jaw and the bottom here.
11:17And here we've got the wonderful little eye just visible there, which is remarkable survival.
11:23And you can even see along here the sort of serrated edge of its open mouth.
11:28As soon as you see it, you can't help kind of being not only impressed with it, but kind of
11:32charmed by it at the same time.
11:37The Carnix is made from extremely thin sheets of metal, which have become very brittle after 2000 years in the
11:44ground.
11:45You can see a large fissure and crack going along on the bell of the Carnix there, which is a
11:51really good way of seeing quite how thin the metal work is.
11:57It can be quite a prescient task.
12:00You're aware of the risks at all times.
12:06This is the most complete Carnix ever found, with the pipe, mouthpiece and bell all uniquely intact.
12:19You can see the faces really emerging here.
12:22You can see a ridge, this sort of brow of its eye here.
12:26You're really getting a sense of the Carnix's face, really.
12:32You can't help but kind of stare at its eye when you're working on it, kind of looking face to
12:37face with it.
12:42To think of it as a musical instrument, just adds this layer to it, it really does.
12:49It wasn't just decorative, it had life and screamed and made noise.
12:56In the first century BCE, the writer Diodorus Siculus wrote that the Carnix produced a harsh sound which suits the
13:06tumult of war.
13:08We're in the early days of this excavation and have so much to discover and find out about it.
13:15The work's sort of only just begun, really.
13:21The micro-excavation will take another four weeks.
13:28So, in the meantime, I've invited archaeologist Gary Trimble and Carnix expert Fraser Hunter to the Digging for Britain tent.
13:36And they've brought a modern reconstruction of one of these trumpets.
13:42Fraser, Gary.
13:43I mean, this is one of these once-in-a-lifetime discoveries, surely.
13:48There's not many of these that have turned up.
13:50Absolutely not, no.
13:51We have our fair share of hoards in Norfolk, but this is so, so different.
13:55Yeah.
13:56And really, really, really special.
13:57And this is the most complete one in Europe?
13:59Yes.
14:00I mean, this is astonishing.
14:02It is astonishing.
14:03What a find, indeed.
14:04And you've got the boar standard.
14:06I mean, what does it represent?
14:07What does the boar mean?
14:08Do we know?
14:10Boars, if you think of what boars do in the wild, you know, it's the strength and the ferocity, but
14:14also the cunning.
14:15So, boars are very fierce animals to face in the hunt.
14:18So, the symbolism of a boar is a lot about, they say, the strength of it, a very appropriate adversary
14:24in battle.
14:25This is the CT scan we had of the block.
14:30The boar's head standard there.
14:32And then the shield bosses, some of them stack within each other, you know, sort of together.
14:38And then, this is the upper part of the tubing of the carnics.
14:43Just coming round here.
14:44Yes.
14:44Yeah.
14:45And under here, you've got the belly of the carnics.
14:48Hidden under there.
14:49Yeah.
14:50Yeah.
14:51I mean, you've got the whole thing.
14:53It looks like it.
14:54So, this is another first.
14:55Yeah.
14:56This is the only one where we can be confident the tube ties into the instrument.
14:59And here.
14:59You have the complete tube, bent in half.
15:02You've got it.
15:02As we can see, this is an instrument standing about this kind of height, originally.
15:06Yeah, yeah.
15:07So, one time we can really see, this is the height of the carnics.
15:10And it shows the mouthpiece is in line with the tube.
15:13You would play this leaning backwards like that.
15:15Yeah.
15:16It just confirms that.
15:17And do you think these are deliberately placed?
15:18Or is it just about putting objects in a hole in the ground?
15:21I'll be sure it's a votive deposit.
15:23You know, this has been put in the ground for the deities, for the gods.
15:27And we think it's a deliberate placement of these shield bosses over the bell of the carnics.
15:32In other words, to quiet it down.
15:34It really feels like it's shielding the head.
15:36Yeah.
15:36It's really protecting the head.
15:37It's a very careful deposit.
15:39It's just fantastic, isn't it, to be able to use these technologies, which, you know,
15:44originally medical technologies were licking inside people's bodies, but you can lick
15:47inside blocks of earth and actually see what objects you've got there.
15:52Yeah.
15:52And when do you think this dates to?
15:5650 BC, AD 50, it's in that bracket somewhere.
15:59It's such a crucial time, isn't it?
16:01Because you've got Julius Caesar coming over, having a look at Britain.
16:05That's right.
16:06Yeah.
16:06It's a time of change and a time of turmoil and so much going, especially in the south
16:10and east of England with all this impact to the Roman world.
16:13Yeah.
16:13Yeah.
16:14Warfare and military prowess is a key part of that.
16:16So the drama of something like the Carnics and the Boer Standard in any battle, in any
16:22army, showing off with one of those things, these would have been spectacular objects.
16:26Yeah, yeah.
16:26And this is very much part of that story, isn't it?
16:33Both the Carnics and Boer Standard will soon be fully excavated and cleaned.
16:44It's incredible to imagine these fearsome beasts towering over an Iron Age army, up to
16:51two or three metres in the air, with the Carnics blasting across the battlefield.
16:58This is by far the most complete and well-preserved Carnics ever discovered.
17:04It adds to our knowledge of these incredible instruments and provides us with an iconic image
17:10of the Iron Age.
17:17As for what these trumpets sounded like, it's time to find out.
17:22As musician and PhD student Letty Stott is about to transport us back into the Iron Age.
17:44It's more tuneful than I thought it would be.
17:46Alright.
17:49Aw.
17:54Aw.
18:04Aw.
18:07Aw.
18:10Aw.
18:11Aw.
18:12Aw.
18:12Aw.
18:13Aw.
18:18I'll hold something right cold
18:25You've achieved my love
18:37I'm sold
18:41And there's no good hope
18:46But you'll make this no good
19:00Our next dig is one of the biggest excavations that's ever been carried out in Britain.
19:06It allows archaeologists to look at a whole landscape as it changes through time over thousands of years.
19:13Now, there are hundreds of archaeologists working on this site, racing to record thousands of finds and features and keeping
19:22pace with a complex construction project.
19:28We're heading to Suffolk and the village of Sizewell, 20 miles east of Ipswich.
19:37Here, construction is well underway on the new Sizewell C nuclear power plant.
19:44It's one of Britain's biggest infrastructure projects.
19:48But before the construction really gets going, archaeologists are on site to explore and record the heritage here.
20:03More than 200 archaeologists from Oxford Cotswold Archaeology are busy uncovering traces of human activity stretching back thousands of years.
20:20Across 70 sites, they're excavating more than 2 million square metres.
20:29Making this one of the largest and most complex archaeological projects ever undertaken in Britain.
20:39And working at this scale offers archaeologists an unprecedented insight into Suffolk's long history.
20:51For archaeologist Rosanna Price, it's a job that's close to home.
20:57I was born and raised in Suffolk. This is where I'm from.
21:00And it's quite beautiful to be back, actually.
21:06We're joining Rosanna for an exclusive behind-the-scenes tour.
21:12Right, guys, morning all. Let's do the morning brief, then.
21:15Every day starts the same way in the nerve centre.
21:19Make sure they are safe for the job.
21:20We have to do one of these every day on every site.
21:24Please ensure you're always wearing the correct and intact PP whilst on site.
21:28The team depends on meticulous coordination and communication.
21:34Housekeeping, walkways need to be kept clear, especially in doorways.
21:37Cleaning supplies are provided for everyone to use.
21:40We've got a lot of trainees coming on all the time.
21:44They need a little bit of a mind.
21:47Marvellous. That's cracking. Cheers, guys.
21:50Everyone's ready to go and start another day.
21:52And just like that, more than 200 archaeologists file out and disperse across the huge site.
21:58Everyone's now just going to go out, get in their trucks, head over to their sites, get digging.
22:07In her role as archaeological engagement manager,
22:10Rosanna checks in regularly with each of the digging teams.
22:14This means she's uniquely positioned to give us an exclusive glimpse of the huge range of discoveries being made here.
22:22We've got sort of 20 places to visit in a week.
22:25And they are spread across a massive area in Suffolk County.
22:30I mean, this is the biggest infrastructure project for a generation.
22:37Rosanna's first stop is at a site uncovering evidence of some of the earliest permanent homes in Suffolk,
22:43when people were settling down, swapping hunter-gatherer lifestyles for farming during the Neolithic.
22:51Hi, Dan.
22:52Archaeologist Dan Pond is leading this area.
22:56This is looking different. You finished it?
22:58We have finished our post hole structure now, yeah. It's all good to go.
23:02These holes would have held upright posts, supporting the walls of what was once a Neolithic building.
23:08This is our second structure. It's made up of about 20 or so post holes.
23:12Wow.
23:13You don't get many of these buildings surviving.
23:15That's fantastic.
23:15Yeah, incredibly rough.
23:18Early Neolithic buildings tend to be long and rectangular halls.
23:22A circular building of this size at this time is very unusual,
23:26so there aren't any reconstructions of what it might have looked like.
23:31But we do know the occupants were still relying on stone tools.
23:36This is absolutely stunning.
23:38It's wonderful. It's an early Neolithic polished stone axe head.
23:42But this edge is just exquisite, isn't it? It's perfect.
23:46Quite a high-status, presumably, object because it's so beautifully crafted.
23:51So this is something pretty fancy. Have you found anything more domestic?
23:55We found a lot more pottery. I've got a couple of sheds here.
23:58So this is early Neolithic pottery. This is 4,000 to 3,500 BC.
24:03Really, really elaborate design.
24:05So this piece here is 6,000, 5,500 years old.
24:12Yep, I survived all this time.
24:15That is phenomenal.
24:17This is the earliest pottery, our earliest finds we've had on the project.
24:22I mean, people were living, creating these things 6,000 years ago.
24:26Absolutely stunning.
24:30The Sizewell project is vast,
24:32and the team are uncovering evidence from many different periods.
24:37Very satisfying to watch the site develop over time, isn't it?
24:41Oh, definitely. You get quite mostly attached to it.
24:43Like most sites I've been on, they've just been one specific time period,
24:47like either Roman or medieval.
24:49But with this, it's a complete landscape,
24:50and that landscape is really the history of people in East Anglia.
24:56The archaeologists are spread out over such a wide area,
25:00they keep in touch using their phones.
25:04And while this team are busy investigating traces of the Neolithic,
25:09Rosanna receives an exciting update from her colleague, Will Stibley.
25:14Oh, that is fantastic.
25:15They've got a collared urn,
25:17and I imagine there's got to be presumably a cremation in there.
25:21Will looks very happy with himself.
25:23I think we'd better go and have a look in person.
25:29It can take more than 20 minutes to drive between the sites.
25:34Yeah, one of those times where having to go up 5 to 10 miles an hour
25:38is really tantalising,
25:40because you've got this thing, you want to go and see it.
25:42What can you do, I guess?
25:44You've got to stick to the speed limit.
25:48In the Neolithic, some people were buried together in large communal graves,
25:53like this chambered tomb in Orkney.
25:57But as time wore on, we start to see graves of individual people in the Bronze Age.
26:06Yeah, this is fantastic.
26:08So Will only started here yesterday, and he's immediately discovered this.
26:10He started on this site, and that's such a classic manoeuvre,
26:13to turn up and get something, and wow, look at this.
26:16Oh, you've done a beautiful job as well.
26:19I mean, it is just stunning, isn't it?
26:22And it so clearly is early Bronze Age from this massive collar here.
26:26I mean, it's so exciting just to be the first person to see something like this
26:30in, what, 3,500 years?
26:32Yeah.
26:32It's the reason I got into archaeology, to do things like this.
26:34It looks like there might be some impressed twine decoration
26:37around the rim that's already peeking through.
26:39So, yeah, it's going to be really exciting once we've dug a little bit more out
26:42to see if there's any more decoration,
26:43and if it's mirrored on the accessory vessel as well.
26:48This cremation is two miles away from the Neolithic building
26:51found at the first site, and it's much later in time.
26:56But so far, it's the earliest evidence of human activity
26:59that they're finding in this part of the landscape.
27:03It's quite interesting that here we have almost no evidence
27:06of early Neolithic activity.
27:08We have very little evidence right up until about 2,500 BC,
27:12when we start getting much more early Bronze Age activity.
27:15And it seems to be a real gap in the landscape here.
27:18This is an area that they just don't seem to be using or visiting
27:22during the early Neolithic.
27:24It's not until the early Bronze Age that we see any significant activity here.
27:28So there does seem to be significant variation over time
27:31in the parts of the landscape that people are exploiting.
27:35This is just an amazing addition to the story of Cy as well,
27:38the story of Suffolk people through time.
27:44Seeing all these little patches of excavation coming up in the landscape,
27:47this is amazing.
27:48This is actually my history coming to life in front of me.
27:52We'll rejoin Rosanna later in the programme,
27:55when even more of Suffolk's rich history is revealed.
27:59This is amazing.
28:01Sounds like it might be something pretty good.
28:16The East of Britain has always been the front line
28:20between our islands and the continent,
28:23sometimes bearing the brunt in times of conflict,
28:26at other times benefiting from peaceful connections and commerce.
28:31If I can't jump, just push and shove.
28:40Throughout the centuries, this proximity to Europe
28:43has had a unique impact on the communities that lived here.
28:50As our next dig shows,
28:54Torrey Herridge is heading to Folkestone,
28:57ten miles west of Dover.
29:08The white cliffs that run along the south-east coast
29:11are one of Britain's most recognisable landscapes.
29:14They are the first thing anyone sees
29:19when travelling across the Channel from France.
29:22Even Roman generals.
29:33It was these white cliffs that Julius Caesar described
29:37when he tried but failed to invade the British Isles in 55 BC.
29:41He described people at the top there,
29:44fiercely ready and waiting to throw rocks down the troops below.
29:48But little is known about those defiant people on the clifftops
29:52who lived here along the south coast of Britain
29:56during the Iron Age.
30:02A team from Canterbury Archaeological Trust
30:05is in their third year of excavations at the site.
30:10They want to find evidence of this Iron Age community
30:12and investigate what their lives and culture were like
30:16before the Romans invaded.
30:21Geophysical surveys at the clifftops
30:22reveal at least three Iron Age roundhouses
30:25that once stood right here.
30:29Archaeologist Andrew Mackintosh is leading the dig.
30:32What a view!
30:34It's such an amazing view.
30:36Often on cleared days you'll see the white cliffs
30:38over in France there as well.
30:41Julius Caesar, you know, sort of remarked on
30:43a populated Iron Age settlement here
30:46and I think this is probably the settlement
30:48that he was talking about
30:50when he was looking at these cliffs
30:51and seeing how populated it was here.
30:55Since they've started excavating the site
30:57the team have unearthed hundreds of quern stones
31:00heavy, circular stones used to grind grain into flour.
31:05But here, these quern stones were used to line drains,
31:09gutters and post holes.
31:13Even I would recognise that as a quern stone.
31:15So, I mean, this is fairly typical of a late Iron Age
31:19rotary quern stone.
31:20It's a big, big slab of rock, isn't it?
31:22It is.
31:23You're turning that round, the weight of it, grinding.
31:26Yeah, they're very heavy.
31:27So this is one part of two stones
31:29that would have turned against one another.
31:31We suspect this might be the top half of one of the quern stones.
31:34So this one has had quite a lot of work on it,
31:38hollowing out this top.
31:40You can see chisel marks where they've started to work it.
31:43It's been discarded at some point.
31:45Something's gone wrong at the last minute in the manufacture.
31:48It may be that on the underside here
31:52that it's split at some point when they've tried to shape it.
31:56And then it's no longer functional for its purpose.
31:59So this wasn't being used here
32:00as part of the daily milling activity of a settlement.
32:03You're saying it's being made here?
32:05Yeah, because there's so many we find here.
32:09The querns were shaped from local sandstone,
32:12which arose naturally out of the cliffs
32:14and onto the beach right below the site.
32:19They've got quern stones coming out of their ears,
32:22like broken ones.
32:23Yeah. Which is kind of really impressive.
32:24But, I mean, this raw material, if it's available,
32:27everything has got here somehow.
32:29It's come up off the beach.
32:31So you're going to utilise this raw material.
32:33Exactly. Waste and whatnot, right?
32:34So, yeah, you've got it, you might as well use it.
32:36Indeed.
32:36And that's more than any one settlement would need for themselves.
32:39Yeah.
32:39So the people here are making quern stones to be traded elsewhere.
32:42Yeah.
32:43They're being traded inland, possibly overseas.
32:48The Iron Age people living here
32:50had such an excess of quern stones,
32:52they must have been trading them.
32:57And small finds from the site are helping archaeologist Rich Best
33:01piece together a picture of cross-channel connections
33:04long before the Romans invaded Britain.
33:10So pre-conquest, what have we got from that period?
33:13Are these stuff here, should you tell us something about that time?
33:16So this gold coin is an import from northern France
33:21and sort of Flanders area and dates to 58 to 54 BC.
33:25Oh, right, wow.
33:25So it's right on the, sort of the, that era of Julius Caesar's crossing and...
33:30There's a lot of stuff going on.
33:32Like a lot of fighting going on between the Gauls over there
33:35and the Romans, right?
33:36Yeah, yeah.
33:37So do you think news of that would have been coming with these coins?
33:39Absolutely, yeah.
33:40Yeah.
33:40I think it's quite easy to think of Britain in that period as quite isolated
33:43when really, particularly in Kent and here, it's a hop across the channel,
33:48which I think is something that people do quite regularly.
33:50And then with that, the stories of what's happening.
33:52So you've got what is clearly sort of ceramics, pottery stuff, yeah?
33:55Yeah, absolutely.
33:55So here we've got parts of amphora.
34:00The minute you say that word, I assume it's come from far away.
34:03Absolutely.
34:04So, yeah, is it Roman?
34:05It is.
34:06So these are used for importing wine, olive oil and sort of fish sauce.
34:11And we think these were imported around 150 BC.
34:15Oh, so before, so it's pre-Roman conquest Britain.
34:17Yeah.
34:18We think of sort of olive oil and wine and fish sauce as a characteristically Roman thing,
34:22but there is evidently a demand for it pre-conquest.
34:26Whether they're using that as a way to express, you know,
34:29how close they are to Rome and, you know, their connection.
34:33Rome is encroaching, basically.
34:35Yeah, yeah.
34:35And what else have we got in here?
34:36This is quite different over here, this darker stuff.
34:38Yeah, so this is locally made, but it's imitating Roman styles.
34:44So they go for rather than bowls and jars,
34:47it's sort of flatter dishes and things like that.
34:49So this is someone over here basically trying to make some fancy Roman plates.
34:54Yeah.
34:54And what's so significant about this, particularly for this site,
34:57is that here they are starting to sort of imitate the Roman wares
35:03quite a while before anywhere else in Kent.
35:06So here that is occurring sort of 25, 30 AD,
35:10whereas elsewhere in Kent you only see it post-conquest,
35:14so maybe up to sort of 60 AD.
35:16That's interesting.
35:17But here they're kind of ahead of the game.
35:19Right, that's interesting because like the Romans haven't conquered.
35:23No, but they're adapting.
35:24The culture has in some ways.
35:25And adopting.
35:26Yes.
35:27A lot of what the Romans would bring.
35:29Ahead of the army comes the ideas.
35:31Yeah, absolutely.
35:46What's being discovered here at this site is quietly rewriting what we know about Iron Age Britain.
35:51Yes, there's plenty of evidence of connection across the channel to ancient Gaul,
35:56but there's also something else.
35:58There's a tantalising connection to Rome.
36:01The people of Kent were enjoying fine wines, fine pottery,
36:05but also maybe taking on the ideas of Rome.
36:09This part of Britain was romanising before a Roman soldier even set foot upon British soil.
36:20And the beach is lifting me, ashes reaching me, wind is holding me, time is folding me,
36:29under the trees, down through the lean, onto the part that you came to that day.
36:48Archaeology often involves recovering tiny fragments, then painstakingly piecing them together
36:54until something wonderful emerges.
36:57Archaeologist Meg Russell has been looking into a particularly delicious puzzle.
37:07I've come to Museum of London Archaeology's storage warehouse,
37:11where today new discoveries are being made by examining old finds.
37:17Back in 2021, a team from Museum of London Archaeology unearthed thousands of tiny fragments of ancient wall plaster.
37:26They all came from a commercial building that once stood on the banks of the River Thames during the Roman
37:34period.
37:38Now, materials specialist Han Lee is painstakingly piecing this puzzle back together,
37:44to improve our understanding of the colours and patterns used in Romano-British interior design.
37:52Hi Han.
37:53Hi, how are you?
37:54Wow.
37:55This looks absolutely fantastic.
37:58What is it that we're actually looking at here?
38:00Well, we're looking at a nearly 2,000 year old Roman painting painted during the early Roman period in London.
38:06It's absolutely beautiful.
38:11Han has more than 10,000 pieces of wall plaster to arrange.
38:15They make up 20 separate decorated walls, each with a different intricate design.
38:22My eyes do not want to leave this beautiful detail.
38:25Can you talk me through some of the things that we're looking at here?
38:28Absolutely.
38:29So, you've got a beautiful candelabra here, with these two knots, do you see?
38:33Yes.
38:34Of course, the string is dangling down to little dots of pearl.
38:37Those are pearls?
38:39They are, yes.
38:39Oh, wow.
38:39Yeah.
38:40And over here, where we thought were grapes initially, it's actually part of a mistletoe, which is quite a popular
38:47thing in Roman culture itself.
38:50Yeah, that's beautiful.
38:52I'm looking at this, but I'm side-eyeing this beautiful, is it a daisy?
38:56It is a daisy, and this daisy is actually our star piece.
39:00So, everyone remembers the daisy during the period of excavation, because this was one of the most sort of vibrant
39:05pieces found.
39:06And I'm just looking at these little dots here, are they imitation stone?
39:10They are, it's imitation marble, pink imitation marble.
39:13It gives you that illusion of a much more expensive piece of building material.
39:19By painting this plaster wall to look like more expensive and higher status stone, the artist has given us clues
39:26as to what stone buildings really looked like, as well as the aspirations of the Romano-British occupant.
39:32Now this is some beautiful imitation stonework.
39:36This is actually imitating Egyptian red palfrey.
39:39It looks almost identical to the actual stone, doesn't it?
39:42It really does.
39:43Yeah, just see how tiny bits and pieces of the crystals in the stone are done so intricately and so
39:50carefully.
39:51It must have taken forever.
39:54By examining each fragment in minute detail, Han is also discovering tiny inscriptions which reveal even more about the artists
40:02themselves.
40:05We're now in your office. What have we got in front of us?
40:08Well, you see the letters here. Look at the font. It's beautifully done, isn't it? Even the T itself has
40:16a thin to thick to thin kind of stroke to it.
40:20And it says, F-E-C-I-T has made this. And if you imagine, when I was talking about
40:27the way that it was scored in, that could only be done when the plaster was still soft.
40:33Now, who do you think would do that but the painter?
40:37You're not telling me this is a painter's mark?
40:39This is a painter's signature mark, or the group signature mark.
40:43But how brilliant is that?
40:45There's not many of these. In fact, very few examples can prove that the painter has scored it in when
40:52the plaster was soft.
40:53That's amazing.
41:02What Han and his team have done here is more than conservation. It's transformation.
41:10Finishing this puzzle has given us a unique window into the taste, ambition and styles of Romano-British London.
41:24The landscape of Britain's East has changed many times through the centuries.
41:31From the draining of marshes in the fens, to the arrival of Christianity.
41:40But every time a new generation starts changing the landscape,
41:44there's the potential that precious traces of the past may be lost.
41:54It's the job of archaeologists to record and preserve the past.
42:00And on our next site, that's happening on an unprecedented scale.
42:09We're returning to Sizewell, where Rosanna Price is giving us an exclusive glimpse behind the scenes.
42:16Of one of the biggest digs to take place in Britain.
42:21Offering a fascinating insight into Suffolk's long history.
42:31This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, isn't it?
42:34To have this vast project revealing archaeology in Suffolk.
42:40We've got everything the full span.
42:44One of the biggest challenges facing the team is working around all the heavy machinery on the site.
42:55We're surrounded by bollards and trucks and plants, and I mean, there's a bloke here coming towards us in a
43:02massive HGV.
43:03There's dumpers and diggers.
43:06It is incredible what people can do when they work together on a vast construction like this.
43:22So we're constantly working alongside active and moving plants, one of the main reasons for all the PPE.
43:29But you can never forget that you've got a schedule, you are trying to meet a programme, and there's also
43:34a great sense of teamwork and collaboration.
43:42Here, the team has made an incredible discovery, thanks to waterlogged conditions and amazing preservation of timber.
43:51This artefact dates to the Iron Age.
43:57Hi, Jas. Hello.
43:59Wow, that is sensational.
44:01I had heard that you had a ladder.
44:04Yeah. But you really do.
44:05Definitely a real ladder.
44:07Yeah.
44:08Big plank here, big plank there, and they've bored through this sort of circular rung from one side to the
44:15other.
44:16Yeah, I mean, at the moment, the idea is that it would have been a big water hole well kind
44:20of thing, and they've put a ladder in there to get down to it if the water level was really
44:24low.
44:24I mean, at the moment, you can see that it's already starting to fill up.
44:28This is such a tangible link to the past, isn't it?
44:30I mean, I have never seen anything like this. This is fantastic. What a wonderful find.
44:36Local production and manufacture would have been important in the Iron Age. Everyone would have been involved with craft in
44:43some way.
44:43But there was some mass production, too. And that became supercharged in the Roman period.
44:55Naomi. Hi, Lizana.
44:57This is looking a lot clearer than it did when I saw you a couple of weeks ago.
45:01Yes, I know. We've revealed the full floor. So, this lovely levelled floor, which is lined all the way out
45:07both of these flues. So, really excited.
45:12It's a Roman kiln, and some of the pottery from the last firing has survived inside.
45:18So, in a very small amount of space right at the bottom of the chamber, it was just chock full
45:23of pot.
45:24Fragments of pot. None of them seem to be in situ or full vessels.
45:27But as you can see, in our flue, we still have some pot fragments sticking out.
45:34Yeah, there's so much of it, which has been amazing and so lovely.
45:39This is one of our nicest bits as well.
45:42That's gorgeous.
45:42Lovely decoration.
45:44Stunning, isn't it?
45:45So, we've found that all throughout the whole future.
45:48So, we know that they've definitely been making that here.
45:50Very high quality, probably very expensive.
45:52This is really impressive. That's the kind of thing you would have on a table.
45:56Yeah.
45:56In a fancy, fancy home.
45:59Yeah.
45:59I mean, that, I think, was quite uncommon.
46:01If we do find other pieces of that around the country, it might have been made in this kiln here.
46:07So, that's really lovely to see.
46:09What a delightful thing to uncover.
46:13On a vast site like this, it's important to keep track of where everyone is.
46:20You've got to go through the security portal.
46:23You've got to prove who you are, get your ID out.
46:27It's a definite feeling that you're stepping into the size-wide world.
46:33So, everybody has to sign in when they get to site. Everybody.
46:36This is the visitor log, so we know who's here.
46:40This is the one that shows that everybody knows where to muster if there's an emergency.
46:44And then these two show that you've been briefed for any potential hazards,
46:47either in the compound or on site.
46:53Right.
46:53We're all signed in.
46:54We can go and see the archaeology.
47:03This excavation is so large that the environment varies hugely from place to place.
47:11From deep mud to gravel and even sand.
47:16And here the archaeologists are excavating a graveyard.
47:22Which dates to the centuries after the Roman period in Britain, known as the early medieval period.
47:29It's like being at the beach, isn't it?
47:34The sandy soil here is acidic, dissolving away bone mineral.
47:43These haunting shadows are called sand skeletons.
47:50Archaeologist Frankie Wildman is leading this excavation.
47:55Ah, so this one's really clear.
47:57Yes.
47:57You see the legs here and the pelvis?
48:00Yes, that's it.
48:01So you've got the pelvis here, so you've got the left side and the right side.
48:05You've got the right leg running down here.
48:08And you've got the left leg running down here.
48:11Ah, that's beautiful.
48:12And of course, these beautiful beads.
48:14Look at those in the sunlight as well.
48:17Yeah, they're absolutely gorgeous.
48:18So these are Baltic amber beads, which provides us an indication that there was a connection with the North Atlantic,
48:26so Scandinavia.
48:27This was an interchangeable point.
48:30So you're looking at a west-east grave, which is the precursor to Christianity coming in.
48:37But you're also keeping the old ways as well, so having the personal effects with the skeleton as well.
48:46So this is why we've got these beautiful beads having been found.
48:50Such a poignant connection to this person, all that's surviving in the grave of them is their incredible style.
48:55Yes, absolutely.
48:58The team are unearthing dozens of sand skeletons.
49:04But there's one that dwarfs them all.
49:07A horse burial.
49:10Ah, wow.
49:11That is so much more defined than when I last saw it, isn't it?
49:14It's awesome, isn't it?
49:15Yeah, well done, Jack.
49:15It's really cool.
49:16We've got the front legs here.
49:18Yep.
49:19And the hind legs coming round here.
49:22And you've just got the shadow of the spine.
49:24Yep.
49:25You've got enough of that surviving leg to work out the height of this, surely?
49:29Yes.
49:29So provisionally, there's a height of around about 1.4 metres.
49:33Okay.
49:33Which in horse terms is about 13 hands.
49:36Oh, a little pony.
49:36Hi.
49:37I mean, these horse burials certainly, more so than other animals, are seen as companions for the afterlife, so to
49:43speak.
49:44So more than likely, you would have had a grand procession that would have happened to the person next door,
49:50and then they would have had the horse laid to rest with that person.
49:56And it isn't long before the team discover that the horse wasn't buried on its own, there are human remains
50:02here too.
50:04This is a very high-status Anglo-Saxon burial.
50:08Oh, this is amazing.
50:10So, we're in the big ring ditch feature, the big grave area, and they've got something sort of this size,
50:18and we don't know what material it is yet, but as they're uncovering it, it starts off white,
50:23and within sort of 30 seconds of being oxidised, it's turning grey down into black.
50:30I mean, immediately on the phone to the specialist to see what it is.
50:36Could be silver, guys.
50:38Could be silver, could be silver.
50:43Banky's just speaking to our specialist back in the office to find out what this might be,
50:48how we might treat it immediately.
50:53Sounds like it might be something pretty good.
50:54Um, yeah.
50:55Um, what it might mean about the grave, but the most important thing for us right now
50:58is to know how to look after it as best we can immediately,
51:02because it's clearly changing as soon as it's hitting the air.
51:07Freaking cool.
51:08Go on, what did they say?
51:09And that sounds like silver.
51:10Oh, well.
51:11So we've potentially got a small silver artefact.
51:15Finding something like this is...
51:18I mean, I've got goosebumps.
51:19Phenomenal.
51:20Wow.
51:21The grave goods are dissolving before their eyes,
51:25but the presence of silver emphasises the status of this burial.
51:30To find what could be a princely burial in such a high-status Anglo-Saxon cemetery
51:36is nationally significant, internationally significant.
51:39And the team here going down in two and a half centimetre spits
51:43to try and catch every bit of information that they possibly can.
51:48The team has now made hundreds of discoveries,
51:52spanning some 40,000 years of Suffolk's history,
51:55from the Stone Age to the modern day.
52:03Rosanna's come to the tent to show me some of the latest finds.
52:12Rosanna, you've got some bits from Sizor.
52:15I mean, it's an enormous site. I can't believe the size of it.
52:18The width of the geography and the breadth of time
52:23is almost overwhelming, the amount of information
52:25that we can take from it and learn and interpret.
52:29It's just amazing to be able to see what's happening
52:31across a whole landscape like that.
52:33I mean, that's the value of these big digs,
52:35that you're not just kind of opening up a small area,
52:37you're actually able to see what people are doing
52:38right across that landscape.
52:40Yeah, absolutely.
52:41I mean, you would say, well, if you dig a big enough hole,
52:43then you'll find something.
52:44And we've dug a massive hole and we've found everything.
52:46Yeah.
52:46So you've got some objects to show that depth of time.
52:51Yes.
52:52So this is about 40,000 years old.
52:55This is a Neanderthal hand axe.
52:57Isn't that amazing?
52:58It is.
52:59It's absolutely incredible.
53:00I mean, 40,000 years ago takes us back way beyond the peak of the last ice age.
53:06We're into Britain being a completely different landscape.
53:09Yeah, absolutely.
53:10There are no modern humans here.
53:11It's just Neanderthals.
53:12When you hold it in your hand even now, you can feel how usable it is, you know, for butchery,
53:18for working fibres, maybe even for woodworking.
53:20It's still a perfectly usable tool.
53:23It's just incredible.
53:23That's amazing.
53:24OK, so 40,000 years ago, and then actually we're getting relatively close to the present now.
53:29Yep, a little 4000 BC sort of era.
53:32Yeah.
53:32So these leaf-shaped arrowheads, this one in particular, I just think it's just incredible.
53:36It's so fine.
53:38So fine, so thin and completely symmetrical.
53:43It's kind of shocking to look at things like this and realise that they were such violent items.
53:49There's a tension, isn't there, between admiring the beauty of it and then realising actually
53:53that that is designed to pierce flesh and kill something.
53:57Yes.
53:58Yeah, yeah.
53:59These are a little Iron Age coin hoard.
54:02These are so cool as well.
54:03The detail on these is exquisite.
54:05Oh, wow.
54:06Yeah.
54:07Yeah.
54:08Don't you love it?
54:08Isn't it lovely?
54:10A little horse.
54:11So I can see his front legs there and his back legs there.
54:14And then there are some other little details on it.
54:18So when does that date to?
54:19I think it's about 20 BC to 50 AD, sort of that real transitionary period as the Romans are coming
54:25over to Britain.
54:27These finds beautifully illustrate how culture changes over the centuries.
54:33Iron Age coins give way to Roman brooches.
54:36And as the Roman Empire fades from memory, we find Anglo-Saxon weapon burials.
54:43And then there are exquisite medieval finds.
54:49This is so cool.
54:50I have to show you this.
54:51So this looks quite sombre to look at.
54:53It looks very dark.
54:54Yeah.
54:55It's a pilgrim's badge or would have been a necklace.
54:59And if you now pick that up and hold it up to the light.
55:03Oh, wow.
55:04Okay.
55:05So it is glass, isn't it?
55:07It's glass.
55:07Yep.
55:07And this is amazing.
55:09So we do have the same iconography, exactly the same, but only from Eastern Europe and Russia.
55:16Really?
55:17And there's, we think at the moment, only about one or two of these in Western Europe, including this one.
55:22In the whole of Western Europe, not just Britain.
55:24So this is, I mean, this is really special then, I find.
55:27Yeah.
55:28Almost unique.
55:29I mean, I presume it's not made locally.
55:31I presume it's come from elsewhere.
55:33We think imported from Venice, I think it's Venetian glass.
55:35Yeah, yeah.
55:36And presumably, very sadly for them, they've just dropped it.
55:39They must have been annoyed, wasn't they?
55:41They're keeping it as a talisman, yeah.
55:42It's a beautiful object.
55:42If it was gifted to them, we can have all kinds of imaginative interpretations.
55:46That's a really special thing.
55:47Yeah.
55:48Wow.
55:49What's this thing, Rosanna?
55:50Oh, this is a lead seal matrix.
55:52So it would have been a news for impressing into wax, for sealing letters and things like that.
55:57Wow.
55:57Oh, it's got a fledgly in the middle.
55:59It's got writing right on the outside.
56:01Yeah, and this is very cool.
56:02So it says, the seal of Matilda, daughter of Godwin.
56:06I can see the Matilda there, I think.
56:08Yeah, in reverse.
56:10Yeah.
56:10And what's awesome about it is, obviously, we get a lot of information about men in the record.
56:14Yeah.
56:15But Matilda was obviously quite an important woman.
56:18She's got her own seal.
56:18Important enough to have her own seal.
56:20Yeah.
56:20So presumably, she's writing documents and sealing them.
56:24She'd be elite, yeah.
56:25Oh, she can write letters and has a seal in the 13th century.
56:29Yeah, yeah.
56:29Yeah, she must have been.
56:30What a lovely thing.
56:30That's amazing too.
56:31Must have been pretty elite.
56:32So we're coming closer to the modern days, and then we're right up to 20th century.
56:37Yeah.
56:37So this is World War II evidence.
56:39This is a bottle of beer, still with the beer in.
56:41And that's actually the beer?
56:42Yeah.
56:43Still in it?
56:43Yes.
56:44Yeah, I don't think I'd like to try that.
56:4685 year old brew.
56:47I think that can stay in there.
56:48Is that a compass?
56:50Yeah, this is quite beautiful.
56:51That's lovely.
56:52Can I pick it up?
56:52Yes, absolutely.
56:53It's not too fragile.
56:54And it still opens and closes.
56:56I think it was a World War I issue.
56:59OK.
57:00And that someone has then either reused it or been gifted it.
57:02Yeah, yeah.
57:03For World War II, because we found it in a World War II context.
57:06Yeah.
57:06And it does say USA Knight.
57:09So it's American?
57:10It's American, yeah.
57:10Yeah.
57:11That's a beautiful object.
57:15Lovely.
57:15So we've got...
57:16Wow.
57:18What have we done?
57:1840,000 years of history on the table.
57:22And all human life is here.
57:24Yeah, yeah.
57:25You know, from conflict, to just domestic issues, to eating, to how you want to design yourself
57:34and how you want to look.
57:36Self-care.
57:37Yeah.
57:38Death.
57:39It's all there.
57:41All uncovered at Sizewell.
57:56Next time on Digging for Britain, archaeologists in the Cotswolds unearth a unique find.
58:03We could see this carved bone object.
58:06I've never seen anything like it before.
58:09A dig in Oxford teaches us a lesson about students of the past.
58:13We actually have a pier, and we're calling it Smoker's Corner, where you would just chuck
58:17your clay tobacco pipes.
58:18And in Kent...
58:19That is a plated gold discroach.
58:23Archaeologists uncover spectacular Anglo-Saxon burials.
58:26It's a child with weapons, which is extraordinary.
58:29To come and search for we who search and look in for a scarlet land.
58:37I dig for those whose stories lie in very parts of the future's one.
58:45And dig for us as we have done to lay the dead out in the sun, to lay us dead
58:56out in the sun.
58:58But if you believe in London or even another way, we're looking at strong references,
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