1 00:00:07,040 --> 00:00:08,856 These islands we call home 2 00:00:08,880 --> 00:00:13,680 have a rich and varied history stretching back thousands of years. 3 00:00:15,280 --> 00:00:18,136 But hidden under the ground 4 00:00:18,160 --> 00:00:19,656 and under water 5 00:00:19,680 --> 00:00:23,536 are some amazing treasures just waiting to be found. 6 00:00:23,560 --> 00:00:25,496 - Woo! - Wow! - Yeah, wow. 7 00:00:25,520 --> 00:00:28,256 So each year, all across the country, 8 00:00:28,280 --> 00:00:33,856 archaeologists dig, dive and explore their way down... 9 00:00:33,880 --> 00:00:35,256 Ah, this is brilliant. 10 00:00:35,280 --> 00:00:37,776 ...searching for fresh discoveries. 11 00:00:37,800 --> 00:00:40,616 And it is completely intact. 12 00:00:40,640 --> 00:00:44,096 Revealing traces of ancient cultures... 13 00:00:44,120 --> 00:00:47,416 This shoe is 2,803 years old. 14 00:00:47,440 --> 00:00:48,496 Oh, wow! 15 00:00:48,520 --> 00:00:51,216 ...and unearthing fascinating artefacts. 16 00:00:51,240 --> 00:00:53,776 Ooh, that's a nice thing. What is it? 17 00:00:53,800 --> 00:00:56,016 I've never seen anything quite like it in my career. 18 00:00:56,040 --> 00:00:58,056 Every dig adds new pieces 19 00:00:58,080 --> 00:01:01,096 to the ever growing archaeological jigsaw... 20 00:01:01,120 --> 00:01:02,536 That's so cool. 21 00:01:02,560 --> 00:01:05,400 ...That is the epic story of our islands. 22 00:01:08,200 --> 00:01:12,096 This year, I visit digs in some extraordinary locations... 23 00:01:12,120 --> 00:01:14,416 The ceiling just got a bit lower. 24 00:01:14,440 --> 00:01:19,136 ...and I call on the help of a trio of expert investigators... 25 00:01:19,160 --> 00:01:21,376 It's quite difficult to find any other evidence 26 00:01:21,400 --> 00:01:24,496 of things that just don't leave a mark in the archaeology. 27 00:01:24,520 --> 00:01:26,056 This is a really powerful document 28 00:01:26,080 --> 00:01:29,696 because we're getting to hear the voices that we don't usually hear. 29 00:01:29,720 --> 00:01:34,136 ...Who delve deeper to answer the questions raised by the finds. 30 00:01:34,160 --> 00:01:36,696 Is all of this already recorded in books? 31 00:01:36,720 --> 00:01:39,360 There was none of this in a book anywhere. 32 00:01:42,000 --> 00:01:43,376 Finally, the archaeologists 33 00:01:43,400 --> 00:01:47,096 bring their most amazing discoveries into our tent... 34 00:01:47,120 --> 00:01:48,936 Astonishing! 35 00:01:48,960 --> 00:01:50,896 ...for up close analysis. 36 00:01:50,920 --> 00:01:53,856 Genuinely rewriting history. 37 00:01:53,880 --> 00:01:56,240 Welcome to Digging For Britain. 38 00:02:08,800 --> 00:02:11,496 This time I'm exploring the east of England, 39 00:02:11,520 --> 00:02:15,520 looking at the region's most fascinating and unusual digs. 40 00:02:18,000 --> 00:02:21,696 In Norfolk, we go back to the time of the Iceni tribe, 41 00:02:21,720 --> 00:02:24,400 once led by the rebellious Queen Boudicca. 42 00:02:25,600 --> 00:02:28,536 This feels like some special kind of witchcraft. 43 00:02:28,560 --> 00:02:31,816 I'm baffled by arguably the strangest object 44 00:02:31,840 --> 00:02:34,576 we've ever had in 11 series. 45 00:02:34,600 --> 00:02:38,696 This is just extraordinary. 46 00:02:38,720 --> 00:02:39,760 Look at that! 47 00:02:42,040 --> 00:02:44,736 And we even set sail for Belgium 48 00:02:44,760 --> 00:02:48,240 to revisit the site of one of Britain's most famous battles. 49 00:02:49,600 --> 00:02:51,736 There are loads of books written on Waterloo. 50 00:02:51,760 --> 00:02:53,680 Not one of them mentions this. 51 00:03:01,840 --> 00:03:07,336 As Rome's invading army crashed its way through Iron Age Britain, 52 00:03:07,360 --> 00:03:11,760 the architecture of occupation took root in our landscapes. 53 00:03:14,920 --> 00:03:19,520 Imposing fortifications announced a new regime was here to stay... 54 00:03:22,200 --> 00:03:25,536 ...with a transport system to boost the economy 55 00:03:25,560 --> 00:03:30,320 and a transformation of Iron Age settlements into Roman towns. 56 00:03:31,600 --> 00:03:35,136 Our first dig takes place at Bracebridge Heath 57 00:03:35,160 --> 00:03:37,200 on the outskirts of Lincoln. 58 00:03:44,880 --> 00:03:48,536 Today, Lincoln is famous for its grand cathedral, 59 00:03:48,560 --> 00:03:52,760 which stood as the world's tallest building for more than 200 years... 60 00:03:54,920 --> 00:03:58,136 ...and the imposing Lincoln Castle 61 00:03:58,160 --> 00:04:01,240 built by William the Conqueror in the 11th century. 62 00:04:02,240 --> 00:04:07,536 But Lincoln was an important town a thousand years earlier 63 00:04:07,560 --> 00:04:09,480 during the Roman period. 64 00:04:20,720 --> 00:04:26,096 This is the oldest arch in Britain that you can still drive through. 65 00:04:26,120 --> 00:04:29,056 It's actually Roman. It dates to the third century, 66 00:04:29,080 --> 00:04:34,616 and it was the original north gate of Lincoln or Lindum Colonia, 67 00:04:34,640 --> 00:04:36,056 as it would have been called then. 68 00:04:36,080 --> 00:04:39,776 And this road is part of Ermine Street, 69 00:04:39,800 --> 00:04:42,920 which links Lincoln down to London. 70 00:04:47,960 --> 00:04:51,176 Previous archaeological digs in Lincoln have revealed 71 00:04:51,200 --> 00:04:55,576 that it had all the trappings of an important Roman town 72 00:04:55,600 --> 00:04:57,976 with a forum, baths, temples 73 00:04:58,000 --> 00:05:01,000 and houses with richly decorated mosaics. 74 00:05:02,120 --> 00:05:03,696 But what's less well-known 75 00:05:03,720 --> 00:05:06,536 is what the area outside the town was like, 76 00:05:06,560 --> 00:05:08,600 along the route of Ermine Street. 77 00:05:13,720 --> 00:05:16,536 Just a few miles to the south of Lincoln 78 00:05:16,560 --> 00:05:21,056 archaeologists have been trying to find that original Roman road, 79 00:05:21,080 --> 00:05:22,456 Ermine Street. 80 00:05:22,480 --> 00:05:23,976 And they've done it, 81 00:05:24,000 --> 00:05:25,840 but that's not all they found. 82 00:05:28,680 --> 00:05:33,376 Whenever a large infrastructure project gets underway in the UK, 83 00:05:33,400 --> 00:05:37,936 among the first people on the scene are the archaeologists. 84 00:05:37,960 --> 00:05:40,896 Anglian Water suspected that their new pipeline 85 00:05:40,920 --> 00:05:44,176 would run right through the path of Ermine Street - 86 00:05:44,200 --> 00:05:47,016 once a bustling Roman highway - 87 00:05:47,040 --> 00:05:50,416 but they didn't know exactly where it was 88 00:05:50,440 --> 00:05:53,256 so they brought in a huge joint venture team 89 00:05:53,280 --> 00:05:55,936 from three different archaeological companies 90 00:05:55,960 --> 00:05:59,896 York, Oxford and Pre-Construct Archaeology. 91 00:05:59,920 --> 00:06:02,920 And Kelly Sinclair is one of the project officers. 92 00:06:04,560 --> 00:06:05,976 - Kelly, hi. - Hi. 93 00:06:06,000 --> 00:06:08,336 - Hello, hello. - Nice to meet you. - Nice to meet you, too. 94 00:06:08,360 --> 00:06:10,760 - This is your trench? - It is, yeah. - It's huge. 95 00:06:12,080 --> 00:06:14,376 And this is it. This is Ermine Street. 96 00:06:14,400 --> 00:06:15,656 It is, yes. 97 00:06:15,680 --> 00:06:16,936 Wow, that's fantastic. 98 00:06:16,960 --> 00:06:20,096 Ah, are these grooves real? Are they... 99 00:06:20,120 --> 00:06:23,336 - Are they Roman? - Yeah. So they are the wheel ruts 100 00:06:23,360 --> 00:06:26,216 from sort of the wagons, the traffic 101 00:06:26,240 --> 00:06:28,696 that would have been coming along the road here. 102 00:06:28,720 --> 00:06:31,096 So that means you know you've got the surface of it. 103 00:06:31,120 --> 00:06:32,400 - Yeah, absolutely. - Yeah, yeah. 104 00:06:35,240 --> 00:06:38,656 These wheel ruts are evidence of heavy use 105 00:06:38,680 --> 00:06:42,776 of the many travellers that used the Roman roads of Britain - 106 00:06:42,800 --> 00:06:45,640 soldiers, officials and civilians. 107 00:06:47,920 --> 00:06:52,856 There are no obvious buildings right beside Ermine Street here, 108 00:06:52,880 --> 00:06:54,976 but just a few hundred metres away, 109 00:06:55,000 --> 00:06:57,280 they've uncovered something remarkable. 110 00:06:59,120 --> 00:07:01,336 - Oh, walls. - Yeah. - Lots of them. 111 00:07:01,360 --> 00:07:04,016 Yeah, in all different directions. 112 00:07:04,040 --> 00:07:07,336 We were quite surprised when this much came up 113 00:07:07,360 --> 00:07:09,120 when we stripped the area. 114 00:07:11,680 --> 00:07:15,800 The remains of a completely unknown settlement. 115 00:07:18,720 --> 00:07:20,520 But when does it date to? 116 00:07:21,800 --> 00:07:25,736 And what about the pottery? You've got some of the pottery there. It presumably helps with dating. 117 00:07:25,760 --> 00:07:27,696 Yeah, absolutely. So, generally, 118 00:07:27,720 --> 00:07:31,296 we're looking at mid-second to late fourth century, 119 00:07:31,320 --> 00:07:32,976 sort of the span of the settlement 120 00:07:33,000 --> 00:07:36,576 and then we've got this quite nice piece here that's actually got a maker's stamp on it. 121 00:07:36,600 --> 00:07:38,656 So that's Lincolnshire mortaria. 122 00:07:38,680 --> 00:07:41,256 - That's the maker, is it? - Yeah, that is. 123 00:07:41,280 --> 00:07:43,616 And that will be, that's actually quite precisely dated 124 00:07:43,640 --> 00:07:45,856 to 100-140 AD. 125 00:07:45,880 --> 00:07:49,536 - Really? - So that could be a sign of sort of the earlier side 126 00:07:49,560 --> 00:07:51,240 of when the settlement started here. 127 00:07:52,320 --> 00:07:55,976 The artefacts from this incredibly finds-rich site 128 00:07:56,000 --> 00:08:01,296 suggest that this wasn't your average rural Roman settlement, 129 00:08:01,320 --> 00:08:03,216 and archaeologist Paul Rayner 130 00:08:03,240 --> 00:08:06,096 has brought a particular highlight to show me. 131 00:08:06,120 --> 00:08:07,456 Oh, Paul. 132 00:08:07,480 --> 00:08:08,736 Hi. 133 00:08:08,760 --> 00:08:10,536 So this is the special find. 134 00:08:10,560 --> 00:08:13,216 Yes, this is the commemorative carved stone. 135 00:08:13,240 --> 00:08:15,496 So it's got an inscription on it, hasn't it? 136 00:08:15,520 --> 00:08:17,856 - Yeah. - But it's really hard to read that. 137 00:08:17,880 --> 00:08:19,096 Oh, my goodness. 138 00:08:19,120 --> 00:08:22,456 I can make out a D here. Is that an E? 139 00:08:22,480 --> 00:08:24,936 Looks like an E, potentially. 140 00:08:24,960 --> 00:08:28,296 Does anybody have any idea what it might say 141 00:08:28,320 --> 00:08:30,136 and what it might have been used for? 142 00:08:30,160 --> 00:08:34,056 Yes. So we think they were usually found on altars or tombstones. 143 00:08:34,080 --> 00:08:37,056 - OK. - This one's more likely to come from a tombstone. 144 00:08:37,080 --> 00:08:39,456 And the inscription says something along the lines of, 145 00:08:39,480 --> 00:08:41,016 "Laid in commemoration." 146 00:08:41,040 --> 00:08:43,736 The person who's laid it commemorating that they've laid it 147 00:08:43,760 --> 00:08:46,096 - and that they laid it with their own money. - Yeah. 148 00:08:46,120 --> 00:08:47,816 So it's quite a status symbol, I suppose, 149 00:08:47,840 --> 00:08:50,480 of them sort of saying that, look what I could afford. 150 00:08:53,440 --> 00:08:58,120 And the small finds also get us closer to the people living here. 151 00:08:59,440 --> 00:09:02,120 - Can I take the lid off? - Yes, you can lift the lid, yeah. 152 00:09:03,320 --> 00:09:05,016 What have we got here? 153 00:09:05,040 --> 00:09:06,656 Lots of metal finds. 154 00:09:06,680 --> 00:09:08,056 That is a little key. 155 00:09:08,080 --> 00:09:09,816 - Isn't that lovely? - Yeah. Yeah. 156 00:09:09,840 --> 00:09:12,656 They clearly had something that was worth 157 00:09:12,680 --> 00:09:14,016 - keeping under lock and key. - Yes. 158 00:09:14,040 --> 00:09:16,776 - Something they didn't want someone else to get their hands on. - Yeah. 159 00:09:16,800 --> 00:09:19,856 - Yeah. - So, again, you know, they're not just eking out an existence here, 160 00:09:19,880 --> 00:09:21,656 - are they? - No. - They have some nice things. 161 00:09:21,680 --> 00:09:24,296 They definitely got some nice things, things they don't want 162 00:09:24,320 --> 00:09:26,936 - other people to have. - And what about this mysterious box here? 163 00:09:26,960 --> 00:09:29,320 This is one of the star finds so far. This is a... 164 00:09:30,560 --> 00:09:32,680 It's a nice enamelled brooch. 165 00:09:34,120 --> 00:09:36,320 Oh, that's incredible. 166 00:09:37,600 --> 00:09:40,296 It's been brought in from the continent, and that's again... 167 00:09:40,320 --> 00:09:42,976 - Has it? - Yeah, yeah. It's continental design. 168 00:09:43,000 --> 00:09:44,536 Isn't that lovely? 169 00:09:44,560 --> 00:09:47,536 I mean, we're just getting an idea of how elaborate it is, 170 00:09:47,560 --> 00:09:50,976 but we're not really seeing just how beautiful 171 00:09:51,000 --> 00:09:52,736 - and bright it would have been. - No, yeah. 172 00:09:52,760 --> 00:09:55,536 Yeah, so the enamel will have dulled but that would be 173 00:09:55,560 --> 00:09:57,216 very vibrant greens 174 00:09:57,240 --> 00:09:58,936 and things shining through. 175 00:09:58,960 --> 00:10:00,000 Yeah. 176 00:10:01,040 --> 00:10:05,296 We know from previous excavations that Roman Lincoln was a rich, 177 00:10:05,320 --> 00:10:07,616 bustling commercial centre, 178 00:10:07,640 --> 00:10:10,336 but these discoveries show that this wealth 179 00:10:10,360 --> 00:10:13,616 seems to have spilled out beyond the town walls. 180 00:10:13,640 --> 00:10:15,536 I think there's a lot about this landscape 181 00:10:15,560 --> 00:10:19,016 that just hasn't changed in 18 centuries, 182 00:10:19,040 --> 00:10:20,936 but there's an important difference - 183 00:10:20,960 --> 00:10:24,376 that right here there was a settlement, a big settlement, 184 00:10:24,400 --> 00:10:26,536 and that's been an unexpected discovery. 185 00:10:26,560 --> 00:10:29,136 The archaeologists knew that Ermine Street 186 00:10:29,160 --> 00:10:31,696 was around here to be found, 187 00:10:31,720 --> 00:10:35,056 but the scale of this small town 188 00:10:35,080 --> 00:10:36,416 has really surprised them. 189 00:10:36,440 --> 00:10:37,816 And not just the size of it, 190 00:10:37,840 --> 00:10:42,696 but the fact that the people living here were clearly affluent. 191 00:10:42,720 --> 00:10:45,896 And then, for some reason, after the fourth century, 192 00:10:45,920 --> 00:10:49,656 this whole place is abandoned, falls into ruin, 193 00:10:49,680 --> 00:10:52,320 disappears under the fields of wheat. 194 00:10:57,520 --> 00:11:02,496 The landscape of Britain is full of traces of past lives, 195 00:11:02,520 --> 00:11:05,056 some of them still evident today, 196 00:11:05,080 --> 00:11:07,456 but many hidden and forgotten, 197 00:11:07,480 --> 00:11:11,920 until archaeologists come along and bring them into the light. 198 00:11:14,360 --> 00:11:19,136 Whole communities have disappeared from sight and memory 199 00:11:19,160 --> 00:11:21,776 and sometimes we stumble upon the remains 200 00:11:21,800 --> 00:11:24,736 of not just roads and settlements, 201 00:11:24,760 --> 00:11:26,960 but the people themselves. 202 00:11:37,640 --> 00:11:41,856 Our next dig takes place on a large infrastructure project 203 00:11:41,880 --> 00:11:44,456 that's still ongoing 204 00:11:44,480 --> 00:11:46,800 in the County of Lincolnshire. 205 00:11:51,480 --> 00:11:55,256 An ambitious national grid scheme called the Viking Link 206 00:11:55,280 --> 00:11:58,776 will involve laying the world's longest electricity connector 207 00:11:58,800 --> 00:12:00,616 between Britain and Denmark 208 00:12:00,640 --> 00:12:04,856 to enable the sharing of green energy across borders. 209 00:12:04,880 --> 00:12:10,336 It provides a unique opportunity to explore huge swathes of landscape, 210 00:12:10,360 --> 00:12:13,656 and Wessex Archaeology, who are working on the scheme, 211 00:12:13,680 --> 00:12:16,200 have made an astonishing discovery... 212 00:12:20,680 --> 00:12:24,720 ...dating back to the Early Medieval period. 213 00:12:27,200 --> 00:12:28,936 We're in the Lincolnshire Wolds 214 00:12:28,960 --> 00:12:32,896 and I think the most spectacular thing that we have here 215 00:12:32,920 --> 00:12:35,456 are several inhumations. 216 00:12:35,480 --> 00:12:38,016 There's a little bit of debate at the moment as to 217 00:12:38,040 --> 00:12:39,736 what period they date from. 218 00:12:39,760 --> 00:12:42,736 Speculatively, it could either be the first century AD 219 00:12:42,760 --> 00:12:45,800 or I'm kind of erring towards Anglo-Saxon, now. 220 00:12:47,880 --> 00:12:50,376 This period is so sparsely documented, 221 00:12:50,400 --> 00:12:53,456 it's sometimes still called the Dark Ages. 222 00:12:53,480 --> 00:12:57,536 So archaeology becomes supremely important to understanding 223 00:12:57,560 --> 00:13:00,296 communities in Britain at this time. 224 00:13:00,320 --> 00:13:06,160 And here there are 23 burials, 23 people with stories to tell. 225 00:13:07,360 --> 00:13:09,616 Some of the grave goods we're pulling out of them 226 00:13:09,640 --> 00:13:11,680 I've never seen anything quite like it in my career. 227 00:13:13,720 --> 00:13:17,376 So we're getting copper alloy brooches, 228 00:13:17,400 --> 00:13:20,536 a lot of the burials have small iron knives at their waists, 229 00:13:20,560 --> 00:13:23,416 and that seems to be quite a standard practice within 230 00:13:23,440 --> 00:13:25,256 early Anglo-Saxon burials 231 00:13:25,280 --> 00:13:28,720 and they tend to be associated with female burials. 232 00:13:30,400 --> 00:13:31,896 Archaeologically speaking, 233 00:13:31,920 --> 00:13:34,216 this is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. 234 00:13:34,240 --> 00:13:35,520 Absolutely incredible. 235 00:13:37,640 --> 00:13:41,456 These people would have been buried fully clothed with their jewellery 236 00:13:41,480 --> 00:13:43,816 and personal possessions. 237 00:13:43,840 --> 00:13:47,256 So we learn about the material culture from these burials, 238 00:13:47,280 --> 00:13:51,416 but the bones themselves also contain precious information 239 00:13:51,440 --> 00:13:53,600 about who these people were. 240 00:13:56,760 --> 00:13:59,736 As a howling gale batters the tent, 241 00:13:59,760 --> 00:14:03,336 osteoarchaeologists Jackie McKinley and Ceri Boston 242 00:14:03,360 --> 00:14:06,336 join me to talk about the post-excavation work 243 00:14:06,360 --> 00:14:07,960 they're doing on this site. 244 00:14:12,480 --> 00:14:16,576 Jackie and Ceri, thank you very much for bringing these burials along. 245 00:14:16,600 --> 00:14:19,256 Can you tell me a little bit more about the site itself, 246 00:14:19,280 --> 00:14:20,896 the context of it? 247 00:14:20,920 --> 00:14:23,136 Right, OK. It's an Anglo-Saxon cemetery. 248 00:14:23,160 --> 00:14:29,176 - We had in total, I think, 22 graves with 23 individuals in them. - OK. 249 00:14:29,200 --> 00:14:32,256 And the reason there was one more individual than graves 250 00:14:32,280 --> 00:14:34,376 is because one of them had two individuals in it. 251 00:14:34,400 --> 00:14:36,976 And that is where these two individuals came from here. 252 00:14:37,000 --> 00:14:38,776 The other thing you will notice 253 00:14:38,800 --> 00:14:41,416 is the bone is not in very good condition. 254 00:14:41,440 --> 00:14:43,656 No, it is a bit fragmentary, isn't it? 255 00:14:43,680 --> 00:14:45,736 Especially this child's skeleton. 256 00:14:45,760 --> 00:14:48,016 The ends of the bones are missing completely 257 00:14:48,040 --> 00:14:49,736 and all you've got left are the shaft, 258 00:14:49,760 --> 00:14:51,496 where you've got the more compact bone. 259 00:14:51,520 --> 00:14:55,136 How well preserved bone is is nothing to do with how old it is. 260 00:14:55,160 --> 00:14:57,096 It's to do with the burial conditions. 261 00:14:57,120 --> 00:14:59,936 But having said that, we can still do quite a lot with it. 262 00:14:59,960 --> 00:15:03,416 And Ceri indeed has done quite a lot with working out 263 00:15:03,440 --> 00:15:08,096 what we have here in terms of age and perhaps the sex 264 00:15:08,120 --> 00:15:10,736 of the individuals, which is not always so easy, is it? 265 00:15:10,760 --> 00:15:12,776 No, and particularly when they're very young. 266 00:15:12,800 --> 00:15:15,736 - Yeah. - I think we're just starting to see some changes 267 00:15:15,760 --> 00:15:17,056 on the old skeleton. 268 00:15:17,080 --> 00:15:18,416 She's probably a female. 269 00:15:18,440 --> 00:15:22,136 She's probably 15 to 17 years old. 270 00:15:22,160 --> 00:15:24,536 So still in the process of maturing. 271 00:15:24,560 --> 00:15:26,816 And the little one is only three to five, 272 00:15:26,840 --> 00:15:31,096 and so they're unlikely to be mother and child. 273 00:15:31,120 --> 00:15:32,976 Just the ages are just too close. 274 00:15:33,000 --> 00:15:35,896 That's interesting because I think when I first saw this, 275 00:15:35,920 --> 00:15:38,736 you kind of assume that what you're looking at is a parent 276 00:15:38,760 --> 00:15:41,696 - and child relationship. - I mean, they could've been brother and sister, 277 00:15:41,720 --> 00:15:44,536 they could've been cousins, they could be a familial relationship. 278 00:15:44,560 --> 00:15:47,216 But if you're living in a small community, 279 00:15:47,240 --> 00:15:49,736 then everybody probably knew each other 280 00:15:49,760 --> 00:15:52,016 and rather than burying them alone, 281 00:15:52,040 --> 00:15:53,296 a little one alone, 282 00:15:53,320 --> 00:15:54,616 they may well have put him 283 00:15:54,640 --> 00:15:58,336 or her with somebody who they knew in life. 284 00:15:58,360 --> 00:15:59,536 Yeah, yeah. 285 00:15:59,560 --> 00:16:01,216 And that's where the DNA will come in. 286 00:16:01,240 --> 00:16:03,176 We will ultimately do DNA analysis 287 00:16:03,200 --> 00:16:07,176 and try and get an idea of that relationship. 288 00:16:07,200 --> 00:16:09,896 And there are some grave goods in this grave? 289 00:16:09,920 --> 00:16:11,016 There are indeed. 290 00:16:11,040 --> 00:16:14,416 We've got a brooch, a little bronze brooch, penannular brooch here, 291 00:16:14,440 --> 00:16:17,496 which is in such beautiful condition, you could almost wear it. 292 00:16:17,520 --> 00:16:22,016 We do have these two wonderful gold and garnet pendants here, 293 00:16:22,040 --> 00:16:25,056 but just look at how the gold has been formed on that, 294 00:16:25,080 --> 00:16:28,336 little coils that have been joined together. 295 00:16:28,360 --> 00:16:30,416 - Yeah. - It really is quite beautiful. 296 00:16:30,440 --> 00:16:32,616 And when was she buried? Do we know? 297 00:16:32,640 --> 00:16:34,096 What's the date of these graves? 298 00:16:34,120 --> 00:16:38,536 Well, these items that we've got here are going to be 299 00:16:38,560 --> 00:16:40,256 very late sixth century 300 00:16:40,280 --> 00:16:43,616 and into the late seventh century. 301 00:16:43,640 --> 00:16:47,856 And is it unusual to find grave goods and graves of that age? 302 00:16:47,880 --> 00:16:49,296 They start to get rarer. 303 00:16:49,320 --> 00:16:51,856 People didn't seem to be buried with as much goodies 304 00:16:51,880 --> 00:16:53,256 staggered around them. 305 00:16:53,280 --> 00:16:55,776 But they're very... These are very high status. 306 00:16:55,800 --> 00:16:57,976 I mean, this is saying something about her status as well. 307 00:16:58,000 --> 00:16:59,816 That's interesting because she's very young. 308 00:16:59,840 --> 00:17:01,896 So we're looking at inherited status, probably. 309 00:17:01,920 --> 00:17:03,816 Potentially inherited status. 310 00:17:03,840 --> 00:17:05,736 And we are actually in the early stages 311 00:17:05,760 --> 00:17:07,296 of doing this work at the moment. 312 00:17:07,320 --> 00:17:11,256 So we'll be doing more detailed dating of some of the burials 313 00:17:11,280 --> 00:17:15,096 so that we can find out the longevity of the cemetery 314 00:17:15,120 --> 00:17:18,776 and doing the DNA is going to give us how the different graves 315 00:17:18,800 --> 00:17:20,496 were related to each other. 316 00:17:20,520 --> 00:17:24,856 We'll also be looking at things like the strontium and oxygen isotopes, 317 00:17:24,880 --> 00:17:28,656 - which will give us where those people grew up. - Yeah. 318 00:17:28,680 --> 00:17:32,616 - Because that gets locked into teeth as you're forming them. - Exactly. 319 00:17:32,640 --> 00:17:35,536 So there'll be lots of other scientific work that we'll be doing 320 00:17:35,560 --> 00:17:38,376 that will help us understand this community 321 00:17:38,400 --> 00:17:41,616 and how they related to other communities within the area. 322 00:17:41,640 --> 00:17:44,496 For a long time we had this almost endless debate 323 00:17:44,520 --> 00:17:46,416 about the Anglo-Saxons 324 00:17:46,440 --> 00:17:49,376 and how many people are coming over from the continent 325 00:17:49,400 --> 00:17:52,096 and whether it's just a continuation of a migration that 326 00:17:52,120 --> 00:17:54,816 kind of starts in the Roman era or not, 327 00:17:54,840 --> 00:17:57,936 and I think we're getting some clarity about that now. 328 00:17:57,960 --> 00:18:01,976 Clearly there's moving around within Britain as well. 329 00:18:02,000 --> 00:18:05,376 It's quite obvious, looking at these things, the items we've got here, 330 00:18:05,400 --> 00:18:08,336 that people in different communities and different groups, 331 00:18:08,360 --> 00:18:10,536 quite often a long way apart, 332 00:18:10,560 --> 00:18:12,256 would have interacted with each other. 333 00:18:12,280 --> 00:18:13,736 And I like it because it's, you know, 334 00:18:13,760 --> 00:18:15,536 they've been forgotten about, these people. 335 00:18:15,560 --> 00:18:21,120 It's another form of sort of giving them a type of immortality. 336 00:18:29,960 --> 00:18:32,096 ♪ I trod with 337 00:18:32,120 --> 00:18:39,656 ♪ An ache for the ones who've walked before me 338 00:18:39,680 --> 00:18:43,296 ♪ And joy for the ones 339 00:18:43,320 --> 00:18:50,680 ♪ Who walk beside me. ♪ 340 00:18:52,480 --> 00:18:56,576 Much of East Anglia is a flat, fertile plain 341 00:18:56,600 --> 00:18:58,840 perfect for agriculture. 342 00:19:03,240 --> 00:19:07,576 But it also means that archaeology can be at risk of being demolished 343 00:19:07,600 --> 00:19:08,640 by the plough. 344 00:19:10,120 --> 00:19:13,536 Sometimes, though, seemingly against the odds, 345 00:19:13,560 --> 00:19:16,600 something survives for thousands of years. 346 00:19:18,000 --> 00:19:21,536 Our next dig in the east takes us to Warham, 347 00:19:21,560 --> 00:19:24,240 30 miles north-west of Norwich. 348 00:19:28,920 --> 00:19:30,960 This is Norfolk... 349 00:19:32,760 --> 00:19:36,096 ...home to the Iron Age tribe that the Romans tell us 350 00:19:36,120 --> 00:19:38,376 was called the Iceni 351 00:19:38,400 --> 00:19:41,416 and, of course, to the queen Boudicca herself, 352 00:19:41,440 --> 00:19:45,216 who led a failed uprising against the Romans. 353 00:19:45,240 --> 00:19:51,816 But this site takes us back centuries before Rome even looked at Britain 354 00:19:51,840 --> 00:19:53,400 with a glint in its eye. 355 00:19:55,480 --> 00:19:58,856 Boudicca's famous revolt against Roman occupation 356 00:19:58,880 --> 00:20:01,600 happened in the year 60 CE. 357 00:20:04,560 --> 00:20:10,216 But the history of the Iceni tribe stretches back centuries before 358 00:20:10,240 --> 00:20:11,840 into the Iron Age. 359 00:20:15,440 --> 00:20:19,336 The signature monument of the Iron Age is the hillfort, 360 00:20:19,360 --> 00:20:22,096 and despite its famous flatness, 361 00:20:22,120 --> 00:20:24,696 East Anglia has a few, 362 00:20:24,720 --> 00:20:28,616 but most have not withstood the ravages of time. 363 00:20:28,640 --> 00:20:32,216 The Normans built a castle on top of Thetford's fort 364 00:20:32,240 --> 00:20:35,400 and Holkham Camp has merged into salt marsh. 365 00:20:38,080 --> 00:20:42,696 But the spectacular preservation of the hillfort at Warham 366 00:20:42,720 --> 00:20:45,480 makes it a prime site for investigation. 367 00:20:46,960 --> 00:20:51,280 Andy Hutcheson from the University of East Anglia is leading the dig. 368 00:20:53,280 --> 00:20:56,296 - Andy. - Hi, Alice. - Hello. Hello, hello. 369 00:20:56,320 --> 00:21:00,776 This is utterly gorgeous and it's unexpected as well. 370 00:21:00,800 --> 00:21:02,936 - Yeah. - A hillfort in Norfolk? 371 00:21:02,960 --> 00:21:05,336 And you're obviously here hoping to find out something new 372 00:21:05,360 --> 00:21:07,656 about this hillfort. So what do we know already? 373 00:21:07,680 --> 00:21:10,856 Has it been previously archaeologically investigated? 374 00:21:10,880 --> 00:21:15,176 Yeah, it has in 1914 and then again in 1959. 375 00:21:15,200 --> 00:21:17,456 - Right. - And they established it was Iron Age. 376 00:21:17,480 --> 00:21:20,576 - OK. - So we are here to further characterise it, 377 00:21:20,600 --> 00:21:23,016 but also to date it, accurately. 378 00:21:23,040 --> 00:21:25,976 Because the Iron Age lasts a long time, it's nearly a millennium. 379 00:21:26,000 --> 00:21:27,176 Yeah, exactly. 380 00:21:27,200 --> 00:21:30,056 It's 800 through to... well, in this part of the world 381 00:21:30,080 --> 00:21:32,640 - 60, 61 AD. - Yeah, yeah. 382 00:21:35,320 --> 00:21:36,856 The fort here at Warham 383 00:21:36,880 --> 00:21:39,496 would have been an impressive stronghold, 384 00:21:39,520 --> 00:21:43,256 with tall banks probably topped by a palisade 385 00:21:43,280 --> 00:21:46,480 and surrounded by deep ditches on all sides. 386 00:21:49,480 --> 00:21:51,096 And it's in the bottom of the ditch 387 00:21:51,120 --> 00:21:52,696 that the team are hoping to find 388 00:21:52,720 --> 00:21:56,120 something to help them date the fort's earliest phase. 389 00:21:58,160 --> 00:22:00,696 - That's so deep. - Amazing, isn't it? - And full of water. 390 00:22:00,720 --> 00:22:02,016 Yes, yes. 391 00:22:02,040 --> 00:22:04,496 It's just filled up from groundwater. 392 00:22:04,520 --> 00:22:06,656 Yeah, because the river is just over there. 393 00:22:06,680 --> 00:22:09,856 We've come down onto a peat, which is very exciting 394 00:22:09,880 --> 00:22:12,696 because we should be able to get interesting information 395 00:22:12,720 --> 00:22:14,416 about the immediate environment, 396 00:22:14,440 --> 00:22:17,696 probably also the wider environment as well at the time. 397 00:22:17,720 --> 00:22:20,976 So pollen that will tell us about the trees in this area. 398 00:22:21,000 --> 00:22:23,856 So you'll have the preservation of organic remains in that? 399 00:22:23,880 --> 00:22:25,896 - That's the hope. - You've got some bones. 400 00:22:25,920 --> 00:22:28,536 What bones are they? They're not human, certainly. 401 00:22:28,560 --> 00:22:30,376 They're not. They are horse. 402 00:22:30,400 --> 00:22:33,896 Nice to find a horse because the Iceni were known to be horse people. 403 00:22:33,920 --> 00:22:35,776 Do you think it's deliberately deposited 404 00:22:35,800 --> 00:22:38,416 or do you think this is just rubbish that has ended up in a ditch? 405 00:22:38,440 --> 00:22:41,056 The fact that it's not mixed with cattle and pig 406 00:22:41,080 --> 00:22:42,936 and all sorts, it's compelling... 407 00:22:42,960 --> 00:22:45,296 - Yeah, could be something meaningful. - ..that it might be 408 00:22:45,320 --> 00:22:47,136 something meaningful. 409 00:22:47,160 --> 00:22:51,776 These organic remains will be sent for radiocarbon dating after the dig 410 00:22:51,800 --> 00:22:55,480 to help establish a firm sequence of occupation for the fort. 411 00:22:56,800 --> 00:23:00,256 This is a nature reserve as well as a scheduled monument, 412 00:23:00,280 --> 00:23:03,760 so the team have had to be as un-invasive as possible. 413 00:23:06,000 --> 00:23:07,256 In the interior, 414 00:23:07,280 --> 00:23:10,320 they've dug 21 small test pits. 415 00:23:13,160 --> 00:23:15,536 And they're painstakingly sieving all of the sediment 416 00:23:15,560 --> 00:23:17,016 from each test pit, 417 00:23:17,040 --> 00:23:18,120 looking for clues. 418 00:23:20,160 --> 00:23:21,896 - Hello. - Hi. - Hi. 419 00:23:21,920 --> 00:23:25,416 So what are you finding in here, apart from rocks? 420 00:23:25,440 --> 00:23:26,536 Well, apart from rocks, 421 00:23:26,560 --> 00:23:32,416 - we found shells, oyster shells, right? - Can I have a look? 422 00:23:32,440 --> 00:23:37,096 - Then... - Some pottery. - That's not a bad haul. 423 00:23:37,120 --> 00:23:39,480 ...Even flints, like this is flints. 424 00:23:40,960 --> 00:23:43,256 I'm an archaeologist from West Africa. 425 00:23:43,280 --> 00:23:45,376 No matter where we are doing archaeology, 426 00:23:45,400 --> 00:23:46,856 it's more or less the same - 427 00:23:46,880 --> 00:23:50,296 we always use trowel, we always use spade, 428 00:23:50,320 --> 00:23:53,016 we always we use bucket and we will see. 429 00:23:53,040 --> 00:23:55,336 And you're all challenging history as well. 430 00:23:55,360 --> 00:23:57,816 - You're finding a different strand of evidence... - Exactly. 431 00:23:57,840 --> 00:23:59,560 ...A different way of looking at the past. 432 00:24:00,480 --> 00:24:03,896 This methodical approach is paying off. 433 00:24:03,920 --> 00:24:08,936 They've gathered a substantial haul of finds from the fort's interior, 434 00:24:08,960 --> 00:24:11,256 allowing archaeologist Matt Brudenell 435 00:24:11,280 --> 00:24:15,240 to see how much activity was going on over time. 436 00:24:16,680 --> 00:24:19,056 What about the finds that we've got coming out of here then, 437 00:24:19,080 --> 00:24:22,496 because I've had a look at the trench that's going through the ditch 438 00:24:22,520 --> 00:24:26,096 and that suggests that there's a long period of time that 439 00:24:26,120 --> 00:24:28,456 there's something going on here. 440 00:24:28,480 --> 00:24:32,736 Are you getting a good idea from finds inside the fort? 441 00:24:32,760 --> 00:24:36,776 We are, yeah. We've got some evidence of Iron Age finds 442 00:24:36,800 --> 00:24:40,056 - coming out of the site. - Yeah. - Some Iron Age pottery. 443 00:24:40,080 --> 00:24:43,056 But as you can see, there isn't a great deal of material 444 00:24:43,080 --> 00:24:45,376 of this period coming out of the site. 445 00:24:45,400 --> 00:24:47,856 - No, it's only tiny pieces, isn't it? - And tiny pieces, yeah. 446 00:24:47,880 --> 00:24:50,456 The bulk of the material that we're getting from the excavations 447 00:24:50,480 --> 00:24:54,056 dates to the Roman period, but not the beginning of the Roman period, 448 00:24:54,080 --> 00:24:55,736 actually, to the end of the Roman period, 449 00:24:55,760 --> 00:24:58,320 so we're talking like 3rd and 4th century AD. 450 00:24:59,720 --> 00:25:03,216 After the Roman invasion of Britain in 43 CE, 451 00:25:03,240 --> 00:25:07,016 the king of the Iceni ruled his kingdom independently 452 00:25:07,040 --> 00:25:08,800 but as an ally of Rome. 453 00:25:10,360 --> 00:25:14,016 When he died, the Romans ousted his wife, Boudicca, 454 00:25:14,040 --> 00:25:18,096 and seized the kingdom, triggering the Boudican revolt, 455 00:25:18,120 --> 00:25:20,480 which ultimately ended in defeat. 456 00:25:23,440 --> 00:25:28,416 But life in what had been the kingdom of the Iceni would go on, 457 00:25:28,440 --> 00:25:32,976 and the evidence from this hillfort suggests it had a new lease of life 458 00:25:33,000 --> 00:25:34,920 in the late Roman period. 459 00:25:37,320 --> 00:25:41,096 Alongside the pottery, there are hobnails from boots 460 00:25:41,120 --> 00:25:44,376 and intriguing signs of industry. 461 00:25:44,400 --> 00:25:47,920 The sediment here contains one last secret. 462 00:25:49,360 --> 00:25:50,896 I've never done this before. 463 00:25:50,920 --> 00:25:52,536 OK, so if you take the magnet 464 00:25:52,560 --> 00:25:54,696 and you just run it through the soil itself, 465 00:25:54,720 --> 00:25:56,720 all those little tiny pieces of iron. 466 00:26:00,560 --> 00:26:03,216 This feels like some special kind of witchcraft. 467 00:26:03,240 --> 00:26:05,936 It does a bit, a sort of alchemy. 468 00:26:05,960 --> 00:26:08,656 And there you go. And it's not... You can move it around. 469 00:26:08,680 --> 00:26:11,216 - It looks just like dirt sticking to it. - It does look like dirt, 470 00:26:11,240 --> 00:26:12,776 but hang on a minute. 471 00:26:12,800 --> 00:26:14,536 - No, look at that. - It doesn't just come off, 472 00:26:14,560 --> 00:26:16,496 it wants to stay on the magnet. 473 00:26:16,520 --> 00:26:17,816 You can't brush it away. 474 00:26:17,840 --> 00:26:19,136 So it is... 475 00:26:19,160 --> 00:26:20,616 ...it is iron, isn't it? 476 00:26:20,640 --> 00:26:22,976 Little tiny bits of metal. 477 00:26:23,000 --> 00:26:26,216 - Yeah, look at that. - When hot metal was being worked on an anvil, 478 00:26:26,240 --> 00:26:29,336 tiny, tiny little flakes of hammer scale come off 479 00:26:29,360 --> 00:26:30,760 and remain in the soil. 480 00:26:32,560 --> 00:26:34,176 That's extraordinary! 481 00:26:34,200 --> 00:26:37,176 Is that right across the site here? 482 00:26:37,200 --> 00:26:40,376 Well, there seems to be a real density of it in this area. 483 00:26:40,400 --> 00:26:43,056 So much so that when the metal detector was run over here, 484 00:26:43,080 --> 00:26:45,616 it gave an almost continuous low signal... 485 00:26:45,640 --> 00:26:47,056 - Yeah. Yeah. - ..across the area. 486 00:26:47,080 --> 00:26:49,136 So we think we're standing in an area 487 00:26:49,160 --> 00:26:50,760 that would have been a Roman forge. 488 00:26:52,040 --> 00:26:56,536 These tiny scales of iron - so easy to miss in excavation - 489 00:26:56,560 --> 00:26:58,816 are a clue that the abandoned hillfort 490 00:26:58,840 --> 00:27:01,656 became home to an out of town blacksmith 491 00:27:01,680 --> 00:27:03,200 centuries later. 492 00:27:08,880 --> 00:27:11,760 There are still mysteries to be solved here. 493 00:27:14,320 --> 00:27:17,416 More secrets will emerge as the dig ends 494 00:27:17,440 --> 00:27:20,280 and the post-excavation work gets underway. 495 00:27:21,680 --> 00:27:24,776 Here we've got an incredibly precious, 496 00:27:24,800 --> 00:27:29,976 rare opportunity for archaeologists to bring modern techniques to bear 497 00:27:30,000 --> 00:27:34,976 on questions like when exactly was this built, 498 00:27:35,000 --> 00:27:36,976 and then what happens to it. 499 00:27:37,000 --> 00:27:39,976 In the Roman period, there's a lull, 500 00:27:40,000 --> 00:27:42,056 and then it seems people are back here 501 00:27:42,080 --> 00:27:46,776 and they're back here with industry, with metalworking. 502 00:27:46,800 --> 00:27:50,576 And I love the fact that we're getting that evidence out of those 503 00:27:50,600 --> 00:27:52,816 subtle small traces, 504 00:27:52,840 --> 00:27:57,280 pulling fragments of metal out of the ground with a magnet. 505 00:28:09,040 --> 00:28:12,536 Some evidence of Roman Britain seems easy to interpret - 506 00:28:12,560 --> 00:28:16,816 hobnails from boots, iron scales from metalworking, 507 00:28:16,840 --> 00:28:21,376 the architecture of ancient amphitheatres, 508 00:28:21,400 --> 00:28:25,320 but other Roman finds are very strange indeed. 509 00:28:29,880 --> 00:28:33,696 Most of the time, when archaeologists discover an object, 510 00:28:33,720 --> 00:28:36,776 they can work out what it is. 511 00:28:36,800 --> 00:28:38,416 Sometimes it might be really obvious, 512 00:28:38,440 --> 00:28:42,416 and it might be something we're familiar with in our everyday lives. 513 00:28:42,440 --> 00:28:46,016 It might be a piece of jewellery or a knife. 514 00:28:46,040 --> 00:28:51,056 But occasionally you get an object which is just so mysterious, 515 00:28:51,080 --> 00:28:55,376 so enigmatic, that even the best archaeologists are left 516 00:28:55,400 --> 00:28:56,960 scratching their heads. 517 00:28:58,360 --> 00:29:03,176 Our next puzzling discovery comes from the tiny village 518 00:29:03,200 --> 00:29:05,376 of Norton Disney, 519 00:29:05,400 --> 00:29:07,600 12 miles south-west of Lincoln. 520 00:29:08,640 --> 00:29:12,336 The village is named after the Norman lords of the manor, 521 00:29:12,360 --> 00:29:14,136 the D'Isigny family. 522 00:29:14,160 --> 00:29:16,656 But its history goes back much further 523 00:29:16,680 --> 00:29:19,656 than just a mere thousand years. 524 00:29:19,680 --> 00:29:23,976 In 1933, a Roman villa was discovered near the village. 525 00:29:24,000 --> 00:29:27,336 Now team are hunting for more evidence 526 00:29:27,360 --> 00:29:29,536 from the Roman period. 527 00:29:29,560 --> 00:29:33,736 The team in question is the Norton Disney History and Archaeology Group 528 00:29:33,760 --> 00:29:37,696 now embarking on their third and biggest excavation so far 529 00:29:37,720 --> 00:29:39,720 captured by their Dig Diary. 530 00:29:41,160 --> 00:29:42,496 We've come here this year to try 531 00:29:42,520 --> 00:29:44,896 and find out something about the Roman archaeology, 532 00:29:44,920 --> 00:29:47,736 which has been hinted at for more than a few years now 533 00:29:47,760 --> 00:29:50,816 by some of the geophysical surveys that we've done 534 00:29:50,840 --> 00:29:53,416 and also some other local finds as well. 535 00:29:53,440 --> 00:29:57,336 This is an elevated site in an otherwise flat landscape, 536 00:29:57,360 --> 00:30:01,176 giving panoramic views across the Trent Valley. 537 00:30:01,200 --> 00:30:05,496 A geophysical survey had revealed a mysterious feature at its centre 538 00:30:05,520 --> 00:30:09,440 that, on excavation, turned out to be a large pit. 539 00:30:10,440 --> 00:30:12,256 So Tom, tell us a little bit about what 540 00:30:12,280 --> 00:30:14,296 you've been finding in trench four. 541 00:30:14,320 --> 00:30:20,016 It's a quarry pit that's been filled with demolition material. 542 00:30:20,040 --> 00:30:22,976 So we've been finding a lot of... 543 00:30:23,000 --> 00:30:29,256 ...a lot of Roman pottery and quite a few sort of rims. 544 00:30:29,280 --> 00:30:31,816 A convenient hole in the ground becomes filled 545 00:30:31,840 --> 00:30:33,816 with rubbish over time. 546 00:30:33,840 --> 00:30:36,680 So far, it's a very ordinary story. 547 00:30:38,440 --> 00:30:40,936 But, then, on the penultimate day of digging, 548 00:30:40,960 --> 00:30:44,520 something extra ordinary emerges from the pit. 549 00:30:46,680 --> 00:30:48,896 So, Richard, what is it? 550 00:30:48,920 --> 00:30:51,240 So this is a Roman dodecahedron. 551 00:30:52,520 --> 00:30:54,816 We don't really know exactly what they're used for, 552 00:30:54,840 --> 00:30:56,536 but they're super rare. 553 00:30:56,560 --> 00:30:58,720 But it's absolutely amazing finding this. 554 00:31:06,480 --> 00:31:08,936 Richard Parker has come along to the tent 555 00:31:08,960 --> 00:31:12,656 with expert Lorena Hitchens to try to shed some light 556 00:31:12,680 --> 00:31:14,400 on this intriguing find. 557 00:31:19,880 --> 00:31:21,976 So, Richard, what's in the box? 558 00:31:22,000 --> 00:31:24,976 So, the big reveal today. 559 00:31:25,000 --> 00:31:29,376 And this is absolutely astonishing. 560 00:31:29,400 --> 00:31:30,800 Look at that! 561 00:31:32,960 --> 00:31:35,496 This is our special find. This is the standout thing. 562 00:31:35,520 --> 00:31:37,256 I mean, it's outrageous. 563 00:31:37,280 --> 00:31:39,776 You know, we've got this kind of this pottery 564 00:31:39,800 --> 00:31:42,016 and you think, yes, OK, we're on a Roman site 565 00:31:42,040 --> 00:31:43,216 and, then... 566 00:31:43,240 --> 00:31:45,960 And, then, this extraordinary object. 567 00:31:49,640 --> 00:31:51,776 What was it like when you found it? 568 00:31:51,800 --> 00:31:53,656 Well, I was making the tea at the time. 569 00:31:53,680 --> 00:31:56,016 There's a big shout goes up, a bit of swearing and you think, 570 00:31:56,040 --> 00:31:58,056 "Ooh, somebody's had an accident or something." 571 00:31:58,080 --> 00:32:00,296 So I go running over there and then 572 00:32:00,320 --> 00:32:04,296 Richard, who found it on site, was holding it up, 573 00:32:04,320 --> 00:32:06,296 you know, and then, oh, my goodness me, 574 00:32:06,320 --> 00:32:07,976 you've found a dodecahedron. 575 00:32:08,000 --> 00:32:09,336 I've only read about those. 576 00:32:09,360 --> 00:32:10,656 I've never seen one. 577 00:32:10,680 --> 00:32:12,160 And work just stops. 578 00:32:14,400 --> 00:32:16,536 - Can I pick it up? - Of course. 579 00:32:16,560 --> 00:32:18,160 It's really weird. 580 00:32:21,400 --> 00:32:25,016 So there are other examples of this type of object. 581 00:32:25,040 --> 00:32:27,216 - Yes. - How many do we know of? 582 00:32:27,240 --> 00:32:30,496 So there are 32 from Roman Britain. 583 00:32:30,520 --> 00:32:34,016 That's including from whole to fragments. 584 00:32:34,040 --> 00:32:37,576 - This makes 33 that I know of. - Yeah, so fairly rare. 585 00:32:37,600 --> 00:32:40,536 And they're not necessarily Roman because they're 586 00:32:40,560 --> 00:32:42,256 only found in the northern 587 00:32:42,280 --> 00:32:44,656 and western provinces of the Roman Empire. 588 00:32:44,680 --> 00:32:48,336 So it's more accurate to say Romano Celts or Gallo Roman 589 00:32:48,360 --> 00:32:49,456 or Romano Brit. 590 00:32:49,480 --> 00:32:51,976 - Yeah. - Something hybrid. 591 00:32:52,000 --> 00:32:53,656 They don't come from Rome. 592 00:32:53,680 --> 00:32:56,056 And do we know anything about what, 593 00:32:56,080 --> 00:32:57,256 I mean, what is it? 594 00:32:57,280 --> 00:32:59,816 - So here's a couple of models. - OK. 595 00:32:59,840 --> 00:33:02,296 So this is a more typical size. 596 00:33:02,320 --> 00:33:04,816 - This is a big boy here from the East Midlands. - Oh, really? 597 00:33:04,840 --> 00:33:06,896 So these are life-size replicas? 598 00:33:06,920 --> 00:33:11,816 Yes, yes. These are based on 3D models of existing examples. 599 00:33:11,840 --> 00:33:14,176 So when you see that variation in size, 600 00:33:14,200 --> 00:33:16,576 it can't be any kind of a measuring device 601 00:33:16,600 --> 00:33:19,936 or a gauge because they're not consistent. 602 00:33:19,960 --> 00:33:20,976 No, no. 603 00:33:21,000 --> 00:33:23,696 Could it be something to do with textiles? 604 00:33:23,720 --> 00:33:26,216 I don't think it's a tool because I don't find 605 00:33:26,240 --> 00:33:28,416 wear on the necks of the knobs. 606 00:33:28,440 --> 00:33:31,216 I don't find wear on the edges of the holes. 607 00:33:31,240 --> 00:33:33,136 I think they are something symbolic 608 00:33:33,160 --> 00:33:36,136 and I know that sounds like a cliche. 609 00:33:36,160 --> 00:33:39,696 You know, when the archaeologist doesn't know, they say it's ritual, 610 00:33:39,720 --> 00:33:42,296 but maybe it is something ritual. 611 00:33:42,320 --> 00:33:44,736 Would it have been cast, do you think? 612 00:33:44,760 --> 00:33:48,616 Yes. So it is cast copper alloy. 613 00:33:48,640 --> 00:33:52,136 I think they're valued because the skill and effort 614 00:33:52,160 --> 00:33:55,296 that goes into making one is very high. 615 00:33:55,320 --> 00:33:58,256 I noticed when you first looked at it, 616 00:33:58,280 --> 00:34:01,296 you said it's so complicated to look at, 617 00:34:01,320 --> 00:34:03,376 but when you hold them in your hand, 618 00:34:03,400 --> 00:34:06,176 it's not as complicated. 619 00:34:06,200 --> 00:34:08,576 Put your finger in this hole. 620 00:34:08,600 --> 00:34:11,176 - Yeah. - Put your other finger in that hole. 621 00:34:11,200 --> 00:34:13,896 Now turn it with your thumbs. 622 00:34:13,920 --> 00:34:15,816 Yeah, there you go. 623 00:34:15,840 --> 00:34:17,736 - So it will spin. - Yeah. 624 00:34:17,760 --> 00:34:21,816 But if you feel that raised design, 625 00:34:21,840 --> 00:34:27,016 even if you had your eyes closed, I think you would be able... 626 00:34:27,040 --> 00:34:28,936 - You can walk your way... - Yeah. 627 00:34:28,960 --> 00:34:33,936 - You can walk your way around it. - You get used to those imprints. 628 00:34:33,960 --> 00:34:37,256 You're thinking of it as something that comes alive in the hands, then. 629 00:34:37,280 --> 00:34:40,096 It's that kind of ritual tactile object. 630 00:34:40,120 --> 00:34:45,976 Something meditative, something that you personally know intimately. 631 00:34:46,000 --> 00:34:47,016 Maybe. 632 00:34:47,040 --> 00:34:49,056 It feels like it needs a manual to go with it 633 00:34:49,080 --> 00:34:50,896 and we're missing the manual, doesn't it? 634 00:34:50,920 --> 00:34:54,816 Well, yeah, good luck, because the Romans don't mention these at all. 635 00:34:54,840 --> 00:34:59,056 - Really? - No inscriptions, no writings, no pictorial depictions, nothing. 636 00:34:59,080 --> 00:35:01,216 What about where it was found on the site, Richard? 637 00:35:01,240 --> 00:35:03,016 I mean, does that give us any clues? 638 00:35:03,040 --> 00:35:06,376 The working theory is it's a quarry pit. 639 00:35:06,400 --> 00:35:10,176 We know it's relatively near a Roman villa site. 640 00:35:10,200 --> 00:35:12,816 The difficulty is, is it part of the Roman villa estate 641 00:35:12,840 --> 00:35:15,056 or is it something different? 642 00:35:15,080 --> 00:35:17,096 And, really, we need to go back next year 643 00:35:17,120 --> 00:35:20,016 and the year after that, probably, to understand the context. 644 00:35:20,040 --> 00:35:22,856 We think there's another building on the landscape, 645 00:35:22,880 --> 00:35:24,936 but we're just not there yet. 646 00:35:24,960 --> 00:35:28,376 I do love an archaeological mystery 647 00:35:28,400 --> 00:35:32,256 and this has to be one of the greatest, 648 00:35:32,280 --> 00:35:35,776 most mysterious archaeological objects 649 00:35:35,800 --> 00:35:40,976 I've ever had the opportunity to look at up close. 650 00:35:41,000 --> 00:35:42,920 It's just extraordinary. 651 00:35:44,360 --> 00:35:46,136 And the mystery deepens 652 00:35:46,160 --> 00:35:49,696 because it's not just the shape of this object that's unusual, 653 00:35:49,720 --> 00:35:51,176 but its composition. 654 00:35:51,200 --> 00:35:55,656 After filming, the dodecahedron was subjected to chemical analysis 655 00:35:55,680 --> 00:35:58,616 and found to be 26% lead. 656 00:35:58,640 --> 00:36:00,336 That's extremely high, 657 00:36:00,360 --> 00:36:03,456 and at the moment we don't know why that is. 658 00:36:03,480 --> 00:36:06,696 I have a feeling that there are still big revelations to come 659 00:36:06,720 --> 00:36:08,760 from the Norton Disney site. 660 00:36:16,760 --> 00:36:19,096 From the Elizabethan period onwards, 661 00:36:19,120 --> 00:36:22,216 grand residences in Britain slowly evolved 662 00:36:22,240 --> 00:36:25,376 to focus more on comfort than defence. 663 00:36:25,400 --> 00:36:27,776 The great and the good no longer felt it vital 664 00:36:27,800 --> 00:36:31,576 to hide behind castle walls for protection. 665 00:36:31,600 --> 00:36:34,296 And so the age of the stately home began, 666 00:36:34,320 --> 00:36:37,400 the ultimate symbol of status and luxury. 667 00:36:42,680 --> 00:36:47,120 Our next dig takes us to Enfield on the outskirts of London. 668 00:36:57,080 --> 00:37:00,320 This elegant stately home is Forty Hall. 669 00:37:02,760 --> 00:37:06,880 It was built by the Lord Mayor of London in the 17th century. 670 00:37:08,120 --> 00:37:11,616 Today it's a museum, open for visitors to come 671 00:37:11,640 --> 00:37:15,920 and marvel at some of the best Jacobean architecture in the country. 672 00:37:19,840 --> 00:37:24,720 But hidden within the landscaped garden is something far older... 673 00:37:26,640 --> 00:37:28,816 ...a lost royal palace 674 00:37:28,840 --> 00:37:31,896 known as Elsyng, 675 00:37:31,920 --> 00:37:35,920 dating from the Tudor period. 676 00:37:41,520 --> 00:37:44,256 Now archaeologists are getting a chance to investigate 677 00:37:44,280 --> 00:37:45,456 this lost palace, 678 00:37:45,480 --> 00:37:48,440 which apparently was a firm favourite of Henry VIII's. 679 00:37:53,320 --> 00:37:56,816 The Enfield Archaeological Society have been excavating here 680 00:37:56,840 --> 00:38:00,840 in the grounds of Forty Hall for the last 19 years... 681 00:38:02,440 --> 00:38:05,896 ...painstakingly uncovering the remains of the palace 682 00:38:05,920 --> 00:38:08,120 that has lain hidden for centuries. 683 00:38:09,640 --> 00:38:12,096 I'm meeting archaeologist John Pinchbeck, 684 00:38:12,120 --> 00:38:16,616 who's been involved with the excavations since 2004. 685 00:38:16,640 --> 00:38:18,296 - John, hello. - Hi, Alice. 686 00:38:18,320 --> 00:38:20,656 - Welcome to Elsyng Palace. - Thank you very much. 687 00:38:20,680 --> 00:38:22,976 - Where is the palace, then? - Well, believe it or not, 688 00:38:23,000 --> 00:38:24,840 we're standing in the outer courtyard. 689 00:38:27,120 --> 00:38:29,976 The archaeologists used a laser-imaging technique - 690 00:38:30,000 --> 00:38:33,256 known as lidar - to survey the grounds. 691 00:38:33,280 --> 00:38:36,696 You just come down this, the avenue, can you see this kind of dark line 692 00:38:36,720 --> 00:38:38,696 - crossing the avenue there? - Yeah. 693 00:38:38,720 --> 00:38:41,016 And we're standing right there in this ditch. 694 00:38:41,040 --> 00:38:44,320 - So, in Tudor times, we'd have wet feet right now. - Yeah. 695 00:38:46,040 --> 00:38:49,576 This ditch formed the boundary of the outer courtyard 696 00:38:49,600 --> 00:38:51,280 of this missing palace. 697 00:38:53,000 --> 00:38:54,896 So you didn't have any contemporary plans? 698 00:38:54,920 --> 00:38:58,416 - Unfortunately not, no. - That makes it quite exciting. - Well, that's part of the challenge. 699 00:38:58,440 --> 00:39:02,336 - If it was simple, we'd have finished years ago and it'd be quite boring. - Let's go and have a look at 700 00:39:02,360 --> 00:39:04,160 - what you're finding this year, then? - Yeah. 701 00:39:07,840 --> 00:39:12,600 Parts of the palace were identified by archaeologists in the 1960s. 702 00:39:16,240 --> 00:39:20,360 But, now, the team is hoping to find its grand entrance. 703 00:39:28,520 --> 00:39:32,760 Martin Dern is the director of excavations on this lengthy project. 704 00:39:35,320 --> 00:39:37,536 - Hello there, lovely to meet you. - Martin, hi! 705 00:39:37,560 --> 00:39:39,976 Hello, lovely to meet you, too. Right, what have we got here? 706 00:39:40,000 --> 00:39:43,736 Well, we've got a moat here that's sort of fronting the gatehouse. 707 00:39:43,760 --> 00:39:45,176 Oh, OK, so there's a... 708 00:39:45,200 --> 00:39:47,736 - I mean, there's a ditch around the outer courtyard. - Yeah. 709 00:39:47,760 --> 00:39:50,816 - And, then, there's another moat inside it. - That's right, yes. 710 00:39:50,840 --> 00:39:53,176 I mean, a much bigger moat than we ever thought, 711 00:39:53,200 --> 00:39:55,256 - perhaps about 15 metres wide... - Really? 712 00:39:55,280 --> 00:39:58,136 ...Which would've been between the outer court, 713 00:39:58,160 --> 00:40:03,816 where the servants essentially were, and the gatehouse that gave access 714 00:40:03,840 --> 00:40:06,256 into the inner court with the royal apartments, 715 00:40:06,280 --> 00:40:08,160 - and the kitchens, and so on. - Yeah. 716 00:40:09,880 --> 00:40:12,336 Most Tudor palaces had two courts - 717 00:40:12,360 --> 00:40:16,176 an outer court, where the servants lived and worked, 718 00:40:16,200 --> 00:40:19,776 and an inner court, reserved for the wealthy owner 719 00:40:19,800 --> 00:40:20,976 and their family. 720 00:40:21,000 --> 00:40:25,456 At Elsyng, the two courts are separated by a moat. 721 00:40:25,480 --> 00:40:28,256 Despite nearly two decades of excavation, 722 00:40:28,280 --> 00:40:32,216 one key part of the outer palace, the gatehouse, has so far 723 00:40:32,240 --> 00:40:36,080 eluded the archaeologists - until this year. 724 00:40:37,720 --> 00:40:40,296 Oh, Martin, this is lovely. It looks like a... 725 00:40:40,320 --> 00:40:42,576 - Is that a half-octagon? - Yeah. 726 00:40:42,600 --> 00:40:46,536 What you've got here is a projecting angled turret, 727 00:40:46,560 --> 00:40:49,016 just coming off of a larger wall, 728 00:40:49,040 --> 00:40:51,496 and you've got the remnant of a brick floor 729 00:40:51,520 --> 00:40:54,856 - that sat within the turret. - And what is it? 730 00:40:54,880 --> 00:40:59,256 It's almost certainly a wall that comes off of the edge, 731 00:40:59,280 --> 00:41:01,496 the side of the main gatehouse. 732 00:41:01,520 --> 00:41:03,856 Oh, this is lovely, cos you've been you've been searching 733 00:41:03,880 --> 00:41:05,296 for this gatehouse, haven't you? 734 00:41:05,320 --> 00:41:07,656 We have been looking for this for about three years, yes, 735 00:41:07,680 --> 00:41:09,376 so we're very pleased to see this. 736 00:41:09,400 --> 00:41:11,936 How tall do you think that tower would have been? 737 00:41:11,960 --> 00:41:14,576 Well, we know that the main gatehouse itself 738 00:41:14,600 --> 00:41:16,256 is four storeys high. 739 00:41:16,280 --> 00:41:20,536 It's presumably making a sort of a spectacular statement about 740 00:41:20,560 --> 00:41:25,336 the status, certainly of the royal members of the family 741 00:41:25,360 --> 00:41:29,056 who owned this, but also about somebody earlier 742 00:41:29,080 --> 00:41:31,296 called Sir Thomas Lovell. 743 00:41:31,320 --> 00:41:34,496 Thomas Lovell became Chancellor of the Exchequer for 744 00:41:34,520 --> 00:41:39,096 the first Tudor King, Henry VII, in 1485. 745 00:41:39,120 --> 00:41:42,456 When he inherited Elsyng in 1492, 746 00:41:42,480 --> 00:41:47,376 he set about creating a palace that was fit to host a king. 747 00:41:47,400 --> 00:41:51,456 Records show that King Henry VII did indeed visit the palace 748 00:41:51,480 --> 00:41:54,896 several times, accompanied by his young son - 749 00:41:54,920 --> 00:41:59,416 the future Henry VIII - who would later add Elsyng 750 00:41:59,440 --> 00:42:03,296 to his already-impressive property portfolio. 751 00:42:03,320 --> 00:42:07,416 Henry VIII swaps this for two of the monasteries 752 00:42:07,440 --> 00:42:10,016 - that he had closed down. - Yeah. 753 00:42:10,040 --> 00:42:12,696 It is quite a useful thing, to have shut down and 754 00:42:12,720 --> 00:42:15,336 seized the monasteries, and then, you've got the means 755 00:42:15,360 --> 00:42:16,816 to buy yourself a new palace. 756 00:42:16,840 --> 00:42:20,280 That's right. I mean, Henry ended up with about 40 palaces. 757 00:42:21,560 --> 00:42:24,936 The finds coming out of the gatehouse trenches include 758 00:42:24,960 --> 00:42:27,656 evidence of wealthy visitors. 759 00:42:27,680 --> 00:42:30,176 Ooh, that's a nice thing. What is that? 760 00:42:30,200 --> 00:42:31,616 Isn't that lovely? 761 00:42:31,640 --> 00:42:33,856 It's called a purse bar. 762 00:42:33,880 --> 00:42:37,456 And, so, the top bar that articulates with the lower one 763 00:42:37,480 --> 00:42:39,096 - went on your belt. - Yeah. 764 00:42:39,120 --> 00:42:44,816 And the lower one is what you hung your leather or cloth purse from, 765 00:42:44,840 --> 00:42:47,976 so that you had your coins ready at your waist. 766 00:42:48,000 --> 00:42:50,736 And it's particularly nice because it's still articulate... 767 00:42:50,760 --> 00:42:52,896 - That is lovely, isn't it? - ..and moves around. - Yeah. 768 00:42:52,920 --> 00:42:56,136 And, usually, often the top piece is entirely missing or at least 769 00:42:56,160 --> 00:42:57,736 completely corroded in. 770 00:42:57,760 --> 00:43:00,936 A purse was an essential accessory 771 00:43:00,960 --> 00:43:03,136 for both Tudor men and women, 772 00:43:03,160 --> 00:43:06,416 and the wealthy would have had ornately-decorated purses 773 00:43:06,440 --> 00:43:08,176 hanging from their belts. 774 00:43:08,200 --> 00:43:10,536 As we know from all these iconic portraits, 775 00:43:10,560 --> 00:43:13,480 Tudor fashion was all about power dressing. 776 00:43:15,160 --> 00:43:19,456 It's great to see this evidence of the Tudor palace finally 777 00:43:19,480 --> 00:43:22,496 emerging after years and years of looking for it. 778 00:43:22,520 --> 00:43:27,176 This palace, when it was standing, would have been magnificent, 779 00:43:27,200 --> 00:43:28,616 fit for a king. 780 00:43:28,640 --> 00:43:31,136 Henry VIII loved it so much he bought it, 781 00:43:31,160 --> 00:43:35,016 and it would've dwarfed the hall that was later built 782 00:43:35,040 --> 00:43:36,920 to replace it on this estate. 783 00:43:38,480 --> 00:43:41,736 I want to know a bit more about the transformation of Elsyng 784 00:43:41,760 --> 00:43:44,736 after it became a royal residence. 785 00:43:44,760 --> 00:43:49,616 Historian Onyeka Nubia has unearthed more evidence of this lost palace 786 00:43:49,640 --> 00:43:52,000 buried deep in the archives. 787 00:43:58,680 --> 00:44:03,976 I've come to the Bodleian Library in Oxford to investigate what 788 00:44:04,000 --> 00:44:08,376 we can learn about Henry VIII and his family through 789 00:44:08,400 --> 00:44:13,296 the detailed building records of the lost palace of Elsyng. 790 00:44:13,320 --> 00:44:17,336 This document is nearly 500 years old 791 00:44:17,360 --> 00:44:22,016 and records the first repairs completed six months 792 00:44:22,040 --> 00:44:24,776 after Henry's initial visit. 793 00:44:24,800 --> 00:44:30,136 When Henry acquired these estates, at first, they don't appear to be 794 00:44:30,160 --> 00:44:33,696 at a standard that he would find acceptable. 795 00:44:33,720 --> 00:44:36,696 It says here that there is "work to be undertaken 796 00:44:36,720 --> 00:44:38,336 "in the great chamber". 797 00:44:38,360 --> 00:44:42,656 This great chamber, of course, is the public face of the building 798 00:44:42,680 --> 00:44:46,016 where Henry would entertain. 799 00:44:46,040 --> 00:44:50,576 The accounts are divided into sections according to 800 00:44:50,600 --> 00:44:52,536 common labourers, 801 00:44:52,560 --> 00:44:55,336 carpenters, tilers. 802 00:44:55,360 --> 00:44:59,816 And it details the work that each team had to undertake. 803 00:44:59,840 --> 00:45:02,376 In a subsection entitled "Tilers", 804 00:45:02,400 --> 00:45:07,136 it says, "Working not only in pointing and mending of the roof 805 00:45:07,160 --> 00:45:08,856 "and about the Great Hall" - 806 00:45:08,880 --> 00:45:12,896 it seems as if this building is somewhat dilapidated, 807 00:45:12,920 --> 00:45:16,016 and is in need of considerable work. 808 00:45:16,040 --> 00:45:19,656 There are subtle clues in the records that Henry intended to 809 00:45:19,680 --> 00:45:23,176 frequently use this palace, despite having an extensive 810 00:45:23,200 --> 00:45:25,696 collection of other homes to choose from. 811 00:45:25,720 --> 00:45:29,576 We have another set of records which are really quite remarkable. 812 00:45:29,600 --> 00:45:35,016 They include a sort of more rigorous set of provisions for 813 00:45:35,040 --> 00:45:39,376 the imminent arrival of the king and the royal family. 814 00:45:39,400 --> 00:45:42,456 So, we know that there is a degree of urgency. 815 00:45:42,480 --> 00:45:46,136 But reading further into the accounts, we find out more. 816 00:45:46,160 --> 00:45:51,776 It says, "This work is to be done because it is coming to Christmas" - 817 00:45:51,800 --> 00:45:57,136 so these activities are taking place probably because the royal family 818 00:45:57,160 --> 00:46:00,936 intends to spend Christmas at this estate. 819 00:46:00,960 --> 00:46:05,816 Tiny architectural details have been meticulously recorded here, 820 00:46:05,840 --> 00:46:09,576 revealing the work that had to be done to accommodate 821 00:46:09,600 --> 00:46:10,896 the king's needs. 822 00:46:10,920 --> 00:46:15,096 There's another section here entitled "Carpenters", and it says 823 00:46:15,120 --> 00:46:19,256 they're working "not only in the making of a system of rails," 824 00:46:19,280 --> 00:46:23,496 it says, "and other accoutrements to ensure that the king 825 00:46:23,520 --> 00:46:25,136 "can continue to hunt". 826 00:46:25,160 --> 00:46:28,736 Now, why would they need to make these sort of special provisions? 827 00:46:28,760 --> 00:46:31,376 The king at this point is ailing. 828 00:46:31,400 --> 00:46:36,376 He is not the young, robust, athletic monarch 829 00:46:36,400 --> 00:46:37,896 that he was in his younger days. 830 00:46:37,920 --> 00:46:41,456 And these changes that are being made to the estate 831 00:46:41,480 --> 00:46:44,080 are really because of the condition of the king. 832 00:46:45,480 --> 00:46:49,096 By the time that Henry took ownership of Elsyng, 833 00:46:49,120 --> 00:46:51,696 he was nearly 50 years old, 834 00:46:51,720 --> 00:46:54,616 about to embark on his fourth marriage, 835 00:46:54,640 --> 00:46:57,056 and in very poor health. 836 00:46:57,080 --> 00:46:59,016 Less than ten years later, 837 00:46:59,040 --> 00:47:02,576 the young Princess Elizabeth and Prince Edward 838 00:47:02,600 --> 00:47:07,400 would be told that their father had died whilst visiting Elsyng. 839 00:47:08,480 --> 00:47:13,696 And shortly after, the palace would fall out of favour with the royals. 840 00:47:13,720 --> 00:47:16,376 It was eventually demolished. 841 00:47:16,400 --> 00:47:21,456 By the 1700s, this formal garden concealed its remains 842 00:47:21,480 --> 00:47:23,600 for more than 300 years. 843 00:47:30,960 --> 00:47:34,136 When it came to Henry VIII's foreign enemies, 844 00:47:34,160 --> 00:47:36,600 the French were top of the list. 845 00:47:40,560 --> 00:47:43,176 In fact, Britain has been fighting with France 846 00:47:43,200 --> 00:47:45,600 on and off for centuries. 847 00:47:46,720 --> 00:47:51,456 All across the east are memorials to scores of conflicts. 848 00:47:51,480 --> 00:47:54,920 But the last time Britain faced France in battle... 849 00:47:58,040 --> 00:48:01,000 ...it was on the other side of the North Sea. 850 00:48:02,800 --> 00:48:08,216 For our last story, we're heading even further east, to Belgium, 851 00:48:08,240 --> 00:48:11,680 to an unassuming farm called Hougoumont. 852 00:48:13,520 --> 00:48:18,656 This farm was the setting for one of Britain's most famous victories - 853 00:48:18,680 --> 00:48:23,240 better known by the name of the nearest town, Waterloo. 854 00:48:25,440 --> 00:48:29,216 The history of war is, I think, inevitably written by people 855 00:48:29,240 --> 00:48:32,416 who have their own political perspective, 856 00:48:32,440 --> 00:48:34,216 and it will be biased. 857 00:48:34,240 --> 00:48:36,856 They will include what they think is salient, 858 00:48:36,880 --> 00:48:38,856 and there will be gaps. 859 00:48:38,880 --> 00:48:42,496 So, archaeology provides us with the opportunity to uncover 860 00:48:42,520 --> 00:48:45,176 not only a different perspective, 861 00:48:45,200 --> 00:48:48,496 but to fill in some of that missing information, 862 00:48:48,520 --> 00:48:53,400 even on some of our most famous and well-documented battlefields. 863 00:48:55,680 --> 00:48:59,656 For 23 years, the rest of Europe had been at war with 864 00:48:59,680 --> 00:49:01,936 the self-declared Emperor Napoleon, 865 00:49:01,960 --> 00:49:05,600 who was hellbent on conquest of the entire continent. 866 00:49:07,200 --> 00:49:10,856 Waterloo was the final showdown, 867 00:49:10,880 --> 00:49:16,176 as Britain and its allies, led by the Duke of Wellington, 868 00:49:16,200 --> 00:49:18,960 faced the French army one last time... 869 00:49:21,040 --> 00:49:22,520 ...in 1815. 870 00:49:25,600 --> 00:49:27,936 Digging For Britain first joined the team 871 00:49:27,960 --> 00:49:32,136 from the Waterloo Uncovered project back in 2016, 872 00:49:32,160 --> 00:49:36,416 when they found a hidden track into Hougoumont Farm. 873 00:49:36,440 --> 00:49:39,256 That route helped Wellington win the day, 874 00:49:39,280 --> 00:49:42,496 despite his troops being outnumbered and trapped 875 00:49:42,520 --> 00:49:44,080 inside the farmhouse. 876 00:49:45,240 --> 00:49:49,456 If you've actually got quite an enclosed hedge line, 877 00:49:49,480 --> 00:49:52,200 and you've got literally almost a tunnel... 878 00:49:53,280 --> 00:49:57,056 ...then that would've given him so much better cover. 879 00:49:57,080 --> 00:50:00,336 They also uncovered evidence from the barrage of assaults 880 00:50:00,360 --> 00:50:03,936 that the British Army endured inside the farmhouse. 881 00:50:03,960 --> 00:50:06,616 These explosive shells set fire 882 00:50:06,640 --> 00:50:09,816 to the chateau, the house, which burned to the ground, 883 00:50:09,840 --> 00:50:12,536 and the various outbuildings were burned, as well. 884 00:50:12,560 --> 00:50:16,576 But back in 2016, plenty of mysteries remained. 885 00:50:16,600 --> 00:50:19,016 Most of the armies would've moved on by the time we get around 886 00:50:19,040 --> 00:50:21,536 to burying the dead, so we're talking about the local people, 887 00:50:21,560 --> 00:50:24,016 the farmers, the peasants, the people who lived on the land are 888 00:50:24,040 --> 00:50:25,376 trying to get rid of these bodies. 889 00:50:25,400 --> 00:50:27,296 So, they tipped into a grave and got rid of. 890 00:50:27,320 --> 00:50:30,656 Around 12,000 men died in this battle, 891 00:50:30,680 --> 00:50:33,816 and their graves have never been found. 892 00:50:33,840 --> 00:50:36,880 What happened to the bodies of the fallen? 893 00:50:39,840 --> 00:50:43,256 This year, the team are back at Hougoumont Farm, 894 00:50:43,280 --> 00:50:46,456 armed with a brand-new survey of the battlefield 895 00:50:46,480 --> 00:50:50,616 that has helped them identify new targets for investigation. 896 00:50:50,640 --> 00:50:53,520 And they kept a record in their dig diaries. 897 00:50:55,000 --> 00:50:59,256 So, here we are, day one, back in Waterloo, 898 00:50:59,280 --> 00:51:00,896 and back in Hougoumont, as well. 899 00:51:00,920 --> 00:51:03,056 Now, this is an interesting part of the battle, 900 00:51:03,080 --> 00:51:06,416 because it's where basically the hostilities started. 901 00:51:06,440 --> 00:51:10,016 So, this is where some of the first musket balls in the battle 902 00:51:10,040 --> 00:51:12,696 were actually fired, on the 18th of June. 903 00:51:12,720 --> 00:51:14,736 So, we opened this huge trench. 904 00:51:14,760 --> 00:51:17,416 We've already come up with a whole big pile of bricks, 905 00:51:17,440 --> 00:51:18,656 some kind of rubble. 906 00:51:18,680 --> 00:51:20,856 And, then, we're just going to bring that down slowly, 907 00:51:20,880 --> 00:51:23,056 see whether or not we can find anything else, 908 00:51:23,080 --> 00:51:25,536 see whether we can find a structure. 909 00:51:25,560 --> 00:51:30,520 Today, this area is an open field on the south side of the farmhouse. 910 00:51:32,320 --> 00:51:35,296 But in 1815, it was heavily wooded, 911 00:51:35,320 --> 00:51:38,760 providing cover for both armies as they fought. 912 00:51:41,760 --> 00:51:45,096 Historic maps reveal a small cross at the site 913 00:51:45,120 --> 00:51:47,920 where the team have uncovered a brick pile. 914 00:51:49,840 --> 00:51:54,456 This feature is likely to have been a small woodland chapel or shrine 915 00:51:54,480 --> 00:51:56,320 predating the battle here. 916 00:52:04,080 --> 00:52:08,656 This curve looks like you'd find on an apse, at the end of the building, 917 00:52:08,680 --> 00:52:10,176 which we see on these chapels. 918 00:52:10,200 --> 00:52:13,416 Exactly, so we still have to clean it to be sure of that. 919 00:52:13,440 --> 00:52:16,896 But it seems to be the upside of the chapel. 920 00:52:16,920 --> 00:52:21,416 And what's interesting is that you can see that inside... 921 00:52:21,440 --> 00:52:25,096 ...you have the discoloration that shows that the inside of 922 00:52:25,120 --> 00:52:27,536 the building must have burned. 923 00:52:27,560 --> 00:52:30,336 That's incredible. It'd be very tempting to say it was burned during 924 00:52:30,360 --> 00:52:32,896 the battle, as we know, some of the buildings at Hougoumont. 925 00:52:32,920 --> 00:52:38,296 But if this was demolished earlier than the battle, quite violently, 926 00:52:38,320 --> 00:52:39,976 then that would make sense, as well. 927 00:52:40,000 --> 00:52:41,240 But that's staggering. 928 00:52:42,600 --> 00:52:46,456 Nearby, the team open up a second trench across another feature 929 00:52:46,480 --> 00:52:48,640 picked up by the geophysics. 930 00:52:50,040 --> 00:52:52,600 It appears to be a large pit. 931 00:52:54,200 --> 00:52:57,080 Could it be a missing mass grave? 932 00:53:01,200 --> 00:53:03,576 Wow. 933 00:53:03,600 --> 00:53:04,976 It's very strong. 934 00:53:05,000 --> 00:53:07,376 - And, as I'm getting closer, is that... - Oh, there you go. 935 00:53:07,400 --> 00:53:09,976 - Oh, look, what's...? - Oh, wow. 936 00:53:10,000 --> 00:53:13,816 Wow. That's a buckle straight off the battle site. 937 00:53:13,840 --> 00:53:15,680 That's the best find yet. 938 00:53:17,880 --> 00:53:21,616 As the team dig deeper, though, it appears empty. 939 00:53:21,640 --> 00:53:25,536 There's no sign of the missing Waterloo dead. 940 00:53:25,560 --> 00:53:31,000 Instead, this seems to be a quarry pit that was dug out much earlier. 941 00:53:33,440 --> 00:53:37,016 But there's evidence it was used in the battle, 942 00:53:37,040 --> 00:53:41,160 as morning broke on the 18th of June, 1815. 943 00:53:43,680 --> 00:53:47,536 What we've come up with is something quite staggering. 944 00:53:47,560 --> 00:53:50,016 This was here as a quarry, 945 00:53:50,040 --> 00:53:54,776 and there is a lot of battle-related material in it. 946 00:53:54,800 --> 00:53:59,056 And, so, it looks as though they've used the front lip to shoot at 947 00:53:59,080 --> 00:54:02,816 the defenders to the north, who have come down from the farm, 948 00:54:02,840 --> 00:54:06,936 and they will ultimately succeed in pushing them back to the farm. 949 00:54:06,960 --> 00:54:09,216 There are loads of books written on Waterloo - 950 00:54:09,240 --> 00:54:11,200 not one of them mentions this. 951 00:54:21,840 --> 00:54:25,416 Tony Pollard and Stuart Eve join me in the tent 952 00:54:25,440 --> 00:54:27,976 to discuss the findings of the long-running 953 00:54:28,000 --> 00:54:30,616 Waterloo Uncovered project. 954 00:54:30,640 --> 00:54:33,136 I think I caught up with you seven years ago, 955 00:54:33,160 --> 00:54:34,736 and Waterloo Uncovered. 956 00:54:34,760 --> 00:54:39,136 You've done quite a bit since then, and your focus has shifted. 957 00:54:39,160 --> 00:54:41,616 We wanted to have a look at the whole of the battlefield, 958 00:54:41,640 --> 00:54:44,376 - but this is where the fighting first started, isn't it? - Yeah. 959 00:54:44,400 --> 00:54:46,856 In terms of the very early skirmishes. 960 00:54:46,880 --> 00:54:50,616 You can see there's a lot of tiny little black dots. 961 00:54:50,640 --> 00:54:53,496 So, we were hoping that we'd get a big pile of stuff, 962 00:54:53,520 --> 00:54:56,096 and it would be great, and there'd be loads of stuff there - 963 00:54:56,120 --> 00:54:59,256 I don't want to say mass grave, but I will say mass grave because 964 00:54:59,280 --> 00:55:02,896 we've never found a mass grave on the battlefield of Waterloo. 965 00:55:02,920 --> 00:55:04,456 But we didn't get that much stuff. 966 00:55:04,480 --> 00:55:06,536 It was a big quarry. 967 00:55:06,560 --> 00:55:07,816 That's what we found out. 968 00:55:07,840 --> 00:55:10,376 It's close to the edge of the wood in the direction of the 969 00:55:10,400 --> 00:55:11,696 French advance on the farm. 970 00:55:11,720 --> 00:55:14,856 They would've entered it fairly soon after going into the woodland, 971 00:55:14,880 --> 00:55:18,696 and they would undoubtedly have hunkered down behind its bank. 972 00:55:18,720 --> 00:55:21,640 And we've got the evidence for that in these artefacts. 973 00:55:24,040 --> 00:55:26,496 - Musket balls? - Yes, we've got thousands of these, 974 00:55:26,520 --> 00:55:28,096 I would imagine, by now. 975 00:55:28,120 --> 00:55:31,176 Importantly for us, if we're looking at two sides of a battle, 976 00:55:31,200 --> 00:55:33,536 we've got the allies under Wellington... 977 00:55:33,560 --> 00:55:35,776 All of these allies that have come together to face... 978 00:55:35,800 --> 00:55:38,216 ...but a lot of them using the same type of musket, 979 00:55:38,240 --> 00:55:39,816 good old Brown Bess. 980 00:55:39,840 --> 00:55:41,976 - And that's a 0.75 calibre. - Right. 981 00:55:42,000 --> 00:55:44,616 - But the great thing is... - That's smaller. 982 00:55:44,640 --> 00:55:46,616 ...That that's smaller. 983 00:55:46,640 --> 00:55:49,736 And that is 0.69. 984 00:55:49,760 --> 00:55:54,056 And the French are, by and large, using a Charleville musket, 985 00:55:54,080 --> 00:55:56,496 which fires a 0.69 musket ball. 986 00:55:56,520 --> 00:55:58,736 So, we can tell who's shooting what. 987 00:55:58,760 --> 00:56:00,280 That's incredible, isn't it? 988 00:56:02,240 --> 00:56:06,976 So, we've got a kind of disappearing dead of Waterloo phenomenon. 989 00:56:07,000 --> 00:56:09,616 Yes. It's unbelievable. 990 00:56:09,640 --> 00:56:13,896 In the 1830s, they do away with all the crops that the battle was 991 00:56:13,920 --> 00:56:18,216 fought through, and they go over to a monoculture of sugar beet. 992 00:56:18,240 --> 00:56:21,136 But what they then discover is that what's fashionable is 993 00:56:21,160 --> 00:56:23,816 - the white sugar that we're familiar with today. - Yes. 994 00:56:23,840 --> 00:56:27,976 And to create that from sugar beet, what you have to do is process it, 995 00:56:28,000 --> 00:56:30,216 and you need a substrate to filter it through. 996 00:56:30,240 --> 00:56:33,056 And they found initially that charcoal worked quite well, 997 00:56:33,080 --> 00:56:36,416 but then, they discovered the best thing is charred bone. 998 00:56:36,440 --> 00:56:39,696 There is a sugar refinery in Waterloo- 999 00:56:39,720 --> 00:56:42,096 it's still there, it's a hotel now - 1000 00:56:42,120 --> 00:56:45,096 and there's a huge market for this bone in the 1830s. 1001 00:56:45,120 --> 00:56:49,376 There's a story in a German newspaper from 1879, 1002 00:56:49,400 --> 00:56:54,816 and somebody says that a better choice to stir into your coffee 1003 00:56:54,840 --> 00:56:59,576 is honey, because then, you don't risk stirring in the atoms 1004 00:56:59,600 --> 00:57:03,136 - of your great-grandfather... - Ah! - ..In your morning cup of coffee. 1005 00:57:03,160 --> 00:57:04,856 - It's not just a rumour, then. - No, it's not. 1006 00:57:04,880 --> 00:57:06,296 - It really was happening. - It's not. 1007 00:57:06,320 --> 00:57:08,696 There are stories of industrialists buying the right 1008 00:57:08,720 --> 00:57:10,776 to mine the battlefield. 1009 00:57:10,800 --> 00:57:13,816 We're now looking for empty grave pits where they've been in, 1010 00:57:13,840 --> 00:57:15,296 and they quarried it out. 1011 00:57:15,320 --> 00:57:16,840 It's just bizarre, isn't it? 1012 00:57:18,600 --> 00:57:22,920 It's a strangely unsettling and macabre story. 1013 00:57:24,680 --> 00:57:28,176 Perhaps we're not finding any burials at Waterloo 1014 00:57:28,200 --> 00:57:31,816 because the graves were robbed... 1015 00:57:31,840 --> 00:57:36,000 ...and the bones ground up to be used for refining sugar. 1016 00:57:38,640 --> 00:57:41,896 Or perhaps the graves are still lying there, 1017 00:57:41,920 --> 00:57:44,120 waiting to be found. 1018 00:57:56,560 --> 00:58:01,616 Next time, we head south to a Neolithic tomb in Dorset. 1019 00:58:01,640 --> 00:58:04,816 So, it's likely that this was the result of a fire. 1020 00:58:04,840 --> 00:58:07,456 Perhaps it was a mortuary event. 1021 00:58:07,480 --> 00:58:10,936 I explore a World War II gun emplacement. 1022 00:58:10,960 --> 00:58:12,696 Oh, how deep does this go? 1023 00:58:12,720 --> 00:58:15,176 This is a 40-metre long tunnel. 1024 00:58:15,200 --> 00:58:19,136 And the Thames Estuary turns up something truly remarkable. 1025 00:58:19,160 --> 00:58:22,136 The oldest shoe ever found within the British Isles. 1026 00:58:22,160 --> 00:58:24,856 So, this places it late-Bronze Age, early-Iron Age. 1027 00:58:24,880 --> 00:58:27,176 - It's late-Bronze Age, yes, early-Iron Age. - Yes. 1028 00:58:27,200 --> 00:58:28,560 Oh, my goodness. 1029 00:58:30,000 --> 00:58:33,696 ♪ Come and search, for we would search 1030 00:58:33,720 --> 00:58:37,896 ♪ And looking for a scarred land 1031 00:58:37,920 --> 00:58:42,056 ♪ And dig for those whose stories lie 1032 00:58:42,080 --> 00:58:45,856 ♪ With buried pasts and futures won 1033 00:58:45,880 --> 00:58:50,416 ♪ And dig for us as we have done 1034 00:58:50,440 --> 00:58:54,456 ♪ To lay the dead out in the sun 1035 00:58:54,480 --> 00:58:58,880 ♪ To lay us dead out in the sun. ♪