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900,000 BC: What Can Archaeologists Tell Us About Prehistoric Britain? | Digging For Britain

900,000 BC: What Can Archaeologists Tell Us About Prehistoric Britain? | Digging For Britain

Channel: Unearthed History - Archaeology Documentaries

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Archeologists Excavate A Cliff Edge Burial Site | Extreme Archaeology | Unearthed History

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Star Carr: Britain’s Most Important Mesolithic Site | Digging For Britain

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Must Farm: The Bronze Age Settlement That Suddenly Burned Down | Digging For Britain

Must Farm: The Bronze Age Settlement That Suddenly Burned Down | Digging For Britain

Channel: Unearthed History - Archaeology Documentaries

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archaeology

documentary

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this is digging for

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Britain the program which brings you

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this year's most outstanding new

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archaeology

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all year in hundreds of digs across the

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UK teams have been uncovering new

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archaeological Clues which help us to

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tell our

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[Applause]

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story we'll be looking at highlights

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from all the digs with in-depth analysis

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from archaeologists who are going to

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extraordinary length to uncover our

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history in a way that only archaeology

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can and they've been out there filming

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themselves to make sure that we were

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there for every moment of Discovery it's

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in perfect Mint Condition amazing and

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they'll be joining us back here at the

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Dorset County Museum to help us make

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sense of what the new finds actually

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mean tonight we're in the west of

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England as we meet army veterans on the

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hunt for Anglo-Saxon

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Warriors we investigate Britain's

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earliest leprosy Hospital changing what

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we know about how sufferers might have

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been

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treated and we reveal a lost Roman

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[Music]

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Masterpiece we're in Dorchester home to

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the Dorset County Museum established in

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1845 and famous for housing the study

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and notebooks of one of of England's

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most well-loved

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writers Thomas

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[Music]

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Hardy but it's also home to some of our

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most important Treasures like the cheral

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Rings these Bronze Age gold talks

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discovered by metal

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[Music]

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detectorists and the Langton matravers

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axes the largest horde of Bronze Age

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axes ever discovered in Britain and

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which some believe were made as a gift

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to the

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Gods in our first dig just 50 m away

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from the museum more extraordinary bronz

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AG remains are coming to light at Barrow

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Clump in the heart of Salsbury

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plain over the last three years

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archaeologists from the ministry of

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Defense who owns the land have been

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Excavating a Bronze Age burial

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site this ancient site dates back to

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over 5,000 years ago but archaeologists

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have been called in now because it's in

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danger Badgers are burrowing through the

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soil destroying the archaeology so the

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team must hurry to recover and record as

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much as

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possible and after only 2 days on site

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their work pays off with an important

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Discovery a Bronze Age burial earn say

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fragile

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that its temporary protection is a

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bucket there you go it's really really

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exciting this you can see the the the

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rim of the pot all coming around here

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and within it bits of collapsed pot but

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all this burnt material which we presume

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is H is burnt human bone and we'll we'll

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lift it out as a block and we'll

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excavate that back in the lab but it's

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it's a fantastic

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find

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having gently excavated the N Osteo

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archaeologist Jacqueline McKinley

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carefully lifts the

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collar well like doing a sponge

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cake I lift that up can you see all that

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lovely cord decoration on the inside of

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there brilliant is

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it no sooner has the first n been

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rescued but a second vessel is found

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this much larger n has been buried

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upside

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down it is moving isn't it I'm just

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worried after a tense hour the N comes

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out in one piece carefully

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bandaged it's actually a food vessel

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Bronze Age food vessel which I know

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looks like a a bandaged head at the

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moment the the reason that bandage is

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there is because it's slightly

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elasticated so it gives support to the

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vessel and stops stops IT falling apart

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while I'm getting things from inside

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it and Jackie you're in the process of

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looking at this material I think from

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the first n the N with the cord marking

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on it that's right this is this was

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actually quite Dam badly damaged on site

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it was only about sort of 10 cm left so

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I decided in this case to excavate what

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was inside it on site and today actually

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is the first time I've seen this now

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it's been washed and cleaned up again

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and at this point what can you tell

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about this bone well what I've done is

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i' I've pulled out some very useful

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pieces of bone like for instance um this

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here which is part of the super orbit

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which goes about there yeah and there's

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a a few other pieces around here um like

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for instance this one which is from

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there yeah part of yeah part of the

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zymatic arch um the skull is is very

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useful one in that you have very

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identifiable easily identifiable pieces

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of bone which you only have either have

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one or a pair of so they're very useful

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if we're doing minimum numbers of

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individuals but also a lot of the skull

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is very Diagnostic in terms of the

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sexing the individual the adult

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individual and what about the sex of

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this individual is this an adult male or

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female looking at the general size and

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robusticity I would say it's most likely

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to be male and do you think these were

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high status individuals that were

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treated in this way and buried in the

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barrows status well you know in the past

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the the antiquarians always thought that

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everybody was a chief it was always

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Chieftain it was always Chieftain always

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men always Chieftain who were buried in

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here so this would have been a king it

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would have been a king yes undoubtedly

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or a prince or something but when you

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actually look at the individuals you

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find in these in these places they they

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are a mix of individuals you could get

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males females children and one of the

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things that I have noticed when I've

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been looking at material from these

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Barrows is that you have quite a large

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number of females with infants or young

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children now if you think about your

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community and what matters to a

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community one of the important things

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there is the future and your future is

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your children so really the children and

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the mother the mother that produces the

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children could be seen as very important

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to the community so it's not really

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surprising that they're quite often

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chosen to be buried in these positions

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but these ears aren't the only things

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which make this dig special in a unique

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project known as operation Nightingale

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the M mod archaeologists are working

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closely with injured soldiers for whom

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this is vital

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therapy this pioneering scheme is

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introducing veteran Armed Forces

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Personnel to the practice of

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archaeology Nightingale is really a

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recovery opportunity some of them will

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will want to having had um maybe a tough

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operational tour we want to just come

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out and experience some a very benign

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atmosphere you can see how it's quite

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cathartic in in the the broadest sense

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that you can come out here be with your

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friends and just get to understand a

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little bit about the the past Landscapes

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of which over which you've trained over

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many years for many men like former

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Rifleman Kenny Kendrick it's been a

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lifesaver what happened to me is I I

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suffered a mental breakdown

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while over in in Germany and he's given

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me a whole new lece of Life a new career

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I left the Army and I've become an

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archaeologist fulltime and once I start

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digging it's very hard to stop if I'm

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not told when to take a break when to

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have a drink when to have a dinner then

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I I probably dig until it gets

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dark in fact the disciplines of the

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military and archaeology are not such

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strange bed fellows anyone who's watched

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the news footage from Afghanistan or

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Iraq has seen people military figures

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looking for IEDs and things like that um

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with with a metal

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detector critical skill in the military

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key skill on an archaeological site let

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do that area again there's almost a

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symbiotic relationship in many ways

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there are so many crossover skills and

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it's quite an inspirational thing for

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the archaeologist amongst us um to see

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that and working together as as a team

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and it's a team thing that's

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crucial as its name suggests Barrow

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clump is a barrow or burial M so it's no

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surprise that the team uncovers

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skeletons he was a very large bloke

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these femur are truly

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huge and his feet are the toe bones I've

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never seen anything so big as burial

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after burial appears they soon realize

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they're unearthing an Anglo-Saxon

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Cemetery dating from the 6th Century ad

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just a few meters away from the original

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bronze age burial site there's huge

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progress on site we started off with a

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um one or two grave cuts that we could

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see and over the weeks we've now exposed

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at least

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12 there we go like this

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spearhead and shield boss the metal

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center of a shield which would have

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protected the

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hand the original Shield could have been

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up to a meter in

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[Music]

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diameter these are warriors

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[Music]

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Graves but with so many on site the team

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are beginning to wonder

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why one of the theories that's put

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forward to me by one of the soldiers on

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the project was that the outside of the

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ditch seemed to have uh uh quite a large

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concentration of males with shields and

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thought that this was perhaps something

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like a an equivalent in death of the

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Saxon Shield wall protecting those

00:11:09

buried inside the monument which I think

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is a A really lovely

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idea so it is interesting to have all

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those Anglo-Saxon burials alongside the

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Bronze Age ones but is it

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unusual no there's quite there's quite a

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lot of evidence that Anglo-Saxons would

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choose what were

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obvious um important particularly Mory

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important landscape features in which to

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bury their own dead these would have

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been very obvious features at that time

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the Mounds would have been quite quite

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obvious there and people would have

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recognized that they were very important

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to people in the past and in a way the

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same way as in the Bronze Age they were

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probably almost staking a claim in that

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landscape by producing these these

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Mounds the Anglo-Saxons by coming in and

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burying their dead there may also been

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staking a claim to the same

00:12:03

land well in spite of a growing number

00:12:06

of warrior Graves at Barry Clump there's

00:12:08

still one thing that's eluding the

00:12:12

team discover the past with exclusive

00:12:14

ancient history documentaries and adree

00:12:17

podcasts presented by world-renowned

00:12:19

historians from history hit watch them

00:12:22

on your smart TV or on the go with your

00:12:25

mobile device download the app now to

00:12:27

explore everything from the wonders of

00:12:29

Pompei to the rebellion of buddika and

00:12:32

the mysteries of prehistoric Scotland

00:12:35

immerse yourself in the captivating

00:12:37

stories of this remarkable era by

00:12:40

signing up via the link in the

00:12:47

description chap in front of us has

00:12:50

between his knees the remnants of an

00:12:52

iron shield boss and that's one of

00:12:53

several we've now had over the site to

00:12:55

the left of the individual G poking out

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above the ground

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is the socket of a spear so all those

00:13:02

things that you'd expect perhaps to find

00:13:04

with a warrior what we're missing from

00:13:06

that and something you see referred to

00:13:08

throughout um Saxon Saxon poetry as a

00:13:10

sword swords were prized by the Saxons

00:13:14

but are extremely rare finds Richard's

00:13:17

greatest hope is that they'll find one

00:13:20

but despite unearthing 75 Graves the

00:13:23

prize is proving

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elusive however the Badgers burrowing on

00:13:28

this site have left a trail that leads

00:13:31

the team right to this year's prize

00:13:35

find as we're going down we had a lot of

00:13:37

badger packing material so we weren't

00:13:39

sure whether they would have Disturbed

00:13:41

any remains that were there as it

00:13:43

happens we do have a badger run that

00:13:45

does run right along the side and has

00:13:47

damaged the skeleton but the rest of it

00:13:50

is very well preserved and we're very

00:13:52

lucky in the fact that we've got a sword

00:13:54

lying alongside

00:13:56

it so this one's got the big three

00:13:59

really and it's got the spearhead the

00:14:00

shield boss and then a sword on the

00:14:04

side now all they have to do is get the

00:14:06

sword out an extremely delicate task

00:14:11

carried out by Lynn won conservator with

00:14:14

wesex archaeology um a sword which is

00:14:17

sitting right on the top arm bone um

00:14:21

which is coming out in fragments I'm

00:14:23

going to try and get the whole lot up in

00:14:25

one

00:14:26

go if the swords are vies excavation the

00:14:30

trick will be to find out if it's

00:14:32

pattern

00:14:34

welded this was a complicated method of

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forging a blade to produce a top class

00:14:41

sword a clue perhaps to the man who was

00:14:44

buried with

00:14:47

it we're thrilled to be joined by

00:14:49

Richard and some of his colleagues from

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the medical Squadron here this evening

00:14:52

and we're especially lucky because we're

00:14:53

going to x-ray the sword in real time

00:14:56

right here in the museum but before we

00:14:58

do that Richard what can you tell us

00:14:59

about it we're really excited about this

00:15:01

because this was the only sword we had

00:15:03

it was found by one of the soldiers of

00:15:05

the project so really really exciting

00:15:06

and what we really want to know is to

00:15:08

see whether it is one of those Fabulous

00:15:09

High status weapons that's patent welded

00:15:11

and um really part of the whole

00:15:13

mythology of Anglo Saxon England of a

00:15:15

the sword with its name and that sort of

00:15:17

thing it's it's a powerful item and this

00:15:19

came out of the ground in one piece

00:15:21

didn't it it did and it was a nervous

00:15:22

moment having this thing lifted

00:15:24

Excalibur light from the ground somebody

00:15:26

take it the two hands there you go it's

00:15:29

not touching very well

00:15:33

so

00:15:36

B so yes a real thing of beauty and then

00:15:38

the sword being such an important

00:15:39

artifact in the 6th Century this was

00:15:41

really quite a thrill to find it so what

00:15:43

we've got mean this is the handle end

00:15:44

obviously and is there bits of copper

00:15:45

along that's right you've got the

00:15:47

remnants of the Scabbard and perhaps you

00:15:48

can make out um little traces of

00:15:50

mineralized wood which is the the fabric

00:15:52

of the Scabbard and these are the Gilded

00:15:54

copper Ally mounts at the side of the

00:15:56

Scabbard same with the the top area

00:15:58

might have have some decorations x-ray

00:15:59

will hopefully show us that and then

00:16:01

perhaps you can see some elements of the

00:16:03

horn handle that was was here in in its

00:16:05

sixth Century guys so that's been

00:16:07

mineralized as so is there an is there

00:16:08

an iron core running through the middle

00:16:10

of that then yeah that again will pick

00:16:12

up on the X-ray and have you cleaned it

00:16:14

up at all or is this just as it came out

00:16:15

of the ground this is subject to

00:16:17

immediate stabilization so it doesn't

00:16:18

deteriorate and then the full

00:16:20

conservation will happen after the event

00:16:22

brilliant well I think we should

00:16:23

probably let Sergeant mcdu and Sergeant

00:16:25

Barnett um get on with the x-rays we

00:16:27

need to clear do that

00:16:31

[Music]

00:16:38

yeah wow look at that that's come up

00:16:40

beautifully hasn't it Richard well this

00:16:41

is fantastic because you can see all the

00:16:43

things we really wanted to

00:16:44

see of course the the thing that you

00:16:46

really think of a sword in this period

00:16:48

is whether it's patent welded or not

00:16:49

that was the real question we wanted to

00:16:51

answer and the answer is yes it is which

00:16:54

is fantastic so how can you tell that

00:16:55

then can you see all these little sort

00:16:57

of zigzags in here can you see there's a

00:16:59

sort of crisscross element right in the

00:17:01

middle of the the blade up here um

00:17:03

that's really indicative of these these

00:17:05

three bars of iron that have been

00:17:06

twisted and twisted to form well it's a

00:17:08

debate at the moment as whether that's

00:17:09

for strength or for for decoration but

00:17:11

it certainly would have been very

00:17:12

beautiful a bit like um a herring you

00:17:14

know one these fishing beautiful

00:17:16

decorated things and we see that in

00:17:17

samurai swords as well it's exactly the

00:17:19

same thing cuz it's a strengthening

00:17:20

thing and you can see how perhaps making

00:17:23

out the white lines going down the sword

00:17:25

can you all see that you see that that's

00:17:28

the actual edge of the sword where this

00:17:30

patent welding goes on and then the

00:17:31

hardened steel edges are on the side

00:17:34

there so that's when it starts to Bevel

00:17:35

out towards the custom that's right and

00:17:37

so you've got um a thing of beauty but a

00:17:39

thing with a real purpose to it these

00:17:40

aren't just prestigious objects for no

00:17:42

reason they're also things that can

00:17:45

actually kill it's great to be able to

00:17:46

see all that without actually having to

00:17:48

start taking that it's fabulous it's a

00:17:51

non-intrusive way of finding an awful

00:17:53

lot of um data and information about the

00:17:55

artifact without without rendering it

00:17:57

fragile and vulnerable really okay so

00:17:59

who was the man who had this artifact

00:18:01

then that's that's a very good question

00:18:03

um he had not only this he had a shield

00:18:05

with him he had a spear and he had a

00:18:08

knife so he's got the more or less the

00:18:10

panoply of arms going into the grave

00:18:12

he's right in the most important part of

00:18:13

the burial man so he must have been

00:18:15

somebody with a degree of power and

00:18:17

wealth um this isn't an everyday item as

00:18:19

I said this the only one we've had out

00:18:21

of the 75 burials so he's an important

00:18:23

man the soldiers believe that the owner

00:18:26

of this sword might have been a local

00:18:28

king or Warrior Chief who was buried

00:18:32

surrounded by the burials of other

00:18:35

Warriors and placed in the ground with

00:18:38

his spear shield and

00:18:42

sword this find close to a Bronze Age

00:18:45

Cemetery contributes both to our

00:18:48

understanding of anglo-saxon burials and

00:18:50

shows how they reused earlier monuments

00:18:53

for their

00:18:56

cemeteries but there's another group of

00:18:59

Warrior dead here at the Dorset Museum

00:19:02

who are Central to a long running

00:19:05

debate for years historians have argued

00:19:08

whether the Romans invaded Britain or

00:19:11

staged a peaceful

00:19:13

takeover so Rebecca ma Castle is famous

00:19:17

because it's a really beautiful Hill for

00:19:19

but also for the cemetery that's up

00:19:21

there exactly there is what has become

00:19:23

known as the War Cemetery at the Eastern

00:19:25

end of the Hill Fort yeah and these are

00:19:27

two of the skeleton from the cemetery

00:19:29

yeah these two are very very special

00:19:32

young chaps because they are the ones

00:19:34

that contain the most unique evidence

00:19:36

that we have that enables us to pin this

00:19:37

cemeter down to

00:19:39

ad43 so let's have a look at these two

00:19:41

then I mean I can immediately see

00:19:42

something which looks a bit suspicious

00:19:44

yes which is and it's got an arrow

00:19:46

pointing to it as well I know it's very

00:19:48

helpful which is this um this bolt

00:19:52

here oh I'm just going to move this

00:19:54

vertebrae out so that we can have a good

00:19:56

look at it look at that

00:20:00

well that's amazing it is I mean and

00:20:02

it's actually embedded into the Bon so

00:20:04

it's passed through that individual and

00:20:06

lodged yeah in in their vertebra is that

00:20:09

a typical Roman weapon there it is it's

00:20:11

a classic uh Roman ballist bolt and

00:20:13

that's how we can date these burials so

00:20:15

then so we know that although the

00:20:17

individuals um the pottery that they're

00:20:20

buried with is late Iron Age that

00:20:22

absolutely dates them to the Roman

00:20:24

Invasion because none of those weapons

00:20:26

are here before the Romans get here so

00:20:28

it's coming in like this uh right

00:20:30

through the guts through the kidney in

00:20:32

fact and going grazing the the vertebra

00:20:36

and coming right to the back here so

00:20:38

that's enough to kill somebody yeah

00:20:40

absolutely but there there is more so

00:20:43

very obviously um this young chap here

00:20:46

has got a rather large hole in his head

00:20:48

so that's where he's been bashed on the

00:20:50

head and then these lines you only get

00:20:52

the fractur lines running off in these

00:20:54

directions if it's something that's

00:20:56

happened at the time of death and then

00:20:57

it kind of gets worse for this guy

00:21:00

because then this very little Nick here

00:21:03

and that's out of the back of his Mand

00:21:06

and that's where someone with a sword

00:21:07

then try to cut his head off right okay

00:21:10

and then they've um had another go

00:21:12

because he's then got this blow which is

00:21:14

actually peeled off the um bone on his

00:21:17

mandible here nasty yeah so they tried

00:21:20

to cut his head off twice it's really

00:21:21

been hacked isn't he I mean this is this

00:21:23

is vicious this is violent and it's not

00:21:26

yeah it's not just one piece of evidence

00:21:30

of violence I mean you know shock and or

00:21:32

at it at its worst it is very very

00:21:34

shocking so the Roman army are going

00:21:36

above and beyond what is necessary to

00:21:38

kill someone but we know that when they

00:21:41

are conquering new territories they

00:21:43

really did go and decimate

00:21:49

people these skeletons graphically

00:21:52

reveal one side of the story of the

00:21:54

Romans arrival in Britain but in 2011 I

00:21:57

visited visited a site in North Dorset

00:22:00

which told a different story The dur

00:22:03

triger big dig

00:22:06

project for several years archaeologists

00:22:09

have been digging at winterborn

00:22:11

Kingston the Dig originally started as

00:22:14

an Iron Age exploration looking back

00:22:17

almost 2,000 years to when members of

00:22:19

the durot trigz tribe lived and farmed

00:22:22

here before the Romans arrived well this

00:22:25

survey of the site which is a magnetic

00:22:27

survey shows us the uh Iron Age ditched

00:22:31

enclosure we call a banjo enclosure

00:22:33

that's because it superficially

00:22:34

resembles a banjo with the body and the

00:22:37

neck and do you think this was a

00:22:39

defensive

00:22:41

enclosure not at all not not at all this

00:22:44

is this is uh effectively an undefended

00:22:47

Farmstead but as the team continued the

00:22:50

Dig they started to turn up more and

00:22:52

more signs of romanization influencing

00:22:55

the lives of the local

00:22:56

inhabitants we' also got pieces of

00:22:58

chicken and of course you know we're

00:23:01

familiar with with chicken today but in

00:23:03

the late Iron Age this is an exotic

00:23:05

animal this is coming in from the Roman

00:23:07

world presum they're selling their

00:23:08

produce they're selling their grain and

00:23:10

they're getting these kind of luxury

00:23:11

food items in

00:23:13

return this particular fragment is a

00:23:15

handle of an Ana a large sort of um

00:23:17

storage vessel that would have stood up

00:23:19

to the height of an adult uh and we can

00:23:21

tell by the fabric and by the shape but

00:23:23

it's from Spain and it would have

00:23:24

probably held wine that's lovely it is

00:23:27

so we can imagine that you know they're

00:23:28

eating chicken they're drinking wine

00:23:30

they're they're sort of plugged into the

00:23:31

Mediterranean

00:23:34

world so for these Iron Age Farmers life

00:23:37

with the Romans appears to have been a

00:23:39

peaceful coexistence in stark contrast

00:23:43

to the massacre at Maiden

00:23:47

Castle Ian you don't see evidence of a

00:23:50

really abrupt transition at your side do

00:23:52

you no I mean you can't really tell when

00:23:55

the Romans arve because there's small

00:23:57

amounts of Roman material coming in um

00:23:59

in the 1 Century BC as we go on the 1 2

00:24:02

third Century ad there's still

00:24:04

equivalent amounts of of Roman Pottery

00:24:07

it's all very low-level stuff there's no

00:24:09

sudden break when the Romans arrive

00:24:11

there's no change there's no dramatic

00:24:12

increase in Roman artifacts and we've

00:24:14

seeing that right the way across Dorset

00:24:16

I think like Native American societies

00:24:19

they're picking and choosing a few few

00:24:20

things that help facilitate their

00:24:21

lifestyle but there's no major change in

00:24:24

settlement or religion going on it takes

00:24:26

300 years after the Invasion before we

00:24:28

start seeing real significant Roman

00:24:30

material like Villas and temples being

00:24:32

created there's a big time lag between

00:24:34

the arrival of Romans and their their

00:24:36

final sort of evolution of Roman culture

00:24:38

I think the main thing is is that the

00:24:40

picture that we're used to is too simple

00:24:42

isn't it it's much more complex it is

00:24:44

you get this black and white idea the

00:24:46

Romans arrive those who they don't kill

00:24:48

end up living in Villas and towns

00:24:49

straight away it it takes three

00:24:51

centuries for that kind of um Roman

00:24:54

culture to really take a hold in in this

00:24:56

part of Britain so you've been digging

00:24:58

at this site now miles for quite a few

00:24:59

seasons how's the picture been changing

00:25:01

over the years it's been changing quite

00:25:03

a lot because we started out with uh an

00:25:06

Iron Age settlement we're looking at

00:25:07

that transition from Iron Age to Roman

00:25:09

and what we're finding is is evidence

00:25:11

going on a good sort of three centuries

00:25:12

afterwards so we're doing a geophysical

00:25:14

survey around the whole area but we're

00:25:15

finding more evidence of of later Roman

00:25:18

material and I think a couple of your

00:25:20

more Plucky students filmed this years

00:25:21

dig for us didn't they absolutely

00:25:26

unfolded when A3 in uh trench one at the

00:25:29

top end of the site uh and the cleaning

00:25:31

back has revealed exactly what we're

00:25:33

hoping to find really which is we've got

00:25:35

this very sort of large it's about 15 M

00:25:38

across Square enclosure um defined by a

00:25:41

very sort of thin ditch uh and the

00:25:44

interior of which there there's a whole

00:25:45

series of small pits uh and other

00:25:47

features it could be a shrine it could

00:25:49

be a temple it could be none of the

00:25:50

above it could be some kind of animal

00:25:52

agricultural enclosure but until we

00:25:54

start going down into it we're not going

00:25:55

to know but it's a very nice distinct

00:25:58

feature and it fits beautifully pench

00:25:59

and once again because it's dug down in

00:26:01

the chalk it it shows up

00:26:04

fantastically miles and his students are

00:26:06

hoping that this find will yield clues

00:26:09

about the people who lived

00:26:11

here were they farmers who adopted Roman

00:26:15

ways or were they Romans from elsewhere

00:26:19

in the

00:26:20

[Music]

00:26:22

Empire okay so it's the beginning of uh

00:26:25

day seven and we're quite excited that

00:26:27

inside the square enclosure in trench

00:26:30

one there's four rectangular cuts which

00:26:33

look extremely like

00:26:35

Graves this is the team's first major

00:26:38

clue as to who might have lived here so

00:26:41

we just started cleaning up um these

00:26:43

rectangular cuts and they have actually

00:26:45

thankfully started turning up into into

00:26:47

Graves we were wondering to begin with

00:26:49

because these were East West aligned

00:26:51

where they were going to turn out to be

00:26:52

uh Christian burials but the heads are

00:26:55

at the Eastern end if they were

00:26:56

Christian you expect them to be at the

00:26:58

other end so facing um Sunrise um on the

00:27:03

day of judgment we got a skull coming up

00:27:05

here and we've also got just part of a

00:27:08

pottery vessel coming up at the other

00:27:11

end so these are unlikely to be

00:27:13

Christian Graves and neither do they

00:27:16

appear to be Iron Age as in this area

00:27:19

those tend to take the form of a

00:27:21

crouched

00:27:22

burial the expectation is that they are

00:27:25

Roman because in 201 3 just in the next

00:27:29

field they excavated a late 4th Century

00:27:32

Roman

00:27:36

villa after another day's digging the

00:27:39

team begin to find strong evidence of a

00:27:41

connection as more skeletons start to

00:27:47

appear you can see just here in this

00:27:50

particular grave we've got only got one

00:27:52

cofin now coming up here so we know that

00:27:54

these individuals are all in coffins

00:27:56

which is probably another

00:27:58

indicator that they're not early

00:27:59

Christian which tend to be buried in in

00:28:01

shrouds but we've also got a spindle

00:28:03

well which is another little nice object

00:28:06

they're taking with them into the

00:28:07

Afterlife and quite a lot of um late

00:28:10

Roman female burials have spindle worlds

00:28:12

buried with them then know whether

00:28:13

that's an activity they would have done

00:28:14

in life and one of the other cups that's

00:28:16

been excavated we've had hob Nails

00:28:18

coming up the little nails that are

00:28:20

hammered into sandals and R Footwear

00:28:22

suggesting that they're going into the

00:28:24

grave wearing almost military style

00:28:26

boots so at the moment we can say that

00:28:28

these are Roman they almost certainly

00:28:30

late Roman and the provisional evidence

00:28:32

at present suggests they are

00:28:34

contemporary with the villa which is

00:28:35

what we're hoping for uh to try and find

00:28:37

a link with Villa occupants and the

00:28:40

house they actually

00:28:44

occupied just a day later miles and the

00:28:47

team uncover three female and two male

00:28:55

skeletons that was the end of day n uh

00:28:58

things are are well go extremely well um

00:29:01

um the square Barrow in trench one is

00:29:04

turning out rapidly to become a what

00:29:06

appears to be a family meline we've now

00:29:08

got at least five graves in there what

00:29:10

looks like one immature one sort of

00:29:13

juvenile character and four adults uh

00:29:15

none of which appear to be Christian all

00:29:17

of which at the moment seem to have

00:29:18

indication of grave

00:29:21

Goods it was traditional for Romans to

00:29:23

bury Goods with their dead like Footwear

00:29:26

or pottery

00:29:30

like this bowl they found in one of the

00:29:32

female

00:29:34

Graves hopefully people start to get all

00:29:36

those out and get a better idea of their

00:29:38

date still hoping that they are the

00:29:40

occupiers of of the Villa that we

00:29:41

excavated last year if they can get an

00:29:44

accurate date for the pot it will give

00:29:46

the team an even better idea of who

00:29:49

these people

00:29:51

[Music]

00:29:53

were so Miles when do these burials that

00:29:56

you've just been finding date to well

00:30:00

that's that's the question the the pot

00:30:01

that comes out with them um this

00:30:03

particular vessel we know is made

00:30:05

sometime about 370 380 ad but the

00:30:07

question is how old is it at the time

00:30:09

it's gone into the grave yeah that's

00:30:11

lovely it's got imprinted pattern on it

00:30:12

it's got this little rosette pattern all

00:30:14

the way around but you can see it it's

00:30:16

very worn the the slips worn off and it

00:30:19

originally had a base has had a a foot

00:30:21

on it which is broken off and it's been

00:30:23

worn smooth and given it may have taken

00:30:26

4050 60 years before it's actually ended

00:30:29

up in the grave so we're seeing people

00:30:31

who have been buried in a Roman style

00:30:33

tradition but they haven't got access to

00:30:36

high status Roman Goods I suspect given

00:30:39

that we've only got a few bits of

00:30:40

spindle worlds we've got fragments of

00:30:42

pottery there's not a lot of Roman

00:30:44

status Goods going in with these Graves

00:30:47

I think we're dealing with a a sub Roman

00:30:49

population this is the people who are

00:30:50

sort of traditionally grubbing around in

00:30:52

the remains of of their Roman world so

00:30:55

do you think this is after the collapse

00:30:58

of the Roman Empire then I think it is I

00:31:00

think we are dealing with the last

00:31:02

people who are still have a a

00:31:04

remembrance of a Roman world they're

00:31:06

still Clinging On to one or two items

00:31:08

that link them back to that past but

00:31:10

they've no longer working within a

00:31:12

functioning Roman Administration so I

00:31:14

think we're really dealing with people

00:31:15

who are probably dying and being buried

00:31:17

probably sometime in in the sort of mid

00:31:20

um fth Century so we've probably got

00:31:22

450s uh ad it's probably our cut off

00:31:25

point for the time that these people are

00:31:26

going in into the into their graves and

00:31:29

there is a theory that the bodies at

00:31:30

Maiden Castle are the natives who are

00:31:33

taking one last stand against the Romans

00:31:34

and is it possible that the bodies

00:31:36

you've got and you're Excavating are

00:31:37

their descendants hundreds of years

00:31:39

later that would be fantastic if if if

00:31:41

we could prove that obviously um but if

00:31:43

we got good DNA samples from both then

00:31:45

we might be able to say that these are

00:31:47

the descendants from the irh inhabitants

00:31:50

and that would be something rather

00:31:51

spectacular because we still don't know

00:31:53

yet whether is the people who live in

00:31:54

the Villas are the descendants of the

00:31:57

indigenous population or whether they

00:31:59

are first generation or second

00:32:00

generation migrants from another part of

00:32:02

the the Roman

00:32:03

Empire the Romano Britain who lived and

00:32:06

died in The Villa offer Clues to the

00:32:09

poverty of the Twilight world after the

00:32:11

Roman army left in 410

00:32:15

AD but less than 100 miles away at

00:32:18

chedworth another dig is unexpectedly

00:32:22

revealing the glories of Roman Britain

00:32:24

in its

00:32:26

heyday

00:32:27

first discovered by the victorians 150

00:32:30

years ago chedworth is a late 4th

00:32:33

Century Courtyard Villa

00:32:36

complex in August a team of

00:32:38

archaeologists from The National Trust

00:32:40

started a twoe dig to find out more

00:32:43

about the Villa

00:32:46

layout Unfortunately they had very

00:32:49

little recorded information to go on the

00:32:52

last person to dig here was Sir Ian

00:32:55

Richmond professor of archaeology at

00:32:57

Oxford University whose notes were lost

00:33:00

after his death in

00:33:03

1965 All That Remains of his work are

00:33:06

some Modern concrete path borders which

00:33:09

the team believe Richmond laid down to

00:33:11

outline a second century Roman bath

00:33:15

house but they were in for a surprise as

00:33:18

Martin pworth

00:33:20

explains when we started our excavation

00:33:22

here we really thought that enrichment

00:33:25

had dug everything includ the wall lines

00:33:27

where he put his concrete and also um

00:33:30

the bits in between which we call the

00:33:32

islands so we were quite surprised when

00:33:34

we lifted the turf and um we found bits

00:33:38

of of Tessy coming up bits of Mosaic

00:33:40

coming up and there were no records of

00:33:42

any mosaics in any of these areas

00:33:44

between the

00:33:46

walls the Tessy or tile pieces are

00:33:50

revealing what might be a border in red

00:33:52

cream and blue but whether anything else

00:33:55

survives of the central pattern is

00:33:58

unclear there are areas there going to

00:34:00

be big holes in it there's going to be

00:34:02

areas where the Mosaic have been lost

00:34:04

and C's working over here she's got an

00:34:06

edge against the wall but lots of loose

00:34:10

Tessy there in A Worn area away from the

00:34:13

wall so we just need to gradually

00:34:15

uncover and show what lies within these

00:34:18

walls there's also something else

00:34:21

puzzling the team they had thought they

00:34:23

were working on a series of BS in

00:34:25

separate rooms

00:34:28

the other strange thing is that we've

00:34:30

taken the concrete up and we've cleaned

00:34:32

underneath the concrete and we're not

00:34:33

finding walls yet which is quite

00:34:36

peculiar pretty soon it becomes clear

00:34:39

they're no longer dealing with a bath

00:34:41

house we uh knew from beginning when we

00:34:44

first lifted the turf that there was

00:34:46

going to be Mosaic underneath here but

00:34:48

now we can see it's part of one great

00:34:50

long Mosaic in fact uh we uh now believe

00:34:53

it's part of the grand reception hall of

00:34:56

the villa so rather than having five or

00:34:58

six little bits of different rooms of

00:35:00

Mosaic all this Mosaic joins up into one

00:35:04

big

00:35:06

pattern the team make other finds which

00:35:09

give more of an idea of the decoration

00:35:11

of the Villa we found bits of ball

00:35:14

plaster on top of the top soil and in

00:35:16

that we've got patterns in red blue and

00:35:19

white green and so we must think of this

00:35:22

floor as being part of something really

00:35:25

Grand emerging from the rubble an

00:35:28

extraordinary huge artwork and an

00:35:31

insight into the wealth and power of the

00:35:34

Romano

00:35:35

British so if we were looking at in

00:35:38

terms of did this person consider

00:35:40

themselves Roman were they presenting

00:35:43

their life as being part of the Great

00:35:45

Roman Empire and the whole link to

00:35:47

Classic of classical civilization well

00:35:50

they surely must be someone really

00:35:53

showing off their wealth and their link

00:35:56

to R home and really presenting

00:35:59

themselves as

00:36:02

R the team had started the Dig thinking

00:36:05

they were looking for a second century

00:36:07

bath house and they finished up with a

00:36:10

showstopping grand reception

00:36:16

hall I think it's amazing how much you

00:36:19

can find by going back and revisiting

00:36:21

existing archaeological sites where you

00:36:22

think you know everything already yeah

00:36:24

and find some incredible mosaics John

00:36:27

how do those mosaics compare to these

00:36:28

incredible mosaics that we're literally

00:36:30

sitting on right here well we're very

00:36:32

lucky in endorse it that we have an

00:36:34

awful lot of mosaics over 60 have been

00:36:36

found in the county but in the County

00:36:39

Museum here we have 12 that have been

00:36:41

relocated from around the county

00:36:43

including this one from derngate Street

00:36:45

in the middle of Dorchester and what

00:36:47

have we got here I mean is that a

00:36:48

serpent over there yeah we've got

00:36:50

serpents and we've got drinking vessels

00:36:53

the the serpents represent rebirth and

00:36:56

that's backus's drinking vessel so it's

00:36:58

good luck and

00:36:59

celebration so what can these mosaics

00:37:01

tell us about the people who who owned

00:37:03

them or who owned the Villas where they

00:37:04

were well the complexity of them and

00:37:08

their intricacy suggests they were

00:37:10

extremely wealthy uh also there are

00:37:12

things in them that tell us that they

00:37:13

want to be part of the wider Roman

00:37:16

culture their use of Mythology their

00:37:18

their imagery for the Roman gods and

00:37:21

legends all suggest that they are they

00:37:23

really want to identify with Rome so

00:37:26

were they locals made good or were they

00:37:30

Roman officials who'd moved in well

00:37:32

that's going to be the million dollar

00:37:33

question isn't it I think it's my own

00:37:36

Instinct would be it's going to be a

00:37:37

combination of the local population who

00:37:39

have done well from Roman occupation

00:37:42

from Trading with the Romans and also

00:37:44

those officials from Rome who have W

00:37:46

very grand houses uh in in what was a

00:37:49

very important part of Roman

00:37:53

Britain so these beautiful and intricate

00:37:56

mosaics tell us of a vanished Romano

00:37:59

British world when at least some in the

00:38:02

west enjoyed the riches of

00:38:06

empire for the past 7 years a team has

00:38:08

been Excavating one of the earliest

00:38:10

leprosy hospitals near Winchester dating

00:38:13

back almost a thousand years and what

00:38:16

they've been finding at St Mary mlin is

00:38:19

really helping to change our ideas about

00:38:22

leprosy in the Middle

00:38:25

Ages just a mile from Winchester City

00:38:28

Center St Mary mlin was once a busy

00:38:32

complex of buildings but now nothing

00:38:36

remains above

00:38:38

ground the last recorded medieval

00:38:41

building on this site was a late 15th

00:38:44

Century Arms

00:38:46

house but archaeologists from the

00:38:48

University of Winchester have been

00:38:50

slowly peeling back an extremely rare

00:38:53

medical

00:38:55

history

00:38:58

as the Dig unfolds the team is filming

00:39:00

it themselves and in charge is Chief

00:39:03

investigator Simon

00:39:05

Ry this is the north wall of that

00:39:07

infirmary running across the SES so I'm

00:39:10

inside the medieval infirmary now and as

00:39:12

I step outside um into this area here we

00:39:17

have evidence of what we think may be

00:39:19

the wall of a possible um

00:39:22

cloer last year we found whole pots

00:39:24

metal objects evidence

00:39:27

for uh medical

00:39:31

practice but more importantly the team

00:39:33

have uncovered 20 Graves the condition

00:39:36

of the skeletons leads them to believe

00:39:38

that there was a leprosy hospital here

00:39:41

dating back to

00:39:44

1070 it's the earliest excavated leprosy

00:39:48

Hospital in Britain the cemetery holds

00:39:51

about 85% of individuals with with

00:39:53

Leprosy men um women children and babies

00:39:57

it's the highest sample we have from any

00:39:59

British

00:40:03

site in the Middle Ages it was thought

00:40:05

that those with Leprosy were unclean and

00:40:08

sinful and that the disease was a

00:40:10

punishment from

00:40:13

God in 2011 I went to look at the

00:40:16

skeletons they'd uncovered for myself

00:40:19

and see the full shocking extent of the

00:40:21

disease with osteologist Dr Katie Tucker

00:40:25

now this is scream isn't it yeah this is

00:40:30

um suppose you don't know if it's the

00:40:32

wrong word to use the best example of

00:40:34

leprosy that we have on the site yeah

00:40:37

you can see the massive amounts of bone

00:40:39

loss I mean totally lost the front of

00:40:41

the nose um you actually see these are

00:40:44

the sockets here for the for the first

00:40:46

mullers so all the bone has been lost

00:40:48

back to the first MERS the that is just

00:40:52

horrific isn't it mean look at that

00:40:54

you've lost all of the front of the

00:40:57

upper jaw

00:40:59

here and the bottom of the the nasal

00:41:03

cavity and the hard pallet of course has

00:41:06

gone as well yeah so it probably would

00:41:08

have been quite difficult for this

00:41:10

individual to eat without choking yeah

00:41:14

it's quite a shocking disease isn't it I

00:41:15

mean I find it shocking to look at it in

00:41:17

a in a skeleton and I think uh it's not

00:41:19

surprising that it was it carried such a

00:41:22

stigma with it I mean they would have

00:41:23

looked alien really um especially with

00:41:26

probably with the facial lesions as well

00:41:28

in the soft tissue and um probably would

00:41:32

have needed help eating maybe because

00:41:36

well they may have even had difficulty

00:41:38

actually picking things up because they'

00:41:40

started to get lot of feeling in their

00:41:42

hands yeah so I think they probably

00:41:44

would have needed quite a lot of help um

00:41:46

during the last few years of their

00:41:49

life some accounts suggest that those

00:41:51

suffering from leprosy would have been

00:41:54

outcasts and not given the same

00:41:56

treatment as ordinary citizens in Life

00:42:00

or in

00:42:02

death but back at St Mary mlin the team

00:42:06

believes that the graves themselves

00:42:08

reveal a very different story what we

00:42:11

can see here is um a grave that's been

00:42:15

well cut cut into the chalk anth

00:42:17

theomorphic it's tapered down towards

00:42:19

the feet end uh there's a head Niche

00:42:22

there to hold the head of the individual

00:42:24

and around the grave you can see the lip

00:42:27

which would hold um a lid or a ledger on

00:42:30

top of it you can see that all these

00:42:33

graves are well separated they've been

00:42:35

marked as well so what we're seeing here

00:42:38

is a certain level of um care and

00:42:40

attention that's gone into um into

00:42:42

building these

00:42:44

Graves it's clear that these were no

00:42:47

Hasty burials in this religious Hospital

00:42:50

people with Leprosy seem to have been

00:42:52

treated with respect and buried with

00:42:55

care

00:42:59

the archaeologists also believe that one

00:43:01

particular grave they uncovered back in

00:43:03

2011 supports this

00:43:06

idea this skeleton of a man was

00:43:09

discovered buried with a scolopes shell

00:43:12

a traditional Pilgrim badge that he may

00:43:14

have carried back from one of the most

00:43:16

famous pilgrimage sites in the world

00:43:19

Santiago de compostella in

00:43:22

Spain Simon believes that this man

00:43:25

proves that Med evil leprosy sufferers

00:43:27

could be treated with respect and

00:43:29

dignity and not always with

00:43:35

revulsion this is the shell that we just

00:43:36

saw in the VT the pilgrims shell that's

00:43:38

right this this um me this wonderful

00:43:41

artifact was from a an individual of

00:43:44

mature years he had early stage leprosy

00:43:47

clearly took this with him to the grave

00:43:49

as a sort of way of proving that he'

00:43:51

done this arduous pilgrimage to Santiago

00:43:54

de cistella but I think I think more

00:43:57

widely this badge tells us about the

00:44:00

status of the hospital I mean here is a

00:44:02

man of religious

00:44:04

sensitivity wealth perhaps and the means

00:44:06

to go on a pilgrim pilgrimage and here

00:44:09

he is buried uh in a community of

00:44:11

leprosy sufferers so I mean this really

00:44:14

challenges this view that we have that

00:44:17

LE leprosy hospitals were um somehow

00:44:21

excluded from society the community were

00:44:23

were Outcast this sort of thing but do

00:44:26

you think he could have been excluded

00:44:28

when he developed the outward signs of

00:44:30

leprosy I mean he's there in the

00:44:31

hospital he's buried within the hospital

00:44:33

cemetery and not not with his own

00:44:36

Community I think when we when we look

00:44:38

at the the archaeology as a whole what

00:44:40

we have is well appoint we think well

00:44:42

appointed Timber buildings originally

00:44:45

substantial post holes on the site we

00:44:47

have a chapel we have a well ordered

00:44:49

Cemetery we also got evidence for

00:44:51

medical provision on one one example all

00:44:53

this put together I think tells us that

00:44:55

this site wasn't a site of of outcast

00:44:57

there was these were people had a

00:44:59

certain level of of status I think

00:45:01

because there is the traditional view

00:45:03

the medieval view that leprosy was

00:45:04

somehow a sinful disease but this

00:45:06

doesn't appear to Thea case it's a very

00:45:08

complex issue I think where we have this

00:45:11

perhaps belief today that leprosy

00:45:13

suffers were were sinful were were

00:45:15

Outcast this has only recently been

00:45:18

challenged by certain revisionist

00:45:20

historians and and also our work at s

00:45:22

Mary mland in in Winchester so it's

00:45:24

really important then because it's

00:45:26

showing that these people were looked

00:45:28

after certainly and leprosy is a disease

00:45:30

that affects people today places such as

00:45:32

India and Brazil among many other

00:45:34

countries there there's only about a

00:45:36

quarter of a million U new cases of

00:45:38

leprosy identified every year and the

00:45:40

leprosy is still stigmatized in these

00:45:43

countries so part of what we're doing is

00:45:44

really challenging this this this

00:45:47

[Music]

00:45:54

stigma

00:45:58

[Music]

00:46:01

for the Romans the Far West was Frontier

00:46:04

Country and in the past we believ that

00:46:06

they got no further than exitor but a

00:46:09

dig at ipple pen in Devon is literally

00:46:11

pushing the boundaries of Roman Britain

00:46:13

in the

00:46:15

west I visited this site three years ago

00:46:19

when it was just a tiny collection of

00:46:21

Graves and a Roman

00:46:24

Road now it's turning into something

00:46:27

much more

00:46:30

intriguing it looks like it's an adult

00:46:33

female and you can see it's got quite a

00:46:35

High um straight forehead which is a

00:46:37

feature on females and quite small

00:46:40

arches so you can feel on yourself here

00:46:43

you've got quite quite low ridges and

00:46:45

super comtable Ridge um so I think it's

00:46:47

an adult female um got half of the

00:46:50

mandible here which is this part we've

00:46:52

got this side and all of her teeth and

00:46:55

you can see they very worn so all the

00:46:57

enamel has actually come off and we've

00:46:58

got the dentine

00:47:03

exposed the team finds no evidence of

00:47:06

the cause of death in this skeleton but

00:47:08

this woman was probably about 30 years

00:47:11

old when she

00:47:15

died after some careful excavation the

00:47:19

first i pen resident is off to the

00:47:21

University of exitor for radiocarbon

00:47:24

dating so it's the end of day eight and

00:47:28

kind of quite an emotional moment

00:47:29

lifting the first skull of the of the

00:47:32

site and um always got to remember you

00:47:35

got to be really respectful that these

00:47:37

people were real human beings that it's

00:47:39

just quite amazing to think that they

00:47:42

lived here on this site uh 2,000 years

00:47:45

ago and how different the world must

00:47:47

have been

00:47:48

[Music]

00:47:50

then by day 12 the team have uncovered

00:47:54

another nine burials and over 2,000

00:47:57

small finds all adding evidence to their

00:48:00

theory that this was a Roman settlement

00:48:04

although some of the objects are a bit

00:48:06

of a

00:48:07

mystery got quite an interesting find

00:48:09

here um not sure exactly what it is but

00:48:12

I've got a feeling that it might be a

00:48:14

cosmetic case um with makeup inside we

00:48:18

immediately wrapped it in bandages and

00:48:20

packaged it up to be conserved and

00:48:22

looked at so we'll know more um at a

00:48:24

later date exam L precisely what it

00:48:27

is but what's perhaps the team's biggest

00:48:30

clue to a Roman presence is the position

00:48:32

of the graves even though it's partially

00:48:35

cut into the edge of the road it is

00:48:38

still respecting generally the line of

00:48:41

the road it's a roadside burial it's

00:48:43

deliberately placed at the side of the

00:48:45

road as burials were forbidden in Roman

00:48:48

cities the dead were buried on the

00:48:51

outskirts often along the roadside just

00:48:54

as the team is finding here so it's day

00:48:57

18 on our excavations aten we've now got

00:48:59

a total of 16

00:49:03

skeletons so it's quite clear that what

00:49:05

we're dealing with here is a Romano

00:49:07

British Cemetery which is very

00:49:11

[Music]

00:49:15

exciting it's amazing to see the way

00:49:17

this site is developing because when I

00:49:19

visited and we stood on that hill in

00:49:20

ipple pen all there was was a road and a

00:49:23

couple of roadside burials and now

00:49:26

you've got a whole Cemetery but what

00:49:27

about the road itself where does it go

00:49:31

don't know

00:49:33

yet I suspect probably from exitor and

00:49:35

out towards South Devon um but it's just

00:49:38

really fascinating we really didn't

00:49:40

expect to find um such a well-preserved

00:49:42

Roman Road so far west of exitor and

00:49:45

we're still only scratching the surface

00:49:47

but this year's excavations have been a

00:49:49

real Revelation they really have and it

00:49:51

was just a an example of some of the

00:49:54

absolutely lovely stuff that we had this

00:49:56

is what was being excavated um in the VT

00:49:59

and is it a powder compact we don't know

00:50:02

we still don't know come on um it this

00:50:04

is a real mystery artifact actually um

00:50:07

experts have looked at it at the British

00:50:08

museum um and there's a possibility that

00:50:11

it might be a lead weight that's been

00:50:12

set into a case into a copper aloy case

00:50:16

but I'm not sure why you would do that

00:50:17

unless perhaps it was a weight that

00:50:19

maybe belonged to your grandfather and

00:50:20

it was a a kind of keepsake or something

00:50:23

um so the Jew is still out on this

00:50:25

mystery artifact we had hoped that it

00:50:27

would be a ladies compact because it's

00:50:29

really nice to actually see the the

00:50:31

female side of of Roman Britain and and

00:50:34

a beautiful BR beautiful brooch and you

00:50:37

can see here it's got amazing enamel

00:50:40

setting to the cells there and it's even

00:50:43

intact with its catch plate and its pin

00:50:45

and its spring I it's such a lovely

00:50:46

example which dates from probably about

00:50:48

75 to 175 ad is that a tiny bead then

00:50:51

yeah we've got beads we've got coins

00:50:53

we've got hairpins we've got mystery

00:50:55

objects

00:50:56

and Danny you came in to our studio here

00:50:59

in Dy Museum incredibly exciting um you

00:51:02

told us you've got a radiocarbon DAT yes

00:51:05

we took the latest burial which is dug

00:51:08

into the rods side ditch of the of the

00:51:10

Roman rods so it's the latest one that

00:51:12

we we've excavated so far and the

00:51:14

radiocarbon results that have come back

00:51:16

as um 7th to 8th

00:51:19

Century really so it's a long running

00:51:21

Cemetery then absolutely yeah yeah it's

00:51:24

just absolutely stunning so we're we're

00:51:26

not just dealing with first century

00:51:28

Roman stuff going through to the fourth

00:51:30

Century Roman Romano British it's

00:51:32

carrying on well into the post Roman

00:51:35

period And this is so important for

00:51:36

Devon and Cornwall that is fascinating

00:51:38

and just remember that you heard it here

00:51:40

first we are rewriting the history of

00:51:43

the Romans and the Dark Ages in the

00:51:44

southwest here on digging for

00:51:48

Britain from the Anglo-Saxon sword to

00:51:52

the cemetery rewriting the history of

00:51:54

leprosy

00:51:56

the West has provided us with a richly

00:51:59

woven tapestry of our

00:52:02

[Music]

00:52:24

past

00:52:29

[Music]

Description:

From Anglo-Saxon warriors to Roman masterpieces, witness the excavation of ancient sites across the UK. Explore Bronze Age burials, Roman settlements, and even evidence of peaceful coexistence. With Professor Alice Roberts and her team of archaeologists at the forefront, delve into the mysteries of history, revealing untold stories and remarkable artifacts. Welcome to Unearthed History -- the home for all things archaeological! From ancient Roman ruins to buried medieval mysteries, we'll be bringing you award-winning documentaries that explore the remnants of long lost civilizations. Subscribe so you don't miss out. To get in touch please email: [email protected].

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