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Russian
00:00:07
sometimes if you want to shed a little
light on things you have to go groping00:00:12
around in the dark and let's face it
when it comes to our prehistoric sites00:00:18
the truth is we're in the dark about
most of them a little light can reveal00:00:24
some remarkable clues but what it can
never do on the other hand is show us00:00:29
the bigger picture00:00:47
imagine that our modern architecture
could stand the test of time and that in00:00:52
five thousand years all that was left
were the shells of our buildings there'd00:00:57
be nothing to tell the difference
between an office block and a hospital00:01:01
or a church hall in a jazz club or even
a warehouse in an aircraft hangar and00:01:07
that's the problem with so many of our
ancient sites they look similar in00:01:11
appearance but were they similar in
function across the length and breadth00:01:16
of the British Isles we have a
breathtaking richness of archaeological00:01:19
heritage some mysterious and alien some
less so this film is about that heritage00:01:25
and it's only by being here standing
with these ancient stones that we can00:01:30
begin to get a sense of that bigger
picture begin to understand what these00:01:34
extraordinary places are all about00:02:38
I'm not an academic and I don't claim to
be an expert but I have been exploring00:02:45
primitive cultures and prehistoric sites
for many years now the plus side of that00:02:50
is that whilst embracing current
archeological knowledge and theories it00:02:56
does also give me the freedom to offer
some contentious ideas from time to time00:02:59
without getting the sack the downside of
that of course is that sometimes I might00:03:04
be talking rubbish who knows the purpose
of this film is not to give a history00:03:11
lesson about our Neolithic and Bronze
Age ancestors but to explore and00:03:15
experience what they left behind and as
we travel across the British Isles00:03:20
maybe we can shed some light on these
mysterious places and the people who00:03:25
built them so follow me00:03:34
you00:03:57
believe it or not this wall is about
five thousand years old but look what00:04:03
it's a part of00:04:09
this is the balla wall barrow at Lands
End right down at the southwestern tip00:04:14
of mainland Britain and its structure is
unique in the whole of the British Isles00:04:19
but its purpose well that's something
else00:04:24
there are burials here and the burial
site is very rarely just a burial site00:04:30
and what's more excavations have
uncovered Bronze Age artifacts here as00:04:34
well which means that this site could
have been in continuous use for 2,00000:04:40
years and I wish I could tell you what
it had been used for over all that time00:04:46
the complexity of this site is
fascinating some burials face outwards00:04:52
to the sea or the rising and Setting Sun
others are internal in what would00:04:57
originally have been a dark and enclosed
space the intersection was probably00:05:02
built a long time before the outer ring
and like so many ancient sites it's not00:05:07
unusual to have differences of opinion
about when they were built and what they00:05:11
were actually used for archeologists
have a difficult task teasing the00:05:17
information from the earth and without
thorough excavations over a wider area00:05:22
sometimes the conclusions have to be
based on very small strands of evidence00:05:27
we know there are Bronze Age burials
here but does that necessarily mean it's00:05:32
a Bronze Age building we'll come back to
the subject of dating later to begin00:05:38
with it's clear to see that contrary to
the way our ancestors are so often00:05:43
portrayed this kind of structure could
not have been conceived by people who00:05:48
were savages or indeed primitive00:05:53
on its own this site is a mystery but it
does hold clues and that's something00:05:59
we'll see time and time again of the
sites will be visiting as we travel00:06:04
across the British Isles we'll pick up
more clues along the way and hopefully00:06:09
gain a greater insight into the lives of
our distant ancestors if I was to visit00:06:30
all the sites there are you probably
still be watching this film in a year's00:06:34
time this end of the country is probably
the richest in its wealth of prehistoric00:06:39
sites within just a few minutes of where
I am now besides any number of standing00:06:45
stones and cans
there's the merry maidens stone circle00:06:49
trigger seal stone circle Denine Maiden
stone circle bears buzz goin on stone00:06:56
circle there's pending Val fo gue Karn
unifo goo Chun quite Lanyon quite00:07:03
there's loads of them
we'll get glimpses of as many as we can00:07:08
but as well as some of the better known
sites we're going to travel to places00:07:12
that you may never have had the
opportunity to visit and quite a few you00:07:17
probably never knew existed00:07:35
you know those clues I mentioned this
isn't one of them and to further00:07:40
confound you this is not a stone circle00:07:46
every region has its idiosyncrasies and
that's what fascinates me all across00:07:51
Britain you find stone circles standing
stones cans dolmens barrows henges00:07:59
perhaps these other structures can shed
some light on the oddities such as this00:08:04
one this little monument is called men
and tall and myth has it that passing00:08:10
through this hole can cure your ills
it's even said to aid women's fertility00:08:16
people believe all sorts of things but
in reality and you'll hear it said a lot00:08:21
on this journey we just don't have a
clue what it was for00:08:34
what we do know is that even a modest
arrangement such as men and tall leaving00:08:39
aside the size of some of the sights
were yet to visit would have taken00:08:43
considerable time and effort to create
and that scale of time and effort could00:08:48
only be afforded by sizable communities
that's communities of people with a00:08:52
unity of thought00:09:20
often hidden away in intimate secluded
settings the traces of our ancestors can00:09:26
still be found frozen in time it would
be easy to walk straight past these00:09:32
archetypal Bronze Age maize carvings but
even such small remnants give us00:09:36
tantalizing glimpses into both the
mundane and more mystical aspects of00:09:40
their lives00:09:52
it's partly because we tend to look out
for big impressive monoliths that many00:09:57
important signs of our ancestors day to
day lives sometimes pass unnoticed00:10:08
here at router on bodman more the
remains of a Bronze Age village is00:10:13
almost lost in the landscape00:10:29
but a closer look reveals the true scale
of the site which was probably home to00:10:33
large numbers of people00:10:52
out on open moors are often the remains
of what could have been huge ceremonial00:10:57
sites like the three circle complex of
the hurlers long since absorbed into00:11:03
religious folklore as men turned to
stone for dancing on the sabbath many00:11:10
smaller sites like the gleaming white
quartz circle further south at dulo can00:11:16
be easily missed00:11:27
tucked away behind hedges and farm walls
people pass them by unknowingly leaving00:11:34
them to be appreciated only by the local
inhabitants00:11:52
Dartmoor is one of my favorite places in
the whole of England and I've been00:11:57
exploring here for over 20 years00:12:02
365 square miles of rolling Moors with a
huge variety of prehistoric structures00:12:07
it's so unspoiled in archaeological
terms that it gives us a much clearer00:12:12
idea of what the whole country used to
be like miles of moorland covered in00:12:17
stone circles cans and kists settlements
barrows standing stones and these stone00:12:26
roads are a bit of a mystery and
Dartmoor has the greatest concentration00:12:30
anywhere there's over 60 of them dotted
across the moor and of such variety they00:12:35
must have had lots of different
functions here I'm Mary Vale right in00:12:41
the middle of Dartmoor and this site has
a bit of everything00:12:45
there's settlements all around there's
Hut circles over there there's a big00:12:51
stone circle with a huge standing stone
over there00:12:55
there's cans dotted all around and these
stone rows right in the middle of it all00:13:02
and you want to see what's in the middle
of this row it's only small but this00:13:08
little funereal box called a kist does
imply that this was a processionary00:13:14
pathway so what do we have here a temple
in the centre of a big community in many00:13:22
cases the roads lead to cans or stone
circles but of all the rows across the00:13:28
moor none of them point in the same
direction00:13:31
some people have theorized that they may
have had astronomical alignments but00:13:36
frankly a line will always point at
something and there's so much00:13:40
inconsistency that the idea doesn't hold
water it seems much more likely that the00:13:46
rows didn't relate to anything outside
the community but there's something else00:13:50
to bear in mind these barren landscapes
are entirely the work of our farming00:13:55
ancestors about 12,000 years ago
the whole moor was covered in forest00:14:01
it was about this time that
hunter-gatherers began felling trees to00:14:04
make the first clearings the reason was
simple enough if you can encourage00:14:09
animals to graze in the clearings that
you've made00:14:11
then hunting is a much much easier job
so people would stay around their00:14:15
hunting grounds settlements would
develop until about four thousand years00:14:19
ago domestic farming had become a way of
life so did these rows lead people00:14:27
across open more or through dense
forests00:14:41
upon this high ground you get a real
sense of the past spreading out across00:14:49
the landscape are all the signs of a
fully rounded community00:15:10
here we're on the southwest side of the
mall on Tom gutter tour way over there00:15:17
in the distance is higher heart or tall
and you might just be able to make out00:15:22
down there the drizzle Coombs stone rows
these wonderful evocative names are00:15:29
sometimes the lingering legacy the long
forgotten history for instance over00:15:34
there behind higher heart or tour
there's a valley called evil comb and I00:15:39
really wish I could tell you stories of
black magic and ritual sacrifice but00:15:43
actually the name comes from the valleys
tin mining past and an evil was just a00:15:48
short-handled pick that the miners used
to use to extract ore from the rocks so00:15:54
sorry to disappoint on that one but
still good for frightening the kids00:15:57
though let's go and have a look at those
rows00:17:03
you remember that little kissed we saw
in the middle of the road Maryvale this00:17:08
is a perfect Bronze Age example it's
about 4,000 years old and basically it's00:17:16
a stone box and it would have held the
remains of an individual or even a00:17:20
family sometimes with a cover stone and
then the whole thing would have been00:17:24
covered with a mound of Earth called Kem00:17:40
this is yellow made just north of gasset
or that you can probably see out there00:17:45
behind me is where we were earlier and
this place is incredibly unusual00:17:50
it's a quadruple stone circle
it's strange there's no alignments00:17:56
amongst the stones to suggest astronomy
and there's no central kissed to suggest00:18:04
an elaborate burial just these enigmatic
rings there are theories it's supposed00:18:17
to have been a cam here but nobody knows
what came first how it developed or what00:18:23
it was actually used for and I think it
looks like a target00:18:29
it's village hunting practice near a
spear to the middle winds that's what it00:18:36
is ten miles to the east is another
oddity that leaves you wondering this is00:18:44
the gray weathers double stone circle
they're probably early Bronze Age about00:18:50
four thousand years old and when they
were excavated in 1898 both circles were00:18:55
found to be strewn with ashes
no one knows whether it was from00:18:59
cremations or domestic burning or how
old the circles were before the burning00:19:03
took place they're aligned north-south
the southern circle being slightly00:19:11
bigger and it's been suggested that they
were a place for the gathering of the00:19:14
clans but I think that's silly
you wouldn't create a neutral territory00:19:19
and have one side bigger than the other
we can only guess what they were for00:20:14
it's crazy you go from falling over
stones around every bend to really00:20:20
having to hunt them out it seems strange
that moving east through England you00:20:26
find less and less sight but actually it
says a lot about our ancestors through00:20:31
the ages when communities are successful
settlements continue to develop people00:20:37
only move to new pastures when the land
stops providing and in the West Country00:20:42
that's exactly what happened even today
there's very little building because the00:20:47
land just isn't hospitable fortunately
for us though it means that our00:20:51
ancestors hard work is still there to
see when you look at the development of00:20:58
societies in other countries it's clear
from places like the great pyramids or00:21:03
the Acropolis that the cities have
continued to develop without enormous00:21:07
cultural movement most other cities in
the world have grown through either00:21:13
knocking down or building over the
ancient structures in places where those00:21:19
ancient monuments are still there to be
seen they've lost their original meaning00:21:24
but somehow they've kept a level of
importance for the people of course that00:21:30
could just be a question of wonder you
have to ask would the Great Pyramid00:21:34
still be there if they'd only been 30
feet tall00:21:46
sometimes like nine stones in dorset our
ancient monuments stand neglected by the00:21:52
roadside virtually unnoticed by passing
motorists and unvisited by all but the00:21:57
enthusiast00:22:22
the passing centuries have left many
ancient sites with a mysterious00:22:27
anonymity we respect them but we don't
understand them and their social00:22:32
importance has long since disappeared we
protect them and ignore them in equal00:22:37
measure00:22:41
Nolton henge is a perfect example this
Bronze Age site is part of an enormous00:22:48
settlement that sprawls across the
surrounding countryside it's hard to see00:22:55
a lot of it now but this raised mound
originally rose an astonishing 17 feet00:23:01
out of the ditch around it the careful
placing of this Norman Church would have00:23:11
been a very powerful way of putting an
end to any earlier non-christian00:23:15
goings-on now it's crumbling ruins sits
like a weary trespasser on unguarded00:23:22
land00:24:00
this is the chestnuts in Addington Kent
and I wish I have one of these in my00:24:05
garden it's the remains of a Neolithic
Long Barrow that was used well into the00:24:12
Bronze Age and there are other sites
like this in the southeast not far from00:24:18
here the remains of another Long Barrow
called cold room looks out across the00:24:22
open hills and Moors which haven't
changed much for thousands of years but00:24:31
in and around towns that have been
changing constantly for hundreds of00:24:35
years
the land has been progressively divided00:24:38
into smaller and smaller plots so
structures were pulled down as their00:24:42
relevance in society faded no longer
showing the way so much is simply in the00:24:48
way thankfully not here though00:24:55
it's easy to see how history covers its
tracks especially in cities the constant00:25:02
redevelopment can leave few signs of
buildings from decades ago let alone00:25:05
hundreds or thousands of years00:25:13
so you may well wonder what on earth
we're doing in the middle of London and00:25:18
what they could possibly be to see here
I think you'd be right00:25:23
absolutely nothing now almost nothing
there is something here unnoticed by00:25:29
passers-by an all trace of its
importance long forgotten in here is the00:25:38
London stone truth is we don't know its
origin but we do know that it's been00:25:44
here for a long time and it's actually
part of a much bigger stone was broken00:25:48
here in the 18th century we also know
that it's been moved back and forth00:26:00
across the road in the last few hundred
years but a few possible clues remain in00:26:05
folklore there are stories that say that
it was once part of a stone circle on00:26:09
this site others say that it was the
pillar or the top of a pillar in00:26:14
Brutus's palace it's also reputedly the
stone to which all measurements were00:26:19
made to London so if you see a mild
stone this is London 27 miles it's too00:26:23
heater00:26:38
you know there are thousands upon
thousands of prehistoric sites around00:26:42
Britain and if you just count stone
circles nothing else just stone circles00:26:47
there's nearly a thousand of them it's
incredible that out of all those sites00:26:52
most people only seem to know this one00:27:06
now obviously I'm not being dismissive
of Stonehenge itself just the fact that00:27:11
when visitors come to marvel at the
imposing monoliths they miss the scale00:27:16
and significance of the entire complex
there are literally hundreds of00:27:21
prehistoric sites spreading for miles in
all directions earthworks long barrows00:27:27
avenues of stones burial sites and the
massive cursors they all showed that00:27:32
this was a huge thriving community
woodhenge a couple of miles northeast is00:27:38
the remains of a complex timber
structure probably an enclosed circular00:27:43
building which sat on its own raised
mound long since flattened by plowing00:27:51
West Kennet Long Barrow to the north at
three hundred and fifty feet long is the00:27:56
largest chamber tomb in England and
Wales and a little further north again00:28:00
is Silbury Hill the biggest man-made
mound in Europe00:28:04
it's estimated that to build this giant
would have taken five hundred men00:28:09
working everyday for ten years the term
henge originally came from Stonehenge in00:28:19
Old English it refers to the hanging
stones or lintels but it came to mean00:28:24
something quite different and ironically
Stonehenge itself is not strictly00:28:29
speaking a henge henges have a ditch
inside the raised bank but at Stonehenge00:28:35
the ditch lies on the outside which
implies that they had quite different00:28:39
functions the true henge of this vast
Wiltshire complex is Avebury every is00:28:46
over 20 miles north of Stonehenge
a short day's walk for our ancestors and00:28:51
it is without doubt the grandest
ceremonial site in Britain today its00:28:57
splendor is really only visible from the
air but when it was built it must have00:29:01
been a breathtaking sight when a pree
was excavated in the early part of the00:29:08
20th century the surrounding ditch was
found to have been sheer sided and 3000:29:13
feet deep on the outside of the ditch
was a wide00:29:17
teres running at the foot of the bank
which towered 20 feet above the central00:29:21
earth work our ancestors excavated a
hundred and fifty thousand tons of choc00:29:27
rubble to create the ditch an immense
undertaking for something clearly of00:29:31
immense importance and it wasn't the
only one in the region 50 miles to the00:29:38
west in Somerset stands the deceptive
stone circle of Staunton drew it looks00:29:48
pretty boring doesn't it an enormous
stone circle with a small router one at00:29:52
each end but it's bland appearance on
the landscape gives no clue as to its00:29:58
original scale and importance this
circle is over a hundred metres across00:30:05
now in diameter that makes it second
only to the vastness of Avebury some00:30:11
years ago the ancient monuments
laboratory of English heritage carried00:30:16
out a magnetometer survey across the
whole site and what they discovered is00:30:21
breathtaking
inside the circle when nine concentric00:30:25
rings of wooden posts each post a metre
apart and each post a metre or more00:30:32
across and you don't use a post a metre
or more across unless you need it to be00:30:37
tall and on top of that the whole site
was surrounded by a ditch and a raised00:30:43
bank00:30:53
he may have been wood but this would
have been every bit as impressive as the00:30:58
stone circles of Stonehenge and Avebury00:31:05
but perhaps there is a reason for the
posts not to have been so tall the00:31:10
design of a henge
implies that the banks were for00:31:13
spectators the inner terrace at Avebury
adds weight to this idea suggesting a00:31:18
level walkway for finding your place
before climbing the bank exactly as we00:31:22
still do at arena's today there would be
no sense in having posts so tall that00:31:28
they obscured the spectators view and
they need only be the height of a man00:31:32
for the audience to see the whole
spectacle from there raised position on00:31:36
the massive Bank so why create an
artificial forest where spectators could00:31:41
see but participants could not for me
the most likely answer is blood sports00:31:48
and shopping as that may sound to many
it's important to remember that this was00:31:53
a time when most of Britain was covered
in forest and the most skilled hunter00:31:57
would probably have been held in high
esteem possibly even beyond his own00:32:02
community the deep ditch would stop
animals escaping into the crowd while00:32:07
the forest of posts would create an
enclosed but nevertheless real hunting00:32:11
ground and then again this amount of
huge posts could easily have supported a00:32:16
floor exactly the same design concept is
at the great colosseum of Rome but00:32:21
preceding it by thousands of years we
can only wonder with the extraordinary00:32:29
variety of sites in the region many of
them of such immense size I think this00:32:33
whole area of Wiltjer through Somerset
must have been the capital of00:32:37
prehistoric Britain
and there's another important aspect of00:32:42
these chalk glands
that's that where there's chalk is Flint00:32:46
the very basis of prehistoric currency
imagine a land where the slag heaps you00:32:54
create your building rubble is full of
money with the raw materials for X00:32:59
making under their feet the people of
Wiltshire would have had enormous wealth00:33:03
there was a huge cultural shift in the
Bronze Age the increase in farming and00:33:09
settlement building meant that for the
first time people had to defend their00:33:14
territory and so the warrior culture was
born and with it the use of horses00:33:20
though in the offing tonight horse was
excavated in the early 1980s both it and00:33:26
the hill fought alongside were both
dated to the Late Bronze Age now you00:33:32
only need to look at the Spanish
conquistadors decimation of South00:33:37
America to see what a few warriors on
horseback can do these really were rich00:33:44
and powerful people as communities grew
inevitably rituals became progressively00:33:51
more elaborate and burial grounds like
pretty 9 Burroughs illustrate the huge00:33:56
significance they held for the community
even today the very word barrow still00:34:02
holds a ghostly place in folklore like
any graveyards there's a sense of00:34:06
walking amongst the dead00:34:10
over time the whole relationship between
the living and the dead became more00:34:14
structured giving rise to sophisticated
temples in a variety of building styles00:34:20
this part of England is characterized by
the seven Cotswolds style of tomb and00:34:25
some of them are wonderfully preserved
some like stony littleton have burial00:34:32
chambers which are accessed from within
a low central passageway excavations00:34:39
seem to suggest that the chambers in
this style of tomb was specific to age00:34:43
and gender of the dead children buried
in the first chamber on the left00:34:48
sweeping clockwise with adult males in
the end chamber with the old being00:34:53
buried in the chamber closest to the
entrance on the right00:35:05
waylynn smithy is a much grander
construction with huge stones forming00:35:10
the imposing forecourt00:35:14
it was developed over a long period of
time the mound we still see today was00:35:20
actually built over an earlier mortuary
house made of timber00:35:31
others like Bella snap in the Cotswolds
have external burials along the00:35:36
sidewalls but with the same meticulous
attention to design and location00:35:54
they certainly picked beautiful places
to lay their loved ones to rest00:36:43
did you know Lakes rousing Jerusalem
might never have been written if it00:36:48
weren't for these the wrong white stones
in Oxfordshire may come as a surprise to00:36:53
know that much of Blake's
art and writing was inspired by the00:36:58
ideas of an 18th century clergyman and
friend of Isaac Newton Williams - Klee00:37:03
was secretary to the Society of
Antiquaries when he visited this place00:37:07
and apparently he had a life-changing
experience his visit brought him to00:37:13
believe that the sites were religious
and ritual centres built in ancient00:37:16
times by the Druids
Stokley meticulously catalogued00:37:21
described and illustrated so many of our
ancient monuments bringing them firmly00:37:26
to public attention and it's fair to say
that their mystical importance and place00:37:31
in our hearts is entirely due to him his
passion led him to adopt a grandiose00:37:36
title of archdruid kinder knacks
ultimately inspiring the eccentric00:37:42
artist and poet William Blake to write
his famous hymn00:37:49
Jerusalem is actually about rekindling
druid culture in Britain this place is a00:37:59
wonderful concoction of historical
confusion as names and dates all over00:38:04
the place there's tales of Witchcraft
and kingly fighting and no sense to be00:38:09
made of any of it it is a complicated
site on the other side of the road from00:38:15
the circle there's a big outlier
called the king stone and on the other00:38:20
side of the field over there is a very
full-on looking Dolman called the00:38:25
Whispering Knights the name roll rights
originates from Viking times when it was00:38:29
called crawler Landreth which meant the
land with special rights belonging to00:38:34
Aurora and apart from being a landowner
we don't really know anything about him00:38:39
then it was thought to refer to a Norman
called Roland who fought a battle here00:38:43
except that the battle near here
happened in 916 ad and Roland died in00:38:49
seven seven eight00:38:53
then perhaps the most tenacious myth of
all there's the story of Danish king00:38:59
Rallo you see the land on which the
stone stand was actually owned by a00:39:04
witch and one day while passing through
Rallo and his trusty Knights found00:39:09
themselves confronted by the crone she
said to King Rallo seven long strides00:39:15
shalt thou take if long Contin thou
constancy King of England that shall be00:39:22
stick stock Stone said Rallo as King of
England I shall be known and he took his00:39:28
seven strides but the view was hidden by
the slight rise of the ground the witch00:39:34
screeched with laughter as long Compton
thou canst not see King of England thou00:39:40
shalt not be rise up stick and stand
still stone for King of England thou00:39:48
shalt be none thou and thy men horse
stones shall be and I myself an Eldon00:39:55
tree which all sounds very mean and
self-destructive to me ironically if00:40:02
Rollins legs had been a bit longer then
his strides may well have shown him the00:40:07
village of long Compton in the valley
below instead he and his men turned to00:40:14
stone and remain as we see them today
although people do say that some nights00:40:20
they out root themselves and go down to
drink in the stream in the valley below00:40:28
so what do we know aside from the tales
of witchcraft which persist to this day00:40:34
it's generally accepted that the stones
were erected about five thousand years00:40:38
ago and excavations here have uncovered
Bronze Age burials cremations a couple00:40:43
of flint tools and an urn but perhaps
most significant of all is its location00:40:49
sitting on the Cotswolds Ridgeway the
role rights were probably for thousands00:40:54
of years a really important place on
what could be the oldest trade route in00:40:58
the country
trading in Flint trolls pottery00:41:02
livestock textile is probably very well
established and this was probably a00:41:07
major link between southern England and
the whole of the rest of Britain00:41:36
our standing stones belong to an age
long before British territories were00:41:40
established and there's something very
evocative about crossing a national00:41:44
border that didn't exist in those
ancient times00:41:51
Whalen's appears to have far fewer
megalithic remains than some other parts00:41:55
of britain but that may be simply
because they're harder to reach and many00:41:59
of them in inaccessible places are
forgotten and unnamed but those that00:42:06
have had an enduring place in people's
imagination are much to the richness of00:42:10
Welsh folklore the Ponte please rocking
stone has been a meeting place for as00:42:16
long as we know and it has strong
connections with the Welsh bardic00:42:20
tradition interestingly though the stone
circle around it was constructed by00:42:25
bards in 18-49 and that made me wonder
very occasionally we still build stone00:42:32
circles in a kind of homage to our
distant ancestors but with no real00:42:36
knowledge of their original purpose how
do we know that half of the British00:42:41
circles aren't Bronze Age Follies built
in homage to their Neolithic ancestors00:42:46
with no knowledge of their intent tink
ins wood is another example of a seven00:42:53
Cotswolds tomb and this enormous
Neolithic Monument is home to the00:42:57
largest capstone in Britain 30 feet long
and weighing around 50 tons folklore00:43:06
says that if you fall asleep here you
will wake as a bard or go mad although00:43:12
with some of the birds I've met I'm not
sure it isn't the same thing00:43:21
out in the wilder countryside the open
Moreland's echo the barren landscapes of00:43:26
Dartmoor and everything seems to
disappear into the vast openness of it00:43:30
all00:43:42
above the river tour if it weren't for
the massive standing stone called may00:43:47
more you could easily miss the circle of
caring gone but however unimpressive the00:43:53
circle may be its position looking down
through the valleys is spectacular00:44:21
this is gorse vow in Pembrokeshire and
it's typical of Welsh stone circles you00:44:29
know they're all made of small stones
which is really strange because you see00:44:33
that Ridge up there behind me well
that's the pre-cell is right now I can00:44:38
tell you from the wonders of GPS
technology that Stonehenge is a hundred00:44:44
and thirty-five miles from here you know
the blue stones at Stonehenge they came00:44:49
from up there I think it may be another
good example of the possible remnants of00:44:56
old oral traditions that Merlin appears
in Welsh folklore and is the reputed00:45:01
builder of Stonehenge long before his
emergence as a wizard in romantic00:45:06
Arthurian legend these faint strands
could connect to an age far older than00:45:11
we imagined dolmens punctuate the
landscape in this part of Wales although00:45:20
here they're usually called chrome licks
and are all that remain of much bigger00:45:24
structures not far from the Priscilla's
the tiny letter trip earth stands lonely00:45:30
on a hilltop and its small size makes it
difficult to imagine what it may have00:45:34
looked like but a few miles to the south
pantry fan is so huge that it takes a00:45:40
tall man to reach its enormous capstone
and these stones were covered by a long00:45:45
mound of earth and stones which
stretched about a hundred feet down the00:45:49
hill behind it00:46:08
further north in a village called as
boutique convent not far from00:46:13
Aberystwyth is an incongruous site
illustrating the struggle between00:46:17
ancient belief and Christianity the once
powerful stone circle has been absorbed00:46:23
into the walls of the church graveyard
very much like the church sitting on top00:46:27
of Knowlton henge in Dorset the early
church clearly recognized the greater00:46:32
impact of using the site for something
new rather than destroying it00:46:37
in contrast the unspoiled circle of
multi HF sits majestically on a hill00:46:43
looking out across the landscape just as
it has for millennia and sites like this00:46:49
highlight an aspect of these monuments
which is often overlooked they look00:46:54
similar but this is a circle of stones
forming an almost unbroken enclosure00:46:59
clearly different from a stone circle
where the stones are widely spaced and00:47:04
each has a deliberate placing00:47:25
hi in the hills overlooking Conway Bay
sits a site called the druid circle00:47:40
all through Wales links with the Druids
seems to grow stronger and here it's not00:47:46
without reason00:47:52
although little is known about them we
do know that in Celtic tradition the00:47:56
Truitt's were already long-established
by 200 BC to the rest of society these00:48:03
revered teachers clearly held a special
status than from the later accounts of00:48:07
Julius Caesar referring to the Druids in
Gaul we find that they were exempt from00:48:12
all normal taxes and obligations00:48:15
interestingly when it came to electing a
successor for the position of supreme00:48:22
druid if it couldn't be resolved by vote
it was decided by armed force so much00:48:29
for peaceful mistletoe pickers the Roman
invasion of Britain was ruthless and as00:48:36
they forged their way north the opposing
Brits along with the Druids were forced00:48:41
to retreat ahead of them through Wales
and it was ad 60 that everything came to00:48:48
a head Rome had to overcome the
Troublesome druids if it was going to00:48:53
achieve total control of Britain it was
here on the Isle of Anglesey that the00:48:59
Druids made their last stand against the
might of the Roman Empire and00:49:04
contemporary accounts tell of a people
far removed from the peaceful white robe00:49:08
mystics imagined by stutely the final
battle started here at the Menai Strait00:49:17
the Roman army arrived at the riverbank
over there and looked across to a00:49:23
terrifying sight Tacitus described the
enemy as a dense array of armed warriors00:49:29
he said women in black with disheveled
hair were dashing between the ranks like00:49:34
Furies and waving brands druids with
their arms in the air yelling curses at00:49:39
the Roman army he says that the soldiers
were paralyzed with fear but nonetheless00:49:45
the Romans 1 and the Druids mythical
status today is the legacy of that once00:49:50
powerful force and who knows what body
of knowledge died with them00:50:08
one needs to remember that despite our
perception of the druidic links with00:50:13
stone circles and ancient monuments
these sites were built long long before00:50:18
we hear anything about the existence of
Druids00:50:22
for example on anglesey is the
profoundly mystical but claudia de garis00:50:28
about 5,000 years old a circular
structure which leaves no doubt that it00:50:34
was a significant setting for ritual
practices there are what appear to be00:50:39
burial chambers to the sides although
only one was found to contain human00:50:43
remains stones positioned within the
tomb bear strange carvings and strangest00:50:51
of all archeologists have found that in
the central area a fire had burned for a00:50:56
long time into the middle of which had
been poured us to a stew containing eel00:51:05
grass whiting rabbit mouse shrew snake
frog and toad now easy as it is for us00:51:19
to associate such a recipe with a
Shakespearean witch's brew actually00:51:25
there is another interesting possibility
these people seem to be fascinated by00:51:30
creatures that live in the margins of
the natural world creatures that live00:51:34
underground where man would only place
the dead or in water where man couldn't00:51:39
exist at all or only coming out at night
when the veils between the living and00:51:46
the dead seemed to be lifted in the mind
of Neolithic man could these creatures00:51:51
have seemed to pass between the worlds
of the living and the dead however we00:51:57
interpret this remarkable find
discovering these organic remains has00:52:02
given us a unique glimpse into the
ritual lives of our ancestors soup00:52:22
this is bring Keith levy and it really
is one of the most significant sites in00:52:28
Britain its history is long and very
complex and there's been a lot of debate00:52:33
over its construction about five
thousand years ago it was a henge00:52:39
complete with ditch and Bank and to
emphasize its importance the central00:52:44
area was crowned by a circle of big
stones then about a thousand years later00:52:49
it was turned into a huge chambered can
far bigger than is visible today the00:52:55
ditch was filled and Earth from the bank
was used to provide material for the00:52:59
earth mound and to make the tomb the
circle stones were moved and reused or00:53:05
broken and buried in a total destruction
of what had been before00:53:09
another example of a total change of
usage a place being taken over00:53:15
completely and changed from an open
place for the living into an enclosed00:53:19
place for the dead in a way it's like
the stone circle of his boutique in00:53:24
vain' being absorbed into the walls of a
later Christian graveyard and it's00:53:29
possibly our best example of the
underlying complexity at any site that00:53:33
was used for thousands of years gotta be
honest with you I came here yesterday00:53:42
and I thought the one I got to Anglesey
I'll tell you about the Druids and show00:53:47
you a couple of sites and go but I found
something here that I really can't00:53:52
understand how it's been missed before
it's genuinely the most exciting thing00:53:57
I've ever discovered and yesterday it
left me stunned for hours can I have a00:54:02
look at this00:54:19
this is the burial chamber and here
stands an impressive pillar of stone it00:54:27
doesn't touch the ceiling so it's not
structural it's important in its own00:54:31
right now archeological texts and
writings about this site have described00:54:38
this as a monolith and as a carefully
dressed pillar of stone meaning it was00:54:46
cut to be this shape but you can't cut
these textures so what could be00:54:53
cylindrical and this rough texture it's
a fossil tree trunk look you can see00:55:01
where the bark has split revealing the
wood grain underneath all around you can00:55:08
see traces of that now don't switch off
when I say what I'm gonna say next some00:55:18
of these cut marks can only have been
made when it was wood not when it was00:55:25
stoned look here the bark has dragged
stone would have split or shattered and00:55:32
down here two distinct marks blows where
the wood has pulped and you can't make00:55:43
these marks in stone unless it's
something like a mud stone but in that00:55:47
case you won't get these textures now
you'll have to think I'm crazy or you'll00:55:53
be as stunned as I was yesterday because
as far as I was concerned the latest00:55:59
fossil wood comes from the Miocene
period which is about 20 million years00:56:04
ago I sat on the floor stunned and
confused and then rang a friend of mine00:56:09
who knows about these things and
apparently the latest research from00:56:14
Japan has proved that petrification so
it's turning into stone can occur much00:56:21
faster than we thought and it
is conceivable that a piece of wood this00:56:28
size could petrify in under a century
but that's in extreme conditions now00:56:34
even if we give it a few thousand years
we still have a wonderful story we could00:56:42
have a tree trunk that has been worked
by man it falls into a bog with a high00:56:48
acid content and a high silica content
and over that period of time it turns to00:56:54
stone now when it was found again it
must have seemed like a thing of00:57:00
absolute magic to Neolithic man would
symbolize life and stone symbolize death00:57:07
so here was a being of life and
afterlife living and dead whether it was00:57:15
found by the builders of Ben Cassidy or
whether it was brought here from00:57:19
elsewhere
already a highly prized item we may00:57:23
never know I'm just amazed that nobody
has written about this before and I hope00:57:29
that specialists get here to date it and
soon because if it is 20 million years00:57:37
old
I don't know what I'll do00:58:33
Island this really is the land of fairy
tales any turn in the road might reveal00:58:40
a slight so beautiful that your heart
skips a beat it's hard to know where to00:58:45
start00:58:57
until you see castle rudder e-even as
stone circles go this looks a bit of a00:59:04
mess but underneath its tired appearance
lies a site as complex as stent and drew00:59:10
or bringeth levy known as a circle henge
the stones are surrounded by a raised00:59:16
bank and excavations showed it to have
been built using soil from a ditch lying00:59:21
24 feet outside the circle and if that
wasn't impressive enough the excavations00:59:27
also revealed that the whole thing was
surrounded by another Bank which was00:59:32
supported by a wall of wooden posts but
even with all of that it isn't what00:59:37
excited me about this site until I came
here I didn't know when or where I was00:59:43
going to talk about a particular
obsession of mine drill holes drill00:59:51
holes are a fairly common feature around
megalithic monuments and it's always00:59:55
intrigued me that no one really
discusses them one of the things that00:59:59
makes them so enigmatic is that in the
main they all appear to be worked with01:00:03
the same size of tool they've been
dismissed by some as being worked in the01:00:09
last few hundred years by stonemasons
attempting to split and clear stones01:00:13
from the land now obviously some of them
could be exactly that but drilled stones01:00:18
litter the landscape across Devon and
Cornwall with many of them still in01:00:23
positions which bear no relation to
possible clearing and even though these01:00:27
are a typical examples here at castle
rudder II there's evidence that I have01:00:32
good reason to be excited by this
apparently minor detail firstly this01:00:39
stone close to the white quartz entrance
stones is drilled to create an elegant01:00:43
curved edge the other half of it lies
outside the circle but clearly is01:00:48
nothing to do with clearing and secondly
but most significantly this stone lying01:00:55
to one side of the circle has five
carefully worked slots for who knows01:01:00
what purpose the thing is that I know an
identical stone lying in a similar01:01:05
position in another circle
back on Dartmoor in southwest England at01:01:10
a place called fern worthy it would be
extraordinary if these stones were not01:01:16
cut and positioned for the same purpose
so we may have another piece of evidence01:01:20
for a shared ritual or practice that we
know nothing about01:01:32
Ireland has such a variety of megalithic
monuments some of them extraordinary for01:01:38
their audacity like Browns Hill Dolman
near Carlo in the southeast01:01:43
its immense capstone is the biggest in
Europe and is estimated to weigh between01:01:48
a hundred and 150 tonnes01:01:58
others like lab Akali near for muy are
extraordinary in their design this looks01:02:03
more like a prehistoric dying that to me
it's not surprising that Ireland is so01:02:10
steeped in fairy lore when you see sites
like the beautifully elegant circle of01:02:15
odd grooms it's tall slender stones it's
really hard not to imagine it filled01:02:20
with equally tall and slender robed
figures01:02:29
and utterly magical sites that because
of their settings chosen so carefully by01:02:34
their builders seem to exist in another
world altogether like aura standing01:02:40
timelessly on the banks of a lake facing
a waterfall which cascades down from the01:02:45
hills on the far shore01:03:38
have a look at this
here's a map of a tiny area in the south01:03:46
and I'm not even going to bother to open
it all out okay standing stone standing01:03:54
stone Boulder burial stone circle
megalithic tomb stone circle megalithic01:03:59
tomb Boulder burial cross inscribed
stone Boulder burial standing stones01:04:03
Standing Stone stone circle stone circle
Boulder burial Boulder burial megalithic01:04:07
tomb megalithic tombs standing stone a01:04:11
map of a tiny area in the North cans
cans cans megalithic two megalithic two01:04:25
megalithic two megalithic tomb making us
into him pick anywhere megalithic tombs01:04:29
standing stone standing stone megalithic
two megalithic two megalithic two01:04:32
megalithic tomb standing stones stone
circle stone row megalithic tomb they01:04:36
are everywhere over the whole of Ireland
there are 1,500 megalithic sites that's01:04:45
the big stone stuff I don't want to keep
tossing the list at you but if we do01:04:49
count the cans and the bearers and all
that stuff as well there are an01:04:52
incredible 5,000 recorded archaeological
sites in County Sligo alone now the01:05:00
point is that here as we saw on Dartmoor
for example there's been comparatively01:05:05
little building so the traces of our
ancestors are still clear to see now01:05:10
even allowing for the variations in
population density if there are 500001:05:16
sites in County Sligo alone how many
cells a must there have been across the01:05:21
whole of Britain and Ireland having seen
from the maps just how many sites cover01:05:28
the Irish landscape picking any road in
the southwest seems to lead to something01:05:32
worth visiting here the circle of sh
rome bahrain with its tall portal stones01:05:38
sits isolated off the road
almost oppressed by the ominous rock01:05:42
face behind it it's amazing how the
atmosphere of a place is so influenced01:05:47
by its position in total contrast - Rome
Bahrain the portal dolmen of Palmer01:05:53
Brown in County Galway stands proudly
under open skies which seemed to link it01:05:58
far more to the heavens than the earth01:06:05
earlier I mentioned that there are 5,000
recorded archaeological sites in County01:06:10
Sligo well out of all those places in
Sligo there's been one area which stands01:06:16
out from all the rest01:06:28
this is Karrimor Ireland's largest
megalithic cemetery it's amongst the01:06:35
oldest and largest megalithic cemeteries
in Europe and the dates here are01:06:39
staggering
earliest remains have been dated back to01:06:42
around nine thousand six hundred years
ago and the earliest megalithic tombs01:06:47
here - about seven thousand years ago so
to put that in perspective that's a very01:07:00
very long time before any of the great
pyramid building in Egypt you see that01:07:06
lump up there behind me that's not an
array it's the sacred mountain that01:07:10
dominates the surrounding lowlands and
you see that bump on the very top that's01:07:16
what we're going next not an array is
not alone amongst the surrounding01:07:23
mountains in having a huge can at its
summit but this colossal monument is01:07:29
called Maeve's can and there really was
an Iron Age Queen Maeve who could be01:07:34
buried here01:07:37
even though the can itself predates
Maeve by a couple of thousand years01:07:42
tombs were commonly reused for long
periods so it is possible01:08:06
Irish mythology tells of people that
came from over the sea a noble figures01:08:12
like the kings of Tara the kings of to
uttered their Danann and here Queen01:08:17
Maeve you know whoever does lie here
they must have been held in the very01:08:22
highest esteem to be buried at such a
site01:08:51
we'd probably mostly agree that man is
an animal trying to solve the problems01:08:57
of living comfortably with his
environment and you probably hear people01:09:02
say quite often that man no longer lives
in harmony with his environment but01:09:05
actually that's a mistake man lives in
total harmony with his environment he01:09:10
just happens to have created a
completely artificial one over which he01:09:14
has far greater control the accurate
thing to say would be that urbanized man01:09:18
no longer lives in harmony with nature
now this is essentially how we lost our01:09:24
connection with our ancestors the
stories and myths passed down for01:09:28
thousands of years cease to have meaning
for a people so far removed from nature01:09:33
now in Britain the combination of Roman
invasion and centuries of religious01:09:39
dogma destroyed or absorbed sometimes
confused that earlier heritage as is so01:09:46
clear to see at places like Nolton henge
for example or as Betty convene adopter01:09:52
into the present and it ceases to have
the past that you so wish to hide it01:09:58
only takes a few centuries of being told
how and what to think and believe for01:10:03
almost all traces of a word-of-mouth
tradition to disappear so cultural01:10:08
heritage had to start all over again the
problem now is that our artificial01:10:14
environment maintains that separation
from our ancestors and the speed of01:10:18
change through our technological
advances means that few figures in01:10:22
history hold their meaning who were the
mythical kings of Terra01:10:28
the kings of - Arthur didn't own and
Queen Maeve we cling to the heroic tales01:10:34
of King Arthur of Robin Hood because
they remind us of the values that we01:10:39
hold dear
love honor bravery nobility but01:10:45
historical figures don't fit so easily
into an ever-evolving culture there's01:10:52
really only one way to find modern day
heroes who will fit into a culture01:10:58
undergoing constant change
we create celebrities01:11:17
it's interesting that as you move north
through Ireland the site seemed to01:11:22
become grander and more sophisticated
still in County Sligo the court can of01:11:28
creevy keel is one of the finest
examples of this type of structure the01:11:33
open area has a puzzling circular
construction with its own passage01:11:38
entrance perhaps a kind of pulpit where
the priest could make a grand entrance01:11:42
when the congregation was settled in the
wider area of the court beyond this lies01:11:48
what would have been the covered tomb
itself still guarded by imposing portal01:11:53
stones01:12:11
big more near Londonderry seems more
like a showpiece of Bronze Age01:12:16
architectural design the circles here
are laid out in pairs each pair having01:12:26
its own can and approaching stone rows01:12:44
the overall sense of establishment
refinement of old rituals is almost01:12:49
tangible especially at the most famous
group of Ireland's prehistoric monuments01:12:54
now south and Newgrange in the Boyne
Valley01:12:59
sadly death is little more than a ruin
long since ravaged by quarrying but now01:13:05
the Newgrange hold a level of artistry
which leaves you speechless01:13:15
these Neolithic masterpieces show a
level of sophistication which is01:13:19
impossible to take in on a single visit
both Newgrange and now the colossal01:13:25
monuments in themselves each surrounded
by numerous chambered tombs01:13:41
each also has its own crowning feature01:13:48
Newgrange is meticulously built in a
line so that it's gently rising01:13:53
passageway coincides with the angle of
the sun's rays when they shine through01:13:57
the opening above the entrance at the
winter solstice the sunlight reaches up01:14:02
the passageway to illuminate the central
chamber01:14:13
Nath is notable for an entirely
different reason the whole site is01:14:18
adorned with decorated stones in fact
Natha loan accounts for over a quarter01:14:24
of all the known megalithic art in
Europe01:14:41
I couldn't leave Ireland without saying
something else about Newgrange from up01:14:47
here it does look spectacular but
actually it's both a marvel and a01:14:52
monstrosity inside its original it's an
awesome display of Neolithic01:14:58
sophistication creating that internal
space that's only illuminated by the Sun01:15:03
at winter solstice has to have been done
with a fantastic understanding of01:15:08
astronomy it really is worth a visit but
outside it's a lie Neolithic man would01:15:15
never have built that monster that
gleaming white quartz facade conceals a01:15:20
concrete wall the only way that that
design would stay standing and all01:15:25
around above the curb stones there are
concrete Flint's that support the weight01:15:29
of the mound even the entrance it's
designed to take huge numbers of01:15:34
visitors the court would never have
looked like that01:15:38
it's a 1970s piece of nonsense
come and marvel at the inside but ignore01:15:44
the outside it's just not true01:16:21
halfway between Ireland and England
lying peacefully in the middle of the01:16:25
Irish Sea is perhaps the best-kept
secret of the British Isles01:16:46
aside from being a beautiful island the
isle of man is steeped in history and01:16:52
folklore to this day it remains
politically independent and is home to01:16:57
the oldest unbroken Parliament in the
world the ten world was a meeting place01:17:04
for the clans and has had many reputed
sites around the island throughout01:17:07
history even today it maintains its
ancient political rituals at 10 Wald01:17:12
Hill looking every bit a prehistoric
mound in the town of sand John's01:17:20
this deeply held respect for heritage
means that ancient sites often add to01:17:26
the sense of place accepted and
protected in intimate proximity to01:17:31
modern houses it's also home to some
unique prehistoric sites which clearly01:17:38
show a shared culture with the British
Isles but are individual in their design01:17:43
and layout on open Moreland's
overlooking the sea across the hillsides01:17:52
and in secluded woods
the signs of ancient sites remain01:18:16
if you saw a hot circle marked on a map
you probably wouldn't bother to even01:18:21
come and have a look
but without coming to explore where on01:18:25
earth would you find a site like this01:18:30
it's marked as just a hot circle which
implies that it's just the footings of a01:18:37
building where somebody lived but if
it's true that this is how our ancestors01:18:42
built their houses then why aren't there
thousands of them all over the01:18:46
landscapes
you have to wonder is it possible that01:18:50
it was where maybe a holy man lived on
the outskirts of a village or maybe just01:18:57
somebody really antisocial who didn't
want to have anything to do with anybody01:19:00
else over on the southwest tip of the
island is an extraordinary site called01:19:08
molehill it's hard to imagine how this
would have looked in its day but the01:19:13
circle of cans laid out in pairs with
numerous entrances hints and elaborate01:19:19
rituals under an open sky and with clear
views to the Setting Sun01:19:36
many of the islands monuments are
positioned looking out to sea and01:19:40
sometimes the most unimposing sight can
turn out to be quite special of all the01:19:49
sites in the world that visited this is
one of my personal favorites it's listed01:19:55
as just a can but it's an excellent
example of why we shouldn't take things01:19:59
for granted and you can see on closer
inspection why it can't just be a burial01:20:05
site look at this this place is unique
it's a white quartz box these walls and01:20:24
ceiling are huge blocks of white quartz
and the thing is that they're not at the01:20:31
center of the km which is where a
traditional burial would be there at the01:20:34
back this place is intimate it's really
intimate it is more than just a burial01:20:41
chamber another feature of this mound
can also be seen across Britain and01:20:47
that's the small ditch and raised Bank
running around its perimeter to me it01:20:54
seems likely that they shared the same
function as the banks at the great01:20:58
hinges the perfect height for seating to
watch a priest minister to his flock or01:21:05
whatever ritual was taking place on the
mound01:21:19
this is cash telling art one of the most
important sites on the whole of the Isle01:21:24
of Man it's about four thousand years
old and it's a great example of how our01:21:31
perceptions can become distorted and the
impressions that we get can be a bit01:21:35
misleading we can be forgiven for
thinking that you find somewhere like01:21:42
this in the landscape in an isolated
place and it would have been maybe a01:21:45
small community living somewhere but
when you think about it the manpower01:21:51
necessary to create the site of this
size must have been immense01:21:56
when we're just left with the bare bones
of a building it can sometimes be very01:22:01
hard to imagine what it must have looked
like when it was fully intact01:22:20
big in there01:22:29
this is something you don't see every
day we're used to sites being isolated01:22:35
because the needs of communities change
and they move to new ground but you find01:22:41
a place like this and you can see that
people have been living on this very01:22:45
spot for 5,000 years or more lack see
isn't a big town even today its01:22:56
population is still only around 2,000
inhabitants but nevertheless its status01:23:01
as a successful settlement is clear and
this site is huge it's probably one of01:23:07
the biggest of its kind in the whole of
the British Isles the other half of it01:23:11
is way behind the house on the other
side of the road over there this whole01:23:17
site is called king orry's grave in
Lexie and if it was one site when it was01:23:23
built with this central row of burial
chambers running right through to the01:23:27
other side it's even bigger than at
cachtice Lonard that we were looking at01:23:31
before so it must have been for a big
community and it must have been a very01:23:36
important site perhaps the important
point to note from the Isle of Man is01:23:41
that even on a small island we can see
evidence of communities which were big01:23:46
enough and stable enough either to have
daily sustenance sufficiently under01:23:51
control that they had the time to build
such sites all that the community was01:23:56
big enough for some people to be
dedicated to the task of building01:24:23
coming down the timeline of history
inevitably there are crossovers between01:24:29
archaeology and geology but it is
important not to blur the edges01:24:34
archeology tells us about how our
ancestors lived what they did what they01:24:39
left behind but geology tells us about
the land on which they lived in01:24:45
archaeological terms what we broadly
call the Stone Age began way back two01:24:51
and a half million years ago in the
Paleolithic and astonishingly with this01:24:57
simple tool use it was well over a
million years before men realized that01:25:01
it was a good idea to hit stones with
stones the development was really slow01:25:10
we have to come way way down closer to
the present day to the Neolithic period01:25:16
which started incredibly only eight
thousand years ago when our building01:25:22
work began that lasted until the
beginning of the Bronze Age only four01:25:27
and a half thousand years ago now all
this sits within a geological period01:25:33
called the Holocene which started 10,000
years ago so all the work that we know01:25:41
of or the ancient sites all the
megalithic tomb building that all01:25:44
happened in this small time frame in the
Holocene period now here in the Holocene01:25:52
beds at Formby point north of Liverpool
something truly wonderful is happening01:26:01
the see here has washed away thousands
of years of sand uncovering a 6,000 year01:26:09
old beach baked so hard by the Sun over
a long dry period that when the tide01:26:15
next brought sands over to cover it it
just rested gently on top protecting01:26:21
every mark that had been made by people
this isn't rock this is just baked hard01:26:29
ancients and so the sea is gradually
washing it away these won't be here for01:26:35
long they have found children's
footprints and animals footprints here01:26:40
too so the man who left these prints
could have been out hunting with his01:26:45
children it's wonderful to think that he
could have stood on this spot watching01:26:50
his children play or watching the Sun go
down01:27:11
are below in the Peak District is
another fabulous henge it may be smaller01:27:17
in size than the enormous hinges of
Avebury and Stanton drew but is01:27:21
nonetheless impressive for it the inner
mount stone circle is long fallen either01:27:27
through centuries of high winds or
perhaps religious destruction but in use01:27:32
all those thousands of years ago it must
have been a wonderful sight01:28:23
Stenton more in derbyshire is home to an
enormous Bronze Age cemetery and its01:28:28
focal point of the nine ladies stone
circle stands on what would have been01:28:33
open high ground the early morning mist
seemed to give it an even greater01:28:39
mystery but nine stones so often we see
nine stones01:29:18
near clithero in Lancashire Bleasdale
circle is another mysterious site but01:29:24
very important for us in our journey you
may have wondered why I'm not travelling01:29:30
much into the east of the country and
Bleasdale is a good illustration of the01:29:34
reason this small arrangement of
concrete cylinders marks the post holes01:29:39
that have been found here and this is
all that can be seen of a much bigger01:29:43
and complicated site which spread into
the surrounding field the geology of01:29:48
Britain has created an almost Rock less
sway that crossed much of eastern01:29:52
England
this meant that here our ancestors had01:29:56
no choice but to use wood to build all
their important sites which have long01:30:00
since rotted away leaving no visible
trace above ground imagine what the flat01:30:06
lowlands of England might have looked
like covered in wooden versions of stone01:30:10
circles
how many wood hinges and stent and Druze01:30:14
might there have been waiting to be
rediscovered01:30:24
the early church often use standing
stones to put the fear of God into the01:30:29
hearts of the lowly people of the parish
all over the country you find sites01:30:33
which still bear the names they were
given to frighten the would-be sinner01:30:37
their merry maidens the nine maidens the
hurlers the nine ladies of stent and01:30:42
more all turned to stone for doing
something ungodly on a Sunday you know01:30:48
really bad things like dancing or
playing a happy tune and here even more01:30:55
scary the devil apparently threw this
stone in an attempt to destroy the01:31:00
church amidst but aside from early
superstitions what do we have here this01:31:07
is the rub stone monolith it's the
tallest standing stone in Britain nearly01:31:14
26 feet tall and if you apply the rule
of thumb for big monoliths that there's01:31:19
a quarter again in the ground
this stone is between 32 and 35 feet01:31:25
long and they brought it from Katyn over
ten miles away01:31:31
now obviously you don't go to that
amount of effort without a reason and01:31:35
here around Rustin may well have been as
important to our Bronze Age ancestors as01:31:40
the mighty Stonehenge and Avebury only
traces remain but almost invisible in01:31:47
the landscape are the remains of the
most enigmatic of prehistoric monuments01:31:52
the cursus imagine a henge a circular
area surrounded by a ditch with a raised01:32:00
Bank on the outside and then imagine
that idea as a straight line that's the01:32:07
basic structure of a cursus and they
were clearly of immense importance there01:32:12
are a number to be found across Britain
varying from the shortest example in01:32:16
Northampton two hundred yards long
through the Stonehenge cursus which is01:32:21
nearly two miles long to the awesome
Dorset cursus which stretches for six01:32:26
miles it's 300 feet wide and the
builders shifted an incredible six and a01:32:32
half million cubic feet of chalk in its
construction and I wonder if the01:32:37
processionary pathway of the tin world
on the Isle of Man is a living example01:32:42
of the same structure every July the
fifth on tin wool day the world's oldest01:32:48
Parliament walks between the raised
banks in a procession to the step mound01:32:52
at the end here new laws are proclaimed
and the people gather to seek justice01:32:57
and air their grievances around redstone
there were at least four curses01:33:04
monuments and it may not be coincidental
that this site lies pretty close to01:33:09
halfway up mainland Britain a national
meeting place perhaps01:33:21
theories about the purpose of these huge
structures vary greatly but I favor the01:33:28
slightly controversial idea that they're
the precursors to the Athletics track01:33:32
the feature of the raised bank would
certainly have given clear views to01:33:37
spectators and the fact there are often
burials adjacent to them01:33:41
does nothing to negate the theory even
today we still play cricket and hold01:33:46
sports days on the field by the church
we're often so wrapped up in the01:33:51
spiritual side of our ancestors we
forget that our fundamental to all01:33:56
species especially humans is competition
after all the Greek Olympics and the01:34:02
Roman arenas didn't spring from nowhere
evidence absolutely none I just wish01:34:10
they'd uncover some chalk lines running
the full length of well01:34:59
there's a common misconception about our
Neolithic and Bronze Age ancestors that01:35:05
they always lived around their
settlement and never really went very01:35:09
far from home but you remember way back
at the rollright stones in Oxfordshire I01:35:15
mentioned a trade route across Britain
and believe it or not some of the best01:35:21
evidence we have for the scale of that
trade is up there on the top of Langdale01:35:28
pike in Cumbria01:36:16
this is local stone it is found in a few
other places not far from here most of01:36:23
them a lot easier to get to and you have
to wonder why our ancestors chose this01:36:28
remote an inaccessible spot as a centre
for their axe making industry the thing01:36:37
is that this stone produced axe heads of
such quality that they were highly01:36:42
prized and desired items how do we know
because axes from this very spot have01:36:49
been found as far afield as Ireland
Scotland southern England and more than01:36:54
anywhere else
way over in the East in Lincolnshire01:36:57
some have even been found completely
unused in burials and religious sites01:37:02
the significance of Lincolnshire is that
it's a place with a little local stone01:37:07
the people in the East would have needed
to buy these and what price a beautiful01:37:13
axe a pig a cow a pottery urn01:37:22
so did people bring their items here to
exchange them or with the axes carried01:37:28
all over Britain by traders the truth is
we don't actually know how the trading01:37:34
took place the important thing is that
it did01:37:51
in the region all around the Langdale
ex-factory there are suggestions of a01:37:56
level of wealth similar to the Flint
lands of Wiltshire the small druid01:38:01
circle of Alveston also known as the
Druids temple on Berkeley common to the01:38:06
south of Londo looks unassuming but is
all that remains of a circle which must01:38:11
have been quite beautiful there used to
be an outer circle now all but invisible01:38:16
but the circles once stood on a stone
pavement and the inner area was cobbled01:38:22
with a bluish stone that wasn't local it
seems that this carefully designed01:38:26
construction with its open views across
Morecombe Bay was more elegant than01:38:31
cheap in sharp contrast closer to the
axe Factory things were far less subtle01:38:38
enormous show sites were built in an
overt display of wealth and power01:38:44
sunken Kirk to the southwest originally
contains sixty stones in its impressive01:38:49
circle and excavations found that the
ground had been completely leveled in01:38:54
preparation for its construction01:39:07
and to the north one of my favorite
circles in the whole of Britain Castle01:39:14
rig near Kazik in the Lake District
stands in a breathtaking setting01:39:24
whilst it may just as easily have been
an axe market the abiding impression01:39:28
here is of a vast Cathedral where the
mountains themselves are a part of the01:39:33
grand design01:39:46
moving away from the lakes to the
northeast near Penrith stands another01:39:52
giant among stone circles in fact long
Meghan her daughter's is the sixth01:39:57
largest in the whole of Britain with an
incredible seventy stone still standing01:40:08
it's possible that long Meg the tall
outlier was standing before the circle01:40:15
was built alongside but it's hard to
know for sure there's a lot of debate01:40:26
about inscribed stones but I do have to
wonder if they're not Maps there are01:40:34
three rings here that's a big one here
that you probably can't see in this01:40:37
light but we have this big circle here
huge circle there used to be a circle01:40:44
over there and there still is another
circle over there so we have these three01:40:50
circles that maybe illustrate that if
you look at places like now for example01:40:56
in Ireland where some of the engravings
are really intricate but again show01:41:01
shapes that can relate to some of the
structures that we see in the landscape01:41:08
I've spent a certain amount of time with
the Kogi Indians who live in the jungles01:41:13
of northern Colombia and they are the
descendants of and effectively remain to01:41:19
this day and Neolithic culture now the
entrance to one of their cities in the01:41:24
jungles they have a huge stone that
could be a thousand fifteen hundred01:41:29
years old
covered with engravings now they call it01:41:34
the map stone and it shows the layout of
the city as it spreads into the jungle01:41:41
and I think when you look at these rings
knowing what we know now about Stanton01:41:46
drew about the postholes and these
concentric rings of posts and that more01:41:52
and more post holes are being found at
different sites I do have to wonder are01:41:57
these rings and
showing that there were concentric rings01:42:01
within this site as well01:42:11
our first sight across the border into
Scotland is coincidentally the seventh01:42:17
largest circle in Britain the 12
apostles used to be 18 or so but sadly01:42:24
today only five remain however unexcited
this circle looks today01:42:29
it must have held huge amounts of people
but moving further into Scotland the01:42:36
variety of sites have echoes of others
far away across Britain down in the01:42:41
southwest of Scotland Ken Holi is an
impressive chambered can which is01:42:46
reminiscent of places like Whelan smithy
and cash still in art a little further01:42:51
north the circle of Glen quicken with
its huge central monolith seems to share01:42:56
its design with Baz Conan in Cornwall
and then up near Kilmartin in Argyll the01:43:03
wealth of engraved stones with cup and
ring markings share a number of01:43:07
characteristics with others we saw at
long Meg in Cumbria and now in Ireland01:44:09
I don't know see Sun rises over there
and each of these channels faces more or01:44:18
less in that direction I've got a Sun
compass here if I put that down now see01:44:29
each of these does line up with a
sunrise at varying times of year now it01:44:38
might be total nonsense but but on the
other hand it might not01:44:43
ironically there is one that is slightly
off the scale but do you throw the idea01:44:48
away because of one or did they have a
reason for making it different we will01:44:54
never know it's very easy to
underestimate the meticulous and01:45:01
painstaking job done by archeologists
and people often misinterpret what01:45:07
they're actually saying about their
findings for example a place is called a01:45:12
burial site because there are signs of
ritual burial that an individual was01:45:18
held in high esteem or affection but on
that basis would we call this a burial01:45:24
site the thing is that archaeologists
are saying we'll call this a burial site01:45:30
because that's what we know anything
else may be possible but it's conjecture01:45:35
and then there's a very real problem
with dating many Neolithic and Bronze01:45:42
Age tombs were constantly reused over
huge periods of time now you can date01:45:48
the remains that you find but does that
necessarily date the site let's say that01:45:55
in five thousand years time our
descendants are excavating Westminster01:46:00
Abbey well Edward the Confessor was
buried there in 1066 and we still bury01:46:07
royalty and eminent figures there today
our descendants need only excavate the01:46:14
newer remains to date the Abbey wrongly
by a thousand years01:46:23
and how about interpretation let's say
the same archaeologists start excavating01:46:30
our churches and pulling out tiny scraps
of information they find that all01:46:35
Christian churches are aligned east-west
a clear reference to the sun's movement01:46:41
in the sky then they find that there was
a big celebration called Christmas which01:46:46
was always held around the winter
solstice and another called Easter that01:46:50
was always held close to the spring
equinox01:46:53
then from jumbled texts they find that
the ritual day was on a Sunday and that01:46:59
Jesus was always referred to as the Son
of God01:47:03
on what basis would they not think that
Jesus was a Sun God and then we're01:47:09
confronted by a place like this I'm in
the area around Kilmartin01:47:16
in Argyll and rarely is there more scope
for confusion this whole area was in use01:47:23
for thousands of years with clear signs
of development and reuse over all that01:47:29
time and some of the details are
virtually impossible to interpret with01:47:34
any degree of certainty for instance
with these cup and ring markings made on01:47:41
a flat lying stone my clothes at kin
barn and a kinnor brick and then erected01:47:46
here to stand as this imposing megalith
long after the original significance of01:47:51
the markings have been forgotten and
then here the great X not a mile up the01:47:57
road has precise alignments with
features on the horizon which strongly01:48:04
implied that its function was a lunar
observatory and then over there is a01:48:10
linear cemetery a number of cans in a
line stretching nearly two miles across01:48:16
the countryside with a standing stone at
the end it's a a real gift for the ley01:48:22
line hunter searching for networking
lines of energy across the landscape I01:48:29
have to say that whilst I don't in any
way dismiss the many01:48:34
energetic experiences people have at
ancient monuments the more I see of01:48:38
these sites the more I'm faced by their
practicality and function and to me01:48:44
there is nothing mysterious about line
of sight if you can see one sight from01:48:49
any other you can orientate yourself and
know which way to travel01:49:01
and then still within the same complex
we find the bewildering site of temple01:49:08
wood archeologists would never have
found this circle if they hadn't been01:49:14
excavating the larger one over there
because it was completely hidden by the01:49:19
PT soils that cover the valley floor now
we know that there was a timber01:49:26
structure here first the post holes are
marked by these concrete cylinders and01:49:31
their positions do imply an astronomical
function then they started to build a01:49:38
stone circle here stones are long gone
now01:49:41
but before it was completed they built
the larger circle over there and they01:49:47
never came back to finish this one01:50:20
he imagined its nose and somebody builds
a snowman in the time-honored way of a01:50:28
lovely carrot for his nose and two lumps
of coal for his eyes and then the warmer01:50:33
weather comes and the Snowman melts then
one day you're walking across the field01:50:38
and you come across the two lumps of
coal and the carrot but you have no01:50:44
knowledge of the tradition of making
snowmen what would be your01:50:48
interpretation a messy cold man with a
careless donkey but then we're still say01:50:55
a sheep came along first and ate the
carrot and you were excavating the lumps01:51:01
of coal thousands of years later that's
the problem with our distant past01:51:07
fragmented pieces from different jigsaw
puzzles and we just don't know what goes01:51:13
with what
it's exciting01:51:24
people are often horrified when they see
a road going straight through the middle01:51:29
of an ancient site but actually what
we're looking at is thousands of years01:51:34
of unbroken human inhabitation it's
where the footpath became the donkey01:51:39
track which became the lane which became
the road it's where it's always been and01:51:45
it's where it belongs01:51:51
welcome to the land of the RSC and
though I don't mean as some regional01:51:58
open-air production of Macbeth by the
Royal Shakespeare Company RS c stands01:52:03
for recumbent stone circle it's a
remarkably unimaginative name coined by01:52:10
early archaeologists for these
extraordinary stone circles which have a01:52:15
massive horizontal stone seemingly Lane
as an altar in fact some of them weigh01:52:22
up to 50 tons and were dragged for miles
across the countryside and uphill to be01:52:28
placed exactly in position fantastic
they're extraordinary for more than one01:52:35
reason firstly here in the Grampians was
the highest concentration of stone01:52:41
circles anywhere there were over a
hundred and fifty of them and a huge01:52:46
amount of those were these technically
brilliant recumbents secondly and far01:52:52
more importantly the recumbent stone
circles are almost unique to this part01:52:57
of Britain why was this arrangement of
stones not used elsewhere why is the01:53:03
auto stone always placed to lie
precisely on the horizontal why was that01:53:09
level of accuracy so important that
smaller stones would be used to wedge01:53:13
them exactly into the required position
this is coffee Muir wood how long it's01:53:19
been award is anyone's guess but
certainly when the circle was erected01:53:24
the horizon would have been clear to see
and the answer to all those questions is01:53:29
that they were focused on the moon's
passage through the heavens in a way not01:53:34
possible further south they were
precisely aligned to mirror the01:53:39
landscape we're up here at this high
latitude at certain points in its cycle01:53:44
the moon skims the horizon as it dances
its way across the sky01:54:03
we have absolutely no idea what the
rituals may have been all their01:54:08
significance to the community but the
other examples of recumbents in this01:54:12
part of Scotland all emphasize this
intent genius01:55:11
now these are different stone circles
usually appear to be stone circles but01:55:19
these occasionally we see kists in the
middle but normally the burials01:55:25
associated with stone circles tend to be
on the outside these are clava cairns so01:55:43
named because the best preserved
examples of them are here in the01:55:47
district of klava
and all a very few remain to be seen01:55:50
today up here around the Moray Firth
there were loads of them here the cans01:55:57
were massive structures much taller
domed buildings than we see today the01:56:03
middle one is what is known as a ring
can the outer two are passage tombs01:56:07
aligned like Newgrange in Ireland so
that the winter solstice Sun streams01:56:12
through the passage to illuminate the
central chamber and these strange radial01:56:18
causeways which may have astronomical
alignments but no one knows for sure not01:56:25
far away the fine example of chorim oni
still has its passageway intact giving a01:56:31
much clearer idea of how they would have
looked what makes them so difficult to01:56:36
interpret is that they were used and
adapted over thousands of years the cams01:56:41
themselves are between three and four
thousand years old but perhaps strangely01:56:46
the surrounding stone circles were
erected much later around the time that01:56:52
stone circles generally were falling
into disuse and we can only wonder what01:56:56
our ancestors here were thinking01:57:03
in the same way that many of the
deconsecrated churches across Britain01:57:08
have become things like community
centers and apartments the builders01:57:13
intentions are confusing if and I have
to wonder how future archaeologists01:57:18
might decipher our present-day recycling
of old buildings so one of the stone01:57:28
circles just a fancy refurbishment to
the temple or did they relate to some01:57:34
worship built around structures where
the alignments had already been made01:57:39
we'll probably never know02:00:04
I've been waiting to come here for years
and actually being here is more02:00:09
breathtaking than I ever imagined02:00:16
no photograph can capture the sheer
majesty of the place it's a work of02:00:25
Neolithic wonder greater even in the
astronomical brilliance of the recumbent02:00:32
stone circles Kalen ish is the greatest
prehistoric observatory of them all02:00:37
situated on the Hebridean island of
Lewis I think it's utterly implausible02:00:42
that it was built by the Islanders
themselves simply for local use indeed02:00:47
one of the enduring legends of kallen
ish is that it was built by black men02:00:51
who came from over the sea there is a
burial can here but it was added long02:00:57
after the stones were erected and
lacking the stone altar of the02:01:01
recumbents the implication is that this
was a place of science rather than02:01:05
religion the full lunar cycle of 18.61
years is marks and predicted by these02:01:13
monoliths but here the wider horizon is
the stage just once in each cycle the02:01:19
moon seems to come down from the sky to
touch the earth disappearing behind the02:01:24
hills only to reappear in a final
display gleaming between the central02:01:30
stones as it passes02:01:46
we've only scratched the surface of its
alignments here the intricacy is so02:01:51
complete the impression is one of a
finely tuned clock marking the slow but02:01:56
predictable movement of the heavens
throughout the sight notches and angles02:02:01
are cut into the stones refining the
accuracy and marking certain celestial02:02:06
events the focus at Kalen ish of marking
the full lunar cycle brings another02:02:12
point to mind which is relevant to many
sites throughout the British Isles the02:02:16
closest you can get to marking 18.61 in
stones is 19 the number of stones in02:02:24
many sites especially in Cornwall and
the closest you can get to marking half02:02:29
that number is 9 are the many circles of
nine stones a slightly less accurate02:02:35
version of the same phenomenon and do
the wider spaces between stones which we02:02:40
so often interpret as entrances actually
mark a deliberate offset to adjust the02:02:46
inaccuracy of the circle to me the
insistence on describing the builders of02:02:52
these extraordinary sites as animal skin
wearing farmers is like saying that02:02:57
Britain's motorway system was built by
shoppers02:03:14
up here almost at the end of my journey
it brings to mind that I began working02:03:20
on this project about eight years ago
I've driven about 8,000 miles across the02:03:25
British Isles and I have no idea how far
I've walked wouldn't surprise me if it02:03:30
was about 800 fate must be on my side
because without any deliberate planning02:03:36
and through constantly shifting weather
dependent schedules I've arrived here02:03:42
five hours before a lunar eclipse I said
right at the beginning of the film that02:04:03
it's only by being here standing with
these ancient stones that we can truly02:04:08
begin to get a sense of what they were
all about I've found of all the miles02:04:13
and the monuments that our forebears
were so far removed from the insular02:04:19
communities of our imagination and
arriving here accidentally to be on the02:04:26
light of a full lunar eclipse it really
does make me appreciate the mystical02:04:31
qualities that seem to have been so
important to our ancestors02:05:09
back on the mainland traveling through
the very north of Scotland we find a02:05:14
region where there are few signs of our
ancestors presence but every now and02:05:19
again a site like the enormous gray cans
of campster will remind us that the02:05:23
communities were sizable the last leg of
our journey makes that point all the02:05:30
more evident even the harsh environment
of Orkney didn't prevent the02:05:35
construction of some of the most
impressive monuments of all the great02:05:44
mound of maize how is much smaller than
the enormous Maeve's can in ireland but02:05:50
inside the beauty of the skilled
workmanship sits in total contrast to02:05:55
the plain exterior each wall of the
passageway is made of a single piece of02:06:00
stone 30 feet in length and again the
beautifully corbelled central chamber is02:06:06
illuminated by the Sun at winter
solstice it's a huge undertaking which02:06:14
like so many of the sites we've seen
doesn't fit with a small community of02:06:18
simple farming folk right across
organist a Liz maintained the enormous02:06:28
ring of brodgar happens to be the third
largest stone circle in Britain after02:06:32
Avebury and Staunton drew such a vast
site for a small community of farmers I02:06:38
don't think so
a little distance away the improbably02:06:45
tall wedge cut standing stones of
Stenness are even more impressive even02:06:50
though most of them have gone
unlike brodgar the ditch and Bank have02:06:53
also disappeared02:07:13
throughout the whole of my journey
across the British Isles I've been used02:07:17
to seeing monumental science places that
were in some way important to02:07:22
communities or how they treated the dead
we have very few signs of how people02:07:28
actually lived because the abundance of
forest made wood and easily available02:07:33
source material so very little evidence
of daily life remains what makes me so02:07:39
special is that unlike most of the rest
of the British Isles02:07:43
it was never forested so timber would
have been a valuable scarcity that was02:07:49
reserved for making things like tools
and boats in 1850 a storm battered the02:07:57
dunes here at skara brae and uncovered a
Neolithic village02:08:08
there's a strong sense of community here
the houses are close together and linked02:08:16
by communal passageways but they remain
discreet and private and rarely do we02:08:22
get such an intimate view of our
ancestors their homes remain almost as02:08:27
intact as the day they were built
complete with beds which would probably02:08:31
have held mattresses of Bracken a
central half even a dresser I have to02:08:37
wonder if the wooden houses across the
rest of Britain wouldn't have had the02:08:41
same type of furniture02:10:01
I wish I could express just how magical
it is like putting my feet in a02:10:09
Neolithic ancestors footprints at Formby
point I wonder how many people stood on02:10:16
this exact spot putting away their
personal belongings well how many people02:10:23
sat here around the fire talking and
laughing over dinner and how many people02:10:35
rested a hand here stepping into bed
since shivers up my spine but even02:10:46
though I could end my journey here I
still have one more thing to show you02:10:57
I'm on the island of South Ronald say
about 40 miles from skara brae in 195802:11:05
at the same time that my mother was
waddling around pregnant with me02:11:09
Ronald Simonson was walking his land
here when he stumbled upon an exposed02:11:13
section of stone wall beneath his feet
he had discovered quite by accident a02:11:19
chambered tomb dating from the Neolithic
period which turned out to have been in02:11:24
continuous use for about eight hundred
years well into the early Bronze Age02:11:29
when it was excavated it was found to
contain not only human bones but those02:11:35
of seagulls as well an extraordinary
discovery of an unknown cult who seemed02:11:40
to revere these magnificent birds to the
extent that they included them in their02:11:45
burials but exciting as that is it's not
why we're here02:11:50
when excavations were complete the tomb
had given up a wealth of grave goods a02:11:57
short distance away from the tomb close
to Ronald Simonson's home is an intimate02:12:03
and informative museum now run by his
daughters Kathleen and Frida02:12:20
amongst the relics and treasures from
the tomb housed here are human and02:12:25
animal remains numerous tools polished
axe heads some jewelry and this02:12:38
a button of polished albertite more
finely made than any in your mother's02:12:45
button box how many times might this
have been touched in the simplest of02:12:50
daily routines how is it actually worn
or used and how many times did someone02:12:58
struggle to get a thread through so fine
a hole my journey has taken me from02:13:06
tantalizing signs of life - intimate
signs of lives ways of life so familiar02:13:13
that they can't fail to bring our
ancestors alive in our minds across the02:13:19
whole of the British Isles we've seen
evidence of shared knowledge community02:13:24
interaction between people across huge
distances the next time you find02:13:32
yourself wondering how did we lose track
of those people where did they go remind02:13:39
yourself
they didn't go anywhere we're still here02:14:51
hello Michael Bart here thank you for
watching this prehistory guy's show02:14:55
there's loads more to watch and you can
get to some of it on this playlist here02:14:59
if you'd like to receive updates about
when we publish new content hit the02:15:03
subscribe button and you can unlock even
more content by becoming a patreon02:15:08
supporter hit this button here to find
out more about that see you soonDescription:
FEATURE LENGTH MOVIE WITH OVER 2 MILLION VIEWS. Two years in the making, Standing with Stones is a remarkable feature length documentary film that takes the viewer on an epic journey of discovery, way beyond the Wiltshire monuments and Stonehenge, uncovering the true extent and variety of megalithic Britain and Ireland. Featuring 100 of the most significant megalithic monuments in England, Wales, Ireland, N. Ireland & Scotland, the adventure starts near Land's End in Cornwall and ends out on the Scottish isles, on Orkney, at the Tomb of the Eagles. ✒️ "I loved every single minute of this! There was no filter of time. You didn't repeat information four times as if I was not paying attention. You showed sites I've never seen in other documentaries. I just loved all of it. Thank you so very much for doing it and putting it here where I can see the entire thing." ✒️ "The sensitivity shown when first walking through the homes of Skara Brae made me cry. The whole documentary was filled with respect. Thank you." ✒️ "I'm 37, and I've been watching documentaries for all my life. This is the best one yet. The dedication and passion for the subject is great. The personal approach, yet scholarly quality is even greater. Thanks." 00:00 Intro, titles & preamble 03:36 1. The West Country & Dartmoor 20:13 2. Southern England 41:25 3. Wales 57:41 4. Ireland 1:16:15 5. The Isle of Man & Northern England 1:39:45 6. Scotland 1:57:47 7. The Scottish Isles ________________________________________________________ Help us make our next film, GÖBEKLI TEPE to STONEHENGE at ... 🟡 BUY ME A COFFEE: https://buymeacoffee.com/prehistoryguys If you want to show some love to the Prehistory Guys but don't want the commitment of a monthly subscription (see Patreon link below), you can make a one off donation by following the link above. All single donations go to our current project: GÖBEKLI TEPE to STONEHENGE 🔴 PATREON: https://www.patreon.com/theprehistoryguys We have a friendly and enthusiastic Patreon community helping us create our content through monthly subscription. Get access to exclusive (ad-free!) content, be on the inside track of what we're up to and help us build the channel. WEBSITE: https://theprehistoryguys.uk// Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/unsupportedbrowser Twitter: https://twitter.com/prehistoryguys Instagram: https://www.facebook.com/unsupportedbrowser WEBSITE: https://theprehistoryguys.uk Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/unsupportedbrowser Twitter: https://twitter.com/prehistoryguys Instagram: https://www.facebook.com/unsupportedbrowser
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