1 00:00:05,710 --> 00:00:12,070 This is the story of how Britain came to be, of how our land and its people were 2 00:00:12,070 --> 00:00:14,790 forged over thousands of years of ancient history. 3 00:00:20,170 --> 00:00:26,390 This Britain is a strange and alien world, a world that contains the hidden 4 00:00:26,390 --> 00:00:29,130 story of our distant prehistoric path. 5 00:00:36,430 --> 00:00:40,650 After more than a thousand years, the international world of the Bronze Age 6 00:00:40,650 --> 00:00:47,450 collapsed. A hoard like this is a snapshot of the time when bronze was no 7 00:00:47,450 --> 00:00:49,390 working as the glue of society. 8 00:00:51,990 --> 00:00:53,810 A new Britain began to emerge. 9 00:00:54,050 --> 00:00:55,590 A whole new era. 10 00:00:56,870 --> 00:00:58,110 The Iron Age. 11 00:00:58,950 --> 00:01:01,990 There's nothing different about it from the tools we use today. 12 00:01:02,690 --> 00:01:05,150 And yet it's two and a half thousand years old. 13 00:01:06,600 --> 00:01:12,860 A Britain of powerful regional identities where land and grain had 14 00:01:12,860 --> 00:01:14,940 bronze as a source of prestige. 15 00:01:17,820 --> 00:01:23,640 Now the journey continues with the next chapter in our epic story. 16 00:01:24,240 --> 00:01:30,600 He was laid in his grave and soon thereafter three spears were thrust in 17 00:01:31,100 --> 00:01:34,380 This would have been a moment of huge drama. 18 00:01:35,850 --> 00:01:40,030 A time of Iron Age warriors and Celtic glory. 19 00:01:41,590 --> 00:01:46,750 A tipping point in our history when tribal leaders began to believe they 20 00:01:46,750 --> 00:01:47,790 more than chieftains. 21 00:01:50,150 --> 00:01:51,230 They were kings. 22 00:02:10,120 --> 00:02:14,680 I'm going back two and a half thousand years, to 500 BC. 23 00:02:17,760 --> 00:02:23,020 This is Britain right in the heart of the Iron Age, a time of huge 24 00:02:23,020 --> 00:02:26,280 transformation for our land and its people. 25 00:02:27,640 --> 00:02:32,680 Ever since the end of the Bronze Age, a few hundred years earlier, a new Britain 26 00:02:32,680 --> 00:02:37,420 had begun to emerge, and it was a more insular Britain with strong regional 27 00:02:37,420 --> 00:02:38,420 identities. 28 00:02:39,910 --> 00:02:46,810 This was a world of tall broch towers in the north and communal hill 29 00:02:46,810 --> 00:02:47,810 forts in the south. 30 00:02:50,310 --> 00:02:54,150 Both responsive to the importance of controlling the land. 31 00:02:56,310 --> 00:03:03,170 What was common across Britain was that trade was focused locally and wealth was 32 00:03:03,170 --> 00:03:05,550 no longer centred around bronze as it had been. 33 00:03:05,870 --> 00:03:07,870 It was now centred around grain. 34 00:03:09,100 --> 00:03:14,340 Britain was entering a new era in which the people who controlled land would 35 00:03:14,340 --> 00:03:18,740 gain wealth and power, the like of which had never been seen before. 36 00:03:25,360 --> 00:03:29,920 At the top of this hill are the remains of an Iron Age hill fort that holds 37 00:03:29,920 --> 00:03:32,340 evidence of the beginning of this new age. 38 00:03:39,050 --> 00:03:41,030 This isn't just any old hill fort. 39 00:03:41,830 --> 00:03:43,050 This is Dainbury. 40 00:03:43,550 --> 00:03:47,150 This is a completely different beast. A mega hill fort. 41 00:03:47,850 --> 00:03:49,990 And it's one of the first of its type. 42 00:03:52,050 --> 00:03:56,930 Farmers here were cultivating ever greater tracts of land, harvesting more 43 00:03:56,930 --> 00:03:57,930 more grain. 44 00:03:58,490 --> 00:04:00,430 This wasn't subsistence farming. 45 00:04:00,690 --> 00:04:04,590 This was about creating a surplus to trade. 46 00:04:07,340 --> 00:04:13,380 But there was a problem with all of that, and you can see it over there, 47 00:04:13,380 --> 00:04:14,198 the horizon. 48 00:04:14,200 --> 00:04:19,820 That bump into the sky there is another hill fort, Woolbury Hill Fort, and it's 49 00:04:19,820 --> 00:04:20,820 not the only one. 50 00:04:21,060 --> 00:04:26,240 On a clear day from up here, you can see another three hill forts, and they were 51 00:04:26,240 --> 00:04:30,880 all equally prosperous, and crucially, they were all beginning to want more and 52 00:04:30,880 --> 00:04:31,880 more land. 53 00:04:33,180 --> 00:04:38,140 For the first time in our history, Britain, or parts of it, were actually 54 00:04:38,140 --> 00:04:39,180 starting to fill up. 55 00:04:39,820 --> 00:04:45,160 After all those millennia of hunting and then the early farming, the physical 56 00:04:45,160 --> 00:04:47,940 size of our island was actually beginning to tell. 57 00:04:48,680 --> 00:04:53,820 And where the territories of those hillfort communities were starting to 58 00:04:53,820 --> 00:04:58,820 against one another, there was one consequence, and one consequence only, 59 00:04:58,820 --> 00:04:59,820 that was friction. 60 00:05:06,380 --> 00:05:10,260 What's happening is that the land is being used more and more and more. 61 00:05:11,120 --> 00:05:14,780 It's good land, it's rich land, it encourages the population to grow. 62 00:05:14,980 --> 00:05:17,060 But you can only grow to a certain extent. 63 00:05:17,380 --> 00:05:22,320 And the population will continue to grow beyond the holding capacity of the 64 00:05:22,320 --> 00:05:25,020 land. And when you get to that point, you get tension. 65 00:05:25,360 --> 00:05:28,980 And how does the instability, the pressure, manifest itself? 66 00:05:29,910 --> 00:05:35,130 Normally, in terms of aggression and warfare, resources are rare. 67 00:05:35,390 --> 00:05:36,810 You fight for resources. 68 00:05:37,130 --> 00:05:41,730 You can have long, long periods of peace, I think, and then perhaps in a 69 00:05:41,730 --> 00:05:46,430 confrontation some young man would be hurt, everyone would be angry, and it 70 00:05:46,430 --> 00:05:49,630 would escalate into outright, really violent warfare. 71 00:05:51,570 --> 00:05:55,190 Barry Cunliffe first studied Danbury over 40 years ago. 72 00:05:56,330 --> 00:05:59,730 These are iron spearheads. Now look at that one. 73 00:06:00,010 --> 00:06:01,190 That's a mean thing. 74 00:06:02,050 --> 00:06:03,510 A long shank. 75 00:06:03,770 --> 00:06:05,230 Very sharp point. 76 00:06:07,330 --> 00:06:13,430 That's been done with the intention to kill. Everything about it is violent. 77 00:06:13,830 --> 00:06:16,950 Absolutely redolent of violence. 78 00:06:17,960 --> 00:06:22,540 And this is all coming from in here? Everything here is from within Danbury. 79 00:06:23,020 --> 00:06:25,800 We've also got evidence from the human bones themselves. 80 00:06:26,360 --> 00:06:28,640 This is the real hard evidence. 81 00:06:28,900 --> 00:06:30,540 Here we are. We've got the skull. 82 00:06:31,000 --> 00:06:32,780 You can see the eye socket there. 83 00:06:33,460 --> 00:06:36,520 And you see that hole there? And that's got the same section. 84 00:06:36,780 --> 00:06:39,340 It's exactly the same section as that spear. 85 00:06:39,800 --> 00:06:43,880 He would have cocked a spear directly through the top of his head there. 86 00:06:44,480 --> 00:06:49,600 But the fascinating thing about this guy is he also had a pretty hefty bash on 87 00:06:49,600 --> 00:06:52,460 the head, which has caved a bit of the skull in. And that's not been enough to 88 00:06:52,460 --> 00:06:56,640 kill? No, because if you turn inside, you see the damage that it's done 89 00:06:56,900 --> 00:07:03,200 but it's all healed over. So he must have had a headache and brain damage, 90 00:07:03,200 --> 00:07:09,600 was still fit enough, presumably, to go into battle some years later to 91 00:07:09,600 --> 00:07:13,860 end up with that spear in his head. So he went into battle already knowing... 92 00:07:14,510 --> 00:07:17,390 for it was like to face these weapons. 93 00:07:17,610 --> 00:07:20,390 He probably had been into battle many times, this guy. 94 00:07:21,070 --> 00:07:24,550 Indeed, had many of them. See, we've got many more skulls here. 95 00:07:24,830 --> 00:07:27,490 Goodness, there's no end of it up here. No, no, no. 96 00:07:28,070 --> 00:07:33,250 Again, just close to where we're standing was a very large pit into which 97 00:07:33,250 --> 00:07:36,110 thrown body parts, cleaning up after a battle, presumably. 98 00:07:36,330 --> 00:07:38,970 Large number of body parts, and some of these skulls came from there. 99 00:07:39,210 --> 00:07:42,170 So people are dying in significant numbers that they're not even being 100 00:07:42,170 --> 00:07:45,550 burial. They're just being cleared away. Cleared away. You can see here a whole 101 00:07:45,550 --> 00:07:49,110 series of slivers taken off his skull there with glancing blows. 102 00:07:49,370 --> 00:07:52,010 Someone coming in. Yeah. He wouldn't have needed a haircut after that. 103 00:07:52,370 --> 00:07:57,270 But the coup de grace was that. The great sword slash. I shouldn't have 104 00:07:57,270 --> 00:07:58,209 that. 105 00:07:58,210 --> 00:08:01,570 That's not healed over. That was the end of him. 106 00:08:01,810 --> 00:08:06,610 Oh. And altogether, this shows what an incredibly violent life people lived. 107 00:08:06,890 --> 00:08:11,270 What a world they inhabited with the threat of this hanging over them. Yes, 108 00:08:11,270 --> 00:08:14,490 I think they would have been aware of it the whole time. You can imagine here in 109 00:08:14,490 --> 00:08:19,230 Danebury, these young guys coming back from battle with all their scars and 110 00:08:19,230 --> 00:08:24,630 living in the community with noses cut off, ears cut off, horrendous injuries. 111 00:08:25,070 --> 00:08:30,190 They must have been aware every moment of their day of just how violent life 112 00:08:30,190 --> 00:08:31,190 was. 113 00:08:39,440 --> 00:08:42,159 What's unfolding now is something quite new. 114 00:08:42,679 --> 00:08:46,660 The time of the peaceful local farming collective is over. 115 00:08:47,840 --> 00:08:53,240 By 400 BC, in southern Britain at least, the area is descending into bloody 116 00:08:53,240 --> 00:08:57,220 conflict. And what's interesting about that conflict is the kind of personality 117 00:08:57,220 --> 00:08:58,220 that it encourages. 118 00:08:58,820 --> 00:09:02,220 And the need to fight and defend became more important. 119 00:09:02,700 --> 00:09:06,580 So the status of those who could do the fighting and defending increased. 120 00:09:08,650 --> 00:09:12,210 You can't know these things for certain, but it's tempting to imagine that in 121 00:09:12,210 --> 00:09:17,470 peaceful times, these communities were controlled by councils of elders or the 122 00:09:17,470 --> 00:09:19,790 heads of important families, but not anymore. 123 00:09:20,210 --> 00:09:26,270 Now, now that the fighting had started, was the time of heroes, champions, men 124 00:09:26,270 --> 00:09:27,450 who could wield swords. 125 00:09:28,430 --> 00:09:33,970 These were the type who could expand territories, defend territories, bring 126 00:09:33,970 --> 00:09:34,970 upstarts to heal. 127 00:09:50,700 --> 00:09:55,400 Britain was entering a period we call the Middle Iron Age, a time when local 128 00:09:55,400 --> 00:10:01,620 power bases fought it out for power and prestige, and where a man's status had 129 00:10:01,620 --> 00:10:03,740 to be earned in battle. 130 00:10:10,340 --> 00:10:14,980 But out of bloody conflict, something was about to emerge that was sublime. 131 00:10:23,760 --> 00:10:29,260 This is one of the finest, most astonishing pieces of early art ever 132 00:10:29,260 --> 00:10:34,740 Britain. It's from 350 years BC and it's called the Battersea Shield. 133 00:10:36,860 --> 00:10:41,640 It's too small to have been used in warfare. 134 00:10:42,140 --> 00:10:45,480 It's completely wrong for combat. It's too elaborate. 135 00:10:45,880 --> 00:10:52,060 This is ceremonial, owned by a warlord and perhaps carried at the head of a 136 00:10:52,060 --> 00:10:53,060 victory parade. 137 00:10:54,890 --> 00:11:01,470 This is an object that demonstrates technical perfection and also artistic 138 00:11:01,470 --> 00:11:02,470 genius. 139 00:11:04,410 --> 00:11:09,010 This is the beginning of something utterly new in our history, a sudden 140 00:11:09,010 --> 00:11:11,130 blossoming of art and design. 141 00:11:15,630 --> 00:11:20,990 The great continental rivers were trade routes to the classical world to the 142 00:11:20,990 --> 00:11:21,990 south. 143 00:11:24,520 --> 00:11:28,680 As northern tribes controlling the routes developed a taste for luxury 144 00:11:28,680 --> 00:11:32,820 they also began to invent a new decorative style. 145 00:11:35,300 --> 00:11:41,720 This was the birth of Celtic art and around 350 BC when it came to Britain 146 00:11:41,720 --> 00:11:45,380 local craftsmen took it to completely new heights. 147 00:11:46,840 --> 00:11:53,140 It's said that the innovation and sophistication of British Celtic art is 148 00:11:53,140 --> 00:11:58,240 single greatest contribution by these islands to the world of art ever. 149 00:11:59,140 --> 00:12:02,920 And the proof of that statement is here in my hands. 150 00:12:08,480 --> 00:12:11,440 This is the magnificent Kirkburn sword. 151 00:12:13,060 --> 00:12:17,580 And it was excavated from a grave in East Yorkshire. 152 00:12:18,000 --> 00:12:22,410 Unlike earlier swords, This is a composite item. 153 00:12:22,930 --> 00:12:29,810 It required the meticulous design and fabrication of 70 separate pieces 154 00:12:29,810 --> 00:12:31,490 which were then assembled. 155 00:12:32,050 --> 00:12:37,070 There's iron here in the blade, there's bronze on the scabbard, there's horn. 156 00:12:38,650 --> 00:12:41,070 It's also been a working sword. 157 00:12:41,550 --> 00:12:45,390 Unlike the shield, this actually saw battle. 158 00:12:46,160 --> 00:12:50,840 And we know that because analysis of the metal indicates that it was repaired on 159 00:12:50,840 --> 00:12:52,760 at least one occasion, possibly more. 160 00:12:54,960 --> 00:13:01,280 These red enamel additions are said to represent 161 00:13:01,280 --> 00:13:03,660 freshly spilled blood. 162 00:13:04,720 --> 00:13:10,840 But it's the delicate nature of the perfection of this art 163 00:13:10,840 --> 00:13:13,580 that's new in Britain. 164 00:13:16,460 --> 00:13:22,580 And what's most fascinating of all is that it's embodied, not in jewelry, 165 00:13:22,800 --> 00:13:29,680 but in the objects that could be afforded by that class of people that 166 00:13:29,680 --> 00:13:31,520 things like this. 167 00:13:32,280 --> 00:13:35,480 Warriors. The most powerful warriors. 168 00:13:42,800 --> 00:13:47,760 But finely decorated swords were not the only symbol of elite power, as the 169 00:13:47,760 --> 00:13:50,520 skeleton of a horse buried at Danebury Hill Fort reveals. 170 00:13:52,380 --> 00:13:57,120 The lifetime activities of the horse will leave different markers in the 171 00:13:57,120 --> 00:14:02,180 skeleton, and we're looking for clues as to what that animal was used for during 172 00:14:02,180 --> 00:14:03,180 its life. 173 00:14:03,220 --> 00:14:08,160 Throughout much of prehistory, horses were uncommon in Britain, even on farms. 174 00:14:09,710 --> 00:14:12,890 And forensic studies of this one found something unprecedented. 175 00:14:14,570 --> 00:14:18,450 If you look here at the front of the tooth, there's a small white parallel 176 00:14:18,450 --> 00:14:19,650 -sided band of enamel. 177 00:14:20,190 --> 00:14:22,190 This is evidence that the horse was bitted. 178 00:14:24,170 --> 00:14:28,250 And if you look on this vertebra, there's a fracture running through the 179 00:14:28,250 --> 00:14:29,550 epiphysis of the vertebra. 180 00:14:29,990 --> 00:14:32,410 And this is evidence that this horse was ridden. 181 00:14:32,650 --> 00:14:36,270 And this is the first time we have evidence for riding in prehistoric 182 00:14:37,960 --> 00:14:43,060 These bones reveal the very beginning of the ridden horse, a symbol of power. 183 00:14:45,360 --> 00:14:49,500 Use of horses would have revolutionised warfare. It would have changed raiding. 184 00:14:49,500 --> 00:14:52,860 People could raid at further distances and faster. 185 00:14:53,340 --> 00:14:56,900 You could attack a neighbouring settlement, take control of their 186 00:14:57,420 --> 00:15:00,740 A man on a horseback would have major advantages over a man on foot. 187 00:15:12,650 --> 00:15:18,390 By 300 BC, Britain was becoming the land that resonates in ancient myth and folk 188 00:15:18,390 --> 00:15:19,390 memory. 189 00:15:20,610 --> 00:15:26,350 A land of warrior heroes, wielding power from horseback, armed with glinting, 190 00:15:26,350 --> 00:15:27,990 decorated Celtic swords. 191 00:15:41,750 --> 00:15:45,530 Incredibly, the remains of a warrior from this time still survive. 192 00:15:46,190 --> 00:15:51,470 The very man who once owned and wielded the finest Iron Age sword ever found in 193 00:15:51,470 --> 00:15:52,449 Britain. 194 00:15:52,450 --> 00:15:53,990 The Kirkburn Warrior. 195 00:16:00,730 --> 00:16:06,530 When he died, he was aged somewhere between 20 and 35 years. 196 00:16:07,350 --> 00:16:08,350 Powerfully built. 197 00:16:08,690 --> 00:16:10,810 He would have thought in the prime of his life. 198 00:16:11,320 --> 00:16:14,720 And there's nothing on the skeleton to indicate why he died. 199 00:16:15,240 --> 00:16:20,820 There's no great catastrophic injury, no caved -in skull, no massive sore wounds 200 00:16:20,820 --> 00:16:21,820 to the long bone. 201 00:16:22,500 --> 00:16:24,920 It is still possible, though, that he died in battle. 202 00:16:25,360 --> 00:16:31,600 If he suffered a wound that severed a major artery or punctured a vital organ, 203 00:16:31,740 --> 00:16:36,300 he could have bled to death, and there'd be no sign on the skeleton to reveal 204 00:16:36,300 --> 00:16:37,720 that as the cause of death. 205 00:16:39,820 --> 00:16:43,020 The circumstances of his burial are fascinating. 206 00:16:43,540 --> 00:16:50,360 He was laid in his grave and soon thereafter three spears were thrust in, 207 00:16:50,520 --> 00:16:53,760 possibly penetrating the dead body. 208 00:16:54,140 --> 00:17:00,340 Now this would have been a moment of huge drama for those witnessing the 209 00:17:00,340 --> 00:17:01,340 funerary ritual. 210 00:17:02,420 --> 00:17:09,119 Here was a man whose martial prowess was being marked out. 211 00:17:09,470 --> 00:17:15,569 very blatantly then the grave was completely backfilled leaving the shafts 212 00:17:15,569 --> 00:17:19,569 sticking out of the ground bristling out of the mound so they would have been 213 00:17:19,569 --> 00:17:24,050 visible from some distance they would have marked out that grave as that of a 214 00:17:24,050 --> 00:17:28,850 warrior and it could have become a place of homage so that warriors who remember 215 00:17:28,850 --> 00:17:33,250 them from life could have grown old and grey regaling their children and 216 00:17:33,250 --> 00:17:39,070 grandchildren with stories about this man remembering what a great and 217 00:17:39,070 --> 00:17:42,530 warrior now lay buried in that special grave. 218 00:17:52,690 --> 00:17:57,130 The world of the Kirkburn Warrior is the beginning of a new era in the history 219 00:17:57,130 --> 00:17:58,310 of our land and its people. 220 00:18:01,410 --> 00:18:03,690 This is the time of Celtic Britain. 221 00:18:05,810 --> 00:18:07,250 A world of magic. 222 00:18:07,720 --> 00:18:10,440 Mystery and spiritual destiny. 223 00:18:13,740 --> 00:18:18,520 And clues to the birth of this new age can be found in the northeast of 224 00:18:24,940 --> 00:18:29,840 I've come to Yorkshire because 20 or so miles away in that direction is where 225 00:18:29,840 --> 00:18:34,280 the Kirkburn warrior was buried around 300 years BC along with his splendid 226 00:18:34,280 --> 00:18:37,330 sword. And what's more, He wasn't the only one. 227 00:18:49,650 --> 00:18:52,850 In the Iron Age, formal burial was rare. 228 00:18:53,370 --> 00:18:58,470 In most cases, when people died, their bodies were simply laid out and the 229 00:18:58,470 --> 00:19:00,850 gradually picked clean by animals and birds. 230 00:19:01,190 --> 00:19:03,630 If you were lucky, you might have got a cremation. 231 00:19:04,150 --> 00:19:05,310 But up here... 232 00:19:05,680 --> 00:19:09,620 In the chalk uplands of East Yorkshire, something a bit different was going on. 233 00:19:12,380 --> 00:19:16,560 Melanie Giles has been studying the Iron Age of East Yorkshire for more than a 234 00:19:16,560 --> 00:19:17,560 decade. 235 00:19:17,740 --> 00:19:20,420 So what exactly is in this field? 236 00:19:21,340 --> 00:19:26,720 This is an Iron Age cemetery, and what you're looking at is small barrows. Each 237 00:19:26,720 --> 00:19:28,220 one of those is somebody's grave. 238 00:19:28,520 --> 00:19:33,760 So all these bumps of different sizes and heights contain a person? 239 00:19:34,040 --> 00:19:35,040 Indeed, yes. 240 00:19:35,200 --> 00:19:38,380 Right. Is this the only cemetery of its kind? 241 00:19:38,800 --> 00:19:44,140 No, there are many more like it across East and into North Yorkshire. And when 242 00:19:44,140 --> 00:19:48,240 you say East and North Yorkshire, is that the limit of cemeteries like these? 243 00:19:49,000 --> 00:19:53,960 Yes, they're really unique in Britain, but there are cemeteries like this in 244 00:19:53,960 --> 00:19:56,420 modern -day France, in the Marne -Moselle region. 245 00:19:56,780 --> 00:20:00,140 So what is going on then if this is... 246 00:20:00,899 --> 00:20:03,340 If this is a French cemetery, what's it doing here? 247 00:20:03,540 --> 00:20:04,880 Well, I don't know that it's a French cemetery. 248 00:20:05,440 --> 00:20:07,820 There's lots of different ideas about this, lots of different debates. 249 00:20:08,880 --> 00:20:13,800 Some people thought it was a massive invasion, a kind of a war band coming 250 00:20:13,800 --> 00:20:18,500 across. But in fact, most of these people look as if they're local. They're 251 00:20:18,500 --> 00:20:19,500 and brought up here. 252 00:20:19,800 --> 00:20:22,280 So we might be looking at just a small group of... 253 00:20:22,730 --> 00:20:26,050 important or powerful people coming across from the continent. 254 00:20:26,350 --> 00:20:31,630 And some of the grave goods we find in those barrows reinforce that sense that 255 00:20:31,630 --> 00:20:33,290 there are contacts with the continent. 256 00:20:35,470 --> 00:20:40,070 The Celtic culture that came to represent an entire era might have had 257 00:20:40,070 --> 00:20:44,750 genesis right here, in the continentally connected warrior elites of East 258 00:20:44,750 --> 00:20:45,750 Yorkshire. 259 00:20:46,310 --> 00:20:51,970 So a warrior of the status of the Kirkburn warrior, someone of that... 260 00:20:52,430 --> 00:20:56,450 style and demeanor. Absolutely, and he was buried just about 10 miles from 261 00:20:56,690 --> 00:21:00,050 Okay, so he's part of this fashion? 262 00:21:00,650 --> 00:21:05,090 Yes, and figures like that who maybe were skilled at fighting or had achieved 263 00:21:05,090 --> 00:21:09,710 something in their life, or maybe even through the manner of their death, were 264 00:21:09,710 --> 00:21:11,490 treated to special kinds of burials. 265 00:21:16,370 --> 00:21:20,410 But the Yorkshire burials have revealed something else that was remarkable about 266 00:21:20,410 --> 00:21:21,410 this new culture. 267 00:21:22,060 --> 00:21:26,800 Because here, it seems, it was not only great warriors who were revered. 268 00:21:28,420 --> 00:21:33,120 Our picture of ancient Britain will always be incomplete, because often the 269 00:21:33,120 --> 00:21:35,200 evidence we find is of important men. 270 00:21:35,580 --> 00:21:38,780 The artefacts are often symbols of martial prowess. 271 00:21:39,260 --> 00:21:44,540 What's remarkable, here in Yorkshire, is that around 300 BC, we start to find 272 00:21:44,540 --> 00:21:48,280 evidence of something that's been missing from the story so far, and that 273 00:21:48,280 --> 00:21:49,400 important women. 274 00:21:54,380 --> 00:22:00,640 This is the skeleton of a woman who died at least in her late 40s, possibly even 275 00:22:00,640 --> 00:22:01,640 older than that. 276 00:22:01,720 --> 00:22:07,680 But for all that she was an older, mature woman, her teeth are in 277 00:22:07,680 --> 00:22:13,660 good shape, which suggests she had access to a good, even privileged diet. 278 00:22:14,500 --> 00:22:20,640 But much more revealing and fascinating than her mere bone. 279 00:22:21,800 --> 00:22:24,160 are the circumstances in which she was buried. 280 00:22:24,640 --> 00:22:31,400 This woman was buried lying on, inside a chariot. 281 00:22:31,900 --> 00:22:38,560 And around her were also placed all the furniture for horse 282 00:22:38,560 --> 00:22:39,560 driving. 283 00:22:39,840 --> 00:22:43,760 Quite hard to describe these. I suppose they're the equivalent of hubcaps. 284 00:22:44,600 --> 00:22:48,700 Decoration that would have gone around the knobbly bit that sticks out from the 285 00:22:48,700 --> 00:22:49,699 wheel. 286 00:22:49,700 --> 00:22:56,300 These are parts of the bit that the horse would have in its mouth through 287 00:22:56,300 --> 00:22:59,100 the reins pass, which give the driver control over the horse's head. 288 00:23:01,000 --> 00:23:07,800 But also in this woman's grave are items altogether more mysterious, even 289 00:23:07,800 --> 00:23:08,800 magical. 290 00:23:09,440 --> 00:23:15,820 This metal cylinder, beautifully decorated with 291 00:23:15,820 --> 00:23:17,600 Celtic artwork. 292 00:23:19,340 --> 00:23:23,000 Now, it's completely sealed. You can't get into it. You can't open it. 293 00:23:23,240 --> 00:23:27,520 If it ever did contain anything, it must have been organic and very small so 294 00:23:27,520 --> 00:23:30,560 that with the passage of millennia that has decayed and disappeared. 295 00:23:31,300 --> 00:23:36,440 Maybe it was some beans or seeds so that it could be used as a ceremonial 296 00:23:36,440 --> 00:23:37,440 rattle. 297 00:23:38,440 --> 00:23:42,880 Perhaps even more powerful is this. 298 00:23:44,320 --> 00:23:45,700 It's been called a mirror. 299 00:23:46,510 --> 00:23:50,750 I suspect because in terms of its shape, that's exactly what it looks like. But 300 00:23:50,750 --> 00:23:57,710 for me, the word mirror downgrades this object, makes it seem trivial and to 301 00:23:57,710 --> 00:23:58,710 do with vanity. 302 00:24:00,150 --> 00:24:05,610 This, in its heyday, would have been highly polished iron, but even at its 303 00:24:05,830 --> 00:24:08,630 the reflection that it offered would always have been blurred. 304 00:24:10,670 --> 00:24:15,590 It's now suggested that items such as these were used 305 00:24:16,320 --> 00:24:22,460 Not to reflect back our world, but to open a portal into a world beyond 306 00:24:22,460 --> 00:24:24,680 the world of the ancestors. 307 00:24:25,060 --> 00:24:30,240 That by owning this and having access to it, you are able to communicate 308 00:24:30,240 --> 00:24:32,140 directly with the dead. 309 00:24:34,600 --> 00:24:41,240 So, with these items here, it's easy to understand that 310 00:24:41,240 --> 00:24:43,120 whoever this woman was, 311 00:24:44,430 --> 00:24:46,930 Once upon a time, she really mattered. 312 00:24:47,550 --> 00:24:49,230 She was a woman of substance. 313 00:24:50,030 --> 00:24:56,730 She was revered, she was wise, and in her community, she was someone of 314 00:24:56,730 --> 00:24:57,730 real power. 315 00:25:05,790 --> 00:25:10,630 By 200 BC, Celtic culture had spread right across our land. 316 00:25:12,390 --> 00:25:13,470 And power. 317 00:25:13,900 --> 00:25:18,360 was increasingly becoming concentrated in the hands of fewer, bigger, regional 318 00:25:18,360 --> 00:25:19,360 leaders. 319 00:25:19,660 --> 00:25:23,060 The chieftains of the emerging Celtic tribes of Britain. 320 00:25:25,360 --> 00:25:29,260 The big question, though, is just who were these Celts? 321 00:25:36,180 --> 00:25:41,140 Here in Britain, especially along the so -called Celtic fringe of Cornwall, 322 00:25:41,320 --> 00:25:42,460 Wales and Scotland, 323 00:25:43,400 --> 00:25:45,380 Celticness is an emotive subject. 324 00:25:45,980 --> 00:25:50,500 There are people who believe that it connects them to their sense of their 325 00:25:50,500 --> 00:25:55,380 history, that it underpins their sense of self and of inheritance. 326 00:25:56,020 --> 00:26:00,120 There are even those who believe in an entirely separate Celtic race. 327 00:26:02,220 --> 00:26:03,720 And how do I feel about that? 328 00:26:04,120 --> 00:26:09,580 Well, as a Scot, I feel a sense of belonging to my country. I feel in a 329 00:26:09,580 --> 00:26:10,399 that my... 330 00:26:10,400 --> 00:26:14,240 homeland belongs to me. But whether or not that's the same as a sense of a 331 00:26:14,240 --> 00:26:17,700 separate ethnic identity, I'd need help to answer that one. 332 00:26:24,540 --> 00:26:29,420 I'm sending a sample of my DNA for analysis in an attempt to try and find 333 00:26:29,420 --> 00:26:31,740 where my Scottish ancestors came from. 334 00:26:32,880 --> 00:26:37,100 And in particular, to find out whether they were living in Britain during the 335 00:26:37,100 --> 00:26:38,680 height of the Celtic Iron Age. 336 00:26:42,500 --> 00:26:47,480 Using statistical genetic dating methods, Peter Forster believes he can 337 00:26:47,480 --> 00:26:50,120 the detailed prehistory of living individuals. 338 00:26:51,240 --> 00:26:55,020 I know it's very complicated science that's involved, but can you tell me in 339 00:26:55,020 --> 00:26:58,860 simple terms, you know, who I am and where I come from? 340 00:26:59,240 --> 00:27:00,300 I'll give it a try. 341 00:27:00,940 --> 00:27:04,720 So what we've done in a nutshell is to take a look at two stretches of DNA, of 342 00:27:04,720 --> 00:27:09,700 your DNA, which allow us to separately trace your mother's line back into deep 343 00:27:09,700 --> 00:27:12,580 prehistory and your father's line back into deep prehistory. 344 00:27:12,800 --> 00:27:18,360 Okay. So to start with, we've looked at your mother's DNA, where her female 345 00:27:18,360 --> 00:27:20,260 ancestry traces back to. 346 00:27:20,460 --> 00:27:23,620 In theory, you could have matches from all over the world, but let's take a 347 00:27:23,620 --> 00:27:24,900 what they are in fact. 348 00:27:25,200 --> 00:27:28,300 Right. Oh, big red spot on Scotland. 349 00:27:28,700 --> 00:27:30,970 Yeah. Let me zoom in a bit. 350 00:27:32,470 --> 00:27:36,010 And it's the Western Isles of Scotland. 351 00:27:36,270 --> 00:27:37,270 Yes. 352 00:27:37,530 --> 00:27:41,610 We've got no recent historical connection to the islands. 353 00:27:42,030 --> 00:27:43,670 Well, it's not only Western Isles. 354 00:27:44,070 --> 00:27:45,910 Some more matches in mainland Scotland. 355 00:27:46,650 --> 00:27:51,570 But in simple terms, everything about my mum is pointing in the direction of 356 00:27:51,570 --> 00:27:54,130 Scotland and having been in Scotland for a long, long time. 357 00:27:54,620 --> 00:27:57,600 That's right, because as you can see, it's all over Scotland. It's not just 358 00:27:57,600 --> 00:27:58,900 particular island or location. 359 00:27:59,300 --> 00:28:04,060 So that argues for a presence of your mother's line in Scotland way back into 360 00:28:04,060 --> 00:28:05,340 prehistory, thousands of years ago. 361 00:28:05,540 --> 00:28:06,860 And so what about my dad, then? 362 00:28:07,960 --> 00:28:08,960 Yes. 363 00:28:09,260 --> 00:28:11,820 Your father's line was a bit of a surprise. 364 00:28:13,000 --> 00:28:14,220 So let's see. 365 00:28:15,440 --> 00:28:17,660 That's the result for the father's line. 366 00:28:18,300 --> 00:28:23,580 Right. Your particular paternal lineage is more common. 367 00:28:24,200 --> 00:28:28,780 In southern Europe and eastern Europe? There's nothing from my dad's DNA in 368 00:28:28,780 --> 00:28:29,780 Britain at all. 369 00:28:30,240 --> 00:28:34,920 Well, more than that, in fact, there's nothing in Scandinavia and northern 370 00:28:34,920 --> 00:28:40,640 Europe. So it's a southern and eastern European profile. So the individuals or 371 00:28:40,640 --> 00:28:47,340 individual in my father's line only came to Britain in DNA terms 372 00:28:47,340 --> 00:28:48,920 relatively recently? 373 00:28:49,280 --> 00:28:50,280 Yes, that's correct. 374 00:28:50,940 --> 00:28:51,960 If I tell him. 375 00:28:53,710 --> 00:28:55,070 What did I tell my Scottish dad? 376 00:28:56,050 --> 00:28:57,090 He's not from Scotland. 377 00:29:05,330 --> 00:29:09,050 Experts have tried again and again to identify a Celtic bloodline. 378 00:29:10,010 --> 00:29:15,070 But the most they can really agree on is that, just as in my case, ancestry is 379 00:29:15,070 --> 00:29:16,070 complicated. 380 00:29:17,830 --> 00:29:22,650 Many people today believe that Celtic is no more than a collective term. 381 00:29:23,260 --> 00:29:27,780 to describe a whole host of peoples who lived in Europe around 2 ,000 years ago 382 00:29:27,780 --> 00:29:30,320 and shared common cultural values. 383 00:29:32,240 --> 00:29:38,600 It's possible, it's even likely, that there never was a separate ethnic Celtic 384 00:29:38,600 --> 00:29:43,720 identity. There's certainly no absolute evidence for a separate Celtic race, 385 00:29:43,900 --> 00:29:46,940 however disappointing some people might find that fact. 386 00:29:48,380 --> 00:29:54,350 But what we do have, and what we do have evidence for, is a common Celtic 387 00:29:54,350 --> 00:29:55,350 heritage. 388 00:29:58,730 --> 00:30:04,250 The Celts appreciated similar art and design, and they held shared values of 389 00:30:04,250 --> 00:30:05,370 status and hierarchy. 390 00:30:07,770 --> 00:30:14,610 And linguists also believe they shared a common language, a language weak 391 00:30:14,610 --> 00:30:17,710 in decipher, even after 2 ,000 years. 392 00:30:18,760 --> 00:30:22,640 Paul, how much do we know about what the Iron Age would have sounded like in 393 00:30:22,640 --> 00:30:24,040 terms of the spoken word? 394 00:30:24,380 --> 00:30:30,900 Well, we know something about it in the sense that the descendant languages from 395 00:30:30,900 --> 00:30:35,800 this period in Britain do survive in the form of Welsh and Cornish and Breton, 396 00:30:35,860 --> 00:30:41,120 and slightly more distantly with Irish and Scots Gaelic, so that if we were to 397 00:30:41,120 --> 00:30:45,140 take a particular word, we would know that the... 398 00:30:45,980 --> 00:30:51,880 Ancient British word for a boar would be turcos, because we have Welsh, Purch, 399 00:30:52,100 --> 00:30:53,220 and so on. 400 00:30:53,740 --> 00:30:59,400 And to take another example, magloth would be the word for a prince or a 401 00:30:59,540 --> 00:31:03,360 on the basis of Welsh mile and Irish mile. 402 00:31:04,260 --> 00:31:09,900 And these forms one can reconstruct to produce those forms. 403 00:31:10,140 --> 00:31:14,260 If you were to take a modern -day English speaker... 404 00:31:14,800 --> 00:31:20,180 and plunk them down in an Iron Age marketplace, what would be most striking 405 00:31:20,180 --> 00:31:21,880 about the voices around them? 406 00:31:22,120 --> 00:31:25,940 I think the most striking thing, probably, was they wouldn't understand a 407 00:31:25,940 --> 00:31:31,960 of it, because this is a language group that is unrelated, or only differently 408 00:31:31,960 --> 00:31:33,220 related, to English. 409 00:31:33,540 --> 00:31:37,780 And so, you know, you'd be in the market and you'd say, sell 410 00:31:37,780 --> 00:31:41,340 me a boar. 411 00:31:42,080 --> 00:31:43,920 And there's nothing there. 412 00:31:44,380 --> 00:31:48,560 apart perhaps from the me, which an English speaker would understand. 413 00:31:49,440 --> 00:31:55,280 If a traveller was to go from the south -west of England to the north -east of 414 00:31:55,280 --> 00:32:00,180 Scotland, would they hear the language changing as though with dialects? 415 00:32:00,430 --> 00:32:01,810 Yes, almost certainly. 416 00:32:02,030 --> 00:32:06,210 I mean, that's probably definitely the case by virtue of the fact that these 417 00:32:06,210 --> 00:32:10,890 languages that develop into different languages. So Welsh as separate from 418 00:32:10,890 --> 00:32:14,950 Cornish and so on and so forth. So there probably was that kind of variation. 419 00:32:14,990 --> 00:32:20,790 But the kind of variation where from mile on mile, neighbor to neighbor, they 420 00:32:20,790 --> 00:32:25,910 perfectly well would understand each other. But if you move them from all the 421 00:32:25,910 --> 00:32:27,410 way from the southwest all the way to the northeast. 422 00:32:28,030 --> 00:32:30,010 they would probably struggle, I would have thought. 423 00:32:30,370 --> 00:32:35,790 Can you construct a sentence for me so that I can get a sense of the rhythm and 424 00:32:35,790 --> 00:32:38,870 the cadence of that ancient British language? 425 00:32:39,270 --> 00:32:40,270 Well, OK. 426 00:32:41,330 --> 00:32:47,950 Think of a lord, the prince, like you, for example, coming into the 427 00:32:47,950 --> 00:32:53,210 feasting hall and people would rise and would say to you... I certainly hope so. 428 00:32:58,899 --> 00:33:04,160 which would mean basically something like, I honour you, long -haired lord. 429 00:33:05,020 --> 00:33:06,840 Did you just call me a hippie in Celtic? 430 00:33:07,480 --> 00:33:08,480 Possibly. 431 00:33:17,260 --> 00:33:23,840 I'm used to seeing and handling artefacts, things made of metal, stone, 432 00:33:25,200 --> 00:33:30,420 It's quite a strange feeling to get the sound of the Iron Age as well. 433 00:33:30,920 --> 00:33:37,720 It almost sounds crass to say it, but it brings that time back to 434 00:33:37,720 --> 00:33:38,720 life. 435 00:33:39,100 --> 00:33:45,240 If you take the language, if you had a Gaelic speaker from the Western Isles or 436 00:33:45,240 --> 00:33:51,520 a Welsh speaker, well, they perhaps couldn't have a conversation with an 437 00:33:51,520 --> 00:33:52,520 Age warrior. 438 00:33:52,940 --> 00:33:55,800 There's every possibility that they could make themselves understood. 439 00:33:56,940 --> 00:34:02,760 And so the world of the past and the modern world would collide at that 440 00:34:02,840 --> 00:34:06,300 The past is very close if you approach it in the right way. 441 00:34:26,600 --> 00:34:31,500 Less than 200 years after the Kirkburn Warrior, the tribes of Britain might 442 00:34:31,500 --> 00:34:36,780 still have been rivaled, but they were also bound by a common Celtic culture. 443 00:34:39,380 --> 00:34:44,600 In the southern highlands of Scotland, using experimental archaeology, it's 444 00:34:44,600 --> 00:34:49,120 possible to get close to the reality of life at the time of the Celtic Iron Age. 445 00:34:53,340 --> 00:34:54,340 Look at that. 446 00:34:54,830 --> 00:34:59,530 It's a modern reconstruction of a building called a crannog, which is a 447 00:34:59,530 --> 00:35:03,050 house built on a platform that sits above the waters of the Loch. 448 00:35:04,030 --> 00:35:07,970 This would have been the home, 2 ,000 years ago, of a local chieftain. 449 00:35:09,310 --> 00:35:12,330 A building like that is about status and prestige. 450 00:35:12,610 --> 00:35:14,310 It's visible from miles around. 451 00:35:14,990 --> 00:35:19,670 You're essentially saying to people, here I am, and if you think you can take 452 00:35:19,670 --> 00:35:21,650 this from me, do your best. 453 00:35:25,450 --> 00:35:29,750 In this world of Celtic tribes, leaders needed to be more than powerful 454 00:35:29,750 --> 00:35:34,750 warriors. They needed diplomatic skills and political now too. 455 00:35:36,750 --> 00:35:42,530 And artefacts found here in Loch Tay bear testament to how Iron Age politics 456 00:35:42,530 --> 00:35:43,530 were conducted. 457 00:35:45,530 --> 00:35:52,350 This is a small circular wooden plate recovered from the 458 00:35:52,350 --> 00:35:53,350 loch. 459 00:35:53,800 --> 00:36:00,680 In Iron Age Britain, status wasn't just about items of jewellery and 460 00:36:00,680 --> 00:36:01,680 personal adornment. 461 00:36:02,060 --> 00:36:06,460 It was about your ability to draw people to you. 462 00:36:07,420 --> 00:36:11,100 Men, fighting men who were loyal to you, who would do your bidding. 463 00:36:12,220 --> 00:36:19,080 And a key way of getting to them was, as they say, through their stomachs, 464 00:36:19,080 --> 00:36:20,140 the way to a man's heart. 465 00:36:20,840 --> 00:36:22,460 And so you have to picture... 466 00:36:23,440 --> 00:36:28,980 A chieftain, perhaps the chieftain of the area, gathering men to him. 467 00:36:29,320 --> 00:36:33,820 And they would be fed by him to show that he was a big man. 468 00:36:34,960 --> 00:36:41,500 So the story here, from this little wooden plate, is that feasting was a key 469 00:36:41,500 --> 00:36:44,800 part of power -broking in late Iron Age Britain. 470 00:36:52,220 --> 00:36:53,920 is an expert in feasting. 471 00:36:54,840 --> 00:36:58,960 And many of the same wild plants that would have been eaten 2 ,000 years ago 472 00:36:58,960 --> 00:37:01,100 still grow around the area today. 473 00:37:01,800 --> 00:37:06,080 They didn't have access to the kind of vegetables that we have today, nothing 474 00:37:06,080 --> 00:37:08,500 like onions and potatoes and our kind of staples. 475 00:37:09,220 --> 00:37:13,360 So foraging would have been a very, very important source of food for them. 476 00:37:14,040 --> 00:37:16,060 Lots of edible greens here. 477 00:37:16,360 --> 00:37:21,180 Things like chickweed and sorrel, which is a lemony taste. 478 00:37:25,260 --> 00:37:26,260 Let's see what you think. 479 00:37:36,400 --> 00:37:40,180 It's got a very definite flavour. 480 00:37:40,500 --> 00:37:41,500 This is sorrel. 481 00:37:42,420 --> 00:37:44,220 And I'm going to put that in the stew. 482 00:37:45,080 --> 00:37:46,480 Just to give it a kick. 483 00:37:46,740 --> 00:37:52,020 Yeah, there's a real acidy, citrusy, that's a strong flavour. 484 00:37:53,840 --> 00:37:57,940 The scale and variety of food offered by a chieftain would have been a mark of 485 00:37:57,940 --> 00:38:00,860 his status, and by extension, his power. 486 00:38:02,380 --> 00:38:07,000 We have a fantastic amount of organic material that we've uncovered and 487 00:38:07,000 --> 00:38:11,240 discovered underwater here in Lochte at one of the Cranog sites. More than 160 488 00:38:11,240 --> 00:38:14,240 different types of edible plants. 489 00:38:14,500 --> 00:38:17,460 So this is a mere representative sample. 490 00:38:17,700 --> 00:38:20,580 Just a handful, literally, of some of those. 491 00:38:20,820 --> 00:38:23,020 Let me just try that one. Wild mushroom. 492 00:38:23,790 --> 00:38:24,910 and barley. 493 00:38:25,950 --> 00:38:27,710 Oh, that is delicious. 494 00:38:28,050 --> 00:38:29,930 The barley is very strong there. 495 00:38:30,350 --> 00:38:32,230 It's kind of an echo of Scotch broth. 496 00:38:32,590 --> 00:38:33,790 Yeah, I think it would be. 497 00:38:36,470 --> 00:38:40,910 Over the hearth, a masterpiece of decorative wrought ironwork would have 498 00:38:40,910 --> 00:38:44,790 supported a bit roast and proclaimed the standing of its owner. 499 00:38:46,250 --> 00:38:49,610 This is an example or a representation of a fire dog. 500 00:38:50,200 --> 00:38:54,980 And the fire dog would have been a high -status, really classy piece of art. 501 00:38:55,360 --> 00:38:57,740 And you can see the curve of the back of the head. 502 00:38:58,060 --> 00:39:02,640 It's maybe a horse or a bull with the horns sticking out, or even maybe a wild 503 00:39:02,640 --> 00:39:06,040 boar. But obviously something important, something symbolic. 504 00:39:06,340 --> 00:39:12,200 And if you look at the craftsmanship, these are meant to represent wealth and 505 00:39:12,200 --> 00:39:14,480 power. So it's another symbol of status. 506 00:39:14,940 --> 00:39:17,340 It's food for show, isn't it? Food is a performance. 507 00:39:17,780 --> 00:39:18,780 Absolutely. 508 00:39:18,920 --> 00:39:20,920 They definitely weren't hiding. 509 00:39:25,340 --> 00:39:28,980 A feast was a hugely important social exercise. 510 00:39:29,320 --> 00:39:36,240 It was almost a ritual in its own right. Everyone attending the event would have 511 00:39:36,240 --> 00:39:38,940 understood the etiquette. 512 00:39:39,360 --> 00:39:44,060 They would have been able to read every nuance, every sign, every gesture. 513 00:39:46,960 --> 00:39:52,720 The leader had to be a skilled politician to pull it off, to read 514 00:39:52,720 --> 00:39:57,880 correctly and make accurate assessments of his followers or his would -be 515 00:39:57,880 --> 00:39:58,880 followers. 516 00:39:59,600 --> 00:40:02,340 Who would be served first? 517 00:40:03,160 --> 00:40:05,380 Who would get the choicest cuts of meat? 518 00:40:06,060 --> 00:40:08,120 Who would be left with the cold shoulder? 519 00:40:08,960 --> 00:40:13,680 And because it was happening publicly, it was open to dispute. 520 00:40:14,280 --> 00:40:18,960 Because after all, It's a room full of fiery, hot -blooded Celts. 521 00:40:19,840 --> 00:40:23,060 And if one of them felt he was being slighted when he should have been being 522 00:40:23,060 --> 00:40:28,180 praised, then if he felt strong enough, he would have the opportunity to make 523 00:40:28,180 --> 00:40:29,180 his feelings clear. 524 00:40:31,820 --> 00:40:38,280 But by the end of the night, everyone would have understood where they were, 525 00:40:38,280 --> 00:40:42,020 they related to one another, who was top dog and who was at the bottom. 526 00:40:51,340 --> 00:40:56,400 Over just a few hundred years, the structure of power had reshaped Iron Age 527 00:40:56,400 --> 00:41:02,480 Britain, from an age of elite local warriors to increasingly powerful Celtic 528 00:41:02,480 --> 00:41:03,480 chieftains. 529 00:41:05,140 --> 00:41:10,980 By around 100 BC, power had become concentrated in the hands of a narrow 530 00:41:10,980 --> 00:41:16,360 elite, people who controlled such an extent of trade and territory that they 531 00:41:16,360 --> 00:41:20,280 became something new, the first of the mega -rich. 532 00:41:22,600 --> 00:41:26,660 And some of the evidence for that can be seen back here at the British Museum. 533 00:41:38,540 --> 00:41:43,320 This is a late Iron Age gold torque. 534 00:41:44,280 --> 00:41:48,620 An elaborate, lavish piece of jewellery worn around the neck. 535 00:41:49,300 --> 00:41:51,380 It's absolutely breathtaking. 536 00:41:52,300 --> 00:41:58,940 The weight of gold, just the luster of it. It's been compared in terms of its 537 00:41:58,940 --> 00:42:02,840 significance as being right up there with the British crown jewels. 538 00:42:03,540 --> 00:42:05,440 And you can surely see why. 539 00:42:06,640 --> 00:42:13,540 It's been made by twisting individual strands of gold to create these 540 00:42:13,540 --> 00:42:15,220 corkscrewing spirals. 541 00:42:16,480 --> 00:42:20,120 And then the ends have been fitted into these round terminals. 542 00:42:21,230 --> 00:42:27,350 The goldsmith, the artist, has really gone to town on adding decoration 543 00:42:27,350 --> 00:42:30,010 to give it texture and depth. 544 00:42:30,290 --> 00:42:36,770 It dates to around 75 year BC and it's quite different in 545 00:42:36,770 --> 00:42:43,690 form from the earlier military art like the Battersea Shield, the Kirkburn 546 00:42:43,690 --> 00:42:44,690 Sword. 547 00:42:44,910 --> 00:42:47,150 This is the advent of something. 548 00:42:47,610 --> 00:42:48,610 Quite new in Britain. 549 00:42:48,650 --> 00:42:52,070 This is extreme wealth, extreme showing off. 550 00:42:52,830 --> 00:42:58,410 And what you have here in the owner of this 551 00:42:58,410 --> 00:43:05,170 is a man who is seeing himself and perhaps more importantly being 552 00:43:05,170 --> 00:43:08,710 seen by his followers as nothing less than a king. 553 00:43:14,380 --> 00:43:18,720 Some of the tribal territories of Britain were now ruled by men so 554 00:43:18,720 --> 00:43:20,500 even began to issue their own coins. 555 00:43:26,060 --> 00:43:27,060 Look at these. 556 00:43:28,480 --> 00:43:32,500 These are some of the earliest coins ever found in England. 557 00:43:33,140 --> 00:43:38,880 And the Celtic coin makers are making coins in their own image, if you like. 558 00:43:38,940 --> 00:43:42,920 They're using Celtic art rather than... 559 00:43:43,440 --> 00:43:46,080 straightforward representations of heads. 560 00:43:46,640 --> 00:43:48,400 They're going for something abstract. 561 00:43:49,240 --> 00:43:55,840 Just like today, coins have always been representations of the state, 562 00:43:56,100 --> 00:43:57,880 often the head of state. 563 00:43:58,160 --> 00:44:01,080 And the same thing is happening here. 564 00:44:02,400 --> 00:44:07,940 This talk, which dates from the same period as these three gold coins, is 565 00:44:07,940 --> 00:44:11,200 obviously a symbol of authority. 566 00:44:12,880 --> 00:44:17,680 But this is where you start to get the authority of the state becoming 567 00:44:17,680 --> 00:44:18,920 that's transferable. 568 00:44:19,540 --> 00:44:23,200 Coins are in circulation. They're distributed. 569 00:44:24,280 --> 00:44:30,160 This is about society being permeated by the portable, transferable symbols 570 00:44:30,160 --> 00:44:33,120 of the state and of the king. 571 00:44:44,110 --> 00:44:49,110 But if there were people at the top, with almost unimaginable wealth, there 572 00:44:49,110 --> 00:44:50,570 also people at the bottom. 573 00:44:52,630 --> 00:44:56,330 And evidence for that can be found at the National Museum of Wales. 574 00:44:59,030 --> 00:45:04,270 As well as gold, every important Celtic leader wanted prestige goods from 575 00:45:04,270 --> 00:45:05,270 mainland Europe. 576 00:45:05,390 --> 00:45:10,290 Olive oil, wine, exotic tableware, all the accoutrements of civilisation. 577 00:45:10,930 --> 00:45:13,070 To pay for it, they exported wool. 578 00:45:13,610 --> 00:45:19,330 animal hide, hunting dogs. But there was also a darker price to be paid for all 579 00:45:19,330 --> 00:45:20,330 that luxury. 580 00:45:29,190 --> 00:45:33,990 In European markets, one commodity above all else was in great demand. 581 00:45:34,650 --> 00:45:37,670 Tall, strong, British manpower. 582 00:45:38,930 --> 00:45:39,930 Look at this. 583 00:45:40,990 --> 00:45:42,890 It's an iron... 584 00:45:43,320 --> 00:45:44,320 Slave chain. 585 00:45:44,440 --> 00:45:46,580 It's over 2 ,000 years old. 586 00:45:48,960 --> 00:45:55,700 Now, this, obviously, is the part made to go round the slave's neck. 587 00:45:58,940 --> 00:46:01,840 It would fit tightly. It might even make it hard to breathe. 588 00:46:04,000 --> 00:46:08,560 Just half a metre, a foot and a half, say, of iron chain. 589 00:46:09,480 --> 00:46:14,640 separates each slave in the line as they shuffle along to wherever they're 590 00:46:14,640 --> 00:46:15,640 going. 591 00:46:17,080 --> 00:46:23,860 It's fantastically heavy and so well preserved you get a real sense of what 592 00:46:23,860 --> 00:46:28,920 would have felt like to be burdened with this and to feel the way that these 593 00:46:28,920 --> 00:46:30,860 would have chafed at the neck. 594 00:46:33,820 --> 00:46:39,630 For every king or queen in the Iron Age There would have to have been countless, 595 00:46:39,730 --> 00:46:40,970 countless leaves. 596 00:46:42,150 --> 00:46:43,990 Gold jewellery, works of art. 597 00:46:44,810 --> 00:46:49,570 They give a glimpse of life for people at the top end of society. 598 00:46:50,190 --> 00:46:56,370 But it's items like this that brings you face to face with what Iron Age reality 599 00:46:56,370 --> 00:47:02,110 must have been like for those thousands and thousands of people who inhabited 600 00:47:02,110 --> 00:47:03,530 the bottom of society. 601 00:47:14,760 --> 00:47:18,560 Just a few hundred years earlier, many people in Britain had lived in 602 00:47:18,560 --> 00:47:20,420 egalitarian farming communities. 603 00:47:22,640 --> 00:47:26,920 But now, in the late Celtic Iron Age, all that had changed. 604 00:47:29,000 --> 00:47:33,840 By 75 BC, Britain was a land of hard social divides. 605 00:47:36,220 --> 00:47:38,680 Kings at the top, slaves at the bottom. 606 00:47:39,140 --> 00:47:42,620 The rest of us, presumably the vast majority, somewhere in between. 607 00:47:43,690 --> 00:47:45,470 But there was another class of people. 608 00:47:45,850 --> 00:47:49,870 They were the spiritual leaders, the wise men of Celtic society. 609 00:47:50,590 --> 00:47:51,790 The Druids. 610 00:47:56,010 --> 00:48:00,330 Miranda Green is an Iron Age archaeologist and Druid specialist. 611 00:48:02,140 --> 00:48:06,360 Within the whole mix of society, you've got kings and aristocrats, you've got 612 00:48:06,360 --> 00:48:10,560 ordinary people, you've got slaves at the bottom. Where are the Druids in that 613 00:48:10,560 --> 00:48:14,560 picture? Right up at the top. I would think probably more important than the 614 00:48:14,560 --> 00:48:15,620 kings or the tribal leaders. 615 00:48:15,920 --> 00:48:17,900 We know that the kings listened to their advice. 616 00:48:18,120 --> 00:48:19,520 They were like the Old Testament prophets. 617 00:48:20,060 --> 00:48:24,840 And one of the things that make them important is that they overarch society 618 00:48:24,840 --> 00:48:28,640 that you might have kings of tribes, but the Druids would connect with each 619 00:48:28,640 --> 00:48:33,440 other. through huge areas of Europe. So they acted like a kind of Celtic glue. 620 00:48:33,740 --> 00:48:37,380 So really crucial to the working of society. 621 00:48:37,800 --> 00:48:41,780 Crucial, and they even intervened in case of warfare. They could actually 622 00:48:41,780 --> 00:48:43,740 into the middle of a battlefield and stop the war. 623 00:48:44,100 --> 00:48:45,640 Right. So they were that important. 624 00:48:46,100 --> 00:48:48,320 OK. Even though they didn't actually fight themselves. 625 00:48:48,820 --> 00:48:50,220 So they were... 626 00:48:50,670 --> 00:48:52,570 Absolutely to be taken seriously. 627 00:48:52,970 --> 00:48:57,950 They were, and indeed to go against a druid would be almost to be as bad as 628 00:48:57,950 --> 00:49:02,110 being dead because you would be exiled, nobody would speak to you and you were 629 00:49:02,110 --> 00:49:05,410 then beyond society because of the word of a druid. 630 00:49:11,470 --> 00:49:16,550 Little evidence remains of these powerful priests of Celtic society 631 00:49:16,550 --> 00:49:18,730 legends of oaks, mistletoe. 632 00:49:19,180 --> 00:49:20,400 and golden sickles. 633 00:49:22,420 --> 00:49:28,740 But discoveries of unusual and mysterious spoons are thought to be 634 00:49:28,740 --> 00:49:30,880 the indispensable art of divination. 635 00:49:31,900 --> 00:49:34,420 What is this collection of weirdness? 636 00:49:35,380 --> 00:49:41,080 Well, we have got here a pair of replica spoons, and they're called divination 637 00:49:41,080 --> 00:49:44,660 spoons. That means divination means telling the future, and they were used 638 00:49:44,660 --> 00:49:48,340 druids in the Iron Age. One of the spoons has got a hole drilled into it. 639 00:49:48,810 --> 00:49:53,510 The other spoon is divided in its inner surface into four quadrants. All right. 640 00:49:53,650 --> 00:49:58,510 And I think they were used together, placed like that, and then something 641 00:49:58,510 --> 00:50:04,990 or dripped through the hole, and then the spoons would be opened to see where 642 00:50:04,990 --> 00:50:06,310 the quartered surface it would fall. 643 00:50:06,590 --> 00:50:11,050 OK. If you want your ancestors to speak to you about perhaps where you should go 644 00:50:11,050 --> 00:50:14,430 next, where your herds should go, to do that you would use their bones. 645 00:50:22,220 --> 00:50:23,220 I'd rather you than me. 646 00:50:26,520 --> 00:50:31,200 So we can see that the powder that I blew through this hole has not landed, 647 00:50:31,200 --> 00:50:35,160 you might think, exactly opposite the hole, but down in this left -hand corner 648 00:50:35,160 --> 00:50:36,160 here. 649 00:50:36,240 --> 00:50:38,900 So we could actually try a little liquid now, couldn't we? This is where you 650 00:50:38,900 --> 00:50:39,900 come in. 651 00:50:40,140 --> 00:50:41,400 I'm guessing that's not ketchup. 652 00:50:41,820 --> 00:50:43,940 No, it's not, and it's not tomato juice. 653 00:50:44,220 --> 00:50:45,220 It's blood. 654 00:50:45,260 --> 00:50:46,260 OK. 655 00:50:57,029 --> 00:50:59,030 You've got actually quite a nice patterning there. Yeah. 656 00:50:59,270 --> 00:51:02,770 But it is like telling the tea leaves. You're getting this definite shape. 657 00:51:03,590 --> 00:51:08,730 So you would come to the druids, or the druids would be consulted by someone in 658 00:51:08,730 --> 00:51:11,350 a position of power and would ask specific questions. 659 00:51:11,810 --> 00:51:15,090 Yes. Why are the flocks afflicted with this disease? 660 00:51:15,350 --> 00:51:16,950 That's right. Should we go to war with the neighbours? 661 00:51:17,230 --> 00:51:17,828 That's right. 662 00:51:17,830 --> 00:51:22,750 And it would be in the gift of the druid to interpret this any way he wanted. Of 663 00:51:22,750 --> 00:51:25,170 course. So if the druid wants to go to war... 664 00:51:25,770 --> 00:51:27,510 The Druid can make that happen? Absolutely. 665 00:51:27,770 --> 00:51:31,570 And the Druids would know perfectly well both the questions and the answers that 666 00:51:31,570 --> 00:51:36,310 they were after. So I think what you've got here is a means of manipulating the 667 00:51:36,310 --> 00:51:38,090 future and manipulating power. 668 00:51:45,910 --> 00:51:51,110 The Druids were men so powerful that even the Celtic kings danced to their 669 00:51:52,390 --> 00:51:57,920 But despite their huge influence, Apart from divination spoons, definite 670 00:51:57,920 --> 00:52:00,440 evidence of druids has never been found. 671 00:52:01,980 --> 00:52:03,740 But there is one possibility. 672 00:52:20,840 --> 00:52:23,540 This is the skull of a man who died. 673 00:52:24,220 --> 00:52:29,480 around 200 years BC, aged between 30 and 35 years old. 674 00:52:30,300 --> 00:52:34,700 He was buried in an Iron Age cemetery in Deal in Kent. 675 00:52:36,060 --> 00:52:42,820 He has been known as the Deal warrior because with him in his grave there was 676 00:52:42,820 --> 00:52:49,080 sword. But there's something more interesting and more mysterious about 677 00:52:49,080 --> 00:52:50,460 this character. 678 00:52:51,790 --> 00:52:56,830 When the skeleton was being excavated back in the 80s, the people working on 679 00:52:56,830 --> 00:53:02,930 noticed that while he was definitely male, the bones were slight, slender. 680 00:53:03,370 --> 00:53:08,970 In fact, somebody said of him that the bones were of a slightly feminine 681 00:53:10,070 --> 00:53:14,290 So something definitely un -warrior -like. 682 00:53:15,610 --> 00:53:21,400 So what's going on? What else do we know? Well, he was buried wearing... the 683 00:53:21,400 --> 00:53:25,040 elaborate, enigmatic headgear. 684 00:53:27,260 --> 00:53:31,200 It wasn't padded or lined in leather. 685 00:53:31,620 --> 00:53:34,800 It was worn directly on the head. 686 00:53:35,360 --> 00:53:39,860 And we know that because traces of this individual's hair were found trapped in 687 00:53:39,860 --> 00:53:40,759 the rim. 688 00:53:40,760 --> 00:53:46,180 For that reason, and because it's so slight, it's highly unlikely that it was 689 00:53:46,180 --> 00:53:49,500 ever worn as a military helmet to give protection to a man's head. 690 00:53:50,040 --> 00:53:56,780 in combat the only other artifacts like it are the 691 00:53:56,780 --> 00:54:03,560 headgear worn by religious leaders in roman britain 200 years 692 00:54:03,560 --> 00:54:09,760 later so was he something like that the fascinating 693 00:54:09,760 --> 00:54:15,800 possibility and it's only a possibility is that this individual 694 00:54:15,800 --> 00:54:17,800 in life 695 00:54:18,960 --> 00:54:23,340 was of that most mysterious cast of people. 696 00:54:23,560 --> 00:54:30,520 A druid who walked this land 200 years before the birth of 697 00:54:30,520 --> 00:54:35,160 Christ. And if so, what events did he witness? 698 00:54:35,620 --> 00:54:38,520 And what power did he wield? 699 00:54:51,240 --> 00:54:55,880 By the time of the Celtic kings, the age of the hill forts was coming to an end. 700 00:54:56,920 --> 00:55:01,580 Even the greatest of them, the mega hill forts like Danbury, were in decline. 701 00:55:04,880 --> 00:55:09,900 Trade with mainland Europe had brought wealth and power, at least to the few. 702 00:55:13,560 --> 00:55:18,120 But those contacts were bringing Britain to the brink of another new age. 703 00:55:25,520 --> 00:55:26,520 Look at this. 704 00:55:26,920 --> 00:55:29,200 It's a fragment of a storage vessel. 705 00:55:29,820 --> 00:55:36,540 It was found 40 odd miles from here on the coast and it was made maybe 75 706 00:55:36,540 --> 00:55:37,540 years BC. 707 00:55:41,380 --> 00:55:44,440 This vessel didn't contain local produce. 708 00:55:44,920 --> 00:55:50,180 Rather it held something from many hundreds of miles away to the south on 709 00:55:50,180 --> 00:55:51,280 mainland Europe. 710 00:55:52,340 --> 00:55:54,160 This contained wine. 711 00:55:54,760 --> 00:55:57,380 possibly from the vineyards of Rome itself. 712 00:56:00,700 --> 00:56:04,280 Now, this speaks of a remarkable transformation. 713 00:56:05,220 --> 00:56:12,140 From a land 400, maybe 300 years BC, with tribal 714 00:56:12,140 --> 00:56:18,920 chieftains fighting over booty, to a land of proto -kingdoms whose leaders 715 00:56:18,920 --> 00:56:22,200 acquired a taste for and had access to. 716 00:56:22,880 --> 00:56:25,720 the finest luxuries that the classical world could offer. 717 00:56:26,500 --> 00:56:32,860 It was the height of the Celtic Iron Age with all its feasting and druids and 718 00:56:32,860 --> 00:56:34,960 the full glory of Celtic art. 719 00:56:36,680 --> 00:56:43,180 But this represents something much more powerful as well because by now the 720 00:56:43,180 --> 00:56:48,700 Roman Empire was fully on the move, had already placed the shadow of its hand 721 00:56:48,700 --> 00:56:49,700 over Gaul. 722 00:56:50,550 --> 00:56:54,890 Soon, the leaders here would be tasting more than Roman wine. 723 00:56:55,170 --> 00:56:58,010 They'd be tasting Roman swords as well. 724 00:56:58,310 --> 00:57:03,050 And that would mark the beginning of a whole new era in our history. 725 00:57:08,250 --> 00:57:10,570 Next time, my journey continues. 726 00:57:11,150 --> 00:57:15,250 The lesson there is don't stand still if a man on a horse is coming at you with 727 00:57:15,250 --> 00:57:16,250 a sword. 728 00:57:18,570 --> 00:57:23,350 As I encounter a whole new age of invasion. 729 00:57:23,930 --> 00:57:27,390 These beaches were lined with thousands of British warriors. 730 00:57:27,710 --> 00:57:30,610 And out there, two legions of Roman infantry. 731 00:57:30,950 --> 00:57:35,430 And at their head, Julius Caesar, Roman general and budding emperor. 732 00:57:36,250 --> 00:57:38,390 A time of bloody conflict. 733 00:57:39,350 --> 00:57:41,950 These men were executed. 734 00:57:42,250 --> 00:57:46,030 Their heads were cut off their bodies and their heads were stuck on spike. 735 00:57:47,050 --> 00:57:49,590 This was what would happen to you if you got in the way of Rome. 736 00:57:51,950 --> 00:57:56,810 A moment in our history that would change the faith of Britain forever. 737 00:58:01,330 --> 00:58:05,470 If you want to follow in the footsteps of our ancestors, then go to the website 738 00:58:05,470 --> 00:58:12,030 bbc .co .uk slash history to find out how to connect with ancient Britain in 739 00:58:12,030 --> 00:58:13,030 your area.