1 00:00:06,000 --> 00:00:09,340 This is the story of how Britain came to be. 2 00:00:10,260 --> 00:00:15,380 Of how our land and its people were forged over thousands of years of 3 00:00:15,380 --> 00:00:16,380 history. 4 00:00:20,100 --> 00:00:23,060 This Britain is a strange and alien world. 5 00:00:24,400 --> 00:00:29,560 A world that contains the hidden story of our distant prehistoric path. 6 00:00:34,570 --> 00:00:39,630 We began as hunters who followed the herds across Europe before Britain was 7 00:00:39,630 --> 00:00:45,250 island. It's fantastic after 14 ,000 years to get a glimpse of the way at 8 00:00:45,250 --> 00:00:46,630 one individual was thinking. 9 00:00:48,790 --> 00:00:53,690 Then the first farmers came, building monumental tombs to their ancestors. 10 00:00:54,590 --> 00:00:57,650 Nothing like this had ever been seen before in Britain. 11 00:00:59,410 --> 00:01:00,970 Before turning to the heavens, 12 00:01:01,920 --> 00:01:05,379 and creating some of the greatest monuments of the ancient world. 13 00:01:07,080 --> 00:01:13,400 Now, the journey continues, with the next chapter in our epic story. 14 00:01:13,900 --> 00:01:15,380 That is magic. 15 00:01:17,240 --> 00:01:21,120 An age of bronze, and a whole new way of living. 16 00:01:21,620 --> 00:01:26,000 The rise of individuals controlling trade and wealth. 17 00:01:28,920 --> 00:01:34,010 The beginnings of a practical, Domestic, almost modern Britain. 18 00:01:54,490 --> 00:01:57,990 Britain, 2500 years B .C. 19 00:01:59,850 --> 00:02:01,690 This is the height of the Stone Age. 20 00:02:02,190 --> 00:02:06,770 People live by farming the land, growing crops, keeping animals. 21 00:02:09,289 --> 00:02:12,510 There's little evidence of fixed villages, permanent settlement. 22 00:02:13,230 --> 00:02:18,210 Instead, they seek out fresh grazing land and fresh soil, season by season. 23 00:02:19,870 --> 00:02:25,370 Everything they have, clothes, tools, food, is gathered from the world around 24 00:02:25,370 --> 00:02:26,370 them. 25 00:02:29,480 --> 00:02:34,160 One material lay at the very heart of their world as it had done for thousands 26 00:02:34,160 --> 00:02:40,980 of years Flint and it was needed in vast quantities 27 00:02:40,980 --> 00:02:47,580 Look at this It's a moonscape of 28 00:02:47,580 --> 00:02:53,440 deep hollows and depressions There are literally 29 00:02:53,440 --> 00:02:55,360 hundreds of them 30 00:03:03,340 --> 00:03:08,900 And these aren't the product of ancient farming or ancient settlements. 31 00:03:09,520 --> 00:03:13,320 All of this was created by ancient industry. 32 00:03:17,140 --> 00:03:21,560 Each one of these hollows is the remnant of an ancient mineshaft. 33 00:03:22,060 --> 00:03:25,060 And there are 433 of them. 34 00:03:30,120 --> 00:03:32,580 Some of the mineshafts have been excavated. 35 00:03:33,150 --> 00:03:37,530 so it's possible to enter the very ground that was worked by our 36 00:03:37,530 --> 00:03:38,530 ancestors. 37 00:03:39,310 --> 00:03:40,750 It's a bit deeper than I thought. 38 00:03:48,690 --> 00:03:54,510 Each shaft leads to a network of tunnels, hacked from the chalk bedrock 39 00:03:54,510 --> 00:03:55,510 basic tools. 40 00:03:58,150 --> 00:04:00,710 This is Red Deer Antler. 41 00:04:01,160 --> 00:04:03,020 hunted or collected in the forest above. 42 00:04:03,720 --> 00:04:08,000 And then it's been used, just as the shape suggests, as a pit. 43 00:04:10,600 --> 00:04:14,440 You can see just how cramped the conditions are down here. 44 00:04:15,240 --> 00:04:21,740 And some of the tunnels are so small, it's believed that as well as men 45 00:04:21,740 --> 00:04:23,780 down here, there must have been children. 46 00:04:24,380 --> 00:04:28,480 Because some of the spaces are just too small to believe it was grown -ups. 47 00:04:31,560 --> 00:04:35,160 Now, here's what all the effort is in aid of. 48 00:04:36,120 --> 00:04:42,860 This black stuff here, this is flint. They would have found a complete floor, 49 00:04:43,000 --> 00:04:49,840 like a black floor of flint, as if a black liquid had flowed in and 50 00:04:50,400 --> 00:04:53,660 It's like glass or equal toffee. 51 00:04:54,460 --> 00:04:59,180 In any case, this is what this mine was all about. 52 00:05:05,699 --> 00:05:08,200 Flint, the lifeblood of the Stone Age. 53 00:05:08,860 --> 00:05:14,660 If you were going to fell a tree, build a house, make wood, make a dugout canoe, 54 00:05:14,920 --> 00:05:17,320 you needed an axe like this. 55 00:05:20,420 --> 00:05:25,640 But Britain and its ancient dependence on Flint was about to change. 56 00:05:33,739 --> 00:05:39,680 In 2500 BC, a radical, unimaginable new technology was about to hit Britain. 57 00:05:40,640 --> 00:05:41,640 Metal. 58 00:05:43,140 --> 00:05:44,460 We take it for granted. 59 00:05:44,880 --> 00:05:48,200 It's quite literally the scaffolding that holds up the modern world. 60 00:05:48,500 --> 00:05:52,300 So much of what we have, what we depend on, is made of metal. 61 00:05:52,980 --> 00:05:56,980 But four and a half thousand years ago, no one in Britain had ever even seen it. 62 00:05:57,340 --> 00:06:02,020 Yet it was about to catapult us out of the Stone Age and into a whole new 63 00:06:02,020 --> 00:06:03,020 chapter. 64 00:06:04,810 --> 00:06:09,630 The arrival of metal would bring a social as well as a technological 65 00:06:10,090 --> 00:06:14,690 The beginning of community life and a world that begins to look increasingly 66 00:06:14,690 --> 00:06:15,730 like our own. 67 00:06:15,970 --> 00:06:20,010 All of this change in an era that we call the Bronze Age. 68 00:06:26,230 --> 00:06:32,370 The story of how metal first came to Britain begins much further west, in the 69 00:06:32,370 --> 00:06:33,870 hills of South West Ireland. 70 00:06:35,850 --> 00:06:40,690 Because the rocks around this stretch of water in County Kerry are rich in 71 00:06:40,690 --> 00:06:41,690 copper ore. 72 00:06:42,410 --> 00:06:47,370 And it was copper from here that was used to make the first metal objects 73 00:06:47,370 --> 00:06:48,370 home in Britain. 74 00:06:52,550 --> 00:06:57,270 Archaeologist Billy O 'Brien has spent decades here discovering evidence of 75 00:06:57,270 --> 00:06:58,510 ancient copper workers. 76 00:07:01,100 --> 00:07:05,460 The typical rock I'm seeing is just this dart with a white vein through it. Is 77 00:07:05,460 --> 00:07:08,600 that? Well, that's what miners would call the country rock. It's limestone 78 00:07:08,600 --> 00:07:11,900 pieces of calcite veining running through it. But there's no copper 79 00:07:11,900 --> 00:07:12,900 that piece, I'm afraid. 80 00:07:13,140 --> 00:07:16,360 So when I think of copper, I'm thinking of a green color. Should there be... 81 00:07:16,360 --> 00:07:17,360 Yeah, you're right. 82 00:07:17,860 --> 00:07:22,000 Absolutely. Copper oxidizes on the surface, so it becomes green and blue. 83 00:07:22,000 --> 00:07:24,220 it's bright colors like that you're looking for. Right. 84 00:07:30,670 --> 00:07:31,629 Oh, look. 85 00:07:31,630 --> 00:07:32,630 What about that? 86 00:07:32,850 --> 00:07:35,870 Yeah, that's got a lot of copper minerals. You can see the green 87 00:07:35,870 --> 00:07:39,110 can see the bright, sparkly silver and gold of the copper sulphide mineral. 88 00:07:42,930 --> 00:07:43,930 Yeah, where are you to? 89 00:07:45,490 --> 00:07:47,310 Yeah, you can see the green instantly. 90 00:07:48,410 --> 00:07:52,130 And there's even sparkling glitter. 91 00:07:53,390 --> 00:07:56,410 And it's the glitter that's actually the copper. 92 00:07:56,690 --> 00:07:58,850 It is the glitter, yeah. That would become the copper. The copper minerals, 93 00:07:58,950 --> 00:07:59,950 yeah, against the limestone. 94 00:08:00,680 --> 00:08:03,900 How on earth would you know it was there? 95 00:08:04,800 --> 00:08:09,680 Surely to the average person, thousands of years ago, a stone is a stone is a 96 00:08:09,680 --> 00:08:14,560 stone. How did anyone realise there was a completely different material hidden 97 00:08:14,560 --> 00:08:15,499 in here? 98 00:08:15,500 --> 00:08:18,700 We know that there was a history of stony settlements in this area going 99 00:08:18,700 --> 00:08:19,700 thousands of years. 100 00:08:19,760 --> 00:08:23,140 At some point they would have noticed that the limestone rocks on this part of 101 00:08:23,140 --> 00:08:25,120 the lake were streaked with copper minerals. 102 00:08:25,800 --> 00:08:28,840 And this knowledge, they wouldn't have known what to make of it, but at some 103 00:08:28,840 --> 00:08:32,799 point they came in contact with people from outside of Ireland who were metal 104 00:08:32,799 --> 00:08:36,520 prospectors. And the two would have come together, and with that outside 105 00:08:36,520 --> 00:08:39,039 expertise, they would have eventually started to mine here. 106 00:08:39,340 --> 00:08:43,600 So it was a foreign expertise that was required to trigger it all. 107 00:08:45,580 --> 00:08:50,940 The very first copper mines were dug in the Balkans, far to the south, nearly 6 108 00:08:50,940 --> 00:08:52,020 ,000 years ago. 109 00:08:55,210 --> 00:09:01,090 By 3000 BC, pockets of copper technology were appearing further west, in 110 00:09:01,090 --> 00:09:03,910 northern Italy and along the Mediterranean coast. 111 00:09:05,550 --> 00:09:11,550 But it wasn't until around 2500 BC that copper spread through northwest Europe. 112 00:09:12,390 --> 00:09:18,410 And prospectors came looking for ore further north still, in Ireland. 113 00:09:20,810 --> 00:09:24,750 And all of this was cut out by human labour. 114 00:09:25,080 --> 00:09:28,600 There's good scientific evidence from things like lead isotope analysis to 115 00:09:28,600 --> 00:09:32,100 indicate that the first copper from Ross Island came from this trench. It's 116 00:09:32,100 --> 00:09:33,160 called the Blue Hole Mine. 117 00:09:36,580 --> 00:09:41,480 And this copper was produced very early on, and it circulated all over Ireland 118 00:09:41,480 --> 00:09:42,680 and then into Western Britain. 119 00:09:42,940 --> 00:09:47,240 So when you find the earliest copper tools in Britain, wherever you find 120 00:09:47,600 --> 00:09:49,640 The metal for them has come out of this hole. 121 00:09:49,900 --> 00:09:53,280 Well, certainly the ones in Ireland and in Western Britain, absolutely. Many of 122 00:09:53,280 --> 00:09:56,440 the ones in places like Wales and Scotland, some of the very earliest 123 00:09:56,440 --> 00:09:57,820 accidents came out of this hole. 124 00:09:58,120 --> 00:10:04,760 It is extraordinary to be able to track a story like metalworking, like copper, 125 00:10:04,860 --> 00:10:08,120 all the way back to one hole in the ground. 126 00:10:08,360 --> 00:10:11,960 It's like following a river right back to spring, the source. 127 00:10:15,580 --> 00:10:16,980 Next to the mine. 128 00:10:17,370 --> 00:10:19,430 workers would have begun to process the rock. 129 00:10:21,530 --> 00:10:25,250 How do you know all of this? How do you know that this is the process and it was 130 00:10:25,250 --> 00:10:25,949 done here? 131 00:10:25,950 --> 00:10:28,350 We know that because of the tools we found in this fight. 132 00:10:29,859 --> 00:10:33,840 The excavation of this work camp and the surrounding mine sites produced 133 00:10:33,840 --> 00:10:37,380 thousands of these stone hammers. You can see they've got grooves around the 134 00:10:37,380 --> 00:10:40,740 centre, and that's because they usually had handles put on them like this. 135 00:10:40,840 --> 00:10:42,780 They've been worked, pecked away at. Exactly. 136 00:10:43,140 --> 00:10:47,360 The purpose of the groove was to grip a handle like this so that you could use 137 00:10:47,360 --> 00:10:48,239 it with more force. 138 00:10:48,240 --> 00:10:51,120 So they'd rather more sophisticated tools than I do. Much more, yeah, much 139 00:10:51,120 --> 00:10:52,120 sophisticated. 140 00:10:53,120 --> 00:10:57,720 Most sophisticated of all, the secret of how to transform the rock. 141 00:10:58,080 --> 00:10:59,140 into gleaming copper. 142 00:11:04,340 --> 00:11:10,520 Melting copper ore required cutting -edge technology, bellows, to create 143 00:11:10,520 --> 00:11:13,340 that was hotter than anything ever seen in Britain before. 144 00:11:16,660 --> 00:11:23,540 For the locals, the new 145 00:11:23,540 --> 00:11:27,560 people who could create glowing metal from rock must have seemed... 146 00:11:27,820 --> 00:11:34,780 Like magicians Oh yeah Look at that That 147 00:11:34,780 --> 00:11:41,580 is magic Wow That's magic 148 00:11:41,580 --> 00:11:44,280 now What was that like four and a half thousand years ago? 149 00:11:46,800 --> 00:11:48,700 Look it's actually turning green 150 00:11:50,320 --> 00:11:53,860 But you can see as well how it reacts straight away with the air as soon as 151 00:11:53,860 --> 00:11:57,020 out. Yeah. You know, imagine someone had turned up in your village and said, I'm 152 00:11:57,020 --> 00:11:57,919 going to show you something. 153 00:11:57,920 --> 00:12:02,020 Yeah. And then they go through all that process and then to see that, to see 154 00:12:02,020 --> 00:12:05,840 that liquid leap in there and then turn into a recognisable object. 155 00:12:06,080 --> 00:12:07,300 Yeah, no, it's magic. 156 00:12:09,560 --> 00:12:10,880 And that's pure copper. 157 00:12:12,620 --> 00:12:13,740 I love it. Yeah. 158 00:12:19,790 --> 00:12:25,870 So, amazingly, it's raw material in these hills and the technology that 159 00:12:25,870 --> 00:12:32,390 transformed it into copper that are, in many ways, the foundations of our modern 160 00:12:32,390 --> 00:12:33,390 world. 161 00:12:35,450 --> 00:12:40,450 The people who brought this technology also brought a new and very different 162 00:12:40,450 --> 00:12:45,190 culture that was to spread throughout Britain and transform society. 163 00:12:47,370 --> 00:12:50,010 They made and used a distinctive kind of pottery. 164 00:12:51,290 --> 00:12:53,030 This piece was actually found here. 165 00:12:53,730 --> 00:12:58,750 Before it was broken, it was part of a vessel that looked a bit like this one. 166 00:12:59,490 --> 00:13:00,830 We call these beakers. 167 00:13:01,590 --> 00:13:07,270 And the people who made these, used these, and were often buried with them 168 00:13:07,270 --> 00:13:10,290 alongside them in their graves are called the beaker people. 169 00:13:16,430 --> 00:13:21,270 Around 2500 BC, Beaker people first arrived in Britain, 170 00:13:21,430 --> 00:13:28,250 bringing their new metalworking skill and a 171 00:13:28,250 --> 00:13:29,330 whole new culture. 172 00:13:31,350 --> 00:13:36,510 And we know that, at least partly, because of an early Beaker man who was 173 00:13:36,510 --> 00:13:41,270 here on land between this school and that housing estate four and a half 174 00:13:41,270 --> 00:13:42,430 thousand years ago. 175 00:13:54,320 --> 00:13:55,320 And here he is. 176 00:13:59,480 --> 00:14:00,920 We've got beakers here. 177 00:14:01,580 --> 00:14:02,900 Real ones this time. 178 00:14:04,920 --> 00:14:07,120 Terrifying at the prospect of even touching them. 179 00:14:07,420 --> 00:14:13,880 Because these are some of the oldest, the earliest beakers in Britain. 180 00:14:14,940 --> 00:14:15,940 This. 181 00:14:16,680 --> 00:14:18,320 Fragile. Lovely. 182 00:14:18,880 --> 00:14:20,400 A beaker. A classic. 183 00:14:22,700 --> 00:14:23,700 Oh. 184 00:14:24,680 --> 00:14:31,520 Also in amongst this dazzling array of grave goods is 185 00:14:31,520 --> 00:14:32,520 metal. 186 00:14:32,980 --> 00:14:37,180 There are copper knives in here, and this isn't just any metal. 187 00:14:37,720 --> 00:14:39,580 Look at this. Here's one of them. 188 00:14:39,800 --> 00:14:44,280 It's a copper knife. It would have been a wooden handle maybe coming out to give 189 00:14:44,280 --> 00:14:45,580 you a grip on it, and there's the cutting edge. 190 00:14:46,660 --> 00:14:51,420 These are the oldest metal objects found so far in Britain. 191 00:14:53,770 --> 00:15:00,770 And alongside the earliest copper, I can't believe I'm about to touch this, 192 00:15:00,770 --> 00:15:03,430 the earliest gold. 193 00:15:04,530 --> 00:15:10,070 This is the earliest gold jewellery. It's been wrongly described previously 194 00:15:10,070 --> 00:15:11,950 an earring, but it's not. 195 00:15:12,630 --> 00:15:14,810 It's a decoration for hair. 196 00:15:15,490 --> 00:15:20,270 You would put it on the end of pleated hair, or a braid of hair, just for 197 00:15:20,270 --> 00:15:22,230 decoration. Look at that, look at this. 198 00:15:22,520 --> 00:15:27,440 Look at how fine it is. It feels as fragile as the foil on a terry chocolate 199 00:15:27,440 --> 00:15:28,440 orange. 200 00:15:28,900 --> 00:15:32,120 And I feel as if, with an uncontrolled nervous twitch, I might crush it flat. 201 00:15:32,860 --> 00:15:33,860 But look at it. 202 00:15:35,460 --> 00:15:36,460 Amazing. 203 00:15:36,800 --> 00:15:37,800 Put it down. 204 00:15:43,900 --> 00:15:48,340 Taking a tooth from the Amesbury Archer, scientists could discover where this 205 00:15:48,340 --> 00:15:50,080 new metal worker had come from. 206 00:15:51,600 --> 00:15:55,920 First time we'd ever had a tooth that old in our hands. It was amazing 207 00:15:55,920 --> 00:15:58,080 something that old from another human being. 208 00:16:00,520 --> 00:16:04,500 Teeth contain traces of atomic elements, strontium and oxygen. 209 00:16:05,640 --> 00:16:09,840 And the pattern of these traces can reveal where someone spent their 210 00:16:10,080 --> 00:16:12,700 even after thousands of years. 211 00:16:14,640 --> 00:16:17,380 We were absolutely overwhelmed with results. 212 00:16:17,580 --> 00:16:18,580 It was absolutely amazing. 213 00:16:18,640 --> 00:16:20,980 This guy didn't come from Britain. 214 00:16:22,960 --> 00:16:27,680 The Amesbury Archer wasn't just an early Eaker man, but one of the original 215 00:16:27,680 --> 00:16:28,680 pioneers. 216 00:16:29,360 --> 00:16:34,480 Born a thousand miles away in the Alps of Central Europe. 217 00:16:36,220 --> 00:16:40,260 You can't possibly think of somebody walking all that, that way. 218 00:16:41,060 --> 00:16:42,260 I was amazed. 219 00:16:42,480 --> 00:16:46,140 I was just totally amazed. And I was absolutely over the moon because he was 220 00:16:46,140 --> 00:16:49,300 different, you know. And you see so many individuals who were... 221 00:16:49,530 --> 00:16:53,410 just like everybody else and then all of a sudden here's one guy who's just 222 00:16:53,410 --> 00:16:54,530 totally different. 223 00:16:57,290 --> 00:17:02,490 After travelling a thousand miles the Amesbury Archer ended his days here in 224 00:17:02,490 --> 00:17:03,490 Wiltshire. 225 00:17:04,530 --> 00:17:07,829 Buried alongside the things that were important to him in life. 226 00:17:09,010 --> 00:17:15,690 All of this so far makes him fascinating and compelling but there's one 227 00:17:15,690 --> 00:17:20,589 last item in here that makes this individual crucial to our story. 228 00:17:21,690 --> 00:17:24,130 It's this item here. 229 00:17:25,770 --> 00:17:27,569 This is called a cushion stone. 230 00:17:29,690 --> 00:17:33,390 It's used for working and finishing metal. 231 00:17:33,930 --> 00:17:36,530 Look at it. It's seen years of use. 232 00:17:36,870 --> 00:17:38,290 Look at how smooth it is. 233 00:17:38,750 --> 00:17:44,950 You would have used the smooth surface of this one to work, to cold work metal 234 00:17:44,950 --> 00:17:48,410 and give it the finishing shape and the finishing touches. 235 00:17:50,420 --> 00:17:56,600 So, this individual, this pioneer from Europe, he didn't just own metal things. 236 00:17:57,100 --> 00:18:02,080 He knew how to get metal, how to make metal, and how to work metal. 237 00:18:07,340 --> 00:18:11,880 The arrival of Beaker people in Britain was a tipping point in the history of 238 00:18:11,880 --> 00:18:12,880 our land. 239 00:18:15,560 --> 00:18:20,220 Before the new people arrived, All our materials were simply collected from the 240 00:18:20,220 --> 00:18:21,220 natural world. 241 00:18:22,620 --> 00:18:29,160 Stone, bone, shell, wood, antler, animal sinew, all of these and more 242 00:18:29,160 --> 00:18:31,760 had been used in countless ingenious ways. 243 00:18:32,060 --> 00:18:35,760 And of course, people had been making pottery for over a thousand years. 244 00:18:36,200 --> 00:18:39,940 But the Beaker people had brought something completely new. 245 00:18:41,040 --> 00:18:46,180 Not just copper technology, but gold jewellery and the trappings of status. 246 00:18:47,139 --> 00:18:48,940 perhaps even wealth. 247 00:18:51,220 --> 00:18:55,580 Metal workers like the Amesbury Archer were pioneering a new and very different 248 00:18:55,580 --> 00:18:58,020 world to that of the ancient past. 249 00:18:58,700 --> 00:19:03,100 This was nothing less than the end of the Stone Age and everything that went 250 00:19:03,100 --> 00:19:04,100 with it. 251 00:19:08,260 --> 00:19:13,260 Stone Age Britain had reached its peak with the creation of massive, cosmically 252 00:19:13,260 --> 00:19:14,720 aligned communal monuments. 253 00:19:18,570 --> 00:19:24,390 Even in death, the ancestors shared a world, often buried or cremated in 254 00:19:24,390 --> 00:19:25,490 communal tombs. 255 00:19:32,730 --> 00:19:38,550 But now, just a few incomers from Europe had brought very different ideas about 256 00:19:38,550 --> 00:19:42,310 how people fitted into society and the world around them. 257 00:19:43,370 --> 00:19:46,910 The Beaker people brought a whole new sense of self. 258 00:19:47,500 --> 00:19:48,880 of individuality. 259 00:19:49,660 --> 00:19:54,220 Unlike most burials in the Stone Age, the Amesbury archer was laid to rest on 260 00:19:54,220 --> 00:19:55,220 his own. 261 00:19:55,380 --> 00:20:01,160 He was also buried with possessions, things that showed what he did, who he 262 00:20:01,420 --> 00:20:04,520 an acknowledgement of his status, if you like. 263 00:20:05,280 --> 00:20:08,120 For the Beaker people, all of this mattered. 264 00:20:08,980 --> 00:20:13,020 But for British people in the Stone Age, this was radical thinking. 265 00:20:17,000 --> 00:20:21,660 Right on the cusp of this change, the last great prehistoric monument in 266 00:20:21,660 --> 00:20:22,660 was begun. 267 00:20:27,440 --> 00:20:30,960 It's this enormous mound, Silbury Hill. 268 00:20:31,760 --> 00:20:36,560 It's almost certainly the largest prehistoric mound built anywhere in the 269 00:20:36,720 --> 00:20:41,120 It's been calculated that it took four million man -hours to build it. 270 00:20:42,400 --> 00:20:46,200 And as for what it's for, I'll be honest with you. 271 00:20:46,490 --> 00:20:47,490 Nobody knows. 272 00:20:49,430 --> 00:20:53,830 One thing we do know for certain, the people who started building it didn't 273 00:20:53,830 --> 00:20:55,050 long enough to see it completed. 274 00:20:55,590 --> 00:21:00,670 It was the idea of Silbury Hill that survived, generation after generation. 275 00:21:02,550 --> 00:21:04,930 And now, of course, it's just a mystery. 276 00:21:09,010 --> 00:21:12,490 It could be that this was the last blossoming of the Neolithic. 277 00:21:13,040 --> 00:21:16,360 before the new, more individual beaker ways took over. 278 00:21:17,400 --> 00:21:23,000 Beakers, classic beakers, that give the beaker people their name are drinking 279 00:21:23,000 --> 00:21:28,400 vessels and they're associated with a male -dominated culture of archery, 280 00:21:28,500 --> 00:21:30,620 metalworking and drinking. 281 00:21:32,080 --> 00:21:38,080 Analysis of fragments of real beakers to see what they contained had shown that 282 00:21:38,080 --> 00:21:39,940 it was almost certainly alcoholic. 283 00:21:41,340 --> 00:21:42,340 Now... 284 00:21:46,030 --> 00:21:52,690 So in honour of the Amesbury Archer and the builders of Silbury Hill, I'm going 285 00:21:52,690 --> 00:21:53,690 to try some. 286 00:21:54,470 --> 00:21:55,470 Good health. 287 00:22:03,230 --> 00:22:06,770 Metal was only one part of the new beaker culture. 288 00:22:07,830 --> 00:22:12,010 But for all their individual skills and modern outlook, the new metal workers 289 00:22:12,010 --> 00:22:13,010 had a problem. 290 00:22:14,380 --> 00:22:18,820 Copper might have looked good, but it was so soft that it was barely better 291 00:22:18,820 --> 00:22:19,860 flint as a tool. 292 00:22:23,660 --> 00:22:28,440 But the Beaker people also knew about another, even more astonishing metal. 293 00:22:34,400 --> 00:22:39,020 The metal that was to open up a whole new age was unlocked from the rocks of 294 00:22:39,020 --> 00:22:40,020 Cornish coast. 295 00:22:43,510 --> 00:22:47,350 Because to make it, you needed to combine copper with tin. 296 00:22:56,010 --> 00:22:57,010 Bear with me. 297 00:22:58,930 --> 00:23:01,590 Apparently it's quite distinctive when you see it. 298 00:23:03,870 --> 00:23:05,810 If you don't break an ankle on the way. 299 00:23:08,010 --> 00:23:09,010 Look. 300 00:23:10,670 --> 00:23:12,610 The secret to all of it. 301 00:23:13,360 --> 00:23:19,800 What those early metal workers were on the hunt for is in this ribbon of black 302 00:23:19,800 --> 00:23:21,900 and white rock. It's very distinctive. See it? 303 00:23:23,860 --> 00:23:28,040 It's called catheterite, a rock that contains tin. 304 00:23:33,220 --> 00:23:37,700 Britain had been a latecomer to the copper age, but the discovery of local 305 00:23:37,860 --> 00:23:42,180 a much rarer metal than copper, was to propel Britain to the very technological 306 00:23:42,180 --> 00:23:43,780 forefront of Europe. 307 00:23:45,640 --> 00:23:49,680 And if you were very lucky you'd find something like this. 308 00:23:50,880 --> 00:23:56,240 I wish you could feel it. It looks like any ordinary pebble but trust me it's as 309 00:23:56,240 --> 00:23:57,600 heavy as a cannonball. 310 00:23:58,200 --> 00:24:02,440 And when you extract the tin itself it's as beautiful as silver. 311 00:24:06,840 --> 00:24:09,520 And this is an ingot of tin. 312 00:24:10,140 --> 00:24:11,140 It's very lovely. 313 00:24:11,460 --> 00:24:16,960 They say that if you bend it, it crackles. 314 00:24:17,420 --> 00:24:19,080 They call that the cry of tin. 315 00:24:19,300 --> 00:24:25,440 But more importantly, if you have copper and you add this, you transform it into 316 00:24:25,440 --> 00:24:26,440 bronze. 317 00:24:31,720 --> 00:24:36,060 If you control the bellow speed, it holds the perfect temperature for 318 00:24:42,440 --> 00:24:46,940 With just the right mixture of copper and tin, metalworkers could create an 319 00:24:46,940 --> 00:24:50,320 alloy that was hard enough to make useful tools and weapons. 320 00:24:54,900 --> 00:25:01,860 An impact that crumpled copper is no match 321 00:25:01,860 --> 00:25:07,180 for bronze, the hardest metal of the ancient world. 322 00:25:07,820 --> 00:25:11,700 No matter how often I do this, I still find it quite challenging. 323 00:25:14,100 --> 00:25:16,360 Molds were made of stone or clay. 324 00:25:18,340 --> 00:25:19,440 Fingers crossed, gentlemen. 325 00:25:19,700 --> 00:25:20,720 Fingers, everything crossed. 326 00:25:22,360 --> 00:25:26,500 In this case, to cast something that was unknown before bronze came along. 327 00:25:27,220 --> 00:25:28,220 A sword. 328 00:25:41,350 --> 00:25:42,370 Fantastic. Loving this. 329 00:25:44,130 --> 00:25:45,870 Right. Can you lift that off, Rob? 330 00:25:51,410 --> 00:25:52,410 Okay, this is it. 331 00:25:53,630 --> 00:25:54,890 Right. That's it. 332 00:25:57,590 --> 00:25:58,590 Whoa. 333 00:26:03,370 --> 00:26:05,470 Okay. Like a beaten heart. Look at it. 334 00:26:08,939 --> 00:26:10,040 Okay, in you go. 335 00:26:11,260 --> 00:26:12,260 Bit lower. 336 00:26:12,400 --> 00:26:13,400 Fine wine. 337 00:26:21,280 --> 00:26:22,920 That's it. Well done, gentlemen. 338 00:26:24,220 --> 00:26:25,220 Amazing. 339 00:26:27,200 --> 00:26:28,560 Blood. Better than blood. 340 00:26:31,380 --> 00:26:32,720 Okay. That's good. 341 00:26:33,280 --> 00:26:34,360 Lift it up a little bit. 342 00:26:34,860 --> 00:26:35,860 That's it. Right there. 343 00:26:43,180 --> 00:26:45,220 It's a little visceral, isn't it? Oh, definitely. 344 00:26:50,780 --> 00:26:52,080 The moment of truth. 345 00:26:59,940 --> 00:27:00,940 There we go. 346 00:27:01,940 --> 00:27:03,200 Look at that, behold. 347 00:27:09,220 --> 00:27:10,340 That is amazing. 348 00:27:10,620 --> 00:27:11,620 Look at the colour of it. 349 00:27:13,800 --> 00:27:16,260 You impressed? I'm very, I'm deeply, deeply impressed. 350 00:27:17,620 --> 00:27:18,620 Look at that. 351 00:27:19,920 --> 00:27:21,600 Yeah, it even makes a ring. 352 00:27:21,920 --> 00:27:23,560 It's a very hard piece of bronze. 353 00:27:23,800 --> 00:27:24,800 Just amazing. 354 00:27:28,720 --> 00:27:32,120 From liquid fire to a metal sword in a couple of minutes. 355 00:27:42,730 --> 00:27:46,990 In the hands of master metalworkers, bronze was leading Britain into a whole 356 00:27:46,990 --> 00:27:51,590 age, not only technologically, but socially as well. 357 00:27:54,430 --> 00:27:57,310 Look at these, obviously lethal weapons. 358 00:28:00,670 --> 00:28:06,690 But swords are quite a late development in the story of bronze, in the story of 359 00:28:06,690 --> 00:28:10,370 metal. If you're talking about early bronze... 360 00:28:10,830 --> 00:28:12,170 then you have to look at axes. 361 00:28:13,910 --> 00:28:18,670 These are some of the earliest bronze objects found so far in Britain. 362 00:28:18,950 --> 00:28:23,730 These date from as early as 2200 years BC. 363 00:28:24,430 --> 00:28:29,310 A carpenter would have coveted an item like this because it would enable him to 364 00:28:29,310 --> 00:28:30,610 do a better, faster job. 365 00:28:31,070 --> 00:28:35,650 But bronze axes are about much more than the utility of the object. 366 00:28:36,300 --> 00:28:40,380 They're about status and prestige. No humble carpenter could possibly have 367 00:28:40,380 --> 00:28:45,240 dreamt of owning something so valuable in the early days of bronze. 368 00:28:46,140 --> 00:28:50,000 Much more than tools, these are objects of desire. 369 00:28:50,640 --> 00:28:57,220 There's a whole range of sizes and styles, although still early. 370 00:28:57,620 --> 00:28:59,380 Look at the size of that one. 371 00:28:59,620 --> 00:29:00,960 That's what that one's all about. 372 00:29:01,300 --> 00:29:02,300 The bigger is better. 373 00:29:02,720 --> 00:29:03,940 It's showing off. 374 00:29:04,620 --> 00:29:05,640 And this one, 375 00:29:06,350 --> 00:29:10,070 It looks silvery in colour rather than the warm gold of bronze. 376 00:29:10,450 --> 00:29:15,410 And that silvering has been achieved by flashing tin onto the surface of the 377 00:29:15,410 --> 00:29:17,490 bronze. It doesn't make a better axe. 378 00:29:17,730 --> 00:29:19,650 It just makes it more eye -packing. 379 00:29:21,550 --> 00:29:23,770 This ushers in a whole new era. 380 00:29:24,550 --> 00:29:29,530 Because for the first time, there's a different way to get and to demonstrate 381 00:29:29,530 --> 00:29:30,530 wealth. 382 00:29:31,330 --> 00:29:35,150 After the time of the priestly class, where... 383 00:29:35,660 --> 00:29:39,400 The status was conferred on people because of who they were and what they 384 00:29:40,500 --> 00:29:42,120 Now there's a different opportunity. 385 00:29:42,740 --> 00:29:46,340 The bronze here has been brought together from many sources. 386 00:29:46,740 --> 00:29:51,920 The copper from South West Ireland, the tin from Cornwall. But these were found 387 00:29:51,920 --> 00:29:53,140 in the north -east of Scotland. 388 00:29:53,480 --> 00:29:58,100 So the materials are moving all over the country. If you are someone who can 389 00:29:58,100 --> 00:30:02,180 control those trade routes, if you can get your hands on this as it's moving 390 00:30:02,180 --> 00:30:06,590 through your territory, and control it, then you've got personal wealth and 391 00:30:06,590 --> 00:30:10,790 you've got the ability to demonstrate and to show that you are someone who 392 00:30:10,790 --> 00:30:11,790 matters. 393 00:30:15,650 --> 00:30:18,610 Now, not everyone had to farm the land. 394 00:30:19,810 --> 00:30:23,410 At least for a few of Britain's population of perhaps a quarter of a 395 00:30:23,410 --> 00:30:26,270 people, new opportunities were emerging. 396 00:30:29,010 --> 00:30:34,070 Specialist metal worker, metal trader, And in particular, those who controlled 397 00:30:34,070 --> 00:30:36,330 the trade routes could become seriously rich. 398 00:30:36,850 --> 00:30:41,890 This was a new, self -made elite for whom the Stone Age must have seemed a 399 00:30:41,890 --> 00:30:43,710 quaint and distant memory. 400 00:30:51,250 --> 00:30:55,510 In the Bronze Age, it wasn't just the ancient, sacred landscapes that were 401 00:30:55,510 --> 00:31:00,750 important, but the practical landscapes of natural harbours and river routes. 402 00:31:02,760 --> 00:31:06,540 One of the most important trade routes was the western entrance to the Great 403 00:31:06,540 --> 00:31:12,580 Glen in Scotland, a place studied by archaeologist Alison Sheridan. 404 00:31:12,840 --> 00:31:18,440 This glen is geographically in a great position to control the flow of metal 405 00:31:18,440 --> 00:31:22,300 that's coming from Ireland up the Great Glen to northeast Scotland. 406 00:31:22,560 --> 00:31:26,840 So this valley finds itself... At the hub of what is effectively a busy 407 00:31:26,840 --> 00:31:31,440 motorway. Yes, absolutely. Those people who are able to control the flow of 408 00:31:31,440 --> 00:31:34,920 copper or tin or both, we're going to make it rich. 409 00:31:38,560 --> 00:31:43,480 The tombs of some of the new rich bronze elite of Kilmartin still survive. 410 00:31:45,500 --> 00:31:49,920 Within this huge cairn, there was only ever one person buried. 411 00:31:50,740 --> 00:31:53,260 This is no mass grave. 412 00:31:54,010 --> 00:31:57,430 This is for a single high -status individual. 413 00:32:04,510 --> 00:32:10,790 This cairn was rebuilt around this modern chamber that was itself built to 414 00:32:10,790 --> 00:32:14,890 people see this single grave, this stone -lined cairn. 415 00:32:15,330 --> 00:32:21,490 There was only ever one grave in this entire cairn, so this was an important 416 00:32:21,490 --> 00:32:22,490 individual. 417 00:32:23,500 --> 00:32:29,020 But the most interesting thing of all in here is the lid, the capstone that was 418 00:32:29,020 --> 00:32:35,140 once laid on top of this to seal it. But before it was put down, it was 419 00:32:35,140 --> 00:32:41,780 upgraded, reworked with these axe heads pecked and carved into the surface. 420 00:32:42,040 --> 00:32:43,420 They're all over the place here. 421 00:32:44,920 --> 00:32:51,480 So the person, whoever he or she was, was laid to rest in here and they would 422 00:32:51,480 --> 00:32:52,480 spend eternity. 423 00:32:52,910 --> 00:32:58,850 Looking up at the moon, because it was the axe, the metal of the axes, that was 424 00:32:58,850 --> 00:33:02,210 the basis for the wealth and the power of these people. 425 00:33:04,870 --> 00:33:09,410 The new wealth fed a new demand for luxury goods. 426 00:33:15,530 --> 00:33:21,510 Alison, you don't often find or see anything quite as stunning as that, do 427 00:33:21,690 --> 00:33:22,690 Mm -mm. 428 00:33:22,880 --> 00:33:23,880 What is it made of? 429 00:33:24,080 --> 00:33:26,620 It's made of jet from Whitby in Yorkshire. 430 00:33:28,060 --> 00:33:34,180 This necklace had travelled over 300 miles to be worn by one special, very 431 00:33:34,180 --> 00:33:35,180 woman. 432 00:33:36,520 --> 00:33:40,520 It's actually semi -fossilised wood of the monkey puzzle tree family. 433 00:33:40,840 --> 00:33:41,819 Isn't that fantastic? 434 00:33:41,820 --> 00:33:44,540 It's great, and you can actually see the grain of the wood there. 435 00:33:44,760 --> 00:33:49,160 And it doesn't feel as you would expect it to because it looks as if it ought to 436 00:33:49,160 --> 00:33:50,200 be much heavier than it is. 437 00:33:50,420 --> 00:33:54,660 Yes. It is quite like handling varnished wood. It's wonderful. It's also warm. I 438 00:33:54,660 --> 00:33:58,380 mean, jet is an amazing stone. It's stone that is light. 439 00:33:58,700 --> 00:34:00,380 It's stone that you can burn. 440 00:34:00,660 --> 00:34:02,780 And it also has electrostatic properties. 441 00:34:03,080 --> 00:34:07,500 This wasn't just precious bling. This was supernatural power dressing, if you 442 00:34:07,500 --> 00:34:11,620 like. It's something which would have protected the woman in her dangerous 443 00:34:11,620 --> 00:34:13,540 journey to the world of the gods and the ancestors. 444 00:34:14,080 --> 00:34:15,780 Now, how old did you say that was? 445 00:34:16,260 --> 00:34:19,300 It's about 4 ,150 years old. And fragile? 446 00:34:19,739 --> 00:34:20,739 Yes. 447 00:34:20,969 --> 00:34:24,530 So this is a replica. 448 00:34:24,989 --> 00:34:29,330 That's right, yes. It was made for Kilmartin House Museum by a modern -day 449 00:34:29,330 --> 00:34:30,969 Whitby Jet specialist worker. 450 00:34:31,210 --> 00:34:32,610 Would you like to try it? Oh, I'd love to. 451 00:34:36,210 --> 00:34:37,210 OK. 452 00:34:38,429 --> 00:34:43,030 Now, does it feel different than other items of finery you've worn before? Yes, 453 00:34:43,030 --> 00:34:44,530 it makes me feel like a queen. 454 00:34:45,730 --> 00:34:48,969 It's just wonderful. It's so comfortable, so soft, so beautiful. 455 00:34:49,500 --> 00:34:54,860 It would have been originally very tightly strung, so it's a solid black 456 00:34:54,860 --> 00:34:56,139 precious magical material. 457 00:34:56,800 --> 00:35:03,640 So 4 ,100 and odd years ago, this part of Britain was centre 458 00:35:03,640 --> 00:35:07,920 stage? Absolutely, yeah. So in fact, at the time, Northern Britain and Ireland 459 00:35:07,920 --> 00:35:09,400 were the epicentre of cool. 460 00:35:09,620 --> 00:35:13,380 They were the places where the fashion trends were being created. 461 00:35:14,760 --> 00:35:18,580 This is internationally significant, and the person would have held her own 462 00:35:18,580 --> 00:35:20,840 among the elites across Europe. 463 00:35:21,060 --> 00:35:24,220 Right, so Britain is at the centre, not on the periphery. Yes, absolutely. 464 00:35:28,420 --> 00:35:33,560 If this glen teaches us anything, it's that by around 2000 BC, Britain had a 465 00:35:33,560 --> 00:35:37,760 real presence in the world. We had the natural resources and the technical 466 00:35:37,760 --> 00:35:39,440 skills that meant we couldn't be ignored. 467 00:35:40,300 --> 00:35:43,920 In the Mediterranean and the rest of Europe, they'd had trade and wealth for 468 00:35:43,920 --> 00:35:46,480 centuries. Now we had it too. 469 00:35:52,540 --> 00:35:56,340 The waters around Britain can be some of the most treacherous in the world. 470 00:35:56,940 --> 00:36:00,520 But to trade with Europe, Bronze Age sailors had to brave them. 471 00:36:03,440 --> 00:36:08,320 And a remarkable discovery made in Dover reveals the sophistication of their 472 00:36:08,320 --> 00:36:09,340 maritime prowess. 473 00:36:13,870 --> 00:36:19,230 In 1992, while this underpass was being dug, the evidence emerged from the mud. 474 00:36:21,970 --> 00:36:26,190 Incredibly, they found a boat, a big wooden boat, buried 20 feet underground, 475 00:36:26,490 --> 00:36:27,490 down here. 476 00:36:29,510 --> 00:36:34,770 It's hard to believe, surrounded down here by all this concrete and these 477 00:36:34,770 --> 00:36:35,770 painted tiles. 478 00:36:36,190 --> 00:36:41,870 But 3 ,500 years ago, the boat came to rest and was gradually buried under 479 00:36:41,870 --> 00:36:42,970 layers and layers of mud. 480 00:36:51,530 --> 00:36:52,530 And here it is. 481 00:36:52,710 --> 00:36:59,170 This, quite simply, is the oldest surviving seagoing vessel in the world. 482 00:37:00,370 --> 00:37:02,110 It's absolutely fantastic. 483 00:37:02,390 --> 00:37:08,010 At first sight, it's honestly one of the most impressive archaeological finds 484 00:37:08,010 --> 00:37:09,610 I've ever laid eyes on. 485 00:37:11,270 --> 00:37:16,550 Originally up to 20 metres long, the Dover boat would have carried cargo 486 00:37:16,550 --> 00:37:20,550 Britain and mainland Europe, scrap bronze and other metals. 487 00:37:21,130 --> 00:37:23,110 perhaps also wool and fabric. 488 00:37:24,470 --> 00:37:28,970 A vessel this size would obviously have taken some skilled handling. 489 00:37:29,250 --> 00:37:35,970 It must have been either paddled with several of these, or 490 00:37:35,970 --> 00:37:41,970 the thinking more recently has been that it might have been rowed, like a rowing 491 00:37:41,970 --> 00:37:45,110 boat on a paddling pond, only on a much grander scale. 492 00:37:46,470 --> 00:37:49,370 I've actually been given the privilege of going inside the case. 493 00:37:49,590 --> 00:37:53,620 This. It's the magic handle that opens the door. 494 00:37:56,880 --> 00:37:58,760 You don't get to do this in normal life. 495 00:38:05,560 --> 00:38:11,060 There's a real atmosphere in here. I don't know if it's just the key, but 496 00:38:11,060 --> 00:38:16,860 it's almost like being in here with someone rather than just something. 497 00:38:20,400 --> 00:38:25,700 It's as if the Bronze Age and Bronze Age people are preserved in here. 498 00:38:30,200 --> 00:38:35,200 The boat's construction relied on the expert skills of carpenters using bronze 499 00:38:35,200 --> 00:38:36,200 axes. 500 00:38:36,500 --> 00:38:40,500 Its hull, four enormous planks sewn together. 501 00:38:43,400 --> 00:38:48,180 These are twisted yew branches, they're called withies, and they've been used 502 00:38:48,180 --> 00:38:53,380 like thread or cords. So the whole, the pieces have been stitched together, 503 00:38:53,580 --> 00:38:58,900 almost as though, rather than wood, it was made out of skin or cloth. It's the 504 00:38:58,900 --> 00:39:02,920 same sort of technology, it's been sewn together, just on a kind of a giant 505 00:39:02,920 --> 00:39:03,920 scale. 506 00:39:07,280 --> 00:39:11,920 Close up, there's a detail that reveals how this boat ended its days. 507 00:39:15,590 --> 00:39:22,470 It was in good nick, but at some point, people have decided to put it beyond 508 00:39:22,470 --> 00:39:27,470 youth. It's been scuttled, if you like. You can see at certain points where the 509 00:39:27,470 --> 00:39:30,110 whiffies, those twisted U -branches, have been cut deliberately. 510 00:39:31,850 --> 00:39:37,770 So for some reason, it was thought appropriate to put this boat, this 511 00:39:37,770 --> 00:39:40,450 functional boat, beyond the youth of man. 512 00:39:55,210 --> 00:39:59,010 In ancient Britain, the earth was alive and sacred. 513 00:39:59,910 --> 00:40:05,770 So anything taken from the earth, whether wood or bronze, was only 514 00:40:05,770 --> 00:40:07,570 would one day have to be returned. 515 00:40:10,230 --> 00:40:14,910 People in the past seem to acknowledge a relationship between themselves, their 516 00:40:14,910 --> 00:40:19,330 belongings and their landscape and something unseen. 517 00:40:20,150 --> 00:40:22,670 They accept... 518 00:40:23,050 --> 00:40:28,090 that there's a relationship, that there's an obligation that comes with 519 00:40:28,090 --> 00:40:32,610 ownership, that death follows life, and that deaths have to be repaid. 520 00:40:33,090 --> 00:40:39,770 So an axe is buried or thrown away, a polished maize head 521 00:40:39,770 --> 00:40:44,550 goes into a tomb with the ancestors, and a boat like the Dover boat, even though 522 00:40:44,550 --> 00:40:47,830 it's still serviceable, has to be returned to the world. 523 00:40:51,270 --> 00:40:52,270 Look at this. 524 00:40:55,050 --> 00:40:57,650 beautiful rapier. Look how fine it is. 525 00:40:58,550 --> 00:41:03,530 You can imagine the youth that was put to the handle here. 526 00:41:06,050 --> 00:41:09,750 But it's been damaged to put it beyond the youth of men. 527 00:41:10,630 --> 00:41:15,850 So it's been bent over someone's knee and then the edge has been ruined by 528 00:41:15,850 --> 00:41:18,010 striking it on a rock. 529 00:41:21,330 --> 00:41:22,330 Look. 530 00:41:23,790 --> 00:41:27,930 Before this was given back to the world, it's been snapped. 531 00:41:28,470 --> 00:41:30,110 Great force has been used. 532 00:41:30,630 --> 00:41:33,630 This was probably a valuable, cherished object. 533 00:41:34,130 --> 00:41:36,030 But the time came for it to go away. 534 00:41:37,490 --> 00:41:40,510 And so it was put out of reach by destroying it. 535 00:41:46,350 --> 00:41:49,550 Bronze Age discoveries are revealing more than ancient lives. 536 00:41:51,600 --> 00:41:53,500 but ancient beliefs as well. 537 00:41:54,400 --> 00:42:00,940 In some ways, the people of the Bronze Age were forging a new, 538 00:42:00,940 --> 00:42:02,220 modern way of living. 539 00:42:02,700 --> 00:42:09,440 But with the Dover boat, and with those damaged pieces of valuable bronze, we're 540 00:42:09,440 --> 00:42:11,640 also seeing another side to Bronze Age life. 541 00:42:11,960 --> 00:42:15,320 It's a glimpse of Bronze Age religion, if you like. 542 00:42:16,000 --> 00:42:17,960 And it's connected with water. 543 00:42:20,620 --> 00:42:24,680 The only evidence we have is the gifts that were given to the gods. 544 00:42:25,620 --> 00:42:32,200 Rivers, particularly those that flow east in England, were special places 545 00:42:32,200 --> 00:42:37,820 people brought treasured personal belongings like swords or cooking pots 546 00:42:37,820 --> 00:42:38,638 threw them in. 547 00:42:38,640 --> 00:42:43,620 And archaeologists think that those things were offerings to appease the 548 00:42:45,740 --> 00:42:51,490 So, living beside nature and trying to work out how to appease the gods, how to 549 00:42:51,490 --> 00:42:55,250 keep them happy, would presumably just have been part of everyday life. 550 00:43:00,990 --> 00:43:04,990 In the thousand years since the Beaker people first brought metal to our 551 00:43:05,250 --> 00:43:07,810 a wealthy Bronze Age elite had emerged. 552 00:43:11,530 --> 00:43:16,410 By 1500 BC, Britain was a rich, well -connected land. 553 00:43:17,490 --> 00:43:23,240 But of course, Almost all those riches were the preserve of just a few, those 554 00:43:23,240 --> 00:43:24,360 the very top of society. 555 00:43:26,180 --> 00:43:29,220 But one aspect of Britain had barely changed. 556 00:43:29,680 --> 00:43:34,000 The way people lived their life was pretty much the same as it had been in 557 00:43:34,000 --> 00:43:35,000 Stone Age. 558 00:43:35,660 --> 00:43:40,420 They farmed the land as they had done for centuries, but they moved around 559 00:43:40,420 --> 00:43:41,760 season by season. 560 00:43:43,020 --> 00:43:47,850 Apart from a few exceptions, there's scant evidence of permanent homes or 561 00:43:47,850 --> 00:43:48,850 permanent farms. 562 00:43:49,110 --> 00:43:52,030 But all of this was about to change. 563 00:43:55,950 --> 00:44:00,010 A Bronze Age site in East Anglia revealed the remains of something new. 564 00:44:06,190 --> 00:44:10,650 A permanent farmstead, with evidence of houses built to last a lifetime. 565 00:44:14,890 --> 00:44:19,510 Since the original discovery in the 1980s, some of the buildings have been 566 00:44:19,510 --> 00:44:20,510 recreated. 567 00:44:21,270 --> 00:44:26,070 To get a better idea of how Bronze Age people lived, you want to get inside one 568 00:44:26,070 --> 00:44:27,070 of their houses. 569 00:44:27,570 --> 00:44:31,470 So there's no way around reconstruction, because although stone foundations 570 00:44:31,470 --> 00:44:33,750 survive, the timbers of the roof, they perish. 571 00:44:34,710 --> 00:44:40,070 So there's no alternative but to use archaeological evidence and best guesses 572 00:44:40,070 --> 00:44:44,510 put together as close a replica of a... Bronze Age houses we can get. 573 00:44:46,570 --> 00:44:51,650 An entire family would occupy a single room with a central hearth for heating 574 00:44:51,650 --> 00:44:52,650 and cooking. 575 00:44:54,170 --> 00:44:58,330 It's quite interesting. You don't need a hole in the roof for the smoke. 576 00:44:59,230 --> 00:45:04,190 The smoke just rises and sits above head height and then gradually seeps out 577 00:45:04,190 --> 00:45:05,190 through the thatch. 578 00:45:07,330 --> 00:45:10,770 The Bronze Age roundhouse formed a template for domestic living. 579 00:45:11,180 --> 00:45:13,100 that would last for over a thousand years. 580 00:45:20,780 --> 00:45:25,880 Bronze Age specialist Francis Pryor discovered flag -fen and he's studied it 581 00:45:25,880 --> 00:45:26,880 ever since. 582 00:45:28,660 --> 00:45:35,560 Francis, what would it have been like to live in the Bronze Age, 1200 years 583 00:45:35,560 --> 00:45:38,220 BC? People were very relaxed. 584 00:45:38,890 --> 00:45:40,450 They knew their place in society. 585 00:45:41,430 --> 00:45:42,430 They ate well. 586 00:45:43,410 --> 00:45:48,710 The archaeological evidence doesn't suggest that there was, let's say, an 587 00:45:48,710 --> 00:45:51,430 underclass, a lower class, that wasn't properly nourished. 588 00:45:51,690 --> 00:45:56,390 I mean, whenever you dig up a Bronze Age burial, nine times out of ten or 90 589 00:45:56,390 --> 00:46:01,810 times out of 100, the body is well nourished, the bones are well formed. So 590 00:46:01,810 --> 00:46:03,990 had plenty of calcium and they had a decent diet. 591 00:46:04,910 --> 00:46:08,770 One of the things there isn't much evidence for in the Bronze Age is actual 592 00:46:08,770 --> 00:46:14,090 strife. I mean, the population hadn't got so big that people were at each 593 00:46:14,090 --> 00:46:14,968 other's throats. 594 00:46:14,970 --> 00:46:19,110 You know, everyone knew what land they owned. People lived in families. 595 00:46:19,490 --> 00:46:21,090 You know, your week was organised. 596 00:46:22,170 --> 00:46:24,470 Life, I think, in the Bronze Age would have been pretty good. 597 00:46:29,130 --> 00:46:33,650 As the Bronze Age matured, settled life came with an even bigger change. 598 00:46:34,360 --> 00:46:38,560 A change that was one of the greatest social transformations in the whole of 599 00:46:38,560 --> 00:46:39,560 history. 600 00:46:40,920 --> 00:46:47,380 This sort of set up, these houses, this winding road, this 601 00:46:47,380 --> 00:46:49,740 is our classic view of rural Britain. 602 00:46:53,100 --> 00:46:56,740 Permanent houses led to the beginnings of the very first villages. 603 00:46:58,800 --> 00:47:02,420 Fields all around, houses close together. 604 00:47:03,790 --> 00:47:04,790 These are the neighbours. 605 00:47:06,450 --> 00:47:10,350 And that fundamentally changed the way we related to a place. 606 00:47:12,010 --> 00:47:13,070 And to one another. 607 00:47:14,770 --> 00:47:17,730 It seems normal to us, but it all had to be invented. 608 00:47:18,370 --> 00:47:22,490 The whole idea of getting used to living in the same house for your whole life. 609 00:47:22,950 --> 00:47:27,150 The neighbours getting used to seeing the same faces day after day. 610 00:47:28,210 --> 00:47:33,210 It seems obvious to us, but until about 1500 years BC, this. 611 00:47:33,520 --> 00:47:34,720 was shockingly new. 612 00:47:39,540 --> 00:47:43,920 The wild moorlands of Devon contain evidence of this new way of living. 613 00:47:48,940 --> 00:47:53,700 If it's Bronze Age Britain you're looking for, this is the place to come 614 00:47:53,700 --> 00:47:58,360 beyond this patch of woodland is the finest relic we have of that ancient 615 00:47:58,360 --> 00:47:59,360 landscape. 616 00:48:08,660 --> 00:48:13,500 Dartmoor has the best preserved Bronze Age landscape, not just in Britain, but 617 00:48:13,500 --> 00:48:14,500 in the whole of Europe. 618 00:48:23,260 --> 00:48:27,180 These rocky outcrops, called tors, are natural. 619 00:48:27,700 --> 00:48:32,080 But the landscape is also marked by the work of people who lived on these hills 620 00:48:32,080 --> 00:48:34,020 three and a half thousand years ago. 621 00:48:47,020 --> 00:48:52,360 Faint crisscross markings are relics of Bronze Age field systems that divide the 622 00:48:52,360 --> 00:48:56,820 land into plots, farmed by families living in their own homes. 623 00:48:58,960 --> 00:49:02,580 But really what's impressive about it is the scale. 624 00:49:04,380 --> 00:49:08,760 Within this landscape, the remains of some of the very earliest Bronze Age 625 00:49:08,760 --> 00:49:09,760 roundhouses. 626 00:49:16,270 --> 00:49:17,350 Proper entrance. 627 00:49:23,010 --> 00:49:25,750 There's nothing temporary or half -hearted about this. 628 00:49:26,290 --> 00:49:27,430 This is permanent. 629 00:49:29,070 --> 00:49:32,430 Whoever built this wasn't moving on in a hurry. 630 00:49:37,110 --> 00:49:41,030 Archaeologist Neil Sharples has made an extensive study of the Dartmoor 631 00:49:41,030 --> 00:49:42,690 landscape and its buildings. 632 00:49:45,100 --> 00:49:50,060 Activity areas, not rooms, not divided up, no walls separating the room, but 633 00:49:50,060 --> 00:49:53,720 big room, but divided into areas where they're doing different things. So you 634 00:49:53,720 --> 00:49:56,540 cook over here and then you make tools over here. 635 00:49:56,880 --> 00:50:00,860 And then on the other side, over here perhaps, there's sleeping and storage, 636 00:50:01,120 --> 00:50:05,840 perhaps a loom as well for weaving at the back of the house maybe. You know, 637 00:50:05,840 --> 00:50:09,490 those kind of activities going on. When they start building these houses... This 638 00:50:09,490 --> 00:50:14,230 is here for their adult lifetime. Their main social life will be carried out in 639 00:50:14,230 --> 00:50:19,350 this house and is focused on this house for 20 to 30 years, something like that. 640 00:50:19,430 --> 00:50:20,970 So it's a permanent part of the landscape. 641 00:50:21,230 --> 00:50:24,830 And so for the very first time in history, people have a sense of play. 642 00:50:25,130 --> 00:50:27,570 Yeah, yeah, absolutely. That's important. 643 00:50:29,010 --> 00:50:33,010 Most radical of all, these houses aren't isolated farmsteads. 644 00:50:33,810 --> 00:50:37,590 Here on Dartmoor, there's evidence of over 5 ,000 of them. 645 00:50:38,380 --> 00:50:41,680 You know, there's another house just over there. That's the neighbours. 646 00:50:41,960 --> 00:50:46,280 They would be related kin of some sort. There's another two houses over there. 647 00:50:46,440 --> 00:50:50,440 Five, six, seven or eight, maybe up to 12 houses within this group of fields. 648 00:50:53,600 --> 00:50:55,020 Take a tour of the neighbourhood now. 649 00:50:56,420 --> 00:50:59,480 It does feel strangely familiar, 650 00:51:00,960 --> 00:51:04,840 a layout like this. You know, families in their own homes. 651 00:51:05,970 --> 00:51:08,850 dotted across the landscape, but they're within reach of each other. You've got 652 00:51:08,850 --> 00:51:09,850 help at hand. 653 00:51:10,210 --> 00:51:11,210 Morning, Neil. 654 00:51:11,890 --> 00:51:13,570 Is this rain ever going to stop? 655 00:51:14,390 --> 00:51:16,110 Shall we go and do some farming? 656 00:51:16,470 --> 00:51:18,190 I think I'll just stay in today. 657 00:51:18,770 --> 00:51:21,030 Your children would grow up with their children. 658 00:51:21,610 --> 00:51:24,650 They would reach adulthood. They would move into their own homes. It's all 659 00:51:24,650 --> 00:51:30,230 exactly the same as the way we think about our communities and our 660 00:51:31,020 --> 00:51:35,400 Oh, you've got some impressive stones here. It's good, isn't it? Yes. We're 661 00:51:35,400 --> 00:51:37,200 proud of them. We think it worked out very well. 662 00:51:37,760 --> 00:51:40,140 An Englishman's home is his castle and all that. 663 00:51:40,460 --> 00:51:41,700 So it starts now. 664 00:51:48,160 --> 00:51:52,420 The warm climate had improved productivity, perhaps doubling Britain's 665 00:51:52,420 --> 00:51:55,860 population to around half a million people in just a few hundred years. 666 00:52:01,520 --> 00:52:06,360 Settlements weren't unknown before 1500 years BC, but now they were occurring 667 00:52:06,360 --> 00:52:09,060 everywhere, right across Britain and Europe. 668 00:52:10,620 --> 00:52:13,300 A fantastic view, sir. 669 00:52:18,100 --> 00:52:22,740 Tied to the land that were once tribal and unfetteral were now personal and 670 00:52:22,740 --> 00:52:23,740 practical. 671 00:52:24,360 --> 00:52:28,100 Domestic life placed right at the heart of everything these people did. 672 00:52:29,990 --> 00:52:32,090 Viewed from up here, it's a grand scheme, isn't it? 673 00:52:32,330 --> 00:52:33,350 Very grand scheme. 674 00:52:33,570 --> 00:52:37,370 I mean, there's nothing really like it in any other period. 675 00:52:40,750 --> 00:52:44,650 Not a pattern of nature. They wanted to impose something that was man -made. 676 00:52:58,830 --> 00:53:00,050 How you doing? All right. 677 00:53:07,310 --> 00:53:11,350 Britain had come a long way in 2500 BC. 678 00:53:12,490 --> 00:53:16,690 We were still in the Stone Age until the Beaker people arrived and showed us how 679 00:53:16,690 --> 00:53:19,790 to make metal from glittering stones like these. 680 00:53:20,730 --> 00:53:23,710 Until then, we were well behind the rest of Europe. 681 00:53:24,270 --> 00:53:27,930 Then, with the discovery of tin in Cornwall, we had grown. 682 00:53:28,840 --> 00:53:31,260 And suddenly, we were at the centre of trade. 683 00:53:33,840 --> 00:53:40,620 But it wasn't until this big change, around 1 ,500 years BC, that we 684 00:53:40,620 --> 00:53:44,640 began to settle down into the way of life that we would recognise now. 685 00:53:44,980 --> 00:53:47,180 There was even a sexual revolution. 686 00:53:47,760 --> 00:53:54,760 It's likely that sons and daughters were exchanged between hamlets 5, 10, 20 687 00:53:54,760 --> 00:53:55,760 miles apart. 688 00:53:56,620 --> 00:54:01,880 If you sent your daughter to be betrothed to a neighbour's son, that 689 00:54:01,880 --> 00:54:07,240 forged an alliance between the families. People that you could look to for help 690 00:54:07,240 --> 00:54:08,940 when times turned bad. 691 00:54:09,160 --> 00:54:12,560 A kind of Bronze Age insurance policy. 692 00:54:13,780 --> 00:54:20,460 In the year since 1500 years BC, things begin to look a bit modern. 693 00:54:24,460 --> 00:54:27,180 Those early settlements on Dartmoor, though, didn't last. 694 00:54:31,880 --> 00:54:36,800 Over just a few centuries, possibly because of climate change and over 695 00:54:36,900 --> 00:54:40,580 the moors and those first villages were abandoned forever. 696 00:54:47,180 --> 00:54:53,340 But places like Dartmoor had set a pattern for the rest of Britain and for 697 00:54:53,340 --> 00:54:54,340 future. 698 00:54:59,500 --> 00:55:03,820 Through thousands of years of prehistory, the building blocks of the 699 00:55:03,820 --> 00:55:05,600 know had all been invented. 700 00:55:06,520 --> 00:55:09,860 Society and class, religion and trade. 701 00:55:11,260 --> 00:55:17,800 Now, by 1000 BC, the first neighbourhoods and settled villages were 702 00:55:17,800 --> 00:55:19,940 which city life would eventually blossom. 703 00:55:22,420 --> 00:55:27,760 From the strange and distant days of the first hunters, A very recognisable 704 00:55:27,760 --> 00:55:29,280 Britain was beginning to emerge. 705 00:55:36,240 --> 00:55:40,460 The ice finally retreated around 11 ,000 or 12 ,000 years ago. 706 00:55:41,080 --> 00:55:42,080 People came. 707 00:55:42,560 --> 00:55:44,720 There were shifts in technology and belief. 708 00:55:45,420 --> 00:55:49,140 And all of that has moulded the Britain we know today. 709 00:55:49,820 --> 00:55:52,780 The very shape of the land as Britain became an island. 710 00:55:53,470 --> 00:55:57,910 The coming of farming with ideas of work and productivity and community. 711 00:55:58,930 --> 00:56:03,970 But it feels that with the end of the Stone Age and the coming of bronze, that 712 00:56:03,970 --> 00:56:09,250 the distant, strange world of our very early prehistory finally came to an end. 713 00:56:15,050 --> 00:56:18,290 It was as if we as a people had come of age. 714 00:56:19,290 --> 00:56:22,690 We had the keys to the door and we could... 715 00:56:23,290 --> 00:56:29,290 mould the world in our own image, as individuals, taking care of our own 716 00:56:30,910 --> 00:56:32,450 But there was a price to pay. 717 00:56:33,590 --> 00:56:38,910 That realisation, that thought, three or four thousand years ago, that we could 718 00:56:38,910 --> 00:56:43,430 impose our vision on the world, brought with it a very grown -up responsibility. 719 00:56:44,550 --> 00:56:47,970 Because what kind of world did we want to shape? 720 00:56:48,290 --> 00:56:51,350 What kind of Britain did we want to build? 721 00:56:55,570 --> 00:56:58,650 Next time, my journey continues. 722 00:57:01,870 --> 00:57:02,590 From 723 00:57:02,590 --> 00:57:09,450 a golden 724 00:57:09,450 --> 00:57:10,450 age of bronze. 725 00:57:10,670 --> 00:57:15,430 And then there's this magnificent cauldron. It's so modern somehow. 726 00:57:15,950 --> 00:57:17,830 To a Britain in crisis. 727 00:57:18,530 --> 00:57:20,950 Everything about this place says, keep out. 728 00:57:23,050 --> 00:57:29,970 A time of economic meltdown, sudden climate change, and the dawn of a new 729 00:57:29,970 --> 00:57:32,430 era of iron.