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Downloaded from
YTS.MX

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I'm exploring one of the most
mysterious and misunderstood
periods in British history.

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Official YIFY movies site:
YTS.MX

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For 200 years after the Romans left
our islands in 410 AD,

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our country was plunged into what
became known as the Dark Ages.

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<font color="

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but we know almost nothing about it.

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The legends tell of a lawless land,
warring tribes and a legendary
leader -

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King Arthur.

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But how much truth is there in the
stories?

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<font color="
like?

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Now, new discoveries promise to
transform our understanding of the
Dark Ages.

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That is Tintagel,

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an island sticking out on this wild
remote Atlantic coast of Cornwall.

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<font color="
evidence that up on the top of
Tintagel,

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there was not just a settlement
during the Dark Ages, but a seat of
power.

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I'm going to discover what we really
know about Dark Age Britain.

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<font color="
Tintagel excavations, combined with

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the latest scientific analysis,

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including pioneering landscape
archaeology...

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It's just absolutely phenomenal.

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We've got continuous occupation all
along this strip, which is immense.

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<font color="

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It was one of those total wow
moments that was really exciting.

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...and even a spin-off from
particle physics...

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And that, of course, is
the power of archaeology.

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..revealing just how pivotal the
<font color="

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in creating the Britain that we know
today.

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We're not looking at an abandoned
landscape of desperate poverty.

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It's not necessarily the truth.

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It's about as far removed from
history as you can get.

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<font color="
writing the true history of King
Arthur's Britain.

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This is what we think we know.

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In 410 AD, Britain suffered a
cataclysm.

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After nearly 400 years of Roman
rule, the aristocracy,

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<font color="
and left.

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A dark day like night.

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It's a brilliant, evocative way

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of saying,
"Welcome to the Dark Ages".

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Without Roman money, the economy
collapsed.

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The roads and towns of Roman
<font color="

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That's a massively dramatic change
in the British landscape.

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Politically, economically -
everything.

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Native Britons who had lived to
serve the Empire for four centuries

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now had to fend for themselves.

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<font color="
no one state authority

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controlling everything.

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And that's about it.

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The period is called the Dark Ages
because, after the Romans left,

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recorded history stopped.

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Records of who lived in Britain are
<font color="

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For the period 400-600, that's 200
years,

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that's eight, ten generations,

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we know the names of...

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You can kind of count them on two
hands.

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And the written records we do have
are badly damaged and hard to read.

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<font color="
600, in the British Isles we have

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two or three people whose writing we
have fragments of.

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According to the fragments, within a
decade, Germanic invaders -

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the Angles, Saxons and Jutes -

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swept into our islands
<font color="

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destroying everything in their path.

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When the Romans go,
it is just chaos.

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There's plagues, there's civil war -

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the Saxons are just slaughtering
everybody.

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So it's real blood
and thunder stuff.

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<font color="

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CLASHING METAL

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In those early writings, a British
hero, the great King Arthur,

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emerges to unify his people and
repel the invaders.

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But the challenge for historians is
how to know if there's any truth to

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the written evidence.

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<font color="
and unreliable. Instead,

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it's archaeology which is uncovering
the hidden secrets in our

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landscape and revealing the story of
Britain in the Dark Ages.

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On the dramatic Cornish island of
Tintagel,

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<font color="
will provide important answers -

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perhaps even a breakthrough.

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This rocky outcrop also happens to
be the very place where King Arthur

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is supposed to have been conceived.

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Over the centuries, the stories of
King Arthur's Britain

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<font color="
history.

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But no physical evidence
for him has ever been found.

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Now, discoveries being made here
might finally help to separate

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hard facts from the fragments of
fiction

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<font color="
Britain.

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Win Scutt is the curator of this
iconic site.

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So, Win, introduce me to Tintagel
from the air, then.

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What are we looking at?
It's fantastic.

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You can already see one of the
<font color="
fifth,

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sixth century. So this is the period
you're specifically interested in
here? Absolutely, yes.

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There are at least 100 stone
buildings.

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They've left simple rectangular
<font color="

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Is that more? Some more over there,
absolutely.

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They must have had to have occupied
the whole island.

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So it's a settlement of hundreds of
people. Yeah.

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These simple buildings were first
<font color="
summer,

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the archaeologists were surprised to
uncover what looks like a much
grander complex.

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We're excavating behind these cliffs
on... These are the southern cliffs,

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and there we are. It's coming
<font color="

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Oh, there are the trenches. There
are the trenches.

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Fantastic. Fantastic, yes.
And they're at work.

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We can spy on them. That's
brilliant. It's really exciting.

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<font color="

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perched here high above the crashing
Atlantic waves, buffeted by the
wind.

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And this is where the archaeologists
are at work on the southern slopes
of Tintagel,

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so they can look at those
buildings in detail,

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<font color="
built here,

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how they were built - and,
crucially, what they were used for.

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The archaeologists will dig for five
weeks,

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gathering the evidence to make a
detailed reconstruction of life

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on this site.

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<font color="
model of this citadel back in the

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fifth century. We're going to bring
Tintagel out of the Dark Ages,
back to life.

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Jackie Nowakowski is the excavation
director.

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Once we started taking off the turf,

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<font color="
quite quickly.

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So it's been buried over 1,400
years ago,

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and now we're uncovering it for the
first time.

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So are these buildings different
from the ones that have been found
elsewhere?

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<font color="
completely different in terms of
build, character,

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and the amount of sheer investment
that's gone into their build.

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And they're substantial, well-built
walls, aren't they?

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Yeah, they're extraordinary.
<font color="

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and you can see that they're made
of large blocks of slate.

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Yeah. Very blocky material, and
you've got them laid horizontally,

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forming a really nice coursed wall.

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These buildings were built to
impress, I think.

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<font color="
this larger complex of other
buildings

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that go off in that direction,
and in that direction,

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so you can see we've got our work
cut out.

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The buildings occupy a natural
<font color="

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and the layout and style of
construction strongly suggest

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that the inhabitants were not
ordinary people.

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They do look like they're high
status.

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This isn't people eking out an
existence up here on top of
<font color="

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This is people living well.

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This is people living very well,
I think.

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It's all got the feel of an
extraordinary large, densely
populated

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settlement which is maybe the place
where the most powerful person who's

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<font color="
the time.

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This eroded piece of rock known
as Arthur's chair gives me a
fantastic view

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of these excavations, showing
that there was a large,

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high-status settlement here.

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<font color="
Dark Ages.

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Someone important lived here.

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But it's a huge leap to say that
this person was King Arthur.

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There's no actual proof
that he lived at Tintagel.

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But he's become synonymous with the
<font color="
legend.

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According to the story, in the fifth
century AD,

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Tintagel was the castle of the Duke
of Cornwall, Gorlois, and his wife,
Igraine.

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But Igraine had another admirer -

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a local warlord named
<font color="

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And such was Uther's desire for
Igraine that he enlisted the help of

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Merlin to gain access to Tintagel
and to Igraine's bedchamber.

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The result of that night of
deception was a child,

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and the child's name was Arthur.

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<font color="
in London

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to examine the written sources
we have for the period,

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including the first-ever reference
to a king called Arthur.

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Julian Harrison is the Curator of
Medieval Manuscripts.

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<font color="
copies

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of Geoffrey of Monmouth's History
of the Kings of Britain.

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That's amazing.

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There's something quite powerful
about the kind of physicality of
these books.

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Oh, they're beautiful, aren't they?

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<font color="
element of this page is handmade.

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Yeah. That's lovely.

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Absolutely gorgeous, isn't it?

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It's a copy of a 12th-century
bestseller.

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The writing on the tough animal skin
parchment is still crystal clear.

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<font color="
it's so regular.

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That's fantastic.

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900 years ago,

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the Welsh monk Geoffrey of Monmouth
set out to write a comprehensive

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history of Britain, including
the reign of a King Arthur,

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600 years before his own time.

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<font color="
to show you.

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It's on the top line there.

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That looks like "deci" to me.

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It says "day", and then there's a
new word. "Tingel".

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Tintagel. Exactly.

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Is this the first association of
<font color="

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It is indeed.

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I can recognise the odd word here.

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My kind of schoolgirl Latin.

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I can see "concepts".

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And then "the same night."
"That same night."

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So this is the...it tells you that
on this night, on that night,

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<font color="
Arturum, was conceived there.

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That moment as those words appear on
the page,

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that's the beginning of King Arthur
as we know him.

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According to Geoffrey, then,

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Tintagel is where the legend
of King Arthur begins.

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<font color="
believe he comes from Cornwall.

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Geoffrey tells us that Arthur is
conceived when his father,

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Uther Pendragon, seduces Igraine,
the wife of Gorlois,
Duke of Cornwall.

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Full of sex and violence,

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<font color="
Hollywood action movie.

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It's full of excitement,
it's full of horror,

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it's full of lots of things
that an audience would love.

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Every great story needs a villain,
and Geoffrey has the perfect bad
guys.

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<font color="

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and Britain faces a grave threat
from a new wave of invaders.

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Anglo-Saxons swarm in from across
the North Sea...

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..ready to kill everything in their
path.

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CLAMOURING AND SHOUTING

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<font color="

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unites the Britons and leads the
resistance.

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The result is a country divided.

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Embattled Britons in the west,
the new Anglo-Saxon overlords
in the east.

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This is King Arthur's Britain.

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<font color="

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This is some kind of demilitarised
zone between these two constantly
warring factions.

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It is us against them.

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It is Britons against
the Anglo-Saxons.

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The Britons are the ones who are
<font color="
and good.

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The Anglo-Saxons are the forces of
evil that need to be destroyed.

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Britons and Saxons are killing one
another, and that's Arthur's world.

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That is where he existed.

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Here it talks about his sword,
<font color="

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The best sword. And that was called
Caliburno.

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Caliburno. Is that Excalibur?

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This is Excalibur. Yes! But in the
original, it was called Caliburn.

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Arthur's sword is a weapon of mass
<font color="

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It tells you that with Caliburn
alone,

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Arthur killed some 470 men
single-handedly.

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He went berserk, essentially.

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470 victims in a single rush.

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I mean, that is... It's too
extraordinary to believe, obviously.

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<font color="
as...

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He's superhero, essentially.
Yeah, yeah.

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Geoffrey of Monmouth's Arthur isn't
the Arthur that we know and love
today.

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There is no sword in the stone,
there's no round table,

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<font color="

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I mean, all that really gets added
to the Arthur story later

237
00:16:15,200 --> 00:16:19,080
in the sort of 14th, 15th centuries
to make Arthur a more likeable
person.

238
00:16:20,280 --> 00:16:24,120
Geoffrey was the first to make that
connection between Arthur and

239
00:16:24,120 --> 00:16:28,800
<font color="
Anglo-Saxon invasion goes back even

240
00:16:28,800 --> 00:16:33,040
further. The earliest account was by
a monk called Gildas,

241
00:16:33,040 --> 00:16:35,080
and a few fragments are still
legible.

242
00:16:36,240 --> 00:16:38,040
He's writing in the sixth century,

243
00:16:38,040 --> 00:16:40,280
and he isn't writing so much a work
<font color="

244
00:16:40,280 --> 00:16:45,840
it's more a polemical text
criticising the Britons and blaming
their evil ways,

245
00:16:45,840 --> 00:16:51,160
their bad ways of living with...
That's why they were conquered by
the Saxons.

246
00:16:51,160 --> 00:16:53,480
So the Saxons are a punishment
from God?

247
00:16:53,480 --> 00:16:55,800
<font color="
portrayed it.

248
00:17:00,640 --> 00:17:04,520
Although Gildas makes no mention of
anyone called Arthur,

249
00:17:04,520 --> 00:17:08,120
he does talk about Britons versus
Saxons.

250
00:17:08,120 --> 00:17:10,280
But it's all very political,

251
00:17:10,280 --> 00:17:14,080
and we just don't know how accurate
<font color="
are.

252
00:17:15,400 --> 00:17:17,240
It's not necessarily the truth.

253
00:17:17,240 --> 00:17:19,200
It's not necessarily the objective
history,

254
00:17:19,200 --> 00:17:23,600
and it didn't have the sort of
academic approach that we would now.

255
00:17:25,520 --> 00:17:28,000
I had hoped to find something
dependable,

256
00:17:28,000 --> 00:17:30,760
<font color="

257
00:17:30,760 --> 00:17:34,800
But it turns out there are problems
with all of these accounts.

258
00:17:34,800 --> 00:17:37,680
They are ALL just so subjective.

259
00:17:38,680 --> 00:17:41,920
But I think that there is a better,

260
00:17:41,920 --> 00:17:46,840
more objective way of getting to the
truth of the Dark Ages -

261
00:17:46,840 --> 00:17:48,840
and that is archaeology.

262
00:17:51,880 --> 00:17:56,560
<font color="
test these early historical sources.

263
00:17:58,040 --> 00:18:02,480
Geoffrey of Monmouth describes a
frontier between King Arthur's
Britons

264
00:18:02,480 --> 00:18:04,600
and the invading Anglo-Saxon armies.

265
00:18:06,680 --> 00:18:09,320
If great wars were fought,

266
00:18:09,320 --> 00:18:13,520
then surely we should find some
<font color="

267
00:18:13,520 --> 00:18:17,040
along this line that runs from the
south-west up to East Yorkshire.

268
00:18:21,320 --> 00:18:24,240
Archaeologist Dominic Powlesland has
been flying,

269
00:18:24,240 --> 00:18:29,760
digging and mapping
a vast area around the
East Yorkshire end of the line

270
00:18:29,760 --> 00:18:33,680
<font color="
for the last 40 years.

271
00:18:38,600 --> 00:18:39,640
Clear prop.

272
00:18:43,320 --> 00:18:46,360
OK, ready, Dominic? Yeah, I'm ready.

273
00:18:46,360 --> 00:18:47,640
Hold on tight, here we go.

274
00:18:48,840 --> 00:18:50,400
North Romeo, Romeo rolling.

275
00:18:54,040 --> 00:18:57,600
Does his work provide any evidence
of an invasion?

276
00:19:01,760 --> 00:19:04,920
<font color="
entirely filled with archaeology.

277
00:19:04,920 --> 00:19:06,840
There is archaeology
in every single one.

278
00:19:09,160 --> 00:19:13,440
Dominic saw, in a big landscape, you
needed big technological solutions.

279
00:19:13,440 --> 00:19:16,320
You needed geophysics,
you needed air photography,

280
00:19:16,320 --> 00:19:18,240
<font color="
approach.

281
00:19:20,280 --> 00:19:24,840
Dominic's vision was to use modern
technology to map the Anglo-Saxon

282
00:19:24,840 --> 00:19:27,640
landscape over 70 square kilometres.

283
00:19:30,400 --> 00:19:32,440
It took 40 years.

284
00:19:32,440 --> 00:19:34,160
But with an army of volunteers,

285
00:19:34,160 --> 00:19:38,960
Dominic was able to reveal the
<font color="
landscape.

286
00:19:43,080 --> 00:19:46,240
His own little private air force
handled reconnaissance.

287
00:19:47,920 --> 00:19:52,240
Geophysicists surveyed
and scanned the fields

288
00:19:52,240 --> 00:19:54,960
while ground troops dug into the
detail.

289
00:19:58,680 --> 00:20:00,360
We've surveyed all these fields.

290
00:20:00,360 --> 00:20:04,760
<font color="
equivalent from Land's End to John
O'Groats.

291
00:20:07,160 --> 00:20:12,480
Over the years, West Heslerton
became the training ground for an
army of archaeologists.

292
00:20:13,640 --> 00:20:14,760
They're on every corner.

293
00:20:18,040 --> 00:20:20,280
Many people started their
<font color="

294
00:20:20,280 --> 00:20:23,120
I started my archaeological career
there.

295
00:20:23,120 --> 00:20:26,920
I first came to West Heslerton in
1978.

296
00:20:26,920 --> 00:20:30,120
Everybody quite enjoyed it, I think,
all these weird hippy students

297
00:20:30,120 --> 00:20:31,880
suddenly descending on the village

298
00:20:31,880 --> 00:20:34,160
<font color="
sand quarry.

299
00:20:35,640 --> 00:20:38,080
The dig changed my life completely.

300
00:20:39,080 --> 00:20:42,760
I met my wife here
and moved into the village.

301
00:20:42,760 --> 00:20:44,920
My children were both born here in
Yorkshire.

302
00:20:45,920 --> 00:20:48,920
I came here 27 years ago.

303
00:20:48,920 --> 00:20:50,480
I think I was about 15.

304
00:20:50,480 --> 00:20:54,040
<font color="
up staying six weeks.

305
00:20:54,040 --> 00:20:56,120
Ended up falling in love with
archaeology,

306
00:20:56,120 --> 00:20:58,760
and now I'm a professor of
archaeology at York.

307
00:20:59,920 --> 00:21:04,320
Dominic's idea of mapping an entire
landscape through time,

308
00:21:04,320 --> 00:21:09,760
<font color="
3D-locate every single artefact...

309
00:21:12,040 --> 00:21:15,160
..it's almost madness,
but it's brilliant madness!

310
00:21:19,480 --> 00:21:23,840
Key to the process was geophysical
survey using techniques

311
00:21:23,840 --> 00:21:29,360
like ground-penetrating radar to
map traces of buried structures.

312
00:21:29,360 --> 00:21:31,440
<font color="
is a feature?

313
00:21:31,440 --> 00:21:34,120
Yeah, so all those dots are
individual features.

314
00:21:34,120 --> 00:21:39,600
You can zoom into this area here,
click on that - we get all the
finds, information.

315
00:21:39,600 --> 00:21:41,680
Oh, wow. That's the plan.

316
00:21:41,680 --> 00:21:43,800
<font color="
within it.

317
00:21:43,800 --> 00:21:44,960
Oh, it just goes on and on.

318
00:21:44,960 --> 00:21:47,800
So you've got thousands of finds
coming out of every single one of

319
00:21:47,800 --> 00:21:49,920
these features, and hundreds of
these features.

320
00:21:49,920 --> 00:21:52,360
I mean, that's a phenomenal amount
of data.

321
00:21:52,360 --> 00:21:54,120
<font color="
altogether.

322
00:21:55,920 --> 00:21:59,960
Dominic has been across this
landscape with a fine-tooth comb.

323
00:21:59,960 --> 00:22:02,800
What he's found is extraordinary.

324
00:22:02,800 --> 00:22:05,720
But even more amazing is what he
hasn't found.

325
00:22:09,720 --> 00:22:12,840
There are no graves of defeated
warriors.

326
00:22:14,800 --> 00:22:17,640
<font color="

327
00:22:20,640 --> 00:22:24,560
In the idyllic rural landscape in
the Vale of Pickering,

328
00:22:24,560 --> 00:22:27,600
life just seemed to carry on without
a break.

329
00:22:28,800 --> 00:22:30,840
I have never seen any evidence of an
invasion.

330
00:22:33,080 --> 00:22:37,000
Dominic's findings seem to be at
<font color="

331
00:22:37,000 --> 00:22:41,000
that the Britons were routed by an
Anglo-Saxon invasion force.

332
00:22:43,000 --> 00:22:45,160
Once you start killing people in
large numbers,

333
00:22:45,160 --> 00:22:47,720
they leave themselves lying around.
You can't avoid them.

334
00:22:47,720 --> 00:22:51,640
So we don't see lots of Anglo-Saxons
<font color="

335
00:22:51,640 --> 00:22:54,920
When you look at their bones,
you find a very,

336
00:22:54,920 --> 00:22:58,280
very low incidence of weapon
injuries, sword cuts.

337
00:22:59,600 --> 00:23:05,800
This is a society that is playing
with the idea of a military world,

338
00:23:05,800 --> 00:23:12,600
but doesn't actually seem to be
<font color="
huge degree.

339
00:23:12,600 --> 00:23:16,520
It's such a departure from the
written history which gives us

340
00:23:16,520 --> 00:23:22,760
this idea of an epic battle between
native Britons and invading Saxons,

341
00:23:22,760 --> 00:23:26,720
and the results from West Heslerton
are echoed elsewhere.

342
00:23:26,720 --> 00:23:30,680
<font color="
science -

343
00:23:30,680 --> 00:23:35,280
of all the dead bodies dug up that
may belong to the period 400-600,

344
00:23:35,280 --> 00:23:39,720
and we have thousands of them - men
and women, children, old people,

345
00:23:39,720 --> 00:23:45,480
young people - of all those
thousands of bodies,

346
00:23:45,480 --> 00:23:49,720
<font color="
bodies that have sharp-edge weapon

347
00:23:49,720 --> 00:23:53,200
injuries, it's less than 2%.

348
00:23:53,200 --> 00:23:55,520
Where do battles fit into that?

349
00:23:55,520 --> 00:23:58,760
First of all, we don't know how many
people were involved.

350
00:23:58,760 --> 00:24:01,240
Are there 30 blokes and their mates

351
00:24:01,240 --> 00:24:04,200
against 30 other blokes
<font color="

352
00:24:08,800 --> 00:24:13,280
So some local argy-bargy,
but the archaeology brings into

353
00:24:13,280 --> 00:24:16,800
question any idea of a countrywide
conflict.

354
00:24:18,520 --> 00:24:22,240
The data comes together in what
Dominic calls the wallpaper...

355
00:24:24,280 --> 00:24:29,280
..and it shows exactly what people
<font color="

356
00:24:29,280 --> 00:24:30,760
during the Anglo-Saxon period.

357
00:24:32,360 --> 00:24:33,520
It's just phenomenal,

358
00:24:33,520 --> 00:24:37,160
because all of that work comes
together to give you a picture of a

359
00:24:37,160 --> 00:24:40,440
landscape which is
so densely settled.

360
00:24:40,440 --> 00:24:44,360
Yeah. Whoever lived here in
<font color="

361
00:24:44,360 --> 00:24:47,120
they weren't rampaging warriors.

362
00:24:47,120 --> 00:24:48,760
They were farmers.

363
00:24:48,760 --> 00:24:52,440
We've got settlements here, there's
one here, there's one here.

364
00:24:52,440 --> 00:24:55,320
Then, of course, there's this large
one at West Heslerton.

365
00:24:55,320 --> 00:24:58,240
We've identified 14, probably now 15
<font color="

366
00:24:59,560 --> 00:25:04,080
And a completely new style of
building appears in the landscape.

367
00:25:04,080 --> 00:25:06,840
They're very different to
the buildings at Tintagel -

368
00:25:06,840 --> 00:25:09,080
not made of stone.

369
00:25:09,080 --> 00:25:14,680
These grubenhause, or grub huts,
were thatched wooden buildings,

370
00:25:14,680 --> 00:25:19,560
<font color="
that's seen right across northern
Europe at this time.

371
00:25:19,560 --> 00:25:21,880
So these blobs here
were the grubenhause.

372
00:25:21,880 --> 00:25:23,360
All of these little blobs?

373
00:25:23,360 --> 00:25:27,400
You see big houses there, big houses
here, lots of these grubenhause.

374
00:25:27,400 --> 00:25:31,080
<font color="
a hamlet there.

375
00:25:32,120 --> 00:25:34,080
A load of buildings there.

376
00:25:34,080 --> 00:25:37,200
A load here. You see, it's all
joined up. There's stuff everywhere.

377
00:25:44,840 --> 00:25:49,880
We know that in the Anglo-Saxon
period, this was densely settled.

378
00:25:49,880 --> 00:25:53,840
Dominic tells me there were 60 to 70
<font color="

379
00:25:53,840 --> 00:25:56,600
another 270 over there,

380
00:25:56,600 --> 00:26:00,640
14 settlements within 11km
of where I'm standing.

381
00:26:03,920 --> 00:26:05,800
Stand by to land.

382
00:26:08,640 --> 00:26:12,320
I think that might
be Alice down there.

383
00:26:12,320 --> 00:26:16,720
Dominic's research suggests a very
different story to the violent

384
00:26:16,720 --> 00:26:20,800
<font color="
the histories.

385
00:26:20,800 --> 00:26:22,840
Oh, a bit of a bumpy landing there.

386
00:26:22,840 --> 00:26:24,840
That's OK. Are you all right?
Yeah, I'm fine.

387
00:26:37,440 --> 00:26:42,280
So we've got this version of events
from the histories,

388
00:26:42,280 --> 00:26:47,800
but it just doesn't match up with
<font color="

389
00:26:51,120 --> 00:26:52,440
In the east, then,

390
00:26:52,440 --> 00:26:57,040
there's not much evidence of an
invasion and any conflict,

391
00:26:57,040 --> 00:26:58,360
but what about the west?

392
00:27:00,240 --> 00:27:05,440
Jackie Nowakowski and the team
are now four weeks into
their five-week dig.

393
00:27:08,280 --> 00:27:11,160
<font color="
England,

394
00:27:11,160 --> 00:27:14,760
the team are also unearthing a
peaceful lifestyle,

395
00:27:14,760 --> 00:27:17,840
but one that's far more extravagant
than in the east.

396
00:27:20,360 --> 00:27:22,120
Ah, that's a good piece.

397
00:27:23,440 --> 00:27:24,880
Oh, nice.

398
00:27:26,120 --> 00:27:29,720
That is a nice, high-quality piece
<font color="

399
00:27:29,720 --> 00:27:32,600
The rim on the bottom, that sat on
the table - beautiful.

400
00:27:34,880 --> 00:27:38,440
We've been finding a lot of the fine
tablewares,

401
00:27:38,440 --> 00:27:42,480
and even some of the dinner plates
and the storage vessels containing

402
00:27:42,480 --> 00:27:46,600
the wine and olive oil are being
<font color="
here.

403
00:27:56,200 --> 00:28:00,520
Whoever they were, the people who
lived here were rich.

404
00:28:00,520 --> 00:28:05,600
This is the largest quantity of
high-quality pottery found at any

405
00:28:05,600 --> 00:28:07,200
Dark Age site.

406
00:28:07,200 --> 00:28:08,840
That is really beautiful.

407
00:28:13,360 --> 00:28:16,160
This was certainly not a backwater.

408
00:28:17,920 --> 00:28:22,600
<font color="
different from that in the
Anglo-Saxon east.

409
00:28:24,880 --> 00:28:28,680
This new excavation is really adding
to what we already know about

410
00:28:28,680 --> 00:28:33,840
Tintagel, and it's showing us that
there was indeed a huge settlement

411
00:28:33,840 --> 00:28:35,600
here, a high-status settlement,

412
00:28:35,600 --> 00:28:39,720
<font color="
very different from what's happening

413
00:28:39,720 --> 00:28:42,720
right across the rest of Britain at
this time.

414
00:28:45,920 --> 00:28:51,120
It seems to be the case that those
settlements and burials that we

415
00:28:51,120 --> 00:28:54,760
associate with
Germanic culture occur

416
00:28:54,760 --> 00:28:57,560
<font color="
of that line,

417
00:28:57,560 --> 00:29:00,600
but there are always pockets and
patchworks within that zone,

418
00:29:00,600 --> 00:29:05,920
and that west of that stays
largely British-speaking.

419
00:29:12,120 --> 00:29:17,960
Archaeologically, fifth-century
Britain looks like a divided
country,

420
00:29:17,960 --> 00:29:24,960
<font color="
arrive en masse and kill the locals
in the east, what did happen?

421
00:29:24,960 --> 00:29:26,400
Why did the culture change?

422
00:29:29,520 --> 00:29:35,720
Surprisingly, new evidence is
emerging from research being
conducted here.

423
00:29:35,720 --> 00:29:39,760
This is Diamond Light Source in
<font color="

424
00:29:39,760 --> 00:29:43,520
the UK national facility for
synchrotron radiation.

425
00:29:47,920 --> 00:29:53,240
This looks like a very strange place
to be doing archaeology, and it is.

426
00:29:53,240 --> 00:29:57,720
Beneath me, and shielded from me by
two metres of concrete,

427
00:29:57,720 --> 00:30:02,320
a beam of electrons is travelling
<font color="

428
00:30:02,320 --> 00:30:06,880
and as they spin around here,
they're throwing off X-rays,

429
00:30:06,880 --> 00:30:13,120
and I'm particularly interested in
the beam of X-rays that exits here
at beamline 18.

430
00:30:13,120 --> 00:30:16,400
This is where physics
and archaeology collide.

431
00:30:20,200 --> 00:30:24,000
<font color="
deep into the structure of
archaeological

432
00:30:24,000 --> 00:30:29,240
finds using X-rays focused to a
sixth of the width of a human hair.

433
00:30:31,600 --> 00:30:36,680
The evidence under scrutiny is grave
goods from an Anglo-Saxon cemetery

434
00:30:36,680 --> 00:30:39,600
first excavated in 1926,

435
00:30:39,600 --> 00:30:45,400
<font color="
Cambridgeshire on the east side of
the Dark Age divide.

436
00:30:49,040 --> 00:30:53,440
Over 100 skeletons were discovered
under a primary school playground,

437
00:30:53,440 --> 00:30:56,480
including one woman's grave,
which had been disturbed,

438
00:30:56,480 --> 00:31:00,600
but miraculously not entirely
<font color="

439
00:31:03,480 --> 00:31:07,200
Duncan Sayer has been leading
the most recent investigation.

440
00:31:07,200 --> 00:31:12,040
These are all the photographs from
the excavations.

441
00:31:12,040 --> 00:31:17,400
His team found what looked like
distinctive Anglo-Saxon objects in
many of the graves.

442
00:31:18,840 --> 00:31:23,200
<font color="
middle... Yeah. ..with two brooches
on her shoulder...

443
00:31:23,200 --> 00:31:25,520
Yeah. ..and a load of amber beads.

444
00:31:25,520 --> 00:31:28,760
And next to it is an adolescent.
Yeah. And we have a child.
<font color="

445
00:31:28,760 --> 00:31:32,760
A small child, yeah, yeah. Makes you
wonder what happened that they ended
up in the same grave.

446
00:31:32,760 --> 00:31:33,960
Well, it does, doesn't it?

447
00:31:33,960 --> 00:31:36,800
And we've got round brooches,
and we've got long brooches,

448
00:31:36,800 --> 00:31:40,000
we've got cruciform brooches -
<font color="

449
00:31:40,000 --> 00:31:43,400
All what you'd expect from an
Anglo-Saxon cemetery -
no surprises there?

450
00:31:43,400 --> 00:31:45,680
No surprises, absolutely
typical in every way.

451
00:31:47,840 --> 00:31:51,440
But archaeological evidence,
just like written history,

452
00:31:51,440 --> 00:31:54,000
<font color="

453
00:31:54,000 --> 00:31:57,600
Duncan was reluctant to jump to an
obvious conclusion.

454
00:32:00,360 --> 00:32:04,040
One of the problems that archaeology
does have is when we find people

455
00:32:04,040 --> 00:32:08,360
buried, we have tended to associate
the artefacts with them.

456
00:32:09,640 --> 00:32:13,240
We read those things as a sort of
<font color="

457
00:32:13,240 --> 00:32:18,240
Even your typical Anglo-Saxon
brooch, the cruciform brooch,

458
00:32:18,240 --> 00:32:21,120
you can't just take an item of
material culture

459
00:32:21,120 --> 00:32:23,560
and assume that
you know what it means.

460
00:32:24,680 --> 00:32:28,360
Duncan decided to analyse the
brooches using the synchrotron.

461
00:32:36,560 --> 00:32:41,400
<font color="
focused on a tiny but unusual
feature

462
00:32:41,400 --> 00:32:44,160
that he's spotted on the classic
Anglo-Saxon cross.

463
00:32:52,360 --> 00:32:56,320
So, do the blue areas and green
areas represent different elements?

464
00:32:56,320 --> 00:33:02,880
Exactly. The green bits highlight
<font color="
lead.

465
00:33:02,880 --> 00:33:05,000
The lead tells us that this is
glass.

466
00:33:06,880 --> 00:33:11,040
And this is a very particular type
of glass working.

467
00:33:11,040 --> 00:33:13,920
It's not typically Anglo-Saxon.

468
00:33:13,920 --> 00:33:19,120
It's British. What you're doing is
<font color="

469
00:33:19,120 --> 00:33:24,800
the glass, grinding it up and
grinding into it the scrapings from
the inside of a crucible,

470
00:33:24,800 --> 00:33:28,960
and then you bake it into the holes,
into the object, and it makes
enamel.

471
00:33:29,960 --> 00:33:33,320
Enamel, like this,
was a local technique,

472
00:33:33,320 --> 00:33:37,840
<font color="
continental Angle and Saxon culture.

473
00:33:38,840 --> 00:33:42,240
So this is fascinating, because it
means that this is not an import

474
00:33:42,240 --> 00:33:44,800
from the continent -
it's an imported idea,

475
00:33:44,800 --> 00:33:49,160
it's an imported style, but it's
<font color="

476
00:33:50,720 --> 00:33:55,920
So the archaeology is telling us
that what looks typically
Anglo-Saxon

477
00:33:55,920 --> 00:33:58,720
is actually much less
straightforward.

478
00:33:58,720 --> 00:34:04,200
It means we can't just assume that
these skeletons belong to
<font color="

479
00:34:04,200 --> 00:34:06,920
Something more complicated
is going on.

480
00:34:11,160 --> 00:34:15,360
Duncan wanted to understand where
the skeletons came from,

481
00:34:15,360 --> 00:34:20,320
so he turned to another modern
technology - ancient DNA analysis.

482
00:34:25,520 --> 00:34:31,640
Skeleton 82 turned out to be a close
<font color="

483
00:34:31,640 --> 00:34:36,600
Her DNA fits the traditional idea of
what an Anglo-Saxon should be.

484
00:34:38,120 --> 00:34:43,160
But skeleton one is genetically
closer to earlier Iron Age Britons.

485
00:34:44,200 --> 00:34:47,800
Skeleton 96 is an even bigger
surprise,

486
00:34:47,800 --> 00:34:52,280
with mixed Northern European
<font color="

487
00:34:54,200 --> 00:34:58,440
The cemetery at Oakington shows that
there were some incomers then,

488
00:34:58,440 --> 00:35:01,480
but they didn't suddenly replace
the Britons in the east -

489
00:35:01,480 --> 00:35:03,480
they mixed with them over time.

490
00:35:04,520 --> 00:35:08,320
This is not a period when people
would have known that they were

491
00:35:08,320 --> 00:35:10,840
<font color="
nation state.

492
00:35:10,840 --> 00:35:12,320
Nation states didn't exist.

493
00:35:12,320 --> 00:35:13,760
People didn't have passports -

494
00:35:13,760 --> 00:35:16,080
they weren't citizens of one country
or another.

495
00:35:19,200 --> 00:35:23,560
People would probably not have
thought of themselves as Britons or

496
00:35:23,560 --> 00:35:27,080
<font color="
have thought of themselves in a much

497
00:35:27,080 --> 00:35:29,560
more local way than that.

498
00:35:31,880 --> 00:35:36,720
Jeffrey's account of Arthur
defending the ancient Britons

499
00:35:36,720 --> 00:35:40,120
against an invading army
needs a rewrite.

500
00:35:40,120 --> 00:35:44,200
The archaeology is telling us that
<font color="

501
00:35:44,200 --> 00:35:47,200
Anglo-Saxons resulting in mass
conflict.

502
00:35:47,200 --> 00:35:51,240
Instead, there was always contact
and migration.

503
00:35:51,240 --> 00:35:54,440
So not invasion,
but settling and farming.

504
00:35:56,000 --> 00:35:58,320
There are people coming across the
North Sea,

505
00:35:58,320 --> 00:36:02,000
<font color="
the group that are here.

506
00:36:02,000 --> 00:36:04,080
They're bringing new styles,
new ideas,

507
00:36:04,080 --> 00:36:06,040
new ways of talking, new religions,

508
00:36:06,040 --> 00:36:08,720
which are adding to the mix that's
already here.

509
00:36:12,120 --> 00:36:15,960
It's not a full-scale, you know,
<font color="
another.

510
00:36:18,040 --> 00:36:22,280
People are trading, intermarrying,
even swapping fashions.

511
00:36:23,240 --> 00:36:26,560
We're seeing Britons adopting
Saxon-style brooches,

512
00:36:26,560 --> 00:36:29,200
we're seeing Saxons adopting
Roman-style brooches.

513
00:36:30,920 --> 00:36:37,480
These things wouldn't have been
<font color="
that we ascribe to today.

514
00:36:37,480 --> 00:36:40,280
It would have been much, much
more complex than that.

515
00:36:40,280 --> 00:36:43,880
Eastern Britain is trading
with the Germanic world,
with the Saxon world,

516
00:36:43,880 --> 00:36:46,720
with Scandinavia.
That's where their fashions,

517
00:36:46,720 --> 00:36:48,600
<font color="
is being connected to.

518
00:36:51,560 --> 00:36:56,680
In a time of great change, new
settlers were perhaps welcomed,

519
00:36:56,680 --> 00:36:58,160
not seen as a threat.

520
00:36:59,560 --> 00:37:01,360
People live in settlements -

521
00:37:01,360 --> 00:37:04,360
whether you want to call them
villages or hamlets or farms -

522
00:37:04,360 --> 00:37:06,440
<font color="

523
00:37:06,440 --> 00:37:10,000
collecting eggs from their chickens,
telling their children off,

524
00:37:10,000 --> 00:37:14,520
trying to keep the pigs away from
the fields, and look after their
cattle,

525
00:37:14,520 --> 00:37:16,160
doing the things that people do,

526
00:37:16,160 --> 00:37:18,080
finding appropriate marriages
<font color="

527
00:37:22,520 --> 00:37:27,240
This is a radically different view
of life after the Romans left
Britain

528
00:37:27,240 --> 00:37:29,440
from that painted by the historical
sources.

529
00:37:30,840 --> 00:37:33,600
Far from being conquered
or driven out,

530
00:37:33,600 --> 00:37:37,600
the native Britons in the eastern
<font color="

531
00:37:37,600 --> 00:37:40,600
absorbed the northern
European incomers,

532
00:37:40,600 --> 00:37:45,840
as they'd been doing for centuries,
integrating over time.

533
00:37:45,840 --> 00:37:48,920
I suppose if you think of a sense
like - take America, as an example,

534
00:37:48,920 --> 00:37:51,720
you've got African-Americans,
<font color="

535
00:37:51,720 --> 00:37:54,880
people are adding things to the
various pot that is America.

536
00:37:54,880 --> 00:37:57,320
That's what's happening in Britain
in the fifth and sixth centuries.

537
00:38:01,400 --> 00:38:07,840
And evidence of that melting pot can
still be detected in Britain today

538
00:38:07,840 --> 00:38:09,120
in our modern DNA.

539
00:38:10,920 --> 00:38:15,240
<font color="
Oxford collected DNA samples from

540
00:38:15,240 --> 00:38:19,800
thousands of people across Britain
whose families had a long-standing

541
00:38:19,800 --> 00:38:21,480
connection to their local area.

542
00:38:22,760 --> 00:38:25,160
We tried to focus on individuals,

543
00:38:25,160 --> 00:38:28,320
all of whose grandparents were born
<font color="

544
00:38:28,320 --> 00:38:30,880
their DNA had been there at least
for two generations,

545
00:38:30,880 --> 00:38:33,080
and probably quite a long time
before that.

546
00:38:34,560 --> 00:38:39,520
Peter's team mapped regional
variations in our 21st-century

547
00:38:39,520 --> 00:38:42,880
genomes in greater detail
<font color="

548
00:38:42,880 --> 00:38:44,400
So what do we see on this map, then?

549
00:38:44,400 --> 00:38:47,440
What do the different colours
and different shapes represent?

550
00:38:47,440 --> 00:38:52,880
So each circle or square or triangle
represents one of the 2,000

551
00:38:52,880 --> 00:38:54,360
individuals we sampled,

552
00:38:54,360 --> 00:38:59,040
and then the combination of colour
<font color="

553
00:38:59,040 --> 00:39:02,040
What you see is there's one group in
Cornwall,

554
00:39:02,040 --> 00:39:04,000
there's another group in Devon,

555
00:39:04,000 --> 00:39:07,000
there's a large group across much
of central and southern England,

556
00:39:07,000 --> 00:39:09,160
groups in South Wales, North Wales,

557
00:39:09,160 --> 00:39:10,840
and so on as we look through the
<font color="

558
00:39:10,840 --> 00:39:13,120
And what I find utterly
extraordinary about it is

559
00:39:13,120 --> 00:39:15,840
that you've got all of these
different-coloured clusters,

560
00:39:15,840 --> 00:39:17,560
which do seem to be quite localised,

561
00:39:17,560 --> 00:39:22,200
and I would just have expected the
whole thing to be much more
homogenous.

562
00:39:22,200 --> 00:39:25,080
<font color="
moments that we don't have too often

563
00:39:25,080 --> 00:39:27,000
in our career, but it was really
exciting.

564
00:39:27,000 --> 00:39:32,520
So why is there this great mass,
this great swathe across England,

565
00:39:32,520 --> 00:39:35,240
of these red squares?
What does that represent?

566
00:39:35,240 --> 00:39:37,720
<font color="
is homogeneity.

567
00:39:37,720 --> 00:39:42,000
That's fascinating, so we're looking
at a well-mixed area of Britain,

568
00:39:42,000 --> 00:39:44,560
compared with not-so-well mixed,
historically?

569
00:39:44,560 --> 00:39:48,200
Yes, these are areas that have
stayed relatively isolated,

570
00:39:48,200 --> 00:39:50,400
<font color="
movement.

571
00:39:50,400 --> 00:39:55,920
Peter even has an explanation for
why this area has such well-mixed
DNA.

572
00:39:55,920 --> 00:39:59,720
So when the Romans were here,
they were largely concentrated
in this area of England,

573
00:39:59,720 --> 00:40:02,280
<font color="
to improve transportation -

574
00:40:02,280 --> 00:40:04,120
Roman roads and so on.

575
00:40:04,120 --> 00:40:06,400
So we think what probably happened
is that the Romans put down the

576
00:40:06,400 --> 00:40:10,840
infrastructure, which meant that
in the 1,500 or 1,600
or 1,700 years since,

577
00:40:10,840 --> 00:40:15,240
<font color="
movement of people in this area,
which homogenises the differences.

578
00:40:15,240 --> 00:40:20,040
So these groups have remained
relatively intact and coherent,

579
00:40:20,040 --> 00:40:24,200
whereas here, there's been so much
movement that it's mixed all those
genes up?

580
00:40:24,200 --> 00:40:26,360
<font color="

581
00:40:26,360 --> 00:40:31,520
But has Peter identified any genetic
evidence of the arrival of newcomers

582
00:40:31,520 --> 00:40:34,240
in this big red area in the east of
the country?

583
00:40:35,520 --> 00:40:41,600
Do you think this pattern of red
squares is explained by a massive

584
00:40:41,600 --> 00:40:45,120
Anglo-Saxon invasion replacing
<font color="

585
00:40:45,120 --> 00:40:46,800
That's absolutely not the case.

586
00:40:46,800 --> 00:40:50,280
What's interesting is that if you
take a typical person in central
and southern England,

587
00:40:50,280 --> 00:40:51,920
that accounts for about 10%
of their DNA,

588
00:40:51,920 --> 00:40:54,720
so we do see evidence of
<font color="

589
00:40:54,720 --> 00:40:56,280
I think clear evidence of that -

590
00:40:56,280 --> 00:41:00,040
but it certainly wasn't the case
that they replaced existing
populations.

591
00:41:00,040 --> 00:41:02,400
They contributed to the DNA of
modern English people,

592
00:41:02,400 --> 00:41:05,200
but in a minority of the DNA that's
there now.

593
00:41:06,920 --> 00:41:10,120
<font color="
the archaeology.

594
00:41:11,200 --> 00:41:15,680
We're not looking at an Anglo-Saxon
invasion and takeover,

595
00:41:15,680 --> 00:41:17,240
but ongoing migration.

596
00:41:18,320 --> 00:41:20,240
They're coming in and mingling.

597
00:41:20,240 --> 00:41:21,880
Correct, they're mingling,

598
00:41:21,880 --> 00:41:25,280
and they probably didn't mingle
<font color="
in and had their own communities,

599
00:41:25,280 --> 00:41:28,360
and then, over hundreds of years,
intermingled, and that DNA got
spread.

600
00:41:33,800 --> 00:41:37,560
So we've got a clearer picture of
life in the east of Britain

601
00:41:37,560 --> 00:41:40,440
during the Dark Ages, but what about
<font color="

602
00:41:40,440 --> 00:41:43,120
Why does Tintagel seem so special,

603
00:41:43,120 --> 00:41:46,520
and why is King Arthur so strongly
connected with the place?

604
00:41:50,720 --> 00:41:53,240
This is Fort Cumberland.

605
00:41:53,240 --> 00:41:56,880
Built in the 18th century
to protect Portsmouth Docks,

606
00:41:56,880 --> 00:42:00,160
it's now the home of Historic
<font color="

607
00:42:03,520 --> 00:42:07,760
Many of the finds from Tintagel
will end up here to be analysed.

608
00:42:09,480 --> 00:42:16,000
As with all archaeology, the
excavation itself is
really just the start,

609
00:42:16,000 --> 00:42:21,280
and it's the post-excavation
analysis when we really start to get
<font color="

610
00:42:21,280 --> 00:42:23,480
There's a huge wealth of finds.

611
00:42:24,520 --> 00:42:28,920
Here, we've got the pottery,
the glass, the animal bones,

612
00:42:28,920 --> 00:42:34,240
the plant remains, and all the
specialists who can unlock their
secrets.

613
00:42:38,920 --> 00:42:42,120
The fort is a scientific production
line,

614
00:42:42,120 --> 00:42:45,560
<font color="
into information.

615
00:42:48,200 --> 00:42:50,880
From the new excavations
and Tintagel,

616
00:42:50,880 --> 00:42:55,640
over 500 litres of soil will be
filtered through flotation tanks.

617
00:42:58,240 --> 00:43:02,600
And now, perhaps we have a chance of
filtering out the Arthur legend

618
00:43:02,600 --> 00:43:04,760
<font color="

619
00:43:07,200 --> 00:43:11,640
Pottery specialist Maria Duggan
is one of the experts who's been

620
00:43:11,640 --> 00:43:16,280
looking at clues hidden in the most
basic of items - pots and plates.

621
00:43:18,160 --> 00:43:22,160
So this is our really characteristic
fineware form for that late fifth

622
00:43:22,160 --> 00:43:25,160
century, early sixth century,
<font color="

623
00:43:25,160 --> 00:43:28,320
14 vessels of the same form,
all slightly different.

624
00:43:28,320 --> 00:43:30,160
So that's a bowl, is it?
Yeah, it's a big dish,

625
00:43:30,160 --> 00:43:33,040
so it's actually quite big.
It's probably about 30 centimetres.

626
00:43:34,960 --> 00:43:39,120
The distinctive shape tells Maria
<font color="

627
00:43:40,880 --> 00:43:43,880
So that's coming from Turkey?
Sort of western Turkey, yeah.

628
00:43:43,880 --> 00:43:45,680
Yeah. It's come a long way.

629
00:43:48,440 --> 00:43:52,320
This fragment of pot is connecting
Tintagel to what would then have

630
00:43:52,320 --> 00:43:54,960
been the Eastern Roman or Byzantine
Empire.

631
00:43:56,440 --> 00:44:00,600
<font color="
pieces to examine.

632
00:44:00,600 --> 00:44:02,760
The vast majority of the finds
are amphorae,

633
00:44:02,760 --> 00:44:06,280
so they're storage vessels for
transport of wine or olive oil,

634
00:44:06,280 --> 00:44:07,360
things like that. Yeah.

635
00:44:07,360 --> 00:44:11,240
Also, other fineware, so we've got
<font color="

636
00:44:11,240 --> 00:44:14,360
and also from South West France,
so from the Bordeaux region.

637
00:44:14,360 --> 00:44:17,880
Right. So it's coming in from all
over the place? Yep.

638
00:44:17,880 --> 00:44:22,400
When you find a blooming great sherd
of Roman amphora -

639
00:44:22,400 --> 00:44:27,640
and not just one sherd of amphora,
<font color="

640
00:44:27,640 --> 00:44:33,000
that tells you that there is trade
and diplomacy and interaction,

641
00:44:33,000 --> 00:44:37,040
and people are moving across the
European landscape and seascape.

642
00:44:38,560 --> 00:44:43,040
The picture emerging shows that
Tintagel was well connected with

643
00:44:43,040 --> 00:44:47,160
communities all over
<font color="
and along the Atlantic coasts.

644
00:44:53,320 --> 00:44:56,560
It's a dangerous coastline,
but when it wasn't too stormy,

645
00:44:56,560 --> 00:45:00,520
seagoing vessels could have come
into this bay,

646
00:45:00,520 --> 00:45:03,960
bringing goods from the Eastern
Mediterranean, from North Africa,

647
00:45:03,960 --> 00:45:08,400
<font color="
Tintagel in the fifth and sixth

648
00:45:08,400 --> 00:45:11,160
centuries, and going on beyond that.

649
00:45:15,520 --> 00:45:21,200
The Tintagel that is being unearthed
was clearly an international port of
call.

650
00:45:22,800 --> 00:45:25,320
So what would it have looked like in
its heyday?

651
00:45:28,840 --> 00:45:31,400
<font color="
James Gossip

652
00:45:31,400 --> 00:45:34,280
has been making a detailed
survey of the dig.

653
00:45:36,760 --> 00:45:39,760
OK, can we have a spot height on the
hearth, Martin?

654
00:45:42,960 --> 00:45:46,840
Combining these measurements with
thousands of photographs creates a

655
00:45:46,840 --> 00:45:48,840
perfect record of the new site.

656
00:45:53,440 --> 00:45:56,040
<font color="
towards the sea, isn't it?

657
00:45:56,040 --> 00:45:59,120
Yep, you can really see how

658
00:45:59,120 --> 00:46:03,000
the buildings are part of a planned
design, with shared spaces.

659
00:46:04,120 --> 00:46:07,840
The complex is laid out over
upper and lower terraces.

660
00:46:09,600 --> 00:46:12,680
The other building has a
<font color="

661
00:46:12,680 --> 00:46:14,440
with a five-metre annexe.

662
00:46:16,360 --> 00:46:21,760
There's a smaller building next
door, and a large open courtyard...

663
00:46:23,240 --> 00:46:25,680
..all connected by a central
trackway.

664
00:46:27,720 --> 00:46:31,840
This new data is used to create the
first 3D model

665
00:46:31,840 --> 00:46:34,280
of the whole Tintagel site.

666
00:46:35,680 --> 00:46:39,160
<font color="
opulent to our eyes,

667
00:46:39,160 --> 00:46:42,320
but it's among the most substantial
set of buildings

668
00:46:42,320 --> 00:46:45,960
that's been found so far in
post-Roman south-west Britain.

669
00:46:49,880 --> 00:46:54,520
But people weren't just sailing to
Tintagel to sell exotic goods.

670
00:46:56,320 --> 00:46:59,640
<font color="
something worth buying.

671
00:47:00,720 --> 00:47:03,560
For the people who were coming
up the Atlantic seaboard,

672
00:47:03,560 --> 00:47:05,680
they would see Tintagel
in the distance -

673
00:47:05,680 --> 00:47:09,520
that is the place they are aiming
for, that is their destination.

674
00:47:09,520 --> 00:47:11,960
<font color="

675
00:47:11,960 --> 00:47:14,680
give them the resources
that they want.

676
00:47:16,120 --> 00:47:20,280
Whoever controlled Tintagel
had access to a rare commodity,

677
00:47:20,280 --> 00:47:22,040
in high demand across Europe.

678
00:47:24,720 --> 00:47:28,800
This feels like a rural idyll,
a quiet country lane,

679
00:47:28,800 --> 00:47:32,640
<font color="
ancient woods.

680
00:47:32,640 --> 00:47:37,400
But, in fact, just over this bank
and hedge lies the secret

681
00:47:37,400 --> 00:47:41,440
to Cornwall's wealth and power
in the Dark Ages.

682
00:47:50,520 --> 00:47:55,440
This was a major production centre,
just 15 miles from Tintagel.

683
00:47:59,080 --> 00:48:00,600
<font color="

684
00:48:00,600 --> 00:48:03,760
it was still in business at the
beginning of the 20th century.

685
00:48:06,960 --> 00:48:10,360
The secret to Cornwall's
success was tin.

686
00:48:22,000 --> 00:48:26,760
What looks like a natural gorge
was actually once the massive

687
00:48:26,760 --> 00:48:34,200
Mulberry Hill mine, 120 feet deep,
<font color="

688
00:48:37,680 --> 00:48:42,600
Cornwall's unique geology meant that
it was one of only three sources of

689
00:48:42,600 --> 00:48:44,120
tin in Western Europe.

690
00:48:46,120 --> 00:48:49,680
It's one of the reasons the Romans
came to Britain in the first place.

691
00:48:51,280 --> 00:48:55,080
Whoever's been mining that stuff for
<font color="

692
00:48:55,080 --> 00:48:58,440
rich, because the Mediterranean
needs those resources -

693
00:48:58,440 --> 00:49:00,080
they will come to you to get them.

694
00:49:04,440 --> 00:49:07,640
The Roman Empire needed
tin to make bronze...

695
00:49:09,600 --> 00:49:12,560
..and even after the Romans left
Britain,

696
00:49:12,560 --> 00:49:14,960
<font color="

697
00:49:14,960 --> 00:49:20,120
Whoever controls Tintagel is the
head of a large financial empire,

698
00:49:20,120 --> 00:49:23,160
and Tintagel is one of the big
political players.

699
00:49:23,160 --> 00:49:25,640
We mustn't think of them as being
on the margins of anything -

700
00:49:25,640 --> 00:49:28,520
they are at the centre of a very
<font color="

701
00:49:28,520 --> 00:49:30,200
successful political world.

702
00:49:32,880 --> 00:49:37,280
Trade in the west doesn't collapse
after the Romans leave.

703
00:49:37,280 --> 00:49:40,960
The connections to the continent
remain strong,

704
00:49:40,960 --> 00:49:46,000
but there's another astonishing side
to life at Dark Ages Tintagel.

705
00:49:47,680 --> 00:49:51,120
<font color="
last day of the dig.

706
00:49:52,680 --> 00:49:57,360
Jackie Nowakowski's team make the
most exciting discovery of all.

707
00:49:58,600 --> 00:50:03,720
It's a stone used to make a
windowsill in building 94,

708
00:50:03,720 --> 00:50:06,040
and someone's been writing on it.

709
00:50:07,120 --> 00:50:10,440
There's at least three lines.
<font color="

710
00:50:16,560 --> 00:50:18,000
I think it's OK, actually.

711
00:50:23,320 --> 00:50:24,480
I'll wrap it up as this.

712
00:50:25,840 --> 00:50:27,000
It's very heavy, yeah.

713
00:50:34,400 --> 00:50:38,800
This is an incredibly rare
and precious piece of evidence.

714
00:50:41,880 --> 00:50:43,600
So this is it? This is it.

715
00:50:48,240 --> 00:50:50,400
<font color="

716
00:50:50,400 --> 00:50:51,520
That's amazing.

717
00:50:54,200 --> 00:50:58,080
The letters are scratched with a
sharp tool -

718
00:50:58,080 --> 00:50:59,920
roughly, as if for practice.

719
00:51:01,960 --> 00:51:04,040
It's not in its original position.

720
00:51:04,040 --> 00:51:06,520
Probably only ever a trial piece,
anyway.

721
00:51:06,520 --> 00:51:09,920
<font color="
their inscription. Yeah.

722
00:51:09,920 --> 00:51:12,920
So, presumably, once this was
created as a trial piece,

723
00:51:12,920 --> 00:51:14,800
it wasn't that important any more,

724
00:51:14,800 --> 00:51:17,720
and was incorporated into this wall
where we found it.

725
00:51:19,920 --> 00:51:22,600
James deciphers the text.

726
00:51:22,600 --> 00:51:25,040
<font color="

727
00:51:26,800 --> 00:51:32,680
So the top line is here, possibly
"Tito", which could refer to Titus.

728
00:51:32,680 --> 00:51:33,800
So that's a Roman name.

729
00:51:33,800 --> 00:51:36,960
That's a Roman name. Yeah, popular
in the Roman and post-Roman world.

730
00:51:38,240 --> 00:51:39,640
What does this say here?

731
00:51:39,640 --> 00:51:42,960
We think this is perhaps "Budic".

732
00:51:42,960 --> 00:51:44,680
<font color="

733
00:51:44,680 --> 00:51:51,520
There's a word that's common in
Welsh, Breton and Cornish contexts.

734
00:51:51,520 --> 00:51:54,120
So this isn't Latin?
That is not Latin, no.

735
00:51:54,120 --> 00:51:58,480
That's Bretonic, or, you know, it's
the Cornish word form, basically.

736
00:51:59,920 --> 00:52:05,600
It's something like, "From Titus to
<font color="

737
00:52:05,600 --> 00:52:08,760
It looks like the inscription
for a monument.

738
00:52:08,760 --> 00:52:12,840
This is a lovely A.
That's a really nice style.

739
00:52:12,840 --> 00:52:17,080
This is the style of lettering that
they're using in manuscript at the

740
00:52:17,080 --> 00:52:22,120
time. It might even have been
<font color="
biblical connotation.

741
00:52:23,320 --> 00:52:26,360
While it might look like a stylistic
flourish,

742
00:52:26,360 --> 00:52:30,960
the design of the A suggests that
the writer may have been Christian.

743
00:52:30,960 --> 00:52:33,080
And this coming out
of the Dark Ages,

744
00:52:33,080 --> 00:52:38,000
<font color="
living in hovels, scratching around,
illiterate.

745
00:52:38,000 --> 00:52:42,720
Yeah, but actually created by a
literate Christian elite at
Tintagel.

746
00:52:42,720 --> 00:52:44,400
I wonder who did it. I want to know.

747
00:52:46,120 --> 00:52:47,200
Perhaps Titus.

748
00:52:52,480 --> 00:52:55,640
That stone is just incredible,

749
00:52:55,640 --> 00:53:00,400
<font color="
origin story of its own.

750
00:53:00,400 --> 00:53:04,280
They only discovered it on the last
day of excavating,

751
00:53:04,280 --> 00:53:08,360
and it so nearly could have been
left in the ground.

752
00:53:08,360 --> 00:53:13,800
And what we've got on it,
even though it's fragmentary,
is Latin words,

753
00:53:13,800 --> 00:53:18,840
<font color="
literate, in the Dark Ages.

754
00:53:21,600 --> 00:53:26,000
This new archaeology has revealed so
much about Tintagel and the people

755
00:53:26,000 --> 00:53:27,040
who lived here.

756
00:53:29,240 --> 00:53:33,600
And this evidence may also help
to explain another mystery -

757
00:53:33,600 --> 00:53:36,800
a connection to Geoffrey of
<font color="

758
00:53:39,800 --> 00:53:43,800
Geoffrey of Monmouth chose Tintagel
for a reason, and I suspect that was

759
00:53:43,800 --> 00:53:47,600
because even by his time, it was
remembered as a site of critical

760
00:53:47,600 --> 00:53:50,880
importance. This is where an
important individual lived -

761
00:53:50,880 --> 00:53:52,720
a powerful individual lived.

762
00:53:52,720 --> 00:53:56,080
<font color="
of the importance of that site.

763
00:53:56,080 --> 00:54:00,480
Its political dominance in the fifth
and sixth centuries AD is what

764
00:54:00,480 --> 00:54:02,320
Geoffrey of Monmouth is tying into.

765
00:54:02,320 --> 00:54:03,800
And that, in a way,

766
00:54:03,800 --> 00:54:06,280
is what we're talking about
when we're discussing Arthur.

767
00:54:06,280 --> 00:54:11,080
<font color="
on that kind of primary evidence.

768
00:54:12,520 --> 00:54:15,080
Geoffrey's Arthur was a myth -

769
00:54:15,080 --> 00:54:19,360
a construct created from fragments
of a half-remembered past.

770
00:54:20,320 --> 00:54:25,440
Basically, I think we have to say
that Geoffrey of Monmouth is making
it up.

771
00:54:25,440 --> 00:54:29,360
<font color="
essentially the creation

772
00:54:29,360 --> 00:54:32,320
of origin myths
for the English people.

773
00:54:33,840 --> 00:54:35,000
He doesn't exist.

774
00:54:36,160 --> 00:54:39,360
He's a literary invention,

775
00:54:39,360 --> 00:54:44,880
a romantic hero who embodies the
ideal of kingship and not a real

776
00:54:44,880 --> 00:54:46,960
historical figure.

777
00:54:46,960 --> 00:54:51,240
<font color="
much more interesting -

778
00:54:51,240 --> 00:54:53,880
and that's what archaeology is
showing us -

779
00:54:53,880 --> 00:54:57,520
the real Britain of the fifth
and sixth centuries.

780
00:54:59,160 --> 00:55:02,600
Whether or not he was real,
I think, is irrelevant.

781
00:55:02,600 --> 00:55:04,920
It's the period itself that is
<font color="

782
00:55:04,920 --> 00:55:07,040
That's what draws archaeologists
and historians to it.

783
00:55:08,440 --> 00:55:12,600
It's so important for understanding
what made Britain and what makes us

784
00:55:12,600 --> 00:55:13,640
what we are today.

785
00:55:16,560 --> 00:55:21,000
The biggest revolution in Dark Age
archaeology has been this
recognition

786
00:55:21,000 --> 00:55:24,480
<font color="
the continent all the way through.

787
00:55:24,480 --> 00:55:28,360
One of the things that we've always
struggled with in thinking about the

788
00:55:28,360 --> 00:55:34,480
past is this concept that we're
divided by water rather than united
by it.

789
00:55:35,560 --> 00:55:39,320
The archaeology forces us
<font color="

790
00:55:39,320 --> 00:55:43,120
The maritime connections are
absolutely crucial here.

791
00:55:43,120 --> 00:55:48,720
Tintagel is connected down to France
and Spain and up to Wales,

792
00:55:48,720 --> 00:55:49,960
Scotland and Ireland.

793
00:55:49,960 --> 00:55:53,880
It's right at the centre of this
Atlantic trading network.

794
00:56:00,400 --> 00:56:04,920
<font color="
connections are to Northern Europe.

795
00:56:06,640 --> 00:56:10,560
All the archaeological evidence
points to a divided Britain.

796
00:56:13,200 --> 00:56:15,680
Not fighting on a frontier,

797
00:56:15,680 --> 00:56:20,480
but with distinct cultures in the
west and the east that reflect their

798
00:56:20,480 --> 00:56:22,080
connections across the seas.

799
00:56:23,800 --> 00:56:26,480
<font color="
between two halves of Britain,

800
00:56:26,480 --> 00:56:28,200
two distinct trade outlooks.

801
00:56:28,200 --> 00:56:30,800
It's not a picture of conflict.

802
00:56:36,200 --> 00:56:40,960
The two halves of Britain are
looking in different directions -

803
00:56:40,960 --> 00:56:43,880
going outwards rather than clashing
in the middle.

804
00:56:47,560 --> 00:56:51,040
<font color="
instead of the land,

805
00:56:51,040 --> 00:56:53,720
and the rivers instead of the land,

806
00:56:53,720 --> 00:56:58,040
I think you have a much better
chance of understanding where people
are coming from.

807
00:57:06,720 --> 00:57:09,720
At Tintagel, the excavations are
complete.

808
00:57:17,000 --> 00:57:21,720
<font color="
really happened in Dark Ages
Britain,

809
00:57:21,720 --> 00:57:26,440
and somewhere amongst the
archaeology and genetics,
history and myth,

810
00:57:26,440 --> 00:57:28,160
a new truth is emerging.

811
00:57:29,440 --> 00:57:33,640
We can't treat archaeology
as being completely factual,

812
00:57:33,640 --> 00:57:37,160
<font color="
being completely fantastical.

813
00:57:37,160 --> 00:57:40,840
There are elements in there that all
feed into one another and will help

814
00:57:40,840 --> 00:57:42,320
us to understand the past,

815
00:57:42,320 --> 00:57:45,240
and you've got to try and master all
these things to really get a clear

816
00:57:45,240 --> 00:57:48,200
<font color="

817
00:57:48,200 --> 00:57:50,240
especially something like
the fifth or sixth century.

818
00:57:51,800 --> 00:57:55,720
But the myth of King
Arthur lives on.

819
00:57:55,720 --> 00:57:59,480
Arthur is a fairy story who might
have been a real person.

820
00:58:03,800 --> 00:58:07,120
It's a myth.
But it's such a wonderful myth.

821
00:58:10,560 --> 00:58:14,760
<font color="
today, because we all sort of need

822
00:58:14,760 --> 00:58:18,400
an heroic character to defend
what we think is right and good,

823
00:58:18,400 --> 00:58:20,360
and it's Arthur who
sort of fills that void.