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This is the kissing gate\n of St Kyneburga's Church,

here in the village of Castor\n in Cambridgeshire...

and it's one of the most beautiful\n medieval churches in England.

And yet it's what's under this\n church's graveyard

that's got our archaeologists very\n excited, because beneath my feet

could be the remains of a mysterious\n Roman building.

But it's not just one\n Roman building by itself.

Over there in the school playing\n field,

across there in the rectory,\n in fact everywhere I look,

archaeologists have found\n impressive Roman structures.

This could add up to be\n something very special.

Looks like it's going to be\n a hectic three days,

that is,\n if I can ever get down again.

Castor is 5 miles west\n of Peterborough in Cambridgeshire.

Nearly 2,000 years ago,\n it was right next to the important

Roman town of Durobrivae and less\n than a mile from Ermine Street,

a major Roman road that's still\n visible from the air today.

And over the last 400 years,\n antiquarians, archaeologists -\n and even gravediggers -

have been discovering nuggets of\n Castor's intriguing past.

Ben, you've been here before.\n You're an old friend of William\n and his gravediggers.

Yes, I used to look after\nthe archaeology in this area,

so yes, I know William well.

Why, why did you keep coming here?

Well, every time a grave was dug,

a mass of Roman material would come\nout so it was obviously of interest

and something that I ought to\nbe concerned about.

This kind of stuff?

Absolutely. I'm\n just an enthusiastic amateur,

but even I can recognise distinctive\n Roman material like this.

Tegula is a Roman\n tile that's ridged,

a piece of pilae -\n Romans' hypocaust bricks.

What's the stuff you got here?

Well, about a couple of years ago,\nthe gravediggers called me to say

they thought they'd gone through a\nRoman building in digging the grave.

Now, obviously I wanted to have a\nlook and they actually lowered me

into the grave, which was, which was\npretty unnerving and peculiar.

But in the base of the grave, um,

it was obvious that they had in fact\ngot something like a Roman floor

and I can just make out this\nsort of thin band of Roman cement

and I would dearly love to\nknow what this was part of.

Are you happy about us\n digging in your graveyard?

Absolutely.

It doesn't seem quite right.

No, there are no bodies buried here.

What this strip along here?

Absolutely.

But even without any graves,\n geophys will still need to scan

this narrow strip of churchyard\n before we open any trenches.

We're also surveying the playing\n field of the next door school,

as this is where an intriguing\n 19th century antiquarian

said he found some Roman baths.

Well, here we are.

He was a man obsessed\n with Castor's archaeology

and he's buried right here.

Sacred to the memory of\n Edmund Artis,

who died the 24th December 18...\n It's pretty eroded.

47.

47, in the...59th year of his age.

Edmund Artis had a remarkable\n mix of talents.

A chocolate maker\n and a budding artist,

he wangled himself a job\n working for landed gentry\n in the Castor area.

He then found he had\n a passion for archaeology

and became a one man Time Team,\n digging all over the area

and illustrating his efforts\n with beautiful drawings.

When there were slack periods\nduring the work on the estate,

Artis borrows labour from the estate

and uses it for his excavations\ninto archaeological science.

And he's going to have the blessing\n of the landowner because he works\n there.

He's working for him, yes.\nThat's right.

Ideal, really.

Absolutely, yes.

So wonderful stories, for example,\nof excavating through severe winters,

where all the workmen clear off\nbecause it's too cold

but leave Edmund Artis digging\naway to his heart's content.

So he was really a driven man,\nactually.

Artis also surveyed the village\n and published this map in 1828.

It claims to show the location\n of lots of Roman buildings

in and around the churchyard.

But antiquarians, as we know,\n can be a bit unreliable.

So we're going to test just how\n much of what Artis says is here

can actually be found on the ground.

There's a lot of commonality between\nwhat he mapped and what's still here.

What you doing, guys?

Well, what we're trying to do is look\nat, first of all, what Artis mapped

in the early 19th century

and we've overlaid them\nagainst the modern base map,

so we can get some idea\nof idea of where these features were.

There are enough common features\nto be able to roughly

work out where his buildings were\nand their orientation and so on.

Are these Roman buildings?

Roman buildings, yeah.

Now, the problem comes\nwhen you add to that,

this overlay, which is where\nvarious bits of what he found

have been re-excavated over the\nyears, these bits in yellow.

Trying to match these together,\n well, it doesn't.

And just looking at this,\n it seems to be more...

Well, you match on one side\n and the other side's out.

You try and match up this side and\n this side's all out. So basically,

well, it just doesn't match.

And this is pretty critical to\nsort out the orientation

and alignment of these walls to\nunderstand what's here.

So what are we going to do, Stew?

Well, there's only one\nway to really do that

and that's almost kind of throw\naway some of this stuff.

And draw a new map?

Exactly, create our own map.

So you two have got quite\n a big job, haven't you?

Stewart and Henry are going to\n make their own map of Castor

and mark on it the precise location\n of all the known archaeology...

A job made easier by the massive\n chunks of Roman wall

still visible in the lanes\n around the churchyard.

I can see another large chunk\nout the corner of me eye.

That's more like it.

This looks to be part\nof a wall that was heading,

sort of, in that direction through\nthe churchyard. I mean, this...

'But the mystery of what lies\n beneath Castor can only be solved\n by digging.'

Well, I don't know what you pressed.

'So, ignoring some underwhelming\n geophys...'

So what are these blobs along here?

'..Mick decides it's still\n worthwhile opening a trench close to\n where Ben

'was lowered into that grave.

'And under the watchful eye of Phil\n and Raksha...'

A little bit of toil.

'..our digger gets trench\n number one underway.'

See, what we're getting is lots\nof reflections close to the surface.

'John's a bit confused.

'His radar was showing\n very little here,

'but we've barely scratched the\n surface and we've got archaeology.'

It is, without a doubt.

Could be that, but then...

Just forget that.

I am forgetting it.

This is reality. This will tell us\n whether there's anything there.

Is that Roman?

'Already,\n pieces of Roman mosaic flooring,

'called tessera, are turning up.'

Yeah, William said you get\n tesserae in the graves here.

Ah, now what's that?

Finally John figures out\n where his geophys has gone wrong.

We've got the Roman filter on.

What you filter the Roman out,\n yeah.

'That imaginary filter would\n have to be pretty effective,

'because when Artis\n first came to Castor,

'he claimed to have found staggering\n amounts of Roman archaeology.'

When Edmund Artis comes\nhere in the 1820's,

he refers to walls\nstanding at considerably height.

If we look at this, a\nnewspaper report from Edmund Artis...

7th December 1821.

So that's the local paper?

That's the local paper.

And the report says, "On the north\nside of the church,

"five rooms have been discovered,

"the walls of which\nare beautifully painted

"and from 10 to 11 feet high".

Wow.

"But the floors are all destroyed".

That's massively high, isn't it?

So that's as high as the walls\nin here, actually.

Yeah.

'Back outside,\n it's now raining cats and dogs

'on our archaeologists\n in trench one.'

Thank you so much.

'But despite the weather\n and the geophys results,

'this trench is turning\n into a gold mine.'

We got some finds, Paul?

We're getting loads of finds\nout already.

There's this stuff,\nwhich is kind of Saxo-Norman,

11th, early 12th century, about\nthe time the church was built,

so they were possibly robbing the\nRoman buildings for stone,

and we've got our first bit of early\nmiddle Saxon handmade pottery,

5th, 6th, 7th century,\nsomething like that.

What about this chunky stuff here?

We've got Roman as well.

There's some bits of Roman\ncolour-coated pottery,\nwhich is late 3rd, 4th.

A bit of mosaic tessera. Cracking\nselection of finds already.

It looks like there's something\n coming out of the trench, Phil.

This is the crucial thing, Tony.

As Paul says, we are beginning\n to get Saxon pottery.

These are the first levels that\n we're actually coming down onto.

They could include Saxon\n buildings here.

This is really rather\n extraordinary for us.

We always have a problem finding\n Saxon on Time Team.

To find it, great, but then to\n find it on a site

where we're looking for Roman\n is a little bit more difficult.

What will we find next?

Probably snow.

Afternoon of day one

here at the fabulous Castor\n Parish Church in Cambridgeshire,

where we're looking for

what could be some\n very intriguing Roman buildings.

Already,\n Phil's put in a trench over there

on the far side of the graveyard

and has come up with\n some Roman stuff.

But now we've moved on\n to the old rectory.

Stewart, why are we here?

It's clear that when Artis\nproduced the plan of the site,

there were Roman buildings\nunder the rectory garden.

Some excavations were conducted\nin the 1970s,

which confirmed bits of wall\nthrough keyhole trenches.\nSo we know there's stuff under here.

But the problem is,\nthese are only tiny little bits.

We don't know whether this range\nextended further that way,\nor further that way

and if you look at\nthis lovely drawing,

that was done by Artis at the time,

this is what he found down here.

See the church in the background,\non the right?

Yeah, you can see that just through\n those trees there, can't you?

That's it, yeah.

So you can see,\nit's quite a long way down.

If we can find\nsome of these features,

we can get the orientation,\nwe can map them,

and we can add them to that map\nthat we're creating of the site

to find out if this is one building\nor a series of buildings.

So we're going to open\n our second trench

here in the old rectory garden.

And after some promising geophys,

we've decided to put a third trench\n in this corner of the school field.

This is another spot\n that our antiquarian Artis,

and later archaeologists,\n have explored.

And it seems to have been\n an Artis favourite,

because he drew the remains\n of this impressive Roman bathhouse

he reckoned he'd found here.

One thing about excavating here is

that there's something\nvery identifiable we can latch onto,

we know exactly where we are.

But it's never actually been\nexcavated at all in that direction.

Right.

So we might get any Roman remains.

As we start to get to grips\n with this site,

I'm getting a feeling that there's\n something special about Castor.

Goodies for archaeologists\n seem almost guaranteed here.

This is an amazingly impressive\n group of finds, isn't it?

And all from Peterborough Museum\n and all found at Castor.

That's right, yeah.\nAll from the Castor area.

What's particularly interesting\nis the collection of pottery here.

There's a wonderful hunt cup,\nfor example,

so called because it has greyhounds,\nor dogs chasing...

Here it comes, look, the hare.

Isn't that a lovely, sinuous hare?

It's wonderful, isn't it, yes?

But it's finds like\n this painted wall plaster

that may be the key\n to unlocking the secrets of Castor.

Or this one, look...

Which appears to have some sort of\nimage of foliage on it.

Hmm.

With perhaps leaves being painted.

The whole impression is of\na really, really opulent building.

A really opulent building, yeah.

Artis marks lots of structures\n to the north of the church.

Could this be a complex of\n swanky Roman buildings?

If so, our trench in the old rectory\n garden could be right on top of one.

But if Artis' plan is accurate,

it's the north graveyard

where we really need to focus\n our efforts,

so Jimmy's now geophys-ing here...

And by mid-afternoon,

he's latched onto something.

Um, you've turned up\njust at the right time.

Look at this.

We've got\na really strong reflector here

and it's at least\nfive metres across.

That's nothing like\n anything else in the churchyard.

No, up until now there's been\nthe odd reflection,

but they've looked like

they could just be stone casket,\nor a slab-lined grave.

But this is much, much bigger and\nit's about halfway up the slope,

just beyond where this mess is.

Well, this is where\n the one building was meant to be

from antiquarian records,

where they got this early mosaic.

It's possible Jimmy's detected\n this striking Roman mosaic floor

that Artis drew\n in his book of illustrations.

And if our antiquarian site plan\n is to be trusted,

it makes sense that geophys\n are getting a strong signal here.

Yeah, it's slow going, isn't it?

Yeah. It's been a bit of a challenge.

Well, I'll leave you to it.

Thanks.

But over in Trench Two\n at the old rectory,

there's already\n good Roman evidence turning up.

You've got loads of Roman pottery,\nyou've got Roman tile.

You've got a tiny bit\nof vessel glass.

I don't know where it's come from.

Roman as well, yeah?

It's all Roman, as far as I can tell.

And there's a couple of Roman coins

which is late third century\nor thereabouts.

Most of the pottery is kind of\nlate-third to fourth century -

any time within that span.

It looks like a primary deposit -

it's found where it was dropped,\nsort of thing.

It may not have travelled far\n but I've got an inkling

that we might be looking at\n backfill here.

Oh, really? Yeah.

The pottery's well distributed\n through it, the top's very loose.\n It's very homogenous, thick deposit.

So, I think we may be looking at\n where Artis dug one of his holes.

Really? Hmm.

So Matt could be onto\n a posh Artis building.

But once again,\n it's chucking it down.

Nevertheless, Tracey's battling on\n in the school field,

searching for the Roman baths.

Tracey, is that just a pipe you've\n got in your trench or is it a wall?

It's neither, Tony.

I mean, this trench is turning into\na bit of a nightmare at the moment.

Why's that?

We've got little pockets\nof upstanding Roman archaeology,

all of these yellowy-orangey patches\ndown there, this stretch here...

Everywhere else\nArtis has just dug into it.

It doesn't look like\n I expected it to look.

I thought it would be more\n full of walls than it is.

That's what I was hoping for as well.\nIt doesn't. No sign of walls as yet.

But if it isn't a wall, what is it?

It looks like demolition material.

It may be that this is\nover the top of something.

It certainly has\npainted wall plaster in it.

If we've got that painted plaster,\n then we know it's Roman?

Oh, yeah, and we've got\n these tiles and stuff,

so it looks like\n it's a bathhouse, obviously.

Lots of box flue tiles coming up.

It may be a mess,\n but at least it's a Roman mess,

none of that nasty\n Anglo-Saxon stuff.

Oh, I like Saxon though, Tony.

Not as much as\n the Venerable Bede here.

(LAUGHS)

End of day one...

and as the rain at last\n gives way to sunshine,

something's going on\n behind the church.

There must have been something here\n for them to rob and raid to use it.

What are you guys doing here?

All the excitement's on the far side\n and you're round the back.

But we've been looking at all the\nRoman stuff built into the church.

The tile and the stonework\nand so on,

and the idea that it comes from\na huge Roman building

that's somewhere round near\nthe back of the church.

Artis had a theory

that all the Roman buildings\n to the north of the church

were one giant structure.

And Stephen thinks this\n is how it might have looked.

Well, it's a pretty enormous\nbuilding, Tony.

I mean, from where we're standing\nto the far side, is 110 metres.

Crikey.

If it's that big it would\n absolutely dwarf the church.

Yes, it would be two or three times\nbigger than the church.

So what could something that size\n actually be?

Let's go back to Artis,\nhe called it a praetorium.

What's a praetorium?

Well, in Artis' terms,

he was used to digging\nvillas of fairly modest size

and this was the biggest thing\nthat he ever saw and ever dug

and he gave the term\n"praetorium", implying its size.

What does it mean?

It probably means a headquarters\nfor some state or military function.

Have you geophys-ed this area yet?

Yeah, Jimmy's done\n over half of the graveyard

and, to be honest,\n it's been an absolute nightmare\n with all the graves.

It's been one of the most difficult\n surveys he's done.

The problem I've got is

what we're not seeing\n in these results

are massive Roman walls,\n foundations or rooms.

The same way we didn't this morning,\n you know, in Phil's trench.

If modern technology\n doesn't see the archaeology\n that you think may be there

and Artis thought may be there,

the one thing to do is\n to put a trench in and have a look.

Oh, yeah.

Can we dig the churchyard?

We can dig in this churchyard.

Yay!

We've got one day -\nthe diocese has given permission.

Very excited,\nwe need to grab the chance.

So we've got one day only?

One day only.

'So we've got just a single day

'to find this mysterious\n Roman praetorium

'and not much evidence to go on.

'We're going to need\n some luck tomorrow.'

Beginning of day two here at the\nchurch of St Kyneburga in Castor,

and today we're faced\nwith a big challenge.

We're looking for something that's\nbeen called a "Praetorium", which

is a massive Roman building thought\nto lie somewhere in this graveyard.

But we've only been allowed one day\nto dig it and the second problem,

and hopefully our osteoarchaeologist\nJackie's going to be able to

help us with this one,\nis that nowadays a lot of people

feel far more sensitive about the\nissue of human bones than at almost

any other time in history, how will\nwe respond to those sensitivities?

The first thing, obvious thing,\n is that there's

so many gravestones, we won't be\n able to dig this with a machine,

we have to do everything by hand.

Now there's no modern graves here,\n everything we can see is either

late 18th or 19th century.

So presumably there's going to\nbe bones under bones under bones.

Exactly, and a lot of\n unmarked graves.

And there will be an awful lot\n of material

that's loose in the soil because\n in the past it's been disturbed,

people will have dug unmarked graves\n and bones will have been disturbed.

Disarticulated!

Yes. They were far more robust\n about these things in the past,

as long as they didn't leave the\n consecrated ground of the graveyard,

and that's one thing\n we must make sure happens here -

everything we dig out\n goes back in the ground.

Our efforts will be concentrated\nnorth of the church because that's

where antiquarian Edmund Artis marked\na series of mysterious structures.

If we can confirm key parts of\nhis plan, then we could be

on the way to getting our Praetorium,\na very special Roman building.

We've only got one day, Ben.\nWhat do you think

our overall strategy should be?

Well, I think Artis was a very good\n archaeologist for his time,

but I'm not so confident about this\n sort of floating building here.

Is it attached to the other\n buildings around it?

What alignment is it on?

We need a trench there to tie it to\n the other buildings and sort out the\n alignment.

Then I think we need to do\n something similar in

the west part of the churchyard\n just here.

Now a few years ago...

That's where you can\n see that wall in the path?

Yeah, a few years ago I cleaned up\n a bit of wall there and there's

definitely something there but I\n didn't get much of a look at it.

Is that a big building\n range as Artis depicts it?

So Phil's on the move.

To this spot, just north of the\nchurch,

to help Jackie dig a new trench in\nthe graveyard.

And Raksha's opening\na trench as well,

in the area that Ben's interested in.

But why, though, might the Roman's\nhave chosen this corner of Britain

to build a Praetorium?

From everything we know about this\n site, it seems to have been in use

in the 2nd, 3rd and\n 4th centuries AD,

what else was going on\n around here at that time?

An awful lot, it's a very important\n place in Roman Britain.

Is it?

Oh, yeah, definitely.

The local Roman town, Durobrivae,\n about a kilometre from here,

is immensely important, it's\n 44 acres within the walled area,

but the significance of\n Durobrivae is it has 400 acres\n of suburbs with it.

Castor was right on the edge of\nDurobrivae's vast industrial suburbs,

an area the size of Roman London.

And here we're very close to\n Ermine Street, aren't we?

That very important north/south\n roadway that's become the A1.

It's along that route that some\n significant characters

of Roman Britain would have passed,\n people like Hadrian and Constantine,

and Hadrian's particularly\n important because of the Fenland.

Hadrian was very keen on draining\n places and we think that he actually

oversaw the improvement of the Fens,\n the drainage of parts of the Fens,

or at least works to make it\n economically productive.

So he might have actually come here?

Yes. Sure, sure, oh, absolutely.

This is not somewhere\n insignificant or tucked away.

This is somewhere at\n the hub of Roman Britain.

By the 3rd century, Castor\nwas perfectly placed with Durobrivae

on one side and the imperial\nFenland estates on the other.

It may have become the centre\nof an economic boom area

and that could be the reason\nwhy a Praetorium was built here.

Since yesterday evening we have\nbeen using this word Praetorium,

but quite honestly I still\nhave no idea what it means.

Well, in a sense, Tony, we're\n lumbered by what Artis or how Artis

used the term Praetorium,\n and if we look at his book,

he shows, for example,\n all the villas that he excavated,

the ones here and here and here,\n as comparatively small structures.

But look at the size\n of that structure which is

the Praetorium, this building,\n it's much, much bigger.

So is he just using it\nto mean a big building?

That's exactly right,\n he's simply saying this is

a walloping big building\n that I don't understand,

but it's clearly significant and

probably more significant\n than the surrounding villas.

But there are things called\nPraetoria around the Roman Empire?

Yes, they are normally associated\n with

the residences of state officials\n or even military officials.

The truth is, though, we still\nhaven't a clue what's here, have we?

We reluctantly have to admit that's\n the case. We know we've got

something very big, we know it's\n surrounded by other Roman buildings

but, I suppose a bit like Artis,\n we're still struggling to put it

in a sort of context, a framework -\n what did it do?

We're still looking for clues,\n still looking for clues.

Meanwhile, down in the school\nfield...

What measurement do we have?

..Stewart has mysteriously\nchanged into period costume.

6 metres 60.

Stewart, you look magnificent.

Look at this, look,\nthe Colin Firth of Time Team.

What exactly is it that you're doing?

What we're trying to do is get\n back into the mindset of Artis

when he mapped this site\n in the early 19th century.

So you are our Artis?

That's me, absolutely, and what I'm\n going to do is to get myself back

into his mindset and the problems he\n would have had linking all together

all these bits of Roman finds\n and trenches into an existing map.

I'm trying to do exactly the same\n with a modern day existing map,

but using the equipment\n that he would have had available,

something like a plain table,\n a site rule, probably his magnifying

glass, his eyesight going a bit,\n and various bits of that sort of

surveying equipment to see how easy

or how difficult, or what problems\n he would have encountered doing it.

But you're not on your own,\nare you, hang on a minute.

Here he is, Matt,\nyour long suffering servant.

Sir.

A part which I empathise somewhat,\nwhat are you going to be?

All the measuring was done\n with these chains.

We'd use these to measure across\n the field and there was lots

of running around across the bogs,

so basically doing whatever\n Stewart tells me to do.

He's officially my chainman,\n that is the term for his role.

He's going to swan around and\nyou're doing all the hard work.

I'll be legging it around\n the fields.

As Stewart and Matt go\nto work antiquarian style...

Um, another corner, please.

Hello, Phil, how's it going?

..Phil and Jackie are searching for\na structure with a mosaic floor

that Artis claimed was\nunder the graveyard.

We do actually have\n a piece of the floor itself.

If you turn that over, you can see\n that that is actually made of

one, two, three, four,\n five individual tesserae,\n all mortared together,

that's the surface that\n they would have walked on.

Looks a nice piece.

But we've also got the walls\n as well, because we've got...

Is this plaster?

Wall plaster.

In red, and a sort of grey\n green as well, look.

So, with a bit of luck, if we carry\n on down, we should get the floor,

and maybe the walls,\n without disturbing the graves.

Without disturbing the graves,

that'll be a great relief\n to all of us.

With over 20,000 burials\nin this churchyard,

it's not going to be easy finding\nany evidence for our Praetorium.

But in the Rectory garden trench,

which Faye's now taken over from\nMatt, we may be on to something.

What have you actually got\ngoing on over there, Tim?

I seem to have this surface,\n it's got a few tesserae in it,

but it's very pebbly and not very\n good.

But you've got archaeology.

Oh, yes, definitely,\n definitely archaeology.

Where I am I've got nothing,

I've got a big rectangular hole\nwith no archaeology in it,

and my only explanation for that\ncan be is that this is

where Artis shoved his trench.

And he basically took\neverything away with him.

Therefore that's why we've got\nthis line along here which I think

is a rubbed out wall.

I need to find the depth for this\ncos I'm hoping that he may have left

something at the bottom\nlike a hypocaust system or something.

That would be good.

I think there's a fair\nbit more to do.

So some good news. Faye's trench\nmay have a Roman structure,

but there's still no sign of these\nmassive walls we're hoping for.

Everywhere on this site\nwe seem to be following in

the footsteps of this chap Artis,\nsome of us quite literally.

I need some measurements\n from this line now

so I can put them on the drawing.

Oops, excuse me, excuse me,\n I beg your pardon.

In your own time, Matthew.

I think the peg's come out.

Who put the peg in, Matthew?

Sorry, sir, won't happen again.

That's your wages docked.

Yes, Mr Ainsworth.

Right, it's the Rectory\n garden next, Matthew.

Anything you say, Mr Ainsworth.

Down at Tracey's trench,\nwe're working in an area

where Artis drew this illustration\nof his Roman bath house excavation.

So how have you got on then, Tracey?

Well, we're getting there.

You've got walls showing now\n which you didn't have before.

That's lovely, we've got\nherringbone wall there

forming one side and another one on\nthis side and it's forming a channel

running up here to the remnants

of this larger wall, this\nhas been rubbed off, obviously.

That all ties in nicely\n with bath houses, doesn't it?

It does.

It doesn't quite look like\n Artis's drawing, does it?

There's a lot more\n stonework and stuff there.

I think the problem is we don't know

how long this was open after Artis\nexcavated it out.

So you think people came\n along and nicked it, basically.

Local houses, yeah.

Yeah, yeah.

It probably didn't look like that\n when Artis discovered it anyway.

I doubt very much all the walls were\n this uniform height, for example.

All the Pillae again\n were this uniform height.

I think he got large chunks\n of this and has just

helped us to sort of visualise the\n whole.

I think it there's a slight amount\n of embellishment going on here.

So, we've got a sizable bath house,\nbut we don't yet know

the relationship between it\nand what's up behind the church.

Back in the graveyard,\nPhil and Jackie are

up against the clock, digging\ncarefully around lots of human bones.

They've now only a few hours left

to get down to the floor of a\npotentially massive Roman structure.

We're definitely on\n the site of a building but

of course what we're encountering as\n we go down is lots of human remains.

Are these individual\nburials or are they

lots of bones on top of each other?

Well, we've had a lot of loose\n bones spread about, turning up

all the way across here,\n but the difference here is you

can see we've got about five skulls\n all dumped in together in one place.

Could that be a gravedigger\nwho's cleared earlier graves,

dug a pit, chucked these in\nso that more people can be buried?

Yeah, basically it looks\n like a charnel pit.

But we do have a problem that we've\ngot lots of bones

and lots of smashed mosaic,\nbut no structures whatsoever?

What we can be certain\n of is that in places,

the gravediggers have been through\n the Roman floor,

otherwise we wouldn't have\n this sort of material.

What we've got to hope is that\n they didn't destroy all and

that they've left some of it for us.

And that means digging deeper.

That means digging deeper.

Thankfully Raksha's trench at the\nwestern end of the graveyard

looks to have got something more\nsubstantial.

Hello. How's it going?

It's going very well, actually.

Put this trench in here\n to find what we thought

was a wall coming through there.

And lo and behold we have a huge\n wall.

That was actually poking out of\n the ground before you started.

We knew that was there but I didn't\n realise how massive it actually is.

So we've got one wall here,

which is running in that direction,\n and then where John is

we have the return and\n that's running in this direction,

so they should actually come out\n and converge around about here.

It's amazing, this is the first time\n we have seen anything like

the kind of monumental walls\n that Edmund Artis saw.

Yes, this is the only trench\n where we actually have huge walls.

Hm, hm.

And it's our failure

so far to find other big walls,\nthat's becoming a major concern.

For all the wonderful Roman\nbuildings Artis said were here,

we haven't actually found much yet.

Matt, this is\na turn up for the books.

We usually put you through about 24\nhours of hell in these re-enactments

but it's only been three and\nyou're practically finished.

Once we got a system going, rolling\n out the chains and back again,

it really didn't\n take very long at all.

And what have you found out?

Well, we've got one, two,\n three, four, five trenches open,

and got some bits of wall line\n exposed where the roads cut through.

What we've found out is that we\n haven't got very many walls at all.

And if you look at what we\n actually know about this site from

modern methods, these excavations\n in the '70's and so on,

these are the only bits in black\n where bits of wall have been found.

So how do you join\n all of those together?

It's actually extremely difficult.

We're having to rely an awful lot

on what Artis put on his plans\n and what he drew.

I imagine that very soon\nwe would be able to paint this

incredibly large Roman building\njust behind us,

but I'm starting to have my doubts,\nbeginning to disappear.

The trouble is, on our\nPraetorium diagram

we're only certain of the black\nbits.

All the other colours depend on\nour antiquarian's observations.

So, how reliable\ndo we now think he is?

One very interesting thing\n to point out here with this

wall-lined artefact, it's completely

in different orientation\n to everything else, which

raises a doubt about the orientation\n of some of this theoretical stuff.

Have these lines been looked at?

John and his team have done\n some Geophys and radar

in all this area in here and\n there's no other

additional big wall lines to add\n to that.

Yeah, I can be extremely sceptical\nabout the work of antiquarians,

it's not always what\nit's cracked up to be.

I don't think that's fair in the\n case of Artis,

I will defend him to the hilt.

In some places, I mean, he's\n a fantastic draughtsman,

his plans are, in some cases, backed\n up by beautiful general views and

the details of where the walls go\n always match the relevant plan,

especially as these red\n Artis walls have often been

confirmed by more modern excavation.\n These are OK.

I'd endorse that as well,\n having mapped the village

and where he shows them on here\n and the similar techniques, and

he's come up with similar answers\n in where he's positioned them.

He's a good surveyor.

And we've got it down in\n the bath house at the bottom,

we've got his plan and we're\n beginning to find the walls.

All right, say this red stuff\nis right, Ben,

but there's still a lot of other\ncolours here.

I saw a wall fragment here as well\n and it was only part of a wall

but it was a whacking great wall

and the Romans didn't build bits of\n whacking great walls for no reason.

This substantial wall must be\n part of the bigger building.

So on one hand we've got this\nmega building, which should be

casting its long shadow over us\nright now, and on the other hand,

as far things that we can actually\n100% guarantee, we've got that.

And we've got just one day left.

Got some work tomorrow, guys.

Beginning of our final day here at\n Castor in Cambridgeshire,

and we've just\n had some fantastic news.

The diocese have given us permission\n to dig in the graveyard down there

for one final day.

Although, whether we'll find our\n big Roman building, the praetorium,

is a huge question.

So we're spreading our bets today.

In the old rectory garden, where\n we're looking for what could be the

east wing of our praetorium,\n we now have two trenches.

But our main hopes lie with\n these trenches in the graveyard.

Raksha's at the western edge\n and Phil's just north of the church.

Beneath these bones we're trying

to find this Roman structure, marked\n as F on the plan that Artis drew.

It's here that he said he found\n a brightly coloured mosaic floor.

Phil, you know how I said

I was getting a lot more building\n material and big blocks of tesserae?

Now I'm getting lots of pea grit,

which is this fine grit,\n and look what it's coming down onto.

Oh, good lord.

Well, that looks like a floor.

It looks very like a floor,\n and this is an in situ burial.

That's lying directly on top of it,\n by the look of it.

Oh, that is good stuff\nand I'll tell you what...

Blimey. We could be just inches away

from finally getting\n evidence of a big Roman structure

and, crucially, it's slap bang in\n the middle of our praetorium plan.

Back in the old rectory garden,\n Faye's getting really stuck in

and the sweat and graft\n is starting to pay off.

Hi, there, Faye. Cor, this looks\na bit different to yesterday.\nYou're well down.

I am, but fantastically we've got\n a huge great big section of wall.

It's a big Roman wall, isn't it?

Without a shadow of a doubt.

And we were worried yesterday about\nthe relative heights of all this.

There's a surface\nvery much higher than the Roman wall.

You can see where Artis put his\n trench, which is basically this

line down in this section here.

I actually think that level\n there is where he was standing.

Really?

Yeah, which is why it's so compact.

With footprints. What size\nboots did he have? Come on, come on.

You're so demanding! I haven't\n got any footprints in there.

This is a wonderfully\ncomplex trench, isn't it?

We can see where Artis was digging

for the first time and try and\nunderstand how he unpicked the site

and how he saw it, basically. So this\nis actually a fascinating trench.

And it's also a very\n significant chunk of walling

on the eastern side of what we think\n is one single enormous building.

Faye's discovery of this massive\n Roman wall, previously dug by Artis,

is a really good sign.

Maybe we can rely on our\n antiquarian after all.

Meanwhile, there's breaking news\n from the graveyard.

We spent the last 36 hours poking\n around in this graveyard, trying

to get permissions to dig it,\n getting permissions to dig it,

then finding nothing but Roman\n rubble and a tumble of old bones,

but at last, Phil, we've got\n something exciting, haven't we?

We have got Artis's floor.

Look, if you look down between that

pair of legs you can see a\nmosaic floor actually in situ.

You're smiling, William.

I'm really excited about this.\n If Artis is right about this,

he might be right\n about the praetorium.

Yesterday I think you were a little\n bit disappointed with the attitude

of some of our archaeologists who\n were slightly rubbishing the idea.

Praetorium means a lot to a parson.

I've got my Greek New Testament\n here. The word is used.

Show me.

Here we are. "They took\n Jesus from the house of Carthus\n esto praetorium, to the praetorium."

In Artis's day he would have\n heard the word praetorium

when he went to church because\n that was the word used to describe

where Jesus was arraigned\n in front of Pontius Pilate.

So he was tried in the praetorium.

I was going to say this is so\nimportant to what we're trying to do.

We've now got the floor.

You can actually begin to see some\nsort of an alignment on the tesserae.

We might be able to say exactly what\nthe alignment of that building was.

But it tells us more than just\n the alignment, doesn't it, William?

The scale of the thing,\n which he insisted was a praetorium.

A big, official,\n palatial type of building.

Finally our efforts in the\n graveyard are being rewarded.

If you take off\n the more conjectural parts...

And the work of mapping our site\n is nearly done too.

Everything we've looked at so far\nhas been on a flat plan, hasn't it?

I can see here you've had a new\ndimension. What are you trying to do?

Well, what I thought...

Henry's 3D map of our praetorium

is still partly based\n on conjecture, but there's one\n feature that stands out.

We're on the edge of a\nvalley slope here, aren't we?

The buildings and structures\nare on the skyline up there

and the bath house is down on the\nlower slopes towards the river below.

That's it.

If you were\napproaching the site from down here,

then whatever was up on the hill,\nwhether it be one big structure

or lots of other structures,\nit's actually on the skyline.

It would actually be quite\nimpressive, wouldn't it?

Whatever's up there would\n be really visually stunning.

Back outside\n in our other graveyard trench,

Raksha's found something stunning\n as well.

Raksha, this is awesome.

I love this, this is fantastic.

It looks a lot different\n than it did yesterday.

It's a lot different.

Raksha's revealed a huge section\n of wall and a step foundation.

The classic herringbone style\n shows that this is definitely Roman.

People were a bit\nsceptical yesterday.

I talked about finding this

big herringbone wall and I suspect\nthat people didn't quite believe me.

We did kind of think that you were\n going slightly crazy yesterday!

But just to prove\n you were right as always,

we carried on down and,\n lo and behold, here it is.

As you can see, there's this\n huge wall coming through.

We have this step foundation.

What does this tell us about the\n significance of the whole building?

Well, this looks remarkably similar

to what was found on the other\nside of the church in the '50s.

I've seen photographs of that.

It's on a similar line and he\nfound step foundations like this.

This is a photo of those step\n foundations excavated at Castor

in the 1950s.

They're more than 100\n metres away from our trench,

but they're virtually identical\n to those found by Raksha.

I think we're looking at\nsomething that was constructed

at the same time, basically.

And probably the same building,\n one large building rather than\n several separate buildings.

Same construction techniques\non a similar sort of line.

Matching dimensions.

Exactly. So suddenly we've got\ntwo bits of building, both of

which have steps and both of which we\nthink align on this slope. So again,

that's pretty exciting stuff.

To think we've been walking\n across the floor of a Roman building

that's been here for nearly\n 2,000 years is just astonishing.

And as the last few hours

of our dig at Castor tick by, the\n news just gets better and better.

So what's the story of\n this trench, then, Faye?

Basically we have a Roman building\n and actually down there we've got

a room with what looks\n like a hypocaust system.

So is this stuff that Artis\n found that we've confirmed?

Well, Artis did map on some walls\n and he did suggest there was a\n hypocaust system there,

but the location of the walls\n and the size of the walls aren't\n entirely right.

Right, so this is new, in fact?

Yeah, it is. And what's also new\n is we've got that higher level\n up there.

We've actually got\n a two level building.

So what did they do,

fill it in or cover it up and\n then build something on top?

Or they had stairs that\n took you up to another room.

Oh, right, right, right.

A building on two levels makes\n sense, because the Romans

had to factor in the slope of a hill

here in the old rectory garden and\n on the western side of the church.

Down at Tracey's trench to the\n south, our excavation of the

Roman baths is coming to an end and\n the finds are telling a good story.

Well, er, got\na selection of finds here.

Er, this ones from Tracey's trench\nright down the south end of the site

and this is some of the stuff that's\nbeen coming out of Faye's trench\nat the north end of the site.

Now, the stuff from Tracey's\ntrench, I'm afraid to me looks like

generic-issue Roman potteries.\nI think Steve's probably better...

Well, let's turn to our real expert.

I was gonna kick you, actually.\n That's a terrible thing to say.

Well, there are differences Helen,\n quite marked differences, actually.

The bulk of the material from this\n trench comes from an earlier period,

2nd into 3rd, like this large

sherd here and these are sherds of\n beakers, relatively local beakers.

And it makes a real contrast

from the southern part of the site\n to the northern part of the site,

where you've got essentially a\n 3rd and 4th century assemblage.

So Castor has two clear Roman\n phases, which means the baths

at the south end of the site

were almost certainly built at an\n earlier date than the big building

up on the hill, where Phil's\n now finished in the graveyard.

You gotta be pleased\n with that mosaic.

Yeah, I reckon I am, Tony,

but I think I'm more pleased\nabout the probable wall.

What wall? We haven't got a wall.

I know you can't actually\nsee the wall,

but if you see those disarticulated

pieces of bone down there,\nwell when I actually got down to

the edge there, I thought to myself,\n"I wonder if it could be a wall?"

So I thought to me self, "Ah,\nI'll get Henry to plot out

"the position of Artis's building\non the ground from the mapping."

So that's what he's done.\nOne corner of the building,

probable building, is over there,\nsee our red pegs over there?

Here?

Yeah, that's one corner there\nand then you see those red pegs

there between the, er, the\ntwo gravestones over there?

Strewth, all the way over here?

Right...

And all this is one building?

Now then, when you line up\nover there,

give or take a metre,\nallowing for the scale,

it puts the wall line\nstraight through here.

Not only that, the alignment of

the tesserae is just slightly skewed\nround to the alignment of the church

and that's exactly what the tesserae\nand the plan do, exactly the same.

So regardless of what\n might be elsewhere,

we know that there was a massive

construction here, so it looks as\n though Artis was right after all.

Well, it looks like it, doesn't it\n from what we can see, yeah, yeah.

After a roller coaster\n three days here at Castor,

just what have we learned?

Ben, how do you think the\n praetorium theory is holding up now?

Pretty well. It's not a villa,\nvilla's are surrounded by farming

estates they've got\nancillary buildings,

they've got farm buildings, barns,\nworkers' housing,

there's nothing like that here.

What else is it?\nIt's a grand, grand building.

What do we think\n this building was for?

Well, again,\n let's just return to Edmund Artis.

He first termed it a praetorium,

which would mean to him\n an official residence, perhaps

having official links with the state\n and that's exactly what it is.

How do you feel about Artis now?

Well, Artis and his plans\n still live, yeah that's...

Absolutely. Where we have\n tested his plans, we found them

to be right and the other wonderful\n thing is they're very,

very beautiful, his impressions, his\n general views are, are gorgeous...

they're pretty as well\n as being informative.

Everybody likes something to be\n pretty as well as functional.

Like my hat.

The massive Roman wall that Raksha\n found at the western end of the

graveyard, nearly two metres wide,\n was built to support a building,

possibly three storeys high.

And at an extraordinary\n 110 metres in length,

this is the largest Roman building\n Time Team has ever excavated.

It would've had a vast red tiled\n roof and bright whitewashed walls...

A truly astonishing structure.

Mick, I can't remember\n another dig quite like this one.

It's been fantastic to be able\n to dig in a churchyard,

hasn't it? Absolutely fantastic.

Three days ago, I don't think any of\n us could've dreamt of what we got.

Absolutely not and this is so\n exciting, to find this mosaic

here underneath these bodies.

We've got Artis telling the\n truth, it's the real thing,

the praetorium exists in my view.

I'm quite happy with it, wonderful.

Absolutely.

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