All language subtitles for Unearthed.(2016).S04E10.Ghosts.of.the.Stone.Age.1080p.AMZN.WEB-DL.DD+2.0.H.264-Cinefeel_track3_[eng]

Narrator: avebury, england,

The largest stone circle
In the world,

700 years older
Than stonehenge.

It's just got a scale
That really sets it apart

From other monuments.

Narrator: this stone circle
Is just one part

Of a huge and strange
Sacred complex.

It includes one of the largest
Stone age tombs in great britain

And the tallest prehistoric
Pyramid in all of europe.

5,000 years
After they were built,

Their true purpose
Remains a mystery.

Watson: there's a temptation
To think you can know

Everything there is know,
And we know absolutely nothing.

Narrator:
Now new discoveries could
Finally reveal the answers.

Snashall:
There are bigger mysteries
Still to solve at avebury

Than there are at stonehenge.

Narrator: can startling,
New evidence uncover

Why the pioneers who built
These bizarre structures

Suddenly disappeared?

To unearth the truth about this
Mysterious complex of monuments,

We'll uproot
Their gigantic stones,

Expose ancient
Construction techniques,

And blow apart their past
To discover the secrets

Of these incredible
Stone age enigmas.

--captions by vitac--
Www.Vitac.Com

Captions paid for by
Discovery communications

Around 3000 bc,

300 years before work started
On egypt's pyramids,

Strange structures began
To appear all over britain.

They were called henges,

Circular banks and ditches

And circles of stones or wood.

Nothing like them had been
Seen here before or since.

♪♪

The most famous is stonehenge,

But 20 miles north stands
An even more impressive

Stone age mega structure --

Avebury.

It's three times bigger,
Seven centuries older,

And far more mysterious.

Something like avebury
Always has surprises.

I don't think we'll ever be able
To say, "We've solved it,"

And I think that's partly
Because it may

Never have
Had a single meaning.

♪♪

Narrator: today, this monument
Looks very different

From how
Its ancient builders intended.

Some of the stones are missing.

A village sits in the middle
Complete with a pub,

But 5,000 years ago,
This mysterious stone circle

Was part of an extraordinary
Sacred complex

That dominated the landscape.

In its prime, this earthen mound
Soared two stories high

Above a 30-foot ditch

Carved out of
The chalk landscape.

♪♪

Inside, 98 megalithic stones
Called sarsens

Once formed
A majestic, circular perimeter.

♪♪

At its heart, two inner circles,

Each bigger than stonehenge,

Surrounding some
Of the largest stones

Still standing
Of any neolithic monument.

Why did an ancient population
Build this here?

♪♪

And what was it for?

♪♪

Some people have said
It was a fortification.

It's even been suggested
That it could have been

A place for human sacrifice.

Narrator: aaron watson
Has studied stone age monuments

For some three decades.

He believes
Pioneering technology can reveal

The stones' true purpose.

It's not about what you can see,

But what you can hear.

Aaron is convinced
Avebury's builders

Carefully placed the stones
To reflect sound.

Watson:
As I'm talking, I can hear
The echoes of my voice

Being reflected
From these very broad,

Flat stone surfaces around me.

I think what they're
Trying to do here

Is create a spectacle

Against which
People may have performed

Some kind of ritual or ceremony.

Narrator:
Aaron can locate exactly

Where these rituals
Would have taken place

To get the most from
The stones' acoustic properties.

It's where the largest stones
In the entire circle

Were positioned.

Inside the giant stone ring

Once stood
The northern inner circle

Soaring upwards at the center --

Two 50-ton sarsens
Called the cove...

♪♪

...Twice as heavy
As the stones of stonehenge,

Angled at precisely 90 degrees
To each other.

♪♪

In its prime, a third sarsen
Completed the structure,

Creating a strange,
Open, box-like design.

The arrangement
Is clearly intentional.

How did the cove manipulate
Sound for stone age rituals?

♪♪

If you imagine when
You're in a room sometimes,

You can hear your voice
Amplified a little bit,

And perhaps that's the effect
That was achieved here.

Narrator: to test his theory,

Aaron conducts
An impulse response test.

This will compare the strength
Of a sound made inside the cove

With the strength of the same
Sound made out in the open.

He places a microphone
Connected to a digital recorder

Several feet from the cove.

For the comparison to be valid,
Aaron needs to replicate

The same short,
Sharp sound again and again.

A popping balloon is perfect.

Watson: what I'm hoping is
The balloon burst will reflect

Off this big stone here

And be projected out

Towards the microphone
Position over there.

Narrator: first, aaron bursts
A balloon inside the cove.

[ pop ]

Next, aaron bursts a balloon
In an open part of the site.

♪♪

[ pop ]

He analyzes the results.

[ pop ]

The burst in the open reveals
That the balloon's sound energy

Is lost as it shoots off
In all directions.

[ loud pop ]

But the balloon burst
In the cove

Channels the sound energy
Towards

Avebury's outer stone ring.

You've got this sudden peak.

That's the balloon going off...

[ loud pop ]...And then there's a sense

Of denser concentration
Of lines here,

Which is the echoes
Ricocheting around

Other features
In the environment here.

Narrator:
The cove's giant sarsens
Form a stone age megaphone,

Boosting sounds made inside it.

[ pop ]

But aaron believes
It's just one component

Of a highly sophisticated
Stone sound system.

He thinks the once-complete
Stone circle around the cove

Created another powerful
Acoustic effect,

But because stones
Are missing at avebury,

He can't test the theory here.

♪♪

Aaron journeys 500 miles north

To the remote scottish island
Of orkney.

Around the same age as avebury,
The ring of brodgar

Is a complete
4,500-year-old stone circle.

It's the perfect place
To conduct the test.

I'm now standing at what
I think is the sweet spot

Of the acoustics
Of the ring of brodgar.

It's almost exactly the same
Diameter as the stone circle

That surrounded the cove
At avebury.

Narrator: aaron's theory
Is that a complete stone circle

Focuses sound towards its center
And creates eerie echoes.

Avebury's builders
May have interpreted

These strange sounds
As supernatural.

He bursts a balloon
In the center of the circle

To measure the strength
And timing of the sound

Bouncing off the stones.

[ pop ]

[ pop ]Watson: the sound waves

From that balloon burst

Have traveled out
Across the stone circle,

Reflected off these flat
Surfaces all at the same time

And returned to me,
The listener, at the center.

Sounds that are made here
Travel back again

In almost perfect unison.

They're synchronized.

This is a kind of
Neolithic surround sound.

What we might hear as an echo,
They might hear as something

Very much
More mysterious or supernatural.

Maybe even these echoes
Are the voices of ancestors.

♪♪

Narrator: 5,000 years ago,
People arriving at avebury

Would have walked through
One of four entrances

Surrounding the circle.

♪♪

Some people were permitted
Inside the cove

Where they may have attempted
To contact the dead

Using chanting and drum rhythms.

♪♪

The stones reflected the sound
Within the circle,

Providing a unique,
Magical experience

To only those permitted inside.

♪♪

Within the cove itself, sounds
Were concentrated by the stones,

Making this
The most intense experience

Of the entire monument.

♪♪

Engineering on this scale
Required many people

Coming together
To place the mighty stones,

But can experts find evidence

Of where this huge
Number of people lived

And what they were really like,

And can dna extracted
From ancient human remains

Reveal why they suddenly
Disappeared?

♪♪

♪♪

Narrator: avebury, england,

The largest stone circle
In the world,

Constructed 5,000 years ago
As a ceremonial center

By a people with sophisticated
Knowledge of stone

And sound engineering.

The huge size
Of the individual rocks

Reveals that only a massive
Workforce could have built it.

It was a huge effort to put up
Just one of these stones.

This one we think probably
Weighs about 40 tons.

You would need --
We think from experiments --

Probably around 200 people.
You would have had

Huge communities
Who were gathering here

To put up these stones
At any one time.

Narrator: but archaeologists
Can't find any evidence

Of the builders' houses
And villages.

So, where did they live?

Will finding their homes
Reveal who they were

And why they built avebury?

♪♪

Nick snashall
Investigates this mystery.

Snashall: somewhere out there
In the landscape are the places

Where the people who constructed
These sites were living.

When we look at the settlements
And the occupation,

There are bigger mysteries
Still to solve at avebury

Than there are at stonehenge.

♪♪

Narrator:
To hunt for clues, nick travels
One mile northwest from avebury

To a stone age site
Called windmill hill.

♪♪

Excavations here
Reveal ancient animal bones

And evidence of cereal crops

That date to the time
Of avebury's construction.

Is this where
The builders lived?

Snashall: it's an incredibly
Important site

Both in terms of what it tells
Us about the first farmers

And in the history
Of archaeology in this country.

Narrator: early farmers
Tended to move around,

Living in temporary camps,
But here at windmill hill,

There's evidence they built
Permanent structures,

Possibly the very first
In britain.

♪♪

Nick pulls up a map of the area

Made using satellite
Lidar imaging.

This technology
Reveals mysterious changes

To the landscape
In minute detail.

You can see here we have
Three circuits of ditches

With little banks behind them,

And these ditches
Enclosed a space.

Narrator: did the builders
Of avebury settle down

Within these circular trenches?

Nick examines the evidence.

Snashall: these enclosures seem
To have been a gathering place,

A neutral space
For coming together.

People would have
Come here in order

To maybe meet their marriage
Partners, to exchange goods.

It's probably not permanent,

But it's the closest
We seem to come.

♪♪

Narrator:
These temporary dwellings

Weren't the year-round homes
Of the builders

Who constructed
Avebury's sacred monuments.

The search is still on,

But a recent discovery
Inside avebury's stone circle

Might finally solve the mystery
About where they lived.

♪♪

At the center of
The southern inner circle

Once stood the tallest stone
In avebury,

A huge rock named the obelisk,
Towering 20 feet high.

♪♪

But archaeologists discovered
Evidence of a unique feature --

The only known example

Of a stone square
In the british isles.

♪♪

But there are even
More surprises --

Evidence of wooden foundations,

A neolithic timber building.

Is this where some of
The builders of avebury lived?

♪♪

Mark gillings leads the team
That made this discovery.

Gillings: so, I need to go
Seven meters north

And one meter to the east.

Narrator: he believes
The structure was once a home,

But that it was
Far more significant

To the people of avebury
Than just a simple house.

Gillings:
There's corner number one.

Narrator: mark traces
The structure's outline

With cones plotted via gps.

Gillings:
It's a bit like a car sat nav.

It will tell me when I'm close.

The structure measures
527 square feet,

Easily large enough
To accommodate a family.

I think what we've got here
Is a house,

And an early neolithic
House at that.

Narrator: but it's possible
This structure was far more

Than just a simple home.

It could be
Avebury's first house.

The people who lived in it
Could be the site's founders.

Gillings: this house
Would have been significant.

Even when the people living
In the house have maybe gone

Or the house itself
Had fallen into disrepair,

Its position was marked.

Narrator:
The importance of this dwelling
To the people of avebury

Could explain why it was later
Enclosed inside a stone square.

The square surrounding
The structure is interesting

Because it's the first stage

In what they did
To memorialize the house.

Narrator: the structure
Could have been home

To a handful of avebury's
Earliest builders.

Its discovery reveals
A critical insight

Into how avebury evolved.

Avebury began
As a simple settlement.

The people here cleared dense
Woodland to create open spaces

For farming and building
Materials for early houses.

One of the first homes
To be built at avebury

Was surrounded
By a stone square,

A sign that it could have held
Special importance

To the founding settlers.

The site was later transformed,

The house at its core
Replaced by a giant obelisk

Standing 20 feet tall.

Over the centuries,

The neolithic builders
Continued to expand avebury,

Adding increasingly ambitious
Stone circles to the landscape.

♪♪

Mark and his team believe
There are other houses

Still out there
Waiting to be discovered.

The search goes on.

Gillings:
You look at an area like this,
Which today is just pasture.

There were quite --
Probably more houses here,

So to find out whether
There were more houses,

We really need to dig
More of avebury

Using modern methods
And modern techniques.

Narrator:
Evidence of this wooden house

Shows that some of britain's
First ever farmers

Might have lived here,

A tough people who would build
A whole ceremonial complex

Including this huge tomb,

But this monument comes
With a further mystery --

Who removed the skulls from
The human remains buried here,

And why did
The people of avebury

Also build europe's largest
Prehistoric pyramid?

♪♪

♪♪

Narrator: avebury, england,

A sacred ritual complex
Of huge monuments

Built by a pioneering people who
Settled here 5,000 years ago.

At its center is the largest
Stone circle in the world,

But one mile away is a structure
That's 600 years older --

West kennet long barrow.

This is a purpose-built
Subterranean complex.

Its walls and ceiling are made
From colossal sandstone blocks.

What was it for,

And what does it reveal
About avebury's forefathers?

♪♪

Can the answers lie in solving

The long barrow's
Grisly mystery?

♪♪

Beneath the earthen mound,

A stone corridor
Stretches 40 feet.

♪♪

Branching off
Are five burial chambers,

Each up to seven feet tall.

♪♪

Inside, archaeologists discover

The jumbled remains
Of 46 people --

Men, women, old and young.

♪♪

But many of the skeletons
Are incomplete.

Why were some bones taken
And others left behind?

♪♪

It's this tomb's mystery

That fascinates
Archaeologist josh pollard.

I think it's just that scale
That really sets it apart

From other monuments
Of its kind.

To build a tomb like this,

You need to understand
How to move stones.

Narrator:
Josh uses a laser distance
Measurer to investigate.

[ device beeps ]

♪♪

In many ancient cultures,
Tombs were sealed forever.

They were private places
For the dead only.

1.94 meters.

Pretty wide
For a tomb entrance.

Narrator:
Josh thinks this structure's
Large opening and tall ceiling

Suggesting whoever built it
Had very different ideas

About their burial places.

Pollard: this has been built
In such a way that it allowed

People to actually
Go inside the tomb,

Probably to actually gather
Inside the tomb.

Ancestors were regarded
As critical

In looking after
The lives of the living,

Ensuring the success
Of crops and animals.

So if people aren't putting
An effort into building houses

For themselves,
What they're doing

Is putting effort into building
Stone houses for the dead.

Narrator:
But if the people of avebury
Revered their ancestors,

Why is there evidence
Of a strange burial practice --

The removal of body parts?

♪♪

The answer could be
Locked inside these bones

Stored at cambridge university's
Duckworth laboratory.

♪♪

Trish biers investigates
The skeletons' secrets.

♪♪

Carbon dating reveals that
All those buried at west kennet

Died within 30 years
Of each other.

Biers: evidence suggests
That they were a community,

Husbands and wives,
Mothers and daughters,

Working together,
Living together

And dying together
At west kennet.

Narrator: it's likely
The 46 people knew each other.

It's even possible they belonged
To a single family or clan.

Could this help explain
Why many of their skulls

Were removed from the tomb
And never returned?

♪♪

Biers:
These may have been actively
Used in ritual practices.

Skulls are a very potent symbol
Of our humanity.

Heads have a long history
Of being moved about

Among cultures
And throughout time.

Pollard: we've got evidence
That bones would have been

Taken out of monuments
Like this,

And they would have been
Circulated among the living,

Particularly skulls.

So, the dead would have been
Around people all the time.

♪♪

Narrator:
Bodies were laid to rest
Inside each chamber,

One on top of the other.

Exposed to the air,
The flesh quickly rotted away,

Leaving a jumbled
Pile of bones.

Evidence of feasting
Outside the tomb

Shows that the living
Descendants conducted

Special ceremonies
Celebrating their ancestors.

Bones may have been
Regularly removed from the tomb

To perform elaborate sacred
Rituals before returning them,

But some bones never
Came back to west kennet

And may have been moved to other
Sacred sites around avebury

To ensure the dead's
Continuing connection

With the landscape
They once knew.

♪♪

It's likely
West kennet long barrow

Was a vital and integrated
Part of avebury.

In this purpose-built
Ceremonial landscape,

It's a house for the dead

To complement the stone circle
For the living.

♪♪

But the people here also built

Another gigantic monument
Close by.

This is silbury hill.

It's the largest prehistoric
Pyramid in europe.

It's also
Avebury's greatest mystery.

What exactly is it for,

And did the people who built it
Die in the attempt?

♪♪

♪♪

Narrator: avebury, england,

The stone age center
Of spectacular monuments

Built by ingenious
Ancient engineers

Who crafted
A sacred landscape

Dedicated to the worship
Of the living and the dead

As well as a gigantic
Stone circle

And an ancient tomb.

They also built the largest
Prehistoric pyramid in europe...

♪♪

...Silbury hill.

It's their greatest triumph

And their greatest puzzle.

Why did they build it,
And what was it for?

Jim leary is
The latest in a long line

Of archaeologists
On a quest for answers.

♪♪

Throughout modern history,
People have assumed

That there must be a burial
In the middle of silbury hill.

I mean, why else
Would you construct

Such a huge,
Magnificent monument?

Narrator: over the years,
Both treasure hunters

And archaeologists
Have dug into the mound.

They have found nothing,

And parts of the ancient pyramid
Have started to collapse.

Leary: looks like it
Will be here forever.

Difficult to believe
That only a few years ago,

Its position
Was rather more precarious

And a hole appeared
On the summit,

The legacy of centuries
Of people digging into it,

Assuming that this is
A large burial mound,

An english pyramid,
If you like.

♪♪

Narrator: it looks like
This monster mound

Will never reveal
When or why it was built.

Then, a chance discovery
Blows the mystery wide-open.

♪♪

In its prime, silbury hill
Was shaped into a spiral

From a mound of compacted chalk

More than 13 stories high.

After centuries of excavations
Searching for hidden treasures,

21st century engineers are
Called in to repair the damage.

Near the top, they make
And extraordinary discovery --

Parts of picks
Made from deer antler,

Tools the mound's builders
Left behind.

For the first time,
Archaeologists can unlock

Silbury hill's mysteries
And reveal when and why

The people of avebury's stone
Circle built this huge monument.

♪♪

Leary:
These antler picks are crucial
Because we can date them.

We now know a huge amount
About the date of this mound,

When it was constructed,
How long it was used for,

And when the work
On it finished.

Narrator:
The picks date to 2,400 bc.

This reveals silbury hill
Was the last stone age monument

Built in the avebury area.

It's the final masterpiece
In a grand ceremonial project

1,500 years in the making,

But why, after centuries
Building in hard stone,

Did avebury's people switch

To a completely different
Material --

Chalk?

♪♪

Jim believes the answer
Lies in a cultural shift

In avebury's society.

The stone circle and the tomb

Were designed,
Built, and finished

By elite specialists,

But centuries later,

They decided on a new approach
When constructing silbury hill.

It would be a project
Everybody could join in with...

♪♪

...And light, soft chalk was
The perfect building material.

Building a mound like this
Is fundamentally different

To moving a great,
Big, 100-ton stone.

This is a communal effort.

This is the community bringing
Basket loads of material

And piling it up year on year,

And eventually, we end up
With a mound like this.

♪♪

Narrator: shifting
Avebury's stones to the henge

Was a huge logistical
And technical challenge.

It took the coordination
Of hundreds of fit people,

But silbury hill
May have its roots

In a more socially
Collaborative project.

However big or small,
Each member of the community

Could bring their contribution
To the growing mound.

Silbury hill became
A social triumph,

A gleaming, white-chalk pyramid

Built by the people,
For the people.

It became a new part
Of an ancient sacred landscape,

The culmination of a project

That started
Over 1,500 years earlier

And that dominates
The landscape to this day,

♪♪

But crucial mysteries
Remain unsolved.

If the tomb was
A house of the dead

And the stone circle

A ceremonial center
For the living,

What more did silbury hill
Add to the ritual landscape,

And why was
This precise location chosen?

Leary: the reason we have
Just waded through

Such a hideous, waterlogged
Field is to get to this,

And I promise you,
It's worthwhile.

Narrator:
1,000 feet from silbury hill

Lies swallowhead spring,

An ancient water source

That flows east
Into the river thames,

The most sacred river
In the stone age british isles.

Jim believes
It's the location of this spring

That explains why
The ancient people built

Not only silbury hill,

But also avebury's stone circle
And west kennet long barrow.

♪♪

Water is key to humanity,

And this would not have been
Lost on our neolithic ancestors.

They would have seen this
As a key resource,

And you can well imagine
All the ceremonies

That would have gone on exactly
In this spot, around this area.

All these amazing monuments
That we see in this area,

They are located here
For one reason --

The location of this spring.

Narrator: jim thinks
The mound's true purpose

Was as a colossal
Sacred monument

To the life-giving properties
Of water.

To the neolithic people,
Silbury hill was a holy shrine

Rising up
Out of this water to the sky.

Leary: the surrounding ditch
Would have filled with water,

A sort of mirror
Reflecting silbury hill.

Just as it extends upwards
Towards to the heavens,

It also appears to disappear
Down into the underworld.

♪♪

Narrator:
The community could have made
Their sacred icon even bigger,

But around 2,400 bc,
Work stopped...

...Not just here at silbury,

But across
The greater avebury area.

Why did a people who valued
Huge monuments so much

Suddenly put down their tools?

Did they choose
To change their way of life,

Or were they replaced?

♪♪

♪♪

Narrator: avebury, england.

Over 1,500 years,
A mysterious people built

A succession
Of incredible monuments --

A tomb dedicated to the worship
Of ancient ancestors --

Circles of giant stones,

Some three times larger
Than at stonehenge --

And a huge pyramid,
13 stories high,

But then around 2,400 bc...

...Work stopped.

Why?

A clue to solving this mystery

Lies in unraveling the fate
Of west kennet long barrow

And decoding the meaning
Of a strange artifact

Found inside it.

♪♪

This tomb was designed
To be open

To allow the living
To visit their dead,

But after 1,000 years of use,
Something changed.

♪♪

The last bodies
Were laid to rest,

And the tomb was filled up
With chalk and rubble.

♪♪

In the northwest chamber,
An unusual pot called a beaker

Was positioned upside down
On top of the rubble.

Does whoever placed this
Artifact and sealed the tomb

Hold the key to solving

Why avebury's people
Stopped building?

♪♪

The beaker excavated
From west kennet long barrow

Is not unique.

To date, at least 38 have been
Found in the avebury area.

All were placed in the ground
From 2,400 bc onwards

When work on avebury's
Giant monument ceased.

♪♪

Wilkshire museum curator
David dawson

Is on a quest to uncover
The identity of who buried them.

He uses 3-d scanning
To forensically examine

This beaker for clues.

Dawson: it's the intricacy
Of the decoration,

And also it's such fine pottery.

This was made not on a wheel,

But made by hand,

Coiling strips of clay
And then smoothing it out.

Narrator:
David thinks the beaker wasn't
Made by the builders of avebury.

Its design
Suggests it was created

By a completely different
Group of people.

Whoever did this
Really had an understanding

Of geometry and mathematics
And measuring.

These pots appear
About 4,500 years ago,

And it seems to be quite sudden,

So was this a new group
Of people coming from abroad?

♪♪

Narrator:
If the beaker people were
New arrivals to the area,

Did they just stop
The people of avebury building,

Or did they replace them?

The bones from tombs
Where beaker pots were found

Could provide the answers.

At the wessex
Archaeology laboratory,

Osteo-archaeologist
Jacqueline mckinley

Investigates.

This is a young adult male,
Probably late teens,

Early 20s, who's one of about
34 individuals we excavated.

He was buried in
An ordinary earth-cut grave

Curled up like he was asleep
Together with a beaker.

♪♪

Narrator:
If these beaker people pushed
Out the builders of avebury,

Analyzing the ancient dna
Locked inside these bones

Will reveal who they were
And where they came from.

The advent of ancient dna

Really does blow open
Our understanding.

The bones themselves actually
Tell you about the person

And how people
Moved around in general.

Narrator: investigators send
Samples of bone from this

And other skeletons to harvard
University for dna analysis.

♪♪

The results stun
The world of archaeology.

The beaker people didn't come
From the british isles.

They were originally from
A place much further away --

The steppe of central asia.

♪♪

This particular individual
Was one of about 19

I sampled from this site.

All of those had
That steppe ancestry.

♪♪

Narrator:
The dna evidence reveals a
Large-scale stone age migration

That brought new people
And new ideas into europe

And ultimately
All the way to avebury.

♪♪

It had huge consequences for
Those who had been living here.

♪♪

4,500 years ago,

A group
Of nomadic pastoral farmers

Began migrating their livestock
Across central europe.

♪♪

Archaeologists have tracked this
Movement via their burial sites,

Which contain distinctive
Beaker-shaped pottery.

♪♪

Originating from
The steppe of central asia,

Beaker people spread rapidly
Across the continent

And mixed with
The local population.

♪♪

New dna evidence reveals

That when the beakers first
Arrived in ancient britain,

The native farmers disappeared

And the people
From the steppe took over.

♪♪

The new arrivals' culture
Pushed out the old ways

Of avebury's monument builders.

That might be why work on new
Construction projects ceased.

♪♪

But what happened to
The original people of avebury?

Were they killed, or did
Something else wipe them out?

♪♪

♪♪

Narrator:
For 1,500 years, a sophisticated
Society of ancient engineers

Constructed giant monuments
Around avebury, england.

Building ceased when
New arrivals from central asia

Introduced their distinct
Beaker-based culture,

But now dna testing
Of ancient human remains

From the time
Creates another mystery.

Within 200 years
Of the beaker people's arrival,

The indigenous population
Around avebury vanished.

Why did they disappear?

Analysis of
The avebury builders' bones

Reveals these people
Were dark-haired,

Short, and powerfully built.

The new arrivals
Looked very different.

When I estimated his stature,

He was about 6'2".

He would have looked
Like a giant of a man.

We also know he had
Blond hair and blue eyes.

Narrator: with fair skin
And light-colored eyes,

These new people
Have more similarity

With the majority
Of modern britons

Than the ancient
Indigenous population.

♪♪

What we have got
Is really exciting information

That demonstrates this group
Hadn't been found in britain

Prior to this period.

It's a change
That persisted for millennia,

So he really
Is probably our ancestor.

♪♪

Narrator: a precious
4,000-year-old artifact

Could be a clue
To the avebury builders'

Strange disappearance.

Dawson: the people who brought
Beakers didn't just bring

A new style of pottery.

They also brought a new metal --

Bronze.

When new, this would have been
Golden in color

And would have just
Blazed in the sunshine

Totally unlike anything
Anyone had ever seen before.

Narrator:
Bronze tools and weapons
Were technologically superior

To those made of stone
Used by the avebury builders.

Did the newcomers wipe out
The indigenous people

With weapons like this?

Archaeologist david dawson
Believes

They had a different use.

Dawson:
Often, there's only one side
Of the blade has been sharpened,

And that makes me wonder,
Was this really a weapon

Or was this used
To kill animals?

Narrator:
If the avebury builders weren't
Killed by the new arrivals,

What else could explain
Their disappearance?

A new field of genetic research

Promises to unlock the answer
From the dna inside these bones.

One of the things that can
Get trapped within the dna

Is sometimes evidence
For certain types of disease.

♪♪

Narrator: researchers in germany
Use the technique

To test the bones
Of a beaker person

Buried in central europe.

They find bacteria
Called yersinia pestis,

Better known as the plague.

♪♪

Did this deadly disease
Wipe the avebury builders out?

Improvements in dna testing
Will soon reveal the truth.

Mckinley:
There may be more information
To extract from the dna

From this individual,
But it's a developing technique.

This is so important,
This kind of information,

For how people were affected
By different diseases,

How those diseases transmitted.

So, the chances
And the opportunity

Are gonna be there in the future
To do that kind of work.

♪♪

Narrator: the mystery lives on.

Over 1,500 years, a group
Of skilled ancient engineers

Built an incredible
Ritual complex

Deep in
The english countryside --

Stone circles
Larger than stonehenge

With extraordinary
Acoustic properties,

A giant subterranean tomb
To venerate the ancestors...

♪♪

...And a huge, chalk pyramid

All marking the site
Of a sacred spring.

Their culture was replaced

By a technologically-superior
One from europe...

♪♪

...But the monuments they left
Behind weren't forgotten.

They still stand today,
Testament to the vision

And engineering prowess of
This ancient, pioneering people.

♪♪

♪♪

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