All language subtitles for Lost.Worlds.S01E12.The.Pagans.1080p.AMZN.WEB-DL.DDP2.0.H.264-BurCyg_track3_[eng]

[music playing]

NARRATOR: 5,000 years ago,
before the Egyptians built

the Pyramids, a
mysterious people

created some of the greatest
monuments of the ancient world.

They were the Pagan
tribes of ancient Britain.

And across 30 centuries,
until the coming of the Roman

legions, they built
villages of sea stone

like Skara Brae, massive
tombs like Maeshowe,

mountains of chalk
and earth, including

the mysterious Silbury
Hill, and the most famous

ancient monument in
Europe, Stonehenge.

They found ingenious ways to
transport huge, stone blocks

hundreds of miles.

They devised
specialized techniques

to mark the passing
of the seasons

with astonishing accuracy.

The Pagan tribes
lived in a world

without writing so few clues
remain as to how they built

such extraordinary structures.

Yet 50 centuries on,
evidence of their achievement

is still written on the land.

Now, a team of
experts will attempt

to decode the riddle of
these ancient monuments

and see them as they looked
when they were built thousands

of years ago.

Getting into this tomb
is difficult, dirty,

and uncomfortable.

You have to crawl.

You have to bow your
head in humility

and enter a different world.

NARRATOR: Using state of the
art animation and the latest

research, the lost
world of Pagan Britain

will be brought back to life.

[music playing]

Off the far northern
tip of Scotland,

where the Atlantic Ocean
in the North Sea meet,

lie the Orkney Islands,
as inhospitable

as they are remote.

Yet despite this, people
have lived on these islands

since the dawn of time, and they
left behind some of the best

examples of Stone
Age construction

found anywhere in the world.

Wandering hunter gatherers
settled here 6,000 years ago.

They cultivated the
land and became farmers.

We know little of
their day-to-day lives,

but clues to their world can
be found in ruins that still

remain today.

There are stone circles that
measure the changing cycles

of the solar year,
tombs designed

to bring the living
into direct contact

with the world of the dead.

The people who built these
structures we now call Pagans.

What they called themselves,
we may never know.

All that we do know for sure
is that their beliefs drove

the Pagans of Orkney
to extraordinary feats

of construction long before
the great buildings of Greece

and Rome were erected.

What these ancient
Pagan monuments

looked like in their heyday
has long been a riddle.

For centuries, all
trace of these people

was lost or hidden.

Then in the winter of
1850, a freak storm

hit the Orkney coastline.

In a place called Skara
Brae, the wind and high seas

stripped the grass from
a mound by the seashore.

And when the storm had
passed, the local people

found ruins emerging
from the sand.

They were the remains of a
Neolithic or Stone Age Pagan

village.

For Erika Guttmann,
an archaeologist,

Skara Brae is more than a ruin.

It's a gateway to a lost world.

It's absolutely astounding
because archeologists

are used to dealing with
really ephemeral remains

from the past.

So we're scrabbling around
after very faint traces

of archaeology, and here,
we've got this whole village.

Not just the individual
standing structures,

but a whole Neolithic village.

Tests have dated this settlement
as being around 5,000 years

old, making it
hundreds of years older

than the Egyptian pyramids.

Most Neolithic homes
were made of wood

and have long since rotted away.

But the Orkney Islands are
almost entirely treeless.

Out of necessity, these
houses were built from stone.

What I'm standing on
is the Orkney flagstones,

and this is a sedimentary rock.

So it means it was all
laid down in thin layers.

This was all created under
water, and what that means

is that it cracks into this
nice, little building blocks.

So all around them, they have
this natural building material,

and it makes sense that
they would have used this

rather than use up
their precious firewood.

NARRATOR: The village is made
up of 10 circular houses.

The walls are built of natural
beach stones held together

without mortar.

ERIKA GUTTMANN: The dry
stonewalling technique

is really effective, and you
can see that it's quite solid

because the building's still
here after 5,000 years,

and you can't say that
about most of the buildings

that we're putting up today.

NARRATOR: All the
homes of Skara Brae

are built to the
same basic design.

The focal point of this
house was the hearth or fire.

Built into the fire wall is
what archeologists assume

was storage space
while on each side wall

are structures believed
to have once housed beds.

Archaeologists don't know for
certain how many people lived

in this house at any one time
but believe that it was home

to a large, extended family
living in close, rather cramped

conditions by modern standards.

This was clearly a
close-knit community,

and the building's bound
the people together.

The houses were actually linked
by low, narrow passageways

covered with stone.

It was possible to move from one
to another without ever setting

foot outside.

Historian Ronald Hutton stoops
low to enter the village

and discover why its
inhabitants built this way.

There are two
really good reasons

for having long, narrow, low
passages like this approaching

Neolithic houses.

One is if you're a guest,
it impresses on you

you're approaching somebody
else's personal space.

Alternatively, if
you're an attacker,

it's pretty forbidding to
have to crawl down here

if your head stuck out knowing
there are people waiting

to behead you or club
you at the other end.

NARRATOR: The most extraordinary
thing about these buildings

is their location.

On first inspection,
they appear to have

been dug into the ground.

But this isn't the case.

In fact, the entire village was
made by burrowing into what's

called a midden heap.

A mound of garbage left
by previous settlers.

Midden is basically
prehistoric garbage,

and that includes all the
waste from the hearth, the ash

and charcoal, and all
the kitchen waste.

And what's important to
remember is that they divided up

their garbage.

So all the muckier stuff
is out on the edge of town.

That's where they've got the
animal dung and human poo

and everything.

And then here in the
middle of the town,

they've got the cleaner
sorts of material.

NARRATOR: This extreme
form of recycling

had huge practical benefits.

ERIKA GUTTMANN: The reason they
used midden material to build

their structures is it has
good insulation properties,

and it also, they mix
it with clay so it

helps the structural integrity.

It helps hold the
building together.

NARRATOR: These buildings are so
well-preserved that they offer

clues to how the
Pagans of Orkney

originally put them together.

But we can see that the
wall is coming in like this.

They're building it up
more and more narrowly.

So it might have come to a
sort of dome shape on top,

but we think it's more likely
that there were timber roof

struts perhaps or
maybe whalebone,

and then they would have
had a turf roof perhaps.

NARRATOR: We can now
reveal what the houses

of these mysterious Pagans
looked like when they were

built 5,000 years ago.

Each follows the
same basic design.

One room of around
400 square feet.

That's around half the size
of an average modern New York

apartment.

A stone dresser lies opposite
the doorway with a bed

either side and
a large fireplace

at the center of the room.

The walls rise inwards to
meet roofing joists covered

with turf.

Built into a midden
heap and connected

by covered passageways
from the outside,

the village would have appeared
as a low mound broken only

by the turf-covered
roofs of the houses.

The Pagans who lived
in these houses

almost certainly helped build
one of the greatest and most

baffling prehistoric monuments
of Orkney, the Ring of Brodgar,

an enormous, stone circle seven
miles south of Skara Brae.

Brodgar belongs to a special
class of stone circles known

as henges, a ring of stones
enclosed within a ditch

and earth bank.

This is one of the largest
henges in the world.

To me, the obvious use of
a great, open space like this

is you can put lots
of people in it,

and they can see
what's going on.

So almost certainly
it was a center

where lots and lots
of people met up

at certain times of the year,
the great seasonal festivals,

in order to exchange ideas,
celebrate religious rituals,

trade things, have dating
services with each other

so they could find marry
partners and mates,

and generally get
together to do all

the things that large
numbers of people need to do.

NARRATOR: But how
these ancient people

managed to build something as
large as the Ring of Brodgar

without modern tools or lifting
equipment is astounding.

Just to dig the
ditch surrounding

it meant excavating
11,000 tons of rock.

Enough to fill two
Olympic-sized swimming pools.

Such a construction
project must have

involved every
able-bodied islander

over a long period of time.

But even more perplexing
is why they built it,

and what this
circle represented.

RONALD HUTTON: The fact that
this is a circle of stones

is incredibly significant
because around about 5,000

years ago, the people
of the British Isles

became fascinated
by round shapes.

Possibly, it's simply that by
then they could see the horizon

because the horizon is a natural
circle if you look around,

and these monuments could be
matching the horizon mirroring

the land around.

NARRATOR: The Ring of Brodgar
may have been built as a model

of the Orkney landscape.

The stones were brought from
sites all over the island,

and it's possible that each
small community erected

their own stone to
represent their village.

Today, only 27 remain, but
experts believe it once

looked like this.

60 large, standing stones were
surrounded by a deep ditch.

Beyond the ditch rose a
10 foot high earthen bank

that enclosed the whole site.

The Ring of Brodgar would
have sent a powerful message

down through the generations
that this land belonged forever

to the builders and
their descendants.

And evidence suggests
the Pagans of Orkney

had a very close
connection to their dead.

The tombs they built
were entrance ways

to a forgotten underworld.

[music playing]

50 years ago, a farmer on
Scotland's Orkney island

of South Ronaldsay was digging
in a mound close to cliff tops

when he uncovered an entrance
into a dark, subterranean

chamber.

What he found staring back
at him was 30 human skulls.

When the tomb was excavated,
the remains of a staggering 342

people were found.

But not one of them was a
single, complete skeleton.

Someone or something had
scattered the remains

around the tomb.

Trying to figure out
what, Ronald Hutton

enters the burial chamber.

Getting into this too
is difficult, dirty,

and uncomfortable, and that's
the way it was designed.

You have to crawl.

You have to bow your
head in humility

and enter a different world.

NARRATOR: Once inside, the tomb
opens out into a narrow room

with a large chamber at each
end and smaller side chambers

down at floor level.

Piles of assorted bones and
rows of skulls were found here.

Ronald believes it's evidence
that the Pagans often

return to handle the
bones of their ancestors.

RONALD HUTTON: Probably people
would have brought a light,

but it seems that they might not
have done so that have collided

with the dead in the dark.

And at best, they'd have had
this eerie glow revealing one

skull or one long
bone after another,

and you're making contact
with the dead very intimately,

very physically.

I'm almost literally your
nose is being rubbed in death.

NARRATOR: But why
would the local people

feel such a compelling need
to be close to their dead?

The answer appears to lie
in the young age at which so

many died.

Studies of the bones have
revealed that very few

of the dead were over 25.

RONALD HUTTON: Most of the
people in this population

would be children
and adolescents.

They'd be desperately
reliant upon oral tradition,

whispers, tales of what
had happened before

to have any sense of continuity
because actual experience,

lived history, for the
people in this tomb

is very, very
short indeed, which

means the power of the
dead is all the greater.

NARRATOR: The lack
of complete bodies

means that the skeletons
may have been broken apart

and stripped of their
flesh before being brought

into the tomb.

Clues to how this
might have been done

lie among the human remains.

Sea eagle skulls and talons.

It seems likely that eagles were
an integral part of the Pagan

death rituals that
took place here.

RONALD HUTTON: Now, this could
be that when the bodies were

laid out after death,
they were picked clean

by these huge birds.

Certainly the bones were
clean when they were brought

into the tomb, and this is so
that the bones can be handled,

can be used in
ceremonies, in rituals.

Or it could even be
the eagle is the symbol

of the entire community
down here on this island.

They are the people
of the eagle.

NARRATOR: Today,
this burial place

is known as the
tomb of the eagles.

But when it was
built, it was probably

as much a temple as a grave.

One of our problems in
studying the Neolithic

is what we call these paces.

We call them tombs, but
in the modern sense,

that has to be
wrong because they

are the temples of the time.

They're the holy places, and
it could be that the dead

themselves were transmitters.

So you use their bones
rather like mobile phones

to contact the
goddesses and the gods.

Are only through
the dead can you

gain access to the other world.

NARRATOR: We can now rebuild
the tomb of the eagles

as it was when Pagan
tribesmen came here

to commune with their dead.

Divided into three sections
by upright flagstones

built into the walls.

At either end of the tomb
were compartments one of which

was full of human bones.

The chambers in the
western end of the tomb

held dozens of skulls, and
still more lined the walls

beside piles of bones.

And placed among
the human remains

were the bones and
skulls of sea eagles.

The only way in
or out of the tomb

was through the long,
narrow entrance way.

Back to the world of the
living, and it's so bright.

NARRATOR: But the
tomb of the eagles

is not the only example of a
Pagan burial site in the Orkney

Islands.

20 miles north is a place
which holds yet more secrets

about the death rites
and religion of the Pagan

islanders.

The magnificent sandstone
tomb of Maeshowe.

Archaeologist Erika
Guttmann investigates.

ERIKA GUTTMANN: This
place is amazing.

And one of the things that
really strikes me to begin with

is just how fine the masonry is.

Remember at Skara Brae,
it was quite coarse.

It was just little slabs of
stone straight off the beach.

You know, some of them were
even rounded beach pebbles.

But here, here it's all carved.

You can see the masonry marks
where they're actually carving

this into a nice, neat block.

NARRATOR: Maeshowe is the
largest tomb on Orkney.

Built some 5,000
years ago, it's made

of huge, Orkney flagstones.

Some weighing an
incredible 30 tons.

Approximately 15 feet square
with smaller side chambers

in the middle of the walls
to the left, right, and rear

of the tomb.

It's floor plan mirrors
the houses of Skara Brae.

This is about a similar
sort of size and shape

to the houses of Skara Brae.

And not only that, but when
you walk into the tomb here,

there's a focal point here right
where the dresser would have

been in the house.

Also, you've got these
chambers to either side

in the same place as the
bed has been in the house

at Skara Brae.

Of course, the one thing that's
missing is the fireplace.

NARRATOR: The similarities
between the tomb of Maeshowe

and the houses of Skara
Brae are further evidence

that the Pagans of Orkney
believed in a special closeness

between the world of the dead
and the world of the living.

Another central aspect
of Pagan religion

was the cycle of the seasons.

Pagan means country dweller,
and their dependence on the land

meant that Pagans were
very aware of their place

in the natural world.

They attributed special
significance to turning points

in the seasons.

They attached great importance
to the summer and winter

solstices when the longest
and shortest days of the year

occur, as well as to the
spring and fall equinoxes.

The two days of the year
when day and night are

of equal length.

Evidence of this can be seen
in the tomb at Maeshowe.

It is deliberately
designed to mark one

of these key seasonal events.

ERIKA GUTTMANN: On Midwinter
Day, which is the winter

solstice, the sunlight comes
straight down this passageway,

and it shines on the
back of the tomb.

The Neolithic engineers designed
this on purpose in order

to capture the moment
of the winter solstice,

and that's because
in Pagan thinking,

the solstices are
very important.

NARRATOR: For the
Pagans, midwinter

was the time of the dead.

The season when fields were
barren and no crops grew.

The winter solstice
marks the end of winter.

By bringing its
light into the tomb,

the Pagans were seeking the
help of the ancestors hoping

to ensure the return of spring.

But to capture the light
of the midwinter sun,

the builders of Maeshowe needed
to perfectly align the entrance

tunnel of the tomb.

The four large pillars at
the corners of the chamber

hold a clue.

The pillars are an enigma.

They offer no structural
support to the tomb,

suggesting their purpose may
lie in their close resemblance

to standing stones.

Local archaeologist,
Martin Carruthers,

believes that the
four stones could

be part of a ring
of standing stones

that once stood
outside the tomb.

It may well be
that there's a series

or have been a series of
stones here present as a circle

prior to the
construction of the tomb,

and it may even be that
those pillar stones

you saw with inside the
chamber originated out here

in the stone circle and
were then incorporated

into the later tomb.

NARRATOR: Around the
outside of Maeshowe,

archeologists have discovered
holes that probably once housed

standing stones.

It seems likely that the four
stones now inside the tomb

were once at the center of
a circle of standing stones

and lined up the ring
with the winter solstice.

The tomb was then built
around the four stones.

The entrance tunnel perfectly
aligned with the last rays

of the setting sun.

Over time, the ring
of stones disappeared,

and all that remained
was the tomb itself.

It's clear that
communing with the dead

was an essential
part of Pagan life,

and their death rituals are the
basis for a striking new theory

about the lost world
of the most mystifying

of all Pagan
monuments, Stonehenge.

Stonehenge in southern England.

One of the most famous Pagan
monuments in the world,

but what it was
actually used for

has perplexed generations of
researchers and sightseers.

Now, a team of experts will
reveal what Stonehenge looked

like at its height and
investigate a new theory of why

it was built.

They want to find out
if Stonehenge was part

of a much larger, now forgotten,
ceremonial complex that formed

a gateway to the
land of the dead.

Archaeologist Erika Guttmann
has uncovered a first clue.

Evidence that death rituals
were being performed on the site

of Stonehenge 5,000 years ago.

Long before the stones arrived.

ERIKA GUTTMANN: When you
first come to Stonehenge,

the first thing
you see, obviously,

are this magnificent
set of stones.

But in fact, the earliest
feature here, the very first

thing to be built, was this
little low bank and ditch,

and it seems to have a
ritual sort of usage,

and we know this because
in the ends of the ditches,

we find important little caches
of things like whole cattle

skulls or whole pots and things.

NARRATOR: Many
archeologists believe

that the pagans associated
cattle skulls like those found

in the ditch with death, and
excavations at Stonehenge

have shown that the site
was being used for cremation

ceremonies before the
stones were raised.

The first stones to arrive
were the blue stones

brought from the
Preseli Hills in Wales

more than 200 miles away.

A place which archaeologist
Mike Pitts believes

held special significance
for the Pagans.

This is really one
of the great wonders

of the ancient world.

I mean, they don't
look very big,

but there is nowhere anywhere
in the world where people

with this level of
technology and this

long ago have gone so far to
bring rocks to a ritual site.

We have to imagine that there
was something about the place

these stones came from that
gave them a magic power

significance of this
ritual religious location.

Now, one of the things that
obviously comes to mind

is if we look that direction,
which is where they came from,

which is where Wales
is, we're also looking

towards the setting sun.

So it may be that there's
a symbolism involved

with the dead and ancestors, and
we're looking in the direction

of where the ancestors lived,
where the sun goes at night.

NARRATOR: Bringing the
blue stones from Wales

provided Stonehenge
with a symbolic link

to the world of the dead.

And then 200 years
after they arrived,

something
extraordinary happened.

Stonehenge went through a
vast rebuilding program.

The blue stones were
rearranged and surrounded

by a protective circle of
massive stones called sarsens.

Meanwhile, just a few miles
away, a near identical henge

was being built to the
same plan out of timber.

There were now two henges.

One of stone.

The other of wood.

The original Woodhenge has
long since rotted away.

But the precise location
of its 168 timber posts

is now marked by stout
pillars of concrete.

MIKE PITTS: You've got
well over 100 posts.

Great, tall, oak stumps.

It almost feel like
an artificial forest.

The posts themselves
are important.

So maybe some of
them had bark on.

Maybe some of them were carved.

Some of them were
painted, decorated.

They might have had
things hanging from them.

NARRATOR: Using data
archeologists have gathered

from the site, it is now
possible to recreate Woodhenge

as it would have looked to
the pagans who worshipped here

over 4,000 years ago.

The pattern of posts and the
size of the circle at Woodhenge

bears close resemblance
to Stonehenge,

and the site is also surrounded
by a ditch and a bank.

But a major clue to
Woodhenge's significance

is that the entrance
way is aligned

with the Midsummer sunrise.

It's essential, I think,
to imagine that there's

some symbolic meaning in that,
and we have the cattle skull

and death associated
with the megaliths

and so perhaps the wooden
posts are more to do with life,

and wood is living,
and stone is dead.

NARRATOR: For the Pagans,
wood was living and warm

like the flesh-covered body.

Stone was cold and hard
like the cold, hard bones

of the long dead.

It seems likely that wood
henge stood for life.

Stonehenge for death.

A ceremonial way links
wood henge to Stonehenge,

and historian Ronald
Hutton believes

it may once have been used for
elaborate funeral processions.

The Pagans would have
set off from wood henge

in the direction
of the rising sun

and then traveled along
the nearby River Avon

en route to Stonehenge.

Water, like the
River Avon here,

was really important
to Neolithic monuments.

It's found around
so many of them,

perhaps because it's
such a strange element.

It's connects people,
and it separates them.

It preserves life,
and it takes it away.

It creates and destroys.

And perhaps this essence
of death and life

is exactly what these
monuments were about.

NARRATOR: The procession
followed the river

until it reached the avenue, a
ceremonial roadway that runs up

to Stonehenge.

Very little of the
Avenue survives today,

but Ronald believes it may once
have been lined by standing

stones.

RONALD HUTTON: We
don't know exactly what

the processional avenue leading
to Stonehenge looked like.

It was plowed out too long ago.

But it's just possible it
may have looked like this one

not far away at Avebury.

However, it did appear
it had the function

of any processional
way in any religion,

to enable human beings to pass
from a world mostly concerned

with human beings to
one mostly concerned

with the supernatural.

NARRATOR: Before
reaching its destination,

the avenue turns sharply to the
west deliberately approaching

Stonehenge in the direction
of the setting sun.

Having started at
Woodhenge at sunrise,

it seems likely the funeral
procession was timed

to reach Stonehenge at sunset.

And here, the Pagan Britons
would have celebrated

the passing of the newly
dead into the world

of the ancestors.

Work at the site of Stonehenge
stretched over millennia.

But it's stone circle was built
in only a few short years.

Over the centuries,
many of the stones

have fallen or been removed, but
we can now rebuild Stonehenge

as it would have looked to
the Pagans who likely used it

for their death
rituals millennia ago.

At the center of the ring
was a horseshoe of five

trilithons, two large stones
with a lintel atop them.

They surrounded 19
small blue stones

and were in turn surrounded
by the famous circle

of massive sarsen stones topped
by a continuous ring of gently

curved lintel stones.

Stonehenge and
Woodhenge together

would have dominated
the local landscape.

But only a few
miles to the north

is another Pagan
monument that has long

defied all explanation.

A vast, artificial hill
that archeologists estimate

took 18 million man
hours to construct.

Silbury Hill.

A few miles to the
North of Stonehenge

is Silbury Hill, the largest
prehistoric mound in Europe.

Created by Pagan Britons
nearly 4,500 years ago,

it rises to over 120 feet and
is older and higher than some

of the Egyptian pyramids.

But like the pyramids, does
it contain a secret within?

RONALD HUTTON: One of the things
that people always associate

with big, old mounds
is buried treasure,

and people have looked for
treasure in Silbury Hill

for hundreds of years.

But that's the twist.

There have been so many
tunnels dug into this hill

by now that have found not a
scrap of anything you could

call treasure.

NARRATOR: Despite
centuries of digging,

no burials or treasure
have ever been found.

Silbury Hill seems to be just a
solid mound of chalk and earth.

The mystery of why it was
built remains unsolved,

but how it was built
may offer clues.

This would have been an
incredible technological

achievement for the people
of the Neolithic period.

They had no metals to work with.

So all of their digging
was done with antler picks

and the scapulas, the
shoulder blades of cows

that they used for shovels.

NARRATOR:
Archaeologists calculate

it would have taken 700 men
10 years to excavate, dump,

and shape the nine million
cubic feet of earth and chalk

that make up the hill.

It was probably
built in two phases.

When this was first built,
it was only about 18 feet high.

But then in the second
phase of building,

they built it up to 120 feet.

So it's absolutely massive,
and the slope is really steep

so it stands out
in sharp contrast

to the low rolling
hills all around it.

NARRATOR: But making a
hill is no small challenge.

ERIKA GUTTMANN: You couldn't
actually build a structure

like this by just piling
up soil and rubble

because it would just
erode down the slope.

So it's very
carefully engineered

in order to retain this
particular conical shape.

NARRATOR: Silbury Hill
may not be truly circular

but could have been built as
a polygon, possibly of nine

sides.

Outer walls of chalk leant
inwards at an angle of 60

degrees for maximum stability.

They were joined by
radial walls built out

from the center of the mound.

The gaps between were
filled with chalk rubble.

It's possible that
the mound was built

as a series of
stepped platforms,

but the latest
archaeological surveys

suggest a different
method of construction.

Another thing
that occurs to me

is that it may have
been built as a spiral.

Now, there's some archaeological
evidence for the construction

of this mound in a spiral,
and it certainly strikes me

as I'm walking up that that
might have been the easiest

way to build it.

Because certainly, it's
easier to bring material,

construction material,
up a ramp than up steps.

NARRATOR: A spiral
shape may also have

had religious significance.

The spiral is one of the great
artistic symbols of the age,

and so people taking a spiral
path to the top of Silbury

would be literally
walking a spiral.

NARRATOR: A spiral pathway would
have made the hill both easier

to build and more suitable
for religious processions.

But there may also be
a link between Silbury

and the surrounding
landscape which

could explain why the
structure was built so tall.

Nearby is the largest stone
circle in the world, Avebury.

Silbury Hill is also close
to two other key Pagan sites.

West Kennet Long Barrow
and The Sanctuary.

Historian Ronald Hutton wants
to investigate a new theory

that Silbury Hill
could have been used

as a signaling
platform to coordinate

simultaneous ceremonies at
all the different sites.

It's an idea that's never
been tested until now.

Right, the theory is that from
every major part of the Avebury

landscape, you should be able
to see the top of Silbury Hill.

NARRATOR: To put the
theory to the test,

archaeologist Erika Guttmann
travels to West Kennet Long

Barrow.

The Barrow once contained the
remains of around 50 people

and is one of the best preserved
burial mounds in the British

Isles.

It's also one of the largest.

It's as long and half as
wide as a football field.

Well, here we are at
West Kennet Long Barrow.

Now, let's see if
we can see Ronald.

Yep, there he is.

You can see him keeping
the red flag flying.

NARRATOR: Next stop
is The Sanctuary.

Probably once a forest of
wooden posts, the sanctuary

was not so much a
structure as a ritual site

where newly felled
trees were ceremonially

planted into the ground.

Well, here we are
at The Sanctuary,

and I can just make out Ronald
silhouetted against the sky.

And that's kind of interesting
because if Silbury Hill were

just a little bit lower, he'd
be lost against the hills

in the background.

But as it is, we can
see him quite clearly.

NARRATOR: The last stop is
Avebury, the largest stone

circle in the world.

A giant ring of 98 huge stones
enclosing two smaller circles.

It's likely to have been
the most important ritual

site in the area.

For the theory to work,
the flag on Silbury Hill

should be visible.

But inside the ring, it isn't.

Only when Erika
climbs the circles

high outer bank does
all become clear.

From the top of the bank here,
I can see him quite clearly.

And in fact, he's silhouetted
against the sky again.

And you can see Silbury Hill is
standing up against the skyline

higher than the level of
the surrounding hills.

So Ronald's theory
really does work.

Maybe it could be a
signaling platform.

NARRATOR: Because Silbury
Hill is visible from all three

locations, it suggests
that during certain times

of the year it could have been
the central point of a series

of simultaneous ceremonies.

Avebury, West Kennet,
and The Sanctuary

could each have taken their
cue from what was going on

at Silbury.

What happened during those
ceremonies remains a mystery.

But Ronald Hutton believes there
is one more piece of evidence

that lends weight to the theory.

RONALD HUTTON: OK, what I'd
love is to add another idea

in with that, and that is, they
didn't cover the chalk rock

at Silbury with anything, and
so it was a shining mountain

of light.

A glowing hill under
sun and under moonlight

so you could see it for miles.

NARRATOR: If this
theory is correct,

during the time of the
Pagans, Silbury Hill

wasn't overgrown with
grass as it is today

but was a shining, man-made
mountain of white chalk

with a spiral pathway.

Anyone on it would have
been visible for miles.

The magnificent
mound of Silbury Hill

survives as one of the greatest
monuments of Pagan Britain.

But it came from a world
that would be lost forever.

On the South Coast of
England, lay another hill.

The spectacular Maiden Castle.

In centuries to come, it would
fall to the invading army

of Rome and witness the end
of the ancient world of Pagan

Britain.

Maiden Castle in
southern England

is the largest hill
fort in Europe.

In Manhattan, it would
cover 10 city blocks.

The defenses of this
massive Pagan stronghold

seemed impregnable, but they
were no match for the greatest

fighting force in the ancient
world, the Roman army.

Today, only the eroded
earth and ramparts remain.

But for thousands of
years, Maiden Castle

was a military prize fought
over by warring Pagan tribes

from the time of Stonehenge
until the end of the Iron Age

when it fell under
the rule of Rome.

These earthworks are
absolutely massive.

We've got a great
rampart there coming down

to a deep ditch coming up to
another huge rampart here,

and this is actually standing
about 75 feet over the height

of the ditch.

So it's an immense
amount of effort

would have gone into
building this thing,

and it would have taken an
immense amount of effort

to actually charge up this slope
if you were attacking the hill

fort.

NARRATOR: Normally, the
weakest point of any stronghold

is the entrance,
but Maiden Castle

was designed with a surprise
in store for any invaders.

We're looking here at the
western entrance to the hill

fort, and if it looks like a
confusing jumble of mounds,

well, it would have been even
more confusing to any attackers

who were approaching
the fort, and the idea

is that people are led around
in this confusing sort of maze.

It makes it more difficult
for them to attack.

NARRATOR: We can now bring the
defenses of Maiden Castle back

to life and discover why it was
considered the greatest hill

fort in Pagan Britain.

Three concentric rings
of ditches and banks

surrounded Maiden Castle.

On top of the final
bank of chalk and earth

stood a wooden palisade.

A walkway along the
top of the palisade

allowed warriors to
keep watch and served

as a platform for the
hill fort's main defense,

the stone slingers.

Two watch towers stood
either side of the entrance

as added protection
against enemies attempting

to storm the gate.

When the Romans
invaded in 43 AD,

Maiden Castle was occupied
by the Durotriges tribe who

were overlords of much
of southwestern England.

Miners and iron workers, they
were a powerful confederation

of tribes and even
issued their own coins,

but they now face the most
highly trained and fearsome

army of the age.

An army which possessed a
huge technological advantage.

They used a type of
crossbow called a ballista.

The nearby Dorset County
Museum contains evidence

of its effectiveness in the
remains of two Pagan warriors

found at the site.

ERIKA GUTTMANN: There were a
number of graves of Iron Age

warriors, and about
10 of these people

had had sword cuts to the
head, severe cuts and blows

all on the skulls,
and one of them

actually had a ballista
bolt through the spine.

NARRATOR: But to reach the
defenders of Maiden Castle,

the bolt must have traveled
over three huge ramparts.

To understand the
ballista's range,

historian Ronald Hutton is
looking at a working replica.

How many of these machines
would a Roman legion

have packed?

DAVID RICHARDSON: Each legion
had 60 pieces of artillery.

So there would have been 60 of
these ranged around the hill

fort.

NARRATOR: Until the
end of the Middle Ages,

the ballista was the most
complicated weapon ever built.

In basic terms, the weapons
bowstring is pulled back

using a pair of winches
and a toothed mechanism

called a ratchet giving
it many times more power

than simple human muscle.

A bolt is then
loaded and released.

A ballista bolt could travel
at over 110 miles per hour

and had a range of up
to a quarter of a mile.

Good grief.

That bolt went faster
than what I could see.

NARRATOR: The ballista
allowed the Roman invaders

to launch volleys of bolts
into Maiden Castle from far

out of range of the Pagan
defenders slingshots.

When you're
throwing sling stones,

there's only a certain
range you can manage.

The Roman ballistas were able
to far out distance the slings

that people were
used to warring with.

So all of these ramparts, this
great distance and height,

it wasn't enough to
fight the Romans.

NARRATOR: Even from the
top of the palisade,

the defenders would not have
had a clear view of the Roman

encampment.

And with a range
of only 200 yards,

their stone slings
wouldn't even reach halfway

to the Roman ballistas.

The ballista was more than
capable of sending a projectile

over the ramparts
and wooden palisade

into the very heart
of modern castle.

Death for a defender would
have arrived literally

as a bolt from the blue.

By the middle of the
first century AD,

most of the remaining
50 or so hill forts

had been conquered by the
invading Roman legions.

The lives of the Pagan Britons
were transformed completely

by an influx of people and ideas
from all over the Roman Empire.

Yet even before
the Roman conquest,

many of Pagan Britain's
monuments and settlements

were long forgotten memories
because the people who built

them had themselves changed.

The Stone Age village
of Skara Brae,

the great Ring of Brodgar,
and the Tomb of the Eagles

had already been abandoned
for many generations.

The construction skills that
created the summer and winter

alignments at
Maeshowe and Woodhenge

had been lost as
religions had evolved.

Even Stonehenge, the greatest
of all ancient Pagan monuments,

would become a
traveler's curiosity.

An enigma that would
enchant and confuse scholars

from the Middle Ages on.

While the mysterious Silbury
Hill and the great hill

for of Maiden Castle would be
used by the Romans themselves

for their own temples
and settlements.

As these sites slowly
fell into ruin,

knowledge of them and what
they represented vanished.

We are only now,
many centuries later,

rediscovering these lost worlds.

[music playing]