Digging for Britain (2010–…): Season 9, Episode 3 - Episode #9.3 - full transcript
Everywhere you look,
the rich history of the United
Kingdom is there to be seen.
But, hidden beneath our feet,
there's still a wealth
of archaeological treasure
just waiting to be found.
That's why each year,
up and down the country,
our archaeologists dig down,
searching for fresh discoveries...
Another one.
...revealing the imprint
of ancient civilisations...
So we are looking at a completely
unknown Roman tank.
That's crazy.
...and unearthing priceless objects.
Might be a pendant, or...
Oh, yeah. I can see that.
This is something special, isn't it?
Yeah, I've not seen anything
like it so far.
Every dig adds new pieces
to the ever-growing
archaeological jigsaw...
...that is the epic story
of our islands.
It's been an extraordinary year,
full of challenges,
and yet I've been able to visit
so many exciting digs
up and down the country.
Oh, my goodness!
There have been spine-tingling
discoveries to witness.
That is the face of a Trojan.
Yes. My heart is racing.
And I'm even getting a chance
to use a trowel myself.
I'm joined by a trio
of expert investigators...
I can actually see
the texture of the weave
and it's what, 1,600 years old?
...as they dig deeper for answers.
Same technique as the Romans used.
Finally, the archaeologists
bring their best finds
into the studio...
You can see that this object
has had a life of its own.
...for up-close analysis.
It's astonishing detail.
Welcome to Digging For Britain.
This time, we're going on
an archaeological odyssey
across the north of the UK.
Hang on a minute,
let's have a look at that then.
At an awesome medieval castle,
we witness the return
of a famous king.
Is that the tiny face
of William the Conqueror?
It is the tiny face
of William the Conqueror!
That's superb!
A graveyard reveals the
brutality of the industrial era.
The person is being bent right back
and it's just snapped those
pieces of bone off. Oh, gosh.
It's global injuries.
And, while being saved from
wild waves and ancient tombs,
inner secrets are uncovered.
Much of the north of Britain's
history is defined by resistance -
centuries of incursions,
war and stubborn revolts.
Even William the Conqueror faced
violent rebellions in the north.
Soon after, he was crowned king
in 1066.
To maintain power, the Normans built
castles, and our first dig takes us
to one of the finest
in Richmond, Yorkshire.
This is Richmond Castle,
it was built after the Norman
Conquest nearly 1,000 years ago,
and it is one of the oldest and
best preserved Norman castles
in the country.
But the above ground remains
that we can see
really are just this outer
curtain wall and the keep,
and we think there's a lot more
of it that's lain undisturbed
for centuries, under the grass.
For the first time ever,
a team of community volunteers
are excavating
inside the castle walls.
They want to understand
what life was like here
during the medieval period,
when the inner bailey would have
been a vibrant, noisy place
full of merchants and manufacturing.
Archaeologist Jim Brightman
of Solstice Heritage
is leading the dig,
and the first surprising discovery
is that some rather large parts of
the castle aren't medieval at all.
Tell me about this trench, then,
Jim, what's going on here?
What are you trying to understand?
OK, so as we've gone down,
you can probably see just there,
there's a big bank of soil
there in the section
that this whole buttress
is built on top of.
And there's a layer -
there's almost like a concrete
or mortar layer. It is.
It's a raft of concrete.
Hang on a minute,
and have a look at that then.
OK, so this is a bit suspicious,
isn't it?
It is. That bit there.
That's him. That's not medieval!
No, it really isn't.
So they've made a fake
medieval castle.
Well, it's not a fake medieval
castle. No, no.
...but this bit is. This bit is.
Yeah.
And it looks very much
like perhaps we've had a big
section of wall collapse,
and then the entirety of this,
so that buttress,
this buttress, all of this wall,
a lot of this stone coming up here -
it's all a bit fanciful.
It's an invention of probably
the early to mid 20th century.
Archaeology has an important role
in uncovering little white lies
like this rebuilt wall,
but Jim's team of keen volunteers
will be much happier,
unearthing genuine medieval
artefacts.
What are you finding?
I heard excited voices.
I think it's part of a skull.
An animal skull.
How long have you been
volunteering here?
Since ten o'clock this morning.
It's your first day? Yeah! Is it
your first day doing archaeology?
Have you dug before?
No, I haven't, really, no.
You've turned up wearing
something white, I notice!
Didn't really think about it,
but it's fine -
it all goes in the wash,
it doesn't matter.
Community digs like this allow
people to connect to their past,
and nothing sparks more excitement
than uncovering small objects
that have lain hidden for centuries.
Brilliant, yeah.
Yeah. That looks like
it's probably a bit of a rib.
But, before the team can uncover
any trace of the medieval period,
they have to dig down
through a parade ground
that covers the site.
Evidence of another crucial part
of the castle's long history.
These higher levels are the
World War I parade ground
that covered most
of the inner bailey.
Because the castle had this sort
of second life -
it had centuries when it was just in
disrepair, no-one was using it,
and then the end of
the 19th century,
a great big barrack block
was built here,
and it became an army training camp.
And then in the First World War,
it was a prison.
So that's the fundamental
part of the castle's story.
In 1916, two years after
the outbreak of World War I,
men between the ages of 18 and 41
were conscripted into
front line military service,
but some refused to bear arms,
objecting on religious,
moral or political grounds.
They were called
conscientious objectors.
Some were detained here
at the castle,
where they were then given
the option to work in support roles
like cleaning and catering.
But 16 of the men at Richmond
refused even this work,
so they were imprisoned on site
in the Victorian cell block...
...facing the death penalty
if they didn't comply.
Astonishingly, there's a record
of their personal thoughts
that can still be seen
in these cells.
The writings and drawings
are so delicate
that changes in humidity
would cause damage.
But I've been given
special access to see them.
This cell is just extraordinary.
There's just layers and layers
and layers when you start
to look at this graffiti.
Thousands and thousands
of inscriptions on the walls.
And, in amongst them,
the thoughts of these
conscientious objectors.
Lots of quotes from the Bible -
the religious impetus
for conscientious objection
coming through.
But there's also a link
with socialism too.
"There's something wrong with the
working man who's not a socialist",
he says there.
This is crucial and powerful.
"You might just as well
try to dry a floor"
"by throwing water on it, as
try to end this war by fighting."
The cell block was used to hold
the conscientious objectors
while they awaited their fate.
Kevin Booth is in charge
of preserving these delicate walls.
It's a real damp and oppressive
atmosphere in here.
What would it have been like
back in the First World War?
They had just bed boards
for the night-time
and they were removed during the
day, so they have essentially
this empty cell,
and there is no heating.
This is their expression, I suppose.
This is where they let out
their emotions -
on the wall of these cells,
and it is their way in a way,
I suppose,
of just documenting their emotions,
their beliefs,
and the very fact
that they were here.
On May 29th, 1916, the conscientious
objectors imprisoned here
were transported to France,
and effectively forced
into active service.
And if they still refuse
to obey orders,
they would face the firing squad.
So they knew what they were doing,
they knew their resistance
could end up with them
losing their lives. Did they?
It was commuted to
ten years hard labour.
But that process,
the process of isolation,
both in a cell and socially,
when they got back,
meant that many of them
really struggled
to come to terms with their life
and their family and their friends
after the war.
It's incredibly powerful,
it's very personal,
and you see these principles
being pitted against
something which is
far bigger than them.
And I think it's impossible
not to view this as bravery.
I think we have to see
the courage in it,
and we have to see the
absolute belief behind it.
I mean, they're painted
as cowards,
they're painted as shirkers,
as unpatriotic.
It's very difficult
when you read their accounts,
and understand the troubles they
went through on a personal level,
to see it as anything other than
their own particular principled
points of belief
that they were determined
to follow.
The fact that these few men
had stayed true to their principles
helped to start changing
the public opinion
of pacifists
and conscientious objectors.
Back outside, and the team has dug
through the military parade ground
and is beginning to find
evidence of medieval life here
many centuries earlier.
What we're actually seeing
is something that isn't part
of the domestic life of the castle.
They're sort of like the grand homes
of the Lords and in fact, the king.
Various kings
stayed in this accommodation.
It is the really utilitarian, the
kind of, like, the workshop areas
where the grubby, the horrible
tasks are being done. Yeah.
Services. Exactly, yeah.
Yeah.
The evidence we're getting
is that this was maybe
where the butchery was going on.
Processing of the animal carcasses
like the jaw bones, the hooves,
things that might get taken away
when you're skinning
and dressing an animal before it
goes off to the kitchens.
You would not see the king
walking past here.
He stays over there.
Any royalty visiting the castle
would enjoy a feast
in the incredibly well preserved
great chamber banqueting hall,
and details like these
butchered animal remains
help to build
a more complete picture
of medieval life
inside these castle walls.
What have we got here, then, Jim?
This is something...
Well, it's not human
and it looks like
it only has a single toe.
It's a horse.
Yeah. So yeah, bottom
of a horse's leg.
It's one of the examples
of the butchered bone
that we've been getting
out of some of the trenches.
Yeah. This one in particular
has a really clear chop mark
that's taken half the bone away.
Probably to extract the marrow.
Eating horses
as well as riding them.
Eating horses, as well as riding
them in the medieval period, yeah.
So we've had some of the more
common local medieval pottery,
but there's been some fantastic
decorated examples here.
Pretty. It's really nice, isn't it?
And some with a much deeper
green than you normally see.
Yeah, that's lovely.
Really rich colour.
Really beautiful.
And then even some of
the plainer bits like this,
probably a jug base,
have got the finger pinches
around the base.
Oh, yeah! Isn't that lovely?
Really nice, yeah.
You can put your finger
exactly where the potter did.
I mean, you're quite clear
about the date.
Yes. Yeah, this is all
really classic medieval stuff.
Yeah. So it gives us
a really nice impression,
both of the more mundane
domestic wares - the cooking,
things like that, and then
perhaps the things that might have
graced the tables of the
lords' and ladies' nights here.
What's in the box?
Ah, I thought you were going to ask.
OK.
So this is the only
coin-like find that we've had.
Can I pick it up?
You can pick it up.
It's quite fragile, but... Oh, yeah,
it's a bit broken round the edges.
It is, yeah.
It's really hard to make out.
It is, it's incredibly corroded.
Is it a little Fleur de Lys?
That's right, yeah.
So we know that that is...
It's what's called a jeton.
So it's not a coin - it's a type
of trade or accountancy token
used for counting on boards.
Right. But it also serves as kind of
a universal small change.
Right, OK.
So it does have value?
It does have some value, yes,
but its very specific type
dates to early 14th century
and it's French,
hence the Fleur de Lys. Yeah.
So, really nice.
Very definitely dated
to a big period of activity
here in the castle.
I love what archaeology does,
in that it kind of nails you down
to the ground, to the landscape.
Yeah, it's fantastic,
showing this kind of history.
It's just so immediate.
It's right there.
People can really feel it.
Finds are coming in thick and fast,
and one of Jim's
first-time volunteers
has found something rather special.
Hello.
OK!
Another one cf those?
Just picked it up.
OK, let's have a look.
Oh, wow, OK.
Sc who found this one?
I did. Jenny? Excellent work.
That is absolutely fantastic.
Each new find is revealing.
But, after a closer look
at Jenny's jeton,
we realise it's actually
something far more exciting
and it can be precisely dated.
Jim. There's bad news
and there's good news. OK.
The bad news is
it's not a jeton. Oh, OK.
It's actually a penny.
A penny? It's an actual silver coin.
Really? And if you remember,
there's the little face.
Yes. Yes.
It's William the Conqueror.
No.
No!
It's a silver penny
of William the Conqueror
from immediately as this
castle was being built.
Oh, that's superb!
That's incredible.
Not bad for your first day!
First day, first time ever digging!
Wow!
I mean, that is a bit of
a star find then, isn't it?
It's the earliest find
we've had from the site,
and it completely rewrites what's
going on in Trench Two as well.
The floor of it contains
something that someone dropped
as the castle was being built.
Oh, my... Wow.
That's the little face.
I can't believe you found
that on your first dig!
It's wonderful. It's why you get
involved in community digs.
That is so phenomenal.
Isn't that amazing?
Absolutely brilliant.
William the Conqueror.
We've got evidence of the medieval
feasts that took place here,
and a coin which takes us right back
to the very founding of the castle.
With finds like this, the community
team continue to piece together
1,000 years of history
from this spectacular fortress.
Richmond Castle is such a perfect
illustration of the way that objects
change their meaning through time,
and as objects go,
it's a very large one.
Built by the Normans, it would
have been a symbol of domination
and oppression in the landscape.
Then it crumbles into romantic ruins
and becomes a military base again
during the First World War
and then all the way to the present,
where we have the dig here
and archaeologists helping people
to remember and understand
all of that history.
From the medieval strongholds
of northern England,
we continue our journey northwards
to much older settlements.
The most northerly reaches of the UK
have a wild, untamed feel to them,
and that's partly to do with the
sparseness of the population,
but also the climate
and the weather.
And that's what places
archaeology at risk -
the pounding waves and wind.
Now, archaeologists can only rarely
save such a threatened site,
but they can hope to examine,
record and learn
as much about it as possible
before it's lost forever.
Our next dig is in the far north,
perched on the coast of an island
in the Orkney archipelago, Sanday.
Neolithic people arrived in Orkney
by boat more than 6,000 years ago,
bringing farming to these
islands for the first time.
With over 70 islands and
incredibly fertile land,
Orkney was a Neolithic paradise.
These islands are home
to some of the oldest and
best preserved monuments in Europe.
Giant stone circles, temples
and settlements
like the astounding Skara Brae -
Europe's most complete
Neolithic village.
But one site is in real danger.
Today, an astonishing chambered
tomb known as Tresness
sits right on Sanday's
southern coast,
and is being battered
by crashing waves.
Now, archaeologists are racing
against time to excavate the tomb
and learn all they can about
Neolithic burial practices here
before the site is lost for good.
The team from the University
of Central Lancashire
filmed their dig using our cameras
in this, their fourth
and final season.
So you can see I'm standing
in Tresness chamber two.
It's surviving more or less
to head height,
so back in the Neolithic, it would
have only been a little bit higher
than it's actually
surviving today.
So you can see these
large upright stacks,
which divide the chamber into
different compartments or cells,
and these are
very, very well preserved.
Archaeologist Vicki Cummings
hopes to find human remains
in these chambers.
We haven't found any so far.
It appears we've got quite
poor bone preservation.
One of the things
that we have found, however,
is some really
well-preserved artefacts.
And one of these things
that has come up
is the characteristic
of the Orkney Islands,
which is a scale knife.
The team have found more than
100 of these scale knives -
stone tools thought to be used for
cutting meat and preparing food.
But this is a tomb.
It would have been
full of bodies and bones,
not somewhere you might expect
to find Neolithic kitchen knives.
And soon afterwards, Vicki discovers
something even more curious.
This is something that appears
to be an artefact.
We're not entirely sure.
We're just going to clean it up
and have a look at what it is.
It appears to be a polished
stone ball.
Fantastic find.
It's a perfect ball.
It's fantastic.
That looks like amazing rock.
I can see it black with red in it.
Red and purple.
It's amazing.
Only a handful of Neolithic
polished stone balls like this
have ever been found -
far fewer in situ
in their original context.
And, a few days later, this rare
find grows into a small collection.
We have now found a second
polished stone ball
in a different compartment
in the chambered tomb.
This one isn't as well preserved,
but it is a beautiful,
polished stone object.
The purpose of these mysterious
stone balls is uncertain,
but they would have taken a lot
of skill and effort to create,
so were clearly important.
On the last day,
Hugo Anderson-Whymark unearthed
some exciting clues
about what might have been happening
inside the chambers of the tomb.
Just opposite the entrance here,
we've got a really
interesting feature.
We've got a hearth.
You can see all the red burning
on the ground here,
all the ash surrounding it.
So it looks like one of the things
they were doing,
setting small fires at
quite regular intervals.
Amongst it, we're having small
sherds of Unstan Ware pottery.
So the classic early Neolithic bowl.
So, it's just what
we wanted to find.
But we're working hard
to get the site wrapped up
by the end of the season,
which is today.
As the weather worsens, the team
races to create a digital 3D model.
This photogrammetry will ensure
that we have a detailed
visual record of the site
before the encroaching waves
eventually wash this
incredible tomb into the sea.
Back at the Digging For Britain
tent, the weather isn't much better,
but it hasn't stopped Vicki
and Hugo bringing their finds
from the Tresness site for me
to have a closer look at.
And their 3D model, stitched
together from more than
500 high-res photographs,
allows me to explore the site
in incredible detail.
Is this the entranceway
that we're seeing
at the bottom of that picture
there, Vicki? No.
So what we're actually dealing
with here, this is the chamber
and it's actually divided up
into different cells
or compartments.
So, starting at the northern end,
we've got one, two, three,
a big central one here,
which is cell four,
and then this is a fifth.
What's happened, though,
is the end of that's disappeared
through coastal erosion.
We're guessing that this is
actually the last of the cells
of this monument, but we'll
never know for sure because
the bottom of the monument has been
removed by the sea, effectively.
And that's why you're here
excavating it. Exactly. Yeah.
This is a site at significant risk.
So sadly, not much in the way
of human remains then.
But you have got some
rather interesting finds,
haven't you, Hugo? Yes.
The artefacts tell us
there's an immense amount
of activity in the tomb.
We have a big selection of
stone tools, from scale knives,
these flakes from cobbles
that are very characteristic
of Orkney.
And so that's a bit of a surprise,
why we had 125 of these from a tomb.
But, you know, these are normally
seen as butchery tools,
so perhaps they were being used for
some sort of treatment of the dead.
Perhaps they are being used
to take the flesh off the bones,
or at least clean the bones
within the monument. Mm.
So it's again a hint that there may
well have been quite a few bodies
within there at some time
in the Neolithic. Yes.
So fascinating clue as to what
might have been happening -
some mortuary rituals that might
have been going on in that tomb.
Yeah, it's really exciting.
And then, the objects that really
intrigued me were these balls,
and you brought one of them
along here.
I mean, what is it?
What's it for?
What does it mean?
Do we have any idea?
Yeah, I think we've certainly come
across a lot of interpretations
that suggest that it might
be a weapon of some description.
And I think that goes back
to the fact that in chamber tombs
from the early Neolithic,
you often find individuals
with a blow to the head
from a blunt instrument.
And yet they've put lots of time
and effort and energy into
turning it into this beautiful,
polished object.
Yeah. I think it could have
other meanings as well.
This is a tradition which seems
to be found along the west coast
of Britain into Ireland
around that period
in the late Neolithic.
So this object might really
give us a lot more evidence
about the connections between
what we see now as a remote island,
but it was really a very connected
place in the Neolithic.
So you've gained
what information you can.
You've rescued what you could...
Yeah.
...before that was washed away
for good. That's right.
And now the tomb remains,
and hopefully will survive
a few more winters.
It could still be there
in 100 years' time,
but this is a site that's ultimately
going to disappear into the sea.
MUSIC: Coins for the Eyes by
Johnny Flynn and Robert Macfarlane
♪ And so a clue to who we are
♪ And where we were
♪ And why we will
♪ Inheritors of knowledge now
♪ And ancestors to those who still
♪ I dig for those whose stories lie
♪ With buried paths
and futures won.. ♪
The north of Britain has a great
history of invention and innovation.
It was here in the 19th century
that the first railway networks
connected our towns and cities,
kick-starting the modern world.
It's well understood how steam
railways were completely crucial
to the Industrial Revolution,
transforming the transport
of goods and people,
especially across the heavily
industrialised North.
There were railways
before steam, though,
but they're much less
well understood.
Of course, where there are
railways involved,
there's always going to be
a group of enthusiasts
ready to put in the hard work
to find out more.
For our next dig,
we stay in Scotland,
ten miles east of Edinburgh,
at the site of a very old stretch
of track near Prestonpans.
Most of the walkers who stroll
along this footpath,
have little idea
they're treading on
what was once a pioneering
horse-powered railway,
predating the era of steam trains
by nearly 100 years.
The path is still known today
as the Wagon Way,
yet few records exist
to explain how it worked.
So, since 2017, more than 300
volunteers have been on a mission
to dig under the footpath
and discover how the tracks
were made by the people
who worked on Scotland's
first ever railway.
Ed Bethune is leading the dig.
We're at the midpoint of the
Tranent to Cockenzie Waggonway,
built in 1722.
It's bringing coal from
Tranent, which is up the hill -
the wagons are loaded
with coal up there,
they come down under gravity
all the way down the hill,
using this gradient, and down
to the salt pans at Cockenzie,
where the coal
is loaded into furnaces.
Once the coal was unloaded
at the salt works,
horses would then drag the carts
along the track, back up the hill
to the mine, and the trenches start
to produce tantalising evidence
to prove it.
Oh, nice little
ink bottle. Fantastic.
Er...
...and a horseshoe! Fantastic.
Excellent. Very good.
Nice to find the horseshoe up here.
Excellent. Well done, guys.
Further up the embankment, there's
a buzz of excitement as the team
has uncovered a solid chunk
of a very small iron rail.
That is outrageous. Look at that.
That's what we're missing
off the other one.
Yeah, we're missing the head
off the other one.
That's absolutely brilliant,
that is.
This piece of rail is thought
to be from the most recent and final
upgrade of the railway in 1815,
nearly a century after the
first wooden tracks were laid.
And still ten years before Britain's
first public steam railway opened.
This is an iron fish-belly rail,
so-called because it has
a curved shape,
just like the underbelly of a fish.
The running edge is here
where the wheels of the wagons
would have run along.
And this is a really
fantastic example,
one which we didn't expect to find.
So it's really, really
satisfying to find this.
As well as digging on the Waggonway,
the team is working on a second site
over a mile away,
where the coal was dropped off
at the end of the line
to fuel the furnaces
of the salt works.
Ed is hoping to find traces
left by the people
that lived and worked here.
So in each of these salt pans,
a family would be operating it.
They would have had living
accommodation here as well,
right next to the industrial
process that they're supervising.
And it was an incredibly hot,
steamy, smoky environment,
not great working conditions.
Families of workers tended fires
to boil sea water
in wide metal pans
to extract the valuable salt.
Incredibly, in amongst the remains
of this dangerous industry,
the team finds evidence
of people living here too.
By pure chance in the corner
of the trench -
we're excavating
on top of the bedrock -
we came across little pieces
of brown and cream slipware.
Here's one little piece of it.
A little pot that had been
jammed in,
obviously at the time that it was
built, or very soon after,
probably during the construction.
And we reckon from
our initial investigations
that that's dating some time to
the early to mid 17th century.
The families living
here made salt 24 hours a day,
and the salt pans' insatiable
furnaces are the reason
the pioneering Waggonway
was built in 1722.
Up the hill, traces of the original
300-year-old wooden rails
are spotted by historian
Anthony Dawson.
What we've got, we can just
see it there... Yeah.
...very fine black layers
as we've bring this back -
It's coming through there.
That... You can see that?
Yeah. That is the outside,
it's possibly the bark of the tree.
We've then got this very
hard mineralized deposit,
which again, is probably
part of the timber rail,
and in the middle,
we've got this soft, black...
Yes, it's rich material there.
It's organic - that is the width
of your longitudinal rail.
You've got it from bark to bark.
Now we've spotted that, we can look
at it... on the other side
and confirm our gauge
at four foot, give or take.
Four foot, yeah. Fantastic.
Absolutely brilliant.
As the dig progresses,
the team discovers faint traces
of more wooden rails
set slightly wider,
suggesting they were replaced
many times.
It's not surprising these
were temporary.
Railways were built
cheaply, quickly. Yes.
They would last about 20 years
and need completely replacing.
These finds reveals so much about
the railway's construction and use,
enabling the team to piece together
a full history
for each generation
of this trailblazing track.
You've got the 1722
narrow gauge railway.
We've then got wider
four-foot gauge -
it gets rebuilt again
for a third time,
and then finally, in 1815, they say,
'"We've had enough of this.
'"We're going to do the new wonder
technology. Let's go to iron.'"
So we've got the whole story
the whole way through. Yeah.
These digs reveal fascinating
small scale experiments
in rail technology,
which would lay the groundwork
for the revolutionary age of steam.
To get more insight into life
and work on the Waggonway,
Ed has brought some of
his discoveries
to the Digging For Britain tent
for me to have a closer look.
I think I've got a photo
of the dig down at the actual
what do we call them, salt houses?
Yeah, salt pan house
or a salt house, yeah.
This is the reason
that the Waggonway exists.
This is an existing salt industry,
which has been established in 1630
by the Earl of Winton.
From the salt pan house, we've got
this lovely bit of slipware -
a dish, which you can see there.
So we've had enough of it there
to fashion a replica.
In pieces. Yeah, you can see the
shape and the radius of the bowl.
You see the scale of it,
and it's actually a very nice
domestic dish
from within the salt house,
an industrial building.
Yeah. But we've also got people
living in there as well.
Does that tell us something
about who was working there
and what that industry
was like for them? Yeah.
I think these are people that are
working in this industry 24/7,
pretty much. Yeah.
And they don't have any other
options in terms of where to live.
This is what's been provided
by the landowner. Yeah.
So that's the trench that you
found the railway in.
And is that part of the rail
itself then? Yeah.
So this rail was probably
three times as long.
It's about a metre in length
and it's thicker in the middle
for strength, thinner at the end.
This is where we always find
them broken, essentially,
but we're in the realms
of experimental railway technology.
They were constantly working out
new ways of doing things,
and they did realise that
this wasn't a great design
and it only lasted a few decades.
We then get on to
more robust iron rails
in the middle of the 19th century.
So you're seeing a very early
manifestation,
almost like an early prototype.
Absolutely.
1815 - it's only a year after
Trevithick built a steam engine.
Yeah.
From Scotland, we move south
beyond the border once marked
by Hadrian's Wall as the edge
of the Roman Empire.
South of this boundary, the
British landscape holds plenty
of evidence of Roman occupation
and settlement,
giving archaeologists
vital information
about how people lived in the
four centuries of Roman rule.
When we think about Roman
archaeology, it's often the villas
and bathhouses and forts
that come to mind.
But we mustn't forget why the Romans
were in Britain in the first place.
And a big part of that was
the mineral wealth,
especially here
in the Peak District,
and archaeology can reveal traces
of Roman industrial activity
in the landscape,
just as in this next dig.
One of Britain's
richest sources of minerals
is 15 miles from Sheffield
in the stunning Peak District,
where our next site
is tucked away in the Hope Valley.
Now, as a modern day shale
pit is set to expand,
a team from
Archaeological Research Services
has been called in to investigate.
The team is unearthing
a previously unexplored Roman site,
with over a dozen buildings dating
back to the first century.
And, more intriguingly,
a geochemical survey
is revealing clear traces
of a crucial natural resource
the Romans treasured - lead.
Tom Parker is leading the dig.
The Romans really had complete
dependence on lead.
You know, they built
all of their water pipes from lead.
You know the bathhouses ceilings,
windows,
lead for Romans
was like plastic for us.
It just got everywhere.
Despite that dependence, lead ores
were scarce in mainland Italy.
But here, on the fringes
of their empire,
the Romans found a rich source
to exploit.
We've effectively got over 100
times that ground reading for lead
concentrated in this
two-metre wide area right here,
which basically says they're
doing something here with lead.
The only thing we can think
is it's an industrial process.
There aren't really people
living here,
and whatever by-product
they're getting from this
isn't being stored here.
The Romans melted lead to form
ingots, which could be easily
transported across the empire,
with the lead making its way
into pots, pans and water pipes.
Perhaps the best way to understand
how that Peak District lead
was turned into useful items
is by recreating ancient techniques.
Dr Stuart Prior has come
to see some Roman-style
lead working in action.
I always think there's no better way
to understand ancient practices
than to try them ourselves.
So, using experimental archaeology,
I'm going to investigate how the
Romans made their water pipes
with lead specialist Peter Romley.
So Peter, what am I looking at?
Well, Stuart, what you're
looking at here
is a sand bed tray
for casting lead in - sheet lead.
And this is exactly
the same kind of bed
the Roman plumber would have used.
But the first thing we do,
we have to put in the sand.
The sand needs to be
as smooth as possible
because it will shape the surface
of our lead sheets.
So we've got the bed all set up.
What's the next step?
What happens here now, Stuart,
is the most dangerous and exciting
part of the process!
So I need to get out of the way?
You need to get out of the way.
I suggest you move back.
The molten lead is incredibly hot.
It's heated to
327.5 degrees Celsius,
so it can flow like a liquid
over our sand bed.
Lovely. Look at that. Gorgeous.
Superb. Beautiful.
Just like lava.
Wow.
It's absolutely amazing!
I can't believe
you get such a beautiful flat sheet
out of that.
I can just feel the heat
coming up from here.
Yeah, we'll lift this up.
Look at that, that's beautiful.
There it is.
We can make our pipes from this.
And that hasn't changed
for thousands of years,
as it would have been done
throughout the whole Roman Empire.
When the Romans did this,
they did it on an industrial scale,
pouring molten lead into
huge sheets ten feet long.
Then, just as we are here,
they bent the flat lead sheets
around wooden posts
to make their pipes.
And this was done right up,
like this,
until the 1950s, in certain areas.
Now we've created a seam.
Yeah. A very simple seam.
The Romans made their pipes
watertight by sealing the joints
with a mixture of lead and tin.
Oh, that's amazing.
That is amazing.
That's sealed that up!
That should have sealed.
Now we're taking this off...
And there we have the lead pipe.
Soldered, and ready to take water.
And that's been employed
all over the Roman Empire.
Exactly.
It's incredible to think that the
lead processed in Derbyshire
might have ended up as urban
plumbing in the Roman capital.
But you don't have to go
that far to see authentic
Roman lead work.
Here in Bath,
the world -famous Roman Baths
still have their original
lead pipes.
These pipes were produced
exactly like the ones I made -
curled up lead sheets
with sealed seams along the top.
Stephen Clews
manages this stunning site.
This is one of many lead pipes
that were used in the baths here.
The lead pipes
are bringing water in
from the spring to distribute
it through the whole
of the bathing system.
Lead pipes are crucial for directing
water here from the spring.
But archaeologists have discovered
that Roman bathers
also had a far more
curious use for it.
It's fine scratch marks. Ahh.
That's all you're looking for.
These tiny sheets and blobs of lead
are covered in delicate writing,
left by Roman visitors
thousands of years ago.
They're known commonly
as curse tablets.
Right.
So these are the words
of the Romans.
Someone is at the baths,
comes back having spent an hour
or two of pleasant relaxation,
finds that some of their
possessions have gone,
is so cross and angry,
enlists the services of a scribe
to help him write the note
and then throw it into the goddess,
demanding justice.
Mmm, that's amazing! Amazing.
So, not only are the Romans
using lead to build their baths
and make the pipes, they're also
using it for other purposes as well.
The messages people inscribed
often asked the gods
to put a curse on someone
who had wronged them.
This one has a message to Minerva,
the Goddess Suits,
asking that the person who has
stolen their hooded cloak...
Wow!
...should only be allowed redemption
if they give
their own blood for that.
I'm absolutely amazed that,
you know,
these tiny little fragments
of lead
contain the thoughts and wishes
of people from thousands
of years ago.
What they were thinking,
how annoyed they were.
You know, it's so human.
It's a little glimpse into
people's lives back then.
It's clear that mining was important
business in Roman Britain,
but it would be another 1,500 years
before British industry
would completely
take over the landscape.
The red brick chimneys, factories
and terraces of our cities
tell of a dynamic period
that changed almost every aspect
of daily life.
The Industrial Revolution.
The cogs of industry in Britain
began to turn
in the late 18th century,
but it was during the 19th century
that the revolution
really got up a head of steam.
One of the superhighways
of the Industrial Revolution
was the Humber Estuary,
and I'm visiting a dig
at its most important port,
in the city of Hull.
As the industrial age progressed,
Hull flourished into a vibrant
hub of whaling and shipping,
a gateway for imports
from all over the world,
and exports from the boom
towns of Yorkshire.
Just a quick tour around here
looking at the commercial buildings
and the docks, it's clear that Hull
is a city with an exciting past,
and some of that past
is being unearthed right now.
The main road along this historic
riverfront is expanding,
so to make space, archaeologists
are set to lift, move and re-bury
a century's worth of graves.
During Hull's golden
era of prosperity,
the population exploded from
around 7,000 at the beginning
of the 18th century,
to nearly 200,000 by 1900.
Just one of the challenges
for the growing city
was where to bury all of the dead.
Trinity Burial Ground
was an overflow cemetery
for the overwhelmed
local churchyard.
Steve Rowland
is leading the dig here.
Steve, this is a huge site
to be managing.
Yes, it is quite big, isn't it?
How many graves
were in this whole area?
It's hard to say
how many graves there are.
We've found the remains so far
of just over 7,500 people.
Right. We're expecting about 9,500.
I mean, it is a huge area,
but if you're talking about
9,000 individuals,
that's quite dense.
That's right.
The overall excavation area
is just under 3,000 square metres,
so it's getting on for about
three people per square metre.
We think the earlier graves
start out really quite well ordered,
and the gravedigger
stacks people up in the graves.
And then, after a while,
as they run out of space,
it's almost as if he puts them
anywhere he can, really,
with often with little regard to
those that have been buried before.
I mean, it seems almost
like a medieval burial ground.
Yes, it's been quite an eye opener.
Some of the remains here
show signs of terrible injuries
that could well be linked
to the burgeoning technology
of the industrial age.
The most infamous disaster in Hull
took place on the dockside in 1837.
The boiler of a new steam-powered
ship called the Union Steam Packet
exploded,
with around 100 people on board.
And it's described
by this eyewitness,
who talks about the preparations
being made for quitting the shore
"with cheerful voices heard
in every direction,
"handkerchiefs being waved",
the Packet bell ringing to signal
that the ship is about to leave,
and then the explosion happening.
"The sound was like that,
which may be conceived to be heard
"at the blowing up of
an immense powder magazine,
"or bursting cannon
from a hostile shore",
so it would have shook the
ground here.
"It was awful and horrifying."
"Terrific
as Mount Etna's dreadful roar"
"it rent the air
and shook the solid ground."
This was the worst industrial
disaster in Hull's history.
Victims of this very disaster
may have been buried
in Trinity Burial Ground.
In the site's osteology lab,
one skeleton in particular
shows evidence of severe and
widespread trauma.
Osteoarchaeologist Lauren McIntyre
has been carefully
piecing it together,
recording the injuries
this person suffered.
Lauren, you think this is
potentially a victim
of the Union Steam Packet disaster.
So the types of trauma
that this person has sustained
really strongly suggest that
they were in a significant blast.
Probably the most obvious thing
is in the skull.
You can see a large crack radiating
through the back of the cranium.
That's a horrendous fracture.
It's huge.
And then the types of injuries that
you can see on these four vertebrae
are caused by
hyper extension of the spine.
Yeah. So basically, the person
is being bent right back,
like in an unnatural way,
and it's just snapped those
pieces of bone off. Oh, gosh.
So this is this C7, isn't it?
The really knobbly one
on the back of your neck just there
vertebral prominence.
So that's been shattered. Yeah.
What about these ribs?
What do you think about those?
So these are probably our most
compelling evidence of blast trauma.
In this particular rib,
in the third one,
we've actually got
a butterfly fracture.
So the actual rib
has bent to an extent
that a fragment has popped out
of the centre of it. Yeah.
I mean, this is just
horrendous, isn't it?
It's really serious.
It's global injuries.
This is somebody who has
had their face blown apart,
fracturing the side of their skull,
shoulder broken, forearm broken,
cervical spine shattered
as their head is thrown back.
It's quite horrific when you
look at it like this. It is.
I think you can be quite
definite about this.
I think it's a very compelling case.
Yeah. I'm not sure what else
it could be due to.
Yeah.
Thinking about equivalents today,
you'd be talking something
like a car accident...
Yeah... or worse,
to produce that kind of fracture.
I think, given the cranial trauma,
we could probably assume
it was quite quick. Yeah, yeah.
There are clues here from
the skeletons themselves,
but also from the style of burials,
and some graves are clearly
trying to stand out.
The majority of the burials
are earth graves,
but the well-to-do people
have got a bit more space
and have built themselves a range
of these tomb like structures.
Would these have been family tombs?
Do you tend to find more than
one individual in them?
Yes, most of them have two
or three, if not more people.
We've got at least two individuals
on this side that we can see. Yep.
There's a rather
well preserved skull there,
and then I can see another
skull just below it.
So when you've got these brick tombs
above ground, you're pretty sure
that, as you dig down, this is
what you're going to find.
That's right, yes.
Inside the tombs, the team is
discovering a range of fascinating
burial practices, capturing
each one on our dig diary cameras.
So you can see discolouration
from the copper alloy.
And there's the coin or token
lodged in the eye socket.
And this would be the other eye,
and hopefully where we'll find
another coin.
Placing coins on the eyes
of the dead was an ancient practice
and became common again
in the Victorian period,
possibly to keep
the deceased's eyes closed.
What we have here is a skeleton
of a woman, a female.
You can see here around the coin
on this eye
is the preservation
of the soft tissues.
And on the other side, what you have
behind where the coin was sat here,
is the eyelid
that's sort of been preserved.
Christian burials are often expected
to be free of grave goods,
but here, the team are uncovering
a number of objects
buried with the dead.
Each item found in a grave
gives us a unique insight
into that individual.
But some of the more
spectacular artefacts reveal
how closely the people of industrial
age Hull were tied to the sea.
Senior Finds Officer Lisa Wastling
is giving me an exclusive chance
to see some of these fabulous
objects before they're reburied,
along with their rightful owners.
That is absolutely beautiful.
Do you know anything about the
grave that that was found in?
It was found with a man.
It was up by his head,
and it was obviously a very
treasured possession at the time
because you can see it's been fixed
with two iron bands.
Yeah. It's lovely.
Is it a beer mug, do you think?
It was definitely used for beer,
I 'd say. Yeah.
It's like a kind of more modern
form of a beaker burial, isn't it?
Absolutely. And what about
this little naked lady?
What is she?
She was probably made as a little
trinket or talking piece.
She would have had swinging arms,
and she was probably made to dance.
She's quite likely to have been
carved by a sailor on his travels.
I think she's lovely. She's funny.
Yeah.
And what's also interesting is,
if you look at her hair,
it's not typical of the period.
It may well be some lady that the
chap has encountered on his travels.
Who knows?
Who knows? We'll never know.
Now, what about this curious
little object? What's this?
He's very pleased to see us, Lisa!
Isn't he?!
So what he is
is what they call a pipe tamper,
which was used
when you were smoking a clay pipe...
Yeah... to compress the tobacco.
I mean, an extraordinary
level of detail there. Exactly.
But we've got to remember
that at the period,
both men and women
smoked clay pipes,
so it doesn't necessarily have to
have been a man's smoking accessory.
Ah. It could have belonged
to a woman. It could.
I love these objects.
They personalise these individuals
in the burial ground,
and we're seeing glimpses
of their lives, aren't we?
And this fantastic sense of humour.
Sex and sexuality.
And then, you know,
Hull as a city on the ocean,
reaching out across the world.
So we're kind of seeing the identity
of that city in this period as well.
Absolutely. Hull, although
it's on the East coast,
it's maritime history stretched
over large areas of the world.
All sections of society
end up here in the cemetery.
This incredible dig
at Trinity Burial Ground
is both an extraordinary
opportunity for archaeologists
to investigate Hull society during
a crucial time in its history,
and a reminder that every grave
has an intimate and personal story
to go with it.
Next time, in a Digging For Britain
exclusive, we uncover a truly
spectacular, landlocked
ancient sea monster.
This could be one of the biggest
finds ever in the UK.
An extraordinary key handle
reveals the Romans
at their most bloodthirsty.
The children are next on the list
after the lion has dispatched
this barbarian.
So quite a gruesome subject!
Absolutely.
And an early medieval graveyard
shines light on the Dark Ages.
This is an indication of how
we've got British history wrong.
♪ Come and search for
we who search and
♪ Looking for a scarred land
♪ And dig for us as we have done
♪ To lay the dead out in the sun
♪ To lay us dead out in the sun. ♪
the rich history of the United
Kingdom is there to be seen.
But, hidden beneath our feet,
there's still a wealth
of archaeological treasure
just waiting to be found.
That's why each year,
up and down the country,
our archaeologists dig down,
searching for fresh discoveries...
Another one.
...revealing the imprint
of ancient civilisations...
So we are looking at a completely
unknown Roman tank.
That's crazy.
...and unearthing priceless objects.
Might be a pendant, or...
Oh, yeah. I can see that.
This is something special, isn't it?
Yeah, I've not seen anything
like it so far.
Every dig adds new pieces
to the ever-growing
archaeological jigsaw...
...that is the epic story
of our islands.
It's been an extraordinary year,
full of challenges,
and yet I've been able to visit
so many exciting digs
up and down the country.
Oh, my goodness!
There have been spine-tingling
discoveries to witness.
That is the face of a Trojan.
Yes. My heart is racing.
And I'm even getting a chance
to use a trowel myself.
I'm joined by a trio
of expert investigators...
I can actually see
the texture of the weave
and it's what, 1,600 years old?
...as they dig deeper for answers.
Same technique as the Romans used.
Finally, the archaeologists
bring their best finds
into the studio...
You can see that this object
has had a life of its own.
...for up-close analysis.
It's astonishing detail.
Welcome to Digging For Britain.
This time, we're going on
an archaeological odyssey
across the north of the UK.
Hang on a minute,
let's have a look at that then.
At an awesome medieval castle,
we witness the return
of a famous king.
Is that the tiny face
of William the Conqueror?
It is the tiny face
of William the Conqueror!
That's superb!
A graveyard reveals the
brutality of the industrial era.
The person is being bent right back
and it's just snapped those
pieces of bone off. Oh, gosh.
It's global injuries.
And, while being saved from
wild waves and ancient tombs,
inner secrets are uncovered.
Much of the north of Britain's
history is defined by resistance -
centuries of incursions,
war and stubborn revolts.
Even William the Conqueror faced
violent rebellions in the north.
Soon after, he was crowned king
in 1066.
To maintain power, the Normans built
castles, and our first dig takes us
to one of the finest
in Richmond, Yorkshire.
This is Richmond Castle,
it was built after the Norman
Conquest nearly 1,000 years ago,
and it is one of the oldest and
best preserved Norman castles
in the country.
But the above ground remains
that we can see
really are just this outer
curtain wall and the keep,
and we think there's a lot more
of it that's lain undisturbed
for centuries, under the grass.
For the first time ever,
a team of community volunteers
are excavating
inside the castle walls.
They want to understand
what life was like here
during the medieval period,
when the inner bailey would have
been a vibrant, noisy place
full of merchants and manufacturing.
Archaeologist Jim Brightman
of Solstice Heritage
is leading the dig,
and the first surprising discovery
is that some rather large parts of
the castle aren't medieval at all.
Tell me about this trench, then,
Jim, what's going on here?
What are you trying to understand?
OK, so as we've gone down,
you can probably see just there,
there's a big bank of soil
there in the section
that this whole buttress
is built on top of.
And there's a layer -
there's almost like a concrete
or mortar layer. It is.
It's a raft of concrete.
Hang on a minute,
and have a look at that then.
OK, so this is a bit suspicious,
isn't it?
It is. That bit there.
That's him. That's not medieval!
No, it really isn't.
So they've made a fake
medieval castle.
Well, it's not a fake medieval
castle. No, no.
...but this bit is. This bit is.
Yeah.
And it looks very much
like perhaps we've had a big
section of wall collapse,
and then the entirety of this,
so that buttress,
this buttress, all of this wall,
a lot of this stone coming up here -
it's all a bit fanciful.
It's an invention of probably
the early to mid 20th century.
Archaeology has an important role
in uncovering little white lies
like this rebuilt wall,
but Jim's team of keen volunteers
will be much happier,
unearthing genuine medieval
artefacts.
What are you finding?
I heard excited voices.
I think it's part of a skull.
An animal skull.
How long have you been
volunteering here?
Since ten o'clock this morning.
It's your first day? Yeah! Is it
your first day doing archaeology?
Have you dug before?
No, I haven't, really, no.
You've turned up wearing
something white, I notice!
Didn't really think about it,
but it's fine -
it all goes in the wash,
it doesn't matter.
Community digs like this allow
people to connect to their past,
and nothing sparks more excitement
than uncovering small objects
that have lain hidden for centuries.
Brilliant, yeah.
Yeah. That looks like
it's probably a bit of a rib.
But, before the team can uncover
any trace of the medieval period,
they have to dig down
through a parade ground
that covers the site.
Evidence of another crucial part
of the castle's long history.
These higher levels are the
World War I parade ground
that covered most
of the inner bailey.
Because the castle had this sort
of second life -
it had centuries when it was just in
disrepair, no-one was using it,
and then the end of
the 19th century,
a great big barrack block
was built here,
and it became an army training camp.
And then in the First World War,
it was a prison.
So that's the fundamental
part of the castle's story.
In 1916, two years after
the outbreak of World War I,
men between the ages of 18 and 41
were conscripted into
front line military service,
but some refused to bear arms,
objecting on religious,
moral or political grounds.
They were called
conscientious objectors.
Some were detained here
at the castle,
where they were then given
the option to work in support roles
like cleaning and catering.
But 16 of the men at Richmond
refused even this work,
so they were imprisoned on site
in the Victorian cell block...
...facing the death penalty
if they didn't comply.
Astonishingly, there's a record
of their personal thoughts
that can still be seen
in these cells.
The writings and drawings
are so delicate
that changes in humidity
would cause damage.
But I've been given
special access to see them.
This cell is just extraordinary.
There's just layers and layers
and layers when you start
to look at this graffiti.
Thousands and thousands
of inscriptions on the walls.
And, in amongst them,
the thoughts of these
conscientious objectors.
Lots of quotes from the Bible -
the religious impetus
for conscientious objection
coming through.
But there's also a link
with socialism too.
"There's something wrong with the
working man who's not a socialist",
he says there.
This is crucial and powerful.
"You might just as well
try to dry a floor"
"by throwing water on it, as
try to end this war by fighting."
The cell block was used to hold
the conscientious objectors
while they awaited their fate.
Kevin Booth is in charge
of preserving these delicate walls.
It's a real damp and oppressive
atmosphere in here.
What would it have been like
back in the First World War?
They had just bed boards
for the night-time
and they were removed during the
day, so they have essentially
this empty cell,
and there is no heating.
This is their expression, I suppose.
This is where they let out
their emotions -
on the wall of these cells,
and it is their way in a way,
I suppose,
of just documenting their emotions,
their beliefs,
and the very fact
that they were here.
On May 29th, 1916, the conscientious
objectors imprisoned here
were transported to France,
and effectively forced
into active service.
And if they still refuse
to obey orders,
they would face the firing squad.
So they knew what they were doing,
they knew their resistance
could end up with them
losing their lives. Did they?
It was commuted to
ten years hard labour.
But that process,
the process of isolation,
both in a cell and socially,
when they got back,
meant that many of them
really struggled
to come to terms with their life
and their family and their friends
after the war.
It's incredibly powerful,
it's very personal,
and you see these principles
being pitted against
something which is
far bigger than them.
And I think it's impossible
not to view this as bravery.
I think we have to see
the courage in it,
and we have to see the
absolute belief behind it.
I mean, they're painted
as cowards,
they're painted as shirkers,
as unpatriotic.
It's very difficult
when you read their accounts,
and understand the troubles they
went through on a personal level,
to see it as anything other than
their own particular principled
points of belief
that they were determined
to follow.
The fact that these few men
had stayed true to their principles
helped to start changing
the public opinion
of pacifists
and conscientious objectors.
Back outside, and the team has dug
through the military parade ground
and is beginning to find
evidence of medieval life here
many centuries earlier.
What we're actually seeing
is something that isn't part
of the domestic life of the castle.
They're sort of like the grand homes
of the Lords and in fact, the king.
Various kings
stayed in this accommodation.
It is the really utilitarian, the
kind of, like, the workshop areas
where the grubby, the horrible
tasks are being done. Yeah.
Services. Exactly, yeah.
Yeah.
The evidence we're getting
is that this was maybe
where the butchery was going on.
Processing of the animal carcasses
like the jaw bones, the hooves,
things that might get taken away
when you're skinning
and dressing an animal before it
goes off to the kitchens.
You would not see the king
walking past here.
He stays over there.
Any royalty visiting the castle
would enjoy a feast
in the incredibly well preserved
great chamber banqueting hall,
and details like these
butchered animal remains
help to build
a more complete picture
of medieval life
inside these castle walls.
What have we got here, then, Jim?
This is something...
Well, it's not human
and it looks like
it only has a single toe.
It's a horse.
Yeah. So yeah, bottom
of a horse's leg.
It's one of the examples
of the butchered bone
that we've been getting
out of some of the trenches.
Yeah. This one in particular
has a really clear chop mark
that's taken half the bone away.
Probably to extract the marrow.
Eating horses
as well as riding them.
Eating horses, as well as riding
them in the medieval period, yeah.
So we've had some of the more
common local medieval pottery,
but there's been some fantastic
decorated examples here.
Pretty. It's really nice, isn't it?
And some with a much deeper
green than you normally see.
Yeah, that's lovely.
Really rich colour.
Really beautiful.
And then even some of
the plainer bits like this,
probably a jug base,
have got the finger pinches
around the base.
Oh, yeah! Isn't that lovely?
Really nice, yeah.
You can put your finger
exactly where the potter did.
I mean, you're quite clear
about the date.
Yes. Yeah, this is all
really classic medieval stuff.
Yeah. So it gives us
a really nice impression,
both of the more mundane
domestic wares - the cooking,
things like that, and then
perhaps the things that might have
graced the tables of the
lords' and ladies' nights here.
What's in the box?
Ah, I thought you were going to ask.
OK.
So this is the only
coin-like find that we've had.
Can I pick it up?
You can pick it up.
It's quite fragile, but... Oh, yeah,
it's a bit broken round the edges.
It is, yeah.
It's really hard to make out.
It is, it's incredibly corroded.
Is it a little Fleur de Lys?
That's right, yeah.
So we know that that is...
It's what's called a jeton.
So it's not a coin - it's a type
of trade or accountancy token
used for counting on boards.
Right. But it also serves as kind of
a universal small change.
Right, OK.
So it does have value?
It does have some value, yes,
but its very specific type
dates to early 14th century
and it's French,
hence the Fleur de Lys. Yeah.
So, really nice.
Very definitely dated
to a big period of activity
here in the castle.
I love what archaeology does,
in that it kind of nails you down
to the ground, to the landscape.
Yeah, it's fantastic,
showing this kind of history.
It's just so immediate.
It's right there.
People can really feel it.
Finds are coming in thick and fast,
and one of Jim's
first-time volunteers
has found something rather special.
Hello.
OK!
Another one cf those?
Just picked it up.
OK, let's have a look.
Oh, wow, OK.
Sc who found this one?
I did. Jenny? Excellent work.
That is absolutely fantastic.
Each new find is revealing.
But, after a closer look
at Jenny's jeton,
we realise it's actually
something far more exciting
and it can be precisely dated.
Jim. There's bad news
and there's good news. OK.
The bad news is
it's not a jeton. Oh, OK.
It's actually a penny.
A penny? It's an actual silver coin.
Really? And if you remember,
there's the little face.
Yes. Yes.
It's William the Conqueror.
No.
No!
It's a silver penny
of William the Conqueror
from immediately as this
castle was being built.
Oh, that's superb!
That's incredible.
Not bad for your first day!
First day, first time ever digging!
Wow!
I mean, that is a bit of
a star find then, isn't it?
It's the earliest find
we've had from the site,
and it completely rewrites what's
going on in Trench Two as well.
The floor of it contains
something that someone dropped
as the castle was being built.
Oh, my... Wow.
That's the little face.
I can't believe you found
that on your first dig!
It's wonderful. It's why you get
involved in community digs.
That is so phenomenal.
Isn't that amazing?
Absolutely brilliant.
William the Conqueror.
We've got evidence of the medieval
feasts that took place here,
and a coin which takes us right back
to the very founding of the castle.
With finds like this, the community
team continue to piece together
1,000 years of history
from this spectacular fortress.
Richmond Castle is such a perfect
illustration of the way that objects
change their meaning through time,
and as objects go,
it's a very large one.
Built by the Normans, it would
have been a symbol of domination
and oppression in the landscape.
Then it crumbles into romantic ruins
and becomes a military base again
during the First World War
and then all the way to the present,
where we have the dig here
and archaeologists helping people
to remember and understand
all of that history.
From the medieval strongholds
of northern England,
we continue our journey northwards
to much older settlements.
The most northerly reaches of the UK
have a wild, untamed feel to them,
and that's partly to do with the
sparseness of the population,
but also the climate
and the weather.
And that's what places
archaeology at risk -
the pounding waves and wind.
Now, archaeologists can only rarely
save such a threatened site,
but they can hope to examine,
record and learn
as much about it as possible
before it's lost forever.
Our next dig is in the far north,
perched on the coast of an island
in the Orkney archipelago, Sanday.
Neolithic people arrived in Orkney
by boat more than 6,000 years ago,
bringing farming to these
islands for the first time.
With over 70 islands and
incredibly fertile land,
Orkney was a Neolithic paradise.
These islands are home
to some of the oldest and
best preserved monuments in Europe.
Giant stone circles, temples
and settlements
like the astounding Skara Brae -
Europe's most complete
Neolithic village.
But one site is in real danger.
Today, an astonishing chambered
tomb known as Tresness
sits right on Sanday's
southern coast,
and is being battered
by crashing waves.
Now, archaeologists are racing
against time to excavate the tomb
and learn all they can about
Neolithic burial practices here
before the site is lost for good.
The team from the University
of Central Lancashire
filmed their dig using our cameras
in this, their fourth
and final season.
So you can see I'm standing
in Tresness chamber two.
It's surviving more or less
to head height,
so back in the Neolithic, it would
have only been a little bit higher
than it's actually
surviving today.
So you can see these
large upright stacks,
which divide the chamber into
different compartments or cells,
and these are
very, very well preserved.
Archaeologist Vicki Cummings
hopes to find human remains
in these chambers.
We haven't found any so far.
It appears we've got quite
poor bone preservation.
One of the things
that we have found, however,
is some really
well-preserved artefacts.
And one of these things
that has come up
is the characteristic
of the Orkney Islands,
which is a scale knife.
The team have found more than
100 of these scale knives -
stone tools thought to be used for
cutting meat and preparing food.
But this is a tomb.
It would have been
full of bodies and bones,
not somewhere you might expect
to find Neolithic kitchen knives.
And soon afterwards, Vicki discovers
something even more curious.
This is something that appears
to be an artefact.
We're not entirely sure.
We're just going to clean it up
and have a look at what it is.
It appears to be a polished
stone ball.
Fantastic find.
It's a perfect ball.
It's fantastic.
That looks like amazing rock.
I can see it black with red in it.
Red and purple.
It's amazing.
Only a handful of Neolithic
polished stone balls like this
have ever been found -
far fewer in situ
in their original context.
And, a few days later, this rare
find grows into a small collection.
We have now found a second
polished stone ball
in a different compartment
in the chambered tomb.
This one isn't as well preserved,
but it is a beautiful,
polished stone object.
The purpose of these mysterious
stone balls is uncertain,
but they would have taken a lot
of skill and effort to create,
so were clearly important.
On the last day,
Hugo Anderson-Whymark unearthed
some exciting clues
about what might have been happening
inside the chambers of the tomb.
Just opposite the entrance here,
we've got a really
interesting feature.
We've got a hearth.
You can see all the red burning
on the ground here,
all the ash surrounding it.
So it looks like one of the things
they were doing,
setting small fires at
quite regular intervals.
Amongst it, we're having small
sherds of Unstan Ware pottery.
So the classic early Neolithic bowl.
So, it's just what
we wanted to find.
But we're working hard
to get the site wrapped up
by the end of the season,
which is today.
As the weather worsens, the team
races to create a digital 3D model.
This photogrammetry will ensure
that we have a detailed
visual record of the site
before the encroaching waves
eventually wash this
incredible tomb into the sea.
Back at the Digging For Britain
tent, the weather isn't much better,
but it hasn't stopped Vicki
and Hugo bringing their finds
from the Tresness site for me
to have a closer look at.
And their 3D model, stitched
together from more than
500 high-res photographs,
allows me to explore the site
in incredible detail.
Is this the entranceway
that we're seeing
at the bottom of that picture
there, Vicki? No.
So what we're actually dealing
with here, this is the chamber
and it's actually divided up
into different cells
or compartments.
So, starting at the northern end,
we've got one, two, three,
a big central one here,
which is cell four,
and then this is a fifth.
What's happened, though,
is the end of that's disappeared
through coastal erosion.
We're guessing that this is
actually the last of the cells
of this monument, but we'll
never know for sure because
the bottom of the monument has been
removed by the sea, effectively.
And that's why you're here
excavating it. Exactly. Yeah.
This is a site at significant risk.
So sadly, not much in the way
of human remains then.
But you have got some
rather interesting finds,
haven't you, Hugo? Yes.
The artefacts tell us
there's an immense amount
of activity in the tomb.
We have a big selection of
stone tools, from scale knives,
these flakes from cobbles
that are very characteristic
of Orkney.
And so that's a bit of a surprise,
why we had 125 of these from a tomb.
But, you know, these are normally
seen as butchery tools,
so perhaps they were being used for
some sort of treatment of the dead.
Perhaps they are being used
to take the flesh off the bones,
or at least clean the bones
within the monument. Mm.
So it's again a hint that there may
well have been quite a few bodies
within there at some time
in the Neolithic. Yes.
So fascinating clue as to what
might have been happening -
some mortuary rituals that might
have been going on in that tomb.
Yeah, it's really exciting.
And then, the objects that really
intrigued me were these balls,
and you brought one of them
along here.
I mean, what is it?
What's it for?
What does it mean?
Do we have any idea?
Yeah, I think we've certainly come
across a lot of interpretations
that suggest that it might
be a weapon of some description.
And I think that goes back
to the fact that in chamber tombs
from the early Neolithic,
you often find individuals
with a blow to the head
from a blunt instrument.
And yet they've put lots of time
and effort and energy into
turning it into this beautiful,
polished object.
Yeah. I think it could have
other meanings as well.
This is a tradition which seems
to be found along the west coast
of Britain into Ireland
around that period
in the late Neolithic.
So this object might really
give us a lot more evidence
about the connections between
what we see now as a remote island,
but it was really a very connected
place in the Neolithic.
So you've gained
what information you can.
You've rescued what you could...
Yeah.
...before that was washed away
for good. That's right.
And now the tomb remains,
and hopefully will survive
a few more winters.
It could still be there
in 100 years' time,
but this is a site that's ultimately
going to disappear into the sea.
MUSIC: Coins for the Eyes by
Johnny Flynn and Robert Macfarlane
♪ And so a clue to who we are
♪ And where we were
♪ And why we will
♪ Inheritors of knowledge now
♪ And ancestors to those who still
♪ I dig for those whose stories lie
♪ With buried paths
and futures won.. ♪
The north of Britain has a great
history of invention and innovation.
It was here in the 19th century
that the first railway networks
connected our towns and cities,
kick-starting the modern world.
It's well understood how steam
railways were completely crucial
to the Industrial Revolution,
transforming the transport
of goods and people,
especially across the heavily
industrialised North.
There were railways
before steam, though,
but they're much less
well understood.
Of course, where there are
railways involved,
there's always going to be
a group of enthusiasts
ready to put in the hard work
to find out more.
For our next dig,
we stay in Scotland,
ten miles east of Edinburgh,
at the site of a very old stretch
of track near Prestonpans.
Most of the walkers who stroll
along this footpath,
have little idea
they're treading on
what was once a pioneering
horse-powered railway,
predating the era of steam trains
by nearly 100 years.
The path is still known today
as the Wagon Way,
yet few records exist
to explain how it worked.
So, since 2017, more than 300
volunteers have been on a mission
to dig under the footpath
and discover how the tracks
were made by the people
who worked on Scotland's
first ever railway.
Ed Bethune is leading the dig.
We're at the midpoint of the
Tranent to Cockenzie Waggonway,
built in 1722.
It's bringing coal from
Tranent, which is up the hill -
the wagons are loaded
with coal up there,
they come down under gravity
all the way down the hill,
using this gradient, and down
to the salt pans at Cockenzie,
where the coal
is loaded into furnaces.
Once the coal was unloaded
at the salt works,
horses would then drag the carts
along the track, back up the hill
to the mine, and the trenches start
to produce tantalising evidence
to prove it.
Oh, nice little
ink bottle. Fantastic.
Er...
...and a horseshoe! Fantastic.
Excellent. Very good.
Nice to find the horseshoe up here.
Excellent. Well done, guys.
Further up the embankment, there's
a buzz of excitement as the team
has uncovered a solid chunk
of a very small iron rail.
That is outrageous. Look at that.
That's what we're missing
off the other one.
Yeah, we're missing the head
off the other one.
That's absolutely brilliant,
that is.
This piece of rail is thought
to be from the most recent and final
upgrade of the railway in 1815,
nearly a century after the
first wooden tracks were laid.
And still ten years before Britain's
first public steam railway opened.
This is an iron fish-belly rail,
so-called because it has
a curved shape,
just like the underbelly of a fish.
The running edge is here
where the wheels of the wagons
would have run along.
And this is a really
fantastic example,
one which we didn't expect to find.
So it's really, really
satisfying to find this.
As well as digging on the Waggonway,
the team is working on a second site
over a mile away,
where the coal was dropped off
at the end of the line
to fuel the furnaces
of the salt works.
Ed is hoping to find traces
left by the people
that lived and worked here.
So in each of these salt pans,
a family would be operating it.
They would have had living
accommodation here as well,
right next to the industrial
process that they're supervising.
And it was an incredibly hot,
steamy, smoky environment,
not great working conditions.
Families of workers tended fires
to boil sea water
in wide metal pans
to extract the valuable salt.
Incredibly, in amongst the remains
of this dangerous industry,
the team finds evidence
of people living here too.
By pure chance in the corner
of the trench -
we're excavating
on top of the bedrock -
we came across little pieces
of brown and cream slipware.
Here's one little piece of it.
A little pot that had been
jammed in,
obviously at the time that it was
built, or very soon after,
probably during the construction.
And we reckon from
our initial investigations
that that's dating some time to
the early to mid 17th century.
The families living
here made salt 24 hours a day,
and the salt pans' insatiable
furnaces are the reason
the pioneering Waggonway
was built in 1722.
Up the hill, traces of the original
300-year-old wooden rails
are spotted by historian
Anthony Dawson.
What we've got, we can just
see it there... Yeah.
...very fine black layers
as we've bring this back -
It's coming through there.
That... You can see that?
Yeah. That is the outside,
it's possibly the bark of the tree.
We've then got this very
hard mineralized deposit,
which again, is probably
part of the timber rail,
and in the middle,
we've got this soft, black...
Yes, it's rich material there.
It's organic - that is the width
of your longitudinal rail.
You've got it from bark to bark.
Now we've spotted that, we can look
at it... on the other side
and confirm our gauge
at four foot, give or take.
Four foot, yeah. Fantastic.
Absolutely brilliant.
As the dig progresses,
the team discovers faint traces
of more wooden rails
set slightly wider,
suggesting they were replaced
many times.
It's not surprising these
were temporary.
Railways were built
cheaply, quickly. Yes.
They would last about 20 years
and need completely replacing.
These finds reveals so much about
the railway's construction and use,
enabling the team to piece together
a full history
for each generation
of this trailblazing track.
You've got the 1722
narrow gauge railway.
We've then got wider
four-foot gauge -
it gets rebuilt again
for a third time,
and then finally, in 1815, they say,
'"We've had enough of this.
'"We're going to do the new wonder
technology. Let's go to iron.'"
So we've got the whole story
the whole way through. Yeah.
These digs reveal fascinating
small scale experiments
in rail technology,
which would lay the groundwork
for the revolutionary age of steam.
To get more insight into life
and work on the Waggonway,
Ed has brought some of
his discoveries
to the Digging For Britain tent
for me to have a closer look.
I think I've got a photo
of the dig down at the actual
what do we call them, salt houses?
Yeah, salt pan house
or a salt house, yeah.
This is the reason
that the Waggonway exists.
This is an existing salt industry,
which has been established in 1630
by the Earl of Winton.
From the salt pan house, we've got
this lovely bit of slipware -
a dish, which you can see there.
So we've had enough of it there
to fashion a replica.
In pieces. Yeah, you can see the
shape and the radius of the bowl.
You see the scale of it,
and it's actually a very nice
domestic dish
from within the salt house,
an industrial building.
Yeah. But we've also got people
living in there as well.
Does that tell us something
about who was working there
and what that industry
was like for them? Yeah.
I think these are people that are
working in this industry 24/7,
pretty much. Yeah.
And they don't have any other
options in terms of where to live.
This is what's been provided
by the landowner. Yeah.
So that's the trench that you
found the railway in.
And is that part of the rail
itself then? Yeah.
So this rail was probably
three times as long.
It's about a metre in length
and it's thicker in the middle
for strength, thinner at the end.
This is where we always find
them broken, essentially,
but we're in the realms
of experimental railway technology.
They were constantly working out
new ways of doing things,
and they did realise that
this wasn't a great design
and it only lasted a few decades.
We then get on to
more robust iron rails
in the middle of the 19th century.
So you're seeing a very early
manifestation,
almost like an early prototype.
Absolutely.
1815 - it's only a year after
Trevithick built a steam engine.
Yeah.
From Scotland, we move south
beyond the border once marked
by Hadrian's Wall as the edge
of the Roman Empire.
South of this boundary, the
British landscape holds plenty
of evidence of Roman occupation
and settlement,
giving archaeologists
vital information
about how people lived in the
four centuries of Roman rule.
When we think about Roman
archaeology, it's often the villas
and bathhouses and forts
that come to mind.
But we mustn't forget why the Romans
were in Britain in the first place.
And a big part of that was
the mineral wealth,
especially here
in the Peak District,
and archaeology can reveal traces
of Roman industrial activity
in the landscape,
just as in this next dig.
One of Britain's
richest sources of minerals
is 15 miles from Sheffield
in the stunning Peak District,
where our next site
is tucked away in the Hope Valley.
Now, as a modern day shale
pit is set to expand,
a team from
Archaeological Research Services
has been called in to investigate.
The team is unearthing
a previously unexplored Roman site,
with over a dozen buildings dating
back to the first century.
And, more intriguingly,
a geochemical survey
is revealing clear traces
of a crucial natural resource
the Romans treasured - lead.
Tom Parker is leading the dig.
The Romans really had complete
dependence on lead.
You know, they built
all of their water pipes from lead.
You know the bathhouses ceilings,
windows,
lead for Romans
was like plastic for us.
It just got everywhere.
Despite that dependence, lead ores
were scarce in mainland Italy.
But here, on the fringes
of their empire,
the Romans found a rich source
to exploit.
We've effectively got over 100
times that ground reading for lead
concentrated in this
two-metre wide area right here,
which basically says they're
doing something here with lead.
The only thing we can think
is it's an industrial process.
There aren't really people
living here,
and whatever by-product
they're getting from this
isn't being stored here.
The Romans melted lead to form
ingots, which could be easily
transported across the empire,
with the lead making its way
into pots, pans and water pipes.
Perhaps the best way to understand
how that Peak District lead
was turned into useful items
is by recreating ancient techniques.
Dr Stuart Prior has come
to see some Roman-style
lead working in action.
I always think there's no better way
to understand ancient practices
than to try them ourselves.
So, using experimental archaeology,
I'm going to investigate how the
Romans made their water pipes
with lead specialist Peter Romley.
So Peter, what am I looking at?
Well, Stuart, what you're
looking at here
is a sand bed tray
for casting lead in - sheet lead.
And this is exactly
the same kind of bed
the Roman plumber would have used.
But the first thing we do,
we have to put in the sand.
The sand needs to be
as smooth as possible
because it will shape the surface
of our lead sheets.
So we've got the bed all set up.
What's the next step?
What happens here now, Stuart,
is the most dangerous and exciting
part of the process!
So I need to get out of the way?
You need to get out of the way.
I suggest you move back.
The molten lead is incredibly hot.
It's heated to
327.5 degrees Celsius,
so it can flow like a liquid
over our sand bed.
Lovely. Look at that. Gorgeous.
Superb. Beautiful.
Just like lava.
Wow.
It's absolutely amazing!
I can't believe
you get such a beautiful flat sheet
out of that.
I can just feel the heat
coming up from here.
Yeah, we'll lift this up.
Look at that, that's beautiful.
There it is.
We can make our pipes from this.
And that hasn't changed
for thousands of years,
as it would have been done
throughout the whole Roman Empire.
When the Romans did this,
they did it on an industrial scale,
pouring molten lead into
huge sheets ten feet long.
Then, just as we are here,
they bent the flat lead sheets
around wooden posts
to make their pipes.
And this was done right up,
like this,
until the 1950s, in certain areas.
Now we've created a seam.
Yeah. A very simple seam.
The Romans made their pipes
watertight by sealing the joints
with a mixture of lead and tin.
Oh, that's amazing.
That is amazing.
That's sealed that up!
That should have sealed.
Now we're taking this off...
And there we have the lead pipe.
Soldered, and ready to take water.
And that's been employed
all over the Roman Empire.
Exactly.
It's incredible to think that the
lead processed in Derbyshire
might have ended up as urban
plumbing in the Roman capital.
But you don't have to go
that far to see authentic
Roman lead work.
Here in Bath,
the world -famous Roman Baths
still have their original
lead pipes.
These pipes were produced
exactly like the ones I made -
curled up lead sheets
with sealed seams along the top.
Stephen Clews
manages this stunning site.
This is one of many lead pipes
that were used in the baths here.
The lead pipes
are bringing water in
from the spring to distribute
it through the whole
of the bathing system.
Lead pipes are crucial for directing
water here from the spring.
But archaeologists have discovered
that Roman bathers
also had a far more
curious use for it.
It's fine scratch marks. Ahh.
That's all you're looking for.
These tiny sheets and blobs of lead
are covered in delicate writing,
left by Roman visitors
thousands of years ago.
They're known commonly
as curse tablets.
Right.
So these are the words
of the Romans.
Someone is at the baths,
comes back having spent an hour
or two of pleasant relaxation,
finds that some of their
possessions have gone,
is so cross and angry,
enlists the services of a scribe
to help him write the note
and then throw it into the goddess,
demanding justice.
Mmm, that's amazing! Amazing.
So, not only are the Romans
using lead to build their baths
and make the pipes, they're also
using it for other purposes as well.
The messages people inscribed
often asked the gods
to put a curse on someone
who had wronged them.
This one has a message to Minerva,
the Goddess Suits,
asking that the person who has
stolen their hooded cloak...
Wow!
...should only be allowed redemption
if they give
their own blood for that.
I'm absolutely amazed that,
you know,
these tiny little fragments
of lead
contain the thoughts and wishes
of people from thousands
of years ago.
What they were thinking,
how annoyed they were.
You know, it's so human.
It's a little glimpse into
people's lives back then.
It's clear that mining was important
business in Roman Britain,
but it would be another 1,500 years
before British industry
would completely
take over the landscape.
The red brick chimneys, factories
and terraces of our cities
tell of a dynamic period
that changed almost every aspect
of daily life.
The Industrial Revolution.
The cogs of industry in Britain
began to turn
in the late 18th century,
but it was during the 19th century
that the revolution
really got up a head of steam.
One of the superhighways
of the Industrial Revolution
was the Humber Estuary,
and I'm visiting a dig
at its most important port,
in the city of Hull.
As the industrial age progressed,
Hull flourished into a vibrant
hub of whaling and shipping,
a gateway for imports
from all over the world,
and exports from the boom
towns of Yorkshire.
Just a quick tour around here
looking at the commercial buildings
and the docks, it's clear that Hull
is a city with an exciting past,
and some of that past
is being unearthed right now.
The main road along this historic
riverfront is expanding,
so to make space, archaeologists
are set to lift, move and re-bury
a century's worth of graves.
During Hull's golden
era of prosperity,
the population exploded from
around 7,000 at the beginning
of the 18th century,
to nearly 200,000 by 1900.
Just one of the challenges
for the growing city
was where to bury all of the dead.
Trinity Burial Ground
was an overflow cemetery
for the overwhelmed
local churchyard.
Steve Rowland
is leading the dig here.
Steve, this is a huge site
to be managing.
Yes, it is quite big, isn't it?
How many graves
were in this whole area?
It's hard to say
how many graves there are.
We've found the remains so far
of just over 7,500 people.
Right. We're expecting about 9,500.
I mean, it is a huge area,
but if you're talking about
9,000 individuals,
that's quite dense.
That's right.
The overall excavation area
is just under 3,000 square metres,
so it's getting on for about
three people per square metre.
We think the earlier graves
start out really quite well ordered,
and the gravedigger
stacks people up in the graves.
And then, after a while,
as they run out of space,
it's almost as if he puts them
anywhere he can, really,
with often with little regard to
those that have been buried before.
I mean, it seems almost
like a medieval burial ground.
Yes, it's been quite an eye opener.
Some of the remains here
show signs of terrible injuries
that could well be linked
to the burgeoning technology
of the industrial age.
The most infamous disaster in Hull
took place on the dockside in 1837.
The boiler of a new steam-powered
ship called the Union Steam Packet
exploded,
with around 100 people on board.
And it's described
by this eyewitness,
who talks about the preparations
being made for quitting the shore
"with cheerful voices heard
in every direction,
"handkerchiefs being waved",
the Packet bell ringing to signal
that the ship is about to leave,
and then the explosion happening.
"The sound was like that,
which may be conceived to be heard
"at the blowing up of
an immense powder magazine,
"or bursting cannon
from a hostile shore",
so it would have shook the
ground here.
"It was awful and horrifying."
"Terrific
as Mount Etna's dreadful roar"
"it rent the air
and shook the solid ground."
This was the worst industrial
disaster in Hull's history.
Victims of this very disaster
may have been buried
in Trinity Burial Ground.
In the site's osteology lab,
one skeleton in particular
shows evidence of severe and
widespread trauma.
Osteoarchaeologist Lauren McIntyre
has been carefully
piecing it together,
recording the injuries
this person suffered.
Lauren, you think this is
potentially a victim
of the Union Steam Packet disaster.
So the types of trauma
that this person has sustained
really strongly suggest that
they were in a significant blast.
Probably the most obvious thing
is in the skull.
You can see a large crack radiating
through the back of the cranium.
That's a horrendous fracture.
It's huge.
And then the types of injuries that
you can see on these four vertebrae
are caused by
hyper extension of the spine.
Yeah. So basically, the person
is being bent right back,
like in an unnatural way,
and it's just snapped those
pieces of bone off. Oh, gosh.
So this is this C7, isn't it?
The really knobbly one
on the back of your neck just there
vertebral prominence.
So that's been shattered. Yeah.
What about these ribs?
What do you think about those?
So these are probably our most
compelling evidence of blast trauma.
In this particular rib,
in the third one,
we've actually got
a butterfly fracture.
So the actual rib
has bent to an extent
that a fragment has popped out
of the centre of it. Yeah.
I mean, this is just
horrendous, isn't it?
It's really serious.
It's global injuries.
This is somebody who has
had their face blown apart,
fracturing the side of their skull,
shoulder broken, forearm broken,
cervical spine shattered
as their head is thrown back.
It's quite horrific when you
look at it like this. It is.
I think you can be quite
definite about this.
I think it's a very compelling case.
Yeah. I'm not sure what else
it could be due to.
Yeah.
Thinking about equivalents today,
you'd be talking something
like a car accident...
Yeah... or worse,
to produce that kind of fracture.
I think, given the cranial trauma,
we could probably assume
it was quite quick. Yeah, yeah.
There are clues here from
the skeletons themselves,
but also from the style of burials,
and some graves are clearly
trying to stand out.
The majority of the burials
are earth graves,
but the well-to-do people
have got a bit more space
and have built themselves a range
of these tomb like structures.
Would these have been family tombs?
Do you tend to find more than
one individual in them?
Yes, most of them have two
or three, if not more people.
We've got at least two individuals
on this side that we can see. Yep.
There's a rather
well preserved skull there,
and then I can see another
skull just below it.
So when you've got these brick tombs
above ground, you're pretty sure
that, as you dig down, this is
what you're going to find.
That's right, yes.
Inside the tombs, the team is
discovering a range of fascinating
burial practices, capturing
each one on our dig diary cameras.
So you can see discolouration
from the copper alloy.
And there's the coin or token
lodged in the eye socket.
And this would be the other eye,
and hopefully where we'll find
another coin.
Placing coins on the eyes
of the dead was an ancient practice
and became common again
in the Victorian period,
possibly to keep
the deceased's eyes closed.
What we have here is a skeleton
of a woman, a female.
You can see here around the coin
on this eye
is the preservation
of the soft tissues.
And on the other side, what you have
behind where the coin was sat here,
is the eyelid
that's sort of been preserved.
Christian burials are often expected
to be free of grave goods,
but here, the team are uncovering
a number of objects
buried with the dead.
Each item found in a grave
gives us a unique insight
into that individual.
But some of the more
spectacular artefacts reveal
how closely the people of industrial
age Hull were tied to the sea.
Senior Finds Officer Lisa Wastling
is giving me an exclusive chance
to see some of these fabulous
objects before they're reburied,
along with their rightful owners.
That is absolutely beautiful.
Do you know anything about the
grave that that was found in?
It was found with a man.
It was up by his head,
and it was obviously a very
treasured possession at the time
because you can see it's been fixed
with two iron bands.
Yeah. It's lovely.
Is it a beer mug, do you think?
It was definitely used for beer,
I 'd say. Yeah.
It's like a kind of more modern
form of a beaker burial, isn't it?
Absolutely. And what about
this little naked lady?
What is she?
She was probably made as a little
trinket or talking piece.
She would have had swinging arms,
and she was probably made to dance.
She's quite likely to have been
carved by a sailor on his travels.
I think she's lovely. She's funny.
Yeah.
And what's also interesting is,
if you look at her hair,
it's not typical of the period.
It may well be some lady that the
chap has encountered on his travels.
Who knows?
Who knows? We'll never know.
Now, what about this curious
little object? What's this?
He's very pleased to see us, Lisa!
Isn't he?!
So what he is
is what they call a pipe tamper,
which was used
when you were smoking a clay pipe...
Yeah... to compress the tobacco.
I mean, an extraordinary
level of detail there. Exactly.
But we've got to remember
that at the period,
both men and women
smoked clay pipes,
so it doesn't necessarily have to
have been a man's smoking accessory.
Ah. It could have belonged
to a woman. It could.
I love these objects.
They personalise these individuals
in the burial ground,
and we're seeing glimpses
of their lives, aren't we?
And this fantastic sense of humour.
Sex and sexuality.
And then, you know,
Hull as a city on the ocean,
reaching out across the world.
So we're kind of seeing the identity
of that city in this period as well.
Absolutely. Hull, although
it's on the East coast,
it's maritime history stretched
over large areas of the world.
All sections of society
end up here in the cemetery.
This incredible dig
at Trinity Burial Ground
is both an extraordinary
opportunity for archaeologists
to investigate Hull society during
a crucial time in its history,
and a reminder that every grave
has an intimate and personal story
to go with it.
Next time, in a Digging For Britain
exclusive, we uncover a truly
spectacular, landlocked
ancient sea monster.
This could be one of the biggest
finds ever in the UK.
An extraordinary key handle
reveals the Romans
at their most bloodthirsty.
The children are next on the list
after the lion has dispatched
this barbarian.
So quite a gruesome subject!
Absolutely.
And an early medieval graveyard
shines light on the Dark Ages.
This is an indication of how
we've got British history wrong.
♪ Come and search for
we who search and
♪ Looking for a scarred land
♪ And dig for us as we have done
♪ To lay the dead out in the sun
♪ To lay us dead out in the sun. ♪