1 00:00:05,480 --> 00:00:08,880 This is the story of how Britain came to be. 2 00:00:10,720 --> 00:00:15,920 Of how our land, and its people, were forged over thousands of years of ancient history. 3 00:00:20,640 --> 00:00:25,000 This Britain is a strange and alien world. 4 00:00:25,000 --> 00:00:29,920 A world that contains the hidden story of our distant, pre-historic past. 5 00:00:34,240 --> 00:00:38,080 We began as hunters who came from mainland Europe 6 00:00:38,080 --> 00:00:41,040 before Britain was an island. 7 00:00:41,040 --> 00:00:45,720 Instead of hunting mammoth and reindeer in the snow, 8 00:00:45,720 --> 00:00:49,600 he hunted red deer in the wild wood... 9 00:00:51,200 --> 00:00:53,400 ..and continued into a new age, 10 00:00:53,400 --> 00:00:58,000 as the first farmers built monumental tombs to their ancestors. 11 00:00:58,000 --> 00:01:01,160 Nothing like this had ever been seen before in Britain. 12 00:01:02,680 --> 00:01:05,320 Now the journey continues 13 00:01:05,320 --> 00:01:08,520 with the next chapter in our epic story. 14 00:01:08,520 --> 00:01:13,160 What everybody is waiting for is the sunrise! 15 00:01:13,160 --> 00:01:19,000 An age of cosmology when our lives were ruled by the sun and the stars. 16 00:01:21,480 --> 00:01:25,960 The birth of earthly power and social class, 17 00:01:25,960 --> 00:01:29,560 set against some of the greatest wonders of the ancient world. 18 00:01:43,960 --> 00:01:47,560 I'm going back almost 6,000 years 19 00:01:47,560 --> 00:01:51,080 to a Britain in the throes of the Neolithic revolution. 20 00:01:56,160 --> 00:02:00,280 The first farmers were forging a whole new relationship with the land... 21 00:02:03,160 --> 00:02:07,640 ..a land that was alive with spiritual meaning. 22 00:02:07,640 --> 00:02:10,960 The wild wood that bordered their fields, 23 00:02:10,960 --> 00:02:13,080 the boundary between land and sea... 24 00:02:16,040 --> 00:02:18,120 ..and mountains 25 00:02:18,120 --> 00:02:19,640 that touched the very sky. 26 00:02:22,400 --> 00:02:24,120 Places like the Lake District, 27 00:02:24,120 --> 00:02:29,040 with its dramatic valleys and crags, held a special power. 28 00:02:29,040 --> 00:02:33,040 If your understanding of the world was rooted in stone, 29 00:02:33,040 --> 00:02:37,320 then this landscape, that seems to shout the very word "stone", 30 00:02:37,320 --> 00:02:39,560 would have seemed especially important. 31 00:02:39,560 --> 00:02:43,760 And here in the central fells, the shout is particularly clear. 32 00:02:45,600 --> 00:02:50,200 Archaeologist Mark Edmonds has spent 30 years on the trail 33 00:02:50,200 --> 00:02:55,480 of the ancient people who came here in search of something very special. 34 00:02:55,480 --> 00:02:59,440 5,000, 6,000 years ago, chances are no-one is living here full time. 35 00:02:59,440 --> 00:03:02,680 They come here because the highest ground probably has good grazing. 36 00:03:02,680 --> 00:03:06,360 But what drew them up here was not the chance of living here full time, 37 00:03:06,360 --> 00:03:08,360 that would happen many years later. 38 00:03:08,360 --> 00:03:11,600 It was the stone that brought them up, that they came for. 39 00:03:15,280 --> 00:03:21,360 Over 5,000 years ago, Neolithic people climbed these same precarious paths. 40 00:03:21,360 --> 00:03:26,520 What they were heading for were high outcrops of volcanic rock called Greenstone. 41 00:03:28,480 --> 00:03:32,880 The crags that are worked the most are some of their highest and most difficult to get to. 42 00:03:32,880 --> 00:03:38,440 I think that's part of the attraction of the place, that it involves risk and danger. 43 00:03:38,440 --> 00:03:41,840 - OK, so nearly there. - Mmm-hmm. - Nearly there. 44 00:03:43,760 --> 00:03:47,920 The debris of ancient stone-working still lies all around. 45 00:03:47,920 --> 00:03:51,440 Hundreds of off-cuts of very special stone axes. 46 00:03:57,200 --> 00:04:00,880 - This is what we've climbed for. - Look at this stuff, this is amazing! 47 00:04:00,880 --> 00:04:04,040 - I know, it's ridiculous, isn't it? - It's the volume of it. 48 00:04:04,040 --> 00:04:08,000 So every single bit of this is the result of people making tools? 49 00:04:08,000 --> 00:04:11,640 There was stone to be had that could be worked to a fine finish. 50 00:04:11,640 --> 00:04:15,280 - This was a must have raw material? - It's an extraordinary raw material. 51 00:04:15,280 --> 00:04:19,760 - So this whole area was an axe factory? - Yep. 52 00:04:23,120 --> 00:04:25,960 You don't find many of the axes themselves up here, 53 00:04:25,960 --> 00:04:28,280 but fortunately I have brought some with me 54 00:04:28,280 --> 00:04:32,200 and this is what we call in the trade a rough-out. 55 00:04:32,200 --> 00:04:35,120 So that's halfway through the process of making? 56 00:04:35,120 --> 00:04:37,640 Yeah. It's absolutely exquisite. 57 00:04:37,640 --> 00:04:40,440 It's a thing of beauty, unfinished or not. 58 00:04:40,440 --> 00:04:44,600 This is what they looked like when they left the crags. 59 00:04:46,080 --> 00:04:47,560 Pop that down there. 60 00:04:47,560 --> 00:04:53,320 Once you get into the Lowlands where people would have been living, 61 00:04:53,320 --> 00:04:57,480 that's when the more glacial, slow process of grinding, polishing 62 00:04:57,480 --> 00:05:00,840 would be undertaken to get them down to something like that. 63 00:05:00,840 --> 00:05:04,360 How long does it take to get from that 64 00:05:04,360 --> 00:05:07,480 - to the finished article? - You can see in the two forms 65 00:05:07,480 --> 00:05:10,160 already the idea of what it's going to look like is there. 66 00:05:10,160 --> 00:05:14,960 In accustomed hands, you can make one of these in about 45 minutes, flaking as you go. 67 00:05:14,960 --> 00:05:19,840 This, at least several hundred hours, possibly even thousands of hours 68 00:05:19,840 --> 00:05:24,600 to get a good lustre and polish which brings out the colour of the stone. 69 00:05:24,600 --> 00:05:28,000 Why go to that effort? It doesn't make it a better axe, does it? 70 00:05:28,000 --> 00:05:32,520 It doesn't, it doesn't improve the effect of the tool. 71 00:05:32,520 --> 00:05:35,880 I think what's important about these things is not that they're tools, 72 00:05:35,880 --> 00:05:39,360 but they were also important because they were tokens of identity. 73 00:05:39,360 --> 00:05:44,320 They said something about the people who made them and used them. 74 00:05:44,320 --> 00:05:47,600 It wasn't just the stone that made these axes special, 75 00:05:47,600 --> 00:05:49,920 but where it came from - 76 00:05:49,920 --> 00:05:51,600 the sky. 77 00:05:51,600 --> 00:05:55,560 Although it's a mountain, what we're dealing with here is a monument, 78 00:05:55,560 --> 00:05:58,680 a place that draws people up, draws people together, 79 00:05:58,680 --> 00:06:00,760 at which they can work the stone 80 00:06:00,760 --> 00:06:04,000 to produce objects that matter to them, 81 00:06:04,000 --> 00:06:06,640 because they say something about who they are. 82 00:06:06,640 --> 00:06:11,400 So in sense the journey from the low country up here, takes several days, 83 00:06:11,400 --> 00:06:17,120 exposing yourself to danger, to the risk of falling, to come up into the clouds sometimes as well, 84 00:06:17,120 --> 00:06:19,880 is as much a rite of passage as anything else, 85 00:06:19,880 --> 00:06:24,400 an activity that's as much ceremonial, possibly spiritual as it is practical. 86 00:06:27,040 --> 00:06:32,520 The Cumbrian axe factory reveals a relationship between people, 87 00:06:32,520 --> 00:06:35,120 their landscape, and stone itself. 88 00:06:37,080 --> 00:06:39,960 This belief system would change over time. 89 00:06:39,960 --> 00:06:46,760 It would develop into something more complex, and for us, something fantastically enigmatic. 90 00:06:46,760 --> 00:06:52,040 Something that represents the beginning of a whole new age in our history. 91 00:06:52,040 --> 00:06:55,880 A time experts refer to as the Age of Astronomy - 92 00:06:55,880 --> 00:07:00,640 when we moved away from this more earthly ancestor worship 93 00:07:00,640 --> 00:07:03,000 towards something much more cosmic. 94 00:07:24,280 --> 00:07:27,160 What we see is a radical change in thinking 95 00:07:27,160 --> 00:07:30,480 that manifested itself in something staggering - 96 00:07:30,480 --> 00:07:33,600 the construction of monuments in stone 97 00:07:33,600 --> 00:07:37,400 on an unprecedented and massive scale, 98 00:07:37,400 --> 00:07:40,000 some of them astronomically aligned. 99 00:07:45,600 --> 00:07:51,040 What's becoming clear is that for people living 5,000 years ago, 100 00:07:51,040 --> 00:07:56,440 this new age wasn't bringing a new way of thinking about their ancestors. 101 00:07:56,440 --> 00:08:00,720 Rather it was a new way of thinking about themselves 102 00:08:00,720 --> 00:08:05,320 as individuals within an increasingly complicated society 103 00:08:05,320 --> 00:08:08,520 and an internationally connected world. 104 00:08:08,520 --> 00:08:12,680 All of that, and the universe itself. 105 00:08:12,680 --> 00:08:16,840 Where did we fit into time and into the cosmos? 106 00:08:23,440 --> 00:08:27,520 In a valley just beneath the greenstone axe factory, 107 00:08:27,520 --> 00:08:29,640 there's evidence of these new ideas. 108 00:08:39,120 --> 00:08:44,240 Places like this have an atmosphere. 109 00:08:44,240 --> 00:08:46,800 When you happen across one in the landscape 110 00:08:46,800 --> 00:08:51,760 it makes you pause and think and wonder - 111 00:08:51,760 --> 00:08:53,360 you know, what's going on? 112 00:08:57,240 --> 00:09:01,760 Stone circles are almost unknown outside Britain and Ireland, 113 00:09:01,760 --> 00:09:04,520 but we have hundreds of them. 114 00:09:04,520 --> 00:09:07,960 And they're often found in the most dramatic of locations. 115 00:09:10,480 --> 00:09:14,120 First of all, this place, these stones, mattered. 116 00:09:14,120 --> 00:09:18,680 This is quite a small stone circle, but still the effort involved 117 00:09:18,680 --> 00:09:22,920 suggests you don't go moving things this size just for fun. 118 00:09:22,920 --> 00:09:25,400 And building monumental structures like this 119 00:09:25,400 --> 00:09:28,880 was part of a tradition that lasted for over a thousand years. 120 00:09:32,760 --> 00:09:37,680 5,000 years ago, people living here in Cumbria, and all over Britain, 121 00:09:37,680 --> 00:09:41,600 were making spiritual connections that had never been made before... 122 00:09:42,720 --> 00:09:45,760 ..not just between their lives and the land, 123 00:09:45,760 --> 00:09:48,360 but between their lives and the sky, 124 00:09:48,360 --> 00:09:50,120 the cosmos as well. 125 00:09:54,160 --> 00:09:56,920 Perhaps the very idea of heaven. 126 00:10:01,200 --> 00:10:05,760 This is a new Britain, the Neolithic reaching its very height, 127 00:10:05,760 --> 00:10:09,600 and it's one of the most mysterious and glorious periods 128 00:10:09,600 --> 00:10:10,920 in all of pre-history. 129 00:10:15,200 --> 00:10:20,360 Welcome to the Orkney islands, off the northern tip of Scotland. 130 00:10:20,360 --> 00:10:23,040 I've come here to explore a landscape that holds 131 00:10:23,040 --> 00:10:27,320 some of the best-preserved Stone Age structures in Britain. 132 00:10:27,320 --> 00:10:31,320 Here, there are relics of the lives and the beliefs 133 00:10:31,320 --> 00:10:34,760 of people who lived here at the very height of the Neolithic. 134 00:10:40,360 --> 00:10:44,920 Orkney is a wild place, whipped by North Atlantic winds. 135 00:10:44,920 --> 00:10:47,760 Even from the air there's not a tree to be seen. 136 00:10:50,480 --> 00:10:53,240 But it's more than the wind that's responsible. 137 00:10:57,920 --> 00:11:00,400 There were trees on Orkney, once upon a time. 138 00:11:00,400 --> 00:11:03,360 But it's thought that the first farmers cut them down 139 00:11:03,360 --> 00:11:06,200 to prepare fields for crops and keeping animals 140 00:11:06,200 --> 00:11:10,520 and given that Orkney's not a big place, it didn't take long to clear the lot. 141 00:11:14,680 --> 00:11:20,200 Fortunately, though, Orkney was rich in another building material. 142 00:11:20,200 --> 00:11:23,520 The whole island is made of this - horizontally bedded, 143 00:11:23,520 --> 00:11:29,800 fractured sandstone that splits very easily into useful slabs and sheets. 144 00:11:29,800 --> 00:11:35,760 And around 3,300 BC the people living here began to use this stuff 145 00:11:35,760 --> 00:11:39,600 to build some of the most enduring structures of the ancient world. 146 00:11:45,280 --> 00:11:49,800 Magnificent stone tombs and vast stone circles 147 00:11:49,800 --> 00:11:53,760 give us a unique insight into an extraordinary moment in our history, 148 00:11:55,240 --> 00:11:59,080 When we first turned our spiritual gaze towards the heavens. 149 00:12:02,000 --> 00:12:05,920 Here, even domestic houses have been preserved in stone, 150 00:12:05,920 --> 00:12:09,640 the very homes of the people who were pioneering this new age. 151 00:12:16,720 --> 00:12:21,160 Some of the most special are perched on the far west coast of Orkney. 152 00:12:23,640 --> 00:12:25,560 Here it is, Skara Brae. 153 00:12:25,560 --> 00:12:27,280 It's an extraordinary place, 154 00:12:27,280 --> 00:12:30,760 and it lets us get as close as we could possibly hope to 155 00:12:30,760 --> 00:12:34,680 the way domestic life was lived on Orkney in the Stone Age. 156 00:12:43,440 --> 00:12:49,400 The village was occupied for over 600 years, from about 3,100BC. 157 00:12:49,400 --> 00:12:55,240 What you've got are eight houses arranged on either side of a long winding passage, 158 00:12:55,240 --> 00:12:58,760 and because the whole thing is semi-subterranean, 159 00:12:58,760 --> 00:13:04,240 it does a great job of keeping the wind out, cutting down the draughts. 160 00:13:04,240 --> 00:13:07,240 'And because there wasn't any wood available, it wasn't just 161 00:13:07,240 --> 00:13:11,200 'the houses that were built of stone, but everything inside as well.' 162 00:13:14,040 --> 00:13:15,080 Right. 163 00:13:16,160 --> 00:13:18,800 This is the inside of one of the houses. 164 00:13:18,800 --> 00:13:23,680 What you notice right away is a big square hearth for a big roaring fire. 165 00:13:23,680 --> 00:13:28,640 These are bed recesses, places where people would have laid out their bedding. 166 00:13:28,640 --> 00:13:30,840 This arrangement here 167 00:13:30,840 --> 00:13:33,440 looks a bit like a dresser because it is a dresser. 168 00:13:33,440 --> 00:13:36,080 It's directly opposite the only entrance 169 00:13:36,080 --> 00:13:39,440 so it's the first thing that guests see as they enter, 170 00:13:39,440 --> 00:13:43,200 and on these shelves you would put the things that mattered, 171 00:13:43,200 --> 00:13:46,880 the equivalent of somewhere to put the good wedding china. 172 00:13:46,880 --> 00:13:51,800 Everything about this design, this house, is so clever and so human. 173 00:13:55,760 --> 00:13:59,400 But wonderful and evocative though this place undoubtedly is, 174 00:13:59,400 --> 00:14:03,560 it's all a bit too neat and tidy, a bit sterile, the grass is too mown. 175 00:14:03,560 --> 00:14:06,440 The first time I came here I heard a song in my head, 176 00:14:06,440 --> 00:14:09,320 and I've heard it every time since - it's Flintstones, 177 00:14:09,320 --> 00:14:12,000 meet the Flintstones, modern Stone Age famil-ee. 178 00:14:12,000 --> 00:14:15,120 What you want here in addition to the sights 179 00:14:15,120 --> 00:14:18,320 are the sounds of conversation and lives being lived, 180 00:14:18,320 --> 00:14:20,320 the smells of that human activity. 181 00:14:22,480 --> 00:14:23,840 But we can get closer. 182 00:14:26,080 --> 00:14:28,760 - You all right? - Yeah, lead on! - OK, here we go. 183 00:14:28,760 --> 00:14:33,560 'Alison Sheridan, a specialist in pre-historic artefacts, is showing me one house 184 00:14:33,560 --> 00:14:37,920 'that's so well-preserved people aren't usually allowed inside.' 185 00:14:37,920 --> 00:14:40,320 It's not the easiest place to get into, is it? 186 00:14:40,320 --> 00:14:42,840 No, but it's cosy! 187 00:14:42,840 --> 00:14:48,320 So what would life have been like for the Skara Brae residents, do you think? 188 00:14:48,320 --> 00:14:52,080 It would've been pretty comfortable by the standards of the age, 189 00:14:52,080 --> 00:14:54,800 because you've got this wonderful central hearth, 190 00:14:54,800 --> 00:14:58,880 so it may have been dark because of the roof but it would have been warm. 191 00:14:58,880 --> 00:15:02,040 They've also got a convenience, they have a toilet. 192 00:15:02,040 --> 00:15:05,560 How do you know that's a toilet and not a storage space? 193 00:15:05,560 --> 00:15:09,480 Well, there's a drain underneath it. 194 00:15:09,480 --> 00:15:12,240 - And they did find poo! - Really? 195 00:15:12,240 --> 00:15:14,600 - So the hard evidence is there? - Yes. 196 00:15:16,320 --> 00:15:20,640 'Remarkably, these houses also contained artefacts, 197 00:15:20,640 --> 00:15:26,360 'the precious possessions of the people who were living here 5,000 years ago.' 198 00:15:26,360 --> 00:15:29,760 I never found anything like this in my entire life. 199 00:15:29,760 --> 00:15:32,800 Miserable bits of broken stone was all I ever found. 200 00:15:32,800 --> 00:15:38,000 - So what have we got? - Anything but miserable bits of stone. These are absolutely amazing. 201 00:15:38,000 --> 00:15:41,320 What are they generally called, if you were to group them as a class of find? 202 00:15:41,320 --> 00:15:43,240 Enigmatic carved stone objects. 203 00:15:43,240 --> 00:15:47,520 Only because archaeologists haven't worked out what they are. 204 00:15:47,520 --> 00:15:51,600 And in the absence of materials we would consider precious, 205 00:15:51,600 --> 00:15:55,120 like gold or silver, these have to be the equivalent of it. 206 00:15:55,120 --> 00:15:58,320 Because of the time and the skill they represent. 207 00:15:58,320 --> 00:16:01,800 Yes, we're in an age before the earliest metal. 208 00:16:01,800 --> 00:16:05,000 So the stone itself is not intrinsically valuable 209 00:16:05,000 --> 00:16:07,000 but as an object, it meant a lot. 210 00:16:07,000 --> 00:16:08,640 What about the rest? 211 00:16:08,640 --> 00:16:10,800 These pieces of jewellery... 212 00:16:10,800 --> 00:16:16,560 - They found something like 8,000 beads in this structure. - In this house?! - Yes. 213 00:16:16,560 --> 00:16:23,080 Right. So on a practical level, it says someone has the time to do this 214 00:16:23,080 --> 00:16:26,880 rather then being out growing, herding, whatever. 215 00:16:26,880 --> 00:16:31,360 Someone can set aside part of their day, perhaps all of their time to specialising, 216 00:16:31,360 --> 00:16:37,320 - and being provided with everything else they need by the rest of the village? - That's right. 217 00:16:37,320 --> 00:16:40,960 These are just wonders - which one can I have? 218 00:16:40,960 --> 00:16:42,840 Take them all! 219 00:16:42,840 --> 00:16:44,160 We know where you live! 220 00:16:47,720 --> 00:16:50,400 But as well as jewellery and carved stones, 221 00:16:50,400 --> 00:16:53,960 this house also revealed a darker secret. 222 00:16:53,960 --> 00:16:59,560 Intriguingly, two adult women's skeletons were found under the bed. 223 00:16:59,560 --> 00:17:02,680 - Uniquely. - Below floor level? 224 00:17:02,680 --> 00:17:07,120 Yes, it's as if during the lifetime of the house, they lived here, 225 00:17:07,120 --> 00:17:10,520 - they died here, they were buried here. - And put under the bed? 226 00:17:10,520 --> 00:17:15,320 Like Granny under the bed. It was a house for the living, but also a house for the dead. 227 00:17:22,400 --> 00:17:26,000 The precious artefacts and the presence of human remains 228 00:17:26,000 --> 00:17:28,480 might mean that these houses were special. 229 00:17:31,080 --> 00:17:34,280 No-one can be sure, but the people who lived here 230 00:17:34,280 --> 00:17:37,280 might not have been ordinary farmers 231 00:17:37,280 --> 00:17:40,960 but some of the earliest priests of a new religion. 232 00:17:46,480 --> 00:17:51,480 Within just a few miles of Skara Brae, built around the same time, is this... 233 00:17:58,360 --> 00:18:02,880 A stone tomb constructed on a truly grand scale. 234 00:18:12,080 --> 00:18:13,560 Fantastic. 235 00:18:13,560 --> 00:18:17,360 Already you get the sense that you've left one world behind 236 00:18:17,360 --> 00:18:20,240 and come somewhere different. 237 00:18:20,240 --> 00:18:22,120 And what you're rewarded with 238 00:18:22,120 --> 00:18:25,920 after bending down and struggling through 239 00:18:25,920 --> 00:18:28,760 is access to a masterpiece, in every sense of the word. 240 00:18:31,080 --> 00:18:34,920 What you also see right away is the similarity between the interior of 241 00:18:34,920 --> 00:18:38,440 this tomb and the interiors of the houses in Skara Brae. 242 00:18:38,440 --> 00:18:43,200 And in fact there was a house here once upon a time. 243 00:18:43,200 --> 00:18:48,200 And a circle of standing stones, all before the tomb was ever built. 244 00:18:48,200 --> 00:18:52,840 It's a classic example of somewhere domestic being altered, 245 00:18:52,840 --> 00:18:56,640 becoming something other, something ritual. 246 00:18:56,640 --> 00:18:58,240 Over here, 247 00:18:58,240 --> 00:19:01,640 again, a shadow of something domestic - 248 00:19:01,640 --> 00:19:04,480 it's a recess, similar to a bed, 249 00:19:04,480 --> 00:19:10,320 but of course the people put away in there are having a much, much deeper sleep. 250 00:19:17,360 --> 00:19:20,920 Maeshowe is a triumph of ancient architecture, 251 00:19:20,920 --> 00:19:22,400 not only in its stonework, 252 00:19:22,400 --> 00:19:25,440 but in the way it's been positioned in the landscape. 253 00:19:27,960 --> 00:19:30,200 For a few days each midwinter, 254 00:19:30,200 --> 00:19:34,240 the setting sun is framed by two distant hills 255 00:19:34,240 --> 00:19:37,280 on the neighbouring island of Hoy. 256 00:19:37,280 --> 00:19:40,240 And as the sun drops onto the horizon, 257 00:19:40,240 --> 00:19:43,960 it shines through the passage, lighting up the inner chamber. 258 00:19:46,200 --> 00:19:49,040 Maeshowe was aligned to the heavens 259 00:19:49,040 --> 00:19:52,280 and to the dramatic features of the Orcadian landscape. 260 00:19:59,080 --> 00:20:00,240 When you look around here, 261 00:20:00,240 --> 00:20:05,160 you realise that you're surrounded by hills and water. 262 00:20:05,160 --> 00:20:07,440 It's a natural amphitheatre. 263 00:20:07,440 --> 00:20:10,560 It's a stage set for drama. 264 00:20:10,560 --> 00:20:13,720 And it's here, across the promontory from Maeshowe, 265 00:20:13,720 --> 00:20:16,280 that the Neolithic people of Orkney 266 00:20:16,280 --> 00:20:20,240 decided to build another extraordinary monument in stone. 267 00:20:35,560 --> 00:20:41,040 The Ring of Brodgar is one of the biggest stone circles we know about anywhere. 268 00:20:41,040 --> 00:20:45,960 It's over 100m across, and while there are 21 stones standing today, 269 00:20:45,960 --> 00:20:50,360 in its original form there would have been as many as 60. 270 00:20:50,360 --> 00:20:52,920 And that's not all... 271 00:20:52,920 --> 00:20:56,680 This stone circle was also surrounded by a ditch - 272 00:20:58,520 --> 00:21:02,360 not just any ditch, this is ten metres across 273 00:21:02,360 --> 00:21:06,920 and over three metres deep and it's not just cut into the soil, 274 00:21:06,920 --> 00:21:10,080 it's been cut into the living bedrock. 275 00:21:10,080 --> 00:21:16,840 It's been estimated that it would have taken 100 men six months just to cut the ditch. 276 00:21:16,840 --> 00:21:18,920 This is on an epic scale. 277 00:21:22,200 --> 00:21:24,160 The Ring of Brodgar is vast, 278 00:21:24,160 --> 00:21:28,080 but incredibly, it actually forms part of something even bigger. 279 00:21:31,520 --> 00:21:32,800 And here's a clue... 280 00:21:32,800 --> 00:21:35,640 The ditch isn't actually complete. 281 00:21:35,640 --> 00:21:40,160 There's a causeway right here and another one on the other side. 282 00:21:40,160 --> 00:21:43,520 It's thought that these are an entrance and an exit, 283 00:21:43,520 --> 00:21:48,160 which means perhaps the stone circle isn't itself a destination, 284 00:21:48,160 --> 00:21:50,400 it's some kind of portal maybe, 285 00:21:50,400 --> 00:21:53,400 something you pass through on the way to something else. 286 00:21:53,400 --> 00:21:57,160 And that somewhere else is down there, just across the peninsula. 287 00:22:03,320 --> 00:22:06,440 The Ring of Brodgar points you across a narrow land-bridge 288 00:22:06,440 --> 00:22:11,120 towards another even older stone circle, the Stones of Stenness. 289 00:22:18,360 --> 00:22:22,120 Few of the original stones survive, but those that do 290 00:22:22,120 --> 00:22:25,800 reveal yet more connections to this monumental landscape. 291 00:22:30,960 --> 00:22:34,840 What's striking here is the way some of the stone are positioned. 292 00:22:34,840 --> 00:22:38,760 This pair here are aligned so that when you look through the gap, 293 00:22:38,760 --> 00:22:42,320 Maeshowe is perfectly framed against the hillside. 294 00:22:46,040 --> 00:22:52,000 Originally there would have been a complete ditch encircling the monument. 295 00:22:52,000 --> 00:22:56,840 And the thinking is that that ditch would have held water, so it would have appeared as a moat. 296 00:22:56,840 --> 00:23:01,680 So maybe what you have 5,000 years ago is the builders, 297 00:23:01,680 --> 00:23:04,640 the architects of this monument 298 00:23:04,640 --> 00:23:07,640 creating an island within an island, 299 00:23:07,640 --> 00:23:12,000 a miniature, a microcosm of their world as they saw it. 300 00:23:24,040 --> 00:23:28,440 The creation of monumental architecture around 5,000 years ago 301 00:23:28,440 --> 00:23:33,720 can be seen in a sense as an evolution of earlier Neolithic culture. 302 00:23:33,720 --> 00:23:36,120 After all, these people had been building 303 00:23:36,120 --> 00:23:41,000 huge earthen enclosures and vast cursus monuments for generations. 304 00:23:41,000 --> 00:23:44,280 It was the connections between the monuments 305 00:23:44,280 --> 00:23:47,400 and astronomical alignments that was new. 306 00:23:47,400 --> 00:23:52,160 The earth, the landscape, was as important as it had always been. 307 00:23:52,160 --> 00:23:55,920 But now it was being seen as part of a bigger picture. 308 00:23:55,920 --> 00:23:59,720 The skies, the sun and the moon, the heavens. 309 00:23:59,720 --> 00:24:04,120 That's what this Age of Astronomy seems to have been all about. 310 00:24:11,440 --> 00:24:14,640 Our human need to understand our place in the cosmos 311 00:24:14,640 --> 00:24:16,120 still resonates today. 312 00:24:21,000 --> 00:24:23,320 This is midsummer, 313 00:24:23,320 --> 00:24:27,520 just before dawn at the most famous stone age monument of them all. 314 00:24:31,160 --> 00:24:33,480 This place, Salisbury Plain... 315 00:24:35,120 --> 00:24:38,800 ..has been attracting people for millennia, and it still does. 316 00:24:38,800 --> 00:24:42,320 There are literally thousands of people here. 317 00:24:42,320 --> 00:24:46,440 Some of them have come to worship ancient gods, 318 00:24:46,440 --> 00:24:49,040 some to connect with Mother Earth. 319 00:24:49,040 --> 00:24:52,040 Some have come in search of themselves. 320 00:24:52,040 --> 00:24:57,720 But to be honest, I think a lot of them are here just because everyone else is, just for the spectacle. 321 00:25:11,400 --> 00:25:14,240 DRUMMING 322 00:25:14,240 --> 00:25:17,600 Of course, what everybody's waiting for is the sunrise, 323 00:25:17,600 --> 00:25:21,040 which will be over there, and by my reckoning, 324 00:25:21,040 --> 00:25:23,480 will be in, oh, several minutes' time. 325 00:25:25,520 --> 00:25:27,360 Can't wait! 326 00:25:36,440 --> 00:25:40,360 Funny thing is that it's actually very hard to see the sunrise 327 00:25:40,360 --> 00:25:43,560 because of all these stones and all these people. 328 00:25:56,920 --> 00:25:58,480 Oh, there she blows. 329 00:26:10,960 --> 00:26:14,360 Presumably, its arrival today means, 330 00:26:14,360 --> 00:26:17,120 well, something different to every one of these people here. 331 00:26:17,120 --> 00:26:22,080 There's several thousand of them, so that's several thousand meanings. 332 00:26:22,080 --> 00:26:23,160 Take your pick. 333 00:26:28,440 --> 00:26:33,080 But what did Stonehenge mean to the people who gathered here 5,000 years ago? 334 00:26:35,480 --> 00:26:39,400 To begin to answer that, you have to go back to the stones themselves. 335 00:26:41,440 --> 00:26:44,840 And I don't mean the most obvious ones. 336 00:26:44,840 --> 00:26:47,760 The sarsen stones, and the huge trilithons, 337 00:26:47,760 --> 00:26:50,840 they weren't part of the original monument. 338 00:26:50,840 --> 00:26:54,320 If you want to get back to the start of Stonehenge, you have to look at 339 00:26:54,320 --> 00:26:58,440 these smaller stones that are all around the interior. 340 00:26:58,440 --> 00:27:03,200 Unlike the sarsens, which were dragged here from just 20 or so miles up the road, 341 00:27:03,200 --> 00:27:07,880 these are from much, much further away, off to the west. 342 00:27:23,920 --> 00:27:26,000 The wild south-west of Wales. 343 00:27:27,720 --> 00:27:30,240 High in the Preseli Hills, the rolling landscape 344 00:27:30,240 --> 00:27:34,240 is broken by huge outcrops of a very distinctive stone. 345 00:27:40,280 --> 00:27:44,560 Now, the thing is, studies have shown that this kind of stone 346 00:27:44,560 --> 00:27:48,280 is identical to the original boulders of Stonehenge, 347 00:27:48,280 --> 00:27:51,520 built over 200 miles away in that direction. 348 00:27:51,520 --> 00:27:54,840 'Geologists call this a spotted dolerite. 349 00:27:54,840 --> 00:28:00,480 'And this is the only place in Britain where this particular type exists.' 350 00:28:00,480 --> 00:28:03,800 This has been amazing to me for more than half of my life. 351 00:28:03,800 --> 00:28:05,680 I mean, why do it at all? 352 00:28:05,680 --> 00:28:09,120 What motivated them? Why these stones, from here? 353 00:28:11,920 --> 00:28:17,040 Now, it does have to be said there are a couple of things about this rock that are unusual. 354 00:28:17,040 --> 00:28:19,280 First of all, I'm going to don my Stone Age goggles... 355 00:28:21,080 --> 00:28:22,800 ..and hit this as hard as I can. 356 00:28:27,040 --> 00:28:30,080 Now, on that fresh face there... 357 00:28:31,760 --> 00:28:36,200 ..if I wet that freshly broken face, 358 00:28:36,200 --> 00:28:37,760 look at that, isn't that lovely? 359 00:28:37,760 --> 00:28:42,120 See how it changes colour? It goes this soft blue shade. 360 00:28:42,120 --> 00:28:46,360 Obviously, it's why this stuff is known as bluestone. 361 00:28:46,360 --> 00:28:50,640 And it's speckled throughout with these little flecks of feldspar. 362 00:28:50,640 --> 00:28:56,600 These properties, these unique freckles, would have made this rock seem very special. 363 00:28:56,600 --> 00:28:58,760 It might even have seemed magical. 364 00:29:00,920 --> 00:29:06,880 We might never know exactly why this place and these crags were chosen. 365 00:29:06,880 --> 00:29:13,560 But it reminds me of the Lake District axe-makers on a much grander scale. 366 00:29:13,560 --> 00:29:17,600 What we do know for certain, though, is that this place was important. 367 00:29:17,600 --> 00:29:22,120 So important that it filled ancient people with an urge so powerful 368 00:29:22,120 --> 00:29:27,560 that they were able to find the strength and the will to move over 200 tonnes of this rock 369 00:29:27,560 --> 00:29:32,400 and use it to set up the first stone circle of Stonehenge. 370 00:29:32,400 --> 00:29:34,440 Now THAT takes some belief. 371 00:29:42,240 --> 00:29:47,360 5,000 years ago, the Stonehenge we see today simply didn't exist. 372 00:29:49,480 --> 00:29:52,280 Instead, there was a much simpler circle. 373 00:29:56,800 --> 00:30:01,560 After their long journey from Preseli, the bluestones were put up in a great big circle, 374 00:30:01,560 --> 00:30:04,640 round the outside, on the inner edge of this bank. 375 00:30:04,640 --> 00:30:09,760 So for 500 years or so, the bluestone circle WAS Stonehenge. 376 00:30:09,760 --> 00:30:13,160 And then, for some reason, the people living around here 377 00:30:13,160 --> 00:30:16,240 decided to give themselves an even bigger challenge. 378 00:30:21,880 --> 00:30:26,280 Around 2,500 BC, a new generation of builders 379 00:30:26,280 --> 00:30:29,680 created their ultimate monument. 380 00:30:29,680 --> 00:30:35,320 Using massive blocks of local sandstone, they constructed something unprecedented - 381 00:30:35,320 --> 00:30:38,520 a ring of standing stones capped with lintels. 382 00:30:42,120 --> 00:30:45,040 Inside, a horseshoe of yet more stones. 383 00:30:47,120 --> 00:30:49,680 And at the same time, for good measure, 384 00:30:49,680 --> 00:30:55,600 they moved the original boulders of bluestone right into the centre. 385 00:30:55,600 --> 00:30:59,560 Unlike the bluestones, these gigantic sarsens 386 00:30:59,560 --> 00:31:03,200 were only transported 20 miles or so, from up the road. 387 00:31:03,200 --> 00:31:07,160 But given that each one weighs anything up to 40 tonnes, 388 00:31:07,160 --> 00:31:10,400 well, the effort required to shift them was phenomenal. 389 00:31:13,320 --> 00:31:18,080 This new Stonehenge marked special days in the cosmic calendar - 390 00:31:20,360 --> 00:31:22,440 spring and autumn, 391 00:31:22,440 --> 00:31:25,920 as well as the well known alignment on the midsummer sunrise. 392 00:31:32,120 --> 00:31:37,240 But the midsummer sunrise exactly matches another event - 393 00:31:37,240 --> 00:31:38,280 the setting sun... 394 00:31:40,560 --> 00:31:41,800 ..at midwinter. 395 00:31:43,640 --> 00:31:49,120 The latest evidence suggests that our most famous prehistoric monument of all 396 00:31:49,120 --> 00:31:52,760 might not have been a celebration of summer and life... 397 00:31:54,080 --> 00:31:56,160 ..but a commemoration of winter... 398 00:31:57,640 --> 00:31:58,720 ..and death. 399 00:32:05,760 --> 00:32:10,840 Like the Orkney monuments, Stonehenge is not alone. 400 00:32:10,840 --> 00:32:14,640 Nearby, this field contains all that remains of 401 00:32:14,640 --> 00:32:17,120 an ancient site of winter gathering. 402 00:32:23,920 --> 00:32:25,360 Have a look at these! 403 00:32:25,360 --> 00:32:27,480 Animal bones and teeth. 404 00:32:27,480 --> 00:32:31,400 Just a sample of the thousands of animal remains 405 00:32:31,400 --> 00:32:33,320 found scattered all across the site. 406 00:32:34,560 --> 00:32:36,480 These are pig bones. 407 00:32:36,480 --> 00:32:39,480 Piglets are usually born in the springtime 408 00:32:39,480 --> 00:32:43,280 and the vast majority of the pig remains at Durrington Walls 409 00:32:43,280 --> 00:32:46,560 show that adult animals were slaughtered at around nine months - 410 00:32:46,560 --> 00:32:49,120 that's in midwinter. 411 00:32:49,120 --> 00:32:54,720 Also, the teeth reveal that the animals had been 412 00:32:54,720 --> 00:32:58,280 specifically fattened up prior to the feasting, 413 00:32:58,280 --> 00:33:01,800 and we can tell this because the teeth are rotten. 414 00:33:01,800 --> 00:33:05,400 What we have here isn't just casual feasting. 415 00:33:05,400 --> 00:33:12,280 This is one final commemoration, one big celebration of life, 416 00:33:12,280 --> 00:33:16,120 before the ancestors commenced their journey to Stonehenge 417 00:33:16,120 --> 00:33:17,520 and the land of the dead. 418 00:33:19,760 --> 00:33:21,680 It's thought that each winter, 419 00:33:21,680 --> 00:33:24,680 people would come here from hundreds of miles around 420 00:33:24,680 --> 00:33:27,440 to commemorate the lives of their ancestors... 421 00:33:29,000 --> 00:33:31,280 ..and to ensure the souls of the recently dead 422 00:33:31,280 --> 00:33:35,640 reached the safety of the afterlife at Stonehenge itself. 423 00:33:41,440 --> 00:33:46,680 I think it's fascinating that everyone believes they know Stonehenge. 424 00:33:46,680 --> 00:33:49,360 It's like the Mona Lisa or the Pyramids. 425 00:33:49,360 --> 00:33:53,080 It's so familiar, it's hard to see it with fresh eyes. 426 00:33:54,800 --> 00:33:57,760 I think we've discovered something by coming here. 427 00:33:57,760 --> 00:34:00,680 I think we've discovered a new Stonehenge, 428 00:34:00,680 --> 00:34:04,680 and it's as far from the golden warmth of a midsummer sunrise 429 00:34:04,680 --> 00:34:06,080 as it's possible to get. 430 00:34:08,400 --> 00:34:11,760 It's somewhere that still carries a charge. 431 00:34:11,760 --> 00:34:13,560 You can feel it. 432 00:34:13,560 --> 00:34:15,320 And if you come here at midwinter, 433 00:34:15,320 --> 00:34:18,000 you can feel that charge just a little bit more. 434 00:34:20,200 --> 00:34:24,280 The coldness of the stones, the open landscape. 435 00:34:24,280 --> 00:34:26,600 It's not hard to believe 436 00:34:26,600 --> 00:34:31,160 that this place is somewhere that belongs to the dead. 437 00:34:56,360 --> 00:34:59,800 When we look back to the time of the great monuments of the Neolithic, 438 00:34:59,800 --> 00:35:05,880 we see a whole new age dawning, in belief, but also in society. 439 00:35:08,080 --> 00:35:13,840 There's no doubt that the creation of these vast monuments was a religious act. 440 00:35:13,840 --> 00:35:17,000 It's about finding and defining a place in the universe, 441 00:35:17,000 --> 00:35:19,560 in time, in life and in death. 442 00:35:20,560 --> 00:35:23,120 The special objects found at Orkney, 443 00:35:23,120 --> 00:35:25,800 the arrangement of the temple complex, 444 00:35:25,800 --> 00:35:29,400 these things imply the existence of a priestly class 445 00:35:29,400 --> 00:35:33,040 that the farmers themselves were supporting. 446 00:35:33,040 --> 00:35:35,760 And the sheer scale of these enterprises, 447 00:35:35,760 --> 00:35:39,320 the planning and engineering required by Stonehenge, 448 00:35:39,320 --> 00:35:43,720 by the Ring of Brodgar, suggests that some group was in charge, 449 00:35:43,720 --> 00:35:45,800 and they were out to impress. 450 00:35:45,800 --> 00:35:49,200 Because these monuments themselves were connected. 451 00:35:51,800 --> 00:35:55,000 We know people were moving between these great monuments 452 00:35:55,000 --> 00:35:57,080 because of this. 453 00:35:57,080 --> 00:35:59,240 It's a style of pottery. 454 00:35:59,240 --> 00:36:05,800 It's called grooved ware because of the grooves that decorate the surface. 455 00:36:05,800 --> 00:36:08,760 It was made first of all in Orkney. 456 00:36:08,760 --> 00:36:13,840 It's also the first pottery we know of in Britain and Ireland 457 00:36:13,840 --> 00:36:15,960 with a proper flat base. 458 00:36:15,960 --> 00:36:19,120 This style of pottery was subsequently found at Stonehenge, 459 00:36:19,120 --> 00:36:24,160 in the south of England, and it's found at all points in between. 460 00:36:24,160 --> 00:36:29,760 What the experts are now imagining is a kind of elite world travel, if you like, 461 00:36:29,760 --> 00:36:31,760 where important people 462 00:36:31,760 --> 00:36:37,560 moved between the great Neolithic monuments on a kind of Grand Tour. 463 00:36:37,560 --> 00:36:39,360 On three, lads. 464 00:36:39,360 --> 00:36:41,360 Haon, do, tri! 465 00:36:46,600 --> 00:36:48,080 '5,000 years ago, 466 00:36:48,080 --> 00:36:52,960 'there was only one way for a serious Neolithic traveller to get around.' 467 00:36:52,960 --> 00:36:55,600 Is she doing what she's supposed to, Clive? 468 00:36:55,600 --> 00:36:58,960 She's doing exactly what she's meant to do, so very impressed. 469 00:36:58,960 --> 00:37:02,040 - And it's completely dry. - She is. 470 00:37:02,040 --> 00:37:08,280 'I'm joining the crew of a sea-going currach, built by Irish boat-builder Clive O'Gibney, 471 00:37:08,280 --> 00:37:12,040 'using 5,000-year-old technology - 472 00:37:12,040 --> 00:37:17,600 'a frame of hazel, covered with cow hide, and sealed with pitch.' 473 00:37:17,600 --> 00:37:20,920 It's as smooth as spreading a nice piece of butter on bread. 474 00:37:20,920 --> 00:37:25,000 - Every now and again I can convince myself I'm in time with somebody. - That's it. 475 00:37:25,000 --> 00:37:28,160 If it's with me, Neil, we're in trouble. We're both out. 476 00:37:29,240 --> 00:37:32,880 - 'Rowing's all very well...' - All right, lads, give it a crack. 477 00:37:32,880 --> 00:37:37,600 'but Clive believes that longer voyages would have required some sort of sail.' 478 00:37:37,600 --> 00:37:40,840 OK. Now I'm going to go overboard if we do this. 479 00:37:40,840 --> 00:37:45,120 In the Neolithic, there was no cloth technology, 480 00:37:45,120 --> 00:37:49,560 so Clive has used hazel rods and strips of cow hide. 481 00:37:49,560 --> 00:37:54,840 No-one has ever attempted anything remotely like this before. 482 00:37:54,840 --> 00:37:57,920 We need everybody to be calm. 483 00:37:57,920 --> 00:38:01,960 I'm going to move that way with the sail, over towards you. 484 00:38:01,960 --> 00:38:03,480 Whoa, whoa, whoa! 485 00:38:04,840 --> 00:38:06,760 You're all right, lads, sit down. 486 00:38:08,680 --> 00:38:10,320 Do you hear it? 487 00:38:10,320 --> 00:38:11,600 All the way. 488 00:38:15,360 --> 00:38:17,600 'It's a heavy and cumbersome rig... 489 00:38:19,720 --> 00:38:22,840 '..but amazingly, it actually seems to work!' 490 00:38:32,240 --> 00:38:35,120 So how does it feel, Clive, seeing this for the first time? 491 00:38:35,120 --> 00:38:36,800 I'm delighted with myself. 492 00:38:36,800 --> 00:38:41,320 - It's one thing imagining it, but to actually feel it working... - Feel it. 493 00:38:41,320 --> 00:38:45,120 I wanted to hear it, I wanted to feel it and that's what we're getting now. 494 00:38:45,120 --> 00:38:48,880 - It's one of the best experiences I've had in my life. - It's definitely a sailing currach. 495 00:38:48,880 --> 00:38:53,280 It's definitely a sailing currach, there you go, Neil. 496 00:38:53,280 --> 00:38:55,360 - Will we just go to England? - Aye, come on. 497 00:38:55,360 --> 00:38:58,960 I've got the lunch, and a dram of something in there. 498 00:39:01,520 --> 00:39:03,960 It's easy to imagine boats like this 499 00:39:03,960 --> 00:39:07,800 sailing between the great sites of Neolithic Britain, 500 00:39:07,800 --> 00:39:15,120 carrying people, ideas, beliefs, and precious objects. 501 00:39:23,280 --> 00:39:28,320 One remarkable find epitomises this age of elite travel. 502 00:39:28,320 --> 00:39:30,800 It was discovered just north of Dublin, 503 00:39:30,800 --> 00:39:35,400 but it's thought it was made across the sea in Britain. 504 00:39:43,120 --> 00:39:45,720 This is a ceremonial macehead. 505 00:39:47,200 --> 00:39:50,080 It's 5,000 years old, there or thereabouts, 506 00:39:50,080 --> 00:39:53,640 and it's made from a single piece of beautifully worked flint. 507 00:39:54,800 --> 00:39:57,960 In every possible way, it's an object of wonder. 508 00:40:00,240 --> 00:40:06,040 Now, the person who made this wasn't just technically skilled, 509 00:40:06,040 --> 00:40:08,600 but also an artistic genius. 510 00:40:10,200 --> 00:40:15,040 Do you see the way that that spiral there suggests two eyes? 511 00:40:15,040 --> 00:40:19,760 And the hole to take the shaft of the mace could be the mouth. 512 00:40:19,760 --> 00:40:24,320 The hole for the shaft has been drilled out. 513 00:40:24,320 --> 00:40:26,440 Now this is from a time before any metal, 514 00:40:26,440 --> 00:40:29,560 so the drill bit was a piece of wood 515 00:40:29,560 --> 00:40:34,920 and the abrasive action has been achieved by using sand or ground quartz. 516 00:40:34,920 --> 00:40:39,200 But even saying that, you're still looking at countless hours, days, 517 00:40:39,200 --> 00:40:43,560 maybe even weeks of painstaking effort to create that perfect smooth hole. 518 00:40:46,000 --> 00:40:48,560 It's technically flawless, 519 00:40:48,560 --> 00:40:51,920 but it also reveals a level of sophistication 520 00:40:51,920 --> 00:40:55,360 and refinement of design that you simply don't see 521 00:40:55,360 --> 00:41:00,280 in any other artefact of the period in Britain or in Ireland. 522 00:41:02,640 --> 00:41:07,040 This new art speaks of power and prestige. 523 00:41:07,040 --> 00:41:11,120 Of an emerging world of priests and chieftains, people whose status 524 00:41:11,120 --> 00:41:15,320 was displayed in the possession of rare and exquisite objects. 525 00:41:22,040 --> 00:41:24,920 As well as Stonehenge and Orkney, 526 00:41:24,920 --> 00:41:28,200 it seems that these people also came to Ireland. 527 00:41:31,800 --> 00:41:37,040 5,000 years ago, travellers sailed or rowed up here, the River Boyne, 528 00:41:37,040 --> 00:41:39,800 to the most sacred landscape of them all, 529 00:41:39,800 --> 00:41:42,480 The Bru na Boinne, the "Palace of the Boyne". 530 00:41:51,720 --> 00:41:53,920 This is another sacred landscape, 531 00:41:53,920 --> 00:41:59,600 constructed around 3,200 BC, which means it probably predates 532 00:41:59,600 --> 00:42:03,520 the bluestone phase at Stonehenge, and the stone circles of Orkney. 533 00:42:03,520 --> 00:42:06,560 This could be where it all began. 534 00:42:06,560 --> 00:42:10,600 And right at the centre, a mecca for tourists from all over the world 535 00:42:10,600 --> 00:42:14,200 is this massive passage grave, Newgrange. 536 00:42:20,280 --> 00:42:23,880 Of course, the mound as you see it today isn't original. 537 00:42:23,880 --> 00:42:28,160 It was excavated in the 1960s and then reconstructed in this... 538 00:42:28,160 --> 00:42:30,960 well, very confident style. 539 00:42:30,960 --> 00:42:33,520 I'm in two minds about it, actually. On the one hand, 540 00:42:33,520 --> 00:42:36,160 it's very striking and attracts a lot of people, 541 00:42:36,160 --> 00:42:38,520 maybe inspires a lot of people to find out more. 542 00:42:38,520 --> 00:42:42,640 But on the other hand, it's a bit brutal and a bit overdone. 543 00:42:42,640 --> 00:42:45,240 It's kind of like "Stalin does the Stone Age". 544 00:42:53,000 --> 00:42:56,480 Inside, though, its magic still rings out. 545 00:42:57,880 --> 00:43:03,240 This is the very earliest building of the new Neolithic cosmology, 546 00:43:03,240 --> 00:43:07,840 created hundreds of years before even the Egyptian pyramids. 547 00:43:10,560 --> 00:43:13,840 What strikes you immediately is how much this feels like Maeshowe 548 00:43:13,840 --> 00:43:17,120 on Orkney, with this narrow low passageway 549 00:43:17,120 --> 00:43:20,320 leading from the world of light to the dark world within. 550 00:43:20,320 --> 00:43:23,680 And in fact, this may have been the inspiration for Maeshowe, 551 00:43:23,680 --> 00:43:25,880 because this tomb was built first. 552 00:43:35,320 --> 00:43:39,440 And again, like Maeshowe, there are three recesses 553 00:43:39,440 --> 00:43:43,360 that once upon a time would have held the remains of the dead. 554 00:43:43,360 --> 00:43:47,120 But this one is altogether more rough-hewn than Maeshowe. 555 00:43:47,120 --> 00:43:50,840 It lacks the perfection, it's more Stone Age, if you like. 556 00:43:53,600 --> 00:43:55,600 Like Maeshowe on Orkney, 557 00:43:55,600 --> 00:43:59,680 Newgrange is carefully aligned on the movement of the sun. 558 00:43:59,680 --> 00:44:00,920 Above the entrance 559 00:44:00,920 --> 00:44:05,480 there's a stone frame that lets light into the passage, a roofbox. 560 00:44:08,160 --> 00:44:12,520 If I get down here, you can see what I mean. 561 00:44:12,520 --> 00:44:17,760 On a day like today, it doesn't let a lot of sunshine in, 562 00:44:17,760 --> 00:44:19,040 but once a year, 563 00:44:19,040 --> 00:44:21,960 on December 21st, the winter solstice, 564 00:44:21,960 --> 00:44:25,720 the sun is directly in front of the entrance 565 00:44:25,720 --> 00:44:30,440 and the roofbox lets the sun all the way up this passageway 566 00:44:30,440 --> 00:44:33,480 until it illuminates the entire chamber. 567 00:44:35,560 --> 00:44:37,960 It lasts for about 17 minutes, 568 00:44:37,960 --> 00:44:41,560 and then the chamber is plunged into darkness for another year. 569 00:44:41,560 --> 00:44:45,200 Now, that trick makes this place 570 00:44:45,200 --> 00:44:49,720 one of the earliest astronomically aligned buildings anywhere in the world. 571 00:44:52,200 --> 00:44:56,440 Like the other monuments, Newgrange marks midwinter. 572 00:44:56,440 --> 00:45:00,760 But here, there's an additional clue to Neolithic belief. 573 00:45:00,760 --> 00:45:03,640 That time flows in a cycle. 574 00:45:03,640 --> 00:45:07,800 And even in death, there is a promise of rebirth. 575 00:45:12,720 --> 00:45:15,840 There's a reason for the alignment of the passageway. 576 00:45:15,840 --> 00:45:21,280 It's to allow the sun to illuminate this stone and pick out this carving, 577 00:45:21,280 --> 00:45:23,760 the only carving in the recess. 578 00:45:23,760 --> 00:45:26,600 It's something called a triple spiral, 579 00:45:26,600 --> 00:45:30,240 the very earliest example of a triple spiral. 580 00:45:30,240 --> 00:45:35,120 It's one continuous carving with no beginning and no end. 581 00:45:35,120 --> 00:45:37,680 It's a kind of perfect form. 582 00:45:37,680 --> 00:45:40,600 The illumination of this carving once a year, 583 00:45:40,600 --> 00:45:45,680 in a piece of religious theatre, lay at the very heart of the beliefs 584 00:45:45,680 --> 00:45:49,040 of the people who designed and built this place. 585 00:45:51,880 --> 00:45:57,040 The great sacred sites of Newgrange, Stonehenge and Orkney were magnets 586 00:45:57,040 --> 00:45:59,120 for elite travellers who, 587 00:45:59,120 --> 00:46:04,720 5,000 years ago, took inspiration and ideas from one another. 588 00:46:04,720 --> 00:46:08,800 What we're left with today are monuments that are unique in Europe, 589 00:46:08,800 --> 00:46:14,160 created by powerful and commonly held religious beliefs. 590 00:46:14,160 --> 00:46:18,480 From the Orkney Islands in Scotland to the Preseli mountains in Wales, 591 00:46:18,480 --> 00:46:22,800 from the Lake District in the north of England to Stonehenge in the south 592 00:46:22,800 --> 00:46:26,000 and finally here in Ireland, it's all connected. 593 00:46:28,360 --> 00:46:32,280 And all that time, there must have been some sort of priestly caste 594 00:46:32,280 --> 00:46:34,680 marshalling all that effort. 595 00:46:34,680 --> 00:46:37,040 The people who carried the maceheads. 596 00:46:37,040 --> 00:46:39,600 And in some of the tombs surrounding Newgrange, 597 00:46:39,600 --> 00:46:43,160 there are clues to their sacred beliefs, and, in particular, 598 00:46:43,160 --> 00:46:46,800 to the treatment of some of the first elites of ancient society. 599 00:46:53,200 --> 00:46:57,560 Within sight of Newgrange lies yet another tomb, Knowth. 600 00:47:08,160 --> 00:47:13,080 More than 400 of its stones are covered in swirling, abstract art, 601 00:47:13,080 --> 00:47:17,240 almost half of all the megalithic art in the whole of Western Europe. 602 00:47:23,960 --> 00:47:28,040 This is where the precious macehead was found. 603 00:47:28,040 --> 00:47:30,720 And it wasn't the only spectacular discovery. 604 00:47:32,480 --> 00:47:36,920 Archaeologist George Eogan has been studying Knowth for 50 years. 605 00:47:40,360 --> 00:47:45,560 You could picture that you had a religious person, the equivalent of a priest 606 00:47:45,560 --> 00:47:47,760 who could stand here 607 00:47:47,760 --> 00:47:52,800 before the entrance, and in between, 608 00:47:52,800 --> 00:47:58,000 you have this splendid sandstone, six feet or so in height, 609 00:47:58,000 --> 00:48:02,000 with a vertical line which leads up the centre of the passage. 610 00:48:02,000 --> 00:48:04,840 So what would have happened inside? 611 00:48:04,840 --> 00:48:06,560 Who gets in there? 612 00:48:06,560 --> 00:48:11,240 I would think only a small number of people went inside, 613 00:48:11,240 --> 00:48:13,240 probably even an individual, 614 00:48:13,240 --> 00:48:18,520 who just took the remains and placed them in the tomb. 615 00:48:18,520 --> 00:48:20,280 - Can we have a look? - We can indeed. 616 00:48:20,280 --> 00:48:21,440 Good. Lead on. 617 00:48:28,880 --> 00:48:30,800 Back in 1968, 618 00:48:30,800 --> 00:48:35,320 George was the first person in modern times to break into the tomb. 619 00:48:35,320 --> 00:48:38,600 - How long is the passage? - About 140 feet. 620 00:48:43,280 --> 00:48:47,240 - Are you winning? - It'll take me a long time. No hurry. 621 00:48:54,520 --> 00:48:58,200 I can see why you don't have this place open to the public, George. 622 00:48:58,200 --> 00:49:00,000 - It's not the easiest place. - No. 623 00:49:02,760 --> 00:49:06,400 Oh, my. Oh, I say. 624 00:49:06,400 --> 00:49:09,560 - Look up. - Now, that's a bit good. 625 00:49:12,040 --> 00:49:15,920 And this is as it was? This hasn't been reconstructed? 626 00:49:15,920 --> 00:49:18,080 No, not at all. 627 00:49:18,080 --> 00:49:21,720 What was it like the very first time you came in here? 628 00:49:21,720 --> 00:49:25,680 How did you feel to be the first person in here in goodness knows how long? 629 00:49:25,680 --> 00:49:29,680 Well, it was unbelievably exciting. 630 00:49:36,320 --> 00:49:41,720 What George found were the untouched remnants of ancient sacred rites, 631 00:49:41,720 --> 00:49:44,160 a time capsule of Neolithic belief. 632 00:49:46,240 --> 00:49:50,200 And scattered in and around this exquisitely carved basin 633 00:49:50,200 --> 00:49:53,320 was evidence of something new in Stone Age society - 634 00:49:55,520 --> 00:49:57,280 burnt human remains. 635 00:50:04,240 --> 00:50:06,560 These are some of the earliest remains 636 00:50:06,560 --> 00:50:09,400 of ritual cremation ever found. 637 00:50:09,400 --> 00:50:14,440 The skull is easiest to find, because the skull is very distinctive. 638 00:50:14,440 --> 00:50:16,600 It has an inner and outer layer, 639 00:50:16,600 --> 00:50:20,040 and some spongy bone in between. 640 00:50:20,040 --> 00:50:22,640 Although only fragments survive, 641 00:50:22,640 --> 00:50:28,520 under expert eyes, these remains reveal a wealth of information. 642 00:50:28,520 --> 00:50:31,640 Some areas of the skull are more important than others. 643 00:50:31,640 --> 00:50:36,240 This part in particular is the petrous portion of the temporal bone 644 00:50:36,240 --> 00:50:39,480 and it survives very well because it's thick. 645 00:50:39,480 --> 00:50:44,320 From this, I can identify which side of the skull it came from, 646 00:50:44,320 --> 00:50:47,320 so it's useful in determining the number of individuals. 647 00:50:47,320 --> 00:50:51,800 If I have two left temporal bones, I have two different individuals. 648 00:50:53,680 --> 00:50:58,320 Forensic science reveals that Knowth contained over 100 cremated bodies. 649 00:51:01,480 --> 00:51:05,360 But those cremations were accumulated over centuries of use. 650 00:51:06,600 --> 00:51:12,880 The radiocarbon dates showed that that was over approximately a 300-year time span. 651 00:51:12,880 --> 00:51:17,400 That works out at one cremation every two to three years. 652 00:51:17,400 --> 00:51:20,160 So therefore, cremation wasn't that common. 653 00:51:21,840 --> 00:51:28,360 What Laureen Buckley's work shows is that the new practice of cremation was unusual. 654 00:51:28,360 --> 00:51:31,640 This rarity, and the discovery of the Knowth macehead, 655 00:51:31,640 --> 00:51:33,160 suggests that it was an honour 656 00:51:33,160 --> 00:51:37,160 reserved for only the very highest levels of late Neolithic society. 657 00:51:42,920 --> 00:51:47,440 The cremated remains at Knowth show that there was a hierarchy 658 00:51:47,440 --> 00:51:50,840 at play which determined how your mortal remains were treated. 659 00:51:50,840 --> 00:51:55,520 Put simply, if you were important, your remains were burnt, cremated. 660 00:51:57,960 --> 00:52:03,240 And presumably that meant that your spirit was being treated differently 661 00:52:03,240 --> 00:52:05,880 and was going to go somewhere different 662 00:52:05,880 --> 00:52:09,640 than the remains of those left behind on Earth simply to be buried. 663 00:52:13,720 --> 00:52:18,720 I'm going to have my own experimental cremation right here in the shadow of Knowth tomb. 664 00:52:21,640 --> 00:52:24,400 The thing is, cremating a body 665 00:52:24,400 --> 00:52:27,920 is about much more than just lighting a fire, 666 00:52:27,920 --> 00:52:30,880 it's a technological challenge, 667 00:52:30,880 --> 00:52:33,920 which is why I've brought two Dublin firemen with me. 668 00:52:37,000 --> 00:52:40,720 We need to get it between 1,500-1,700 degrees Celsius 669 00:52:40,720 --> 00:52:43,880 in order to totally cremate the body. 670 00:52:43,880 --> 00:52:47,680 And how long does it have to sustain that temperature 671 00:52:47,680 --> 00:52:50,080 to do away with something like a human body? 672 00:52:50,080 --> 00:52:54,960 About two to three hours, but then the idea of building the pyre like this is that it holds its structure. 673 00:52:54,960 --> 00:52:59,160 As it ignites, the structure remains intact and then collapses inwards. 674 00:52:59,160 --> 00:53:00,440 Lovely. 675 00:53:03,120 --> 00:53:05,560 Since I can't find anyone to volunteer, 676 00:53:05,560 --> 00:53:08,520 we've taken a trip to the local butcher's. 677 00:53:08,520 --> 00:53:10,120 At around 70 kilos, 678 00:53:10,120 --> 00:53:14,480 a medium-sized pig makes a good substitute for an average adult man. 679 00:53:18,640 --> 00:53:22,320 Almost a third of its weight is fat and that's important, 680 00:53:22,320 --> 00:53:25,640 because although wood is needed to get things going, 681 00:53:25,640 --> 00:53:28,320 the main fuel in a cremation is the body itself. 682 00:53:55,040 --> 00:53:57,480 We've ordained that our cremations 683 00:53:57,480 --> 00:54:00,000 are performed out of sight and out of mind, 684 00:54:00,000 --> 00:54:02,680 but this is really what it's all about. 685 00:54:02,680 --> 00:54:07,600 Flesh and bone being consumed by the flames and turned into smoke. 686 00:54:10,320 --> 00:54:11,600 I quite like it. 687 00:54:14,400 --> 00:54:17,200 It's a process that takes hours, 688 00:54:17,200 --> 00:54:21,200 time enough to reflect upon a leader's life 689 00:54:21,200 --> 00:54:23,280 and their journey to another world. 690 00:54:25,400 --> 00:54:28,400 You have to try and imagine the impact of this on people 691 00:54:28,400 --> 00:54:30,440 5,000 years ago. 692 00:54:30,440 --> 00:54:34,920 When a chieftain or priest died, 693 00:54:34,920 --> 00:54:40,480 their body would be consumed by fire and be reduced to virtually nothing. 694 00:54:43,040 --> 00:54:47,240 And then to see the few earthbound remains, 695 00:54:47,240 --> 00:54:50,920 a handful of dust and crumbling bones, 696 00:54:50,920 --> 00:54:57,000 picked out of the embers and placed in a recess in that tomb for ever... 697 00:55:00,040 --> 00:55:05,160 ..while all the rest of them had disappeared into the sky. 698 00:55:05,160 --> 00:55:07,720 Who can imagine what impact that would have? 699 00:55:16,440 --> 00:55:20,840 The following morning, and only a few smoking embers remain. 700 00:55:22,520 --> 00:55:27,040 As a first attempt at Neolithic cremation, I think that's quite good. 701 00:55:27,040 --> 00:55:30,200 The flame has done away with most of the body. 702 00:55:30,200 --> 00:55:33,240 So I've sent that pig into the afterlife, if you like. 703 00:55:40,120 --> 00:55:43,560 The discoveries in Ireland show a new society emerging 704 00:55:43,560 --> 00:55:48,200 though the late Neolithic, a society where status mattered. 705 00:55:50,440 --> 00:55:53,440 It determined the objects you possessed in life, 706 00:55:53,440 --> 00:55:55,640 and how your body was treated in death. 707 00:56:00,240 --> 00:56:03,480 This was a society where ideas travelled, 708 00:56:03,480 --> 00:56:05,800 and where new beliefs were manifested 709 00:56:05,800 --> 00:56:10,640 in the greatest ancient monuments the world had ever seen. 710 00:56:10,640 --> 00:56:13,640 And it's in those very monuments that today, 711 00:56:13,640 --> 00:56:18,120 we're able to glimpse the very birth of a whole new concept of existence. 712 00:56:20,160 --> 00:56:25,520 From around 3,000 to 2,500BC was the time when we became aware 713 00:56:25,520 --> 00:56:30,600 of our place, not just here on Earth, but within the cosmos. 714 00:56:30,600 --> 00:56:34,280 The great tombs, the stone circles, 715 00:56:34,280 --> 00:56:38,640 they were an attempt to make sense of the movement of the sun and the moon, 716 00:56:38,640 --> 00:56:43,640 of an entire universe that shapes and governs our lives, and our time. 717 00:56:50,360 --> 00:56:54,600 Those forces went way beyond the reach of the ancestors. 718 00:56:54,600 --> 00:56:58,640 So much so, that from now on when some people died, 719 00:56:58,640 --> 00:57:02,680 they were to be sent to a new place, a different place. 720 00:57:02,680 --> 00:57:06,680 Not down into the earth, but up into the sky. 721 00:57:06,680 --> 00:57:13,720 It seems to me that it was in the Neolithic that people conceived of an idea that endures to this day, 722 00:57:13,720 --> 00:57:17,040 that somewhere up here was heaven. 723 00:57:24,480 --> 00:57:26,920 'Next time, my journey continues...' 724 00:57:28,200 --> 00:57:29,600 Look at that! 725 00:57:29,600 --> 00:57:32,160 '..as I discover a new age...' 726 00:57:32,160 --> 00:57:34,240 That is magic. 727 00:57:34,240 --> 00:57:37,000 - '..one forged in metal...' - Are you impressed? 728 00:57:37,000 --> 00:57:40,040 Very. I'm deeply, deeply impressed. 729 00:57:40,040 --> 00:57:41,880 '..by a new people...' 730 00:57:41,880 --> 00:57:47,200 He knew how to get metal, how to make metal and how to work metal. 731 00:57:47,200 --> 00:57:50,400 '..a people inventing a whole new way of living.' 732 00:57:53,480 --> 00:57:57,640 As well as men working down here, there must have been children. 733 00:57:57,640 --> 00:58:00,600 Some of the spaces are just too small.