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This is the story
of how Britain came to be.

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Of how our land, and its people,

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were forged over thousands
of years of ancient history.

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This Britain
is a strange and alien world.

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A world that contains
the epic story

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of our distant, prehistoric past...

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'From a time of Celtic glory...'

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The owner of this is a man
who's being seen by his followers

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as nothing less than a king.

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'..To a new, mysterious religion.'

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Whoever wore this was obviously
a Christian, a believer.

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'And the technological breakthroughs

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'that created whole new ages.'

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You've got the basis of
mass production there, haven't you?

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Today, modern science
and new archaeology

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are solving ancient mysteries.

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And revealing the seismic shifts

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that transformed Britain.

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It shows the way in which
the Romans, quite literally,

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brought the modern world,
the future with them.

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'The latest chapter
in our epic story...'

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That's the lot of
the Bronze Age miner.

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God bless him.

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'..From a golden age of bronze...'

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Then there's this
magnificent cauldron.

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It's so modern somehow.

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'..To a Britain in crisis.'

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Everything about this place
says, "Keep out."

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A time of economic meltdown,

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sudden climate change...

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and the dawn of a new era...

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of iron.

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I'm going back 3,000 years

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to late Bronze Age Britain,

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1,000 years BC.

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An island that is home
to perhaps half a million people,

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living in farmsteads and hamlets,

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spread right across the land.

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Here, on this wild stretch
of Devon coastline,

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near the town of Salcombe,

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you can see field boundaries
clinging to that slope over there.

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They're not modern,

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they're not Medieval, either.

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In fact, they're around
3,000 years old.

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These boundaries were created

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by self-sufficient
Bronze Age farmers.

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Up close, strangely enough,

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the lines are actually harder
to see. It's because they're so big.

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The lines that were so obvious
from over there,

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are actually the bracken
that's growing on the real boundary

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which is a heaped-up earthen bank.

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In this field, and in the fields
that surround it, 3,000 years ago,

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Bronze Age farmers
were growing oats and rye

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or keeping cattle or sheep.

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By the late Bronze Age,

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what we see emerging is a Britain
that has the first glimmers

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of a world that
we would recognise today.

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Permanent settlements
with neighbours,

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people keeping animals,
growing crops,

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and seeming peace and stability
that has lasted for generations.

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The Bronze Age was a kind
of golden age in our history,

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one in which a warm
and generally favourable climate

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enabled a growing population to
expand into newly-cultivated lands.

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It was as if
we had finally come of age,

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after countless thousands of years
of dramatic struggle for survival

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and turbulent upheavals in society.

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Our story first began
in times so remote

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that the people who occupied Britain

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were even a different species.

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These are the oldest human remains

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ever found in Britain.

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Boxgrove Man

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lived half a million years ago.

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From around 30,000 years ago,

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bands of modern humans
came to Britain,

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hunting the herds of horse
and reindeer.

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It's a fragment of horse bone,

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with an engraving of a horse
etched into it.

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It's miraculous.

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This was a struggle
for survival in Ice-Age Europe,

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when Britain was a peninsula.

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But when the ice retreated,
around 10,000 years ago,

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a new land of forests
and rivers emerged...

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..Attracting new generations
of nomadic hunters.

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Instead of hunting mammoth
and reindeer in the snow,

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he hunted red deer in the wild wood.

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As the ice continued to melt,
sea levels rose,

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and by 6,000 BC,

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Britain became an island.

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2,000 years later,

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the first farmers came,

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bringing seed, livestock,

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and a whole new way of life...

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..as well as sophisticated,
cosmological beliefs.

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The illumination of this carving
once a year,

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in a piece of religious theatre,

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lay at the very heart

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of the beliefs of the people
who designed and built this place.

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They created some of the greatest
monuments in all of prehistory.

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Vast passage tombs...

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stone circles...

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And the monument
of Stonehenge itself.

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But the arrival of metal

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brought the Stone Age to an end.

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From a time of cosmological priests,

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status now came from owning bronze.

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No humble carpenter
could possibly have dreamt

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of owning something so valuable
in the early days of bronze.

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Much more than tools,

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these are objects of desire...

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showing off.

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Bronze Age Britain ushered in
a new world of commerce and trade -

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opportunities to gain wealth
and prestige.

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Just off the Devon coast,
a team of archaeologists

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is discovering
a relic of this new world.

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The wreck of a trading vessel
that sank here...

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3,000 years ago.

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What are we actually looking for?

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We're looking for ingots, Neil.
There's two sorts of ingots here.

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Both copper and tin ingots
have been found on this site.

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And that's precisely the two metals
that you need to make bronze.

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That's right, yeah.
We're in 50 feet of water here.

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How do we find the cargo?

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We find the cargo
with a metal detector.

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Exactly like the sort of thing you'd
use in a farmer's field, isn't it?
It's exactly the same piece of kit.

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It looks like an electric shock
waiting to happen.
It does, doesn't it?

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Three, two, one...drop, diver.

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When the boat sank,

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it was laden with copper and tin,

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the valuable resources
of the Bronze Age.

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The boat's timbers
have long decayed,

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but some of its precious cargo
still survives.

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The Salcombe boat is evidence
of an economy based on bronze,

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and a modern and mobile
social class -

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the metal dealers of their day.

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One of the divers has got a signal.

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So this is the first time

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that the contents of this bag

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has been in the open air...
That's right. ..for 3,000 years.

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That's right.

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Look at that!

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Now, that is unmistakable, isn't it?

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The heft of it,

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the weight and the colour.

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So, how much of this material
have you recovered,

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or have the team recovered?

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The team's recovered
almost 300 ingots now,

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which come to a total of about 85kg.

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'But it wasn't only raw metal
that went down with the boat...'

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Neil, this is a sword that was
found two or three dives ago now.

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Now, that is a bit more recognisable
than a copper ingot.

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Was that being moved as metal,

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or was it there as a sword,
a fighting weapon?

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I think this is somebody's
personal possession for defence.

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The defence of the boat
and the cargo.

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The copper ingots are...
anonymous, in a way,

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but finding this...is such
a priceless personal belonging.

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It really speaks of a person,
doesn't it?

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You can imagine that he'd only
willingly be parted from it

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along with his life.

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That's right. He may have lost his
life at the same time as his sword.

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By analysing samples
of excavated metal,

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scientists can discover more about
the Salcombe wreck's cargo.

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The analysis of what we've looked at
so far from Salcombe

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suggests that that particular ingot

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did not come from Devon or Cornwall.

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Copper contains an atomic signature
that can reveal where it was mined.

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We can link copper in Britain

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with a range of areas
in the continent.

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Trade in bronze
wasn't confined to Britain -

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this was an international economy.

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From the Alps, Brittany,
down through central France,

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Spain, maybe even Portugal.

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The Salcombe finds are revealing
more than a coastal trading vessel,

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moving cargoes
of domestic copper and tin.

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The boat that sank here
3,000 years ago

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was a link in a long chain
of international trade

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which connected Britain
to the very heart of Western Europe

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through the exchange of bronze.

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Metals had come to Britain
1,500 years earlier,

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around 2,500 BC...

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..Brought by the first
metal prospectors

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arriving from continental Europe.

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In amongst this dazzling array
of grave goods, is metal.

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Look at this. Here's one of them.

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It's a copper knife. It would have
been in a wooden handle, maybe,
coming out, to give you a grip.

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There's the cutting edge.

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These are the oldest metal objects

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found so far in Britain.

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'But it was when copper
was mixed with tin

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'that a technical revolution
occurred...

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'Turning two soft metals
into a new alloy,

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'hard enough to keep a sharp edge -

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'bronze.'

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From liquid fire to a metal sword
in a couple of minutes.

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The Stone Age had been characterised

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by vast communal monuments.

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But the Bronze Age
would be different,

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with personal, domestic life
at its heart.

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Unlike these massive stones,

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metal technology
would make it possible

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to cast and work exquisite objects,

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the like of which
had never been seen before.

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A collection at
the National Museum Of Wales

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reveals just what late
Bronze Age workers were capable of

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after 1,000 years
of technological innovation.

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All of these items
were crafted around 700 years BC

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and there are all types.

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There are socketed bronze axe-heads,

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different sizes and weights.

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The edge on this one...

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has obviously been struck against
something hard

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with considerable force,
at some point.

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But I particularly like

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this little item here.

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This is a bronze razor for shaving,

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and it's when you handle and see
pieces like this

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that you get that sense
of real, living people.

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I have to say, I've often wondered

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just how effective

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a razor like this would have been.

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00:15:51,480 --> 00:15:55,960
I can just about imagine keeping
facial hair under control with it,

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but I think the idea
of a modern clean shave

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would still be
some centuries in the future

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when this was in vogue.

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And then there's this magnificent
cauldron, also made of bronze.

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These strips have been individually
punched hundreds of times

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to take these hundreds and hundreds
of pointed delicate rivets.

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00:16:20,920 --> 00:16:25,200
And then there are the
separately-cast big hoop handles.

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It really is fantastic

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and the cauldron itself
is a powerful symbol.

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There's more going on here than
just cooking and feeding people,

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because the cauldron,
for a long time,

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was symbolic of much more.

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It's about regeneration
and it's about life itself.

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And so this, whether or not
it's been used for cooking,

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is a powerful iconic symbol.

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Trade in bronze
was fuelled by demand

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00:16:56,480 --> 00:16:58,880
from a high-class elite.

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00:16:58,880 --> 00:17:01,360
Not everyone had the wealth
for a bronze razor,

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00:17:01,360 --> 00:17:04,080
let alone a feasting cauldron.

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For those at the top,

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bronze was a material of desire,

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00:17:13,120 --> 00:17:16,360
a source of status and wealth.

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00:17:19,040 --> 00:17:20,400
And right across Europe,

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people of means
couldn't get enough of it.

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Britain, on the far north-western
fringe of Europe,

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00:17:34,680 --> 00:17:39,520
was well-placed to take advantage
of this insatiable demand.

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00:17:39,520 --> 00:17:42,680
And that was because
of our natural resources.

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00:17:42,680 --> 00:17:44,440
Down in Cornwall,

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there were large reserves
of a rare metal, tin,

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a key ingredient
in the manufacture of bronze.

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00:17:51,040 --> 00:17:55,400
Not for nothing was Britain
later known as the Tin Islands.

254
00:17:55,400 --> 00:17:58,440
But as well as tin,
you needed copper.

255
00:17:58,440 --> 00:17:59,720
And just wait till you see

256
00:17:59,720 --> 00:18:01,880
what's further along this headland,

257
00:18:01,880 --> 00:18:05,320
above Llandudno in North Wales.

258
00:18:15,920 --> 00:18:20,920
Great Orme - the biggest prehistoric
mine in the entire world.

259
00:18:23,640 --> 00:18:26,440
The mining operation began here
as an open-cast pit

260
00:18:26,440 --> 00:18:28,560
about 4,000 years ago.

261
00:18:28,560 --> 00:18:31,320
That's 1,000 years
before the Salcombe wreck.

262
00:18:31,320 --> 00:18:33,840
And once the surface deposits
were exhausted,

263
00:18:33,840 --> 00:18:37,640
there was only one place to go -
underground.

264
00:18:42,520 --> 00:18:46,760
Miners hacked a web of tunnels
down through the bedrock,

265
00:18:46,760 --> 00:18:49,600
penetrating over 20 metres
below the surface.

266
00:18:53,880 --> 00:18:55,720
I'm only fighting

267
00:18:55,720 --> 00:18:59,120
to manoeuvre my way through here.

268
00:18:59,120 --> 00:19:02,040
What you have to bear in mind
all the time

269
00:19:02,040 --> 00:19:05,720
is that Bronze Age miners
had to cut these holes

270
00:19:05,720 --> 00:19:08,920
through the rock.

271
00:19:08,920 --> 00:19:11,440
And then, at the same time,

272
00:19:11,440 --> 00:19:13,960
removing the ore,

273
00:19:13,960 --> 00:19:15,520
getting it out.

274
00:19:15,520 --> 00:19:18,040
And the spoil, all the waste -

275
00:19:18,040 --> 00:19:20,480
the wrong kind of rock
that they didn't want -

276
00:19:20,480 --> 00:19:22,320
they had to get rid of that as well.

277
00:19:24,920 --> 00:19:26,840
The physical effort of all that...

278
00:19:26,840 --> 00:19:28,400
it's just incredible.

279
00:19:34,320 --> 00:19:36,720
I just have to turn on my back
for a minute.

280
00:19:41,840 --> 00:19:43,600
Oh, my!

281
00:19:43,600 --> 00:19:45,080
Just in front of me

282
00:19:45,080 --> 00:19:47,520
is the entrance to...

283
00:19:47,520 --> 00:19:49,520
Well, to call it a tunnel...

284
00:19:49,520 --> 00:19:53,240
It's like...
It's about 20 centimetres wide.

285
00:19:53,240 --> 00:19:55,520
It's backfilled with rubble
at the moment,

286
00:19:55,520 --> 00:19:59,560
but at some point,
somebody was in there working.

287
00:19:59,560 --> 00:20:02,920
Somebody very small or,
more likely I suppose,

288
00:20:02,920 --> 00:20:04,520
somebody very young.

289
00:20:04,520 --> 00:20:06,080
It's just terrifying.

290
00:20:11,720 --> 00:20:15,920
'So far,
archaeologists have excavated
eight kilometres of tunnels,

291
00:20:15,920 --> 00:20:20,800
'and over half the network
still remains undiscovered.

292
00:20:20,800 --> 00:20:23,200
'Enough ore was mined here

293
00:20:23,200 --> 00:20:26,640
'to make around
2,000 tonnes of bronze.'

294
00:20:29,120 --> 00:20:31,000
Right at the heart of the mine,

295
00:20:31,000 --> 00:20:34,240
several of the copper veins
converged,

296
00:20:34,240 --> 00:20:39,480
and in excavating them,
in mining them,

297
00:20:39,480 --> 00:20:41,000
the Bronze Age miners

298
00:20:41,000 --> 00:20:45,800
created this enormous,
cavernous space.

299
00:20:48,720 --> 00:20:53,280
Every cubic metre of space

300
00:20:53,280 --> 00:20:56,960
has been created by people.

301
00:20:56,960 --> 00:21:01,240
This is probably the largest,
prehistoric man-made chamber

302
00:21:01,240 --> 00:21:03,000
anywhere in the world.

303
00:21:05,720 --> 00:21:10,040
'It's ironic that bronze itself
was too valuable to use down here,

304
00:21:10,040 --> 00:21:14,840
'so the miners had to make do
with rock and bone.'

305
00:21:16,760 --> 00:21:21,040
This is an actual
Bronze Age hammer stone.

306
00:21:21,040 --> 00:21:23,840
This would have been used
to expose the ore,

307
00:21:23,840 --> 00:21:26,720
but also, and even more
unbelievably, I suppose,

308
00:21:26,720 --> 00:21:28,280
to dig the tunnels.

309
00:21:28,280 --> 00:21:30,280
Imagine having to
dig these spaces out

310
00:21:30,280 --> 00:21:35,360
with tools no more sophisticated
than this.

311
00:21:35,360 --> 00:21:36,920
Then once they were in here,

312
00:21:36,920 --> 00:21:39,440
and once the copper
was visible to them,

313
00:21:39,440 --> 00:21:41,040
they turned to these...

314
00:21:41,040 --> 00:21:43,640
This is a rib bone from an animal.

315
00:21:43,640 --> 00:21:45,840
It looks like a pick,
and it is a pick.

316
00:21:45,840 --> 00:21:48,240
It was used to dig out the ore.

317
00:21:48,240 --> 00:21:50,320
Such simple technology.

318
00:21:50,320 --> 00:21:54,880
Of course, the glaring reality
that I've been overlooking

319
00:21:54,880 --> 00:21:59,480
is the fact that the miners wouldn't
have been able to use light.

320
00:21:59,480 --> 00:22:03,600
If they had lit fires
or used oil-burning lamps,

321
00:22:03,600 --> 00:22:06,240
the flames would have been
consuming the oxygen

322
00:22:06,240 --> 00:22:08,880
that they depended on
for their very survival.

323
00:22:08,880 --> 00:22:12,720
So the only viable option
was to work in the dark.

324
00:22:18,840 --> 00:22:22,080
Its like a whole collection
of nightmares all in one place.

325
00:22:22,080 --> 00:22:24,040
Confined spaces,

326
00:22:24,040 --> 00:22:26,640
tens of metres under ground.

327
00:22:26,640 --> 00:22:29,360
That's the lot of
the Bronze Age miner.

328
00:22:29,360 --> 00:22:30,800
God bless him.

329
00:22:37,720 --> 00:22:39,680
For hundreds of years,

330
00:22:39,680 --> 00:22:42,880
the Bronze Age
had sharpened divisions in society

331
00:22:42,880 --> 00:22:45,280
around the idea
that status and wealth

332
00:22:45,280 --> 00:22:48,480
could be gained through
the exchange of the metal.

333
00:22:50,040 --> 00:22:53,680
But now, the very bronze economy
that had given some people

334
00:22:53,680 --> 00:22:57,840
financial opportunity
and social mobility

335
00:22:57,840 --> 00:22:59,480
was spinning out of control.

336
00:23:02,080 --> 00:23:06,360
The insatiable appetite for bronze
all across Britain and Europe

337
00:23:06,360 --> 00:23:08,800
went way beyond practical needs.

338
00:23:08,800 --> 00:23:12,240
After all, there's only so many
bronze axes that anyone needs

339
00:23:12,240 --> 00:23:13,760
to cut down a tree.

340
00:23:13,760 --> 00:23:16,920
Instead, what we've got

341
00:23:16,920 --> 00:23:19,200
is bronze as a unit of exchange.

342
00:23:19,200 --> 00:23:23,200
And it's this that's fuelling
the digging of mines like
the Great Orme,

343
00:23:23,200 --> 00:23:25,560
and the international
coastal trade.

344
00:23:25,560 --> 00:23:28,720
By around 1,000 years BC,

345
00:23:28,720 --> 00:23:33,400
the bronze axe has become
a kind of proto-currency -

346
00:23:33,400 --> 00:23:37,240
wealth divorced from
its practical use as a metal.

347
00:23:37,240 --> 00:23:40,160
And a bit like the economic
bubbles that we see today,

348
00:23:40,160 --> 00:23:41,720
that spelled danger,

349
00:23:41,720 --> 00:23:44,400
because a change
in the attitude to bronze

350
00:23:44,400 --> 00:23:46,800
would have far-reaching
consequences,

351
00:23:46,800 --> 00:23:48,800
not just for the Bronze Age elite,

352
00:23:48,800 --> 00:23:50,640
but for all of British society.

353
00:23:53,680 --> 00:23:57,480
By 800 BC, Britain,
along with the rest of Europe,

354
00:23:57,480 --> 00:24:00,040
was heading for
an economic meltdown.

355
00:24:04,040 --> 00:24:08,080
A golden era that had lasted
for over 1,000 years

356
00:24:08,080 --> 00:24:09,400
was about to end.

357
00:24:13,000 --> 00:24:16,320
Bronze, the international currency
of exchange,

358
00:24:16,320 --> 00:24:17,480
began to be dumped.

359
00:24:22,400 --> 00:24:24,520
The astonishing display
on this table

360
00:24:24,520 --> 00:24:30,040
is the Langton Matravers
bronze axe hoard.

361
00:24:30,040 --> 00:24:32,280
They were found back in 2007

362
00:24:32,280 --> 00:24:33,960
by a metal detectorist

363
00:24:33,960 --> 00:24:36,440
investigating a farmer's field
in Dorset.

364
00:24:37,960 --> 00:24:41,800
At first, he possibly thought he was
just finding one or two of these,

365
00:24:41,800 --> 00:24:43,440
but then it turned into dozens,

366
00:24:43,440 --> 00:24:44,760
and then into hundreds.

367
00:24:44,760 --> 00:24:45,840
And by the end,

368
00:24:45,840 --> 00:24:49,640
he had nearly 400
socketed bronze axes.

369
00:24:49,640 --> 00:24:51,160
It's unbelievable.

370
00:24:53,120 --> 00:24:55,840
Examination of them reveals

371
00:24:55,840 --> 00:24:58,880
that most were never used as axes.

372
00:24:58,880 --> 00:25:01,360
They were made, probably locally,

373
00:25:01,360 --> 00:25:04,320
and then almost immediately
buried in the ground.

374
00:25:04,320 --> 00:25:06,640
Just deposited, discarded.

375
00:25:09,080 --> 00:25:11,560
'Huge amounts of buried bronze
from this time

376
00:25:11,560 --> 00:25:13,720
'have been discovered
all over Britain.

377
00:25:13,720 --> 00:25:16,680
'The moment when
the economic bubble burst

378
00:25:16,680 --> 00:25:21,840
'and axes like this
became all but worthless.'

379
00:25:21,840 --> 00:25:25,320
These hoards mark an extraordinary
turning point in our history.

380
00:25:25,320 --> 00:25:29,240
Bronze - much sought-after,
much valued,

381
00:25:29,240 --> 00:25:33,240
the very base of power and exchange
across Britain and Europe

382
00:25:33,240 --> 00:25:35,400
was being thrown away.

383
00:25:40,080 --> 00:25:42,360
But sometimes,
discoveries from this time

384
00:25:42,360 --> 00:25:44,800
don't only contain bronze.

385
00:25:48,960 --> 00:25:51,280
Back at
the National Museum Of Wales,

386
00:25:51,480 --> 00:25:56,200
the Llyn Fawr hoard contained
a new, technological wonder.

387
00:25:59,520 --> 00:26:01,440
Alongside the bronze axes,

388
00:26:01,440 --> 00:26:04,400
and the magnificent
feasting cauldron,

389
00:26:04,400 --> 00:26:06,800
this hoard included a material

390
00:26:06,800 --> 00:26:09,080
that had never been seen
in Britain before.

391
00:26:12,480 --> 00:26:16,880
What makes this collection special
is right here...

392
00:26:16,880 --> 00:26:21,360
These are sickles
for harvesting a crop.

393
00:26:21,360 --> 00:26:23,800
These two are made of bronze,

394
00:26:23,800 --> 00:26:26,040
but this one...

395
00:26:26,040 --> 00:26:27,800
is made of iron.

396
00:26:27,800 --> 00:26:33,320
And it's one of the earliest iron
objects ever found in Britain.

397
00:26:33,320 --> 00:26:37,400
It's a stepping stone
between two technologies,

398
00:26:37,400 --> 00:26:39,640
because the craftsman who made this

399
00:26:39,640 --> 00:26:41,680
has used iron
to create an object

400
00:26:41,680 --> 00:26:44,280
that looks as though
it were made of bronze.

401
00:26:44,280 --> 00:26:45,960
This spine here

402
00:26:45,960 --> 00:26:49,800
would have been necessary
to give the bronze blade strength,

403
00:26:49,800 --> 00:26:51,440
but it's not necessarily here.

404
00:26:51,440 --> 00:26:56,960
The craftsman has still gone
to the bother of creating it.

405
00:26:56,960 --> 00:26:59,960
And the socket has been made

406
00:26:59,960 --> 00:27:01,760
by folding and hammering

407
00:27:01,760 --> 00:27:05,120
a flat piece of iron into a tube,

408
00:27:05,120 --> 00:27:07,720
when it would have much simpler,

409
00:27:07,720 --> 00:27:09,920
and more practical,

410
00:27:09,920 --> 00:27:11,720
just to have a flat tang

411
00:27:11,720 --> 00:27:13,360
and halved it that way.

412
00:27:13,360 --> 00:27:17,000
So, it's as thought the craftsman
who was working with it,

413
00:27:17,000 --> 00:27:20,040
was experienced in bronze

414
00:27:20,040 --> 00:27:24,120
and is using
his bronze-making experience,

415
00:27:24,120 --> 00:27:26,960
as best he can,

416
00:27:26,960 --> 00:27:29,000
to try and work with
this new material.

417
00:27:29,000 --> 00:27:32,240
This marks the transition

418
00:27:32,240 --> 00:27:36,320
between bronze and iron.

419
00:27:36,320 --> 00:27:38,920
It's the start of a whole new age.

420
00:27:45,040 --> 00:27:48,080
Iron work first appeared
in the Eastern Mediterranean

421
00:27:48,080 --> 00:27:50,240
around 1,200 BC.

422
00:27:52,480 --> 00:27:55,200
By 800 BC,
it was beginning to be used

423
00:27:55,200 --> 00:27:58,640
by a new elite culture
in central Europe.

424
00:28:00,880 --> 00:28:04,200
This was the beginning
of the Iron Age.

425
00:28:11,840 --> 00:28:12,960
In time,

426
00:28:12,960 --> 00:28:16,320
iron would transform Britain,

427
00:28:16,320 --> 00:28:18,960
not just technologically,

428
00:28:18,960 --> 00:28:21,200
but socially as well.

429
00:28:21,200 --> 00:28:24,800
What we're seeing
at the end of the Bronze Age

430
00:28:24,800 --> 00:28:26,880
and the beginning of the Iron Age,

431
00:28:26,880 --> 00:28:29,160
isn't as simple
as an old technology

432
00:28:29,160 --> 00:28:31,000
being replaced by a new one.

433
00:28:32,760 --> 00:28:34,640
Bronze had a role in society

434
00:28:34,640 --> 00:28:37,640
that went way beyond
its practical uses -

435
00:28:37,640 --> 00:28:41,560
as a material for making tools
to harvest wheat or cut up meat.

436
00:28:41,560 --> 00:28:44,240
Its value as an exchange currency

437
00:28:44,240 --> 00:28:47,000
was the basis for social relations.

438
00:28:47,000 --> 00:28:50,800
It had a ritual,
even religious significance.

439
00:28:50,800 --> 00:28:57,160
Iron, though, would never
have the same cache as bronze,

440
00:28:57,160 --> 00:28:59,800
and the new economy of the Iron Age

441
00:28:59,800 --> 00:29:02,440
would not be based on metal at all,

442
00:29:02,440 --> 00:29:04,080
but on agriculture -

443
00:29:04,080 --> 00:29:05,680
animals and grain.

444
00:29:08,120 --> 00:29:13,040
In this Britain,
land would be at the forefront,

445
00:29:13,040 --> 00:29:16,840
and tribal chiefs
would fight for territorial power.

446
00:29:19,200 --> 00:29:23,080
In 800 BC though,
all that was still to come.

447
00:29:24,640 --> 00:29:30,080
Because, strangely, it seems that
iron didn't actually come into use

448
00:29:30,080 --> 00:29:34,040
until centuries after
the Bronze Age ended.

449
00:29:37,000 --> 00:29:41,840
And that leaves experts
with one of the biggest problems
in all of prehistory.

450
00:29:45,360 --> 00:29:50,400
Apart from a few rare finds,
like the Llyn Fawr treasures,

451
00:29:50,400 --> 00:29:54,240
there's just not a lot of iron
around in 750 BC.

452
00:29:54,240 --> 00:29:57,880
Or, indeed,
for hundreds of years thereafter.

453
00:29:57,880 --> 00:30:00,720
This massive tipping point
in our history,

454
00:30:00,720 --> 00:30:02,840
the shift from bronze to iron,

455
00:30:02,840 --> 00:30:05,520
seems to have a mysterious gap
in it.

456
00:30:05,520 --> 00:30:11,360
It might be that
even the remote existence of iron
destabilised the economy,

457
00:30:11,360 --> 00:30:14,600
contributing to the end
of the Bronze Age,

458
00:30:14,600 --> 00:30:17,800
and a crisis
that would last for 200 years.

459
00:30:19,440 --> 00:30:23,080
Recent research however
is suggesting that all this came

460
00:30:23,080 --> 00:30:26,120
at a time of sudden and severe
climate change.

461
00:30:26,120 --> 00:30:28,960
THUNDER RUMBLES

462
00:30:33,640 --> 00:30:38,520
By studying the larvae
of Scottish midges from 750 BC,

463
00:30:38,520 --> 00:30:42,680
scientists are finding evidence
of a colder, wetter Britain.

464
00:30:44,200 --> 00:30:47,920
Different midge species are
happiest at different temperatures.

465
00:30:47,920 --> 00:30:52,320
And when they find themselves in a
lake where the temperature suits them

466
00:30:52,320 --> 00:30:54,800
they're going to be
extremely abundant.

467
00:30:57,320 --> 00:31:03,680
Preserved remains of midges from
thousands of years ago can reveal
the climate they once lived in.

468
00:31:04,720 --> 00:31:10,400
We find that around 800 BC,
there's a change in the composition
of the midge assemblage

469
00:31:10,400 --> 00:31:13,640
and we get an increase
in cold-water species

470
00:31:13,640 --> 00:31:16,440
and a decrease in warm-water species.

471
00:31:16,440 --> 00:31:21,480
And this happens over
a very short period of time, so it's
probably around 50 years or so.

472
00:31:21,480 --> 00:31:26,000
And this corresponds with other
evidence we have from pollen

473
00:31:26,000 --> 00:31:28,480
and from peat bogs
where the indication is

474
00:31:28,480 --> 00:31:34,360
that the temperature declined,
but also precipitation or rainfall
increased at the same time.

475
00:31:39,440 --> 00:31:45,560
In 750 BC, sudden climate change
was a matter of life and death.

476
00:31:45,560 --> 00:31:48,200
Too little rain
and your crops would wither.

477
00:31:48,200 --> 00:31:51,960
Too much and there would be
no ripening, no harvest.

478
00:31:54,480 --> 00:31:58,040
Just as the bronze economy
was collapsing,

479
00:31:58,040 --> 00:32:02,960
Britain's population also fell,
possibly for the first time
since the Ice Age.

480
00:32:06,600 --> 00:32:12,840
This was a dual crisis
that was driving Britain
into a period of social turmoil.

481
00:32:12,840 --> 00:32:17,240
A crisis that would utterly reshape
British society.

482
00:32:28,160 --> 00:32:31,440
An army training ground in Wiltshire
contains the remains

483
00:32:31,440 --> 00:32:34,920
of over a century
of massive regional gatherings.

484
00:32:34,920 --> 00:32:38,720
That's how I'm going to insist on
arriving on site from now on.

485
00:32:38,720 --> 00:32:41,640
Absolutely, I think everybody
should have one of them.

486
00:32:47,240 --> 00:32:51,360
Archaeologist Niall Sharples
is finding clues to how people here

487
00:32:51,360 --> 00:32:54,600
were responding to changing,
frightening times.

488
00:32:54,600 --> 00:32:57,200
This is a time of crisis.

489
00:32:57,200 --> 00:33:00,080
This is a time when
there's a major transformation.

490
00:33:00,080 --> 00:33:03,560
Bronze was used for
all sorts of things, but primarily

491
00:33:03,560 --> 00:33:06,960
it's creating relationships
of status within communities.

492
00:33:06,960 --> 00:33:12,280
So when the bronze goes,
you have to find social mechanisms

493
00:33:12,280 --> 00:33:14,320
to structure that society.

494
00:33:14,320 --> 00:33:16,520
It's not too much to look at.

495
00:33:16,520 --> 00:33:20,800
'Wealth now was not measured
in bronze, but in livestock,

496
00:33:20,800 --> 00:33:25,400
'and people came here
to show it off in a new way.'

497
00:33:25,400 --> 00:33:30,960
Under our feet, there are thousands
and thousands of pieces
of broken-up pottery,

498
00:33:30,960 --> 00:33:34,880
broken-up fragments of bone,
carbonised plant remains,

499
00:33:34,880 --> 00:33:40,120
all the implements and tools and
debris of their lives on this spot.

500
00:33:40,120 --> 00:33:43,640
There's quite a lot of material
lying on the surface,

501
00:33:43,640 --> 00:33:47,200
but we can probably clear away here
some of the nettles

502
00:33:47,200 --> 00:33:49,440
and we'll see it a bit clearer.

503
00:33:49,440 --> 00:33:52,600
I mean, there are very large pieces
of animal bone. That's a bone.

504
00:33:52,600 --> 00:33:54,600
That's probably a bit of cow.

505
00:33:54,600 --> 00:33:58,200
Uh-huh. And big bits of pots.
Some bits there.

506
00:33:58,200 --> 00:34:03,600
You can see pottery, some more
bone there, a nice sheep's jaw.

507
00:34:03,600 --> 00:34:10,680
'By slaughtering animals and sharing
their meat, you could strengthen
relationships and gain prestige.'

508
00:34:10,680 --> 00:34:14,640
What I think we're seeing is
we're seeing an attempt to create

509
00:34:14,640 --> 00:34:18,760
relationships between
a fairly large region

510
00:34:18,760 --> 00:34:22,880
based upon feasting and based
on conspicuous consumption.

511
00:34:22,880 --> 00:34:28,880
So rather than showing that you
matter by having a particularly
expensive bronze object,

512
00:34:28,880 --> 00:34:34,600
you show that you matter cos you've
got all this surplus food, surplus
animals that you can just use up.

513
00:34:34,600 --> 00:34:41,040
There's always someone who's
bringing more food, killing
more cattle, killing more pigs.

514
00:34:41,040 --> 00:34:43,680
Bringing cattle instead of sheep...

515
00:34:43,680 --> 00:34:47,600
It's a way of creating distinctions,
so you can structure society

516
00:34:47,600 --> 00:34:50,800
and break it down
into the really important people,

517
00:34:50,800 --> 00:34:54,200
the people with maximum wealth,
access to good animals,

518
00:34:54,200 --> 00:34:58,920
access to good crops,
access to the best quality pottery,
that kind of thing.

519
00:34:58,920 --> 00:35:02,560
And the lowest who've got
a few sheep and a crummy little pot.

520
00:35:08,880 --> 00:35:13,560
Remarkably, the remains of one man
have survived from these times.

521
00:35:25,120 --> 00:35:29,480
When he lived,
around 2,500 years ago,

522
00:35:29,480 --> 00:35:32,760
Britain was going through
a time of transformation.

523
00:35:34,280 --> 00:35:38,520
It's safe to assume
that he was a farmer,

524
00:35:38,520 --> 00:35:41,800
and given the time
in which he lived,

525
00:35:41,800 --> 00:35:44,880
he was probably dealing
with a tougher climate

526
00:35:44,880 --> 00:35:49,840
than that which had been known
to his forefathers
a few hundred years before him.

527
00:35:49,840 --> 00:35:51,960
It was colder, wetter,

528
00:35:51,960 --> 00:35:55,560
so he might have been
experimenting with new crops.

529
00:35:55,560 --> 00:36:00,240
He might have been keeping
more livestock to compensate.

530
00:36:00,240 --> 00:36:03,840
If he was a livestock farmer, then
he may from time to time have taken

531
00:36:03,840 --> 00:36:07,800
some of the beasts
to one of those midden sites
and slaughtered them there,

532
00:36:07,800 --> 00:36:13,040
to take part in one of
the great feasting rituals,
the great feasting events.

533
00:36:15,920 --> 00:36:18,920
But the way this man was buried
gives clues,

534
00:36:18,920 --> 00:36:22,000
not just to changing relationships
in life,

535
00:36:22,000 --> 00:36:24,240
but changing beliefs in death.

536
00:36:26,280 --> 00:36:32,280
He was found buried in a pit,
which sounds casual,
almost as if he'd been thrown away,

537
00:36:32,280 --> 00:36:35,640
but it wasn't casual,
there was ritual at play,

538
00:36:35,640 --> 00:36:41,640
and we know that because he'd been
laid to rest in the foetal position,

539
00:36:41,640 --> 00:36:47,520
curled into a ball, and his knees
were so tightly pulled up
towards his chest

540
00:36:47,520 --> 00:36:51,040
that in death he must have been
tightly bound up,

541
00:36:51,040 --> 00:36:54,160
possibly in a funerary shawl
or shroud.

542
00:36:54,160 --> 00:36:59,600
For the longest time, the funeral
tradition had been cremation,
and so to suddenly get burials,

543
00:36:59,600 --> 00:37:03,280
people being put into the ground
intact, marks a change.

544
00:37:03,280 --> 00:37:07,920
And that's always significant
because a change in the way people

545
00:37:07,920 --> 00:37:14,320
are being treated in death suggests
that they were living differently,
that life was different.

546
00:37:18,480 --> 00:37:22,880
The remains of another man who
lived in Yorkshire 200 years later

547
00:37:22,880 --> 00:37:25,440
is a clue
to changing Iron Age beliefs.

548
00:37:28,360 --> 00:37:32,680
When we found the skull
in the ground, it was face down.

549
00:37:32,680 --> 00:37:38,400
There was only the skull,
the jaw and a finger bone.

550
00:37:38,400 --> 00:37:42,880
At the base of the skull were
the first and second vertebrae

551
00:37:42,880 --> 00:37:46,280
of the neck still in position,
and basically, that was it.

552
00:37:48,960 --> 00:37:55,600
Remarkably, though, this skull still
contained a 2,500 year old brain.

553
00:37:55,600 --> 00:37:58,080
What this seems to be telling us,
this brain,

554
00:37:58,080 --> 00:38:00,520
is that this person died
very quickly.

555
00:38:00,520 --> 00:38:04,200
Not only do we have remnant
brain chemistry in here, but we have

556
00:38:04,200 --> 00:38:08,680
remnants of the structures, of the
fine components within the brain.

557
00:38:08,680 --> 00:38:13,840
But we don't have putrefaction,
and it's usually putrefaction
that destroys the brain,

558
00:38:13,840 --> 00:38:16,640
turns it to soup
in a very short time after death.

559
00:38:16,640 --> 00:38:21,240
So perhaps this brain went into
the ground very quickly after death.

560
00:38:23,040 --> 00:38:27,640
The man's vertebrae preserved
evidence of just how he died.

561
00:38:27,640 --> 00:38:31,200
It's incomplete,
it's lost its arch across here.

562
00:38:31,200 --> 00:38:33,840
And this is consistent with hanging.

563
00:38:33,840 --> 00:38:37,280
And then we've got a series
of very, very fine cuts,

564
00:38:37,280 --> 00:38:39,920
about nine cuts
across the vertebrae.

565
00:38:39,920 --> 00:38:44,640
Somebody has taken a small knife
and felt their way through the flesh

566
00:38:44,640 --> 00:38:50,200
to find the gap between the
second and third vertebrae in order
to take the head off the body.

567
00:38:52,120 --> 00:38:55,960
This wasn't just a killing,
it seemed to be a ritual,

568
00:38:55,960 --> 00:38:57,800
a human sacrifice.

569
00:39:02,160 --> 00:39:06,120
What you see in the early Iron Age
is a change of beliefs.

570
00:39:06,120 --> 00:39:10,000
There were offerings of valuables
in the Bronze Age,

571
00:39:10,000 --> 00:39:16,680
but in the Iron Age, you get more
and more offerings of animals, and
sometimes perhaps people as well.

572
00:39:16,680 --> 00:39:21,280
It's as though people living through
the bronze crisis and climate change

573
00:39:21,280 --> 00:39:26,400
felt forced to reassess
their lives and their place
in the bigger scheme of things,

574
00:39:26,400 --> 00:39:30,040
and for some, that was a path
leading to a grisly end.

575
00:39:33,480 --> 00:39:40,000
The period between 800 and 600 BC
is one of the most mysterious
in all of prehistory.

576
00:39:41,560 --> 00:39:45,840
And yet, so much of what was
going on resonates with our own age.

577
00:39:49,000 --> 00:39:52,800
Economic collapse,
fear of climate change.

578
00:39:52,800 --> 00:39:55,680
But back then,
there were no scientists

579
00:39:55,680 --> 00:39:58,400
or central banks
to explain or to help.

580
00:39:59,960 --> 00:40:03,960
So the crisis affected everyone,
though in different ways.

581
00:40:03,960 --> 00:40:08,680
The end of bronze
had a different impact in the north
than it had in the south,

582
00:40:08,680 --> 00:40:12,000
in the uplands and in the lowlands.

583
00:40:12,000 --> 00:40:15,800
We also start to see at this time
the beginning of something else

584
00:40:15,800 --> 00:40:18,040
we would recognise
from Britain today,

585
00:40:18,040 --> 00:40:21,360
and that's the emergence
of strong, regional identities.

586
00:40:21,360 --> 00:40:25,240
As society became more locally
focused, people began to find

587
00:40:25,240 --> 00:40:28,440
local solutions to problems,
local to them.

588
00:40:33,240 --> 00:40:38,120
When Britain's climate began
to improve once more, around 600 BC,

589
00:40:38,120 --> 00:40:40,440
with warmer, drier summers,

590
00:40:40,440 --> 00:40:44,040
the regions continued
to develop in different ways.

591
00:40:48,320 --> 00:40:54,800
In the far north of Scotland,
people began to construct
massive stone towers,

592
00:40:54,800 --> 00:40:56,000
called brochs.

593
00:41:00,240 --> 00:41:03,320
Here at Gurness on Orkney,
there's a classic example.

594
00:41:03,320 --> 00:41:05,160
There's banks and ditches

595
00:41:05,160 --> 00:41:08,920
encircling a little settlement
of low, stone houses,

596
00:41:08,920 --> 00:41:12,480
but the whole scene is dominated
by that wall, and that's the base

597
00:41:12,480 --> 00:41:15,680
of a massive stone tower
that at one stage would have stood

598
00:41:15,680 --> 00:41:17,920
as much as ten metres, 30 feet high,

599
00:41:17,920 --> 00:41:22,360
head and shoulders above
the wall line of any modern house.

600
00:41:22,360 --> 00:41:25,160
You can only imagine the impact
it would have had

601
00:41:25,160 --> 00:41:30,440
on anybody who came to visit
or attack here, 400 years BC.

602
00:41:38,840 --> 00:41:42,720
Little is known of the people who
lived here or what they believed.

603
00:41:42,720 --> 00:41:47,000
So we can only speculate on
the kind of society this was.

604
00:41:49,240 --> 00:41:53,480
Here on the inside, you can see
the setting for an iron-shod post

605
00:41:53,480 --> 00:41:56,360
that would have supported
a big timber door

606
00:41:56,360 --> 00:42:00,400
that would have slammed shut
against these stone faces here.

607
00:42:00,400 --> 00:42:04,680
These slots would've taken a massive
timber that would have locked,

608
00:42:04,680 --> 00:42:07,040
barricaded the door from the inside.

609
00:42:07,040 --> 00:42:09,840
Everything about this place
says "keep out".

610
00:42:18,320 --> 00:42:25,520
Meanwhile, largely in the south,
farming communities were creating
something very different.

611
00:42:25,520 --> 00:42:29,040
Some of the most famous features
of the Iron Age.

612
00:42:32,160 --> 00:42:36,160
One of the best examples
is at the top of this scree slope.

613
00:42:36,160 --> 00:42:39,800
Wait till you see Tre'r Ceiri,
the town of the giants.

614
00:42:41,360 --> 00:42:45,760
It's a hillfort, one of
the iconic symbols of the age.

615
00:42:55,680 --> 00:43:00,160
Tre'r Ceiri is actually
quite a late hillfort,

616
00:43:00,160 --> 00:43:05,440
but they start appearing
over much of southern Britain
from around 600 BC,

617
00:43:05,440 --> 00:43:10,080
and they're often overlooking
plains of fertile agricultural land.

618
00:43:11,680 --> 00:43:16,160
The thing about these places
is they weren't just defensive.

619
00:43:16,160 --> 00:43:19,240
The term "hillfort"
is pretty misleading -

620
00:43:19,240 --> 00:43:24,160
the threat of conflict
wasn't always the spur
for their construction.

621
00:43:24,160 --> 00:43:27,760
These were elevated places
where people lived.

622
00:43:27,760 --> 00:43:33,040
Some experts even think they were
a communist-style collective.

623
00:43:33,040 --> 00:43:37,080
And they do certainly seem
to be about sharing labour

624
00:43:37,080 --> 00:43:40,360
and sharing produce
for communal benefit.

625
00:43:43,400 --> 00:43:48,920
Perhaps the development of
hillforts bore some relationship
to the great midden gatherings -

626
00:43:48,920 --> 00:43:54,480
the local connections made
through the sharing and display
of animals and grain.

627
00:43:54,480 --> 00:43:56,800
These were farming communities,

628
00:43:56,800 --> 00:43:59,360
and when there was
surplus production,

629
00:43:59,360 --> 00:44:03,320
seeds and crops stored
in storage pits could be exchanged.

630
00:44:03,320 --> 00:44:08,760
Food, not bronze, represented wealth
in this newly emerging world.

631
00:44:08,760 --> 00:44:14,280
And the more land you could
cultivate, the more successful
your community could be.

632
00:44:20,160 --> 00:44:25,680
One thing that was common across
Britain was that by around 500 BC,

633
00:44:25,680 --> 00:44:28,880
iron finally began to appear
in quantity.

634
00:44:31,120 --> 00:44:35,240
Britain was at last about to embark
upon the Iron Age proper.

635
00:44:37,440 --> 00:44:41,680
After the initial impact
of the bronze crisis, around 750 BC,

636
00:44:41,680 --> 00:44:43,920
things started to settle down.

637
00:44:43,920 --> 00:44:47,800
From the brochs in the north to
the hillforts in the south and west,

638
00:44:47,800 --> 00:44:51,240
and all manner of farmsteads
and settlements in-between.

639
00:44:56,360 --> 00:44:59,440
By 500 BC,
there was a kind of stability.

640
00:44:59,440 --> 00:45:05,800
People had got over
the seismic effects on the great
international bronze economy.

641
00:45:05,800 --> 00:45:09,720
This was a turning point in our
history, when iron finally began

642
00:45:09,720 --> 00:45:12,960
to appear across Britain
in increasing quantities.

643
00:45:12,960 --> 00:45:17,680
It would change the way people
lived, it would change the
settlement of Britain as a whole.

644
00:45:17,680 --> 00:45:22,920
It would lead in just a few
hundred years to the population
increasing to unprecedented levels.

645
00:45:22,920 --> 00:45:27,680
And at its heart was a revolution
in farming and food production.

646
00:45:29,840 --> 00:45:36,320
Discoveries of ironwork from
this time reveal an extraordinary
leap forward in technology.

647
00:45:38,760 --> 00:45:43,040
These wee treasures here
are some of the Fiskerton Tools.

648
00:45:43,040 --> 00:45:49,440
They were deposited or discarded in
Lincolnshire around 2,500 years ago.

649
00:45:57,840 --> 00:46:01,240
This is a hammer head.

650
00:46:01,240 --> 00:46:02,840
Handle here,

651
00:46:02,840 --> 00:46:07,720
the most obvious point of interest
is the wear on the business end.

652
00:46:07,720 --> 00:46:11,600
That lip has been caused
because that hammer has been used
repeatedly,

653
00:46:11,600 --> 00:46:13,480
pounding against a hard surface.

654
00:46:13,480 --> 00:46:16,720
Probably used for hammering in iron
nails, apart from anything else.

655
00:46:18,280 --> 00:46:21,400
This is a handsaw...

656
00:46:21,400 --> 00:46:25,280
that's broken, due to corrosion.

657
00:46:25,280 --> 00:46:27,120
But this is the handle.

658
00:46:27,120 --> 00:46:29,480
It's made of antler.

659
00:46:29,480 --> 00:46:35,800
It's beautifully worked
and polished, with lovely detailing,

660
00:46:35,800 --> 00:46:39,480
to make it an attractive object
as well as a useful one.

661
00:46:39,480 --> 00:46:45,920
The blade has broken
due to corrosion during 2,500 years.

662
00:46:47,440 --> 00:46:51,080
It's so thin, and some of that
might be down to corrosion,

663
00:46:51,080 --> 00:46:53,560
but it would've been thin anyway

664
00:46:53,560 --> 00:46:57,520
because a saw blade,
in order to work, has to be thin.

665
00:46:57,520 --> 00:47:00,800
That begins to show the versatility
of iron over bronze

666
00:47:00,800 --> 00:47:04,280
because you couldn't achieve that
with cast bronze,

667
00:47:04,280 --> 00:47:06,320
so this is a job for iron.

668
00:47:09,160 --> 00:47:12,360
Possibly best of all is this one.

669
00:47:15,800 --> 00:47:18,360
You don't even need me
to say the word, really,

670
00:47:18,360 --> 00:47:20,640
but it's a file.

671
00:47:21,960 --> 00:47:27,560
See how the cutting edges
have been so carefully...

672
00:47:27,560 --> 00:47:31,040
worked into that,
cut into the metal.

673
00:47:32,560 --> 00:47:35,760
It's so modern.

674
00:47:35,760 --> 00:47:40,640
If someone was to show you this
and say, "This is from
my great-grandfather's toolbox,"

675
00:47:40,640 --> 00:47:42,720
you'd be forgiven
for believing them.

676
00:47:42,720 --> 00:47:46,520
There's nothing different about it
from the tools we use today.

677
00:47:46,520 --> 00:47:49,160
And yet it's 2,500 years old.

678
00:47:54,680 --> 00:48:00,960
The time of crisis
was becoming a distant memory as the
population of Britain grew rapidly.

679
00:48:02,720 --> 00:48:07,600
Agricultural surplus lay at the
heart of a newly emerging economy,

680
00:48:07,600 --> 00:48:11,080
and that depended heavily on iron.

681
00:48:12,960 --> 00:48:19,480
Iron was a metal that could be
hammered into all manner of shapes
and forms, not just cast,

682
00:48:19,480 --> 00:48:23,680
and unlike bronze it wasn't
the preserve of some elite.

683
00:48:26,120 --> 00:48:29,800
Iron instead was
the metal of the people.

684
00:48:29,800 --> 00:48:32,280
Working tools for working men.

685
00:48:32,280 --> 00:48:37,080
All that, combined with its strength
and its widespread availability,

686
00:48:37,080 --> 00:48:39,080
was to transform our world

687
00:48:39,080 --> 00:48:42,840
and nudge us another step
into the future.

688
00:48:51,400 --> 00:48:55,480
Iron working became a part of
village life right across Britain.

689
00:48:57,720 --> 00:49:02,720
It's much better than the bronze
because it's a bit more elastic
so it's not going to snap

690
00:49:02,720 --> 00:49:07,840
if you hit something hard
and if it does bend,
you can always straighten it again.

691
00:49:07,840 --> 00:49:11,040
If it breaks, you can weld
the two pieces back together again.

692
00:49:11,040 --> 00:49:15,120
And the iron also you can sharpen,
keep putting an edge on,

693
00:49:15,120 --> 00:49:19,080
say for a sickle where
you're cutting your corn or hay,

694
00:49:19,080 --> 00:49:20,960
you can keep sharpening it.

695
00:49:20,960 --> 00:49:23,360
It's much more versatile.

696
00:49:26,920 --> 00:49:30,240
Bronze casting remained
a specialist art,

697
00:49:30,240 --> 00:49:33,760
but anyone could heat
and reshape an iron tool.

698
00:49:36,360 --> 00:49:39,480
It's that sounds as well.
Knowing that that ringing sound

699
00:49:39,480 --> 00:49:42,480
would've been a permanent
background noise...

700
00:49:42,480 --> 00:49:45,960
Oh, yes. ..for Iron Age village life,
that ringing sound.

701
00:49:58,440 --> 00:50:02,240
It looks best just while
there's still a light in it. Yes.

702
00:50:02,240 --> 00:50:06,960
For the rest of the time,
it's just going to be cold metal,
but for now, it's got a heartbeat.

703
00:50:06,960 --> 00:50:09,320
You can see it's dulling down.

704
00:50:09,320 --> 00:50:12,760
It's becoming utilitarian.

705
00:50:12,760 --> 00:50:17,040
And such a simple,
commonplace object, a sickle.
Yes, just a sickle.

706
00:50:17,040 --> 00:50:19,360
But at the moment,
it's got the magic, hasn't it?

707
00:50:28,000 --> 00:50:30,240
Iron had another advantage.

708
00:50:30,240 --> 00:50:32,680
The ore was everywhere.

709
00:50:32,680 --> 00:50:34,920
This was a metal
that could be local.

710
00:50:34,920 --> 00:50:37,920
It didn't depend on
a complex trade network.

711
00:50:37,920 --> 00:50:43,040
So, by about 400 BC, as iron objects
were beginning to appear in earnest,

712
00:50:43,040 --> 00:50:47,520
they became ubiquitous, and
the effects of the new technology

713
00:50:47,520 --> 00:50:52,200
were felt right at the cutting edge
of the agricultural economy.

714
00:50:53,800 --> 00:50:58,800
Dave Freeman and Simon Jay
are directors of Butser Ancient Farm

715
00:50:58,800 --> 00:51:02,520
and study Iron Age
farming techniques hands on.

716
00:51:02,520 --> 00:51:06,800
Right then, where are
my mighty oxen?

717
00:51:06,800 --> 00:51:09,960
We're here! Oh, dear! Right.

718
00:51:09,960 --> 00:51:11,280
Mush!

719
00:51:16,960 --> 00:51:19,280
What is this exactly? It's an ard.

720
00:51:19,280 --> 00:51:21,480
It's a very early form of plough.

721
00:51:21,480 --> 00:51:23,440
It's basically a piece of tree.

722
00:51:23,440 --> 00:51:25,280
Although I'm guessing...

723
00:51:25,280 --> 00:51:28,320
This one has the addition
of an iron tip.

724
00:51:30,000 --> 00:51:36,000
In the Bronze Age then,
they weren't ever tempted to put
bronze tips on their ploughs?

725
00:51:36,000 --> 00:51:38,880
It may have been tried,
but unfortunately of course,

726
00:51:38,880 --> 00:51:41,560
bronze doesn't stand up
to wear and tear the same.

727
00:51:41,560 --> 00:51:45,800
With it being a casting,
it's likely to break.

728
00:51:45,800 --> 00:51:50,280
And when it breaks, you have to
make it molten and cast it again.

729
00:51:50,280 --> 00:51:53,720
Whereas an iron tip, of course,
you take it to the nearest fire,

730
00:51:53,720 --> 00:51:55,960
get it hot and hit it with something.

731
00:51:55,960 --> 00:52:00,640
It's quite simple, if I could
get the hang of a straight line.

732
00:52:00,640 --> 00:52:06,320
So these are starting to be visible
from 400, 500 BC?

733
00:52:06,320 --> 00:52:09,120
Yes, they are. The later you go
into the Iron Age,

734
00:52:09,120 --> 00:52:11,800
more iron is available
and more people work it.

735
00:52:11,800 --> 00:52:15,480
It wouldn't be hard to persuade
people why this was a good idea.

736
00:52:15,480 --> 00:52:19,520
They'd rapidly see
what the advantage was. Yes.
Go for another one?

737
00:52:19,520 --> 00:52:21,040
Yes.

738
00:52:25,000 --> 00:52:27,040
Oh, disastrous!

739
00:52:27,040 --> 00:52:29,080
It's a disaster for Scotland.

740
00:52:31,680 --> 00:52:35,560
Iron ploughs allowed
heavier soils to be turned,

741
00:52:35,560 --> 00:52:38,640
so more land could be cultivated.

742
00:52:38,640 --> 00:52:44,280
And there were other innovations
that added up to an agricultural
and commercial revolution.

743
00:52:45,560 --> 00:52:49,840
How does it work?
Why is a hole in the ground
a good way to store grain?

744
00:52:49,840 --> 00:52:52,280
I need to show you
a finished hole. OK.

745
00:52:52,280 --> 00:52:53,800
Come over this way.

746
00:52:55,840 --> 00:52:58,520
Oh! So there's
a great big hole under there?

747
00:52:58,520 --> 00:53:03,040
That clay cap is covering
a storage pit that's fully loaded.

748
00:53:03,040 --> 00:53:04,800
Right. And what's...

749
00:53:04,800 --> 00:53:08,080
the magic that that provides?

750
00:53:08,080 --> 00:53:12,000
The clay cover keeps out moisture,
air and light.

751
00:53:12,000 --> 00:53:13,920
The grain that's inside the pit,

752
00:53:13,920 --> 00:53:19,080
where it's touching the walls of the
pit, sucks moisture out of the chalk
and attempts to germinate.

753
00:53:19,080 --> 00:53:23,320
And of course in germination,
you actually use oxygen,
produce carbon dioxide.

754
00:53:23,320 --> 00:53:25,560
Because the pit is sealed,

755
00:53:25,560 --> 00:53:29,720
it runs out of oxygen
and it hibernates -
it actually goes to sleep.

756
00:53:29,720 --> 00:53:34,880
So time stops? It does indeed. And
for quite some considerable period.

757
00:53:34,880 --> 00:53:38,560
You can actually store this
quite safely for a full year.

758
00:53:38,560 --> 00:53:43,160
Occasionally we've got them
to work for two years,
so it's an enormous back up.

759
00:53:43,160 --> 00:53:47,480
And you can well imagine how
something like a reliable surplus

760
00:53:47,480 --> 00:53:52,240
of grain becomes almost like money -
you can almost spend it. It does.

761
00:53:52,240 --> 00:53:57,880
On the hillforts particularly,
where you have the extra space
and the political control,

762
00:53:57,880 --> 00:54:04,360
then we don't know how much was kept
as a reserve by whoever it was that
controlled that particular area.

763
00:54:04,360 --> 00:54:07,040
Your hillforts become
a market town as well as a bank.

764
00:54:07,040 --> 00:54:09,240
That's how you invent debt!

765
00:54:09,240 --> 00:54:15,000
Yes! You could give a farmer grain
who had an accident and yes, then
he's in debt to you. He owes you one.

766
00:54:15,000 --> 00:54:16,080
Yes.

767
00:54:16,960 --> 00:54:21,040
Trade in grain was the basis
of this new agricultural economy,

768
00:54:21,040 --> 00:54:24,440
and new devices were invented
to process it.

769
00:54:24,440 --> 00:54:27,680
Some of the very first machines.

770
00:54:27,680 --> 00:54:31,440
For grinding grain, we use querns.

771
00:54:31,440 --> 00:54:35,920
You're looking at anything
up to an hour on a saddle quern.
It looks incredibly primitive.

772
00:54:35,920 --> 00:54:36,960
Back breaking.

773
00:54:36,960 --> 00:54:39,480
You can tell from skeletons,
the wear and tear on bodies.

774
00:54:39,480 --> 00:54:43,120
A great leap forward
was the rotary quern.

775
00:54:43,120 --> 00:54:45,400
The grain will go through
several times.

776
00:54:45,400 --> 00:54:48,440
You're starting to see little flecks,
look.

777
00:54:48,440 --> 00:54:52,080
That's where the grain's actually
being torn apart.
So it keeps going back in?

778
00:54:52,080 --> 00:54:55,920
You'd just keep cycling it through.
It's just such a quantum leap -

779
00:54:55,920 --> 00:54:58,480
that's clearly Stone Age.

780
00:54:58,480 --> 00:55:01,080
This has got a design element
about it -

781
00:55:01,080 --> 00:55:04,240
it's a composite tool
made of multiple parts.

782
00:55:04,240 --> 00:55:06,680
Huge time saver, as well.

783
00:55:06,680 --> 00:55:08,800
Iron Age housewives
must have loved them!

784
00:55:08,800 --> 00:55:13,400
Yes, and of course it frees up
an enormous amount of manpower.

785
00:55:14,840 --> 00:55:16,440
You can see...

786
00:55:16,440 --> 00:55:18,880
how a momentum would build up.

787
00:55:18,880 --> 00:55:22,480
If you've got iron tools,
you can make more of these.

788
00:55:22,480 --> 00:55:24,240
You're producing more grain. Yes.

789
00:55:24,240 --> 00:55:28,040
These produce more flour, more
bread, you can feed more people.

790
00:55:28,040 --> 00:55:30,040
Population increase. Absolutely.

791
00:55:30,040 --> 00:55:32,680
And it will just keep on
building and building.

792
00:55:35,680 --> 00:55:37,920
All these factors combined -

793
00:55:37,920 --> 00:55:43,400
ploughs, pits, stores, querns
and better weather -

794
00:55:43,400 --> 00:55:46,760
the fields of Britain had
probably never been so productive

795
00:55:46,760 --> 00:55:51,280
and from around 400 BC,
there was a population explosion.

796
00:55:51,280 --> 00:55:57,160
The crisis that followed
the Bronze Age was over
and a new Britain was emerging.

797
00:56:00,320 --> 00:56:03,160
This bronze axe was the symbol
of an age

798
00:56:03,160 --> 00:56:05,320
that had lasted
for over 1,000 years,

799
00:56:05,320 --> 00:56:07,280
but it was a symbol of the past -

800
00:56:07,280 --> 00:56:10,880
a metal that represented
a golden age,

801
00:56:10,880 --> 00:56:14,160
with its benign climate
and international economy.

802
00:56:15,200 --> 00:56:17,600
Bronze had created an elite,

803
00:56:17,600 --> 00:56:21,440
so it's not surprising that
it had class overtones as well.

804
00:56:21,440 --> 00:56:23,800
There was also a spiritual aspect.

805
00:56:23,800 --> 00:56:26,760
Bronze was about more
than simply making tools.

806
00:56:26,760 --> 00:56:31,000
It was the glue
that held society together.

807
00:56:31,000 --> 00:56:37,560
But this axe made of iron
several hundred years later never
had that kind of value in itself.

808
00:56:39,760 --> 00:56:41,480
The making of iron

809
00:56:41,480 --> 00:56:46,920
might still have been magical, but
iron tools were entirely practical.

810
00:56:48,000 --> 00:56:54,240
And that set the tone for an age
in which iron technology
put agriculture -

811
00:56:54,240 --> 00:56:57,640
and therefore the land -
at the very heart of society.

812
00:56:57,640 --> 00:57:04,080
Wealth and power could be grown
and stored, bought and sold.

813
00:57:05,760 --> 00:57:08,600
In many ways, we'd lost something.

814
00:57:08,600 --> 00:57:13,160
The magic of the Bronze Age,
replaced with something modern.

815
00:57:13,160 --> 00:57:16,080
And what it would lead to
would be power structures that,

816
00:57:16,080 --> 00:57:19,720
compared to the bronze elite,
would seem modern as well.

817
00:57:25,080 --> 00:57:28,040
'Next time, my journey continues...

818
00:57:29,960 --> 00:57:32,200
'..as I encounter a whole new age.

819
00:57:34,000 --> 00:57:36,920
'A time of powerful
Celtic warriors...'

820
00:57:36,920 --> 00:57:39,480
He was laid in his grave

821
00:57:39,480 --> 00:57:43,680
and soon thereafter,
three spears were thrust in.

822
00:57:44,720 --> 00:57:47,520
'..magical druid priests...'

823
00:57:47,520 --> 00:57:51,200
What events did he witness?

824
00:57:51,200 --> 00:57:53,280
And what power did he wield?

825
00:57:55,520 --> 00:57:59,320
'..and those at the very bottom
of British society.'

826
00:57:59,320 --> 00:58:01,360
Look at this.

827
00:58:01,360 --> 00:58:04,840
It's an iron slave chain.

828
00:58:04,840 --> 00:58:06,600
It's over 2,000 years old.

829
00:58:30,200 --> 00:58:33,280
Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd

830
00:58:33,280 --> 00:58:36,320
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