1
00:00:06,160 --> 00:00:09,560
'This is the story
of how Britain came to be.

2
00:00:09,560 --> 00:00:11,240
'Of how our land, and its people,

3
00:00:11,240 --> 00:00:15,200
'were forged over thousands
of years of ancient history.

4
00:00:19,880 --> 00:00:23,560
'This Britain is a strange
and alien world.

5
00:00:24,840 --> 00:00:29,400
'A world that contains
the hidden story of our distant,
prehistoric past.

6
00:00:35,760 --> 00:00:41,240
'After more than 1,000 years,
the international world
of the Bronze Age had collapsed.'

7
00:00:42,440 --> 00:00:44,800
A horde like this is a snapshot

8
00:00:44,800 --> 00:00:50,640
of the time when bronze
was no longer working
as the glue of society.

9
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'A new Britain began to emerge.

10
00:00:54,240 --> 00:00:56,920
'A whole new era -

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00:00:56,920 --> 00:00:58,920
'the Iron Age.'

12
00:00:58,920 --> 00:01:02,840
There's nothing different about it
from the tools we use today.

13
00:01:02,840 --> 00:01:06,040
Yet it's 2,500 years old.

14
00:01:06,040 --> 00:01:09,520
'A Britain of powerful
regional identities

15
00:01:09,520 --> 00:01:16,160
'where land and grain had replaced
bronze as a source of prestige.

16
00:01:17,880 --> 00:01:21,120
'Now, the journey continues

17
00:01:21,120 --> 00:01:24,040
'with the next chapter
in our epic story.'

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00:01:24,040 --> 00:01:26,720
He was laid in his grave

19
00:01:26,720 --> 00:01:30,880
and soon thereafter,
three spears were thrust in.

20
00:01:30,880 --> 00:01:35,480
This would have been
a moment of huge drama.

21
00:01:35,480 --> 00:01:38,720
'A time of Iron Age warriors

22
00:01:38,720 --> 00:01:41,280
'and Celtic glory.

23
00:01:41,280 --> 00:01:48,640
'A tipping point in our history
when tribal leaders began to believe
they were more than chieftains.

24
00:01:50,120 --> 00:01:52,880
'They were kings.'

25
00:02:09,800 --> 00:02:15,320
'I'm going back 2,500 years
to 500 BC.

26
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'This is Britain
right in the heart of the Iron Age.

27
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'A time of huge transformation
for our land and its people.'

28
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Ever since the end of the Bronze Age
a few hundred years earlier,
a new Britain had begun to emerge

29
00:02:34,200 --> 00:02:38,160
and it was a more insular Britain
with strong regional identities.

30
00:02:39,800 --> 00:02:45,160
This was a world of tall
broch towers in the North,

31
00:02:45,160 --> 00:02:48,800
and communal hill forts
in the South.

32
00:02:50,440 --> 00:02:54,680
Both, responses to the importance
of controlling the land.

33
00:02:56,720 --> 00:03:01,320
What was common across Britain
was that trade was focussed locally

34
00:03:01,320 --> 00:03:06,040
and wealth was no longer centred
around bronze as it had been.

35
00:03:06,040 --> 00:03:08,080
It was now centred around grain.

36
00:03:08,080 --> 00:03:12,160
Britain was entering a new era,
in which

37
00:03:12,160 --> 00:03:16,040
the people who controlled land
would gain wealth and power,

38
00:03:16,040 --> 00:03:19,880
the like of which
had never been seen before.

39
00:03:25,800 --> 00:03:29,320
At the top of this hill are the
remains of an Iron Age hill fort

40
00:03:29,320 --> 00:03:33,040
that holds evidence
of the beginning of this new age.

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00:03:39,160 --> 00:03:41,800
This isn't just any old hill fort.

42
00:03:41,800 --> 00:03:43,640
This is Danebury.

43
00:03:43,640 --> 00:03:46,080
It is a completely different beast.

44
00:03:46,080 --> 00:03:50,080
A mega hill fort and
it's one of the first of its type.

45
00:03:51,720 --> 00:03:58,480
Farmers here were cultivating
ever greater tracts of land,
harvesting more and more grain.

46
00:03:58,480 --> 00:04:00,800
This wasn't subsistence farming.

47
00:04:00,800 --> 00:04:03,560
This was about creating a surplus

48
00:04:03,560 --> 00:04:06,000
to trade.

49
00:04:07,000 --> 00:04:09,880
But there was a problem.

50
00:04:09,880 --> 00:04:13,920
And you can see it over there,
just on the horizon.

51
00:04:13,920 --> 00:04:19,560
That bump into the sky is another
hill fort - Woodbury Hill fort.

52
00:04:19,560 --> 00:04:21,040
And it's not the only one.

53
00:04:21,040 --> 00:04:27,960
On a clear day, from up here, you
can see another three hill forts
and they were all equally prosperous

54
00:04:27,960 --> 00:04:31,960
and, crucially,
they were all beginning
to want more and more land.

55
00:04:33,560 --> 00:04:39,760
For the first time in our history,
Britain, or parts of it, were
actually starting to fill up.

56
00:04:39,760 --> 00:04:44,400
After all those millennia of
hunting, and then the early farming,

57
00:04:44,400 --> 00:04:48,680
the physical size of our island
was actually beginning to tell.

58
00:04:48,680 --> 00:04:55,160
And where the territories of those
hill-fort communities were starting
to rub against one another,

59
00:04:55,160 --> 00:04:59,880
there was one consequence
and one consequence only
and that was friction.

60
00:05:06,120 --> 00:05:10,960
What's happening is that the land
is being used more and more and more.

61
00:05:10,960 --> 00:05:12,600
It is good land, it is rich land,

62
00:05:12,600 --> 00:05:14,720
it encourages the population to grow,

63
00:05:14,720 --> 00:05:17,080
but you can only grow
to a certain extent

64
00:05:17,080 --> 00:05:21,360
and the population will continue
to grow beyond the holding capacity

65
00:05:21,360 --> 00:05:25,080
of the land and at that point
you get tension.

66
00:05:25,080 --> 00:05:29,640
And how does the instability,
the pressure, manifest itself?

67
00:05:29,640 --> 00:05:34,120
Normally in terms
of aggression and warfare.

68
00:05:34,120 --> 00:05:37,160
Resources are rare,
you fight for resources.

69
00:05:37,160 --> 00:05:39,880
You can have long, long
periods of peace, I think.

70
00:05:39,880 --> 00:05:45,960
Then, perhaps in a confrontation,
some young man would be hurt,
everyone would be angry

71
00:05:45,960 --> 00:05:50,120
and it would escalate into outright,
really violent warfare.

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00:05:50,120 --> 00:05:56,440
Sir Barry has studied the archeology
of Danebury for over three decades.

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00:05:56,440 --> 00:05:59,720
These are iron spearheads.
Now, look at that one.

74
00:05:59,720 --> 00:06:02,160
That is a mean thing.

75
00:06:02,160 --> 00:06:05,400
A long shank. Very sharp point.

76
00:06:05,400 --> 00:06:09,680
Gosh. And that has been done

77
00:06:09,680 --> 00:06:11,480
with the intention to kill.

78
00:06:11,480 --> 00:06:13,520
Everything about it is violent.

79
00:06:13,520 --> 00:06:16,000
Yes, absolutely redolent

80
00:06:16,000 --> 00:06:18,240
of violence.

81
00:06:18,240 --> 00:06:22,960
And this is all coming from in here?
Everything here is from
within Danebury. OK.

82
00:06:22,960 --> 00:06:26,320
We have also got evidence from
the human bones themselves.

83
00:06:26,320 --> 00:06:28,880
This is the real hard evidence.

84
00:06:28,880 --> 00:06:31,040
Here we are. We've got the skull.

85
00:06:31,040 --> 00:06:34,840
You can see the eye sockets there
and you see that hole there?

86
00:06:34,840 --> 00:06:37,040
And that's got the same section...

87
00:06:37,040 --> 00:06:40,320
It is exactly the same section
as that spear.

88
00:06:40,320 --> 00:06:44,440
He would have copped a spear directly
through the top of his head there.

89
00:06:44,440 --> 00:06:49,480
But the fascinating thing about
this guy is that he also had
a pretty hefty bash on the head

90
00:06:49,480 --> 00:06:52,760
which caved a bit of the skull in.
And that's not been enough to kill?

91
00:06:52,760 --> 00:06:58,440
No, because if you turn inside,
you see the damage that it has done
inside, but it has all healed over.

92
00:06:58,440 --> 00:07:00,040
He must have had a headache...

93
00:07:00,040 --> 00:07:01,680
That is so graphic.

94
00:07:01,680 --> 00:07:03,320
..and possibly brain damage.

95
00:07:03,320 --> 00:07:06,600
But he was still fit enough
presumably to go into battle

96
00:07:06,600 --> 00:07:10,640
some months,
perhaps some years later, to
end up with that spear in his head.

97
00:07:10,640 --> 00:07:17,560
Gosh! So, he went into battle
already knowing what it was like
to face these weapons?

98
00:07:17,560 --> 00:07:23,000
He probably had been into battle many
times, this guy, as had many of them.

99
00:07:23,000 --> 00:07:24,880
We have many more skulls here.

100
00:07:24,880 --> 00:07:27,080
Goodness!
There is no end of it up here

101
00:07:27,080 --> 00:07:28,320
No.

102
00:07:28,320 --> 00:07:31,760
Again just close to where we
are standing was a very large pit

103
00:07:31,760 --> 00:07:33,880
into which
they had thrown body parts,

104
00:07:33,880 --> 00:07:36,040
cleaning up
after a battle, presumably.

105
00:07:36,040 --> 00:07:38,880
Lots of body parts and
some of these skulls came from there.

106
00:07:38,880 --> 00:07:42,520
People are dying in significant
numbers that they're not
given a burial?

107
00:07:42,520 --> 00:07:44,600
They are being cleared away?
Cleared away.

108
00:07:44,600 --> 00:07:49,240
You see here
a whole series of slivers taken off
his skull with glancing blows.

109
00:07:49,240 --> 00:07:52,400
He wouldn't
have needed a haircut after that.

110
00:07:52,400 --> 00:07:56,560
But the coup de grace was that -
a great sword slash.

111
00:07:56,560 --> 00:07:58,800
Goodness sake!
That has not healed over.

112
00:07:58,800 --> 00:08:01,440
That was the end of him.

113
00:08:01,440 --> 00:08:06,920
And altogether this shows what an
incredibly violent life people lived.

114
00:08:06,920 --> 00:08:10,760
What a world they inhabited with the
threat of this hanging over them!

115
00:08:10,760 --> 00:08:13,400
I think they would have
been aware of it the whole time.

116
00:08:13,400 --> 00:08:18,920
You can imagine here in Danebury
these young guys coming back
from battle with all their scars

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00:08:18,920 --> 00:08:25,160
and living in the community with
noses cut off, ears cut off,
horrendous injuries.

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00:08:25,160 --> 00:08:30,720
They must have been aware
every moment of every day
just how violent life was.

119
00:08:39,160 --> 00:08:42,760
What's unfolding now
is something quite new.

120
00:08:42,760 --> 00:08:47,760
The time of the peaceful,
local farming collective is over.

121
00:08:47,760 --> 00:08:54,080
By 400 BC, in Southern Britain
at least, the area is descending
into bloody conflict.

122
00:08:54,080 --> 00:08:59,520
And what's interesting about
that conflict is the kind
of personality that it encourages.

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00:08:59,520 --> 00:09:03,280
As the need to fight
and defend became more important,

124
00:09:03,280 --> 00:09:08,600
so the status of those
who could do the fighting
and defending increased.

125
00:09:08,600 --> 00:09:13,240
You can't know these things
for certain, but it's tempting to
imagine that, in peaceful times,

126
00:09:13,240 --> 00:09:19,000
these communities were controlled
by councils of elders, or
the heads of important families.

127
00:09:19,000 --> 00:09:22,960
But not any more. Now, now
that the fighting had started,

128
00:09:22,960 --> 00:09:28,360
was the time of heroes, champions,
men who could wield swords.

129
00:09:28,360 --> 00:09:35,440
THESE were the type who could
expand territories, defend
territories, bring upstarts to heel.

130
00:09:50,280 --> 00:09:54,520
Britain was entering a period
we call the Middle Iron Age,

131
00:09:54,520 --> 00:09:59,840
a time when local power bases fought
it out for power and prestige.

132
00:09:59,840 --> 00:10:02,840
And where a man's status
had to be earned...

133
00:10:02,840 --> 00:10:04,280
in battle.

134
00:10:10,440 --> 00:10:16,280
But out of bloody conflict
something was about to emerge
that was sublime.

135
00:10:23,680 --> 00:10:25,440
This is one of the finest,

136
00:10:25,440 --> 00:10:30,120
most astonishing, pieces of early
art ever produced in Britain.

137
00:10:30,120 --> 00:10:35,160
It is from 350 BC and it's
called the Battersea Shield.

138
00:10:37,000 --> 00:10:41,880
It is too small
to have been used in warfare.

139
00:10:41,880 --> 00:10:46,120
It is completely wrong for combat,
it is too elaborate.

140
00:10:46,120 --> 00:10:48,200
This is ceremonial,

141
00:10:48,200 --> 00:10:53,920
owned by a warlord
and perhaps carried at
the head of a victory parade.

142
00:10:54,760 --> 00:10:58,880
This is an object that demonstrates
technical perfection

143
00:10:58,880 --> 00:11:03,200
and also artistic genius.

144
00:11:04,880 --> 00:11:11,560
This is the beginning of something
utterly new in our history, a sudden
blossoming of art and design.

145
00:11:14,720 --> 00:11:21,000
The great continental rivers
were trade routes to the
classical world to the South.

146
00:11:23,520 --> 00:11:28,240
As Northern tribes, controlling
the routes, developed a taste

147
00:11:28,240 --> 00:11:32,480
for luxury goods. They also began
to invent a new decorative style.

148
00:11:35,480 --> 00:11:38,360
This was the birth of Celtic art.

149
00:11:38,360 --> 00:11:42,240
And around 350 BC,
when it came to Britain,

150
00:11:42,240 --> 00:11:46,880
local craftsmen took it
to completely new heights.

151
00:11:46,880 --> 00:11:52,600
It is said that the innovation and
sophistication of British Celtic art

152
00:11:52,600 --> 00:11:59,360
is the single greatest contribution
by these islands
to the world of art ever.

153
00:11:59,360 --> 00:12:03,480
And the proof of that statement
is here in my hands.

154
00:12:09,400 --> 00:12:11,880
This is the magnificent
Kirkburn Sword.

155
00:12:13,520 --> 00:12:18,000
And it was excavated from
a grave in East Yorkshire.

156
00:12:18,000 --> 00:12:23,120
Unlike earlier swords,
this is a composite item.

157
00:12:23,120 --> 00:12:26,040
It required the meticulous design

158
00:12:26,040 --> 00:12:31,600
and fabrication of 70 separate
pieces which were then assembled.

159
00:12:31,600 --> 00:12:38,760
There is iron here in the blade,
there is bronze on the scabbard,
there is horn.

160
00:12:38,760 --> 00:12:41,600
It has also been a working sword.

161
00:12:41,600 --> 00:12:46,280
Unlike the shield,
this actually saw battle.

162
00:12:46,280 --> 00:12:49,400
And we know that because
analysis of the metal indicates

163
00:12:49,400 --> 00:12:53,720
that it was repaired on at least
one occasion, possibly more.

164
00:12:55,320 --> 00:12:58,600
These red enamel additions

165
00:12:58,600 --> 00:13:04,040
are said to represent
freshly-spilled blood.

166
00:13:04,480 --> 00:13:08,360
But it's the delicate nature

167
00:13:08,360 --> 00:13:14,000
of the perfection
of this art that is new in Britain.

168
00:13:16,240 --> 00:13:21,600
And what is most fascinating of all
is that it is embodied,

169
00:13:21,600 --> 00:13:26,000
not in jewellery, but in
the objects that could be afforded

170
00:13:26,000 --> 00:13:30,440
by that class of people
that deserved

171
00:13:30,440 --> 00:13:36,040
things like this, warriors,
the most powerful warriors.

172
00:13:42,520 --> 00:13:46,720
But finely-decorated swords were
not the only symbol of elite power,

173
00:13:46,720 --> 00:13:51,080
as the skeleton of a horse buried
at Danebury Hill Fort reveals.

174
00:13:52,840 --> 00:13:54,880
The lifetime activities
of the horse

175
00:13:54,880 --> 00:13:57,600
will leave different markers
in the skeleton.

176
00:13:57,600 --> 00:14:02,760
And we are looking for clues
as to what that animal
was used for during its life.

177
00:14:02,760 --> 00:14:08,800
Throughout prehistory,
horses were uncommon in Britain,
even on farms,

178
00:14:08,800 --> 00:14:14,800
and forensic studies of this one
found something unprecedented.

179
00:14:14,800 --> 00:14:20,120
If you look here at the front
of the tooth, there's a small white
parallel-sided band of enamel.

180
00:14:20,120 --> 00:14:23,480
This is evidence
that the horse was bitted.

181
00:14:23,480 --> 00:14:30,040
And, if you look at this vertebrae,
there is a fracture running
through the epiphysis of the vertebra

182
00:14:30,040 --> 00:14:32,840
and this is evidence
that this horse was ridden.

183
00:14:32,840 --> 00:14:36,640
This is the first time
we have evidence for riding
in prehistoric Britain.

184
00:14:38,160 --> 00:14:43,680
These bones reveal the very
beginning of the ridden horse -
a symbol of power.

185
00:14:45,240 --> 00:14:48,520
Use of horses would have
revolutionised warfare.

186
00:14:48,520 --> 00:14:53,400
It would have changed raiding.
People could raid
at further distances and faster.

187
00:14:53,400 --> 00:14:57,280
You could attack
a neighbouring settlement,
take control of their cattle.

188
00:14:57,280 --> 00:15:00,600
A man on horseback would have had
major advantages over a man on foot.

189
00:15:12,880 --> 00:15:19,320
By 300 BC, Britain was becoming the
land that resonates in ancient myths
and folk memory.

190
00:15:20,920 --> 00:15:28,240
A land of warrior heroes, wielding
power from horseback, armed with
glinting, decorated, Celtic swords.

191
00:15:41,560 --> 00:15:46,160
Incredibly, the remains of a warrior
from this time still survive.

192
00:15:46,160 --> 00:15:52,440
The very man who once owned and
wielded the finest Iron Age sword
ever found in Britain -

193
00:15:52,440 --> 00:15:54,400
the Kirkburn Warrior.

194
00:16:01,320 --> 00:16:07,080
When he died, he was aged
somewhere between 20 and 35 years,

195
00:16:07,080 --> 00:16:11,160
powerfully built, you would have
thought in the prime of his life.

196
00:16:11,160 --> 00:16:15,160
And there is nothing on the skeleton
to indicate why he died.

197
00:16:15,160 --> 00:16:19,680
There is no great catastrophic
injury, no caved-in skull,

198
00:16:19,680 --> 00:16:22,200
no massive sword wounds
to the long bones.

199
00:16:22,200 --> 00:16:26,000
It is still possible, though,
that he died in battle.

200
00:16:26,000 --> 00:16:32,960
If he suffered a wound that
severed a major artery, or punctured
a vital organ, he could have bled

201
00:16:32,960 --> 00:16:38,120
to death and there would be no
sign on the skeleton to reveal that
as the cause of death.

202
00:16:39,800 --> 00:16:43,800
The circumstances of his burial
are fascinating.

203
00:16:43,800 --> 00:16:46,720
He was laid in his grave

204
00:16:46,720 --> 00:16:51,600
and soon thereafter,
three spears were thrust in,

205
00:16:51,600 --> 00:16:54,400
possibly penetrating the dead body.

206
00:16:54,400 --> 00:16:58,120
Now, this would have been a moment
of huge drama

207
00:16:58,120 --> 00:17:02,840
for those witnessing
the funerary ritual.

208
00:17:02,840 --> 00:17:06,800
Here was a man whose martial prowess

209
00:17:06,800 --> 00:17:11,080
was being marked out
very blatantly.

210
00:17:11,080 --> 00:17:14,600
Then the grave was completely
backfilled leaving the shafts

211
00:17:14,600 --> 00:17:18,560
sticking out of the ground,
bristling out of the mound.

212
00:17:18,560 --> 00:17:21,560
So they would have been visible
from some distance.

213
00:17:21,560 --> 00:17:24,480
They would have marked out
that grave as that of a warrior.

214
00:17:24,480 --> 00:17:26,360
It could have become
a place of homage,

215
00:17:26,360 --> 00:17:30,800
so that warriors who remembered him
from life could have grown old

216
00:17:30,800 --> 00:17:35,440
and grey regaling their children
and grandchildren with stories

217
00:17:35,440 --> 00:17:38,920
about this man,
remembering what a great

218
00:17:38,920 --> 00:17:43,960
and powerful warrior now lay buried
in that special grave.

219
00:17:52,920 --> 00:17:58,600
The world of the Kirkburn Warrior
is the beginning of a new era in the
history of our land and its people.

220
00:18:01,360 --> 00:18:05,520
This is the time of Celtic Britain.

221
00:18:05,520 --> 00:18:10,800
A world of magic, mystery,
and spiritual destiny.

222
00:18:13,880 --> 00:18:18,880
And clues to the birth
of this new age can be found
in the Northeast of England.

223
00:18:25,280 --> 00:18:28,480
I've come to Yorkshire
because 20 or so miles away

224
00:18:28,480 --> 00:18:31,520
in that direction is where
the Kirkburn Warrior was buried

225
00:18:31,520 --> 00:18:35,240
around 300 BC
along with his splendid sword.

226
00:18:35,240 --> 00:18:38,200
And what is more,
he wasn't the only one.

227
00:18:50,000 --> 00:18:53,680
In the Iron Age,
formal burial was rare.

228
00:18:53,680 --> 00:18:59,840
In most cases when people died,
their bodies were simply laid out
and the bones gradually picked clean

229
00:18:59,840 --> 00:19:04,120
by the animals and birds.
If you were lucky,
you might have got a cremation.

230
00:19:04,120 --> 00:19:10,520
But up here, in chalk uplands
of East Yorkshire something a bit
different was going on.

231
00:19:12,120 --> 00:19:16,240
Melanie Giles has been studying
the Iron Age of East Yorkshire

232
00:19:16,240 --> 00:19:17,760
for more than a decade.

233
00:19:17,760 --> 00:19:21,280
What exactly is in this field?

234
00:19:21,280 --> 00:19:26,480
This is an Iron Age cemetery and what
you are looking at is small barrows.

235
00:19:26,480 --> 00:19:28,400
Each one of those
is somebody's grave.

236
00:19:28,400 --> 00:19:33,840
So all these bumps of different
sizes and heights contain a person?

237
00:19:33,840 --> 00:19:35,880
Indeed, yes. Right.

238
00:19:35,880 --> 00:19:38,800
Is this
the only cemetery of its kind?

239
00:19:38,800 --> 00:19:43,240
No, there are many more like it
across East and into North Yorkshire.

240
00:19:43,240 --> 00:19:48,920
And, when you say East and
North Yorkshire, is that the limit
of cemeteries like these?

241
00:19:48,920 --> 00:19:53,120
Yes, they are really unique in
Britain, but there are cemeteries

242
00:19:53,120 --> 00:19:56,840
like this in modern-day France,
in the Marne and Moselle region.

243
00:19:56,840 --> 00:20:00,880
So what is going on, then?
If this is

244
00:20:00,880 --> 00:20:03,120
a French cemetery,
what is it doing here?

245
00:20:03,120 --> 00:20:05,320
I don't know that
it's a French cemetery.

246
00:20:05,320 --> 00:20:09,240
There are lots of different
ideas about this,
lots of different debates.

247
00:20:09,240 --> 00:20:14,760
Some people
thought it was a massive invasion,
a kind of war band coming across.

248
00:20:14,760 --> 00:20:20,240
But, in fact, most of these people
look as if they are local,
they were born and brought up here,

249
00:20:20,240 --> 00:20:23,240
so we might be looking at just
a small group of important

250
00:20:23,240 --> 00:20:26,280
or powerful people
coming across from the Continent.

251
00:20:26,280 --> 00:20:30,080
And some of the grave goods
we find in those barrows

252
00:20:30,080 --> 00:20:34,400
reinforce that sense that there
are contacts with the Continent.

253
00:20:35,600 --> 00:20:41,520
The Celtic culture that came
to represent an entire era might
have had its genesis right here,

254
00:20:41,520 --> 00:20:45,680
in the continentally-connected
warrior elites of East Yorkshire.

255
00:20:45,680 --> 00:20:48,440
So a warrior of the status,

256
00:20:48,440 --> 00:20:53,840
say, of the Kirkburn Warrior,
someone of that style and demeanour?

257
00:20:53,840 --> 00:20:56,920
Absolutely, and he was buried
just about ten miles from here.

258
00:20:56,920 --> 00:21:00,600
So he is part of this...fashion?

259
00:21:00,600 --> 00:21:06,400
Yes, and figures like that who maybe
were skilled at fighting, or had
achieved something in their life,

260
00:21:06,400 --> 00:21:12,720
or maybe even through the manner
of their death were treated
to special kinds of burials.

261
00:21:16,560 --> 00:21:21,960
'But the Yorkshire burials have
revealed something else that was
remarkable about this new culture.

262
00:21:21,960 --> 00:21:26,960
'Because here, it seems,
it was not only great warriors
who were revered.'

263
00:21:28,560 --> 00:21:32,200
Our picture of ancient Britain
will always be incomplete because

264
00:21:32,200 --> 00:21:39,240
often the evidence we find is of
important men, the artefacts are
often symbols of martial prowess.

265
00:21:39,240 --> 00:21:41,480
What is remarkable here in Yorkshire

266
00:21:41,480 --> 00:21:46,320
is that around 300 BC we start
to get evidence of something

267
00:21:46,320 --> 00:21:49,360
that has been missing so far
and that is important women.

268
00:21:54,560 --> 00:21:57,280
This is the skeleton of a woman
who died

269
00:21:57,280 --> 00:22:01,960
at least in her late 40s,
possibly even older than that.

270
00:22:01,960 --> 00:22:09,600
But for all that, she was
an older, mature woman, her teeth
are in remarkably good shape

271
00:22:09,600 --> 00:22:14,600
which suggests she had access
to a good, even privileged diet.

272
00:22:14,600 --> 00:22:21,680
But much more revealing and
fascinating than her mere bones

273
00:22:21,680 --> 00:22:24,480
are the circumstances
in which she was buried.

274
00:22:24,480 --> 00:22:26,800
This woman was buried

275
00:22:26,800 --> 00:22:31,840
lying on, inside a chariot.

276
00:22:31,840 --> 00:22:39,720
And around her were also placed
all the furniture for horse driving.

277
00:22:39,720 --> 00:22:41,480
These are quite hard to describe.

278
00:22:41,480 --> 00:22:43,560
I suppose they're
the equivalent of hub caps,

279
00:22:43,560 --> 00:22:45,840
decoration that would have gone

280
00:22:45,840 --> 00:22:49,080
around the knobbly bit that
sticks out from the wheel.

281
00:22:49,080 --> 00:22:55,000
These are parts of the bit that
the horse would have in its mouth,

282
00:22:55,000 --> 00:22:59,600
through which the reins passed
which would have given the driver
control over the horse's head.

283
00:23:01,480 --> 00:23:08,760
But also, in this woman's grave,
are items altogether more
mysterious, even magical.

284
00:23:08,760 --> 00:23:12,200
This metal cylinder,

285
00:23:12,200 --> 00:23:15,320
beautifully decorated

286
00:23:15,320 --> 00:23:18,760
with Celtic artwork.

287
00:23:18,760 --> 00:23:23,320
Now, it is completely sealed,
you can't get into it,
you can't open it.

288
00:23:23,320 --> 00:23:27,840
If it ever did contain anything,
it must have been organic
and very small

289
00:23:27,840 --> 00:23:31,920
so that with the passage
of millennia, that has decayed
and disappeared.

290
00:23:31,920 --> 00:23:37,160
Maybe it was some beans or seeds
so that it could be used
as a ceremonial rattle.

291
00:23:39,000 --> 00:23:40,640
Perhaps even more...

292
00:23:40,640 --> 00:23:44,200
powerful is this.

293
00:23:44,200 --> 00:23:46,960
It has been called a mirror,

294
00:23:46,960 --> 00:23:51,480
I suspect because, in terms
of its shape, that is exactly
what it looks like. But for me,

295
00:23:51,480 --> 00:23:55,560
the word "mirror"
downgrades this object,

296
00:23:55,560 --> 00:23:59,120
makes it seem trivial
and to do with vanity.

297
00:23:59,120 --> 00:24:05,080
This, in its heyday,
would have been highly polished
iron, but even at its best,

298
00:24:05,080 --> 00:24:10,080
the reflection it offered
would always have been blurred.

299
00:24:10,080 --> 00:24:12,960
It is now suggested

300
00:24:12,960 --> 00:24:18,920
that items such as these were used
not to reflect back our world,

301
00:24:18,920 --> 00:24:23,160
but to open a portal
into a world beyond

302
00:24:23,160 --> 00:24:27,280
the world of the ancestors
and that by owning this,

303
00:24:27,280 --> 00:24:33,040
and having access to it
you were able to communicate
directly with the dead.

304
00:24:36,120 --> 00:24:39,400
So, with these items here,

305
00:24:39,400 --> 00:24:44,440
it is easy to understand
that, whoever this woman was,

306
00:24:44,440 --> 00:24:47,720
once upon a time,
she really mattered.

307
00:24:47,720 --> 00:24:52,080
She was a woman of substance,
she was revered,

308
00:24:52,080 --> 00:24:58,440
she was wise and, in her community,
she was someone of real power.

309
00:25:06,080 --> 00:25:12,280
By 200 BC, Celtic culture had
spread right across our land,

310
00:25:12,280 --> 00:25:19,800
and power was increasingly becoming
concentrated in the hands of fewer,
bigger, regional leaders.

311
00:25:19,800 --> 00:25:23,440
The chieftains of the emerging
Celtic tribes of Britain.

312
00:25:25,480 --> 00:25:29,720
The big question, though,
is just who were these Celts?

313
00:25:36,280 --> 00:25:40,320
Here in Britain, especially
along the so-called Celtic fringe

314
00:25:40,320 --> 00:25:46,400
of Cornwall, Wales and Scotland
Celticness is an emotive subject.

315
00:25:46,400 --> 00:25:50,280
There are people who believe it
connects them to a sense of their

316
00:25:50,280 --> 00:25:56,160
own history, that it underpins
their sense of self and inheritance.

317
00:25:56,160 --> 00:26:00,360
There are even those who believe
in an entirely separate Celtic race.

318
00:26:02,200 --> 00:26:04,400
And how do I feel about that?

319
00:26:04,400 --> 00:26:08,760
Well, as a Scot, I feel a sense
of belonging to my country.

320
00:26:08,760 --> 00:26:11,800
I feel in a sense,
that my homeland belongs to me.

321
00:26:11,800 --> 00:26:15,800
But whether or not that
is the same as the sense
of a separate ethnic identity,

322
00:26:15,800 --> 00:26:18,000
I'd need help to answer that one.

323
00:26:24,320 --> 00:26:28,440
I'm sending a sample of my DNA
for analysis in an attempt

324
00:26:28,440 --> 00:26:32,840
to try and find out where
my Scottish ancestors came from.

325
00:26:32,840 --> 00:26:35,120
And, in particular,
to find out whether

326
00:26:35,120 --> 00:26:39,200
they were living in Britain during
the height of the Celtic Iron Age.

327
00:26:42,200 --> 00:26:46,720
Using statistical genetic dating
methods, Peter Forster believes

328
00:26:46,720 --> 00:26:50,800
he can work out the detailed
prehistory of living individuals.

329
00:26:50,800 --> 00:26:54,080
I know it is very complicated
science that's involved,

330
00:26:54,080 --> 00:26:59,280
but can you tell me,
in very simple terms, who I am
and where I come from?

331
00:26:59,280 --> 00:27:01,080
I'll give it a try.

332
00:27:01,080 --> 00:27:02,760
So what we have done, in a nutshell,

333
00:27:02,760 --> 00:27:06,280
is to take a look at two stretches
of your DNA which allow us

334
00:27:06,280 --> 00:27:10,480
to separately trace your mother's
line back into deep prehistory

335
00:27:10,480 --> 00:27:14,160
and your father's
back into deep prehistory. OK.

336
00:27:14,160 --> 00:27:17,760
So to start with we have looked
at your mother's DNA, where her

337
00:27:17,760 --> 00:27:20,840
female ancestry traces back to.

338
00:27:20,840 --> 00:27:24,920
You could have matches
from all over the world, but let's
take a look at what they are.

339
00:27:24,920 --> 00:27:27,840
Right, so this is...
Oh, big red spot right on Scotland.

340
00:27:27,840 --> 00:27:30,560
Yeah, let me zoom in...

341
00:27:30,560 --> 00:27:33,400
Fascinating.

342
00:27:33,400 --> 00:27:36,480
And it's
the Western Isles of Scotland.

343
00:27:36,480 --> 00:27:37,920
Yes.

344
00:27:37,920 --> 00:27:42,200
We have no recent historical
connection to the islands.

345
00:27:42,200 --> 00:27:47,280
Well, it is not only Western Isles.
We have some more matches
in mainland Scotland.

346
00:27:47,280 --> 00:27:51,320
In simple terms, everything about
my mum is pointing to Scotland,

347
00:27:51,320 --> 00:27:55,160
and having been in Scotland for
a long, long time. That is right,

348
00:27:55,160 --> 00:27:58,680
because it is all over Scotland, it
is not just one particular location.

349
00:27:58,680 --> 00:28:02,520
So that argues for the presence
of your mother's line in Scotland

350
00:28:02,520 --> 00:28:05,480
way back into prehistory,
thousands of years ago.

351
00:28:05,480 --> 00:28:07,800
So what about my dad, then?

352
00:28:07,800 --> 00:28:12,360
Yes, your father's line
was a bit of a surprise.

353
00:28:12,360 --> 00:28:15,200
So let's see.

354
00:28:15,200 --> 00:28:18,120
That is the result
for the father's line.

355
00:28:18,120 --> 00:28:19,960
Right.

356
00:28:19,960 --> 00:28:25,720
Your particular paternal lineage
is more common in Southern Europe

357
00:28:25,720 --> 00:28:30,320
and Eastern Europe.
There is nothing from my
dad's DNA in Britain at all.

358
00:28:30,320 --> 00:28:34,600
Well, it is more than that, in fact.
There is nothing in Scandinavia or

359
00:28:34,600 --> 00:28:39,280
northern Europe so it is a Southern
and Eastern European profile.

360
00:28:39,280 --> 00:28:44,120
So the individuals, or individual,
in my father's line

361
00:28:44,120 --> 00:28:49,200
only came to Britain,
in DNA terms, relatively recently?

362
00:28:49,200 --> 00:28:51,000
Yes, that is correct.

363
00:28:51,000 --> 00:28:53,840
Wait till I tell him.

364
00:28:53,840 --> 00:28:55,880
Wait till I tell my Scottish dad...

365
00:28:55,880 --> 00:28:57,480
that he's not from Scotland.

366
00:29:05,240 --> 00:29:09,960
Experts have tried again and again
to identify a Celtic bloodline,

367
00:29:09,960 --> 00:29:14,040
but the most they can really agree
on is that, just as in my case,

368
00:29:14,040 --> 00:29:16,200
ancestry is complicated.

369
00:29:17,800 --> 00:29:21,000
Many people today believe
that "Celtic"

370
00:29:21,000 --> 00:29:25,400
is no more than a collective term
to describe a whole host of peoples

371
00:29:25,400 --> 00:29:30,440
who lived in Europe around 2,
000 years ago and shared
common cultural values.

372
00:29:32,280 --> 00:29:36,320
It's possible - it's even likely -
that there never was...

373
00:29:36,320 --> 00:29:39,600
a separate ethnic Celtic identity.

374
00:29:39,600 --> 00:29:44,040
There's certainly no absolute
evidence for a separate Celtic race,

375
00:29:44,040 --> 00:29:47,480
however disappointing some people
might find that fact.

376
00:29:48,520 --> 00:29:52,200
But what we do have -
and what we do have evidence for -

377
00:29:52,200 --> 00:29:55,200
is a common Celtic heritage.

378
00:29:59,240 --> 00:30:02,440
'The Celts appreciated
similar art and design

379
00:30:02,440 --> 00:30:05,960
'and they held shared values
of status and hierarchy.

380
00:30:07,800 --> 00:30:11,360
'And linguists also believe
they shared a common language.

381
00:30:13,520 --> 00:30:18,360
'A language we can decipher,
even after 2,000 years.'

382
00:30:18,360 --> 00:30:22,240
Paul, how much do we know about what
the Iron Age would have sounded like

383
00:30:22,240 --> 00:30:24,560
in terms of the spoken word?

384
00:30:24,560 --> 00:30:26,960
Well we know something about it,

385
00:30:26,960 --> 00:30:30,560
in the sense that
the descendent languages

386
00:30:30,560 --> 00:30:34,440
from this period in Britain
do survive in the form of Welsh,

387
00:30:34,440 --> 00:30:40,040
and Cornish and Breton and -
more distantly - with Irish
and Scots Gaelic.

388
00:30:40,040 --> 00:30:42,760
If we were to take
a particular word,

389
00:30:42,760 --> 00:30:47,720
we would know that the ancient
British word for a boar

390
00:30:47,720 --> 00:30:53,200
would be "turcos" because
we have Welsh "twrch" and so on.

391
00:30:53,200 --> 00:30:56,160
And to take another example,

392
00:30:56,160 --> 00:31:00,040
"maglos" would be the word
for a prince or a lord

393
00:31:00,040 --> 00:31:04,480
on the basis of Welsh "mael"
and Irish "mal".

394
00:31:04,480 --> 00:31:10,240
And these forms one can reconstruct
to produce those forms.

395
00:31:10,240 --> 00:31:14,640
If you were to take a modern-day
English speaker

396
00:31:14,640 --> 00:31:18,120
and plunk them down
in an Iron Age marketplace,

397
00:31:18,120 --> 00:31:22,160
what would they find most striking
about the voices around them?

398
00:31:22,160 --> 00:31:26,640
I think the most striking thing for
them is that they wouldn't understand
a word of it,

399
00:31:26,640 --> 00:31:30,280
because this is a language group
that is unrelated -

400
00:31:30,280 --> 00:31:33,760
or only distantly related -
to English.

401
00:31:33,760 --> 00:31:37,240
So you would be in the market
and you would say,

402
00:31:37,240 --> 00:31:39,680
"Gwerthar mi turcon."

403
00:31:39,680 --> 00:31:42,080
"Sell me a boar."

404
00:31:42,080 --> 00:31:46,320
And there's nothing there -
apart, perhaps, from "mi" -

405
00:31:46,320 --> 00:31:49,120
which an English speaker
would understand.

406
00:31:49,120 --> 00:31:54,000
If a traveller was to go from
the south-west of England

407
00:31:54,000 --> 00:31:56,280
to the north-east of Scotland,

408
00:31:56,280 --> 00:32:00,120
would they hear the language
changing as though with dialects?

409
00:32:00,120 --> 00:32:02,440
Yes, almost certainly.

410
00:32:02,440 --> 00:32:05,680
That's probably definitely the case,
by virtue of the fact that

411
00:32:05,680 --> 00:32:09,560
these are languages that
develop into different languages.

412
00:32:09,560 --> 00:32:12,320
Welsh as separate from Cornish
and so on and so forth.

413
00:32:12,320 --> 00:32:15,600
So there probably was
that kind of variation.

414
00:32:15,600 --> 00:32:20,480
But the kind of variation where,
mile on mile, neighbour to neighbour,

415
00:32:20,480 --> 00:32:23,920
they, perfectly well,
would understand each other

416
00:32:23,920 --> 00:32:27,480
but if you moved them all the way
from the south-west to the north-east

417
00:32:27,480 --> 00:32:29,960
they would probably struggle,
I would have thought.

418
00:32:29,960 --> 00:32:32,800
Can you construct a sentence for me,

419
00:32:32,800 --> 00:32:35,080
so that I can get a sense of the...

420
00:32:35,080 --> 00:32:40,240
The rhythm and cadence of that
ancient British language? Well, OK.

421
00:32:40,240 --> 00:32:41,760
Er...

422
00:32:41,760 --> 00:32:44,840
Think of a lord, the prince -

423
00:32:44,840 --> 00:32:48,880
like you, for example -
coming into the feasting hall

424
00:32:48,880 --> 00:32:52,720
and people would rise
and would say to you...

425
00:32:52,720 --> 00:32:53,960
I certainly hope so!

426
00:32:53,960 --> 00:32:58,960
.."a-rut reg-ami mag-leh wu-ta-keh".

427
00:32:58,960 --> 00:33:04,400
Which would mean, basically,
something like, "I honour you,
long-haired lord."

428
00:33:04,400 --> 00:33:07,200
Did you just call
me a hippy in Celtic?

429
00:33:07,200 --> 00:33:08,440
Possibly.

430
00:33:17,280 --> 00:33:20,920
I'm used to seeing and handling
artefacts -

431
00:33:20,920 --> 00:33:24,200
things made of
metal, stone, pottery -

432
00:33:24,200 --> 00:33:26,960
so it's quite a strange feeling

433
00:33:26,960 --> 00:33:30,800
to get the sounds of the Iron Age,
as well.

434
00:33:30,800 --> 00:33:34,200
It almost sounds crass to say it,

435
00:33:34,200 --> 00:33:39,240
but it brings that time
back to life.

436
00:33:39,240 --> 00:33:41,720
If you take the language...

437
00:33:41,720 --> 00:33:47,000
If you had a Gallic speaker from the
Western Isles or a Welsh speaker,

438
00:33:47,000 --> 00:33:52,600
while they perhaps couldn't have
a conversation with an Iron Age
warrior,

439
00:33:52,600 --> 00:33:56,960
there's every possibility that they
could make themselves understood.

440
00:33:56,960 --> 00:34:00,960
And so the world of the past
and the modern world

441
00:34:00,960 --> 00:34:03,240
would collide at that point.

442
00:34:03,240 --> 00:34:06,200
The past is very close if you
approach it in the right way.

443
00:34:26,440 --> 00:34:29,640
Less than 200 years
after the Kirkburn Warrior,

444
00:34:29,640 --> 00:34:33,080
the tribes of Britain might still
have been rivals,

445
00:34:33,080 --> 00:34:37,920
but they were also bound
by a common Celtic culture.

446
00:34:39,880 --> 00:34:43,680
In the Southern Highlands
of Scotland, using experimental
archaeology,

447
00:34:43,680 --> 00:34:47,280
it's even possible to get close
to the reality of life

448
00:34:47,280 --> 00:34:49,000
at the time of the Celtic Iron Age.

449
00:34:54,080 --> 00:34:58,120
Look at that! It's a modern
reconstruction of a building called
a crannog,

450
00:34:58,120 --> 00:35:03,960
which is a large house
built on a platform that sits
above the waters of the loch.

451
00:35:03,960 --> 00:35:07,800
This would have been the home, 2,000
years ago, of a local chieftain.

452
00:35:09,400 --> 00:35:12,560
A building like that
is about status and prestige.

453
00:35:12,560 --> 00:35:14,960
It's visible for miles around.

454
00:35:14,960 --> 00:35:17,240
You are essentially
saying to people,

455
00:35:17,240 --> 00:35:22,560
"Here I am, and if you think you can
take this from me, do your best."

456
00:35:25,720 --> 00:35:31,160
In this world of Celtic tribes,
leaders needed to be more
than powerful warriors.

457
00:35:31,160 --> 00:35:34,840
They needed diplomatic skills
and political nous, too.

458
00:35:36,920 --> 00:35:40,120
And artefacts found here in Loch Tay

459
00:35:40,120 --> 00:35:44,040
bear testament to how
Iron Age politics were conducted.

460
00:35:45,800 --> 00:35:50,600
This is a small, circular,
wooden plate

461
00:35:50,600 --> 00:35:52,680
recovered from the loch.

462
00:35:53,720 --> 00:35:55,760
In Iron Age Britain,

463
00:35:55,760 --> 00:36:01,880
status wasn't just about items
of jewellery and personal adornment.

464
00:36:01,880 --> 00:36:07,520
It was about your ability
to draw people to you -

465
00:36:07,520 --> 00:36:12,240
men, fighting men, who were loyal
to you, who would do your bidding.

466
00:36:12,240 --> 00:36:16,400
And a key way of
getting to them was,

467
00:36:16,400 --> 00:36:19,080
as they say,
through their stomachs.

468
00:36:19,080 --> 00:36:20,920
The way to a man's heart!

469
00:36:20,920 --> 00:36:23,400
And so you have to picture...

470
00:36:23,400 --> 00:36:26,760
a chieftain -
perhaps THE chieftain of the area -

471
00:36:26,760 --> 00:36:29,120
gathering men to him,

472
00:36:29,120 --> 00:36:34,160
and they would be fed by him
to show that he was a big man.

473
00:36:35,400 --> 00:36:38,040
So, the story here,
from this little wooden plate,

474
00:36:38,040 --> 00:36:43,280
is that feasting was a key part
of power broking

475
00:36:43,280 --> 00:36:46,120
in late Iron Age Britain.

476
00:36:49,000 --> 00:36:54,680
Barrie Andrian,
who helped create the crannog,
is an expert in feasting.

477
00:36:54,680 --> 00:36:59,120
And many of the same wild plants
that would have been eaten 2,
000 years ago

478
00:36:59,120 --> 00:37:01,800
still grow around the area today.

479
00:37:01,800 --> 00:37:05,640
They didn't have access to the kinds
of vegetables that we have today -

480
00:37:05,640 --> 00:37:09,320
nothing like onions and potatoes
and our staples.

481
00:37:09,320 --> 00:37:13,920
So, foraging would have been
a very, very important
source of food for them.

482
00:37:13,920 --> 00:37:15,960
There are lots of
edible greens here -

483
00:37:15,960 --> 00:37:21,480
things like chickweed and sorrel,
which has a lemony taste.

484
00:37:25,320 --> 00:37:26,760
See what you think.

485
00:37:36,120 --> 00:37:40,360
It's got a very...
It's got a very definite...flavour.

486
00:37:40,360 --> 00:37:42,800
This is sorrel... Mm-hm.

487
00:37:42,800 --> 00:37:46,160
..and I'm going to put that
in the stew, just to give it a kick.

488
00:37:46,160 --> 00:37:48,120
There's a real

489
00:37:48,120 --> 00:37:50,680
acidy, citrusy...

490
00:37:50,680 --> 00:37:52,880
That's a strong flavour.

491
00:37:53,920 --> 00:37:57,040
The scale and variety of food
offered by a chieftain

492
00:37:57,040 --> 00:38:02,120
would have been a mark of his status
and, by extension, his power.

493
00:38:02,120 --> 00:38:05,360
We have a fantastic amount
of organic material

494
00:38:05,360 --> 00:38:08,600
that we've uncovered and discovered
underwater here in Loch Tay,

495
00:38:08,600 --> 00:38:10,200
at one of the crannog sites.

496
00:38:10,200 --> 00:38:14,440
More than 160 different types
of edible plants,

497
00:38:14,440 --> 00:38:18,000
so this is
a mere representative sample.

498
00:38:18,000 --> 00:38:22,160
Just a handful, literally, of some
of those. Let me just try that one.

499
00:38:22,160 --> 00:38:25,400
Wild mushroom and barley.

500
00:38:26,920 --> 00:38:30,480
That is delicious.
The barley is very strong there.

501
00:38:30,480 --> 00:38:32,640
There's a kind of
an echo of Scotch broth.

502
00:38:32,640 --> 00:38:34,160
Yeah, I think it would be.

503
00:38:36,840 --> 00:38:42,680
Over the hearth, a masterpiece
of decorative wrought ironwork
would have supported a spit roast

504
00:38:42,680 --> 00:38:46,200
and proclaimed the standing
of its owner.

505
00:38:46,200 --> 00:38:50,040
This is an example,
or representation, of a firedog.

506
00:38:50,040 --> 00:38:54,720
And the firedog would have been
a high-status, really classy
piece of art.

507
00:38:54,720 --> 00:38:58,200
And you can see the curve
of the back of the head.

508
00:38:58,200 --> 00:39:02,520
It's maybe a horse or a bull
with the horns sticking out,
or maybe even a wild boar.

509
00:39:02,520 --> 00:39:06,560
But obviously something important,
something symbolic.

510
00:39:06,560 --> 00:39:12,000
And if you look at the craftsmanship,
these are meant to represent wealth

511
00:39:12,000 --> 00:39:15,000
and power,
so it's another symbol of status.

512
00:39:15,000 --> 00:39:16,480
It's food for show, isn't it?

513
00:39:16,480 --> 00:39:18,840
It's food as a performance.
Absolutely.

514
00:39:18,840 --> 00:39:20,880
They definitely weren't...hiding.

515
00:39:26,800 --> 00:39:29,640
A feast was a hugely important
social exercise.

516
00:39:29,640 --> 00:39:32,320
It was almost
a ritual in its own right.

517
00:39:32,320 --> 00:39:36,840
Everyone attending the event
would have...

518
00:39:36,840 --> 00:39:39,480
understood the etiquette.

519
00:39:39,480 --> 00:39:41,480
They would have been able to read

520
00:39:41,480 --> 00:39:44,480
every nuance, every sign,
every gesture.

521
00:39:46,720 --> 00:39:49,520
The leader had to be
a skilled politician

522
00:39:49,520 --> 00:39:51,800
to pull it off -

523
00:39:51,800 --> 00:39:56,000
to read people correctly and
make accurate assessments

524
00:39:56,000 --> 00:39:58,600
of his followers,
or his would-be followers.

525
00:39:59,880 --> 00:40:03,720
Who would be served first?

526
00:40:03,720 --> 00:40:06,160
Who would get the choicest cuts
of meat?

527
00:40:06,160 --> 00:40:09,080
Who would be left
with the cold shoulder?

528
00:40:09,080 --> 00:40:12,280
And because it was
happening publicly,

529
00:40:12,280 --> 00:40:14,240
it was open to dispute.

530
00:40:14,240 --> 00:40:19,880
Because, after all, it's a room
full of fiery, hot blooded Celts

531
00:40:19,880 --> 00:40:24,160
and if one of them felt he was
being slighted when he should have
been being praised,

532
00:40:24,160 --> 00:40:29,520
then, if he felt strong enough,
he would have the opportunity to
make his feelings clear.

533
00:40:31,600 --> 00:40:34,240
But by the end of the night,

534
00:40:34,240 --> 00:40:37,640
everyone would have understood
where they were -

535
00:40:37,640 --> 00:40:43,160
how they related to one another,
who was top dog
and who was at the bottom.

536
00:40:51,160 --> 00:40:57,000
Over just a few hundred years,
the structure of power
had reshaped Iron Age Britain

537
00:40:57,000 --> 00:41:00,040
from an age of elite local warriors

538
00:41:00,040 --> 00:41:03,480
to increasingly powerful
Celtic chieftains.

539
00:41:05,680 --> 00:41:07,400
By around 100 BC,

540
00:41:07,400 --> 00:41:12,240
power had became concentrated in
the hands of a narrow social elite.

541
00:41:12,240 --> 00:41:15,240
People who controlled such an extent
of trade and territory

542
00:41:15,240 --> 00:41:18,320
that they became something new -

543
00:41:18,320 --> 00:41:20,920
the first of the mega-rich.

544
00:41:23,200 --> 00:41:27,440
And some of the evidence for that
can be seen back here
at the British Museum.

545
00:41:39,840 --> 00:41:44,120
This is a late Iron Age gold torc -

546
00:41:44,120 --> 00:41:49,360
an elaborate, lavish piece of
jewellery worn around the neck.

547
00:41:49,360 --> 00:41:52,000
It's absolutely breathtaking -

548
00:41:52,000 --> 00:41:54,240
the weight of gold...

549
00:41:54,240 --> 00:41:56,520
just the lustre of it.

550
00:41:56,520 --> 00:41:59,920
It's been compared,
in terms of its significance,

551
00:41:59,920 --> 00:42:03,400
as being right up there with
the British Crown Jewels,

552
00:42:03,400 --> 00:42:05,800
and you can surely see why.

553
00:42:06,920 --> 00:42:12,560
It's been made by twisting
individual strands of gold

554
00:42:12,560 --> 00:42:15,600
to create
these corkscrewing spirals.

555
00:42:17,280 --> 00:42:21,080
And then the ends have been fitted
into these round terminals.

556
00:42:21,080 --> 00:42:25,400
The goldsmith, the artist,
has really gone to town

557
00:42:25,400 --> 00:42:30,480
on adding decoration
to give it texture and depth.

558
00:42:30,480 --> 00:42:34,080
It dates to around 75 years BC

559
00:42:34,080 --> 00:42:38,440
and it's quite different in form

560
00:42:38,440 --> 00:42:40,880
from the earlier military art,

561
00:42:40,880 --> 00:42:44,640
like the Battersea Shield,
the Kirkburn Sword.

562
00:42:44,640 --> 00:42:48,920
This is the advent of something
quite new in Britain.

563
00:42:48,920 --> 00:42:52,520
This is extreme wealth -
extreme showing off -

564
00:42:52,520 --> 00:42:56,400
and what you have here...

565
00:42:56,400 --> 00:42:59,680
in the owner of this

566
00:42:59,680 --> 00:43:05,200
is a man who is seeing himself -
and, perhaps more importantly,

567
00:43:05,200 --> 00:43:09,640
being seen by his followers -
as nothing less than a king.

568
00:43:14,720 --> 00:43:17,720
Some of the tribal territories of
Britain were now ruled by men

569
00:43:17,720 --> 00:43:20,880
so powerful they even began
to issue their own coins.

570
00:43:26,400 --> 00:43:28,520
Look at these.

571
00:43:28,520 --> 00:43:33,080
These are some of the earliest coins
ever found in England.

572
00:43:33,080 --> 00:43:36,040
And the Celtic coin makers

573
00:43:36,040 --> 00:43:38,880
are making coins in their own image,
if you like.

574
00:43:38,880 --> 00:43:42,160
They're using Celtic art.

575
00:43:42,160 --> 00:43:46,200
Rather than straightforward
representations of heads,

576
00:43:46,200 --> 00:43:49,200
they're going for
something abstract.

577
00:43:49,200 --> 00:43:53,840
Just like today,
coins have always been

578
00:43:53,840 --> 00:43:58,440
representations of the state -
often the head of state.

579
00:43:58,440 --> 00:44:02,440
And the same thing
is happening here.

580
00:44:02,440 --> 00:44:07,400
This torc, which dates from the same
period as these three gold coins,

581
00:44:07,400 --> 00:44:11,400
is obviously a symbol of authority.

582
00:44:12,640 --> 00:44:13,920
But this...

583
00:44:13,920 --> 00:44:16,840
is where you start to get
the authority of the state

584
00:44:16,840 --> 00:44:19,320
becoming something
that's transferable.

585
00:44:19,320 --> 00:44:24,400
Coins are in circulation,
they're distributed.

586
00:44:24,400 --> 00:44:28,840
This is about society being
permeated by the portable,

587
00:44:28,840 --> 00:44:34,520
transferable symbols
of the state and of the king.

588
00:44:44,320 --> 00:44:48,400
But if there were people at the top
with almost unimaginable wealth,

589
00:44:48,400 --> 00:44:50,400
there were also
people at the bottom.

590
00:44:52,640 --> 00:44:56,920
And evidence for that can be found
at the National Museum of Wales.

591
00:44:59,320 --> 00:45:05,080
As well as gold, every important
Celtic leader wanted prestige goods
from mainland Europe.

592
00:45:05,080 --> 00:45:08,160
Olive oil, wine, exotic tableware -

593
00:45:08,160 --> 00:45:10,920
all the accoutrements
of civilization.

594
00:45:10,920 --> 00:45:16,120
To pay for it, they exported
wool, animal hides, hunting dogs.

595
00:45:16,120 --> 00:45:19,000
But there was also
a darker price to be paid

596
00:45:19,000 --> 00:45:20,800
for all that luxury.

597
00:45:30,640 --> 00:45:34,800
In European markets, one commodity
above all else was in great demand -

598
00:45:34,800 --> 00:45:38,800
tall, strong, British manpower.

599
00:45:38,800 --> 00:45:41,120
Look at this.

600
00:45:41,120 --> 00:45:44,640
It's an iron slave chain.

601
00:45:44,640 --> 00:45:47,240
It's over 2,000 years old.

602
00:45:50,440 --> 00:45:56,040
Now this, obviously, was the part
made to go round the slave's neck.

603
00:45:58,880 --> 00:46:02,680
It would fit tightly -
might even make it hard to breathe.

604
00:46:03,760 --> 00:46:09,160
And just half a metre - a foot
and a half, say - of iron chain

605
00:46:09,160 --> 00:46:11,680
separates each slave in the line

606
00:46:11,680 --> 00:46:15,480
as they shuffle along
to wherever they're going.

607
00:46:16,920 --> 00:46:19,160
It's fantastically heavy

608
00:46:19,160 --> 00:46:23,120
and so well preserved
you get a real sense...

609
00:46:23,120 --> 00:46:26,440
of what it would have felt like
to have been burdened with this

610
00:46:26,440 --> 00:46:31,240
and to feel the way
these would have chafed at the neck.

611
00:46:33,800 --> 00:46:37,280
For every king or queen
in the Iron Age,

612
00:46:37,280 --> 00:46:41,680
there would have to have been
countless, countless slaves.

613
00:46:41,680 --> 00:46:44,800
Gold jewellery, works of art -

614
00:46:44,800 --> 00:46:50,400
they give a glimpse of life for
people at the top end of society,

615
00:46:50,400 --> 00:46:52,280
but it's items like this

616
00:46:52,280 --> 00:46:57,960
that brings you face to face
with what Iron Age reality
must have been like

617
00:46:57,960 --> 00:47:00,720
for those thousands and thousands
of people

618
00:47:00,720 --> 00:47:04,200
who inhabited the bottom
of society.

619
00:47:15,040 --> 00:47:17,040
Just a few hundred years earlier,

620
00:47:17,040 --> 00:47:20,920
many people in Britain had lived in
egalitarian farming communities.

621
00:47:22,920 --> 00:47:27,400
But now, in the late Celtic
Iron Age, all that had changed.

622
00:47:29,040 --> 00:47:34,640
By 75BC, Britain was a land
of hard social divides.

623
00:47:36,400 --> 00:47:39,200
Kings at the top,
slaves at the bottom,

624
00:47:39,200 --> 00:47:43,640
the rest of us - presumably the vast
majority - somewhere in between.

625
00:47:43,640 --> 00:47:45,840
But there was
another class of people.

626
00:47:45,840 --> 00:47:50,720
They were the spiritual leaders,
the wise men of Celtic society.

627
00:47:50,720 --> 00:47:52,280
The Druids.

628
00:47:56,240 --> 00:48:00,880
Miranda Green is an Iron Age
archaeologist and Druid specialist.

629
00:48:02,360 --> 00:48:06,320
Within the whole mix of society,
you know, you've got kings and
aristocrats,

630
00:48:06,320 --> 00:48:09,280
you've got ordinary people,
you've got slaves at the bottom.

631
00:48:09,280 --> 00:48:12,280
Where are the Druids in that
picture? Right up at the top.

632
00:48:12,280 --> 00:48:15,960
I would think probably more important
than the kings or the tribal leaders.

633
00:48:15,960 --> 00:48:20,000
We know the kings listened
to their advice. They were like
the Old Testament prophets.

634
00:48:20,000 --> 00:48:24,640
And one of the things that make
them important is that
they overarch society,

635
00:48:24,640 --> 00:48:29,360
so that you might have kings of
tribes, but the Druids would connect
with each other

636
00:48:29,360 --> 00:48:33,600
through huge areas of Europe, so they
acted like a kind of Celtic glue.

637
00:48:33,600 --> 00:48:36,080
So, really crucial...

638
00:48:36,080 --> 00:48:37,920
to the working of society?

639
00:48:37,920 --> 00:48:40,560
Crucial. They even intervened
in cases of warfare.

640
00:48:40,560 --> 00:48:44,200
They could actually walk into
the middle of a battlefield
and stop the war.

641
00:48:44,200 --> 00:48:46,200
Right. So they were that important.

642
00:48:46,200 --> 00:48:48,880
OK. Even though they didn't
actually fight themselves.

643
00:48:48,880 --> 00:48:53,000
So they were absolutely
to be taken seriously.

644
00:48:53,000 --> 00:48:58,600
They were. And, indeed, to go against
a Druid would be almost to be as bad
as being dead

645
00:48:58,600 --> 00:49:01,640
because you would be exiled -
nobody would speak to you -

646
00:49:01,640 --> 00:49:05,680
and you were then beyond society
because of the word of a Druid.

647
00:49:12,000 --> 00:49:15,960
Little evidence remains of these
powerful priests of Celtic society

648
00:49:15,960 --> 00:49:21,040
beyond legends of oaks,
mistletoe and golden sickles.

649
00:49:22,920 --> 00:49:26,240
But discoveries of unusual
and mysterious spoons

650
00:49:26,240 --> 00:49:31,360
are thought to be connected to
the indispensable art of divination.

651
00:49:33,000 --> 00:49:35,360
What is this
collection of weirdness?

652
00:49:35,360 --> 00:49:40,080
Well, we have got here
a pair of replica spoons

653
00:49:40,080 --> 00:49:43,920
and they are called
divination spoons. "Divination" means
telling the future.

654
00:49:43,920 --> 00:49:45,920
They were used by Druids
in the Iron Age.

655
00:49:45,920 --> 00:49:48,680
One of the spoons has got
a hole drilled into it.

656
00:49:48,680 --> 00:49:52,640
The other spoon is divided, in its
inner surface, into four quadrants.

657
00:49:52,640 --> 00:49:56,720
All right. And I think that they
were used together, placed like that,

658
00:49:56,720 --> 00:50:00,560
and then something blown or dripped
through the hole

659
00:50:00,560 --> 00:50:06,440
and then the spoons would be opened
to see where on the quartered surface
it would fall.

660
00:50:06,440 --> 00:50:07,680
OK.

661
00:50:07,680 --> 00:50:12,480
If you want your ancestors to speak
to you about where you should go
next, where your herds should go,

662
00:50:12,480 --> 00:50:15,120
to do that you would use their bones.

663
00:50:21,560 --> 00:50:23,160
Oh, rather you than me!

664
00:50:26,560 --> 00:50:30,280
So we can see that the powder
that I blew though this hole

665
00:50:30,280 --> 00:50:33,680
has not landed, as you might think,
exactly opposite the hole,

666
00:50:33,680 --> 00:50:35,960
but down in this
left-hand corner here.

667
00:50:35,960 --> 00:50:40,000
So we could actually try
a little liquid now, couldn't we?
This is where you come in.

668
00:50:40,000 --> 00:50:42,000
I'm guessing that's not ketchup!

669
00:50:42,000 --> 00:50:45,000
Er, no, it's not, and it's not
tomato juice, it's blood.

670
00:50:45,000 --> 00:50:46,440
OK.

671
00:50:56,800 --> 00:50:59,680
You've got, actually,
quite a nice pattern in there. Yeah.

672
00:50:59,680 --> 00:51:03,800
But it's like telling the tea leaves.
You're getting this definite shape.

673
00:51:03,800 --> 00:51:05,760
So you would come to the Druids,

674
00:51:05,760 --> 00:51:09,960
or the Druids would be consulted
by someone in a position of power,

675
00:51:09,960 --> 00:51:15,400
who would ask specific questions.
Yes. "Why are the flocks
afflicted with this disease?

676
00:51:15,400 --> 00:51:18,400
"Should we go to war
with the neighbours?" That's right.

677
00:51:18,400 --> 00:51:23,440
And it would be in the gift
of the Druid to interpret this
any way he wanted. Of course.

678
00:51:23,440 --> 00:51:25,680
So if the Druid wants to go to war,

679
00:51:25,680 --> 00:51:27,480
the Druid can make that happen.

680
00:51:27,480 --> 00:51:33,000
Absolutely. And the Druids would know
perfectly well both the questions and
the answers that they were after.

681
00:51:33,000 --> 00:51:38,440
So, I think what you've got here
is a means of manipulating the future
and manipulating power.

682
00:51:45,680 --> 00:51:48,240
The Druids were men so powerful

683
00:51:48,240 --> 00:51:52,360
that even the Celtic kings
danced to their tune.

684
00:51:52,360 --> 00:51:56,640
But despite their huge influence,
apart from divination spoons,

685
00:51:56,640 --> 00:52:00,360
definite evidence of Druids
has never been found.

686
00:52:02,200 --> 00:52:05,240
But there is one possibility.

687
00:52:21,320 --> 00:52:24,160
This is the skull of
a man who died...

688
00:52:24,160 --> 00:52:26,320
around 200 years BC,

689
00:52:26,320 --> 00:52:30,600
aged between 30 and 35 years old.

690
00:52:30,600 --> 00:52:36,280
He was buried in an Iron Age
cemetery in Deal in Kent.

691
00:52:36,280 --> 00:52:39,640
He has been known as
the Deal Warrior,

692
00:52:39,640 --> 00:52:43,880
because with him in his grave
there was a sword.

693
00:52:43,880 --> 00:52:46,720
But there's something
more interesting

694
00:52:46,720 --> 00:52:50,520
and more mysterious
about this character.

695
00:52:51,920 --> 00:52:55,520
When the skeleton was being
excavated back in the '80s,

696
00:52:55,520 --> 00:53:00,320
the people working on it noticed
that, while he was definitely male,

697
00:53:00,320 --> 00:53:03,760
the bones were slight, slender.

698
00:53:03,760 --> 00:53:05,280
In fact, somebody said of him

699
00:53:06,000 --> 00:53:10,080
that the bones
were of a slightly feminine nature.

700
00:53:10,080 --> 00:53:15,280
So, something
definitely un-warrior-like.

701
00:53:15,280 --> 00:53:18,440
So, what's going on?
What else do we know?

702
00:53:18,440 --> 00:53:25,360
Well, he was buried wearing this
elaborate, enigmatic headgear.

703
00:53:27,200 --> 00:53:31,640
It wasn't padded
or lined in leather.

704
00:53:31,640 --> 00:53:35,000
It was worn directly on the head

705
00:53:35,000 --> 00:53:38,920
and we know that because traces
of this individual's hair

706
00:53:38,920 --> 00:53:40,760
were found trapped in the rim.

707
00:53:40,760 --> 00:53:44,400
For that reason,
and because it's so slight,

708
00:53:44,400 --> 00:53:47,800
it's highly unlikely that it was
ever worn as a military helmet

709
00:53:47,800 --> 00:53:52,200
to give protection to a man's head
in combat.

710
00:53:52,200 --> 00:53:55,800
The only other artefacts like it

711
00:53:55,800 --> 00:53:59,760
are the headgear worn by...

712
00:53:59,760 --> 00:54:04,680
religious leaders
in Roman Britain 200 years later.

713
00:54:04,680 --> 00:54:07,280
So was he something like that?

714
00:54:08,760 --> 00:54:13,040
The fascinating possibility -
and it's only a possibility -

715
00:54:13,040 --> 00:54:18,920
is that this individual, in life,

716
00:54:18,920 --> 00:54:23,640
was of that most mysterious caste
of people -

717
00:54:23,640 --> 00:54:26,080
a Druid,

718
00:54:26,080 --> 00:54:31,720
who walked this land 200 years
before the birth of Christ.

719
00:54:31,720 --> 00:54:35,560
And, if so, what events
did he witness

720
00:54:35,560 --> 00:54:38,840
and what power did he wield?

721
00:54:51,440 --> 00:54:57,200
By the time of the Celtic kings,
the age of the hillforts
was coming to an end -

722
00:54:57,200 --> 00:54:58,840
even the greatest of them.

723
00:54:58,840 --> 00:55:02,200
The mega hillforts like Danebury
were in decline.

724
00:55:04,640 --> 00:55:08,640
Trade with mainland Europe
had brought wealth and power -

725
00:55:08,640 --> 00:55:10,320
at least to the few.

726
00:55:13,600 --> 00:55:18,640
But those contacts were
bringing Britain to the brink
of another new age.

727
00:55:24,920 --> 00:55:27,000
Look at this.

728
00:55:27,000 --> 00:55:30,040
It's a fragment of a storage vessel.

729
00:55:30,040 --> 00:55:33,640
It was found 40-odd miles from here,
on the coast,

730
00:55:33,640 --> 00:55:37,840
and it was made maybe 75 years BC.

731
00:55:41,760 --> 00:55:44,440
This vessel didn't contain
local produce.

732
00:55:44,440 --> 00:55:48,800
Rather, it held something from
many hundreds of miles away

733
00:55:48,800 --> 00:55:51,480
to the south on mainland Europe.

734
00:55:52,560 --> 00:55:58,200
This contained wine, possibly
from the vineyards of Rome itself.

735
00:56:00,880 --> 00:56:05,520
Now, this speaks of
a remarkable transformation.

736
00:56:05,520 --> 00:56:10,440
From a land 400, maybe 300, years BC

737
00:56:10,440 --> 00:56:14,920
with tribal chieftains fighting
over booty

738
00:56:14,920 --> 00:56:17,680
to a land of proto-kingdoms,

739
00:56:17,680 --> 00:56:20,640
whose leaders had acquired
a taste for -

740
00:56:20,640 --> 00:56:26,680
and had access to -
the finest luxuries that
the classical world could offer.

741
00:56:26,680 --> 00:56:29,120
It was the height of
the Celtic Iron Age,

742
00:56:29,120 --> 00:56:32,640
with all its feasting and Druids

743
00:56:32,640 --> 00:56:35,600
and the full glory of Celtic art.

744
00:56:36,800 --> 00:56:41,320
But this represents something
much more powerful, as well,

745
00:56:41,320 --> 00:56:46,600
because by now the Roman Empire
was fully on the move -

746
00:56:46,600 --> 00:56:50,360
had already placed
the shadow of its hand over Gaul.

747
00:56:50,360 --> 00:56:55,360
Soon, the leaders here would be
tasting more than Roman wine.

748
00:56:55,360 --> 00:56:58,600
They'd be tasting Roman swords,
as well.

749
00:56:58,600 --> 00:57:03,440
And that would mark the beginning
of a whole new era in our history.

750
00:57:07,680 --> 00:57:11,200
'Next time, my journey continues...'

751
00:57:11,200 --> 00:57:15,640
The lesson there is, don't stand
still if a man on a horse is
coming at you with a sword!

752
00:57:18,040 --> 00:57:20,600
'..as I encounter a whole new age...

753
00:57:22,160 --> 00:57:24,200
'..of invasion.'

754
00:57:24,200 --> 00:57:29,000
These beaches were lined with
thousands of British warriors
and, out there,

755
00:57:29,000 --> 00:57:31,080
two legions of Roman infantry.

756
00:57:31,080 --> 00:57:35,720
And at their head - Julius Caesar,
Roman general and budding emperor.

757
00:57:36,560 --> 00:57:39,600
'A time of bloody conflict.'

758
00:57:39,600 --> 00:57:42,080
These men were executed.

759
00:57:42,080 --> 00:57:46,280
Their heads were cut off
their bodies and their heads
were stuck on spikes.

760
00:57:46,280 --> 00:57:49,720
This was what would happen to you
if you got in the way of Rome.

761
00:57:52,200 --> 00:57:56,240
'A moment in our history that would
change the face of Britain forever.'

762
00:58:22,440 --> 00:58:25,400
Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd

763
00:58:25,400 --> 00:58:28,360
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