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Here at Cerney Wick,
in southern England,

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just north of Swindon,

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the remains of Ice Age mammoths

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have just been discovered.

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These beasts were found
not by professional scientists,

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but by two amateur fossil hunters
digging in their spare time.

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It's like a time travel
through the gravel.

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What they've found is sensational.

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Even I can see that's a tusk.

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It's one of the oldest
mammoth graveyards

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ever uncovered in Britain

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and could hold secrets about
several extinct species.

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Must've been rather enchanting.

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But why and how did these mammoths
die here?

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To find out,
a team of archaeologists

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and palaeontologists
is carrying out

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a forensic investigation
of the site.

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It's like a really big whodunnit,
isn't it?

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Hidden in this gravel pit are clues
that reveal an Ice Age world...

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Really beautiful, actually.

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..a period about which
we know very little,

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when prehistoric people
lived alongside Ice Age animals.

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This is very typical
of early Neanderthals.

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This excavation could open

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a new window onto ancient Britain

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and help us understand the lives of
the humans who once lived here.

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You might expect to have to travel

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to remote parts of Siberia
to uncover bones of Ice Age beasts,

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but, just outside Swindon,

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less than two hours from my home
in Surrey,

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two of Britain's most prolific
amateur fossil hunters have made

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the discovery of a lifetime.

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I've come to meet Sally
and Neville Hollingworth.

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Hello. Hello.

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Nice to meet you.
Lovely to meet you.

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Absolute pleasure to meet you.
Come on in.

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This is our humble home.

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Gosh.

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Sally and Neville both have
office jobs,

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but they spend their weekends
hunting for fossils.

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Like me,
they have a passion for doing so,

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but theirs went rather farther.

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When we went on fossil hunts,
and Nev would invite me,

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and he passed me half
a vertebrae,

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it's Jurassic,
it's marine reptile. Yeah.

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A couple of weeks later,
he texted me to say,

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I think I might've found find
the other half of that vertebrae.

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Do you fancy meeting for a drink

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and we'll see if they
join together?

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It's a good line, isn't it?

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This is true.
Well, of course.

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So we met for a drink
and...

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They joined together. ..they joined
together.

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I thought there we go,
it's a match made in heaven.

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Not a dry eye in the house.

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No, no, not at all. No.

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We've got some in the kitchen.

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More fossils? More finds.

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I thought for a moment
it was going to be sandwiches.

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These are the finds
I've come to see.

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Mammoth bones.

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Wow. Gosh.

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This is our kitchen-dino.

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THEY CHUCKLE

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Yes. Well, I know it's leg bone,
isn't it?

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Yes. Where was it?

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It was, actually, literally
just sticking out of some gravel

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on the floor of a working quarry.

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Which end? This end.

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So that bit was all you could see?

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That's all you could see.
Probably only that bit.

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We thought there might be
a bit more of it.

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So we started to excavate
and, as we started digging,

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we found that it was actually
a complete humerus of a mammoth.

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This pelvis bone has actually
gone through

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the processing plant

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and it dropped out in
the reject pile yard of the quarry.

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Two years ago,

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Neville and Sally asked
for permission to look

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for fossils in a freshly
dug quarry.

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They never expected to find pieces
of bones of several mammoths.

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A cup of tea for you, David.
Thank you very much. There we are.

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Oh, hang on, mammoth cake.

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Yeah, so, mammoth cupcakes.

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Aren't you having one?

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Yes, how is it?

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MUMBLES WITH MOUTH FULL

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I'm gonna have a chocolate one.

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But there's one find that raises
intriguing questions

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about how the mammoths died,

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a stone tool, a hand-axe,
made by an ancient human.

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There was a small glint.
And I thought,

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"Well, that looks a bit interesting,
a bit different."

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You saw this?

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Yes.

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Well, the main thing is that it was
made by man.

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Yes. Yeah. And it was that feeling
that I was the first human

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to touch this stone tool in hundreds
of thousands of years.

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It's a great thrill, isn't it?

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It is. Yes.
The whole of this business.

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Finding a stone tool near
mammoth bones is extremely rare,

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but we don't yet know if it was left
by humans

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from a more recent time
in prehistory.

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Well, you could certainly cut things
with that, I'm sure.

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Yeah, we did.

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We did. You did?

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We cut our wedding cake with it.

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You cut your wedding cake? Yes.

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Yeah. Really?

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There we are.

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We cut our wedding cake,
got married and had...

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And had a mammoth meal.

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And had a mammoth meal,
had a mammoth event. Yeah.

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Yeah. Yeah.

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Mammoths once roamed the open
landscape of ancient Britain.

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These extinct cousins
of elephants

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had huge curving tusks
and thrived during the Ice Age.

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Their remains are usually
tens of thousands of years old,

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but Sally and Neville's finds
could be far older.

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They could offer an extremely rare
glimpse of life deep in the Ice Age,

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a time we know little about,

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when early humans lived
alongside mammoths.

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But how did these mammoths die?

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Was it from natural causes?

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Or could they have been hunted?

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The quarry where Sally and Neville
made their discovery

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lies just ten miles north
of their home in Swindon,

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near the village of Cerney Wick.

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Groundwater was deliberately
allowed to flood the site,

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to prevent any bones in the ground
from drying out.

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Now, two years after they made
their first find,

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that water is being pumped out

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ready for a team
to begin investigating.

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Leading the dig is another
husband-and-wife duo,

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Brendon Wilkins
and Lisa Westcott Wilkins.

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Those ducks must hate us.

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They had this place filled with
water and now they've got nothing.

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The team starts by mapping
the site from the air.

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It's so important to record this
from the instant that we're doing
anything,

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so that we can build that exact
picture

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of how it was before we came along
and disturbed it.

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The drone images provide
a detailed map of the site

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so that the exact location
of each find can be plotted.

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The team searches
for fragments of bone.

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Biologist Ben Garrod has been
helping co-ordinate the dig.

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That, we think, is mammoth bone,
cos it's so thick.

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Yeah.
It's definitely mammoth.

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Ben was the first on the team
to hear about the site

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and quickly realised
its significance.

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Sally and Neville got in touch.
And I'd never met them.

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And they said, Ben,
we found some fossils that

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I think you might be interested in.
I said,

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yeah, that's great,
send some photos across.

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And they did.
And I was here the next day.

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I jumped on the train
and dropped everything

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and came to the site

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and it was like someone
had sprinkled

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mammoth bones everywhere,
which I'd never seen.

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I thought I had to go to Siberia
to see that.

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By looking at this in
a forensic level of detail,

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that'll give us this really
in-depth understanding

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of what was going on here
whilst these animals

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and these people
were walking around.

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What intrigues Ben, and me,

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is why there are
so many mammoth bones here,

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from at least four different
animals.

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And the tantalising mystery
of who left that stone tool.

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So, what did the landscape look like
when the mammoths were here?

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OK, up.

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To find out, geo-archaeologist
Keith Wilkinson extracts samples

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of the underlying sediment.

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So, at the very bottom
we've got these blue sands.

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So they are probably the layer
with the mammoth fossils in.

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We've got these river gravels

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and then these silts
and sands at the top

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are of the
same ancient river channel.

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The layers of sediment beneath
the surface

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reveal the bed
of a prehistoric river.

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This is probably the ancient route
of the River Thames,

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which, today,
lies nearly two miles away.

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Could the mammoths have died
further upstream

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and their bones have been washed
here when the river flooded?

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To find out, the team plots target
areas for excavation...

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..and the digging begins.

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They sieve every shovel-full
of soil

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in their search for fragments of
bone or stone tools.

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When the trenches start
to reveal new finds,

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I can't resist stopping by
to see how they're doing.

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Welcome.
Thank you very much.

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What do you think?

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I haven't seen it yet.

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Even I can see that's a tusk.

193
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Let me get it right.
Where was the head?

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So, this is the proximal end.

195
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And that's the tip of the tusk.

196
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So coming round the tip here.
So it's curving backwards.

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Yes, exactly. Yes.

198
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This is possibly a bit of
a mandible, this was just found.

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So it's a left mandible?

200
00:12:01,160 --> 00:12:04,360
Well, yes. And because we think that
might be a left tusk,

201
00:12:04,360 --> 00:12:07,600
you know, it's possible that these
belonged to the same animal.

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00:12:07,600 --> 00:12:10,960
You can see bones running into
the section there

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and here

204
00:12:13,840 --> 00:12:16,640
and you can also see
a rib bone here. Yeah.

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00:12:16,640 --> 00:12:20,120
One of the things we wondered with
so many of these tusks around,

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00:12:20,120 --> 00:12:22,680
could it have been that they all
fall into the river somewhere

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00:12:22,680 --> 00:12:24,720
and then get washed down
in one big event?

208
00:12:24,720 --> 00:12:27,080
But what we're looking at is not
a high energy environment.

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00:12:27,080 --> 00:12:30,440
If it was a wash-out, you would
expect to see more debris

210
00:12:30,440 --> 00:12:33,600
in the channel, more debris in
the sediment around the tusks.

211
00:12:33,600 --> 00:12:36,720
But this is basically lying in
where it fell.

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00:12:36,720 --> 00:12:39,520
And the same with the tusk over
there. So, we think, you know,

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00:12:39,520 --> 00:12:41,720
they could have just died
and fallen.

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00:12:41,720 --> 00:12:43,680
But it's a bit of a coincidence,
really.

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00:12:48,320 --> 00:12:52,800
This pit has been dug out
by excavators

216
00:12:52,800 --> 00:12:57,160
because, until just recently,
it was full of gravel,

217
00:12:57,160 --> 00:13:00,320
down to about this level.

218
00:13:00,320 --> 00:13:03,440
But here is much more solid.

219
00:13:03,440 --> 00:13:07,720
It's not gravel. It's mud -
sticky mud at that,

220
00:13:07,720 --> 00:13:10,560
and it's in this undisturbed mud

221
00:13:10,560 --> 00:13:14,640
that these bones are now being
discovered.

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00:13:14,640 --> 00:13:18,120
And, because it's been undisturbed,

223
00:13:18,120 --> 00:13:22,640
very careful excavation can reveal
a lot of details about

224
00:13:22,640 --> 00:13:26,720
the circumstances in which these
animals got here

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00:13:26,720 --> 00:13:28,680
and left their bones.

226
00:13:30,680 --> 00:13:35,600
The most complete bones seem
to be lying in the riverbed.

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00:13:35,600 --> 00:13:39,840
And they've been covered by the fine
sediments of slow-moving water,

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00:13:39,840 --> 00:13:42,840
not pounded by fast-moving
flood water.

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00:13:44,280 --> 00:13:48,480
So, perhaps the mammoths died where
the bones are lying now.

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Could their remains give us clues

231
00:13:53,520 --> 00:13:55,640
about what the mammoths
looked like?

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00:13:58,360 --> 00:14:02,360
Conservator Nigel Larkin has come
to remove the tusk

233
00:14:02,360 --> 00:14:04,240
in the centre of the trench.

234
00:14:05,680 --> 00:14:07,360
All right?

235
00:14:07,360 --> 00:14:11,280
Hi. Oh, my goodness.
You've been plastered.

236
00:14:11,280 --> 00:14:14,920
OK, Sal, you smiling? Yes.
Good, great.

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00:14:14,920 --> 00:14:18,160
With a heavy plaster casing
in place,

238
00:14:18,160 --> 00:14:21,240
the fragile tusk is ready
to be lifted.

239
00:14:21,240 --> 00:14:23,080
Do we need an extra person?
I think we do.

240
00:14:23,080 --> 00:14:25,200
OK. So if you get in there.

241
00:14:25,200 --> 00:14:27,400
We're gonna lift up to sort of
waist height.

242
00:14:27,400 --> 00:14:32,640
You need to get your hands
underneath, OK.

243
00:14:32,640 --> 00:14:33,840
On my knees.

244
00:14:38,160 --> 00:14:40,160
Go that way, that's better.

245
00:14:40,160 --> 00:14:41,760
Do we need a rest?

246
00:14:41,760 --> 00:14:43,200
Up to you.

247
00:14:43,200 --> 00:14:45,040
I'm good.
My back's about to give out.

248
00:14:49,200 --> 00:14:50,240
Go up a bit.

249
00:14:53,160 --> 00:14:54,440
Just rest it there.

250
00:14:55,880 --> 00:14:57,840
OK. Stop there.

251
00:14:57,840 --> 00:15:00,840
Is it in? Yeah. Well done, guys!
We'll just shove it over a bit.

252
00:15:00,840 --> 00:15:02,480
Woo-hoo!

253
00:15:02,480 --> 00:15:05,120
Yeah! Well done.

254
00:15:05,120 --> 00:15:08,080
Thank you.
Well done. Well done, well done.

255
00:15:08,080 --> 00:15:09,880
It's a heavy old beast.
The question is,

256
00:15:09,880 --> 00:15:12,280
how are you going to get out
the other end?

257
00:15:12,280 --> 00:15:13,640
I'll get the wife to help me.

258
00:15:13,640 --> 00:15:16,240
THEY LAUGH

259
00:15:34,560 --> 00:15:37,760
This ancient tusk will be
carefully preserved

260
00:15:37,760 --> 00:15:40,360
and prepared for future examination.

261
00:15:41,880 --> 00:15:45,760
Spectacular fossils like this have
always fascinated people.

262
00:15:47,640 --> 00:15:49,120
Hundreds of years ago,

263
00:15:49,120 --> 00:15:53,200
it was thought mammoth tusks
belonged to mythical beasts.

264
00:15:55,200 --> 00:15:56,520
In Siberia,

265
00:15:56,520 --> 00:15:58,200
mammoth remains were once thought

266
00:15:58,200 --> 00:16:01,400
to be from huge underground
burrowing creatures.

267
00:16:03,360 --> 00:16:05,280
In 17th century Europe,

268
00:16:05,280 --> 00:16:08,840
mammoth bones were said
to be those of giants or unicorns.

269
00:16:12,160 --> 00:16:17,040
By the 19th century, mammoths were
described as prehistoric animals,

270
00:16:17,040 --> 00:16:20,280
but they were thought
to have existed long before humans.

271
00:16:22,360 --> 00:16:25,960
Then, in 1864 in France,

272
00:16:25,960 --> 00:16:30,400
a piece of mammoth ivory was found
with an engraving so accurate

273
00:16:30,400 --> 00:16:33,680
it was clear the artist had seen
a living mammoth.

274
00:16:37,200 --> 00:16:40,000
The engraving shows
a woolly mammoth,

275
00:16:40,000 --> 00:16:43,640
the most recent species on
the mammoth family tree.

276
00:16:45,920 --> 00:16:50,040
We now know that early mammoths
first evolved in Africa

277
00:16:50,040 --> 00:16:52,360
around five million years ago

278
00:16:52,360 --> 00:16:54,800
and then spread into Europe
and Asia.

279
00:16:57,440 --> 00:16:59,800
Around 1.7 million years ago,

280
00:16:59,800 --> 00:17:04,640
steppe mammoths evolved
that grazed the grassy plains.

281
00:17:04,640 --> 00:17:08,240
They then moved into Europe
and North America

282
00:17:08,240 --> 00:17:11,040
where Columbian mammoths
later appeared.

283
00:17:12,360 --> 00:17:16,920
The famous woolly mammoths
developed around 700,000 years ago,

284
00:17:16,920 --> 00:17:19,280
adapted for colder climates,

285
00:17:19,280 --> 00:17:21,800
and they eventually spread
first into Europe

286
00:17:21,800 --> 00:17:23,840
and then North America.

287
00:17:25,400 --> 00:17:30,520
So, which kind of mammoth lived in
Britain at our site?

288
00:17:34,920 --> 00:17:38,920
To find out, mammoth evolution
expert Steven Zhang

289
00:17:38,920 --> 00:17:42,800
is examining the remains
found at the site.

290
00:17:42,800 --> 00:17:47,240
The teeth have given him
a crucial clue.

291
00:17:47,240 --> 00:17:49,640
Looking at a mammoth tooth
is like looking into

292
00:17:49,640 --> 00:17:52,000
a barcode for the mammoth itself.

293
00:17:52,000 --> 00:17:54,840
We start by counting
the number of enamel ridges,

294
00:17:54,840 --> 00:17:58,840
so this one has about 18,

295
00:17:58,840 --> 00:18:02,480
which is a very typical number
for a steppe mammoth.

296
00:18:03,680 --> 00:18:05,320
Looking at this piece of tooth,

297
00:18:05,320 --> 00:18:09,520
we know that it's
a last molar or a wisdom tooth.

298
00:18:09,520 --> 00:18:12,040
So we know this was
a fully-grown adult.

299
00:18:12,040 --> 00:18:16,240
Except, this is one of
the smallest steppe mammoth teeth

300
00:18:16,240 --> 00:18:18,600
there probably is in existence.

301
00:18:18,600 --> 00:18:22,600
It's like finding a German Shepherd
the size of a Westie.

302
00:18:24,920 --> 00:18:26,720
These teeth appear to be from

303
00:18:26,720 --> 00:18:30,280
a population of small
steppe mammoths.

304
00:18:30,280 --> 00:18:33,320
Their reduced size could be
a consequence of food

305
00:18:33,320 --> 00:18:36,320
becoming less abundant.

306
00:18:36,320 --> 00:18:39,360
If a steppe mammoth was here now,

307
00:18:39,360 --> 00:18:42,600
you would see that it wasn't
particularly hairy.

308
00:18:42,600 --> 00:18:46,040
A sign that the climate must
have been quite temperate.

309
00:18:46,040 --> 00:18:47,840
And as for size, well,

310
00:18:47,840 --> 00:18:50,840
the female was about my size,

311
00:18:50,840 --> 00:18:52,640
male a bit bigger

312
00:18:52,640 --> 00:18:54,040
and the baby,

313
00:18:54,040 --> 00:18:56,400
well, I guess, like that.

314
00:18:56,400 --> 00:18:58,960
Must've been rather enchanting.

315
00:19:04,480 --> 00:19:09,000
There are also remains
of another type of mammoth.

316
00:19:09,000 --> 00:19:13,360
Over here, I would say this is
a typical woolly mammoth.

317
00:19:13,360 --> 00:19:16,280
So these two different kind
of beasts

318
00:19:16,280 --> 00:19:18,720
were occurring at the same site.

319
00:19:18,720 --> 00:19:23,440
One possibility was that this site
was a habitat

320
00:19:23,440 --> 00:19:27,600
shared by both steppe
and woolly mammoths,

321
00:19:27,600 --> 00:19:32,040
or, as woolly mammoths migrated
westwards from Siberia

322
00:19:32,040 --> 00:19:33,640
into Europe,

323
00:19:33,640 --> 00:19:37,520
they started to mingle
with local steppe mammoths.

324
00:19:37,520 --> 00:19:41,440
This is interesting
because not often do we see

325
00:19:41,440 --> 00:19:43,560
a snapshot like this.

326
00:19:43,560 --> 00:19:45,200
It's exciting.

327
00:19:46,760 --> 00:19:51,720
Our site could be rare evidence
of a transitional stage,

328
00:19:51,720 --> 00:19:56,200
when woolly mammoths are taking over
from steppe mammoths.

329
00:19:56,200 --> 00:19:58,960
These bones could have belonged
to some of

330
00:19:58,960 --> 00:20:01,920
the last surviving steppe mammoths
in Britain.

331
00:20:08,200 --> 00:20:09,760
Back at the dig,

332
00:20:09,760 --> 00:20:12,240
Sally and Neville
have ringside seats

333
00:20:12,240 --> 00:20:15,520
as the professionals continue
their meticulous search.

334
00:20:18,560 --> 00:20:22,920
There is almost a forensic
examination of the sediment

335
00:20:22,920 --> 00:20:24,800
and everything else.

336
00:20:24,800 --> 00:20:27,600
But that's, that's good, though.
So they don't miss anything.

337
00:20:27,600 --> 00:20:30,800
It's like a time travel
through the gravel.

338
00:20:36,240 --> 00:20:39,000
I'd like them to solve the story.

339
00:20:39,000 --> 00:20:40,960
Was it hunted?

340
00:20:40,960 --> 00:20:42,840
That's the big question, isn't it?

341
00:20:42,840 --> 00:20:46,200
Yeah. One of the questions.
What was the climate like?

342
00:20:46,200 --> 00:20:49,240
Yeah. What was the vegetation like?

343
00:20:49,240 --> 00:20:51,720
And, also, what else was here?

344
00:20:51,720 --> 00:20:54,840
Not just mammoths, but were there
early humans,

345
00:20:54,840 --> 00:20:57,280
hominids wandering about?

346
00:20:57,280 --> 00:21:00,480
Well, yes, they were, because
we know there's a hand-axe.

347
00:21:02,680 --> 00:21:08,320
You have established that there were
mammoths here

348
00:21:08,320 --> 00:21:11,160
and there were human beings
alongside them.

349
00:21:11,160 --> 00:21:13,480
A human being wielding that axe.

350
00:21:13,480 --> 00:21:17,280
I can say, at this particular site,
there were definitely mammoths.

351
00:21:17,280 --> 00:21:20,680
There were definitely human beings,
early human beings, admittedly,

352
00:21:20,680 --> 00:21:24,200
but I don't know yet if they were
here at the exact same time.

353
00:21:24,200 --> 00:21:26,520
Now, the issue is, it could be like
you or I walking on

354
00:21:26,520 --> 00:21:28,720
a Viking settlement
and dropping a crisp packet.

355
00:21:28,720 --> 00:21:30,960
That's not from the same time
period, obviously.

356
00:21:30,960 --> 00:21:34,320
Now, that might have happened here.
I'll let you know in a few months.

357
00:21:38,800 --> 00:21:41,840
Ben's "few months" becomes two years

358
00:21:41,840 --> 00:21:45,680
as Covid lockdowns keep
the team away from the site.

359
00:21:49,760 --> 00:21:53,960
But, in 2021, they pick up
where they left off,

360
00:21:53,960 --> 00:21:57,080
this time with some mechanical help.

361
00:22:03,360 --> 00:22:05,320
If only we'd had this last time,

362
00:22:05,320 --> 00:22:07,320
it would have just made it
so much easier.

363
00:22:09,760 --> 00:22:13,680
The idea at the moment is just
to plane down to that level

364
00:22:13,680 --> 00:22:17,560
where we've got material
that hasn't been disturbed.

365
00:22:17,560 --> 00:22:20,200
They clear down
to the undisturbed layers

366
00:22:20,200 --> 00:22:22,280
and dig new trenches.

367
00:22:24,480 --> 00:22:28,200
Mammoth bones soon begin to appear.

368
00:22:28,200 --> 00:22:32,920
Oh, wow. That looks good,
doesn't it?

369
00:22:32,920 --> 00:22:34,400
Look at that.

370
00:22:37,280 --> 00:22:41,480
Wow, we've got this wonderful
little tusk here.

371
00:22:41,480 --> 00:22:43,920
It's beautiful, isn't it?

372
00:22:43,920 --> 00:22:47,440
To determine the age of these finds,

373
00:22:47,440 --> 00:22:51,720
they send sediment samples from
the trenches to a specialist lab.

374
00:22:55,040 --> 00:22:57,160
In darkroom conditions,

375
00:22:57,160 --> 00:23:00,840
grains of quartz from deep within
the sediment are placed in

376
00:23:00,840 --> 00:23:04,520
a machine that records tiny levels
of radiation.

377
00:23:09,520 --> 00:23:12,440
The amount of radiation emitted
by the grains

378
00:23:12,440 --> 00:23:16,000
reveals when they were
last exposed to sunlight

379
00:23:16,000 --> 00:23:17,560
and allows the team to estimate

380
00:23:17,560 --> 00:23:19,680
the age of the ancient
river channel.

381
00:23:22,480 --> 00:23:26,760
So here we've got our distribution
of age within our sample.

382
00:23:26,760 --> 00:23:29,400
So, these three age estimates
indicate that the channel

383
00:23:29,400 --> 00:23:31,600
was formed about 215,000 years ago.

384
00:23:35,440 --> 00:23:40,160
Our site dates to
a period deep in the Ice Age.

385
00:23:40,160 --> 00:23:43,880
But the Ice Age wasn't always icy.

386
00:23:43,880 --> 00:23:47,960
Over the last
two and a half million years,

387
00:23:47,960 --> 00:23:51,640
huge ice sheets travelled down
from the north

388
00:23:51,640 --> 00:23:54,720
and then retreated during
warmer spells.

389
00:23:58,800 --> 00:24:02,520
The advancing and retreating ice
changed the sea level

390
00:24:02,520 --> 00:24:07,480
and the coastlines,
but, for most of this period,

391
00:24:07,480 --> 00:24:11,840
Britain was connected
to mainland Europe.

392
00:24:11,840 --> 00:24:14,600
215,000 years ago,

393
00:24:14,600 --> 00:24:16,760
when the mammoths were living
at our site,

394
00:24:16,760 --> 00:24:21,680
conditions were only slightly cooler
than today,

395
00:24:21,680 --> 00:24:25,880
ideal for a variety of animals,

396
00:24:25,880 --> 00:24:29,400
and our site is providing evidence
for what they were.

397
00:24:33,480 --> 00:24:37,520
So we've got some lovely vertebrae
here from steppe bison.

398
00:24:37,520 --> 00:24:39,760
So these were very, very large,

399
00:24:39,760 --> 00:24:43,600
up to two metres at
the shoulders, big cow-like animals,

400
00:24:43,600 --> 00:24:47,240
that were again on the steppes,
on these plains,

401
00:24:47,240 --> 00:24:49,600
herbivores, they would equally
have been hunted.

402
00:24:49,600 --> 00:24:51,760
We also have....

403
00:24:51,760 --> 00:24:55,200
..this, which is wonderful.

404
00:24:55,200 --> 00:24:59,280
That's part of a lower jaw
from a brown bear.

405
00:24:59,280 --> 00:25:01,520
A bear.
Yeah. So we know that...

406
00:25:01,520 --> 00:25:02,920
That's the socket of the teeth.

407
00:25:02,920 --> 00:25:05,040
That's it, yeah. And that...

408
00:25:05,040 --> 00:25:06,960
Little canal for the nerves
and blood vessels.

409
00:25:06,960 --> 00:25:08,400
And this is the hinge.

410
00:25:08,400 --> 00:25:10,120
It would have been sitting
at the back.

411
00:25:10,120 --> 00:25:12,440
So you've got this lower jaw
sitting there,

412
00:25:12,440 --> 00:25:14,240
the big tearing teeth,
shearing teeth,

413
00:25:14,240 --> 00:25:15,760
doing exactly that process here.

414
00:25:15,760 --> 00:25:18,560
So we're starting to build up
a picture of what this environment

415
00:25:18,560 --> 00:25:20,600
would have been like.
This isn't Arctic tundra

416
00:25:20,600 --> 00:25:22,240
where there was nothing available.

417
00:25:22,240 --> 00:25:24,360
This would have been
a good place to live.

418
00:25:30,640 --> 00:25:33,880
The bison and bear bones give us
clues about

419
00:25:33,880 --> 00:25:36,000
the Ice Age landscape of the site.

420
00:25:38,240 --> 00:25:41,560
But there are also the remains of
far smaller creatures

421
00:25:41,560 --> 00:25:44,120
that enable us to piece together
a picture

422
00:25:44,120 --> 00:25:47,200
of what was growing on this land
back then.

423
00:25:49,040 --> 00:25:53,000
There's loads of small shell
fragments throughout this.

424
00:25:55,160 --> 00:25:57,680
We've got this little snail
in here.

425
00:26:01,160 --> 00:26:06,320
Environmental archaeologist Matt Law
carefully identifies samples

426
00:26:06,320 --> 00:26:10,560
of tiny,
but perfectly preserved shells.

427
00:26:10,560 --> 00:26:13,360
We have one land snail in there,

428
00:26:13,360 --> 00:26:17,720
so that's a very common species
of short grassland snail

429
00:26:17,720 --> 00:26:22,440
and the rest are looking like
they're coming from

430
00:26:22,440 --> 00:26:23,920
a river-type setting.

431
00:26:23,920 --> 00:26:26,960
Well-vegetated,
well-oxygenated water,

432
00:26:26,960 --> 00:26:29,000
but not too much flow either.

433
00:26:29,000 --> 00:26:32,240
What's really remarkable
is the level of preservation,

434
00:26:32,240 --> 00:26:35,840
not just the snails,
but things like beetle remains,

435
00:26:35,840 --> 00:26:38,600
seeds and bits of wood
that we don't often see

436
00:26:38,600 --> 00:26:42,360
with the level of detail
that they are here.

437
00:26:42,360 --> 00:26:45,080
The discovery of these species
of animals

438
00:26:45,080 --> 00:26:48,360
and plants enables us to get
a quite detailed picture

439
00:26:48,360 --> 00:26:50,360
of what the landscape here was like

440
00:26:50,360 --> 00:26:53,720
when the mammoths
were roaming around.

441
00:26:53,720 --> 00:26:57,280
This stretch of the ancient Thames
was flowing through an open,

442
00:26:57,280 --> 00:27:01,880
grassy landscape,
a perfect place for large herbivores

443
00:27:01,880 --> 00:27:03,680
to feed and find water.

444
00:27:07,720 --> 00:27:09,320
Back at the site,

445
00:27:09,320 --> 00:27:11,920
after weeks of searching
for more hand-axes

446
00:27:11,920 --> 00:27:15,160
or stone tools among
the mammoth bones,

447
00:27:15,160 --> 00:27:17,560
there's been a breakthrough.

448
00:27:17,560 --> 00:27:20,800
The telltale signs of humans.

449
00:27:20,800 --> 00:27:24,520
I think this may be
a flint artefact.

450
00:27:25,720 --> 00:27:28,320
Ben is eager to see the new finds.

451
00:27:28,320 --> 00:27:31,280
It's really over in this area
where we're starting

452
00:27:31,280 --> 00:27:33,800
to find the really exciting stuff.

453
00:27:36,360 --> 00:27:38,720
Hiding in this sand we have

454
00:27:38,720 --> 00:27:42,040
a relatively large piece
of mammoth bone

455
00:27:42,040 --> 00:27:43,800
sticking from the surface.

456
00:27:43,800 --> 00:27:46,640
And, just in the last few days,
we've started to pick out

457
00:27:46,640 --> 00:27:48,040
just a couple of flints,

458
00:27:48,040 --> 00:27:49,480
so little bits of stone

459
00:27:49,480 --> 00:27:51,800
which are being worked by humans.

460
00:27:51,800 --> 00:27:54,840
And they're next door,
just 50 centimetres away

461
00:27:54,840 --> 00:28:01,040
from this lovely bit of what looks
to be a leg bone of a mammoth.

462
00:28:01,040 --> 00:28:04,920
You can see they've been taking
little chips out of the edge

463
00:28:04,920 --> 00:28:07,400
to create a sharp cutting surface,

464
00:28:07,400 --> 00:28:11,600
which they could scrape along bones
or along hides to remove fat.

465
00:28:11,600 --> 00:28:15,720
Something as simple as this
starts to connect those dots,

466
00:28:15,720 --> 00:28:18,720
starts to bring the human story
together with the mammoths,

467
00:28:18,720 --> 00:28:21,960
and that's really quite special.

468
00:28:29,560 --> 00:28:32,160
The presence of these
tiny fragments alongside

469
00:28:32,160 --> 00:28:34,960
the bone suggests people were here

470
00:28:34,960 --> 00:28:38,240
at the same time as the mammoths.

471
00:28:38,240 --> 00:28:40,680
The tool Sally and Neville found

472
00:28:40,680 --> 00:28:43,800
could also have been made
by the same people.

473
00:28:46,840 --> 00:28:51,000
To find out how these early tools
were made,

474
00:28:51,000 --> 00:28:56,520
Ben and I arrange to meet Karl Lee,
an expert flint-knapper.

475
00:28:56,520 --> 00:28:57,840
So here we go.

476
00:29:04,720 --> 00:29:07,080
He uses a rounded stone

477
00:29:07,080 --> 00:29:09,880
and then a piece of antler
as a hammer,

478
00:29:09,880 --> 00:29:12,160
just as the early humans did.

479
00:29:21,520 --> 00:29:22,720
There we go.

480
00:29:25,560 --> 00:29:30,440
That is amazing.

481
00:29:30,440 --> 00:29:32,000
Thank you very much.

482
00:29:32,000 --> 00:29:33,400
What do you reckon, David,

483
00:29:33,400 --> 00:29:35,320
could you take down a mammoth
with one of those?

484
00:29:35,320 --> 00:29:37,000
I should certainly cut up a deer,

485
00:29:37,000 --> 00:29:38,680
they're around here. Yes.

486
00:29:38,680 --> 00:29:41,000
If you killed it with a spear,

487
00:29:41,000 --> 00:29:43,840
that's for the butcher

488
00:29:43,840 --> 00:29:47,000
and you'd butcher it
in half an hour.

489
00:29:47,000 --> 00:29:50,120
So I have, completely normally,

490
00:29:50,120 --> 00:29:53,200
brought a piece of meat
on the bone.

491
00:29:53,200 --> 00:29:54,640
OK.

492
00:29:56,960 --> 00:29:58,000
Gosh.

493
00:30:01,000 --> 00:30:02,360
Mind your fingers.

494
00:30:02,360 --> 00:30:03,560
Yes. Mind your fingers.

495
00:30:03,560 --> 00:30:05,760
Thanks, David.

496
00:30:05,760 --> 00:30:08,480
Oh, yeah.
That's gone straight through.

497
00:30:14,480 --> 00:30:16,000
No problem at all.

498
00:30:17,760 --> 00:30:20,640
I think you should keep it for
a cookery show, David. Yeah.

499
00:30:22,440 --> 00:30:25,800
So it seems that the hand-axe
Sally discovered

500
00:30:25,800 --> 00:30:29,240
could well have been used
to butcher mammoth meat.

501
00:30:30,680 --> 00:30:35,040
Karl also shows us a second method
of making stone tools,

502
00:30:35,040 --> 00:30:37,560
in which thin shards of flint,

503
00:30:37,560 --> 00:30:40,360
known as Levallois flakes,

504
00:30:40,360 --> 00:30:44,360
are knocked away
from a large flint core.

505
00:30:47,400 --> 00:30:54,560
I have to prepare a platform
at the base of the core

506
00:30:54,560 --> 00:30:59,080
and then try and take
a nice flake.

507
00:30:59,080 --> 00:31:01,360
Using this method,

508
00:31:01,360 --> 00:31:03,800
they're actually planning exactly
what that flake's

509
00:31:03,800 --> 00:31:07,360
going to look like. So I'm going to
be striking right at the base of

510
00:31:07,360 --> 00:31:12,960
the core here and the flake will
hopefully come off on the underside.

511
00:31:12,960 --> 00:31:14,560
That's a brave thing to say.

512
00:31:20,600 --> 00:31:24,000
That is a Levallois flake.

513
00:31:24,000 --> 00:31:28,480
Now, do watch your fingers on that
one because it's going to be sharp.

514
00:31:33,280 --> 00:31:34,760
Yes, it's razor sharp.

515
00:31:34,760 --> 00:31:37,000
Yeah. Razor sharp.

516
00:31:37,000 --> 00:31:40,320
Where the edge is so thin
it's translucent,

517
00:31:40,320 --> 00:31:44,680
it looks as though it's all got
a halo all around it.

518
00:31:44,680 --> 00:31:47,720
Really beautiful, actually.

519
00:31:47,720 --> 00:31:50,480
This is a very versatile technology,

520
00:31:50,480 --> 00:31:53,760
it's portable, very lightweight,

521
00:31:53,760 --> 00:31:55,920
rather than carrying around
something

522
00:31:55,920 --> 00:31:57,800
four or five times the weight.

523
00:31:57,800 --> 00:31:59,560
I can't imagine you teaching me
this

524
00:31:59,560 --> 00:32:02,560
without a really good grasp
of language.

525
00:32:02,560 --> 00:32:06,480
Teaching this without language
would be,

526
00:32:06,480 --> 00:32:08,440
in my opinion, impossible.

527
00:32:08,440 --> 00:32:11,280
And my guess would be that children,

528
00:32:11,280 --> 00:32:15,040
just as they mimic their parents
today,

529
00:32:15,040 --> 00:32:18,040
would have been mimicking
their parents back then, as well.

530
00:32:20,880 --> 00:32:23,960
So, try and catch it
about two millimetres

531
00:32:23,960 --> 00:32:25,560
back from the edge...

532
00:32:25,560 --> 00:32:28,200
Oh, I've got you, yeah, yeah,
yeah, yeah.

533
00:32:28,200 --> 00:32:30,200
That's it. You're away.

534
00:32:32,600 --> 00:32:35,280
For hundreds of thousands of years,

535
00:32:35,280 --> 00:32:38,760
human beings have passed on
that sort of skill,

536
00:32:38,760 --> 00:32:40,760
that sort of insight into

537
00:32:40,760 --> 00:32:43,200
the materials that lay around them.

538
00:32:46,520 --> 00:32:48,440
Of course,

539
00:32:48,440 --> 00:32:52,720
they had to be fortunate to find
such marvellous material as flint,

540
00:32:52,720 --> 00:32:55,080
but, once they did,

541
00:32:55,080 --> 00:32:58,000
what fabulous things
they created with it.

542
00:33:00,480 --> 00:33:04,160
So who were the flint-workers
at Cerney Wick?

543
00:33:06,280 --> 00:33:08,960
We know very little
about prehistoric people.

544
00:33:10,640 --> 00:33:13,720
Most evidence of their existence
has decomposed

545
00:33:13,720 --> 00:33:15,600
and disappeared long ago,

546
00:33:15,600 --> 00:33:17,720
but their stone tools remain.

547
00:33:19,720 --> 00:33:23,360
They reveal the remarkable story
of early species

548
00:33:23,360 --> 00:33:25,480
of humans spreading from Africa

549
00:33:25,480 --> 00:33:27,440
throughout Northern Europe.

550
00:33:29,280 --> 00:33:33,120
To find out which type of human
was living at Cerney Wick,

551
00:33:33,120 --> 00:33:35,800
I've come to a secure facility
in London.

552
00:33:37,440 --> 00:33:39,840
It holds one of
the largest collections

553
00:33:39,840 --> 00:33:43,960
of prehistoric artefacts
in the world.

554
00:33:43,960 --> 00:33:49,560
Curator Nick Ashton is a renowned
expert on these ancient tools.

555
00:33:49,560 --> 00:33:53,960
He begins by showing me simple
flint tools found near Happisburgh

556
00:33:53,960 --> 00:33:56,720
on the east coast of England.

557
00:33:56,720 --> 00:34:00,000
We know that in Africa they've been
making these tools for some

558
00:34:00,000 --> 00:34:01,640
two to three million years.

559
00:34:01,640 --> 00:34:04,480
But this is the earliest evidence
that we have in northern Europe

560
00:34:04,480 --> 00:34:06,880
of humans reaching this far north.

561
00:34:06,880 --> 00:34:09,960
Dates to an astonishing
900,000 years ago.

562
00:34:09,960 --> 00:34:11,240
How much?

563
00:34:11,240 --> 00:34:12,800
900,000 years ago.

564
00:34:12,800 --> 00:34:15,640
Really? So it's the earliest
evidence for humans

565
00:34:15,640 --> 00:34:16,920
in northern Europe.

566
00:34:18,480 --> 00:34:20,840
In 2013,

567
00:34:20,840 --> 00:34:24,120
Nick's team made a truly
extraordinary discovery

568
00:34:24,120 --> 00:34:25,880
at Happisburgh.

569
00:34:25,880 --> 00:34:28,800
A storm washed away sand on a beach

570
00:34:28,800 --> 00:34:33,200
and revealed ancient footprints,
set in hardened mud.

571
00:34:33,200 --> 00:34:35,360
They were the oldest
human footprints

572
00:34:35,360 --> 00:34:38,360
ever documented outside of Africa

573
00:34:38,360 --> 00:34:41,840
but, within two weeks,
they had vanished,

574
00:34:41,840 --> 00:34:44,400
washed away by incoming tides.

575
00:34:46,720 --> 00:34:50,160
It's thought that early humans
spread out from Africa

576
00:34:50,160 --> 00:34:53,200
around two million years ago.

577
00:34:53,200 --> 00:34:54,920
A million years later,

578
00:34:54,920 --> 00:34:57,440
some of their descendants
reached Britain.

579
00:34:59,040 --> 00:35:02,360
What sort of people was it
who did this?

580
00:35:02,360 --> 00:35:04,840
Did they have clothes of any kind

581
00:35:04,840 --> 00:35:06,720
or were they covered in hair?

582
00:35:06,720 --> 00:35:08,640
Do we know what they look like?

583
00:35:08,640 --> 00:35:10,320
We actually know very little,

584
00:35:10,320 --> 00:35:15,160
but the species of human in Europe
at that time was Homo Antecessor.

585
00:35:15,160 --> 00:35:17,240
They would have looked very similar
to ourselves.

586
00:35:17,240 --> 00:35:18,880
Apart from slight different
facially.

587
00:35:18,880 --> 00:35:20,840
But it's a guess
whether they were hairy or not?

588
00:35:20,840 --> 00:35:24,240
It's a guess as to whether they were
hairy or had extra body fat to cope

589
00:35:24,240 --> 00:35:26,800
with these cold winters.
Yeah, yeah.

590
00:35:26,800 --> 00:35:31,440
By 500,000 years ago,
humans in Britain were capable

591
00:35:31,440 --> 00:35:36,480
of crafting hand-axes like
the one found at Cerney Wick.

592
00:35:36,480 --> 00:35:38,760
We know that they're hunting
by this point,

593
00:35:38,760 --> 00:35:41,400
and they're certainly butchering
a range of different deer

594
00:35:41,400 --> 00:35:43,400
and probably larger animals as well.

595
00:35:43,400 --> 00:35:45,920
And one of the important things is,
if you're a hunter,

596
00:35:45,920 --> 00:35:48,800
you get to the carcass first.
The hide is intact.

597
00:35:48,800 --> 00:35:50,920
It hasn't been chewed to bits
by the hyenas

598
00:35:50,920 --> 00:35:53,920
or the other carnivores
or the big cats.

599
00:35:53,920 --> 00:35:57,040
And that hide, you would almost
certainly use

600
00:35:57,040 --> 00:35:59,040
for either clothing or shelter

601
00:35:59,040 --> 00:36:02,720
to help you cope
with those cold winters.

602
00:36:05,240 --> 00:36:08,720
Humans first used fire in Africa

603
00:36:08,720 --> 00:36:11,600
and, by 400,000 years ago,

604
00:36:11,600 --> 00:36:14,600
they were using it in
Northern Europe as well.

605
00:36:17,320 --> 00:36:22,240
This is burnt flint. It's a block of
flint that shattered under heat.

606
00:36:22,240 --> 00:36:25,520
What we think we're dealing with
is a small campfire

607
00:36:25,520 --> 00:36:27,880
which has all kinds of benefits.

608
00:36:27,880 --> 00:36:31,680
It's not just warmth, it's not just
keeping away the big cats.

609
00:36:35,600 --> 00:36:38,560
It's also a hub for social life.

610
00:36:38,560 --> 00:36:41,840
It extends your daylight hours
into the night.

611
00:36:44,720 --> 00:36:47,600
It means you begin to tell stories.

612
00:36:47,600 --> 00:36:50,240
It's all part of
the development of language

613
00:36:50,240 --> 00:36:53,440
and those all-important social bonds
that make us human.

614
00:37:01,880 --> 00:37:05,080
You paint a very, very convincing
picture, actually,

615
00:37:05,080 --> 00:37:09,920
and anyone who has sat by a fire
knows how hypnotic it can be.

616
00:37:09,920 --> 00:37:12,280
Yes. Just sitting there watching
the flames.

617
00:37:12,280 --> 00:37:14,920
Yeah...yeah.
That's a very exciting picture.

618
00:37:21,480 --> 00:37:24,960
By 250,000 years ago,

619
00:37:24,960 --> 00:37:30,600
Levallois flakes appear like
the ones that Karl had showed us.

620
00:37:30,600 --> 00:37:34,080
Here we have these carefully
crafted points.

621
00:37:34,080 --> 00:37:36,960
And this is a massive step forward
in terms of technology.

622
00:37:40,000 --> 00:37:42,440
So where does our site fit in?

623
00:37:45,880 --> 00:37:48,840
I've brought Sally
and Neville's stone tool.

624
00:37:50,960 --> 00:37:52,400
Now this,

625
00:37:52,400 --> 00:37:55,360
which I know you haven't
seen before,

626
00:37:55,360 --> 00:38:00,880
was found alongside this mammoth
which we have been excavating.

627
00:38:00,880 --> 00:38:05,240
What does that tell you about dating
or indeed anything else?

628
00:38:05,240 --> 00:38:07,840
Well, it's undoubtedly a hand-axe

629
00:38:07,840 --> 00:38:10,720
and very typical
of early Neanderthals,

630
00:38:10,720 --> 00:38:12,560
quite similar to some of these.

631
00:38:12,560 --> 00:38:13,920
I gather that the site dates

632
00:38:13,920 --> 00:38:16,360
to roughly about 200,000 years ago.

633
00:38:16,360 --> 00:38:18,720
So it would actually be contemporary

634
00:38:18,720 --> 00:38:20,800
with these Levallois points.

635
00:38:20,800 --> 00:38:22,240
But it's very different.

636
00:38:22,240 --> 00:38:25,320
Here we have a traditional hand-axe.

637
00:38:25,320 --> 00:38:27,320
So what's going on?

638
00:38:27,320 --> 00:38:30,800
One idea is that you've got
different populations coming in

639
00:38:30,800 --> 00:38:34,280
from different parts of Europe
with different technologies.

640
00:38:34,280 --> 00:38:36,480
Another idea might be that maybe
you've got

641
00:38:36,480 --> 00:38:39,480
a residual population in Britain,
in western Britain,

642
00:38:39,480 --> 00:38:41,560
who are still making hand-axes.

643
00:38:41,560 --> 00:38:43,560
We're still talking
about Neanderthals?

644
00:38:43,560 --> 00:38:45,600
We're still talking
about Neanderthals.

645
00:38:50,240 --> 00:38:54,840
Stone tools like these
reveal in detail

646
00:38:54,840 --> 00:39:00,080
the history of the occupation of
these islands by human ancestors.

647
00:39:01,360 --> 00:39:07,160
At least four different kinds
of human beings occupy them.

648
00:39:07,160 --> 00:39:11,480
The stone tools and the dating of
our site both suggest

649
00:39:11,480 --> 00:39:16,960
that the humans who were living
there were, in fact, Neanderthals.

650
00:39:16,960 --> 00:39:18,880
To find out more about them,

651
00:39:18,880 --> 00:39:23,400
Ben is meeting anthropologist
Ella Al-Shamahi.

652
00:39:23,400 --> 00:39:27,240
So our ancestors and the ancestors
of Neanderthals were in Africa

653
00:39:27,240 --> 00:39:30,080
and, then, at some point,
a group of them left

654
00:39:30,080 --> 00:39:32,160
and we don't know where
and we don't know when.

655
00:39:32,160 --> 00:39:33,720
But they became Neanderthals.

656
00:39:33,720 --> 00:39:36,720
We have sites all the way
as far as Siberia

657
00:39:36,720 --> 00:39:39,560
and then we have a whole pile
of sites in Europe,

658
00:39:39,560 --> 00:39:41,880
doesn't mean that
they're a European species,

659
00:39:41,880 --> 00:39:44,200
it just means that a lot
of the archaeologists

660
00:39:44,200 --> 00:39:47,240
are actually in Europe and were
digging in their own backyards.

661
00:39:47,240 --> 00:39:50,600
We've got this massive array,
actually, of Neanderthals

662
00:39:50,600 --> 00:39:51,960
in this whole region.

663
00:39:51,960 --> 00:39:53,360
And if you look at that region,

664
00:39:53,360 --> 00:39:55,480
that's a number
of different environments

665
00:39:55,480 --> 00:39:57,840
and a number of different climates,
as well.

666
00:39:57,840 --> 00:39:59,880
And do we know what they
looked like?

667
00:39:59,880 --> 00:40:03,080
Yeah. So Neanderthals
were very similar to us,

668
00:40:03,080 --> 00:40:05,000
but there were
crucial differences.

669
00:40:05,000 --> 00:40:08,080
So, for example, we know that
Neanderthals, on average, were,

670
00:40:08,080 --> 00:40:09,520
well, they were shorter.

671
00:40:09,520 --> 00:40:12,320
So male Neanderthals would have come
in at about five-foot four

672
00:40:12,320 --> 00:40:15,920
or five-foot five.
They were also really stocky.

673
00:40:15,920 --> 00:40:18,600
So we know that our site
at Cerney Wick

674
00:40:18,600 --> 00:40:20,680
is about 200,000 years old.

675
00:40:20,680 --> 00:40:23,400
How much do we know what life would
have been like for those people?

676
00:40:23,400 --> 00:40:24,800
It would have been hard.

677
00:40:24,800 --> 00:40:27,000
The interesting thing is
the date of that,

678
00:40:27,000 --> 00:40:30,520
because we know that, pretty soon
after, you're looking at

679
00:40:30,520 --> 00:40:34,600
a massive ice age that comes in,
a really, really cold spell,

680
00:40:34,600 --> 00:40:39,520
and Neanderthals pretty much
disappear from the map in Britain

681
00:40:39,520 --> 00:40:42,680
for well over 100,000 years.

682
00:40:42,680 --> 00:40:44,680
So, potentially, what you're looking
at there

683
00:40:44,680 --> 00:40:48,840
with your site is some of the last
Neanderthals in Britain

684
00:40:48,840 --> 00:40:51,120
before that really cold phase.

685
00:40:51,120 --> 00:40:53,280
It's not going to be good for them.

686
00:40:59,640 --> 00:41:01,320
Back at the site,

687
00:41:01,320 --> 00:41:05,200
the team is finding that nearly
all the tusks and bones

688
00:41:05,200 --> 00:41:08,080
are lying in a single layer
of sediment,

689
00:41:08,080 --> 00:41:12,800
suggesting the mammoths all died
around the same time.

690
00:41:12,800 --> 00:41:17,080
What could have killed a group of
mammoths in such a short period?

691
00:41:18,640 --> 00:41:21,200
We can trace this line pretty much
all the way round to

692
00:41:21,200 --> 00:41:25,960
the tusk on the far right now.
So they're all...

693
00:41:25,960 --> 00:41:27,680
..it's all formed at the same time.

694
00:41:27,680 --> 00:41:29,520
And we can't see flooding?

695
00:41:29,520 --> 00:41:32,320
I'm trying to think what is forcable
enough to move a tusk.

696
00:41:32,320 --> 00:41:33,800
No. There's nothing.

697
00:41:33,800 --> 00:41:35,400
This is weird, it really is.

698
00:41:35,400 --> 00:41:38,120
There's not enough mud. There's not
enough... There's no flood.

699
00:41:38,120 --> 00:41:41,720
No. They just died in this area
for some reason. Yeah.

700
00:41:41,720 --> 00:41:45,440
Ben is doubtful that
the mammoths got stuck in the mud.

701
00:41:45,440 --> 00:41:50,600
The mud's deep, but it's not up to
a mammoth's armpits deep.

702
00:41:50,600 --> 00:41:54,440
Disease? I mean, there's nothing
really in terms of modern relatives,

703
00:41:54,440 --> 00:41:57,960
the elephants, that would kill
a whole group that quickly

704
00:41:57,960 --> 00:41:59,840
in one site at one time
to explain this.

705
00:41:59,840 --> 00:42:01,880
And we've got adults
and juveniles as well.

706
00:42:01,880 --> 00:42:04,160
So it's not the classic
elephant graveyard

707
00:42:04,160 --> 00:42:06,280
all being left in one site either.

708
00:42:06,280 --> 00:42:07,840
And it leaves this idea,

709
00:42:07,840 --> 00:42:10,360
this possibility that it was people.

710
00:42:10,360 --> 00:42:11,960
So were they chasing them in?

711
00:42:11,960 --> 00:42:14,000
Were they corralling them somehow?

712
00:42:14,000 --> 00:42:16,760
Were they...?
I don't know.

713
00:42:16,760 --> 00:42:18,720
But that's almost weirder

714
00:42:18,720 --> 00:42:22,560
because I can't imagine quite early
Neanderthal people

715
00:42:22,560 --> 00:42:24,520
bringing down a bunch of mammoths

716
00:42:24,520 --> 00:42:29,240
cos these things were tonnes
of anger and intelligence.

717
00:42:44,960 --> 00:42:48,080
Evidence suggesting that
Neanderthals

718
00:42:48,080 --> 00:42:52,200
could successfully hunt mammoths is
extremely rare.

719
00:42:52,200 --> 00:42:55,240
But this is the Island of Jersey

720
00:42:55,240 --> 00:42:58,720
and, here at La Cotte de St Brelade,

721
00:42:58,720 --> 00:43:00,880
piles of mammoth bones have been

722
00:43:00,880 --> 00:43:04,240
found that suggest that Neanderthals
may indeed

723
00:43:04,240 --> 00:43:06,080
have been killing mammoths here.

724
00:43:07,720 --> 00:43:11,720
Archaeologist Matt Pope has been
studying the site for years.

725
00:43:13,560 --> 00:43:18,040
Our first glimpse of La Cotte de St
Brelade towering up above us.

726
00:43:18,040 --> 00:43:19,160
Oh, wow.

727
00:43:19,160 --> 00:43:22,960
It's like this huge cathedral
fortress, isn't it? It's beautiful.

728
00:43:28,640 --> 00:43:30,200
We can see a lot of the site
from here.

729
00:43:30,200 --> 00:43:31,960
The main granite structure.

730
00:43:31,960 --> 00:43:34,600
The arch that takes you through to
the north ravine

731
00:43:34,600 --> 00:43:35,760
and in front of us

732
00:43:35,760 --> 00:43:38,880
the west ravine,
the main open space.

733
00:43:41,320 --> 00:43:44,200
The site has been investigated
since 1881.

734
00:43:45,960 --> 00:43:50,600
And, over the years, archaeologists
excavated down into the ravine.

735
00:43:52,120 --> 00:43:55,160
At two levels, they discovered
heaps of bones

736
00:43:55,160 --> 00:43:56,760
of butchered mammoths.

737
00:43:58,640 --> 00:44:01,320
The mystery is how these bones
got there.

738
00:44:03,680 --> 00:44:05,960
An original explanation,
and a very good one,

739
00:44:05,960 --> 00:44:10,200
was that the mammoth were all herded
together by Neanderthal hunters

740
00:44:10,200 --> 00:44:12,920
and driven over the cliffs
to their death. So you imagine...

741
00:44:12,920 --> 00:44:15,000
From right up there?
Right up there.

742
00:44:15,000 --> 00:44:17,120
That's quite a thought to think of,

743
00:44:17,120 --> 00:44:18,720
a whole herd of mammoths coming

744
00:44:18,720 --> 00:44:20,440
cascading over the edge
right there.

745
00:44:20,440 --> 00:44:21,800
It's a good theory

746
00:44:21,800 --> 00:44:25,240
but it's not a very good headland
for actually concentrating a herd.

747
00:44:25,240 --> 00:44:28,280
There is simply no way
you could funnel

748
00:44:28,280 --> 00:44:29,600
the mammoth into this ravine,

749
00:44:29,600 --> 00:44:32,400
they'd be splitting off into
all different directions.

750
00:44:32,400 --> 00:44:35,440
We've been recently relooking
at those bone heaps

751
00:44:35,440 --> 00:44:36,800
and looking at the evidence

752
00:44:36,800 --> 00:44:39,520
and we put forward
an alternative idea.

753
00:44:39,520 --> 00:44:43,120
And that idea is that these
bone heaps didn't form

754
00:44:43,120 --> 00:44:45,320
in one go, in mass kills.

755
00:44:45,320 --> 00:44:47,760
Actually, they formed over
a long period of time.

756
00:44:47,760 --> 00:44:51,960
The hunting was taking place out
here on the surrounding landscapes.

757
00:44:51,960 --> 00:44:54,400
They were bringing
the bones back.

758
00:44:54,400 --> 00:44:58,000
And, then, over time, they put these
heaps of bone together.

759
00:44:58,000 --> 00:44:59,840
And this whole area,
as we look out now,

760
00:44:59,840 --> 00:45:02,000
is this beautiful coastline
that stretches out to

761
00:45:02,000 --> 00:45:03,440
the Channel here.

762
00:45:03,440 --> 00:45:06,040
But this would have all been one
big grassy plain.

763
00:45:06,040 --> 00:45:09,640
We've got the seabed
landscape mapped.

764
00:45:09,640 --> 00:45:12,880
And that's an amazing landscape
for intercepting game.

765
00:45:12,880 --> 00:45:15,200
There's little cul-de-sacs
where you get dead ends

766
00:45:15,200 --> 00:45:16,680
and you could control game.

767
00:45:16,680 --> 00:45:17,840
And we know from other

768
00:45:17,840 --> 00:45:20,080
Neanderthal sites where
hunting is taking place,

769
00:45:20,080 --> 00:45:23,000
they love landscapes in which
they control game.

770
00:45:23,000 --> 00:45:24,120
Probably the whole

771
00:45:24,120 --> 00:45:26,520
Neanderthal community would be
involved in hunting -

772
00:45:26,520 --> 00:45:30,040
corralling, controlling, moving,

773
00:45:30,040 --> 00:45:33,160
isolating particular members
of a herd.

774
00:45:36,120 --> 00:45:38,680
Most archaeologists now think that

775
00:45:38,680 --> 00:45:40,760
the Neanderthals were capable

776
00:45:40,760 --> 00:45:43,560
of hunting large prey like mammoths,
as they seem

777
00:45:43,560 --> 00:45:46,040
to have done in Jersey.

778
00:45:46,040 --> 00:45:48,280
But it would be much harder
to trap them on

779
00:45:48,280 --> 00:45:51,160
the flat grasslands of Cerney Wick.

780
00:45:51,160 --> 00:45:55,760
Perhaps the river might have
slowed the mammoths down.

781
00:45:55,760 --> 00:45:59,480
But how would the Neanderthals
have killed them?

782
00:45:59,480 --> 00:46:02,000
Wooden spears may well
have been used.

783
00:46:03,280 --> 00:46:05,560
Wood, of course, rots away quickly,

784
00:46:05,560 --> 00:46:10,560
so we're very unlikely
to find one. But there are some.

785
00:46:13,560 --> 00:46:16,360
In 1911, in Essex,

786
00:46:16,360 --> 00:46:19,800
a wooden spear tip was found in
waterlogged soil.

787
00:46:21,360 --> 00:46:23,360
And, in 1948,

788
00:46:23,360 --> 00:46:26,800
stronger evidence
of spear hunting was uncovered -

789
00:46:26,800 --> 00:46:30,200
a spear was found within
the fossilised ribs of

790
00:46:30,200 --> 00:46:32,000
a straight-tusked elephant.

791
00:46:33,880 --> 00:46:39,200
Then, in 1995,
at a mine in Schoningen in Germany,

792
00:46:39,200 --> 00:46:44,000
ten miraculously well-preserved
Neanderthal spears were found lying

793
00:46:44,000 --> 00:46:47,800
among the skeletons
of around 50 horses -

794
00:46:47,800 --> 00:46:53,520
the oldest complete prehistoric
hunting weapons ever found.

795
00:46:53,520 --> 00:46:55,440
Archaeologists had assumed these

796
00:46:55,440 --> 00:46:57,800
early hunters thrust
their spears into

797
00:46:57,800 --> 00:47:00,240
the flanks of prey at close range.

798
00:47:01,840 --> 00:47:04,200
But is it possible that
Neanderthals at

799
00:47:04,200 --> 00:47:08,560
Cerney Wick threw their spears long
distances at dangerous animals,

800
00:47:08,560 --> 00:47:09,640
like mammoths?

801
00:47:11,080 --> 00:47:12,160
To find out,

802
00:47:12,160 --> 00:47:15,200
we asked a wood carver
to make exact replicas of

803
00:47:15,200 --> 00:47:19,200
the Schoningen spears from
spruce - the same shape,

804
00:47:19,200 --> 00:47:23,280
weight and type of wood
as the ancient spears.

805
00:47:23,280 --> 00:47:25,120
Hi, guys.

806
00:47:25,120 --> 00:47:26,880
We've brought you some spears.

807
00:47:26,880 --> 00:47:28,320
Annemieke Milks is

808
00:47:28,320 --> 00:47:31,640
an investigator
of Neanderthal hunting methods.

809
00:47:31,640 --> 00:47:34,040
She wants to see how well
these replica

810
00:47:34,040 --> 00:47:36,240
Neanderthal spears will perform in

811
00:47:36,240 --> 00:47:39,120
the hands of Bekah Walton
and Harry Hughes -

812
00:47:39,120 --> 00:47:42,040
two of Britain's
leading javelin throwers.

813
00:47:42,040 --> 00:47:44,560
I'm really curious to see what

814
00:47:44,560 --> 00:47:47,360
an experienced thrower
makes of how they feel.

815
00:47:47,360 --> 00:47:50,200
They are the right length compared
to like a normal spear.

816
00:47:50,200 --> 00:47:53,040
Yeah, the balance is really good.
They're surprisingly similar to

817
00:47:53,040 --> 00:47:54,640
a normal javelin, actually.

818
00:47:59,720 --> 00:48:02,920
Yeah, really surprised
at how far they're flying!

819
00:48:02,920 --> 00:48:04,280
I won't be that far!

820
00:48:09,920 --> 00:48:11,040
Fantastic.

821
00:48:13,560 --> 00:48:15,560
The spears fly well.

822
00:48:17,160 --> 00:48:20,680
So Annemieke now wants
to test if they can be used

823
00:48:20,680 --> 00:48:23,920
with real accuracy, to hit a target.

824
00:48:23,920 --> 00:48:25,000
We want to know -

825
00:48:25,000 --> 00:48:28,640
can you two kill that mammoth
silhouette for us, please?

826
00:48:28,640 --> 00:48:31,000
Shall we give it a go? Let's go.

827
00:48:34,280 --> 00:48:36,160
Oh!
HE LAUGHS

828
00:48:36,160 --> 00:48:37,200
First time.

829
00:48:40,680 --> 00:48:43,520
These spears are flying true.

830
00:48:43,520 --> 00:48:45,440
They're hitting it
every single time.

831
00:48:45,440 --> 00:48:46,520
On a mammoth,

832
00:48:46,520 --> 00:48:48,480
that target zone
would be much larger.

833
00:49:06,360 --> 00:49:09,120
Up until fairly recently,

834
00:49:09,120 --> 00:49:12,640
most people were arguing that
Neanderthals were only capable

835
00:49:12,640 --> 00:49:15,480
of hunting at immediate distances.

836
00:49:15,480 --> 00:49:20,720
And this shows that their technology
was capable of distance hunting.

837
00:49:29,520 --> 00:49:30,440
Oh!
HE LAUGHS

838
00:49:30,440 --> 00:49:31,560
Brilliant.

839
00:49:33,840 --> 00:49:36,200
OK, big question of the day.

840
00:49:36,200 --> 00:49:38,200
At our site, is there
any chance that our

841
00:49:38,200 --> 00:49:40,680
Neanderthals could have been
hunting mammoths, do you think?

842
00:49:40,680 --> 00:49:42,320
Given the fact that we have

843
00:49:42,320 --> 00:49:43,840
a whole load of evidence that

844
00:49:43,840 --> 00:49:46,520
the spears are functional weapons,

845
00:49:46,520 --> 00:49:49,840
both as thrusting weapons
and as throwing weapons,

846
00:49:49,840 --> 00:49:53,480
and that we see this evidence
of exploitation

847
00:49:53,480 --> 00:49:55,720
of mammoth, I think
it's very much in

848
00:49:55,720 --> 00:49:57,760
the realm of possibility that

849
00:49:57,760 --> 00:49:59,120
mammoths were being hunted by

850
00:49:59,120 --> 00:50:01,040
Neanderthals with spears like these.

851
00:50:17,000 --> 00:50:20,400
So Neanderthals could possibly
have hunted mammoths at

852
00:50:20,400 --> 00:50:23,760
Cerney Wick over 200,000 years ago.

853
00:50:28,000 --> 00:50:30,360
But, in the millennia that followed,

854
00:50:30,360 --> 00:50:34,320
both the Neanderthals and
the steppe mammoths disappeared.

855
00:50:37,080 --> 00:50:41,400
Neanderthals resettled in Britain
around 60,000 years ago.

856
00:50:41,400 --> 00:50:43,040
But our own species,

857
00:50:43,040 --> 00:50:46,280
Homo sapiens,
arrives soon after that.

858
00:50:46,280 --> 00:50:47,400
And evidence of

859
00:50:47,400 --> 00:50:51,200
the presence of
Neanderthals vanishes.

860
00:50:51,200 --> 00:50:54,280
It might be that
we out-competed them,

861
00:50:54,280 --> 00:50:57,880
right, we were just better
at using the landscape

862
00:50:57,880 --> 00:50:59,320
and resources.

863
00:50:59,320 --> 00:51:02,960
One of the things that we know
is that they lived in small,

864
00:51:02,960 --> 00:51:04,360
isolated populations.

865
00:51:04,360 --> 00:51:07,800
That is not going to do your
gene pool any good at all.

866
00:51:07,800 --> 00:51:09,640
There's even an argument
that they're still

867
00:51:09,640 --> 00:51:10,800
with us today.

868
00:51:10,800 --> 00:51:14,680
Me and you will have about
2% Neanderthal DNA in us.

869
00:51:14,680 --> 00:51:17,800
And that's because our
ancestors, multiple times,

870
00:51:17,800 --> 00:51:20,440
it seems,
interbred with Neanderthals.

871
00:51:20,440 --> 00:51:23,880
So, actually, the end of the story
isn't completely tragic

872
00:51:23,880 --> 00:51:26,040
because it turns out
there's a little bit of them...

873
00:51:26,040 --> 00:51:27,240
Still here. In us, yeah.

874
00:51:31,200 --> 00:51:33,200
Back at the site at Cerney Wick,

875
00:51:33,200 --> 00:51:37,880
there's excitement as they assess
their haul of flint tools.

876
00:51:37,880 --> 00:51:40,160
SHE LAUGHS
Are you OK? Breathe.

877
00:51:40,160 --> 00:51:41,800
Wow. I think you forgot to breathe.

878
00:51:41,800 --> 00:51:43,080
This lovely little flake.

879
00:51:43,080 --> 00:51:46,240
So you can see it's got
a little point where they hit it

880
00:51:46,240 --> 00:51:48,600
with a stone hammer to remove it.

881
00:51:48,600 --> 00:51:49,840
It's perfect.

882
00:51:49,840 --> 00:51:52,400
And that was the first hint that
you found? That's the first one.

883
00:51:52,400 --> 00:51:54,640
Yeah. So there was
a party straight after that?

884
00:51:54,640 --> 00:51:56,920
And then the next one we found...
Oh, my goodness.

885
00:51:56,920 --> 00:52:01,120
..is this beautiful scraper edge.
Typically, we think, you know,

886
00:52:01,120 --> 00:52:03,760
you would have held it like this,
they would have pulled

887
00:52:03,760 --> 00:52:08,000
the fat off of the hide.
It's really quite impressive.

888
00:52:08,000 --> 00:52:11,200
We've got these five flint tools
all from the same area,

889
00:52:11,200 --> 00:52:13,760
all finely worked,
all really, really clear.

890
00:52:13,760 --> 00:52:15,880
And that's quite exciting
and quite rare.

891
00:52:15,880 --> 00:52:18,400
I mean, it's really easy
to say, "Oh, five things.

892
00:52:18,400 --> 00:52:19,920
"That's not many." But, actually,

893
00:52:19,920 --> 00:52:22,720
when we're talking about
200,000 years ago,

894
00:52:22,720 --> 00:52:24,600
we might only be finding
one or two things in

895
00:52:24,600 --> 00:52:28,520
a site which has been
excavated for decades.

896
00:52:28,520 --> 00:52:31,520
On the mammoth leg bone
they found next to the flints,

897
00:52:31,520 --> 00:52:36,600
they've seen scratch marks that
could provide evidence of butchery.

898
00:52:36,600 --> 00:52:40,200
We see little marks
and nicks in the top.

899
00:52:40,200 --> 00:52:43,120
Two lovely parallel lines.
There's one slightly longer.

900
00:52:43,120 --> 00:52:45,640
There's another one,
just a short one, just in beside it.

901
00:52:45,640 --> 00:52:48,520
And it's really tempting
to call them cut marks,

902
00:52:48,520 --> 00:52:51,840
but we'll have to get it back into
the lab to actually determine.

903
00:52:51,840 --> 00:52:53,840
It's like a really big whodunnit,
isn't it?

904
00:52:53,840 --> 00:52:55,880
So did they all die of a disease?

905
00:52:55,880 --> 00:52:59,760
Was there a massive flood that
came in, or were we hunting them?

906
00:52:59,760 --> 00:53:01,360
Having worked with elephants
in the wild,

907
00:53:01,360 --> 00:53:03,760
I think possibly a juvenile, very,

908
00:53:03,760 --> 00:53:05,880
very young one might have
just got stuck in the mud.

909
00:53:05,880 --> 00:53:09,280
It panicked the group.
Things went really badly,

910
00:53:09,280 --> 00:53:11,160
really quickly.
And we came along as scavengers

911
00:53:11,160 --> 00:53:13,880
and possibly found the world's
biggest buffet lying there for us.

912
00:53:13,880 --> 00:53:16,840
We were just opportunists.
I think we were opportunists.

913
00:53:16,840 --> 00:53:19,480
Well, I just love the idea
that the, you know,

914
00:53:19,480 --> 00:53:23,960
Neanderthals are sitting
on the ridge over the far end,

915
00:53:23,960 --> 00:53:26,120
hiding amongst the tall grass.

916
00:53:26,120 --> 00:53:28,640
And then mammoths are coming down
to the water

917
00:53:28,640 --> 00:53:30,240
and they're panicking them.

918
00:53:30,240 --> 00:53:31,480
The Neanderthals come in

919
00:53:31,480 --> 00:53:34,040
and they take advantage
of the mammoths,

920
00:53:34,040 --> 00:53:36,080
they sort of start butchering them

921
00:53:36,080 --> 00:53:38,960
and taking away
their nice meat for meals.

922
00:53:40,760 --> 00:53:42,160
Isn't it wonderful to think that

923
00:53:42,160 --> 00:53:45,560
the last time someone sat
exactly on this spot in

924
00:53:45,560 --> 00:53:46,680
a little group

925
00:53:46,680 --> 00:53:50,120
with that stone tool in their hands
was 200,000 years ago

926
00:53:50,120 --> 00:53:52,440
as a mammoth's lying just
over there? Wow.

927
00:53:52,440 --> 00:53:55,360
And here we are talking about it...
They were about to have their lunch.

928
00:53:55,360 --> 00:53:57,040
..hundreds of thousands
of years later.

929
00:53:57,040 --> 00:53:59,880
It's quite poignant, isn't it?
Absolutely. It really is.

930
00:54:04,680 --> 00:54:07,120
As the excavation comes to an end...

931
00:54:08,400 --> 00:54:09,560
..Ben and I survey

932
00:54:09,560 --> 00:54:12,520
the whole collection of flint tools.

933
00:54:14,840 --> 00:54:15,920
Some of these,

934
00:54:15,920 --> 00:54:19,640
the one you've got in
the far corner there, are scrapers.

935
00:54:19,640 --> 00:54:22,400
Well, hang on,
let me have a look at that.

936
00:54:22,400 --> 00:54:25,400
That someone's very delicately
taken the edge off.

937
00:54:25,400 --> 00:54:26,680
Yes. You can see?

938
00:54:26,680 --> 00:54:28,320
Yes, yes, you can.

939
00:54:28,320 --> 00:54:30,760
Now, these would have been
used for cleaning skins,

940
00:54:30,760 --> 00:54:33,040
taking fat off skin in order
to preserve the skin,

941
00:54:33,040 --> 00:54:36,360
but also taking little bits of meat
from the bone as well.

942
00:54:36,360 --> 00:54:38,200
Yeah.

943
00:54:38,200 --> 00:54:40,560
So what we have as well,
if you've got your hand lens.

944
00:54:40,560 --> 00:54:42,560
Yeah. There are tiny, well,

945
00:54:42,560 --> 00:54:46,880
quite indistinct little marks
along this bone here,

946
00:54:46,880 --> 00:54:48,200
if you can see just there.

947
00:54:50,800 --> 00:54:53,080
Oh, there, yes, absolutely.

948
00:54:53,080 --> 00:54:55,320
There's definite, well,

949
00:54:55,320 --> 00:54:56,960
there's strong evidence
that there is

950
00:54:56,960 --> 00:55:00,120
a cut-mark series along here.
This is, we think,

951
00:55:00,120 --> 00:55:03,720
evidence of people accessing
the animals in this area

952
00:55:03,720 --> 00:55:07,880
and using them for their own food,
for fuel, for warmth.

953
00:55:07,880 --> 00:55:11,880
Does that make you think
that this site was a camp?

954
00:55:11,880 --> 00:55:13,800
I would find it very, very difficult

955
00:55:13,800 --> 00:55:16,440
to believe that these animals
that weighed tonnes and tonnes

956
00:55:16,440 --> 00:55:19,720
and tonnes wouldn't have offered
this wonderful opportunity to camp

957
00:55:19,720 --> 00:55:22,000
there for at least weeks or months.

958
00:55:22,000 --> 00:55:24,000
It's really bringing
this site to life.

959
00:55:24,000 --> 00:55:26,000
This isn't a table of bones.

960
00:55:26,000 --> 00:55:29,400
This is a point in history
where something happened.

961
00:55:33,120 --> 00:55:36,400
Peering back 200,000 years,
it's hard

962
00:55:36,400 --> 00:55:39,680
to know exactly
what happened at our site.

963
00:55:39,680 --> 00:55:43,040
But the evidence that has
now been uncovered paints

964
00:55:43,040 --> 00:55:45,840
a tantalising picture
of Ice Age Britain.

965
00:55:47,480 --> 00:55:51,880
An ancient River Thames
flowing through grassland.

966
00:55:51,880 --> 00:55:55,960
A group of some of the last
steppe mammoths in Britain.

967
00:55:55,960 --> 00:56:01,360
And Neanderthals using flint tools
to butcher mammoth meat.

968
00:56:02,880 --> 00:56:04,560
Whether or not they hunted

969
00:56:04,560 --> 00:56:06,840
the mammoths requires more evidence,

970
00:56:06,840 --> 00:56:08,680
but, at this site,
it certainly looks

971
00:56:08,680 --> 00:56:12,320
as if something extraordinary
happened -

972
00:56:12,320 --> 00:56:17,440
Neanderthals feasting on mammoth
on the banks of the River Thames.

973
00:56:19,240 --> 00:56:20,640
At the end of the dig

974
00:56:20,640 --> 00:56:23,200
and before the area
is flooded again,

975
00:56:23,200 --> 00:56:26,360
we invite Sally and Neville
to return to the site

976
00:56:26,360 --> 00:56:27,960
so that we can show them what

977
00:56:27,960 --> 00:56:30,600
the scene might once
have looked like.

978
00:56:30,600 --> 00:56:34,920
We've prepared something
where you don't have

979
00:56:34,920 --> 00:56:38,200
to use your imagination
to visualise this area.

980
00:56:38,200 --> 00:56:41,160
If I give these to you.
Thank you! Put them on.

981
00:56:41,160 --> 00:56:44,240
Make sure they're comfy. And enjoy.

982
00:56:44,240 --> 00:56:45,320
Righty-ho.

983
00:56:52,560 --> 00:56:53,880
Ee! Mammoth!

984
00:56:53,880 --> 00:56:55,440
THEY LAUGH

985
00:56:58,920 --> 00:57:00,680
Oh, that is just incredible!

986
00:57:04,160 --> 00:57:06,360
Oh, my God, that's amazing!

987
00:57:09,200 --> 00:57:13,320
The finds at this remarkable
site have given us

988
00:57:13,320 --> 00:57:16,080
a rare glimpse of early Britain...

989
00:57:18,760 --> 00:57:22,680
..a time when humans
were fully immersed in the wild,

990
00:57:22,680 --> 00:57:24,840
living as part of nature.

991
00:57:28,240 --> 00:57:30,120
It's thought that Neanderthals may

992
00:57:30,120 --> 00:57:33,600
have been around
for some 400,000 years.

993
00:57:35,600 --> 00:57:38,520
Their survival relied on
their understanding of

994
00:57:38,520 --> 00:57:39,840
the natural world.

995
00:57:42,960 --> 00:57:47,800
Whether our own species can thrive
for quite as long

996
00:57:47,800 --> 00:57:49,600
remains to be seen.