Digging for Britain

Prof. Alice Roberts explores finds from Britain’s Roman past, examining a huge coin hoard unearthed from a Somerset field, the tragic mystery of a Roman villa site where archaeologists are reevaluating the excavated remains of 97 murdered infants, and a man who was for some reason buried face-down on a bed of meat at a fort near Hadrian’s Wall.

Journeying much farther back in time, Roberts heads to Norfolk to see flint tools that push the earliest human occupation in the area back by 200,000 years, to around a million years ago. Far up north in the Orkney Islands, an ancient farm provides glimpses of early religious beliefs and customs. Back down south in Devon lies one of the oldest-known shipwrecks as well as a Bronze Age burial site.

The Anglo-Saxons divided Britain and heralded the arrival of the Dark Ages, but were they really just barbarians? Prof. Roberts visits key sites that throw light on this most mysterious of periods, including the royal seat of power at Bamburgh, Northumbria, where skeletons tell tales of violent death but also of tenderness.

The Tudor period brought momentous changes to Britain. Prof. Roberts views excavations at Shakespeare’s first theatre and at his home, finding clues about his frugality. She also uncovers the brutal realities of Henry VIII’s dissolution of the monasteries in Wales, learns the rich history of a forgotten palace on the muddy banks of the Thames, and explores a shipwreck from this age of discovery.

Roman Britain gives up some of its mysteries as Professor Roberts investigates the remains of 97 babies found near the Thames River, visits a newly discovered town in rural Devon, and examines a cult figure that has been buried for more than one and a half millennia beneath a Roman fort.

Roberts travels back to Britain during the time of the Vikings: to their earliest settlements in the Outer Hebrides, to excavations underway at their capital of York, and to their final stronghold in the remote Orkney Islands. She takes a look at some of the most celebrated finds, including the carved-ivory Lewis Chessmen.