Meet the Ancestors episode 7
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00:00INTRO
00:29Under a car park on the edge of a city, an ancient burial ground has been discovered.
00:34And a magnificent lead coffin is about to reveal its strange secrets.
00:47Those burials are in Winchester. Now, I don't know how old they are, but I wonder if this
00:51road gives me a clue, because it's a Roman road and it's heading straight for them.
01:00At the site, behind the Old Eagle Hotel, I met Paul McCulloch, the archaeologist in charge
01:10of the dig.
01:12So you've got started with the machining?
01:14That's right, we've had the machine going for the morning, so we're making progress.
01:21Developers plan to build a block of flats on the site, that was once part of a huge
01:24Roman cemetery. But before any foundations are laid, all human remains have to be removed.
01:31And how long have you got to do it?
01:35A month.
01:36Is that going to be long enough? I mean, there's going to be an awful lot of graves in there,
01:40aren't there, from what you've said?
01:41Well, I reckon 25 to 30 graves. We've got four or five people employed on the job, and
01:48weather permitting, and hoping there aren't too many other problems, I'm sure we'll get
01:52it done.
01:54Since I'm here, Paul's invited me to help, and I've been given a grave of my own to dig.
02:02The cemetery dates from the late 4th century, the very end of the Roman period, and because
02:06all the graves are aligned east-west, they're probably Christian.
02:12But there's something very odd going on. Despite all the graves being aligned the same way,
02:17there isn't a consistent pattern of burial within them. This is the grave of a child
02:21who's been buried face down.
02:24You can tell this child's lying face down because that's the back of the skull, and
02:27you can also see the jaw coming down here, and the teeth, so we know that the face is
02:32down. And also, if you look here, there's the backbone and the arm bones, but that's
02:38the shoulder blade there, and you can see that the ribs are going underneath the shoulder
02:43blade, so that must be the child's back.
02:46On the other side of the site is the burial of a man lying on his back, but in a very
02:51shallow grave.
02:52Unfortunately, this is going to be a bit of a pain taking out.
02:57And this is a man whose head's been cut off, and buried down by his knees.
03:04Right, OK, that's number six.
03:10As my grave got deeper, I wondered what I would find. Iron nails, the evidence of a
03:15wooden coffin. But this was nothing compared to what suddenly emerged on the other side
03:19of the site.
03:22You've not? A lead coffin? Oh, you're joking!
03:41I'm just uncovering what appears to be a lead coffin.
03:46Just removing some of the stained chalk from around the edges.
03:52So does this mean you're working over the weekend?
03:54I guess so.
03:57This is a really great discovery, so I'm very excited about it.
04:03In a very deep grave, Malcolm has found a lead coffin, only the second ever to have
04:07been found in Roman Winchester. Lead was such a valuable metal that it must have belonged
04:12to an extremely wealthy Roman.
04:15So did this make digging this enormous hole worthwhile, Malcolm?
04:19Yeah, I think so. I think it's one of the few things that would have made it actually
04:23worth digging all this chalk out.
04:25What, have you got down to the bottom?
04:27If there'd been nothing there, I think I'd have been a bit sick, I think.
04:31But the question is, what condition will the coffin and its contents be in? Has it been
04:36squashed flat by the weight of all that chalk?
04:44This was the worst possible time for the weather to turn against us. All the other graves had
04:49to be finished before we could dig the huge hole needed to get the lead coffin out.
04:56Oh, I'm knackered. This is the worst barrow run I've ever pushed a barrow up.
05:08As I removed the bones from my grave, I wondered if we really were going to finish in time.
05:13Unless we get completely covered in snow or rained off every single day, I'm sure we'll finish.
05:22But, despite the weather, eventually we made it.
05:31All the empty graves had to be filled with gravel, and the whole site levelled before
05:35a JCB could be brought in to expose the lead coffin.
05:38The machines dug an absolutely enormous hole to get down to the level of the coffin, but
05:43they stopped about six inches short of it, so the rest of it's got to be dug by hand
05:47and really carefully. But I think we're all just dying to see the whole thing exposed,
05:52and it makes all this effort really worthwhile.
05:58This end, there's a hole in it, which answers one question, which was whether or not it
06:05was sealed up, because if it had been completely sealed, then there could have been all sorts
06:10of unsavoury things inside it, basically bones floating around in a sort of soup, but we're
06:17not going to find anything as unpleasant as that, which is in some ways quite a relief.
06:24As the shape of the coffin lid began to emerge, Malcolm made an important discovery.
06:29Just a small nail, rather small for a coffin nail, but it may well be one.
06:35Well it means that the lead coffin was encased within a timber coffin, so there would have
06:42been a timber outer shell to it.
06:44Another one down here.
06:45From the fragments of wood corroded onto the nail, hopefully we'll be able to identify
06:49what kind of coffin our wealthy Roman was buried in.
06:53After two days of digging, the whole coffin could be seen, and to everyone's relief,
06:59it wasn't squashed flat.
07:01But unlike all the other burials, it lay north-south.
07:04It was the burial of a pagan.
07:06The next day, we couldn't resist having a little peep through the split in the coffin
07:09lid, and there, in the gloom, was the rounded shape of a skull.
07:16It's something the Romans used to bury their coffins.
07:21This is the skull of a pagan.
07:26It's the skull of a pagan.
07:30It's the skull of a pagan.
07:32It's the skull of a pagan.
07:34shape of a skull.
07:41This might look like a scene from Quatermass.
07:43In fact it's health and safety at work. These white suits are to protect us from the
07:48harmful effects of the lead dust that covers the coffin.
07:50Well it feels a bit strange and a little bit restrictive but
07:55with that amount of lead down there it's a very good idea.
07:59So, down we go.
08:05The idea is to build a cradle around the coffin using scaffold tubes.
08:09Support the underside with wooden wedges
08:13and then hopefully lift the whole lot clear with a crane.
08:21After 1,600 years it seems a shame to disturb the coffin and its contents.
08:27But had it been left where it was then it would have been destroyed by the new building.
08:42Look at that scaffolding, eh?
08:44It worked a lot.
08:47The lorry had become an improvised hearse that took the coffin on a short journey
08:51to the archaeologist's warehouse on the outskirts of Winchester.
08:57Now this is the moment of truth.
08:59We've had that little peek through the crack in the lid so we know there are some bones in there
09:03but we still don't know whether there's a whole skeleton.
09:05But now we're going to find out.
09:07OK, get ready.
09:09Let's get ready. I've got it.
09:11Tors, do you hear it?
09:13Yeah.
09:15Bloody hell!
09:38That's somebody pretty tall as well.
09:40You were saying how far.
09:43Feet away from the end of the coffin and they actually just about reach it, don't they?
09:48We were all amazed at what appeared when the lid of the coffin was lifted.
09:52The complete skeleton of what looked like a well-built male
09:55and so tall that he almost filled the coffin.
10:02We couldn't have hoped for a skull in better condition.
10:05This was very good news for the facial reconstruction.
10:13As we started to lift the remainder of the bones,
10:16we noticed that some of them had rather strange attachments.
10:19This here, I'm not quite sure what it is.
10:23It's sort of obviously within the ribcage.
10:29But, you know, it's just a question of taking a sample of this
10:31and trying to find out what it might be.
10:34Ooh, strange, isn't it?
10:36It is occurring very much around the end of the ribs
10:40where you'd expect an attachment, wouldn't you?
10:43Some sort of ligament or something.
10:47Moving down to the foot of the coffin,
10:49we found something not quite as gruesome but just as interesting.
10:55I can't really believe it but it looks as if it's cloth.
10:59It may be part of a shroud or something like that
11:01but you can definitely see the weave in there.
11:05But what puzzles me is what it's preserved in.
11:11And then, in the same place, yet more strange discoveries.
11:15That thing there. Yeah.
11:17I don't know...
11:20..what that is.
11:22It's very, very strange, isn't it?
11:24It's...
11:26Actually, I wonder, it feels...
11:28It's not heavy enough to be lead, I don't think.
11:30What do you reckon? Is it?
11:33No, it's not, is it?
11:35I've never seen anything like that before.
11:39By the end of the day, when all the bones were removed
11:42and the coffin was being swept clean,
11:44we found that it had just one more surprise for us.
11:48There, halfway down the coffin,
11:50in just the place where the Romans handed Lane,
11:53was a coin, a pagan's payment for the journey into the afterlife.
11:57Take off some of the soil from around the edges
11:59and hopefully, eventually, we'll be able to identify that.
12:04What a relief to get out of that suit.
12:06But how amazing the contents of this coffin have turned out to be.
12:09Not only are the things preserved in here
12:11that we never would have expected,
12:13but also, to cap it all at the last minute,
12:15Paul found that coin,
12:17so hopefully that's going to date the whole burial.
12:19It's absolutely brilliant.
12:24Several days later, we showed the remains of our Roman burial
12:27to human bones specialist Margaret Cox.
12:32It's a nice, robust male.
12:33You've got all the characteristics of a male skeleton
12:36and apart from that, this large...
12:38Yeah.
12:39..and a wonderful set of teeth.
12:43Margaret felt that the Roman was a robust man of about 30 when he died,
12:47with no signs of disease or injury, apart from a damaged leg.
12:53What appears to have happened here, Julian,
12:55is that you've had some trauma to the lower leg
12:58and there was some damage that also caused a response in the soft tissue.
13:03What you can see here is a sort of bony growth
13:06coming away from the normal shape of the fibula,
13:09going towards the tibia,
13:11which also shows the same sorts of response
13:14to what was clearly a trauma.
13:17And the effect that you get is that the bones end up joined, basically.
13:21Yeah, and that's what these little...
13:23By new remodelling, yeah.
13:25Have a look at these vertebrae.
13:28What's...that?
13:32Oh, God.
13:34It's sort of round...round there.
13:37I've never seen anything like it before.
13:40Oh, well, I'm glad that you haven't, cos...
13:44It's weird, doesn't it?
13:47But is it any way that it could be some sort of soft tissue
13:52that's actually, through some freak of preservation,
13:55survived?
13:57I just wonder, actually, if this isn't...
14:00Again, this is purely speculation, but if this was lying in gunk...
14:06..and that's the tide mark of the gunk...
14:10..and if it's some sort of accretion that was sort of on the top
14:14that was solidifying and solidified round the bones,
14:17we could perhaps do some chemical analysis
14:19and see if we can identify what it is,
14:21cos I can't think of anything in terms of soft tissue that it could be.
14:25I was also curious to know what Margaret would make
14:28of those odd little cones.
14:30Goodness gracious, aren't they strange?
14:32Stalagmites. Yeah.
14:34They sat...they sat like that on the...
14:38On the bottom of the coffin.
14:40We could almost see sort of build-up of layers, couldn't we?
14:43We could put that under the scanning electron microscope
14:46and see that sequence of build-up quite nicely
14:49and see exactly what's going on.
14:51They're absolutely fascinating, aren't they?
14:53I've never seen anything like it.
14:57My next stop was the Winchester Conservation Laboratory.
15:00I was hoping to hear some interesting news from Bob Holmes
15:03about the coin and the cloth that we'd found in the coffin.
15:06What it is, it's not textile, it's an impression of textile.
15:10If you look on the screen up here...
15:12Yeah, well, it looks like a weave there, doesn't it?
15:15You can see the weave structure
15:17and you can see impressions of fibres as well.
15:20But what's preserved it, though?
15:22Well, what this is, it's a sort of chalky deposit.
15:25Remember, it was completely surrounded by chalk.
15:28So chalky water has dripped in
15:30and this has built up a sort of chalky,
15:33almost scale-like deposit on items and things within the coffin.
15:38And it seems... Then the material's rotted away.
15:41The material's rotted away. It looks like this has fallen down
15:44on probably the shroud that was around the body.
15:46It's taken a sort of fossil impression
15:49of the thread pattern of the shroud.
15:52Can you tell what sort of a weave it was
15:54or what sort of material it might have been?
15:57Well, it's probably going to be linen or wool.
16:04The coin, which had cleaned up rather nicely, was next.
16:08Paul was on hand to tell us when it was minted.
16:12There's a male figure, standing figure here.
16:15You can see his legs there.
16:17Moving up the torso area here.
16:20Arm coming out either side.
16:23Possibly a sort of drape over the arm, hanging down below here.
16:27I'm turning the coin over now and looking at it.
16:30As you can see, it's worn and corroded.
16:34There's an area there which is certainly the head
16:38and we can see some remains of some lettering around the top here.
16:42Are you relying on this, weren't you,
16:44to provide you with the dating evidence for the lead coffin?
16:47Has it? Is it identifiable?
16:49It's a coin which we can understand.
16:53Yeah.
16:55At the moment, it looks to be an issue of the Emperor Constantine
17:00and perhaps from around 313, 314.
17:08From Winchester, it was off to another Roman city, Manchester,
17:12and a visit to the studios of facial reconstruction expert Richard Neve.
17:16It is complete, isn't it? Isn't that nice?
17:19Well, it makes a change, doesn't it?
17:21Well, it does, rather, doesn't it?
17:23You generally bring us all sorts of busted bits.
17:26Now, out you come, young man.
17:30That is a big, powerful skull, isn't it?
17:34My goodness.
17:36A big mastoid process.
17:39Quite a prominent chin.
17:41Not particularly full lips.
17:43Not a very deep upper lip.
17:46Quite a big nose.
17:48What did you say, quite a big nose to look at me for?
17:56Richard had hinted at how the Roman might look,
17:59but it was up to medical artist Denise Smith to rebuild his face.
18:03I'm not sure he's going to look typically Roman.
18:07He's going to have quite a wide nose
18:10and he may have a slightly heavier brow,
18:14which might make his eyes look a little bit more deep-set.
18:21Yeah, he's going to have quite a strong, powerful face.
18:34Back in Winchester, I was curious to know more
18:37about the place where our Roman was buried.
18:40At the Historic Resource Centre,
18:42Steve Teague has created a computer database
18:45which provides some valuable clues.
18:47Yeah, yes.
18:49This is what we currently understand
18:51about the layouts of the internal streets within the town.
18:54Can we have a more detailed look at the town?
18:56All right.
18:58So where were we digging? Somewhere around here?
19:01Yeah, somewhere over here, yes.
19:03So it's just outside one of the town gates,
19:06outside the defences, just outside the city.
19:09How many burials have you excavated in total then?
19:12In total, excavated and also been observed and observations,
19:15we're talking about around 1,000 burials.
19:18So, right, this is all one big burial ground here, is it?
19:22Yes.
19:23Just outside the city.
19:25And that's the area that we were digging in?
19:27Yes.
19:28That had about how many burials in it altogether?
19:30It had about 35.
19:3235 burials just within that area?
19:34Yes.
19:35Right.
19:36So those were the first trenches that you dug were there, presumably?
19:39Yes.
19:40And then this was the area that we excavated?
19:42Yes.
19:43So the lead coffin must have been in that area just there, was it?
19:46Most of the burials were lying east-west,
19:48indicating that they were Christian,
19:50but the lead coffin lay north-south,
19:52suggesting that he was a pagan.
19:55Now I know where he was buried,
19:57just by the north gate.
19:59I wanted to know what the burial scene might have looked like.
20:02In the same office,
20:03illustrator Mark Barden had some sketches ready for me.
20:08Is this your first go at a reconstruction of the burial?
20:12Yes, that was the first attempt, yes.
20:14And what's the idea to show that it's lying
20:16just outside the walls of the Roman town?
20:19That's right, and the depth of the burial
20:22in relation to the Roman ground surface.
20:24Actually, it is deep, isn't it?
20:26I hadn't realised.
20:27I remember it was a huge hole in the ground trying to get it out,
20:30but it is a very deep grave, isn't it?
20:32Yes, it was.
20:36I mean, we wanted the colour of it, sure.
20:38Cool, what's all this? This is rather elaborate.
20:41Well, yes, again, there's some slight speculation gone into that.
20:46I think it would look a little strange
20:48if the wooden coffin box wasn't decorated.
20:51Right, and so what do these all mean?
20:54There's a lot of symbolism in Roman art,
20:56and the rosettes are meant to signify prosperity in the afterlife.
21:00We have a few more people, a few more mourners,
21:03as well as some other elements that may have been involved in the ceremony,
21:07such as the band at the background, a fairly meagre band.
21:11Were there musicians at funerals then?
21:13Yes, yes.
21:15There are stone sarcophagi from Rome
21:17showing quite elaborate funeral processions with a band,
21:21mainly woodwind instruments.
21:24Followed by mourners.
21:26Hired mourners pulling their hair out and wailing.
21:31So how did Winchester fit into the wider Roman Empire?
21:34Over at the museum, there was an important clue.
21:40When our man in the lead coffin died towards the end of the Roman period,
21:44he was sent off to the next world with nothing but a coin.
21:47Now, this is a burial that dates 300 years earlier than that,
21:51and it's very, very different, because here the bones were cremated,
21:54not just simply placed in the ground.
21:56And the person was sent off to the next life
21:58with a whole array of personal objects.
22:00I mean, there's virtually a complete meal set out here
22:03in the bottom of the grave.
22:05There's a shale tray with cutlery on it.
22:08There are pots. There's a beautiful glass beaker.
22:11There's a bronze jug that might have contained wine.
22:14There are beams, gaming counters, a joint of meat.
22:17And the amazing thing is that different parts of the Roman Empire
22:20that they came from, the pots are from France,
22:23the glass is from Germany, the bronze is from Italy,
22:26and the beads might have come from as far away as Egypt.
22:29This is Winchester, but it's connected with this whole wide Roman Empire.
22:39Wood expert Rowena Gale had been examining the fragments of wood on the nails.
22:43Could she tell us what sort of timber the Romans had used
22:46to make the coffin?
22:48Well, I think this is a piece of oak wood.
22:52It's one of the easiest woods to identify,
22:55and this has got very good characters.
22:58I'm looking at the cross-section here,
23:00and I can see the large springwood vessels
23:04which occur at the beginning of every growth ring.
23:07And I can also see broad rays and very thin rays as well.
23:14And that is very diagnostic of oak.
23:17But to be really certain, we've got to compare this
23:20with named reference material.
23:22And you can see here I've got, well, about 100 different slides
23:27of different native species, or species that are native to Britain.
23:33So here's a piece of oak.
23:36Now, if I show you this, I hope I'll convince you.
23:40Now, that matches very nicely.
23:43You've got the...
23:45Oh, yes. Can you see?
23:47Yeah, all those little voids. That's right.
23:49I'm convinced. I'm very impressed.
23:52So, this person had an oak coffin, then.
23:58If the lead coffin was originally encased in oak,
24:01then what would it have looked like?
24:03In south London, I went to see Huey Torrance,
24:06who makes coffins in a way that's hardly changed since Roman times.
24:13The sheet of soft lead is cut and folded into the shape of the coffin.
24:19The rough form is placed in a wooden coffin
24:22and beaten to take its precise shape.
24:30The joints are soldered, just like our Roman original.
24:36And finally, a neat lid completes the modern version of our Roman's coffin.
24:40Oak and lead still making the same statement about wealth
24:43as they did 1,600 years ago.
24:52Meanwhile, at Bournemouth University,
24:54the bones and stalagmites from the coffin
24:56had been undergoing some intensive analysis.
25:01Louise Geel has been scanning the bones in her electron microscope.
25:07I'm just going to ask the computer to tell me what we've got there.
25:12The computer's just going to analyse all these peaks
25:15and, depending on their position along this energy line,
25:18it should tell us what they are.
25:21The computer showed very high levels of lead,
25:23which could only mean one thing.
25:26It's a lead carbonate.
25:28It's formed by water seepage through the chalky soil into the coffin.
25:32So it really is a lead stalagmite?
25:34It is, yes.
25:36But what could she tell me about the stuff on the bones?
25:40I can tell you what it isn't, rather than what it is.
25:42We analysed it using the same technique that we used for the lead stalagmite.
25:46I can tell you that it's not soft tissue deposition
25:49because there isn't enough carbon in the compound for it to be that.
25:52And it isn't a lead compound because there's no lead in here at all.
25:57So we're not really any nearer to understanding
26:00exactly what this strange stuff that's stuck to the bone is, are we?
26:03Unfortunately not,
26:04because we know very little about the decomposition processes
26:07that go on in a lead coffin.
26:11Back in Manchester, Denise was making rapid progress with the face.
26:15All he needed now was his hair.
26:17Well, because we know what period he's from,
26:20we need to look at what kind of hairstyles he would actually have around that period,
26:25because they do look very different again once they have hair.
26:28Do you have any idea now what sort of hair you're going to put on him?
26:32I think just a shortish, straight hair, actually, and clean-shaven.
26:36I mean, there is evidence from things like Roman portraits, isn't there?
26:40So at least for the first time,
26:42you can actually get some idea as to what somebody's hairstyle would have been like.
26:46I mean, not like being back in prehistory.
26:48That's just it. It's kind of anybody's guess, yeah.
26:51It's a guess at it, isn't it?
26:53In Winchester, it was now time to reveal the Roman's face
26:57to the archaeologists who'd found him.
26:59There you go.
27:01There we are, Paul. You're Roman.
27:03Wow. Thank you very much indeed.
27:07Isn't he handsome? Yes.
27:09It looks like he's seen a bit of action, really,
27:12like a man from the army, really.
27:16What a tough guy. Tough, yes. It is tough.
27:19He looks more genuinely real somehow, you know,
27:23than faces on mosaics or wall paintings or something like that.
27:27It's a very genuine human face,
27:30you know, with bumps and crevices and so on.
27:36This was someone who really knew Roman Winchester.
27:39He knew its streets and temples and baths and statues.
27:42But when he died, he was buried outside its sturdy walls
27:46because that was what Roman burial custom dictated.
27:50We know that his coffin was the finest available.
27:53The buried fragments that survived over 1,600 years
27:56can tell us that much.
27:58But we can only imagine the scenes at his burial,
28:01where the false sorrow of the paid orator and mourners
28:04would have mingled with the genuine grief
28:06of those that had lost a relative or a friend.
28:09But unlike many people at this time,
28:11he hadn't adopted this new religion of Christianity
28:14because in his right hand he clutched this,
28:17a single coin, the fare to pay the ferryman to take his son.
28:21The fare to pay the ferryman to take his soul across the River Styx
28:24and into the next world.
28:51.