Zip-Wiring To Dig At Gateholm: An Ancient Welsh Site | Time Team | Timeline

we're on this beautiful but extremely wild part of the Welsh coast to tackle a baffling archaeological mystery we're gonna try and uncover secrets which have remained hidden since the dark ages and beyond there's only one problem our site is over there on that island it's called gate home and it's got to be one of the most dangerous and inaccessible places we've ever excavated that is stunning oh yes I'm actually quite excited about this that was fantastic incredibly gates home seems to have been inhabited although whether it was by celts or Vikings or druids no one knows who would want to set up home over there [Music] to get over there we've got to use this zip wire it could be the toughest time team we've ever attempted tell my wife I love her [Music] okay we're gonna go now the archeology be worth risking my life huh I hope so okay when you're ready Tony leap off and then turn and face me leap well I'm still alive but something tells me the original Islanders must have had another way of getting home thank you well it wasn't wasn't quite as scary as I thought it was gonna be but I think that was quite an experience goat homes so difficult to access we've had to send in an advance team of climbers to set up a 300 meter long zip wire every archaeologist and every piece of kit who have to cross on this single line it's a slow and hazardous process excavating this precipitous and exposed rock will be a serious challenge Francis you've already started digging well tell me I can't wait for you all day I mean it's now well done noon yeah hum day one day one edge was completely shot isn't it's taking forever to get everybody over well the thing is turning I mean there's an awful lot of archaeology here we've just got to get going I'm getting a tiny bit panicky but Kate home and its surroundings are owned and managed by the National Trust though there's not a stately home in sight on this rugged stretch of coastline the trusts have invited us here to the far west of Wales to help unlock gate home secrets [Music] we've surveyed the island from land and air geophysicist Omer and a new member of the team landscape archaeologist Alex Langlands are examining the results the wider landscape of the area and I've got the lidar which is the radar that's been taken from the plane it shoots points right at the ground so we can actually see a 3d map that is bringing out some bits and pieces isn't it I've actually got the aerial photograph and when a drip that over you can actually see the structures that is brilliant certainly from this they're not just lumps of months these are actually rectangular yeah buildings aren't they I mean one of the things that this does bring out is that this island is absolutely peppered isn't it yeah with structures and if they're all of the same period this would have been a really quite a busy place so at some point in history human activity left traces all over this small Rock one theory is that Gate home could be a forgotten sacred Isle an ancient place of pagan worship and even that it could be the site of an early Christian monastery I think that's fairly likely yes I do but I suspect like a lot of religious sites it was actually placed on a bit of landscape that had been sort of important magically if you like for a very long time so not only have we got a mysterious and perhaps sacred Isle but on the mainland a mere quarter of a mile away is another significant monument with curved earth banks and ditches on one side and a sheer cliff on the other it looks like a classic Iron Age promontory fort as if our job wasn't tough enough already we're going to excavate here as well to help Francis cite his trenches John and his geophysics team are busy surveying the fort's interior while waiting for the geophys results to come in film organizes a field walking team to scour the area around the fort with unexpected results that is stunning you stick that any end of a of a narrow shaft or something like that and you have gone very very lethal absolutely lethal projectile point if ever we needed to be proven that we're into the Mesolithic yep this is it it's also vital evidence proof that this site could have first been inhabited up to 10,000 years ago far earlier than we thought [Music] over on the islands of gate home Francis is using aerial mapping to position his trenches you've got this trench there alex is in you've got this little one that Matt's in and then the far one where ian is but they do look like three tiny rather arbitrary trenches a third of the way across the island ah they're not arbitrary Tony I never do anything to Sava tree if you look down a straight line yes they're in a straight line across what I think might be around you've got this you can see this from the air and I've put the trenches in a line across the road like that now why do you think that that is a road well these little boxes are I think runs of houses or munch cells or something like that and then they're on either side of a space which i think is a roadway where do you go next the next target I think it's going to be this round house here we'll put a trench in that that's important because I'm pretty sure that's going to be Iron Age if we can find evidence of Iron Age settlements both here on the island and on the mainland fort we may establish a link between the two sides to earlier digs on the island in 1910 and 1930 didn't come up with any convincing conclusions but there were some great finds our other new team member Marianna hata is examining the evidence some really remarkable objects here it's a bronze pen it's probably a cloak pen almost certainly Irish all the best parallels are from Ireland a small number from Scotland and they belong within that general post Roman pre Viking period so possibly from the 5th maybe as late as the 8th century that's not the only incredible aspect is it look at this this is absolutely fantastic isn't it it's a really beautiful bronze stag that was discovered on the island what's the significance of the stag shape well it's really interesting we don't know for certain but it could represent hunting but it may well also have some kind of ritual significance as well some religious significance so ritual significance that ties in with this quite extraordinary stone phallus this was discovered in one of the huts when they were excavating and it was actually placed right symbolizing either fertility or it's there for good luck we know that the ROM is quite often used folly to bring them good luck so this range of artifacts it's quite incredible isn't it we've got the phallus the pin the stag all coming from this very small area there's some reason why people are returning to this site here based on these finds we can tell that the island was occupied from the mid to late Roman period 200 to 410 AD into the very early Christian times of the 5th and 6th centuries but we may also find signs of earlier or later occupation with the geophys survey on the mainland fort completed a Frankish Phil's impatient to get digging yes we want you to come over and authorizer us to put the trenches in I'll be over there in a couple of ticks that's all I wanna know a couple of ticks while our site director heads back to the mainland the island team keep digging and rush art think she may have hit the jackpot how the fine is going of you it's been brilliant absolutely brilliant you were open out yeah yeah and yeah check it out it's all the same ports right that is fantastic I'm actually quite excited about this because we took a site in Cornwall and we were finding pushy that looked very similar to this right that site was a bit of a center for imports and that pottery was dating to post Roman period and and some of it was coming as far away as Byzantium right so I'm really excited I'm really hoping that is that that is fantastic actually raksha's pottery will help us date to the island settlements while earlier finds like the stag and the phallus are clues to what went on here we think Gate home may have been a ritual site in Roman and even prehistoric times so on the mainland Marianne is recreating the context in which the phallus was found rounded up into the earth the earth round it make sure it stays upright what's the significance of a little shrine like this well the phallus clearly is it's a fertility symbol there it is rammed into the earth you can't get more simple than that can you with a sort of mother earth and the phallus and and everything arising from that so it's actually quite a splendid thing it is it certainly is and I think that the phallus here is possibly mirroring the whole shape of the island I think the whole shape could have been an enormous phallic symbol of prosperity and fertility leaving behind our penile island for the moment Francis arrives at the mainland fort where he's hoping John's geophys results will give us some good targets we've surveyed the plateau yeah and to be honest the results were a bit confusing I mean what would you expect in that area well behind the ramparts I'd expect evidence for settlement pits houses that's more interesting at Lee could this series of indistinct blobs really be signs of a domestic settlement I'd say let's put a trench across that possible settlement response and a trench across one of these possible pits yes no I agree I think the possible pits are very important for no other reason but they're near the entrance so I mean they I think they will bait the site Francis approves the position of the first two trenches one just inside the entrance and the other at the center of our iron-age promontory fort but Phil's made an important find and now thinks the site could have far earlier origins I've been doing a bit of field walking one or two of them over there and I can prove that people were living up here before the Iron Age we have actually got some fines look what we got there that is a pebble hammer they're a bit dodgy to date but there have been some that have turned up on Mesolithic sites so we've we've got occupation here at least they say eight days news so let's not just assume that everything that John sees there is Iron Age this is very exciting still this is stunning I know it's going on these two trenches the trenches yes yep you can go again with the trench strategy approved Phil calls in the heavy mob to start digging on the mainland falls are barren they're over on the island alex has been looking for clues as to how the original Islanders got on and off their rock if you look over here you'll see that we've got this stack and I have done a little bit of research and pulled out this is an illustration it's a rather crude copy though of sketch made in 1839 well what they've done is they've depicted see the stack there yeah okay look at the height of that stack it's higher than where we are now isn't it exactly okay and of course today it's much lower down so we've lost a lot of material there but also importantly there was a land bridge connecting the stack okay to the island that we're on now so I'm pretty sure there's a good chance a thousand years ago that if you'd had enough of this place you could simply wander back to the mainland without having to think about tides as it was [Music] as day one draws to a close the island team are heading for home and safety you know one thing I had factored in was that it takes as long to get back as it does to go there so we're actually losing time at the end of the day we are Tony but I met you very keen to see what Raksha has got with it I know she's got a really large red bag there I can't believe that's completely full of fines that's the scary bit is there don't damage the fines okay I'll get Tony over Danny really really excited about this really because I think it might be imported mm-hmm it's certainly not prehistoric is it is a really nice bright orange color isn't it so it's definitely not prehistoric nope and at first glance er me it'd be nice to get this cleaned up and wash but it does look like it's Roman this morning we thought we had an early Christian settlement but now it looks increasingly likely to be romano-british so we've had some fantastic fines today over there on the fort and we've had some great finds that have really made raksha's day over there on the island the question is are the two sites linked hopefully we'll find out tomorrow beginning of day two here in this gorgeous part of Pembrokeshire and we're trying to work out why for thousands of years people have inhabited this spectacular cliff top and the highly inaccessible island of gate home over there Frances you look like you're surveying the scene what's the strategy for today well the strategy for today is to go pretty hard because we're very worried about rain coming so I'm going to extend that trench over there by the entranceway well we've got a sort of cobbled surface which I think could be roadway but it could be covering pits they don't want to come over to this trench extend that where I think there might be foundations of round houses so that could be a nice it could be Tony those fingers are very cross yeah yeah and then over there where the lateral cliff path goes through the bank surrounding this hill fort but they've already people's feet have started to cut a trench so we're simply gonna continue the process so do you think that bank is some kind of wall yes I think it may well be it certainly continues up here now this is a very substantial Bank rampart a wall and then there's another one there and another beyond and then signs of another one beyond them we're getting really stuck in at the floor we're sure it's iron age as much as 700 years or so before the Romans arrived and signs of domestic life are now beginning to emerge lore is about all you could say at the moment I have potential for well I wasn't expecting to see anything quite that good that seems to be honest with you in here Laurie expose this much so far but it definitely runs up to this stone and in that direction that's beautiful the fort's inhabitants built high banks to protect them from attack but how effective were these defenses in the event of an all-out assault we waxed fairly lyrical about these amazing defenses but we have already said anything at all about who or what the people inside would have been defending themselves against well probably we've been raiding tribes oh and we think that raiding was fairly endemic rather than trying to take territory it was probably more raiding so it's not only cattle that they're probably trying to take but also slaves by the time of the Roman period but the layout of the defenses themselves are so crucial I mean we've got the outer bank there you can see it it's actually bending round and this this bank that we're on now is also bending round the whole idea was to funnel people in admit yeah really they're trying to channel people down one single route into a killing zone okay so you've got all these invaders charging towards us yeah what exactly do we do well we get out of slings we get a load of pebbles and this is what we do set range and when they you can get closer you can just use bigger funds so just hell hell rocks at them do you want an attack in force that would be great so are we gonna use stones now no I think we'll just go for a softer option what I like so much about this demonstration is that we've got two innocent archaeologists in the foreground who are quite likely to receive collateral damage but I guess that's just war isn't it [Music] [Laughter] we don't want your capsule we don't [Laughter] before I fall victim to further tribal assaults and making a break for the island on the dreaded zip wire it kind of doesn't feel quite so bad the second time but then you get a bit overconfident and to look down oh I'm glad that harness is released from him there they're quite walk properly we've got a unique opportunity to unlock the secrets of this highly inaccessible truly mysterious island but if we're to solve the riddle in the short time we've got left every trench has to count your trench is cleaned out really nicely I know I'm quite glad it rains last night I could actually see something for once and what can you see I've actually got a wall line here where's the wall line is it have you got one sort of across there like that yeah that's right but you remember last night when I bought you all that pottery yeah well I'm actually standing inside the building and this is where the pottery came from well that's strange though isn't it because if this is rhomin that doesn't really square with what francis was saying yesterday when he looked at the air pictures he thought that this would probably be early Christian a monastery or something but he still can be early Christian though what I'm wondering is whether they actually imports so it could have been traded into this island but if that's the case it would be very early Christian wouldn't it which would be really excited so exactly what about any in strange well in has the other side of the road and it's over one of those other cell buildings it'd be weird cuz all the fines he's getting a prehistoric they can't have stayed exactly and it's like only four meters away it's really weird you know often by this stage on time team I'm getting really nervous because there are so many unresolved issues but on this island I kind of liked the fact that it's so mysterious I know what's going on it seems the generation upon generation set up home on this exposed rocky outcrop what drew them here and was they once a link between the people living here and the community at the mainland for maybe Matt's trench can give us at least one of the answers we're on the edge of this round house here oh so this is iron age well that's the idea yes we've got a small wall in front of me and if you look very carefully you can see it coming around just behind me there it's quite small only about four or five metres across and on the inside but what looks like a clay floor coming here any fines yes just a few minutes ago you this great fine came up there that's either a spindle whorl or I think that it might be a bead if you hold up to the light you can see it's like amber or something the light shines through it it's lovely hold there's some little marks on it here these little black marks I'm not quite sure if their pattern on it or just a bit of fungus it's hard to know if the bead turns out to be of amber it'll be an important find and there's a high-status material so the bead like the phallus and the stag could be evidence of ritual practice this island seems to get ever more mysterious but there's still no sign of the monastic site earlier archaeologists thought might be here halfway through day two and there's still a lot of work to do we're off the Pembrokeshire coast on the very mysterious island of gate home and not the least of the mysteries is the fact that we appear to have some kind of street here we've got a trench open on either side on the western side there appears to be some sort of cell where Raksha and pottery but on the eastern side there's another small room where we've got prehistoric finds what even doubly curious is the fact that according to earlier archaeologists this was neither Roman nor prehistoric but part of some early Christian monastic site so what on earth's going on do you think Francis it's a bit confusing penny but I think I think we're about to crack it we are in another little room here but we have a now this ditch Lavigne is working and it's absolutely fascinating because I think it's probably bronze or Iron Age and it goes with the material that we were finding here yesterday now what's interesting about this ditch is it's been filled in with large quantities of rock deliberately filled in now why do you fill in a feature like that you don't do that if you're a farmer building you know a barn or something this goes with something like either a Roman settlement or a monastic settlement where the land has to be prepared before other structures can be erected so an early big ditch with a monastery on top of it could it still be a sacred isle yes I think it could Tony I'd like to find some early Christian material to be sure of its date but it's not impossible yet you know we still could have a monastic settlement the settlement could still prove to be early Christian so 5th to 7th century but it seems more likely to be mid Roman 2nd to 3rd century civilizations have come and gone but since the dawn of time this exposed spot has endured the brunt of the weather coming in off the Irish Sea despite today's threatening skies we're working flat out at the entrance to the fort we've dug down half a meter but there's still no sign of a pit excavating the defenses in the outer trench we're looking for finds to help date the site and in the center of the fort is emerging more of what we believe to be the floor of an Iron Age round house even in summer this coast can be a hostile environment one reason why our ancestors set up home here may have been the abundant supply of wild food available to supplement their diet and we're on a day like today it's not the most fun thing to go foraging for food let's be honest that's what the ancestors had to do they couldn't sit inside when it was raining no it's true enough but you don't come to Wales for good weather and you're right back in the Iron Age you couldn't have just sat around watching TV because there wasn't any TV and of course you don't have to be out looking for food constantly maintaining the defenses and you know just doing things to stay alive early Marianne and Andrew are foraging for our supper I've got this one it's silver weed it's called silver weed because of the color of the underside of the leaf you can eat leaves they're not particularly exciting but the useful part particularly from a survival point of view is the roots it's a good starch source so it's carbohydrates like french fries oh really this sort of foreshore landscape this is where you get limpets mussels cockles yeah they're a type of snail basically and when the tide comes in they'll kind of creep around sectioning themselves in the rock sucking all the algae off the rock so they're not by valves when they're not as there's riskier and endeavor to eat as things like mussels and oysters that sort of thing which can concentrate toxins from the water so these are a really safe really good food source fantastic combining foraged plants limpets and seaweed with a leg of local lamb Marianne and Andrew are cooking an Iron Age meal for us certainly nutritious but our reserve judgment on how it tastes upon the cliffs it's time to check in on progress at the Fort it's almost the end of the day have you got on really really well Tony I mean we got three trenches open and they're really really interesting trenches and funnily enough they're actually all telling us something about different important aspects of life on the promontory fort what do you mean by that well this is our first trench yeah and this trench reflects the entrance you've literally just come through it yeah they've put down a lot of hard standing and so as people come through they dispersed across this hard standing into the main part of the fort okay so that's trench one the second aspect of the fort which is obviously crucially important and the actual people that lived here yeah so here we're actually looking for their houses that's this trench absolutely what do you got well the first thing is this feature here this cropped up when the trench was a lot smaller so we've opened it up now we don't really know what it is but there are some people that like to think they might be a heart if it is a half it's gonna be in the central part of a round house so what we've done is extended the trench far enough in that direction so if there's a wall there we should be able to find it and that would then confirm that we are actually dealing with a round house okay that's nice - what about 23 what trench three is all about the other important part of life in the hill fort and that is the defences themselves and what we've got here is a section through the bank of the ramparts and you can actually see that right at the front end there we've got some really really big stones actually strengthening the front of the bank and what we want to do is get through that see whether we can see any fines underneath the bank that might tell us when this Bank was put up does that mean you haven't got any fines at all yeah we've got a few scraps Flint which probably relate to the Mesolithic people that were living here we've had no bone but that's not really surprising the soil is so acidic the bone wouldn't survive also interestingly had no pottery now the Iron Age people would probably have had no pots at all so the sheer fact that we've had no the pot nor bone is significant tell me what sort of pottery if you had on the island Roman exactly the Romans were on the island but the Romans were not here the people that were here were undoubtedly the people that were living here before the Romans came well most of the team head for the pub a few of us are under orders from Maryann to attend her HP doesn't seem like too much of a hardship at first [Music] seaweed starvation mmm delicious I tell you what this samphire I love samphire but it doesn't look like the stuff that I'm even before no it's a different species that from the Marsh samphire so it's much more aromatic quite crunchy it's good you just eat it yeah pepper in it Oh guys go to that face again smells good we're all exhausted the rain is going so hard with soup splashing all over the place all we've got to eat is limpets and seaweed will we make it through tomorrow I hope beginning of day three here in Pembrokeshire and it looks as though over on the island amongst all the mysteries we've got an Iron Age round house although we haven't quite proved it yet look at that we might have another one over here to where Phil's been digging although again although that Phil's instincts we haven't been able to confirm it but if during the course of the day we can prove that we've got two Iron Age round houses then we'll be well on the way to establishing a link between what was happening over there in the Iron Age and what was happening over here meanwhile in this property fault site things have been getting more and more interesting it looks as though we've got some really sophisticated defenses and all this is part of them isn't it Francis yes it is Tony we're right in the heart of the defences here we've got the main ditch coming through we've got at least three sets of ramparts and what I'm interested in here is is there a path leading to the main entrance coming along this outer bank here what so this walkway would link up with that enormous bit of hard standing that Phil excavated yesterday yes I think hard standing means roadway I think in that case and what I'm hoping is when we get to the bottom of this Bank we'll come across more of that road it would be great wouldn't it if we could get a sort of a hundred-yard snake of road leading right through into where the habitations are it would be fantastic absolutely that but the thing is Tony you've got to realize that these defenses aren't just about sort of military operations they're about impressing people coming in to visit whoever was living in there it completely overturns all my prejudices about what might have been going on in Wales during the Iron Age I'd thought there would just be a handful of people sitting on the cliff eating winkles and limpets this tony is no backwater it seems Francis is right on the final day of this dig a picture of a well planned settlement is beginning to emerge not only do we have evidence of a large stone floor building but excavations on the outer bank revealed that it once followed the cliff edge encircling the entire fort good idea no one wants to take a tumble into the sea on a dark night whether as a source of food or for trade with distant lands the sea played an integral part in the lives of these coastal people's Alex and Miranda are heading to the sheltered Inlet of Martins Haven to investigate further some pretty windy 50 lanes there veranda yeah here we are this perfect natural harbor and you'd get around by sea you would bother the lanes you would just use a boat maybe it's so much faster wouldn't much faster and much easier and of course we were only a stone's throw from our fort as well so it's hardly likely the debate like this would have been used by the people that lived there well the fort and a gate him I think right yeah definitely just so happens we've got a boat waiting present to take us for a spin around the babe [Music] it just reinforces doesn't it it's interaction between land and sea islands everywhere you look [Music] we've now drawn up in front of gate oh yeah look at it it's amazing seeing it from the sea actually didn't you get this incredible feeling of the connection of the sea and how important the sea must have been to these people yes it just brings it really home to you how much the sea is a highway a whole of the Irish Sea is so busy with boat all the time connecting and meeting people and sharing culture this is but a sense of a hub for I learned for Cornwall for Brittany for a year for the rest of West Wales yeah so you know we talk about a kind of you know ancient motorway really thanks one of our key archaeological aims is to establish a link between the island and the fort we've got promising signs of iron age buildings on both sites but have we got proof of a connection Phil yesterday you said this was the trench where we've got evidence of Iron Age settlement he's still happy with that I am absolutely over the moon about that Tony because I was right except in that where I thought the house was as moved if you remember yesterday I told you I thought that was gonna be a central heart yeah it is not a central heart what we think now is that it is a four sided stone box which we've only got one stone and this thing would have been possibly lined with clay and filled up with water they're very very common on Iron Age sites to me some people use them for cooking some people think they were used for summers some people also think you can use them for brewing which is right up my street domestic image is that the people were sitting around here eating their seafood drinking their beer and having a sauna although no absolutely but unlike us having our fish stew on the beach last night when we got rained upon these people had a round house you have established that this is a round house absolutely because we've actually got the foundation trench of the round house and you can see where that pin in there with 16 on it that is the entrance and if you look down there the doorway is pointing directly at the entrance to the fort and once you've got this bit in your mind you can actually trace it coming round here on the geophysics and you can follow it round it gets a bit fuzzy in here but you can see it coming round here and it gives you a round house of about eight or nine meters which is a classic size for an Iron Age round house so we need to prove the existence of an Iron Age round house on the island before the end of the day for the frequent torrential downpours are adding pressure to our ever tightening schedule the bad weather hasn't deterred Cassie who's still excavating the area outside the entrance to the mainland fort I thought we were meant to have a road here that bedrock well it is bet your dad dead straight on this but if you look up here we've got some slightly more rounded stones on the top and you know it's just generally more warm whereas down there in this bar more angular it's where the foot traffic spin on the bedrock they're using the bedrock as their metal surface effectively I must admit Cassie it does look very much like a footpath it is very much warm I'll buy that you know excellent two-and-a-half thousand years ago Cassie's path cut into the bedrock would have led past a series of stone faced banks each topped off by a fence of woven hazel to a pair of high wooden gates nestled inside the fort would be at least half a dozen round houses quite a substantial and important settlement [Music] and now for my final leap of faith last visit to gate home we've gotta get everything off the island as quickly as possible and we just don't know whether we're gonna get all the theologians done in time particularly as the weather forecast isn't all that great without quite frankly I'm a little less worried about that and I'm about getting to the other side in one piece you think it'll get easier we're still trying to take the buildings on this intriguing oil was gate home once a sacred place and can we prove a connection with the mainland settlement we need some answers fast let's hope Matt's roundhouse is iron age this trench all wrapped up now pretty much yeah we've nearly finished the recording that's it last time we were here you'd only got this this top bit hadn't you yeah we extended out this way because we thought we might have the doorway so we took it another but nearly a meter you can see the curve of the wall coming around here but there's no doorway so whatever it is it is circular it is definitely circular yeah Francis you put this trench in because you wanted to try and establish whether or not we got an Iron Age round house what can we say well it's certainly a round house Tony quite a substantial one with large turf Phillip walls as for the dating we don't have a lot of dating but what we've got I think support signage we yesterday we found part of a of an Iron Age quern or porn grinding stone and that's the sort of thing you'd expect to find inside an Iron Age house you seem pretty convinced it is then how do you think it relates to our Iron Age settlement over there well I think the people who were living here Tony were probably first or second cousins of the folk living over there we've solved one part of the possible during the Iron Age the island and the fort were both occupied but what about those cell-like structures we originally thought might be four early monks rakshasas now sure that was wrong we certainly know that this building here is definitely Roman but you'll never guess what we found this morning good we found an earlier building in this trench there's two post holes down there four timbers and in one of them we found this bit of pottery dating evidence well it's very light and very gritty yes so it's got large lumps of stuff in the inclusions in it I'm in little doubt Tony but that is actually Bronze Age this is the evidence that there were people here 3,000 years ago this is a big surprise no monks cells but proof that people were living here far earlier than we expected hundreds if not thousands of years before the iron age sir perhaps Gate home was a sacred Isle after all only not Christian but pagan among the 50 or so finds this dig has thrown up the bead found in Matt's trench on gate home is the most intriguing so what did you get from the island we've got a really fantastic thing here yeah this is it's a little amber bead probably looks a little irregular which is in some ways one of the nicest objects and perhaps most mysterious Amber's not a local material is found originally in the Baltic to have amber turning up on an island where we really wouldn't expect it this actually might only be a small thing but it's actually really exciting an Amber bead that's traveled for miles and miles and miles prized by Roman emperors amber is associated with the worship of the Sun and was believed to have magical properties like the bronze stag and the stone phallus our amber bead could have been a ritual offering to the gods so we clearly have sacred objects but nothing Christian Francis when we first came here you showed me this air picture which apparently was of an early Christian monastic settlement and we appear to have a little roadway here and lots of little monks cells well it's disappeared isn't it we just judged far too much of that aerial photograph we've said all buildings on a bit of rock sticking out into the sea got to be monks no we're completely wrong so what have we got here well what we've got Tony is a substantial settlement it runs right the length of the island from over there to right down to the headland over there then it'd mean hundreds of people living here and it was well laid out and well organized as you've got that Street there I mean this is a proper settlement so we now know that Gate home wasn't always in Ireland but was once a rocky promontory a busy settlement for possibly thousands of years in the Bronze Age perhaps four thousand years ago there were half a dozen farms by the time of the Iron Age Francis believes there would have been 12 or more round houses and finally by Roman times the island would have been covered with many more buildings well like all the best sleuths we've managed to solve the mystery at the end of the story so shall we get off this island quickly before the rain starts again the trench no I will leave that to you [Music] Frances when we came here we wanted to try and solve the riddle of why such complex settlement was built in such an out-of-the-way place do you think we've done that I think we have Tony I think the basic answer is that this was not an out-of-the-way place this was a densely populated landscape on the edge of one of the busiest sea ways on the Western Approaches to the British Isles what about the sacredness of this place and we Scotch the idea that there was an early Christian monastery over there does that mean it was an ordinary prosaic settlement what about that that phallus and that bronze stag I mean they are ritual they are religious objects and and and its location I mean it's a magical location it protrudes you know out into the sea it's mysterious and even today whether or not we think it's a sacred side certainly a very special place is now [Music] [Music]

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Id: D7FsP3vP218

Length: 47min 3sec (2823 seconds)

Published: Sun Sep 15 2019