Digging for Britain

We might be a small island

but we've got a big history.

Everywhere you stand, there are worlds beneath your feet.

And so every year, hundreds of archeologists

across Britain go looking for more clues into our story.

Who lived here, when, and how?

So the blade went here, here.

So he's being attacked from all angles.

Archeology is a complex jigsaw puzzle,

drawing everything together from skeletons to swords,

temples to treasure.

He's biting his shield.

Biting his shield, yeah.

From Orkney to Devon,

we're joining this year's question on sea, land, and air.

We share all of the questions

and find some of the answers as we join the teams

in the field, digging for britain.

We know that the Romans invaded and occupied our land

for nearly four centuries,

covering it with roads and cities,

but this year, archeologists

are uncovering surprising new evidence

which challenges our preconceptions

and offers us a fresh perspective on Roman Britain,

revealing a vanished landscape.

Even today, astonishing finds

are still emerging from the soil,

bringing us face to face with the people of Britannia.

A newly-discovered town in rural Devon

turns history on its head.

The mystery of the 97 dead babies thickens.

And the Roman god buried for 1700 years beneath a fort.

The Roman military occupation probably began

on the southeast corner of England

where the Romans are thought

to have first landed.

In the story of Roman Britain,

the mighty legions are famed

while its fleet, the Classis Britannica,

is practically unknown.

For nearly four centuries though,

hundreds of wooden ships, all long vanished,

patrolled the channel.

But I'm on my way to a dig

that I'm hoping will take me straight

to the control room

of Britain's first major navy,

bringing me closer to the man

who ruled Britannia's waves.

There's been a suggestion of a connection

between the Roman navy and very particular site

up here on the cliffs at Folkestone.

So this year, archeologists are excavating that site,

hoping to uncover new evidence

and test that possible connection.

On the edge of these cliffs,

volunteers are helping to unearth

the magnificent Roman villa in Folkestone, Kent.

First discovered in 1923,

the site was reopened last year.

Those digging know they are probably close to the spot

where the Romans first landed in Britain

and to Emperor Claudius in 43 AD.

The excavation of this villa on the edge of Folkestone

is being directed by professional archeologists

but depends on an army on local volunteers

who are all passionate about the history of their area

and this site occupies such an amazing place

with a spectacular view

looking out over the channel.

Its location and the size of this villa

makes archeologists think it belonged

to somebody important.

I'm meeting Andrew Richardson,

site supervisor since it reopened last year.

The building itself looks so.

It is.

This looks almost palatial in its construction.

Well this is only a small part of it.

This is one wing of two wings projecting

from the front of a long, rectangular building.

Then you've got further blocks beyond the fence over there

and then a third block which would've been a bath block

and quite a lot of that has actually gone over the cliff,

has been lost to erosion.

The extraordinary size

and prime location suggest that the inhabitant

was well connected.

So what sort of person would've lived

in a villa like this with its own bathhouse?

Obviously somebody either an individual

or a family of immense wealth and power.

Somebody who's come from the empire,

said I like this spot,

and I'm going to build myself a proper Roman residence.

But something more concrete is needed

to pinpoint the individual's actual identity.

Dozens of trademarked roof tiles have come up from the soil,

linking the former inhabitant to the Roman navy,

the Classis Britannica.

These are two very special tiles

because they're stamped

with a circular stamp and the letters CLBR.

So what does this stand for?

This stands for Classis Britannica.

So this is the stamp of the Roman fleet in Britain?

Yes, and we do know

that the fleet was commanded by prefects.

So this position, the prefect of Classis Britannica,

that's kind of equivalent to an admiral.

Equivalent to an admiral, yeah,

and perhaps commanding 30 ships and several thousand men.

Probably its primary role was transport

for the army but it certainly also had a role

in both patrolling the seas

and also exploration, establishing just how big this island

the Romans had come to was.

In the island of Britannia,

whoever commanded the sea controlled the land.

Seven possible Roman fortified harbors

cluster around the Kent peninsula

with Folkestone in the center, facing Boulogne.

The quantity of the tiles found here

and the villa's geographical position,

raises the tantalizing possibility

that this villa once housed the commander of the fleet.

One suggestion is it's the admiral's,

the prefect's house.

It looks straight out to Boulogne

which is the headquarters of their main fleet base,

a large fort.

Further along the coast at Dover, they've got a fort

and they've got another fort at Lymm to the west

and this is almost halfway between Dover and Lymm.

You can imagine that, you know, the commander

of what is effectively

the most powerful military organization

in the region at the time is the sort of person

who would have the clout to live at a place like this.

The idea that this was the home

of one of Britain's first

and most important naval commanders is incredibly exciting.

The volunteers are rediscovering the layout

of this once luxurious home.

It is amazing just to touch a piece of archeology,

something that you know that you're the first person

that has touched it in 2000 years or more.

So Ian, we heard you just found something.

That's right, yes, a coin, probably Roman.

A minnim.

- Has this just come up? - Yep.

So Ian you've just found this?

Yep.

Can I have a look?

Yeah.

What is it, Keith?

I should guess it's late third

or fourth century Roman.

Oh I'm amazed you managed to find that Ian,

it's absolutely tiny.

Ian's coin adds to the hundreds found here,

suggesting the site existed for most of the Roman period,

stretching from the Claudian invasion in 43 AD

right into the 360s, 50 years before the end

of Roman Britain.

It was forgotten for nearly 1500 years more

and now it faces destruction.

There is a particular sense of urgency

to the excavations here at Folkestone

because this villa is slowly but surely slipping down

the cliffs into the sea.

The bathhouse has already disappeared and this is partly

why so many local people have volunteered here

because they know that it will soon be too late.

Project director Leslie Hardy knows

that this is, in every sense, archeology on the edge.

This really is a rescue excavation, isn't it?

Because this villa is under threat.

Yes, you can see.

This is a photograph that was taken in 1924

and here what we've done is we've superimposed a line

which shows the current cliff edge

and you can see how much has already been lost.

So it looks like part of the Roman buildings

have actually been lost.

Which area is this?

Okay, this is the bathhouse area of that block

and it's gone, it's largely gone now

over the edge of the cliff.

It tends to go in clumps and big bites.

It's just sliding down, sliding down constantly.

Bringing all the archeology with it.

The sea is waiting to claim this unique site.

In this face against time, the archeologists must get

there first, salvaging material forgotten

for one and a half millennia, in search of more evidence

that this was indeed the home of the commander

of the Roman Navy.

But often in archeology, the discovery of objects