Mystic Britain

Where are we going to, Mary-Ann?

Clive, we are off on an adventure.

Mary-Ann and I have taken a mystic 10,000-year trip

across Britain to uncover the lives and beliefs

of our distant ancestors

and follow the journey from them to us.

We asked piercing questions.

Are you a fan of human sacrifice?

I don't practice it myself.

Are you supernatural?

No.

And got some surprising answers.

Are you experts on this place?

So these are Nazi cows?

Well, I wouldn't like to comment on their politics.

Mary-Ann was wowed.

Wow!

Wow! Wow! Wow!

Wow! Wow!

And Clive was nonplussed.

This is what we would describe as a zombie.

Yeah.

We employed the very latest modeling technology.

We needn't have bothered going to the real Stonehenge,

we could have just filmed this in close-up.

All my dreams come true.

And enlisted a small army

of archaeologists, historians and enthusiasts.

And how do I make everyone shut up

in the great hall?

- Hwat! - Hwat!

To uncover amazing facts.

Well, this is a human body, obviously.

I spotted that straight away.

And tried to put ourselves

inside the minds of our distant ancestors.

Stonehenge is founded by a cow.

Wow, so it's not just murder, it's cannibalism.

Even if that meant dressing up.

That is quite scary, actually.

Well, I don't know how scary it is.

Or dabbling in witchcraft.

I've decided to harness the forces of evil.

It turns out our ancestors evolved a rich and complex world

of shamanistic rituals, human sacrifice, zombies...

Argh!

Even mummies.

Prepare to embrace the very odd indeed.

Ahhhh!

Right, I'm ready for all comers.

People have lived continuously in Britain

for at least 11,000 years.

So that's where our trip through time begins...

In the stone age.

Our first location is on the edge of Scarborough

at an enigmatically named site called star Carr.

In this unremarkable Yorkshire field,

archaeologists dug up a treasure trove of evidence

dating to the end of the last ice age.

Flints, bone tools, even ancient art.

Gives me the tingles.

These discoveries gave us astonishing insights

into the world of early Britons.

These hunter gatherers weren't knuckle-dragging cave men.

They were sophisticated people

who had unusual taste in headwear.

So, now, what have we got here?

These look like, well, what are they, antlers? Bones?

What are they?

A bit of both.

They're bits of red deer skulls with antlers attached.

In one area of the site

there were a large number all found together.

So what were they for, then?

Well, we think that they might have been used

as headdresses.

33 of these have been found at the site.

They've all got holes in different places,

and you know, sometimes it's been interpreted

that those might be eyeholes as opposed to for tying on.

Eyeholes for me to wear or for, for somebody to wear?

What, like that?

That is quite scary, actually.

Is it scary?

Well, I don't know how scary it is.

So you'd tie these onto your face like that?

Yes.

I think this is a good way for me to do interviews.

I quite like this as an approach.

It's really unnerving.

Yeah.

Despite Clive's excellent demonstration,

these headdresses probably weren't made

to scare interviewees.

One clue to their real use

is in this early 18th century illustration of a Siberian man

wearing a strikingly similar headdress.

He was a shaman.

Shamans believed they channeled

both the natural and the supernatural worlds,

often through animal spirits.

So, 11,000 years ago at star Carr,

it seems hunter gatherers were practicing

some sort of mystic religion centered around deer.

Oh, I don't know if that's a good idea or not.

- Yeah. - Yeah?

Just like that.

And incredibly this site was also home

to, well, a home.

The oldest one in Britain.

Of course, after 11,000 years,

all that was left were these holes in the ground.

Hey, I'm Mary-Ann.

But as an anthropologist,

I couldn't resist the chance for a stone age DIY renovation.

Look at this.

We're going to push it through the reeds,

flip it, and Leo's on the outside,

he's going to tie the knots.

- So here? - Yeah.

We push...

Yeah, not too far, Leo's out there.

Yeah, that's perfect.

The end result was a pretty sturdy dwelling

that only required one finishing touch...

A door, to keep out that post-ice age chill.

Can I give you this one?

Yes, I've never used anything

as brilliantly flintstone as this.

That is amazing.

Beautiful.

- Can we go in? - Yeah.

- Make a cup of tea? - Sure.

And the evidence at star Carr

told us a lot more about their lifestyle.

This is the oldest complete bow in the world.

But it wasn't for hunting deer.

It was for fishing.

And is that easier than putting a hook on a line

and catching,

the way people might go angling today or fly fishing,

is it easier to shoot them?

It depends how good a shot you are, I think.

Well, I suppose so.

Armed with a replica bow,

I was no longer a middle-aged man in an anorak,

I was a Mesolithic hunter.

There's nothing obviously swimming by at the moment.

Ready to slay beast, bird

or pre-packed supermarket trout.

Prop it on the edge,

and then you've got a good chance of hitting it.

Yes, OK.

I'm not really confident I'm gonna achieve anything,

but I won't... Oh, there, there it is.

There he is.

Does look a bit sad floating on the surface.

Lucky no fish is gonna suffer in the course of this,

Because it's dead already,

Because I'm probably not gonna hit it.

Ah, that's...

That's not, that didn't work as quite as well

as it might have done.

Stone age people were clearly a little more skilled than I am.

Hey, it hit the fish.

But I'm sure even they needed a little bit of practice.

Got it.

Let's be honest,

I'd probably have starved to death

in the Mesolithic.

So not only were our ancestors

better with a bow than Clive,

they were a lot more like us than you might have thought.

And when we checked in on them next,

4,500 years later,

they'd developed some interesting new ideas.

On the border between Oxfordshire and Warwickshire,

we came across one of the most mystic stone age sites

you've never heard of.

These are the Rollright stones,

an ancient group of monuments,

some dating back to 4,000 years B.C.

Who put them here and what are they for?

Rollright has three parts...

The stone circle,

a group called the whispering knights,

and a single stone, the king stone.

The names come from the most famous legend

of their origins, the Rollright witch.

Long ago a king and his army set out to conquer England,

when they met a witch on the hill

above the village of long Compton.

The witch turned the king and his men into stone.

So the king is the solitary king stone,

his knights are the whispering knights,

and the king's men are the stone circle.

Ron Dudley-Smith has a different view.

He believes the stones were built

on natural energy lines that run through the earth.

Hiya, Clive.