All language subtitles for Stonehenge.Decoded.2008.1080p.WEBRip.x264.AAC5.1-[YTS.MX]

(mysterious music)

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NARRATOR:
80 miles west of London,

the world's most famous
Stone Age monument

Official YIFY movies site:
YTS.MX

still stands today.

Stonehenge.

But it's not alone.

MIKE (off screen):
Most people don't realize

that there's a landscape
out there

that is absolutely packed
with prehistoric monuments.

NARRATOR: Why so many?

Are they all connected?

Is there more to it
than we imagine?

350 miles away,

across the Irish Sea,

droughts and drones
uncover a new Stonehenge.

ANTHONY:
Never in my wildest dreams

would I have expected
there to be such a huge monument

hidden in the landscape.

NARRATOR: This amazing find

may bring us closer than ever

to revealing its secrets.

♪ ♪

(stirring string music)

It's midsummer,
and Ireland withers

in the grip of an epic drought.

The past month was the hottest
in 175 years,

and there's no relief in sight.

30 miles north of Dublin

in the parched Boyne Valley,
home to dozens

of the world's most spectacular
prehistoric monuments,

author Anthony Murphy
senses an opportunity.

ANTHONY: What a day to be
making discoveries, huh?

KEN: (laughs)

NARRATOR: For decades,
Murphy has been captivated

by the mysterious countryside

surrounding the great
passage tomb of Newgrange,

a Unesco World Heritage Site

some 5,200 years old.

KEN: Isn't it, yeah?

NARRATOR: Today, he's using a
drone to get a bird's-eye view.

(curious music)

♪ ♪

ANTHONY (off screen):
I was aware

that several discoveries had
been made in the UK and Europe

during the drought,
so I was flying with intent.

I thought maybe we might see
some features in the landscape

here at Brú na Bóinne that
maybe hadn't been seen before.

(indistinct chatter)

NARRATOR: Following a hunch,
Murphy fires up his drone

and takes to the skies
over Newgrange Farm.

His friend, Ken Williams,
a photographer,

joins in the flight.

Ireland is famously lush
and green,

but not this summer.

A drought has drained
all the color from the fields.

ANTHONY (off screen):
It was like any other day

except for the weather.

We'd had sustained sunshine--
long days of sunshine,

warm temperatures,
dry conditions.

It's very unusual for Ireland.

NARRATOR:
But from an aerial view,

something astonishing emerges.

ANTHONY (off screen): I was
flying near the Boyne River.

In the background,
I could see a circular feature

that immediately
jumped out at me,

and I flew closer to it.

I let out an exclamation--
"What the hell is that?"

Within moments, really, we knew
we were seeing something

very substantial that had not
previously been recorded.

♪ ♪

KEN (off screen):
When I went to view it,

I said, "This is the most
spectacular discovery

I've ever seen."

And within this same field,

more features
started to turn up.

NARRATOR: The mysterious circle

looks strikingly
like the footprint

of a large archeological feature

known as a henge.

These ancient earthworks,

composed of circular banks,
ditches,

and wooden posts or stones,

are found throughout Ireland
and Britain

and in more distant parts
of the world,

separated by hundreds of miles.

But here in Ireland's
Boyne Valley,

no one was expecting
to uncover one this big.

Not today.

ANTHONY (off screen):
I've flown dozens of times

trying to get a new perspective
on the landscape.

Never in my wildest dreams

would I have expected there
to be such a huge monument

hidden in the landscape

less than a kilometer
from Newgrange.

KEN (off screen):
As a photographer who has spent

many years
with two feet on the ground

trying to capture
these monuments in a new way,

this new perspective gives
a whole new opportunity.

We're looking at a monument that
has been hidden from human eyes

for generations
and has now been revealed

with the use
of camera technology.

♪ ♪

NARRATOR:
Measuring over 570 feet across,

the structure's giant footprint

is the result
of soil moisture deficit.

ANTHONY (off screen):
The soil basically dries out,

and so the crop that's growing

out of the
archeological features

has a tiny amount more
trace moisture available to it

than the surrounding crop,
and essentially what happens is,

there's a greener,
healthier crop

growing out of the archeology

and a slightly paler,
yellower crop

in the surrounding field,

and that's what creates
the image.

And the actual image is
several feet above the surface

even though
the archeological features

are several feet below
the ground.

NARRATOR: The aerial discovery

kicks off a remarkable string
of new finds.

ANTHONY: What we were seeing
was an image of those

above the ground, but the actual
archeology is under there.

There's a sort of a roadway
of archeological discovery

that lays before us, and
essentially what we've done is,

we've started the ball rolling,
as it were.

So we have the images,

and the images provoke
all sorts of questions,

but now it will be up to
the archeological community

to put the flesh on the bones,
as it were,

to tell us what
might be down there,

and that makes it
tremendously exciting

'cause there's all sorts
of possibilities.

NARRATOR: For the two friends,

it's the discovery of a lifetime

and cause for celebration.

The stunning find
adds to a rich complex of sites

dating from the Stone Age

combining henges,

tombs,

post rings,
and other ceremonial enclosures.

Brú na Bóinne represents
a grand project

that would have
occupied generations

and involved unimaginable
planning and labor.

♪ ♪

For chief archeologist
Michael MacDonagh,

this new discovery enriches
the fascinating landscape

that is this
Unesco World Heritage Site.

MICHAEL: This representation
of a late Neolithic structure

is reminiscent
of the henge discoveries

made by drone
down on the floodplain

here at Brú na Bóinne
this summer.

We see a transition
in this period

from the large
stone-built monuments

of the passage tombs

to these massive
wooden-built structures.

Large oak posts set deep
into postholes in the ground,

forming these
circular structures

that would have been placed
as a great gathering

for the communities
during that period

from across this landscape.

We believe that discovery dates
around 2,900 B.C., roughly--

several hundred years after the
building of these passage tombs,

forming part of an extensive
Neolithic ritual landscape.

NARRATOR:
Exactly what were those rituals?

With no written language
to consult,

archeologists are left

with what amounts
to giant puzzles in stone.

♪ ♪

But in recent years,

those puzzle pieces
have started to fit together.

The key was to stop
looking at them in isolation.

MICHAEL (off screen):
The similarities

between the landscape

such as Brú na Bóinne
here in Ireland

and the Stonehenge Salisbury
archeological landscape

over in Britain--

they are similar.

The research and theories

around how
those landscapes developed--

where did people live?

Where did communities live?

How did they marshal
the resources

to build
such fantastic monuments?

We can share those ideas.

We can share those theories
and try to answer the questions

and the mysteries
that we still don't know

about this landscape here.

NARRATOR: This new way
of seeing these ancient sites

is the logical outgrowth
of a revolutionary theory

first developed
some 15 years ago

not here at Newgrange

but across the Irish Sea
in England,

home to the most famous

and iconic Stone Age monument
in the world...

♪ ♪

Salisbury Plain
in southern England.

(rousing instrumental music)

Thousands of people worked
to build Stonehenge.

♪ ♪

When completed,

an inner horseshoe
of five great arches

is enclosed by a ring
of 30 stone uprights

and topped by a circle

of perfectly horizontal stones
called lintels.

Today, this mammoth feat
of engineering

remains one of the great
unsolved mysteries

of the ancient world.

MICHAEL (off screen):
Myths and legend grew up

about these iconic sites--
Stonehenge and Newgrange.

Merlin of Arthurian legend

allegedly brought the stones
from Ireland

to build Stonehenge.

These are stories that developed

because of the importance
of these landscapes

and these monuments
for millennia and centuries,

reflecting people's knowledge

that these stones
were transported

from long, long distances away.

♪ ♪

NARRATOR: Such tales
are more fantasy than fact.

♪ ♪

(motor rumbling)

MIKE: Okay, that's right.
No deeper than that.

NARRATOR: But now,
in a local farmer's field,

archeologist
Mike Parker Pearson and his team

are finally digging up
real answers.

♪ ♪

MIKE: Can we start
by uncovering the trenches?

Take the polythene off,
get the stones out,

move them to one side,

and then we'll all
get out there.

Thank you.

NARRATOR: Archaeologist
Mike Parker Pearson

is leading one of the biggest
archeological investigations

of modern times,

a seven-year project

to unlock the mystery
surrounding Stonehenge.

MIKE (off screen): There was
a puzzle there, and we thought,

"Yeah, why don't we actually go
and find out for ourselves?"

♪ ♪

NARRATOR: But they do not
excavate at Stonehenge.

(camera whirs)

Instead, they excavate
the surrounding countryside.

♪ ♪

It's here Parker Pearson
believes they'll find evidence

to support
a revolutionary new theory.

MIKE (off screen):
I think Stonehenge

is such an iconic monument
that most people don't realize

that there's
a landscape out there

that is absolutely packed
with prehistoric monuments.

(dramatic music)

NARRATOR:
Stonehenge sits center stage

on a much bigger
ceremonial landscape.

♪ ♪

A grand avenue
connects the stone circle

to the River Avon,

while standing stones,
burial mounds,

and circular earthworks
called henges

fill the surrounding area.

♪ ♪

According to this theory,

Stonehenge was only half

of a vast religious complex.

The other half
was a mysterious circle

built of wood
just a few miles away.

♪ ♪

At certain times of the year,
thousands traveled to the area

to take part in rituals

marking the cycle
of life and death.

♪ ♪

MIKE (off screen):
If this theory works,

then there should be
some kind of settlement

close to Stonehenge,

and there should be an avenue
linking it to the river

just as there's an avenue
from Stonehenge to the river.

NARRATOR: If he's right,

Parker Pearson's theory
will transform our understanding

of the prehistoric world.

MICHAEL: New discoveries have
enabled a new conversation

to start about what do we know
about the people who lived here

and what don't we know?

Especially in that
later Neolithic period.

There'll be a new conversation
starting now

amongst the
archeological community

to look at the questions
that we need to answer.

♪ ♪

NARRATOR: An important key
to this theory

lies just north of Stonehenge.

♪ ♪

The Cursus is the largest
of the monuments

surrounding the stone circle:

an earthwork enclosure
stretching over 1 1/2 miles.

Parker Pearson believes
the Cursus is a dividing line

marking off the land surrounding
Stonehenge as sacred.

MIKE (off screen): It seems
that it became a boundary

dividing two kinds of landscape,

and what it would seem
is that on the south side,

we really are looking
at a landscape of the dead.

And I thought,
"Well, if that's the case,

then there's got to be a domain
for the living."

♪ ♪

NARRATOR: The investigation
leads him to a site

a mile and a half away
from the stone circle...

♪ ♪

A place called Durrington Walls.

Here, a vast circular henge
dominates the landscape,

20 times the size of Stonehenge
around the perimeter.

In previous excavations,

archeologists dug
inside the henge

but found no sign of settlement.

Parker Pearson decides
to look outside.

(birds chirping)

In doing so,
he uncovers the lost city

of the builders of Stonehenge.

♪ ♪

This is the largest
Stone Age settlement

found in northern Europe.

(indistinct chatter)

From the density of houses,

it's possible the population
ran into the thousands.

♪ ♪

Tribes would have gathered
from across England

to build Stonehenge.

♪ ♪

Was this how all the great
prehistoric monuments

were constructed?

In Ireland, chief archeologist

Michael MacDonagh
wishes it were only so simple.

In the Boyne Valley,
a place of similar size

and even older than Stonehenge,

he's searched for evidence
of a workers' village for years.

So far, no luck.

MICHAEL (off screen):
Here in Brú na Bóinne

around the passage tombs
of Newgrange

and Knowth and Dowth,
we don't have such evidence.

We do have evidence
for smaller houses

dating to around the time
the tombs were built,

but what the theories
over in Stonehenge show

is that there's many mysteries
still to be told

about the people who--
who built these tombs

and who came
into this landscape.

NARRATOR: The builders
must have lived somewhere.

Or perhaps they traveled
from nearby settlements

to complete their work.

At Durrington Walls,
Parker Pearson believes

these residents
were part-timers.

MIKE (off screen):
I think what we're seeing

is a community that are bringing
all their stock with them,

coming here for short parts
of the year.

This isn't a full-time,
permanent settlement.

(indistinct chatter)

NARRATOR: People came here
to celebrate an important event

in their calendar:

the longest day of the year,

the midsummer solstice.

MIKE (off screen): If we'd been
here at the midsummer solstice,

what would have happened?

(insects chirping)

Now, we don't have
a time machine,

but I think there are ways
that we can really get a glimmer

of an understanding,

and what I would imagine
is that at dawn,

people gathered at Stonehenge,

and that begins
a really important day.

(eerie horns playing)

NARRATOR: On this day,

Stonehenge aligns
with the rising sun.

(crowd cheering)

The sun's rays pass
between the standing stones

placed on its perimeter

and directly through
a vast central arch

known as the Great Trilithon.

(rousing instrumental music)

♪ ♪

But Parker Pearson believes
this sunrise ritual

was just the start
of the midsummer celebrations.

♪ ♪

With the sun's movement,

he believes the people
make their way

to Durrington Walls along
the banks of the River Avon.

They move toward an astounding
near-replica of Stonehenge

built out of wood.

The use of stone and wood
is no accident,

and gives Parker Pearson
a fundamental insight

into the religious beliefs
of these ancient people.

MIKE (off screen):
Because, of course,

wood is something
that doesn't last forever,

just as our own lives
won't last forever.

But stone,

that's gonna be there
for eternity.

And it set me thinking as to,

"Well, was one monument
for the dead

and one for the living?"

One in stone, one in wood.

♪ ♪

NARRATOR: Like Stonehenge,

this circle also aligns
with the sun,

now setting in the west.

At the stone circle,

people paid their respects
to the dead.

But at this wooden circle,
they celebrate life.

They thank their ancestors
for the gift of fertility,

for their crops, their animals,
and themselves.

(thunder rumbles)

Such ritual complexity is echoed
in the monuments of Ireland.

MICHAEL (off screen): Newgrange
was built as a burial monument,

but it is much more than that
and became much more than that.

It became a focal point
for ritual activity

and ceremonial gathering

for centuries and millennia
afterwards.

NARRATOR: Like Stonehenge,

the prehistoric monuments
in the Boyne Valley

line up with the solstices.

MICHAEL: As much as they're
different chronologically--

several hundred
if not 1,000 years' difference

between the great passage tomb
of Newgrange

and the sarsen build stone
of Stonehenge--

there are amazing similarities

in terms
of the prehistoric engineering.

NARRATOR: Even so,
there's no Stone Age town

at Brú na Bóinne that compares
with Durrington Walls.

But the summer of 2018
is filled with surprises.

A mere week after
Anthony Murphy's drone flight,

an agricultural company
excavating in the Boyne Valley

hits upon something
they weren't expecting...

an undiscovered tomb.

Have they finally found

the elusive builders
of Newgrange?

(mellow piano music)

NARRATOR: Dowth Hall:
a grand 18th-century home

tucked in Ireland's Boyne Valley

is planning a renovation.

But in this part of Ireland,

digging is
a complicated business.

Dr. Clíodhna Ní Lionáin

is the lead archeologist
on-site.

CLIODHNA (off screen):
In Ireland, we're lucky

that we've legal structures
in place

to protect
our archeological heritage,

so anyone who wants to build
or develop land

in an area of high
archeological potential--

like here, the Unesco World
Heritage Site of Brú na Bóinne--

oftentimes, a condition is put
on their planning permission

that they have to have
an archeologist on-site

for all movement of earth.

NARRATOR:
Under her watchful eye,

a crew begins the job

of excavating around
the old home's basement.

CLIODHNA: Oh, yeah.

(rock clatters)

NARRATOR: Suddenly,
work screeches to a halt.

CLIODHNA: We came across
a large greywacke stone.

So it's a type of sandstone
that's often used

in the construction
of passage tombs,

and it looked like a back stone
of a chamber.

Then we found an upright
to the south

and an upright to the north

and we realized we definitely
have something here.

Because it was something
very special,

we had to stop work.

NARRATOR:
While authorities investigate,

the crew relocates
a little to the south.

♪ ♪

But just a few days later,

they're forced to halt again.

Now they've hit
upon a second tomb chamber

lined with ornately decorated
kerb stones.

♪ ♪

This can't be a coincidence.

CLIODHNA (off screen): It was
only then that we realized

that the house itself
was completely surrounded

by the remains
of a passage tomb.

This is one
of the most significant

megalithic discoveries
in Brú na Bóinne

in the last 50 years.

And definitely,
with this monument,

we didn't even know it existed
until work started

on the redevelopment
of the house,

so a big find for the area

but also for the country
and our understanding

of passage tombs in Ireland.

♪ ♪

NARRATOR:
It takes nearly a year

for archaeologists to reach
the prehistoric layers

several yards underground,

but in the summer of 2018,

the payoff is a thunderclap.

The tomb dates
to 5,500 years ago,

back to the time of the
earliest farmers in Ireland,

the very people responsible
for building Newgrange.

CLIODHNA (off screen): The
people who built these monuments

were the descendants
of the first farmers in Ireland.

They were able to dedicate
resource and time

to building these
amazing structures.

It says a lot about the society

that they were able
to manage this

and able to encourage everyone

to be involved
in the construction of it.

It would have definitely been
a community effort.

Some of the larger tombs
in this area of Knowth,

Newgrange, and Dowth,
they're towards the end

of the passage tomb tradition

where they're getting bigger
and bigger

and had the most
lavish decoration.

NARRATOR:
This part of the Boyne Valley

is a virtual gallery
of megalithic artwork,

with more than 600 masterpieces
in stone.

CLIODHNA: In this area, it's all
abstract geometric shapes.

There's lots
of circular shapes,

but we also get lozenges
and more rectilinear shapes.

Like any good abstract art,

it's hard to know
exactly what the artist meant

when he or she carved it.

It keeps people questioning

and trying to understand
the people who carved these.

NARRATOR:
The Knowth passage tomb.

Similar in size to Newgrange,

its outer walls are adorned

with elaborate
and mysterious designs.

♪ ♪

MICHAEL: Yeah, this kerb stone

is one of the most
highly decorated

and well-known
of the 90 kerb stones here

around the main passage tomb
at Knowth.

Various levels of design.

We have spirals and circles,
we have cup marks,

and we have this
hemisphere design

with lines radiating out like
the rays of the sun, perhaps.

And this sort of design, again,
like many of the passage tombs,

represents, perhaps,
the importance

of planetary movements--
the sun and the moon, perhaps--

into the symbology
and the funerary rights

of our Neolithic ancestors.

♪ ♪

NARRATOR: The Knowth complex
and its many satellite tombs

belong to
a passage tomb tradition

similar to Newgrange.

Here, celestial
and astronomical alignments

are critical
to a developing belief system.

MICHAEL: And that level
of belief system--

following the
astronomical alignments

at certain auspicious days--

whether they're summer solstices
or winter solstices--

you're looking at their
shared belief systems

across Britain, Ireland,
and Europe,

and indeed across
the wider world

that we start to see
shared beliefs and connections.

(singers vocalizing)

NARRATOR: At Stonehenge,

the midsummer celebrations
continue.

(lively instrumental music)

MIKE (off screen):
My guess is that

they're having
the time of their lives

because when we look
at the waste--

you know, the rubbish
that litters this place--

it is excessive.

Normally, when you're digging
a Neolithic site,

you find the odd bone,

maybe a small sherd of pottery.

But we have found it
in vast quantities,

and they're living almost
knee-deep in this stuff.

Just the sort of thing
you'd find at a feast

when too much food is served.

(tools scraping)

NARRATOR: But not all the finds
are evidence of celebrations.

Some reveal a darker side
to this society.

MIKE: This is the artifact

that we find so many of--
in the hundreds--

and we call them
oblique arrowheads.

Sharpened to quite
a point, there,

and you can imagine
this sort of thing,

it's gonna have
a devastating effect

when shot from, you know,
up to 50 meters or so.

♪ ♪

NARRATOR: The recent discovery
of this human leg bone

close to the henge

shows where some
of those arrowheads ended up.

♪ ♪

Two small dents show
how deep they penetrated.

Since they never healed,

the victim must have died
from his wounds.

MIKE (off screen): It appears
to come from an adult male...

♪ ♪

And we can only imagine
what happened to him.

To get two injuries like that,

you might have basically
stuck him like a pig.

Arrows from all directions.

Perhaps even an execution.

♪ ♪

NARRATOR:
Executions may have taken place

in the middle
of the Durrington Henge.

As in other ancient societies,

they may have been staged
as popular spectacles.

(dramatic music)

(crowd cheering)

♪ ♪

But in the
Brú na Bóinne landscape,

there is no evidence to date
of any such sacrifice

or ritual killings.

CLIODHNA (off screen):
It's generally believed

that the communities that
built this were egalitarian,

and people wanted
to put this effort

into a ritual monument,

both for themselves
as an individual

but for the wider community
as well.

(indistinct chatter)

NARRATOR: At Stonehenge,
people have not traveled here

just for the celebrations
and rituals of punishment.

They have a daunting job,

one so big it will take
centuries to complete.

MIKE (off screen): Now, when we
look at the concentration

of population that we have
in this one valley,

there's one major task
that they had to perform,

and that is the building
of Stonehenge,

the construction
of the great sarsen circle,

and the trilithons within it.

NARRATOR: Exactly how this feat
of engineering was accomplished

may be the biggest mystery
of all.

NARRATOR: In 2,500 B.C.,

Stonehenge is one of the largest
active building projects

in the prehistoric world.

(mysterious music)

No one knows
how long it took to complete.

The great stones are sarsen,

a dense rock as hard as granite.

Each weighs up to 45 tons.

Lifting them involves
sophisticated engineering...

(all grunting)

But the construction work
is only half the story.

(all shouting)

♪ ♪

NARRATOR:
Building Stonehenge requires

over 1,000 tons of sarsen stone,

and the closest source
is 25 miles away.

♪ ♪

In Ireland, hauling stone
to the Newgrange monument

was even more challenging.

It meant covering
a greater distance.

MICHAEL (off screen):
The large greywacke stones

that were used to decorate it,
to build the passage tombs

of Newgrange, Knowth, and Dowth,
they were quarried

from over 25 kilometers away
to the northeast,

and we've long thought that
the river played a major role

in being able to transport those
stones here to Brú na Bóinne.

NARRATOR: Shipping these
massive stones overland

and then by river

would have required
sophisticated navigational

and engineering skills.

MICHAEL (off screen):
We do have evidence

from very recent discoveries
here on the River Boyne

of Neolithic log boats.

That wood was cut between--

radio carbon dating suggests
3,300 to 2,900 B.C.,

and that is the exact time that
the passage tombs were built.

So we're thinking
with this recent discovery

that such a craft
would have been used

to carry them down the
Boyne River here to Newgrange.

So they were then dragged up
the floodplain terraces

to build the tombs.

NARRATOR: Incredibly, they may
even have traveled by sea,

hugging the coasts

until reaching
the intercoastal areas

and then the Boyne River.

♪ ♪

Such distances
easily exceed 70 miles.

Convincing simple farmers

to expend such
extraordinary effort

must have been no easy task,

and suggests a high degree
of organization

and political power.

There must also have been

a strong internal motivation.

MICHAEL (off screen):
There must have been that need--

that belief need,
that ritual need--

to honor their dead

and to bury them
in these large tombs

that allowed these communities

to marshal
the huge resources necessary

to build these monuments
over many, many years

and to take the risk
in doing so.

NARRATOR: For the builders
of Stonehenge,

moving the sarsen
is entirely an overland journey,

but they have devised
ingenious methods

to accomplish this task.

Hauling a single 45-ton stone

requires an enormous effort

from every single member
of the group.

(all chanting)

NARRATOR: On firm ground,
they run the stone

over a bed of wooden rollers.

Archaeologist Mike Pitts

has studied
the various techniques

that might have been employed
to transport these great stones.

PITTS (off screen):
It's a challenging journey,

and they would have had
to employ everything, I think,

that they could draw on

to get these stones
along that route.

NARRATOR: But the route
is not all level.

At times, it is too steep
to pull the stone.

PITTS (off screen): There's
really quite a steep climb

up onto Salisbury plain,

and I think
at occasions like that,

what they would have done is
use very large poles as levers,

and if you have
a number of people

on each side of the stone,

you can almost literally
row the stone forward.

(all shouting indistinctly)

NARRATOR: No one knows
how long it took

to bring a stone to Stonehenge.

It may have taken months
or even years.

(mysterious music)

MIKE: Stonehenge,
which is multi-phased,

which culminates in this large,

iconic
sarsen stone-built structure,

is part
of a much wider landscape.

Similarly, here in Newgrange,

it was a construction project
that took many years.

It wasn't a once-off project.

It took many years
of continued activity

in order to construct
what we see now.

NARRATOR:
Finally, these weary people

have their destination in sight.

But their work
still isn't finished.

♪ ♪

There's the matter of dressing

and raising the stone
into position,

and this is just 1 of 80
it will take

to complete the monument.

NARRATOR: Thousands return
to the domain at Durrington

to prepare
for another celebration:

the midwinter solstice.

MICHAEL:
Our prehistoric ancestors

had an awareness--
a full-on awareness

of the movement
of astronomical bodies,

of our planetary alignments,

of our auspicious dates
on calendars

such as the winter solstice

that obviously
then played a further part

into their funerary monuments
and their burial practices.

NARRATOR:
1 1/2 miles from Durrington,

work resumes at Stonehenge.

♪ ♪

This is the only stone circle
in the world

where the stones are shaped
and jointed.

It's grueling work.

They use wood formers

to check the shape
and dimensions...

♪ ♪

And flour milling techniques

to grind the surface
of the stones

to a marble-smooth finish.

♪ ♪

The workers are expert
stonemasons and engineers.

(indistinct chatter)

They prepare to drag the stone
into a pit

that will secure
and hold it upright.

The sarsens vary greatly
in length,

so the depth must be precise
to keep the top line level.

(man shouting)

NARRATOR: Ropes running
over wooden A-frames

increase leverage.

MAN: (shouts)

(people chanting)

NARRATOR: They haul the stone
up an earth ramp

toward a pivot point
made of tree trunks.

(people chanting)

(dramatic music)

(people chanting)

NARRATOR: Now, they can
pull the stone vertical.

(people chanting)

♪ ♪

NARRATOR: Each of these stones
brings these ancient Britons

closer to fulfilling
their ambition

of building a domain
for the ancestors.

♪ ♪

The ancient farmers of Ireland
also mastered the challenges

of building a megalithic
monument at Newgrange.

MICHAEL:
3,300 years before Christ,

a community decided to build
this immense burial monument.

The stones were transported
22 kilometers.

As at Stonehenge,

rolled, pulled up
the floodplain terraces,

socket stuck,
and then using ropes,

using ramps of earth,

they were then hauled up
into these upright positions.

♪ ♪

NARRATOR: Both at Newgrange
and Stonehenge,

rough and clumsy stones
have been moved

over dozens of miles

and raised into position.

Now, they must be arranged
with watch-like precision

in time to mark the calendar's
most important event.

(pensive music)

♪ ♪

(indistinct chatter)

At Stonehenge,

these people labor
with a dual purpose:

to build their grand monument

and prepare
for the midwinter solstice.

It's a time of year
imbued with meaning.

(indistinct chatter)

MIKE (off screen): Everything is
heading towards death.

The land is getting less
and less green,

the sun itself appears
to be dying,

and we need to wait
for that crucial moment

when everything is restarted.

That is at
the midwinter solstice.

(mysterious music)

(indistinct chatter)

NARRATOR:
While the summer solstice

was about life and fertility,

the winter solstice
brings the year full circle

with a ceremony for the dead.

On the shortest day of the year,

thousands assemble before dawn
at the wooden circle

inside
the Durrington settlement.

Like Stonehenge,

the circle's posts
are precisely positioned.

Almost 350 miles to the west,

Ireland's Newgrange monument

also awaits the moment
of sunrise.

Only here, the entire structure
has been fine-tuned

with this purpose in mind.

MICHAEL: Such a monument as this
great passage tomb of Newgrange

required tremendous effort,
both in workforce

to bring the materials in

but in the precision
of its architecture,

the precision of the engineering
to align perfectly

with that astronomical alignment
of the rising of the sun

on the morning
of the winter solstice.

♪ ♪

NARRATOR: The slope of the hill

on which
Newgrange is constructed

poses an additional challenge.

To achieve the solstice effect,
the sun's first rays

must penetrate
a 62-foot passageway

that rises toward
the burial chamber.

♪ ♪

To counteract the slope
of the passage,

engineers build a roof-box
above the tomb entrance.

♪ ♪

It would have taken years
to get the size

and position just right.

MICHAEL (off screen):
On the morning of the solstice,

as sun rises through a roof-box

built directly above
the entrance,

the sun's rays get concentrated
and they shine a beam of light

that illuminate
the burial chamber.

♪ ♪

NARRATOR:
Now, the moment has arrived.

All eyes are fixed
on the Newgrange roof-box

and the posts
of Durrington Walls.

(insects chirping)

♪ ♪

(all cheering)

♪ ♪

MICHAEL (off screen):
The winter solstice

was an auspicious date.

It's the effective start
of the new year,

the end of one
and the start of another

as the days begin to lengthen,

so it's hugely important
in terms of--

for a farming community in terms
of fertility, renewal.

A sign of hope.

But also, we have
that winter solstice sun

illuminating the burial chambers
of their ancestors,

giving some sort of sense
of rebirth, renewal.

NARRATOR:
Across Stone Age Europe,

bands of people
honor their ancestors.

It's a day for both sadness
and hope.

But at the settlement
of Durrington Walls,

there's still one last journey
to make:

a procession that completes
the cycle of the year

and renews life itself.

(somber music)

♪ ♪

(all cheering)

At Durrington Walls,
the sun has risen,

but their day is not done.

(indistinct chatter)

MIKE: So it's quite careful work
because...

NARRATOR:
Mike Parker Pearson believes

the wooden circle is the start
of a journey for the dead

that leads them back
to Stonehenge.

♪ ♪

He believes
that at midwinter solstice,

ancient Britons travel
from the wooden circle

at Durrington Walls
along the River Avon,

then up a wide avenue
to Stonehenge.

The almost 2 1/2 mile journey

culminates in a slow climb
up a ridge.

♪ ♪

MIKE (off screen): They can't
see where they're going.

They've not a had a view of the
great stone monument all day,

and it is hidden
until the very last moment

as they come over
King Barrow Ridge.

Suddenly, for the first time,
they actually see Stonehenge

at really quite close range.

♪ ♪

NARRATOR:
At the midwinter solstice,

the upright pillars
of the Great Trilithon

will perfectly frame
the setting sun.

♪ ♪

Now they ask the ancestors
to accept the spirits

of those who have died
in the past year.

(all cheering)

♪ ♪

MIKE (off screen):
Now, we do have similar ideas

in the sense
that death isn't the end

but it's the beginning,
that the soul will live on,

and I think
what we're seeing here

is just another version

of that overall
kind of principle

which is right at the heart
of human religious belief.

(all cheering, shouting)

NARRATOR:
But the midwinter festival

is not only about death.

It's also a celebration.

From this day forward,
the sun will grow stronger

and the days longer

until these people return
to Stonehenge

for the next midsummer solstice.

(mysterious music)

♪ ♪

For thousands of years,

Stonehenge has remained
a mysterious monument

from the distant past.

Now, Parker Pearson
and his team of archaeologists

are uncovering
its true significance.

MIKE (off screen):
We've got the evidence here

for a city for the living,

the largest settlement
in northern Europe

from this period.

♪ ♪

NARRATOR: He's convinced

that Stonehenge is one half
of an extraordinary complex.

♪ ♪

The other half
is a huge wooden circle,

a mirror image
of the stone monument

that joins the world
of the living

with the world of the dead.

♪ ♪

MIKE (off screen):
The other great discovery

is that it's a monument

not to ancient gods

but actually to the dead,

and I think that's remarkable.

♪ ♪

MICHAEL (off screen):
Lot of mysteries

and a lot of questions
still to be answered,

but what we hope now
is that with further research,

we're gonna be able to help
solve some of the mysteries

about this landscape and
the people who inhabited here

over 5,000 years ago.

♪ ♪

NARRATOR: In Britain
and across northern Europe,

the ancients
carved their beliefs

in pillars and tombs of stone.

♪ ♪

These great monuments
tell a timeless tale

not of giants or gods,

but of simple human beings,

community, sacrifice,

the cycle of life and death.

♪ ♪

Separated by centuries
and hundreds of miles,

we are only now discovering

how much they share in common

and how much we have to learn.

Captioned by Captionmax