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Viewers like you make
this program possible.
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Support your local PBS station.
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♪
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DAVID ATTENBOROUGH:
Here in Southern England,
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the remains of ice age mammoths
have just been discovered.
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♪
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The bones reveal a species of mammoth
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that lived hundreds
of thousands of years ago.
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Must've been rather enchanting.
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♪
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And carefully crafted stone tools
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show that early humans were here, too.
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Really beautiful, actually.
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♪
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A team of archaeologists
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is carrying out a forensic
investigation of the site.
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♪
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SALLY HOLLINGWORTH:
It's like a time travel
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through the gravel.
[laughs]
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♪
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ATTENBOROUGH:
Why were the mammoths here,
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and how did they die?
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It's like a really big whodunit, isn't it?
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ATTENBOROUGH: Could
ancient humans have hunted them?
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This is very typical
of early Neanderthals.
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♪
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ANNEMIEKE MILKS:
This shows their technology
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was capable of distance hunting.
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BEN GARROD: Oh!
MILKS: Brilliant.
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ATTENBOROUGH: What can this remarkable
site reveal about life and death
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in ice age Britain?
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♪
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"Great Mammoth Mystery,"
right now, on "NOVA."
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♪
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♪
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ATTENBOROUGH: You might
expect to travel to remote parts
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of Siberia or South Dakota
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to uncover bones of ice age beasts.
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♪
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But 90 miles west of my home in London,
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two of Britain's most prolific
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amateur fossil hunters have made
the discovery of a lifetime.
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[doorbell rings]
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I've come to meet Sally
and Neville Hollingworth.
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Hello! [laughs]
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ATTENBOROUGH:
Nice to meet you. Lovely to meet you!
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NEVILLE HOLLINGWORTH:
Absolute pleasure to meet you.
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SALLY:
Come on in!
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This is our humble home.
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Gosh!
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ATTENBOROUGH [voiceover]:
Sally and Neville
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both have office jobs,
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but they spend their weekends
hunting for fossils.
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♪
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Like me, they have a passion for doing so.
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But theirs went rather farther.
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SALLY: When we went
on fossil hunts and Nev would invite me,
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and he passed me half a vertebrae.
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It's Jurassic,
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it's marine reptile. Yeah.
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A couple of weeks later,
he texts me to say,
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"I think I might've found the
other half of that vertebrae.
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"Do you fancy meeting for a
drink and we'll see if they
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join together?"[laughs]
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It's a good line, isn't it?
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This is true! [laughs]
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Well, of course. And so we met,
for a drink.
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And... they joined together!
NEVILLE: They joined together.
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-I thought, "Well, there we go,
-SALLY: And we clicked.
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NEVILLE: It's a match made in heaven...
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Not a dry eye in the house!
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[laughs] NEVILLE:
No, no, not at all, no!
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♪
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SALLY:
We've got some in the kitchen.
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More fossils?
SALLY: Finds.
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More finds. I thought for a moment it was
going to be sandwiches!
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♪
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ATTENBOROUGH [voiceover]:
These are the finds
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I've come to see...
mammoth bones.
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Wow, gosh.
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And this is our kitchen dino.
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[laughing]
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Yes. Well, and I know it's a leg
bone, isn't it?
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Yes. Yes.
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Where was it?
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NEVILLE:
It was actually literally
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just sticking out of some gravel
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on the floor of a
workingquarry. Which end?
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This end. So that bit...
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So that was the... was all you could see?
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That's all you could see.
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We thought there might be a bit
more of it.
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So we started to excavate,
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and as we started digging,
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we found that it was actually a complete
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humerus of a mammoth.
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This pelvis bone has actually gone through
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the processing plant
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and it dropped out
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in the, in the reject pile of the quarry.
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ATTENBOROUGH [voiceover]:
Two years ago, Neville and Sally
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asked for permission to look for
fossils in a freshly dug quarry.
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They never expected to find
pieces of bones
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of several mammoths.
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Cup of tea for you, David.
Thank you very much.
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-There we are.
-ATTENBOROUGH: Oh, hang on.
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[laughs] Mammoth cake, yeah!
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Yeah, so, mammoth cupcakes.
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ATTENBOROUGH:
Do you have one?
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Yes...
[laughing] [mumbling]
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I'm gonna have one.
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I'm gonna have a chocolate one.
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ATTENBOROUGH [voiceover]:
But there's one find
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that raises intriguing questions
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about how the mammoths died:
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a stone tool, a hand axe,
made by an ancient human.
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There was a small glint, and I thought,
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"Mmm, that looks a bit interesting,
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a bit different."
-ATTENBOROUGH: You saw this?
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I just, yeah. Well, the main thing is
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that it was made by man.
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Yes.
NEVILLE: Yeah.
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And it was that feeling that I
was the first human to touch
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this stone tool in
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hundreds of thousands of years.
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It's a great thrill,
isn't it? It is, yeah.
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Yes. The whole of this business.
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ATTENBOROUGH [voiceover]: Finding a stone
tool near mammoth bones is extremely rare.
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But we don't yet know if it was
left by humans
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from a more recent time in prehistory.
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Well, you could certainly
cut things with that, I'm sure.
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Yeah, we did. We did.
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You did? We cut our wedding cake.
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[laughing]
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You cut your wedding cake? Yes.
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[laughs]
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Yeah. Really?!
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There we are. [laughing]
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We cut our wedding cake,
got married, and...
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And had a mammoth meal.
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And had a mammoth meal, a mammoth event.
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Yeah. [laughing]
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Yeah.
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♪
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ATTENBOROUGH [voiceover]:
Mammoths roamed the plains
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of Europe, Asia, and North America
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until the climate warmed
at the end of the last ice age.
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These extinct cousins of
elephants had huge curving tusks
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and thrived during the ice age.
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Their remains are usually tens
of thousands of years old.
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But Sally and Neville's finds
could be far older.
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♪
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They could offer an extremely rare glimpse
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of life deep in the ice age,
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a time we know little about,
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when early humans lived
alongside mammoths.
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♪
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But how did these mammoths die?
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Was it from natural causes
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or could they have been hunted?
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The quarry where Sally
and Neville made their discovery
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lies just ten miles north of
their home in Swindon,
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near the village of Cerney Wick.
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Groundwater was deliberately
allowed to flood the site
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to prevent any bones in the
ground from drying out.
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♪
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Now, two years after they made
their first find,
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that water is being pumped out,
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ready for a team to begin investigating.
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♪
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Leading the dig is another
husband-and-wife duo,
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Brendon Wilkins
and Lisa Westscott Wilkins.
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WESTSCOTT WILKINS:
Those ducks must hate us.
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They had this place filled with water
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and now they've got nothing!
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ATTENBOROUGH [voiceover]:
The team starts
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by mapping the site from the air.
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♪
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[camera clicking]
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WESTSCOTT WILKINS:
It's so important to record this
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from the instant that we're doing anything
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so that we can build that exact picture
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of how it was before we came
along and disturbed it.
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ATTENBOROUGH: The drone
images provide a detailed map of the site
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so that the exact location
of each find can be plotted.
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The team searches for fragments of bone.
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Biologist Ben Garrod
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has been helping coordinate the dig.
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That, we think, is mammoth bone,
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because it's so thick. Yeah.
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Well, it's definitelymammoth.
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ATTENBOROUGH: Ben was the
first on the team to hear about the site
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and quickly realized its significance.
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GARROD:
Sally and Neville got in touch.
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And I'd never met them, and they said,
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"Ben, we found some fossils
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that I think you might be
interested in."
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And I said, "Yeah, that's great,
send some photos across."
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And they did, and I was here the next day.
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I jumped on a train
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and dropped everything
and came to the site,
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and it was like someone
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had sprinkled mammoth bones everywhere,
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which I'd, I'd never seen.
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I thought I had to go to Siberia
to see that.
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By looking at this
in a forensic level of detail,
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that'll give us this really
in-depth understanding
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of, of what was going on here
whilst these animals
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and these people were walking around.
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ATTENBOROUGH:
What intrigued Ben, and me,
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is why there are so many mammoth
bones here
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from at least four different animals,
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and the tantalizing mystery
of who left that stone tool.
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♪
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[motor running]
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So what did the landscape look like
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when the mammoths were here?
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[tool shuts off]
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KEITH WILKINSON:
Okay, up.
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ATTENBOROUGH: To find out,
geoarchaeologist Keith Wilkinson
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extracts samples of the
underlying sediment.
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WILKINSON: So the very
bottom, we've got these blue sands.
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So they are probably
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the layer with the, the mammoth
fossils in.
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We've got these river gravels.
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And then these silts and sands
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at the top of the same ancient
river channel.
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♪
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ATTENBOROUGH: The layers
of sediment beneath the surface
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reveal the bed of a prehistoric river.
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This is probably the ancient
route of the River Thames,
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which today lies nearly two miles away.
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Could the mammoths have died
further upstream
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and their bones have been washed
here when the river flooded?
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To find out,
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the team plots target areas
for excavation.
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♪
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And the digging begins.
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♪
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They sieve every shovelful of soil
241
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in their search for fragments of bone
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or stone tools.
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♪
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When the trenches start
to reveal new finds,
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I can't resist stopping by
to see how they're doing.
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♪
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Welcome!
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00:11:26,340 --> 00:11:27,583
Thank you very much.
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What do you think?
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Well, I haven't seen it yet!
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[laughing]
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Even I can see that's a tusk!
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[laughing]
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ATTENBOROUGH: Well, let me
get it right, where was the head?
255
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So this is our proximal end.
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That's the head there.
That's the one, yep.
257
00:11:40,251 --> 00:11:41,631
And that's the tip
of the tusk. Yeah.
258
00:11:41,666 --> 00:11:43,703
So coming round to the tip here.
259
00:11:43,737 --> 00:11:44,980
So it's curving backwards. Yes.
260
00:11:45,014 --> 00:11:46,844
Exactly.
Exactly, yes.
261
00:11:46,878 --> 00:11:49,570
WESTSCOTT WILKINS: This is possibly
a bit of a mandible, this was just found.
262
00:11:49,605 --> 00:11:51,780
So it's a left mandible? Yep, well, yes.
263
00:11:51,814 --> 00:11:55,542
And, and because we think that
might be a left tusk, you know,
264
00:11:55,576 --> 00:11:57,786
it's possible that these
belonged to the same animal.
265
00:11:57,820 --> 00:12:03,239
WILKINS: You can see bones
running into the section there and here,
266
00:12:03,274 --> 00:12:04,965
and you can also see
267
00:12:05,000 --> 00:12:06,967
a rib bone here.
-ATTENBOROUGH: Yeah.
268
00:12:07,002 --> 00:12:08,624
WESTSCOTT WILKINS: One
of the things that we wondered
269
00:12:08,658 --> 00:12:10,764
with so many of these tusks around,
270
00:12:10,799 --> 00:12:12,766
could it have been, did they all fall
into the river somewhere... Oh, I see.
271
00:12:12,801 --> 00:12:14,630
...and then get washed down
in one big event?
272
00:12:14,664 --> 00:12:17,357
But what we're looking at is not
a high-energy environment.
273
00:12:17,391 --> 00:12:19,842
If, if it was a washout,
you would expect to see
274
00:12:19,877 --> 00:12:21,326
more debris in the channel,
275
00:12:21,361 --> 00:12:23,708
more debris in the sediment
around the tusks.
276
00:12:23,743 --> 00:12:26,780
But this is basically lying
in, in, where it fell.
277
00:12:26,815 --> 00:12:28,333
And the same with the tusk over there.
278
00:12:28,368 --> 00:12:29,645
So we think, you know,
279
00:12:29,679 --> 00:12:31,233
they could have just died and fallen.
280
00:12:31,267 --> 00:12:32,924
But it's, it's a bit
of a coincidence, really.
281
00:12:39,275 --> 00:12:40,690
ATTENBOROUGH:
This pit has been
282
00:12:40,725 --> 00:12:43,452
dug out by excavators because
283
00:12:43,486 --> 00:12:48,595
until just recently, it was full
of gravel down to about
284
00:12:48,629 --> 00:12:50,597
this level.
285
00:12:50,631 --> 00:12:53,945
But here is much more solid.
286
00:12:53,980 --> 00:12:55,084
It's not gravel.
287
00:12:55,119 --> 00:12:58,985
It's, it's mud, sticky mud at that,
288
00:12:59,019 --> 00:13:00,538
and it's in this undisturbed mud
289
00:13:00,572 --> 00:13:04,473
that these bones are now being discovered.
290
00:13:04,507 --> 00:13:07,821
And because it's been undisturbed,
291
00:13:07,856 --> 00:13:12,792
very careful excavation
can reveal a lot of details
292
00:13:12,826 --> 00:13:16,830
about the circumstances in which
these animals got here
293
00:13:16,865 --> 00:13:19,005
and left their bones.
294
00:13:19,039 --> 00:13:21,076
♪
295
00:13:21,110 --> 00:13:22,491
[voiceover]:
The most complete bones
296
00:13:22,525 --> 00:13:25,908
seem to be lying in the riverbed.
297
00:13:25,943 --> 00:13:28,290
And they've been covered by the
fine sediment
298
00:13:28,324 --> 00:13:30,326
of slow-moving water,
299
00:13:30,361 --> 00:13:34,744
not pounded by fast-moving floodwater.
300
00:13:34,779 --> 00:13:39,404
So perhaps the mammoth died
where the bones are lying now.
301
00:13:41,682 --> 00:13:45,341
Spectacular fossils like these
have always fascinated us.
302
00:13:47,102 --> 00:13:48,793
Hundreds of years ago,
303
00:13:48,828 --> 00:13:50,553
it was thought that mammoth tusks
304
00:13:50,588 --> 00:13:52,383
belonged to mythical beasts.
305
00:13:52,417 --> 00:13:55,420
♪
306
00:13:55,455 --> 00:13:59,252
In Siberia, mammoth remains
were once thought
307
00:13:59,286 --> 00:14:02,738
to be from huge underground
burrowing creatures.
308
00:14:02,772 --> 00:14:05,085
In 17th-century Europe,
309
00:14:05,120 --> 00:14:08,088
mammoth bones were said to be
those of giants,
310
00:14:08,123 --> 00:14:11,505
or unicorns.
311
00:14:11,540 --> 00:14:14,439
By the 19th century,
312
00:14:14,474 --> 00:14:17,891
mammoths were described
as prehistoric animals,
313
00:14:17,926 --> 00:14:21,653
but they were thought to have
existed long before humans.
314
00:14:23,034 --> 00:14:26,279
Then, in 1864 in France,
315
00:14:26,313 --> 00:14:28,557
a piece of mammoth ivory was found
316
00:14:28,591 --> 00:14:31,767
with an engraving so accurate,
it was clear
317
00:14:31,801 --> 00:14:34,425
that the artist had seen a living mammoth.
318
00:14:36,668 --> 00:14:40,707
The engraving shows a woolly mammoth,
319
00:14:40,741 --> 00:14:44,400
the most recent species on the
mammoth family tree.
320
00:14:45,954 --> 00:14:49,819
We now know that early mammoths
first evolved in Africa
321
00:14:49,854 --> 00:14:53,099
around five million years ago,
322
00:14:53,133 --> 00:14:55,549
and then spread into Europe and Asia.
323
00:14:57,620 --> 00:15:00,761
Around 1.7 million years ago,
324
00:15:00,796 --> 00:15:04,731
steppe mammoths evolved
that grazed the grassy plains.
325
00:15:04,765 --> 00:15:08,666
They then moved into Europe
and North America,
326
00:15:08,700 --> 00:15:12,566
where Columbian mammoths later appeared.
327
00:15:12,601 --> 00:15:15,086
The famous woolly mammoths developed
328
00:15:15,121 --> 00:15:19,815
around 700,000 years ago,
adapted for colder climates,
329
00:15:19,849 --> 00:15:22,197
and they eventually spread first
into Europe,
330
00:15:22,231 --> 00:15:25,994
and then North America.
331
00:15:26,028 --> 00:15:30,757
So which kind of mammoth
lived in Britain at our site?
332
00:15:30,791 --> 00:15:35,244
♪
333
00:15:35,279 --> 00:15:36,970
To find out,
334
00:15:37,005 --> 00:15:40,491
mammoth evolution expert Steven Zhang
335
00:15:40,525 --> 00:15:43,011
is examining the remains
found at the site.
336
00:15:43,045 --> 00:15:46,048
The teeth have given him a crucial clue.
337
00:15:46,083 --> 00:15:49,465
ZHANG: Looking at a mammoth tooth is like
338
00:15:49,500 --> 00:15:51,743
looking into a barcode for the
mammoth itself.
339
00:15:51,778 --> 00:15:56,679
We start by counting the number
of enamel ridges, so...
340
00:15:56,714 --> 00:15:58,854
This one has about 18,
341
00:15:58,888 --> 00:16:03,824
which is a very typical number
for a steppe mammoth.
342
00:16:03,859 --> 00:16:05,447
Looking at this piece of tooth,
343
00:16:05,481 --> 00:16:09,658
we know that it's a last molar
or a wisdom tooth.
344
00:16:09,692 --> 00:16:12,040
So we know this was a fully grown adult,
345
00:16:12,074 --> 00:16:13,351
except
346
00:16:13,386 --> 00:16:16,389
this is one of the smallest
steppe mammoth teeth
347
00:16:16,423 --> 00:16:18,425
there probably is in existence.
348
00:16:18,460 --> 00:16:20,738
It's like
349
00:16:20,772 --> 00:16:23,775
finding a German shepherd
the size of a Westie.
350
00:16:23,810 --> 00:16:25,605
♪
351
00:16:25,639 --> 00:16:28,711
ATTENBOROUGH: These teeth
appear to be from a population of small
352
00:16:28,746 --> 00:16:30,817
steppe mammoths.
353
00:16:30,851 --> 00:16:33,233
Their reduced size could be a consequence
354
00:16:33,268 --> 00:16:36,719
of food becoming less abundant.
355
00:16:36,754 --> 00:16:39,515
If a steppe mammoth was here now,
356
00:16:39,550 --> 00:16:42,898
you would see that
it wasn't particularly hairy,
357
00:16:42,932 --> 00:16:46,591
a sign that the climate must
have been quite temperate.
358
00:16:46,626 --> 00:16:51,079
And as for size, well,
the female was about my size,
359
00:16:51,113 --> 00:16:54,013
male a bit bigger, and the baby,
360
00:16:54,047 --> 00:16:56,808
well, I guess, like that.
361
00:16:56,843 --> 00:16:59,052
Must've been rather enchanting.
362
00:16:59,087 --> 00:17:03,815
[baby elephant squeals, adult lowing]
363
00:17:03,850 --> 00:17:08,268
ATTENBOROUGH: There are also
remains of another type of mammoth.
364
00:17:08,303 --> 00:17:14,274
ZHANG: Over here, I would say
this is a typical woolly mammoth.
365
00:17:14,309 --> 00:17:16,587
So these two different kind of beasts
366
00:17:16,621 --> 00:17:19,003
were occurring at the same site.
367
00:17:19,038 --> 00:17:22,075
One possibility was that this site
368
00:17:22,110 --> 00:17:26,838
was a habitat shared by both
steppe and woolly mammoths,
369
00:17:26,873 --> 00:17:31,395
or, as woolly mammoths migrated westward
370
00:17:31,429 --> 00:17:33,500
from Siberia into Europe,
371
00:17:33,535 --> 00:17:37,401
they started to mingle
with local steppe mammoths.
372
00:17:37,435 --> 00:17:39,472
This is interesting,
373
00:17:39,506 --> 00:17:43,924
because not often do we see
a snapshot like this.
374
00:17:43,959 --> 00:17:45,685
It's exciting!
375
00:17:45,719 --> 00:17:47,756
♪
376
00:17:47,790 --> 00:17:52,450
ATTENBOROUGH: Our site could
be rare evidence of a transitional stage,
377
00:17:52,485 --> 00:17:56,661
when woolly mammoths are taking
over from steppe mammoths.
378
00:17:56,696 --> 00:17:58,767
These bones could have belonged
379
00:17:58,801 --> 00:18:02,702
to some of the last surviving
steppe mammoths in Britain.
380
00:18:04,704 --> 00:18:08,846
♪
381
00:18:08,880 --> 00:18:10,675
Back at the dig,
382
00:18:10,710 --> 00:18:12,470
Sally and Neville have ringside seats
383
00:18:12,505 --> 00:18:17,441
as the professionals continue
their meticulous search.
384
00:18:17,475 --> 00:18:20,513
♪
385
00:18:20,547 --> 00:18:22,446
NEVILLE:
There is almost a forensic examination
386
00:18:22,480 --> 00:18:24,206
of the sediment and everything else.
387
00:18:24,241 --> 00:18:25,483
But that's so they...
that's good, though.
388
00:18:25,518 --> 00:18:26,484
So they don't miss anything.
389
00:18:26,519 --> 00:18:28,935
NEVILLE:
Yeah.
390
00:18:28,969 --> 00:18:31,489
SALLY: It's
like a time travel through the gravel!
391
00:18:31,524 --> 00:18:36,287
♪
392
00:18:36,322 --> 00:18:39,187
I'd like them to solve the story.
393
00:18:39,221 --> 00:18:41,327
Was it hunted?
394
00:18:41,361 --> 00:18:43,087
That's the big question, isn't it?
395
00:18:43,122 --> 00:18:45,434
Yeah, one of the questions.
396
00:18:45,469 --> 00:18:47,022
What was the climate like? Yeah.
397
00:18:47,056 --> 00:18:48,057
What was the vegetation like?
398
00:18:49,576 --> 00:18:52,165
And also, what else was here?
399
00:18:52,200 --> 00:18:55,237
Not just mammoths,
but were there early humans,
400
00:18:55,272 --> 00:18:57,377
hominins, wandering about? Hm.
401
00:18:57,412 --> 00:18:58,758
Were there groups of people,
because of the hand axe?
402
00:18:58,792 --> 00:19:00,380
Yes, there were, because
we know that there's a hand axe.
403
00:19:03,107 --> 00:19:05,040
ATTENBOROUGH:
You have established
404
00:19:05,074 --> 00:19:08,457
that there were mammoths here,
405
00:19:08,492 --> 00:19:10,079
and there were human beings
406
00:19:10,114 --> 00:19:12,012
alongside them,
407
00:19:12,047 --> 00:19:13,842
a human being wielding that axe?
408
00:19:13,876 --> 00:19:16,534
I can say at this particular site,
409
00:19:16,569 --> 00:19:18,812
there were definitely mammoths,
there were definitely
410
00:19:18,847 --> 00:19:21,367
human beings... early human
beings, admittedly,
411
00:19:21,401 --> 00:19:22,816
but I don't know yet
412
00:19:22,851 --> 00:19:23,990
if they were here at the exact same time.
413
00:19:24,024 --> 00:19:26,958
Now, the issue is, it could be
like you or I
414
00:19:26,993 --> 00:19:28,822
walking on a Viking settlement
and dropping a crisp packet.
415
00:19:28,857 --> 00:19:30,548
That's not from the same time
period, obviously.
416
00:19:30,583 --> 00:19:31,929
Now, that might have happened here.
417
00:19:31,963 --> 00:19:34,034
I'll let you know in a few months.
418
00:19:34,069 --> 00:19:38,901
♪
419
00:19:38,936 --> 00:19:42,733
ATTENBOROUGH [voiceover]:
Ben's "few months" becomes two years
420
00:19:42,767 --> 00:19:46,254
as COVID lockdowns keep the team
away from the site.
421
00:19:46,288 --> 00:19:49,671
♪
422
00:19:49,705 --> 00:19:51,224
But in 2021,
423
00:19:51,259 --> 00:19:53,778
they pick up where they left off,
424
00:19:53,813 --> 00:19:57,403
this time with some mechanical help.
425
00:19:59,128 --> 00:20:03,512
♪
426
00:20:03,547 --> 00:20:05,238
If only we'd had this last time,
427
00:20:05,273 --> 00:20:08,034
it would have just made it so much easier!
428
00:20:08,068 --> 00:20:09,898
♪
429
00:20:09,932 --> 00:20:13,902
The idea at the moment is just
to plane down to that level
430
00:20:13,936 --> 00:20:15,800
where we've got material that
hasn't been disturbed.
431
00:20:15,835 --> 00:20:17,319
♪
432
00:20:17,354 --> 00:20:20,840
ATTENBOROUGH: They clear
down to the undisturbed layers
433
00:20:20,874 --> 00:20:23,739
and dig new trenches.
434
00:20:23,774 --> 00:20:25,396
♪
435
00:20:25,431 --> 00:20:27,743
Mammoth bones soon begin to appear.
436
00:20:27,778 --> 00:20:29,607
Oh, wow!
437
00:20:31,160 --> 00:20:32,817
That looks good, doesn't it?
438
00:20:32,852 --> 00:20:34,060
Look at that!
439
00:20:37,477 --> 00:20:38,547
GARROD:
Wow!
440
00:20:38,582 --> 00:20:40,411
So you got this wonderful
441
00:20:40,446 --> 00:20:41,654
little tusk here.
442
00:20:41,688 --> 00:20:43,518
Beautiful, isn't it?
443
00:20:43,552 --> 00:20:46,624
ATTENBOROUGH: To
determine the age of these finds,
444
00:20:46,659 --> 00:20:50,939
they send sediment samples
from the trenches
445
00:20:50,973 --> 00:20:52,492
to a specialist lab.
446
00:20:52,527 --> 00:20:54,563
♪
447
00:20:54,598 --> 00:20:56,324
In darkroom conditions,
448
00:20:56,358 --> 00:21:00,638
grains of quartz from deep
within the sediment
449
00:21:00,673 --> 00:21:03,779
are placed in a machine that
records tiny levels
450
00:21:03,814 --> 00:21:07,680
of radiation.
451
00:21:07,714 --> 00:21:08,819
[machine whirring]
452
00:21:08,853 --> 00:21:11,442
The amount of radiation
453
00:21:11,477 --> 00:21:12,719
emitted by the grains
454
00:21:12,754 --> 00:21:15,929
reveals when they were last
exposed to sunlight,
455
00:21:15,964 --> 00:21:18,311
and allows the team to estimate the age
456
00:21:18,346 --> 00:21:22,039
of the ancient river channel.
457
00:21:22,073 --> 00:21:24,973
Here we've got our distribution
of age within our sample.
458
00:21:27,182 --> 00:21:28,942
So, these three age estimates indicate
459
00:21:28,977 --> 00:21:32,221
that the channel was formed
about 215,000 years ago.
460
00:21:34,362 --> 00:21:35,984
♪
461
00:21:36,018 --> 00:21:40,885
ATTENBOROUGH: Our site
dates to a period deep in the ice age.
462
00:21:40,920 --> 00:21:43,888
But the ice age wasn't always icy.
463
00:21:43,923 --> 00:21:45,442
♪
464
00:21:45,476 --> 00:21:48,479
Over the last
two-and-a-half million years,
465
00:21:48,514 --> 00:21:52,863
huge ice sheets traveled down
from the north
466
00:21:52,897 --> 00:21:56,245
and then retreated during warmer spells.
467
00:21:57,971 --> 00:22:00,526
The advancing and retreating ice
468
00:22:00,560 --> 00:22:04,944
changed the sea level and the coastlines.
469
00:22:04,978 --> 00:22:06,946
But for most of this period,
470
00:22:06,980 --> 00:22:11,330
Britain was connected to mainland Europe.
471
00:22:11,364 --> 00:22:13,849
215,000 years ago,
472
00:22:13,884 --> 00:22:16,749
when the mammoths were living at our site,
473
00:22:16,783 --> 00:22:20,994
conditions were only slightly
cooler than today,
474
00:22:21,029 --> 00:22:25,378
ideal for a variety of animals.
475
00:22:25,413 --> 00:22:28,105
And evidence of tiny creatures at the site
476
00:22:28,139 --> 00:22:30,245
enables us to piece together a portrait
477
00:22:30,279 --> 00:22:33,490
of what was growing
on this land back then.
478
00:22:35,354 --> 00:22:39,081
JOSH HOGUE: There's loads of
small shell fragments throughout this.
479
00:22:39,116 --> 00:22:40,773
♪
480
00:22:40,807 --> 00:22:44,466
We've got this little snailin here.
481
00:22:44,501 --> 00:22:46,848
♪
482
00:22:46,882 --> 00:22:50,679
ATTENBOROUGH: Environmental
archaeologist Matt Law
483
00:22:50,714 --> 00:22:52,094
carefully identifies samples
484
00:22:52,129 --> 00:22:55,581
of tiny, but perfectly preserved, shells.
485
00:22:55,615 --> 00:22:57,272
♪
486
00:22:57,306 --> 00:22:59,792
LAW:
We have one land snail in there,
487
00:22:59,826 --> 00:23:01,759
so that's a very common species
488
00:23:01,794 --> 00:23:06,419
of short grassland snail, and the rest are
489
00:23:06,454 --> 00:23:09,733
looking like they're coming
from a, a river-type setting.
490
00:23:09,767 --> 00:23:12,632
Well-vegetated,
well-oxygenated water, and,
491
00:23:12,667 --> 00:23:14,669
but not too much flow, either.
492
00:23:14,703 --> 00:23:17,913
What's really remarkable is
the level of preservation.
493
00:23:17,948 --> 00:23:19,121
Not just the snails,
494
00:23:19,156 --> 00:23:22,435
but things like beetle remains, seeds,
495
00:23:22,470 --> 00:23:25,058
and bits of wood that we don't often see
496
00:23:25,093 --> 00:23:28,441
with the level of detail
that they are here.
497
00:23:28,476 --> 00:23:32,203
ATTENBOROUGH: The discovery
of these species of animals and plants
498
00:23:32,238 --> 00:23:34,723
enables us to get a quite detailed picture
499
00:23:34,758 --> 00:23:36,691
of what the landscape here was like
500
00:23:36,725 --> 00:23:39,556
when the mammoths were roaming around.
501
00:23:39,590 --> 00:23:42,213
This stretch of the ancient Thames
502
00:23:42,248 --> 00:23:45,907
was flowing through an open,
grassy landscape,
503
00:23:45,941 --> 00:23:48,806
a perfect place for large
herbivores to feed
504
00:23:48,841 --> 00:23:50,946
and find water.
505
00:23:50,981 --> 00:23:53,466
♪
506
00:23:53,501 --> 00:23:55,468
Back at the site,
507
00:23:55,503 --> 00:23:57,505
after weeks of searching for
more hand axes
508
00:23:57,539 --> 00:24:00,300
or stone tools among the mammoth bones,
509
00:24:00,335 --> 00:24:04,339
there's been a breakthrough:
510
00:24:04,373 --> 00:24:06,583
the telltale signs of humans.
511
00:24:06,617 --> 00:24:11,035
I think this may be a flint artifact.
512
00:24:11,070 --> 00:24:14,038
ATTENBOROUGH: Ben is
eager to see the new finds.
513
00:24:14,073 --> 00:24:16,972
It's really over in this area
514
00:24:17,007 --> 00:24:19,906
where we're starting to find
the really exciting stuff.
515
00:24:21,529 --> 00:24:26,016
Hiding in this sand
we have a relatively large
516
00:24:26,050 --> 00:24:30,330
piece of mammoth bone sticking
from the surface.
517
00:24:30,365 --> 00:24:31,711
And just in the last few days,
518
00:24:31,746 --> 00:24:35,059
we've started to pick out just
a couple of flints, so,
519
00:24:35,094 --> 00:24:37,924
little bits of stone which
had been worked by humans.
520
00:24:37,959 --> 00:24:41,238
And they're next door,
just 50 centimeters away
521
00:24:41,272 --> 00:24:42,308
from this lovely bit
522
00:24:42,342 --> 00:24:44,897
of what looks to be
a leg bone of a mammoth.
523
00:24:47,382 --> 00:24:49,384
And you can see they'd been
taking little chips
524
00:24:49,418 --> 00:24:53,526
out of the edge to create a
sharp cutting surface,
525
00:24:53,561 --> 00:24:55,804
which they could scrape along bones,
526
00:24:55,839 --> 00:24:57,219
or along hides, to remove fat.
527
00:24:57,254 --> 00:25:01,465
Something as simple as this
starts to connect those,
528
00:25:01,500 --> 00:25:03,985
those dots, starts to bring
the human story
529
00:25:04,019 --> 00:25:05,365
together with the mammoths.
530
00:25:05,400 --> 00:25:08,368
And, and that's really quite special.
531
00:25:08,403 --> 00:25:12,062
♪
532
00:25:15,652 --> 00:25:16,998
ATTENBOROUGH: The presence
of these tiny fragments
533
00:25:17,032 --> 00:25:19,172
alongside the bone
534
00:25:19,207 --> 00:25:22,451
suggests people were here at the
same time as the mammoths.
535
00:25:24,592 --> 00:25:27,146
The tool Sally and Neville found
536
00:25:27,180 --> 00:25:30,908
could also have been made
by the same people.
537
00:25:30,943 --> 00:25:33,566
♪
538
00:25:33,601 --> 00:25:35,119
To find out how
539
00:25:35,154 --> 00:25:38,226
these early tools were made,
Ben and I arrange
540
00:25:38,260 --> 00:25:41,919
to meet Karl Lee, an expert flintknapper.
541
00:25:41,954 --> 00:25:43,611
LEE:
So here we go.
542
00:25:43,645 --> 00:25:48,236
[rock clinking, shattering]
543
00:25:48,270 --> 00:25:49,617
♪
544
00:25:49,651 --> 00:25:54,138
ATTENBOROUGH [voiceover]:
Flint is a hard, glassy rock,
545
00:25:54,173 --> 00:25:56,106
often found near rivers and beaches.
546
00:25:56,140 --> 00:26:00,006
♪
547
00:26:00,041 --> 00:26:01,111
To shape it,
548
00:26:01,145 --> 00:26:03,700
Karl uses a rounded stone
549
00:26:03,734 --> 00:26:07,566
and then a piece of antler,
just as early humans did.
550
00:26:07,600 --> 00:26:09,050
There we go.
551
00:26:11,431 --> 00:26:14,331
That is amazing.
552
00:26:14,365 --> 00:26:16,229
That is amazing.
553
00:26:16,264 --> 00:26:17,817
Thank you very much.
[chuckles]
554
00:26:17,852 --> 00:26:19,198
GARROD:
What do you reckon, David?
555
00:26:19,232 --> 00:26:21,580
Could you take down a mammoth
with one of those?
556
00:26:21,614 --> 00:26:22,926
I should certainly cut up a deer.
557
00:26:22,960 --> 00:26:25,998
-They're around here.
-LEE: Yes.
558
00:26:26,032 --> 00:26:26,999
If you killed it with a spear,
559
00:26:27,033 --> 00:26:28,690
that's for the butcher.
560
00:26:29,898 --> 00:26:33,074
And, and you butcher it in half-an-hour.
561
00:26:33,108 --> 00:26:36,595
So I have, completely normally,
562
00:26:36,629 --> 00:26:38,148
brought a piece of meat on the bone.
563
00:26:38,182 --> 00:26:39,943
LEE: Okay.
564
00:26:42,946 --> 00:26:45,500
ATTENBOROUGH: Gosh.
565
00:26:45,534 --> 00:26:47,053
Huh.
566
00:26:47,088 --> 00:26:49,159
Mind your fingers.
567
00:26:49,193 --> 00:26:50,194
-LEE: Yes, mind your fingers.
-[chuckles]: Thanks, David.
568
00:26:51,575 --> 00:26:52,541
Oh, yeah.
569
00:26:52,576 --> 00:26:54,854
That's gone straight through.
570
00:26:59,100 --> 00:27:00,826
[flint cutting]
571
00:27:00,860 --> 00:27:03,898
ATTENBOROUGH:
No problem at all.
572
00:27:03,932 --> 00:27:08,419
ATTENBOROUGH [voiceover]: Karl also shows
us a second method of making stone tools,
573
00:27:08,454 --> 00:27:11,664
in which thin shards of flint,
574
00:27:11,699 --> 00:27:14,046
known as Levallois flakes,
575
00:27:14,080 --> 00:27:16,807
are knocked away from a large flint core.
576
00:27:16,842 --> 00:27:19,327
♪
577
00:27:22,295 --> 00:27:26,748
I have to prepare a platform...
578
00:27:28,405 --> 00:27:31,511
...at the base of the core,
579
00:27:31,546 --> 00:27:34,929
and then try and take a nice flake.
580
00:27:34,963 --> 00:27:36,862
Using this method,
581
00:27:36,896 --> 00:27:38,139
they're actually planning exactly
582
00:27:38,173 --> 00:27:39,761
what that flake's going to look like.
583
00:27:39,796 --> 00:27:42,246
So I'm going to be
striking right at the base
584
00:27:42,281 --> 00:27:45,387
of the core here,
and the flake will hopefully
585
00:27:45,422 --> 00:27:47,976
come off on the underside.
586
00:27:48,011 --> 00:27:51,014
That's a brave thing
to say. [chuckles]
587
00:27:51,048 --> 00:27:53,982
♪
588
00:27:54,017 --> 00:27:55,674
[flint cracks]
589
00:27:55,708 --> 00:27:58,884
That is a Levallois flake.
590
00:27:58,918 --> 00:28:00,368
Now, do watch your fingers on that one,
591
00:28:00,402 --> 00:28:02,715
because it's...
592
00:28:02,750 --> 00:28:04,890
[blows]:
It's going to be sharp.
593
00:28:04,924 --> 00:28:08,617
[clears throat]
594
00:28:08,652 --> 00:28:10,171
Yes, it's razor-sharp. Yeah.
595
00:28:10,205 --> 00:28:11,690
Razor-sharp.
596
00:28:11,724 --> 00:28:14,762
Where the edge is so thin,
597
00:28:14,796 --> 00:28:17,247
it's translucent...
it looks as though
598
00:28:17,281 --> 00:28:19,801
it's all got a halo all around it.
599
00:28:19,836 --> 00:28:23,149
Really beautiful, actually.
600
00:28:23,184 --> 00:28:25,600
LEE: This is a very versatile technology.
601
00:28:25,634 --> 00:28:28,361
It's portable, very lightweight,
602
00:28:28,396 --> 00:28:30,639
rather than carrying around something
603
00:28:30,674 --> 00:28:32,745
four or five times the weight.
604
00:28:32,780 --> 00:28:34,609
I can't imagine you teaching me this
605
00:28:34,643 --> 00:28:37,405
without a really good grasp of language.
606
00:28:37,439 --> 00:28:41,547
Teaching this without language would be,
607
00:28:41,581 --> 00:28:43,445
in my opinion, impossible.
608
00:28:43,480 --> 00:28:46,897
And I, my guess would be that children,
609
00:28:46,932 --> 00:28:49,589
just as they mimic their parents today,
610
00:28:49,624 --> 00:28:51,522
would have been mimicking
611
00:28:51,557 --> 00:28:52,696
their parents back then, as well.
612
00:28:52,731 --> 00:28:54,698
[chuckles]
613
00:28:56,562 --> 00:28:58,322
So, try and catch it about
614
00:28:58,357 --> 00:29:00,290
two millimeters back from the edge,
615
00:29:00,324 --> 00:29:03,707
so we... Oh, I've got it,
yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
616
00:29:03,742 --> 00:29:05,778
That's it, you're away.
617
00:29:08,367 --> 00:29:10,369
ATTENBOROUGH [voiceover]:
For hundreds of thousands of years,
618
00:29:10,403 --> 00:29:13,752
human beings have passed
on that sort of skill,
619
00:29:13,786 --> 00:29:16,927
that sort of insight into the materials
620
00:29:16,962 --> 00:29:19,343
that lay around them.
621
00:29:19,378 --> 00:29:22,588
♪
622
00:29:22,622 --> 00:29:25,177
Of course, they had
to be fortunate to find
623
00:29:25,211 --> 00:29:27,800
such marvelous material as flint,
624
00:29:27,835 --> 00:29:29,595
but once they did,
625
00:29:29,629 --> 00:29:32,736
what fabulous things they created with it.
626
00:29:32,771 --> 00:29:36,188
♪
627
00:29:36,222 --> 00:29:40,606
So who were the
flint-workers at Cerney Wick?
628
00:29:40,640 --> 00:29:44,990
We know very little
about prehistoric people.
629
00:29:45,024 --> 00:29:48,821
Most evidence of their
existence has decomposed
630
00:29:48,856 --> 00:29:53,930
and disappeared long ago,
but their stone tools remain.
631
00:29:53,964 --> 00:29:57,105
They reveal the remarkable story
632
00:29:57,140 --> 00:29:59,142
of early species of humans
633
00:29:59,176 --> 00:30:02,904
spreading from Africa
throughout Northern Europe.
634
00:30:02,939 --> 00:30:06,977
To find out which type of human was living
635
00:30:07,012 --> 00:30:11,671
at Cerney Wick, I've come to
a secure facility in London.
636
00:30:11,706 --> 00:30:14,640
It holds one of the largest collections
637
00:30:14,674 --> 00:30:18,126
of prehistoric artifacts in the world.
638
00:30:18,161 --> 00:30:21,992
Curator Nick Ashton is a renowned expert
639
00:30:22,027 --> 00:30:23,822
on these ancient tools.
640
00:30:23,856 --> 00:30:28,067
He begins by showing me
simple flint tools found
641
00:30:28,102 --> 00:30:31,208
near Happisburgh on the
east coast of England.
642
00:30:31,243 --> 00:30:33,555
ASHTON: We know that
in Africa they'd been making
643
00:30:33,590 --> 00:30:36,317
these tools for some two
to three million years.
644
00:30:36,351 --> 00:30:38,560
But this is the earliest
evidence that we have
645
00:30:38,595 --> 00:30:42,219
in Northern Europe of humans
reaching this far north.
646
00:30:42,254 --> 00:30:44,670
Dates to an astonishing 900,000 years ago.
647
00:30:44,704 --> 00:30:45,809
So it's... How much?
648
00:30:45,844 --> 00:30:46,879
900,000 years ago.
649
00:30:46,914 --> 00:30:48,432
Really?
650
00:30:48,467 --> 00:30:49,882
So it's the earliest evidence
651
00:30:49,917 --> 00:30:51,780
for humans in Northern Europe.
652
00:30:53,748 --> 00:30:57,027
ATTENBOROUGH:
In 2013, Nick's team made
653
00:30:57,062 --> 00:31:00,410
a truly extraordinary
discovery at Happisburgh.
654
00:31:00,444 --> 00:31:04,103
A storm washed away sand on a beach
655
00:31:04,138 --> 00:31:07,727
and revealed ancient footprints
set in hardened mud.
656
00:31:07,762 --> 00:31:11,421
They were the oldest human
footprints ever documented
657
00:31:11,455 --> 00:31:15,183
outside of Africa, but within two weeks,
658
00:31:15,218 --> 00:31:19,636
they had vanished,
washed away by incoming tides.
659
00:31:22,328 --> 00:31:24,883
It's thought that early humans
spread out of Africa
660
00:31:24,917 --> 00:31:27,264
around two million years ago.
661
00:31:27,299 --> 00:31:29,646
A million years later,
662
00:31:29,680 --> 00:31:32,545
some of their descendants reached Britain.
663
00:31:34,513 --> 00:31:37,033
What sort of people was it who did this?
664
00:31:37,067 --> 00:31:39,449
I mean, did they have clothes of any kind?
665
00:31:39,483 --> 00:31:41,658
Were they covered in hair?
666
00:31:41,692 --> 00:31:43,936
I mean, do we, how, do we know
what they looked like?
667
00:31:43,971 --> 00:31:45,558
We, we actually know very little,
668
00:31:45,593 --> 00:31:47,595
but the species of human
669
00:31:47,629 --> 00:31:49,942
in Europe at that time
was Homo antecessor.
670
00:31:49,977 --> 00:31:52,082
They would have looked
very similar to ourselves,
671
00:31:52,117 --> 00:31:53,808
apart from slightly different facial...
672
00:31:53,842 --> 00:31:55,223
But it's a guess whether
they were hairy or not.
673
00:31:55,258 --> 00:31:57,501
It's a guess as to
whether they're hairy... [laughs]
674
00:31:57,536 --> 00:31:59,400
...or had extra body fat
to cope
675
00:31:59,434 --> 00:32:00,435
with these cold winters. Yeah.
676
00:32:01,781 --> 00:32:04,923
ATTENBOROUGH [voiceover]:
By 500,000 years ago,
677
00:32:04,957 --> 00:32:07,270
humans in Britain were
capable of crafting hand axes
678
00:32:07,304 --> 00:32:10,825
like the one found at Cerney Wick.
679
00:32:10,859 --> 00:32:13,241
ASHTON: We know that
they're hunting by this point,
680
00:32:13,276 --> 00:32:15,934
and they're certainly
butchering a range of different
681
00:32:15,968 --> 00:32:18,798
deer, and probably
larger animals, as well.
682
00:32:18,833 --> 00:32:20,490
And one of the important
things is, if you're a hunter,
683
00:32:20,524 --> 00:32:22,457
you get to the carcass first.
684
00:32:22,492 --> 00:32:23,907
The hide is intact.
685
00:32:23,942 --> 00:32:25,944
It hasn't been chewed
to bits by the hyenas
686
00:32:25,978 --> 00:32:28,981
or the other carnivores or the big cats.
687
00:32:29,016 --> 00:32:31,397
And that hide you would
almost certainly use
688
00:32:31,432 --> 00:32:33,572
for either clothing or shelter
689
00:32:33,606 --> 00:32:36,368
to help you cope with those cold winters.
690
00:32:36,402 --> 00:32:40,303
♪
691
00:32:40,337 --> 00:32:44,134
ATTENBOROUGH:
Humans first used fire in Africa,
692
00:32:44,169 --> 00:32:46,516
and by 400,000 years ago,
693
00:32:46,550 --> 00:32:49,312
they were using it in
Northern Europe, as well.
694
00:32:49,346 --> 00:32:52,004
♪
695
00:32:52,039 --> 00:32:53,350
ASHTON:
This is burnt flint.
696
00:32:53,385 --> 00:32:57,320
It's a block of flint
that shattered under heat.
697
00:32:57,354 --> 00:33:00,461
What we think we're dealing
with is a small campfire,
698
00:33:00,495 --> 00:33:02,601
which has all kinds of benefits.
699
00:33:02,635 --> 00:33:04,016
It's not just warm,
700
00:33:04,051 --> 00:33:07,813
it's not just keeping away big cats.
701
00:33:10,574 --> 00:33:13,370
It's also a hub for social life.
702
00:33:13,405 --> 00:33:16,787
It extends your daylight
hours into the night.
703
00:33:16,822 --> 00:33:19,825
♪
704
00:33:19,859 --> 00:33:22,379
It means you begin to tell stories.
705
00:33:22,414 --> 00:33:25,175
It's all part of the
development of language
706
00:33:25,210 --> 00:33:28,696
and those all-important
social bonds that make us human.
707
00:33:28,730 --> 00:33:31,940
♪
708
00:33:36,876 --> 00:33:40,052
You paint a very, very
convincing picture, actually,
709
00:33:40,087 --> 00:33:42,434
and anyone who's sat by a fire
710
00:33:42,668 --> 00:33:45,264
knows how hypnotic it can be.
711
00:33:45,299 --> 00:33:47,370
ATTENBOROUGH: Just sitting
there watching the flames.
712
00:33:47,404 --> 00:33:48,854
ASHTON:
Yeah, yeah.
713
00:33:48,888 --> 00:33:50,580
ATTENBOROUGH:
That's a very exciting picture.
714
00:33:50,614 --> 00:33:53,548
♪
715
00:33:56,206 --> 00:34:00,797
ATTENBOROUGH [voiceover]: By
250,000 years ago, Levallois flakes
716
00:34:00,831 --> 00:34:04,801
appear like the ones
that Karl had shown us.
717
00:34:04,835 --> 00:34:08,977
ASHTON: Here we have
these carefully crafted points.
718
00:34:09,012 --> 00:34:11,704
And this is a massive step
forward in terms of technology.
719
00:34:14,673 --> 00:34:18,056
ATTENBOROUGH [voiceover]:
So where does our site fit in?
720
00:34:20,782 --> 00:34:23,785
I've brought Sally
and Neville's stone tool.
721
00:34:26,202 --> 00:34:28,790
Now, this, which I know
you haven't seen before...
722
00:34:28,825 --> 00:34:31,483
What... was found
723
00:34:31,517 --> 00:34:33,071
alongside this mammoth
724
00:34:33,105 --> 00:34:35,625
which we have been excavating.
725
00:34:35,659 --> 00:34:38,938
What does that tell you about dating,
726
00:34:38,973 --> 00:34:40,216
or indeed anything else?
727
00:34:40,250 --> 00:34:42,908
Well, it's undoubtedly a hand axe,
728
00:34:42,942 --> 00:34:46,049
and very typical of early Neanderthals,
729
00:34:46,084 --> 00:34:47,706
quite similar to some of these.
730
00:34:47,740 --> 00:34:50,191
I gather that the site dates to roughly
731
00:34:50,226 --> 00:34:51,744
about 200,000 years ago.
732
00:34:51,779 --> 00:34:53,712
So it would actually be contemporary
733
00:34:53,746 --> 00:34:55,645
with these Levallois points.
734
00:34:55,679 --> 00:34:56,991
But it's very different.
735
00:34:57,025 --> 00:35:00,408
Here we have a traditional hand axe.
736
00:35:00,443 --> 00:35:01,996
So what's going on?
737
00:35:02,030 --> 00:35:04,964
One idea is that you've
got different populations
738
00:35:04,999 --> 00:35:07,174
coming in from different parts of Europe
739
00:35:07,208 --> 00:35:08,796
with different technologies.
740
00:35:08,830 --> 00:35:11,626
Another idea might be
that maybe you've got
741
00:35:11,661 --> 00:35:15,182
a residual population in
Britain, in Western Britain,
742
00:35:15,216 --> 00:35:16,804
who are still making hand axes.
743
00:35:16,838 --> 00:35:18,323
We're still talking about Neanderthals?
744
00:35:18,357 --> 00:35:19,979
We're still talking about Neanderthals.
745
00:35:20,014 --> 00:35:22,948
♪
746
00:35:27,125 --> 00:35:29,057
ATTENBOROUGH [voiceover]:
Stone tools like these,
747
00:35:29,092 --> 00:35:31,750
together with rare
fragments of human bone,
748
00:35:31,784 --> 00:35:35,892
reveal that four species of
human have occupied Britain.
749
00:35:37,928 --> 00:35:41,069
The stone tools and the dating
of our site both suggest
750
00:35:41,104 --> 00:35:43,210
that the humans who were living here
751
00:35:43,244 --> 00:35:45,660
were, in fact, Neanderthals.
752
00:35:45,695 --> 00:35:47,904
To find out more about them,
753
00:35:47,938 --> 00:35:52,667
Ben is meeting anthropologist
Ella Al-Shamahi.
754
00:35:52,702 --> 00:35:55,636
So our ancestors and the
ancestors of Neanderthals
755
00:35:55,670 --> 00:35:57,500
were in Africa, and then at some point,
756
00:35:57,534 --> 00:35:59,226
a group of them left,
757
00:35:59,260 --> 00:36:00,917
and we don't know where
and we don't know when.
758
00:36:00,951 --> 00:36:02,850
But they became Neanderthals.
759
00:36:02,884 --> 00:36:04,783
We have sites all the way
760
00:36:04,817 --> 00:36:06,060
as far as Siberia,
761
00:36:06,094 --> 00:36:09,408
and then we have a whole
pile of sites in Europe.
762
00:36:09,443 --> 00:36:11,169
Doesn't mean that they
are a European species.
763
00:36:11,203 --> 00:36:12,308
It just means
764
00:36:12,342 --> 00:36:13,826
that a lot of
the archaeologists are actually
765
00:36:13,861 --> 00:36:16,415
in Europe and were digging
in their own backyards.
766
00:36:16,450 --> 00:36:18,417
We've got this massive array, actually,
767
00:36:18,452 --> 00:36:20,730
of Neanderthals in this whole region.
768
00:36:20,764 --> 00:36:22,663
And if you look at that region,
769
00:36:22,697 --> 00:36:24,734
that's a number of different environments,
770
00:36:24,768 --> 00:36:26,563
and a number of different
climates, as well.
771
00:36:26,598 --> 00:36:28,634
And do we know what they looked like?
772
00:36:28,669 --> 00:36:32,017
Yeah, so Neanderthals
were very similar to us,
773
00:36:32,051 --> 00:36:34,330
but there were crucial differences.
774
00:36:34,364 --> 00:36:36,470
So, for example, we know
that Neanderthals, on average,
775
00:36:36,504 --> 00:36:39,197
were, well, they were shorter.
776
00:36:39,231 --> 00:36:41,129
So male Neanderthals
would have come in at about
777
00:36:41,164 --> 00:36:43,235
five foot four, five foot five.
778
00:36:43,270 --> 00:36:45,064
They were also really stocky.
779
00:36:45,099 --> 00:36:47,239
But, you know, people have said,
780
00:36:47,274 --> 00:36:48,861
"Well, if you got a Neanderthal,
781
00:36:48,896 --> 00:36:51,036
"you gave him a shave, and
you give him a bowler hat,
782
00:36:51,070 --> 00:36:53,866
you put him on the New York
subway, would anyone notice?"
783
00:36:53,901 --> 00:36:56,075
And then somebody else obviously said,
784
00:36:56,110 --> 00:36:58,181
"Well, that probably says more
about the New York subway
785
00:36:58,216 --> 00:36:59,527
than it does about
Neanderthals."[laughs]
786
00:36:59,562 --> 00:37:01,391
But the point stands, you know.
787
00:37:01,426 --> 00:37:05,257
How different were they, really?
788
00:37:05,292 --> 00:37:09,227
♪
789
00:37:11,436 --> 00:37:13,092
ATTENBOROUGH:
Back at the site,
790
00:37:13,127 --> 00:37:16,820
the team is finding that
nearly all the tusks and bones
791
00:37:16,855 --> 00:37:19,237
are lying in a single layer of sediment,
792
00:37:19,271 --> 00:37:24,172
suggesting the mammoths
all died around the same time.
793
00:37:24,207 --> 00:37:26,382
What could have killed a group
794
00:37:26,416 --> 00:37:29,108
of mammoths in such a short period?
795
00:37:29,143 --> 00:37:32,560
WILKINSON: And we can trace this
layer pretty much all the way around
796
00:37:32,595 --> 00:37:35,080
to the tusk on the far side, now.
797
00:37:35,114 --> 00:37:36,599
So it's, they're all...
798
00:37:36,633 --> 00:37:39,187
It's all the, formed at the same time.
799
00:37:39,222 --> 00:37:40,672
And we can't see flooding?
800
00:37:40,706 --> 00:37:42,018
'Cause I'm just trying to think what's,
801
00:37:42,052 --> 00:37:43,985
what's forcible enough to move a tusk.
802
00:37:44,020 --> 00:37:45,504
No, there's nothing, I mean...
803
00:37:45,539 --> 00:37:47,955
This is, this is weird,
'cause there's not enough mud.
804
00:37:47,989 --> 00:37:50,268
There's not enough, there's no flood. No.
805
00:37:50,302 --> 00:37:52,097
They just died in this
area for some reason. Yeah.
806
00:37:53,823 --> 00:37:56,929
ATTENBOROUGH: Ben is doubtful
that the mammoth got stuck in the mud.
807
00:37:56,964 --> 00:37:58,793
GARROD:
The mud's deep, but it's not
808
00:37:58,828 --> 00:38:02,314
up to a mammoth's armpits deep.
809
00:38:02,349 --> 00:38:04,730
Disease?
I mean, there's nothing, really,
810
00:38:04,765 --> 00:38:06,456
in terms of, of modern relatives, that...
811
00:38:06,491 --> 00:38:07,768
the elephants...
812
00:38:07,802 --> 00:38:09,494
that would kill a whole group
that quickly in one site
813
00:38:09,528 --> 00:38:11,496
at one time to explain this.
814
00:38:11,530 --> 00:38:13,394
And we've got adults
and juveniles, as well.
815
00:38:13,429 --> 00:38:15,983
So it's not the classic elephant graveyard
816
00:38:16,017 --> 00:38:17,536
all, all being left in one site, either.
817
00:38:17,571 --> 00:38:20,539
And it leaves this idea, this possibility,
818
00:38:20,574 --> 00:38:21,989
that it was people.
819
00:38:22,023 --> 00:38:23,439
So were they chasing them in?
820
00:38:23,473 --> 00:38:25,855
Were they corralling them somehow?
821
00:38:25,889 --> 00:38:28,167
Were they... I, I don't know.
822
00:38:28,202 --> 00:38:31,999
But that's almost weirder,
because I can't imagine
823
00:38:32,033 --> 00:38:34,657
quite early Neanderthal people
824
00:38:34,691 --> 00:38:36,486
bringing down a bunch of mammoths.
825
00:38:36,521 --> 00:38:38,799
Because these things were tons
826
00:38:38,833 --> 00:38:40,973
of anger and intelligence.
827
00:38:41,008 --> 00:38:43,942
♪
828
00:38:55,471 --> 00:38:58,025
ATTENBOROUGH:
Evidence suggesting that
829
00:38:58,059 --> 00:38:59,958
Neanderthals could successfully
830
00:38:59,992 --> 00:39:02,857
hunt mammoths is extremely rare.
831
00:39:02,892 --> 00:39:06,378
But this is the island of Jersey,
832
00:39:06,413 --> 00:39:10,071
and here, at La Cotte
de St. Brelade,
833
00:39:10,106 --> 00:39:13,005
piles of mammoth bones have been found
834
00:39:13,040 --> 00:39:15,974
that suggest that Neanderthals may indeed
835
00:39:16,008 --> 00:39:19,253
have been killing mammoths here.
836
00:39:19,287 --> 00:39:21,497
Archaeologist Matt Pope
837
00:39:21,531 --> 00:39:23,706
has been studying the site for years.
838
00:39:23,740 --> 00:39:27,295
POPE: Our first glimpse
of La Cotte de St. Brelade,
839
00:39:27,330 --> 00:39:29,712
towering up above us.
840
00:39:29,746 --> 00:39:31,334
GARROD:
Oh, wow,
841
00:39:31,369 --> 00:39:33,336
It's like this huge cathedral
fortress, isn't it?
842
00:39:33,371 --> 00:39:35,511
It's beautiful.
843
00:39:35,545 --> 00:39:37,305
♪
844
00:39:39,894 --> 00:39:42,034
POPE: We can see a
lot of the site from here,
845
00:39:42,069 --> 00:39:43,622
the main granite structure,
846
00:39:43,657 --> 00:39:46,245
the arch that takes you
through to the north ravine,
847
00:39:46,280 --> 00:39:47,385
and in front of us,
848
00:39:47,419 --> 00:39:50,664
the west ravine, the main open space.
849
00:39:53,114 --> 00:39:57,429
ATTENBOROUGH: The site
has been investigated since 1881.
850
00:39:57,464 --> 00:40:00,432
And over the years,
archaeologists excavated
851
00:40:00,467 --> 00:40:02,434
down into the ravine.
852
00:40:02,469 --> 00:40:05,610
At two levels, they discovered
853
00:40:05,644 --> 00:40:10,373
heaps of bones of butchered mammoths.
854
00:40:10,408 --> 00:40:13,203
The mystery is how these bones got there.
855
00:40:15,067 --> 00:40:17,553
POPE: An original explanation,
and a very good one,
856
00:40:17,587 --> 00:40:20,487
was that the mammoth
were all herded together,
857
00:40:20,521 --> 00:40:22,316
by Neanderthal hunters,
858
00:40:22,350 --> 00:40:24,076
and driven over the cliffs to their death.
859
00:40:24,111 --> 00:40:25,492
So you imagine...
GARROD: From right up there?
860
00:40:25,526 --> 00:40:26,907
POPE:
From right up there.
861
00:40:26,941 --> 00:40:28,805
I mean, that's quite
a thought, to think of
862
00:40:28,840 --> 00:40:31,049
a whole herd of mammoths coming cascading
863
00:40:31,083 --> 00:40:32,568
over the edge right there.
864
00:40:32,602 --> 00:40:34,639
POPE: It's a good theory,
but it's not a very good
865
00:40:34,673 --> 00:40:36,813
headland for actually
concentrating a herd.
866
00:40:36,848 --> 00:40:39,091
There is simply no way
867
00:40:39,126 --> 00:40:41,266
you could funnel the
mammoth into this ravine.
868
00:40:41,300 --> 00:40:43,786
They'd be splitting off into
all different directions.
869
00:40:43,820 --> 00:40:47,099
We've been recently
relooking at those bone heaps
870
00:40:47,134 --> 00:40:48,687
and looking at the evidence,
871
00:40:48,722 --> 00:40:51,103
and we put forward an alternative idea.
872
00:40:51,138 --> 00:40:53,174
And that idea is that these bone heaps
873
00:40:53,209 --> 00:40:54,831
didn't form in one go... Mm-hmm.
874
00:40:54,866 --> 00:40:56,764
...in mass kills.
875
00:40:56,799 --> 00:40:59,318
But actually, they formed over
a long period of time,
876
00:40:59,353 --> 00:41:01,528
and the hunting was taking place out here
877
00:41:01,562 --> 00:41:03,771
on the surrounding landscapes.
878
00:41:03,806 --> 00:41:05,497
They were bringing these bones back,
879
00:41:05,532 --> 00:41:07,016
and then over time,
880
00:41:07,050 --> 00:41:09,570
they put these heaps of bone together.
881
00:41:09,605 --> 00:41:11,503
And this whole area, as we look at it now,
882
00:41:11,538 --> 00:41:13,056
it's this beautiful coastline
883
00:41:13,091 --> 00:41:15,127
that stretches
out to the, the Channel here.
884
00:41:15,162 --> 00:41:17,544
But this would have all been
one big grassy plain.
885
00:41:17,578 --> 00:41:21,271
POPE: We've got the
seabed landscape mapped.
886
00:41:21,306 --> 00:41:23,619
There's little cul-de-sacs
where you get dead ends,
887
00:41:23,653 --> 00:41:25,241
and you could control game.
888
00:41:25,275 --> 00:41:27,174
And we know from other
Neanderthal sites where
889
00:41:27,208 --> 00:41:29,866
hunting is taking place,
they love landscapes
890
00:41:29,901 --> 00:41:31,730
in which they control game.
891
00:41:31,765 --> 00:41:33,076
Probably the whole Neanderthal community
892
00:41:33,111 --> 00:41:34,664
would be involved in hunting,
893
00:41:34,699 --> 00:41:37,529
corralling, controlling,
894
00:41:37,564 --> 00:41:41,499
moving, isolating
particular members of a herd.
895
00:41:41,533 --> 00:41:44,502
♪
896
00:41:44,536 --> 00:41:47,781
ATTENBOROUGH: Most archaeologists
now think that the Neanderthals
897
00:41:47,815 --> 00:41:51,025
were capable of hunting
large prey like mammoths,
898
00:41:51,060 --> 00:41:54,235
as they seem to have done in Jersey.
899
00:41:54,270 --> 00:41:56,341
But it would be much harder to trap them
900
00:41:56,375 --> 00:41:59,309
on the flat grasslands of Cerney Wick.
901
00:41:59,344 --> 00:42:04,142
Perhaps the river might have
slowed the mammoths down.
902
00:42:04,176 --> 00:42:07,455
But how would the
Neanderthals have killed them?
903
00:42:07,490 --> 00:42:11,149
Wooden spears may well have been used.
904
00:42:11,183 --> 00:42:13,565
Wood, of course, rots away quickly,
905
00:42:13,600 --> 00:42:16,568
so we're very unlikely to find one.
906
00:42:16,603 --> 00:42:19,606
But there are some.
907
00:42:19,640 --> 00:42:22,125
♪
908
00:42:22,160 --> 00:42:24,507
In 1911, in Essex,
909
00:42:24,542 --> 00:42:27,993
a wooden spear tip was
found in waterlogged soil.
910
00:42:29,892 --> 00:42:31,790
And in 1948,
911
00:42:31,825 --> 00:42:35,104
stronger evidence of spear
hunting was uncovered.
912
00:42:35,138 --> 00:42:37,934
A spear was found within
the fossilized ribs
913
00:42:37,969 --> 00:42:40,454
of a straight-tusked elephant.
914
00:42:42,421 --> 00:42:44,458
Then, in 1995,
915
00:42:44,492 --> 00:42:47,288
at a mine in Schoöningen in Germany,
916
00:42:47,323 --> 00:42:50,775
ten miraculously well
preserved Neanderthal spears
917
00:42:50,809 --> 00:42:53,363
were found lying among the skeletons
918
00:42:53,398 --> 00:42:57,333
of around 50 horses, the oldest complete
919
00:42:57,367 --> 00:43:02,545
prehistoric hunting weapons ever found.
920
00:43:02,580 --> 00:43:06,307
Archaeologists had assumed
these early hunters
921
00:43:06,342 --> 00:43:08,724
thrust their spears into the flanks
922
00:43:08,758 --> 00:43:12,313
of prey at close range.
923
00:43:12,348 --> 00:43:14,557
But could spears like
this have been thrown
924
00:43:14,592 --> 00:43:17,974
at mammoths from a longer distance?
925
00:43:19,182 --> 00:43:22,082
To find out, we asked a wood carver
926
00:43:22,116 --> 00:43:27,259
to make exact replicas of the
Schoöningen spears from spruce,
927
00:43:27,294 --> 00:43:28,916
the same shape, weight, and type of wood
928
00:43:28,951 --> 00:43:31,091
as the ancient spears.
929
00:43:31,125 --> 00:43:32,368
MILKS: Hi, guys.
930
00:43:32,402 --> 00:43:35,129
GARROD:
We've brought you some spears.
931
00:43:35,164 --> 00:43:37,200
ATTENBOROUGH: Annemieke
Milks is an investigator
932
00:43:37,235 --> 00:43:39,306
of Neanderthal hunting methods.
933
00:43:39,340 --> 00:43:41,929
She wants to see how well these replica
934
00:43:41,964 --> 00:43:44,207
Neanderthal spears will
perform in the hands
935
00:43:44,242 --> 00:43:46,762
of Bekah Walton and Harry Hughes,
936
00:43:46,796 --> 00:43:50,455
two of Britain's leading javelin throwers.
937
00:43:50,489 --> 00:43:52,630
I'm really curious to see what
938
00:43:52,664 --> 00:43:55,494
an experienced thrower
makes of how they feel.
939
00:43:55,529 --> 00:43:57,117
WALTON: They are the right length,
940
00:43:57,151 --> 00:43:58,497
compared to a normal spear.
941
00:43:58,532 --> 00:43:59,947
Yeah, the balance is really good.
942
00:43:59,982 --> 00:44:01,328
Yeah, they're surprisingly similar
943
00:44:01,362 --> 00:44:02,881
to a normal javelin, actually. Yeah.
944
00:44:04,780 --> 00:44:06,954
ATTENBOROUGH:
Annemieke wants to test how
945
00:44:06,989 --> 00:44:09,336
the spears fly, and if they can be
946
00:44:09,370 --> 00:44:11,649
used accurately, to hit a target.
947
00:44:11,683 --> 00:44:12,926
GARROD: We want to know,
948
00:44:12,960 --> 00:44:15,169
can you two kill
949
00:44:15,204 --> 00:44:16,930
that mammoth silhouette for us, please?
950
00:44:16,964 --> 00:44:18,172
HUGHES: Okay, right,
should we give it a go?
951
00:44:18,207 --> 00:44:19,208
WALTON: Let's go.
952
00:44:22,383 --> 00:44:23,384
[Garrod chortling] WALTON:
Oh, my gosh.
953
00:44:23,419 --> 00:44:25,248
First time.
954
00:44:25,283 --> 00:44:30,322
♪
955
00:44:43,197 --> 00:44:45,786
MILKS:
Up until fairly recently,
956
00:44:45,821 --> 00:44:48,720
most people were arguing
that Neanderthals were
957
00:44:48,755 --> 00:44:51,930
only capable of hunting
at immediate distances.
958
00:44:51,965 --> 00:44:55,175
And this shows that their technology
959
00:44:55,209 --> 00:44:57,764
was capable of distance hunting.
960
00:44:57,798 --> 00:45:02,285
♪
961
00:45:06,773 --> 00:45:08,775
[Garrod chortles] MILKS:
Brilliant.
962
00:45:08,809 --> 00:45:11,087
♪
963
00:45:11,122 --> 00:45:12,606
GARROD:
Okay, big question of the day.
964
00:45:12,640 --> 00:45:15,782
Our site, is there any
chance that our Neanderthals
965
00:45:15,816 --> 00:45:17,335
could have been hunting
mammoths, do you think?
966
00:45:17,369 --> 00:45:20,614
Given the fact that we have
a whole load of evidence
967
00:45:20,648 --> 00:45:22,892
that the spears are functional weapons...
968
00:45:22,927 --> 00:45:26,206
both as thrusting weapons
and as throwing weapons...
969
00:45:26,240 --> 00:45:28,864
and that we see this evidence
970
00:45:28,898 --> 00:45:32,522
of exploitation of mammoth,
I think it's very much
971
00:45:32,557 --> 00:45:35,353
in the realm of possibility
that mammoths were being
972
00:45:35,387 --> 00:45:37,907
hunted by Neanderthals
with spears like these.
973
00:45:37,942 --> 00:45:40,876
♪
974
00:45:53,751 --> 00:45:57,340
ATTENBOROUGH: So Neanderthals
could possibly have hunted mammoths
975
00:45:57,375 --> 00:46:00,688
at Cerney Wick over 200,000 years ago.
976
00:46:00,723 --> 00:46:04,865
♪
977
00:46:04,900 --> 00:46:07,281
But in the millennia that followed,
978
00:46:07,316 --> 00:46:11,389
both the Neanderthals and the
steppe mammoths disappeared.
979
00:46:11,423 --> 00:46:14,219
♪
980
00:46:14,254 --> 00:46:18,120
Neanderthals resettled in
Britain around 60,000 years ago.
981
00:46:18,154 --> 00:46:20,708
But our own species, Homo sapiens,
982
00:46:20,743 --> 00:46:23,504
arrives soon after that,
983
00:46:23,539 --> 00:46:27,370
and evidence of the presence
of Neanderthals vanishes.
984
00:46:27,405 --> 00:46:29,752
AL-SHAMAHI:
It might be
985
00:46:29,787 --> 00:46:32,030
that we out-competed them, right?
986
00:46:32,065 --> 00:46:36,069
We were just better at using the
landscape and resources.
987
00:46:36,103 --> 00:46:38,347
One of the things that
we know is that they
988
00:46:38,381 --> 00:46:41,384
lived in small, isolated populations.
989
00:46:41,419 --> 00:46:43,559
That is not going to do your
gene pool any good. Hm.
990
00:46:43,593 --> 00:46:44,560
At all.
991
00:46:44,594 --> 00:46:45,941
There's even an argument
992
00:46:45,975 --> 00:46:47,494
that they're still with ustoday.
993
00:46:47,528 --> 00:46:49,289
Me and you will have about
994
00:46:49,323 --> 00:46:51,463
two percent Neanderthal DNA in us.
995
00:46:51,498 --> 00:46:53,534
And that's because our ancestors...
996
00:46:53,569 --> 00:46:55,536
multiple times, it seems...
997
00:46:55,571 --> 00:46:57,021
interbred with Neanderthals.
998
00:46:57,055 --> 00:46:58,677
So actually, the end of the story
999
00:46:58,712 --> 00:47:00,472
isn't completely tragic,
1000
00:47:00,507 --> 00:47:02,716
because it turns out that
there's a little bit of them...
1001
00:47:02,750 --> 00:47:05,167
Still here. In us, yeah.
1002
00:47:05,201 --> 00:47:07,790
♪
1003
00:47:07,825 --> 00:47:09,757
ATTENBOROUGH:
Back at the site at Cerney Wick,
1004
00:47:09,792 --> 00:47:12,243
there's excitement as they assess
1005
00:47:12,277 --> 00:47:14,245
their haul of flint tools.
1006
00:47:14,279 --> 00:47:16,868
[laughing]: Are you okay? Are you okay?
1007
00:47:16,903 --> 00:47:18,490
Breathe... I think he
forgot to breathe.
1008
00:47:18,525 --> 00:47:20,251
Wow, wow. This, this lovely little flake.
1009
00:47:20,285 --> 00:47:22,322
So you can see it's got a little point
1010
00:47:22,356 --> 00:47:24,772
where they hit it with a
stone hammer to remove it.
1011
00:47:24,807 --> 00:47:27,051
WESTSCOTT WILKINS:
It's perfect.
1012
00:47:27,085 --> 00:47:29,467
WILKINS: Wow, and that was the
first hint that you found?
1013
00:47:29,501 --> 00:47:31,296
-That was the first one, yeah.
-WILKINS: So there was a party straight after that?
1014
00:47:31,331 --> 00:47:33,264
And then the next one we found...
1015
00:47:33,298 --> 00:47:35,231
WILKINS: Oh, my goodness.
1016
00:47:35,266 --> 00:47:36,923
...is this beautiful
scraper edge.
1017
00:47:36,957 --> 00:47:38,510
Typically we think, you know,
you would have held it
1018
00:47:38,545 --> 00:47:39,684
like this.
WESTSCOTT WILKINS: Look how it fits.
1019
00:47:39,718 --> 00:47:42,583
They would have pulled
the fat off of the hide.
1020
00:47:42,618 --> 00:47:45,069
It's really quite impressive.
1021
00:47:45,103 --> 00:47:48,037
We've got these five flint
tools all from the same area,
1022
00:47:48,072 --> 00:47:50,557
all finely worked,
all really, really clear.
1023
00:47:50,591 --> 00:47:53,008
And that's quite exciting and quite rare.
1024
00:47:53,042 --> 00:47:55,044
I mean, it's really easy
to say, "Oh, five things.
1025
00:47:55,079 --> 00:47:56,252
That's not many."
1026
00:47:56,287 --> 00:47:57,840
But actually, when we're talking about
1027
00:47:57,875 --> 00:47:59,497
200,000 years ago,
1028
00:47:59,531 --> 00:48:02,672
we might only be finding one or
two things in a site
1029
00:48:02,707 --> 00:48:04,536
which has been excavated for decades.
1030
00:48:04,571 --> 00:48:06,676
ATTENBOROUGH:
On the mammoth leg bone
1031
00:48:06,711 --> 00:48:09,748
they found next to the flints,
they've seen scratch marks
1032
00:48:09,783 --> 00:48:13,580
that could provide evidence of butchery.
1033
00:48:13,614 --> 00:48:15,237
HOGUE: We see little marks and nicks...
1034
00:48:15,271 --> 00:48:16,963
WILKINS:
Yeah... in the top.
1035
00:48:16,997 --> 00:48:18,826
HOGUE:
Two lovely parallel lines.
1036
00:48:18,861 --> 00:48:20,552
There's one slightly longer.
WILKINS: Yeah.
1037
00:48:20,587 --> 00:48:22,727
There's another one, just
a short one, just in beside it. Yeah.
1038
00:48:22,761 --> 00:48:25,212
And it's really tempting
to call them cut marks,
1039
00:48:25,247 --> 00:48:26,938
but we'll have to get it back into the lab
1040
00:48:26,973 --> 00:48:29,216
to actually determine. Yeah.
1041
00:48:29,251 --> 00:48:31,218
It's like a really
big whodunit, isn't it? Mm-hmm.
1042
00:48:31,253 --> 00:48:33,289
So, did they all die of a disease?
1043
00:48:33,324 --> 00:48:35,291
Was there a massive flood that came in?
1044
00:48:35,326 --> 00:48:36,844
Or were we hunting them?
1045
00:48:36,879 --> 00:48:38,398
Having worked with elephants in the wild,
1046
00:48:38,432 --> 00:48:41,435
I think possibly, a juvenile,
very, very young one
1047
00:48:41,470 --> 00:48:42,954
might have just got stuck in the mud.
1048
00:48:42,989 --> 00:48:44,404
It panicked the group.
1049
00:48:44,438 --> 00:48:47,131
Things went really badly really quickly,
1050
00:48:47,165 --> 00:48:49,547
and we came along as
scavengers and possibly found
1051
00:48:49,581 --> 00:48:51,307
the world's biggest buffet
lying there for us.
1052
00:48:51,342 --> 00:48:53,171
We're just opportunists,
is what you're saying.
1053
00:48:53,206 --> 00:48:54,690
GARROD:
I think we were opportunists.
1054
00:48:54,724 --> 00:48:57,244
HOGUE: Well, I just love
the idea that the, you know,
1055
00:48:57,279 --> 00:48:59,384
Neanderthals are sitting on the
ridge over the far end,
1056
00:48:59,419 --> 00:49:03,423
hiding amongst the tall grass.
1057
00:49:03,457 --> 00:49:04,976
And then mammoths are coming down
1058
00:49:05,011 --> 00:49:07,979
to the water and they're panicking them.
1059
00:49:08,014 --> 00:49:09,912
Neanderthals come
in and they take advantage
1060
00:49:09,947 --> 00:49:12,397
of, of the mammoths,
they sort of start butchering
1061
00:49:12,432 --> 00:49:15,953
and taking away the nice meat for meals.
1062
00:49:18,093 --> 00:49:20,026
GARROD: Isn't it wonderful
to think that the last time
1063
00:49:20,060 --> 00:49:22,373
someone sat exactly on this spot
1064
00:49:22,407 --> 00:49:25,031
in a little group with that
stone tool in their hands
1065
00:49:25,065 --> 00:49:27,102
was 200,000 years ago,
1066
00:49:27,136 --> 00:49:29,483
-as a mammoth lying just over there?
-WILKINS: Wow.
1067
00:49:29,518 --> 00:49:30,968
And here we are talking about it...
1068
00:49:31,002 --> 00:49:32,417
Yeah, they were about to have their lunch.
1069
00:49:32,452 --> 00:49:33,901
...hundreds of thousands
of years later. Yeah.
1070
00:49:33,936 --> 00:49:35,351
It's quite poignant, isn't it?
1071
00:49:35,386 --> 00:49:36,766
WILKINS:
Yeah, absolutely. It really is.
1072
00:49:36,801 --> 00:49:40,563
♪
1073
00:49:40,598 --> 00:49:42,151
ATTENBOROUGH:
The evidence paints
1074
00:49:42,186 --> 00:49:44,912
a tantalizing picture of ice age Britain:
1075
00:49:44,947 --> 00:49:47,329
an ancient River Thames
1076
00:49:47,363 --> 00:49:50,470
flowing through grassland;
1077
00:49:50,504 --> 00:49:54,681
a group of some of the last
steppe mammoths in Britain;
1078
00:49:54,715 --> 00:49:57,442
and Neanderthals using flint tools
1079
00:49:57,477 --> 00:50:00,169
to butcher mammoth meat.
1080
00:50:00,204 --> 00:50:03,379
Whether or not they hunted the mammoths
1081
00:50:03,414 --> 00:50:05,692
requires more evidence,
1082
00:50:05,726 --> 00:50:07,314
but at this site, it certainly looks
1083
00:50:07,349 --> 00:50:10,248
as if something extraordinary happened:
1084
00:50:10,283 --> 00:50:13,251
Neanderthals feasting on mammoth
1085
00:50:13,286 --> 00:50:16,047
on the banks of the River Thames.
1086
00:50:16,082 --> 00:50:18,601
At the end of the dig
1087
00:50:18,636 --> 00:50:21,190
and before the area is flooded again,
1088
00:50:21,225 --> 00:50:24,297
we invite Sally and Neville
to return to the site
1089
00:50:24,331 --> 00:50:26,885
so that we can show them what the scene
1090
00:50:26,920 --> 00:50:28,715
might once have looked like.
1091
00:50:28,749 --> 00:50:29,992
SALLY: Okay.
GARROD: We've prepared something
1092
00:50:30,027 --> 00:50:31,235
where...
1093
00:50:31,269 --> 00:50:33,582
[exhales]:
You don't have to use
1094
00:50:33,616 --> 00:50:36,964
your imagination to, to
visualize this area.
1095
00:50:36,999 --> 00:50:38,069
If I give these to you...
1096
00:50:38,104 --> 00:50:39,243
Okay, cool. Thank you.
1097
00:50:39,277 --> 00:50:41,590
Put them on, make sure
they're comfy, and enjoy.
1098
00:50:41,624 --> 00:50:43,385
Righty-ho.
1099
00:50:43,419 --> 00:50:46,526
♪
1100
00:50:51,151 --> 00:50:53,740
[squeals]:
Mammoth! [laughing]
1101
00:50:53,774 --> 00:50:57,330
♪
1102
00:50:57,364 --> 00:50:58,952
Oh, that is just incredible.
1103
00:50:58,986 --> 00:51:01,817
♪
1104
00:51:01,851 --> 00:51:04,199
SALLY:
Oh, my God, that's amazing.
1105
00:51:04,233 --> 00:51:07,098
♪
1106
00:51:07,133 --> 00:51:10,205
ATTENBOROUGH:
The finds at this remarkable site
1107
00:51:10,239 --> 00:51:14,416
have given us a rare
glimpse of early Britain.
1108
00:51:14,450 --> 00:51:17,108
♪
1109
00:51:17,143 --> 00:51:20,594
A time when humans were
fully immersed in the wild,
1110
00:51:20,629 --> 00:51:23,114
living as part of nature.
1111
00:51:23,149 --> 00:51:26,531
♪
1112
00:51:26,566 --> 00:51:29,189
It's thought that Neanderthals
may have been around
1113
00:51:29,224 --> 00:51:32,261
for some 400,000 years.
1114
00:51:32,296 --> 00:51:35,816
Their survival relied on their
1115
00:51:35,851 --> 00:51:38,578
understanding of the natural world.
1116
00:51:41,650 --> 00:51:44,170
Whether our own species can thrive
1117
00:51:44,204 --> 00:51:48,864
for quite as long remains to be seen.
1118
00:51:48,898 --> 00:51:51,832
♪
84141
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