Original subtitles

Narrator: avebury, england,

The largest stone circle In the world,

700 years older Than stonehenge.

It's just got a scale That really sets it apart

From other monuments.

Narrator: this stone circle Is just one part

Of a huge and strange Sacred complex.

It includes one of the largest Stone age tombs in great britain

And the tallest prehistoric Pyramid in all of europe.

5,000 years After they were built,

Their true purpose Remains a mystery.

Watson: there's a temptation To think you can know

Everything there is know, And we know absolutely nothing.

Narrator: Now new discoveries could Finally reveal the answers.

Snashall: There are bigger mysteries Still to solve at avebury

Than there are at stonehenge.

Narrator: can startling, New evidence uncover

Why the pioneers who built These bizarre structures

Suddenly disappeared?

To unearth the truth about this Mysterious complex of monuments,

We'll uproot Their gigantic stones,

Expose ancient Construction techniques,

And blow apart their past To discover the secrets

Of these incredible Stone age enigmas.

--captions by vitac-- Www.Vitac.Com

Captions paid for by Discovery communications

Around 3000 bc,

300 years before work started On egypt's pyramids,

Strange structures began To appear all over britain.

They were called henges,

Circular banks and ditches

And circles of stones or wood.

Nothing like them had been Seen here before or since.

♪♪

The most famous is stonehenge,

But 20 miles north stands An even more impressive

Stone age mega structure --

Avebury.

It's three times bigger, Seven centuries older,

And far more mysterious.

Something like avebury Always has surprises.

I don't think we'll ever be able To say, "We've solved it,"

And I think that's partly Because it may

Never have Had a single meaning.

♪♪

Narrator: today, this monument Looks very different

From how Its ancient builders intended.

Some of the stones are missing.

A village sits in the middle Complete with a pub,

But 5,000 years ago, This mysterious stone circle

Was part of an extraordinary Sacred complex

That dominated the landscape.

In its prime, this earthen mound Soared two stories high

Above a 30-foot ditch

Carved out of The chalk landscape.

♪♪

Inside, 98 megalithic stones Called sarsens

Once formed A majestic, circular perimeter.

♪♪

At its heart, two inner circles,

Each bigger than stonehenge,

Surrounding some Of the largest stones

Still standing Of any neolithic monument.

Why did an ancient population Build this here?

♪♪

And what was it for?

♪♪

Some people have said It was a fortification.

It's even been suggested That it could have been

A place for human sacrifice.

Narrator: aaron watson Has studied stone age monuments

For some three decades.

He believes Pioneering technology can reveal

The stones' true purpose.

It's not about what you can see,

But what you can hear.

Aaron is convinced Avebury's builders

Carefully placed the stones To reflect sound.

Watson: As I'm talking, I can hear The echoes of my voice

Being reflected From these very broad,

Flat stone surfaces around me.

I think what they're Trying to do here

Is create a spectacle

Against which People may have performed

Some kind of ritual or ceremony.

Narrator: Aaron can locate exactly

Where these rituals Would have taken place

To get the most from The stones' acoustic properties.

It's where the largest stones In the entire circle

Were positioned.

Inside the giant stone ring

Once stood The northern inner circle

Soaring upwards at the center --

Two 50-ton sarsens Called the cove...

♪♪

...Twice as heavy As the stones of stonehenge,

Angled at precisely 90 degrees To each other.

♪♪

In its prime, a third sarsen Completed the structure,

Creating a strange, Open, box-like design.

The arrangement Is clearly intentional.

How did the cove manipulate Sound for stone age rituals?

♪♪

If you imagine when You're in a room sometimes,

You can hear your voice Amplified a little bit,

And perhaps that's the effect That was achieved here.

Narrator: to test his theory,

Aaron conducts An impulse response test.

This will compare the strength Of a sound made inside the cove

With the strength of the same Sound made out in the open.

He places a microphone Connected to a digital recorder

Several feet from the cove.

For the comparison to be valid, Aaron needs to replicate

The same short, Sharp sound again and again.

A popping balloon is perfect.

Watson: what I'm hoping is The balloon burst will reflect

Off this big stone here

And be projected out

Towards the microphone Position over there.

Narrator: first, aaron bursts A balloon inside the cove.

[ pop ]

Next, aaron bursts a balloon In an open part of the site.

♪♪

[ pop ]

He analyzes the results.

[ pop ]

The burst in the open reveals That the balloon's sound energy

Is lost as it shoots off In all directions.

[ loud pop ]

But the balloon burst In the cove

Channels the sound energy Towards

Avebury's outer stone ring.

You've got this sudden peak.

That's the balloon going off...

[ loud pop ]...And then there's a sense

Of denser concentration Of lines here,

Which is the echoes Ricocheting around

Other features In the environment here.

Narrator: The cove's giant sarsens Form a stone age megaphone,

Boosting sounds made inside it.

[ pop ]

But aaron believes It's just one component

Of a highly sophisticated Stone sound system.

He thinks the once-complete Stone circle around the cove

Created another powerful Acoustic effect,

But because stones Are missing at avebury,

He can't test the theory here.

♪♪

Aaron journeys 500 miles north

To the remote scottish island Of orkney.

Around the same age as avebury, The ring of brodgar

Is a complete 4,500-year-old stone circle.

It's the perfect place To conduct the test.

I'm now standing at what I think is the sweet spot

Of the acoustics Of the ring of brodgar.

It's almost exactly the same Diameter as the stone circle

That surrounded the cove At avebury.

Narrator: aaron's theory Is that a complete stone circle

Focuses sound towards its center And creates eerie echoes.

Avebury's builders May have interpreted

These strange sounds As supernatural.

He bursts a balloon In the center of the circle

To measure the strength And timing of the sound

Bouncing off the stones.

[ pop ]

[ pop ]Watson: the sound waves

From that balloon burst

Have traveled out Across the stone circle,

Reflected off these flat Surfaces all at the same time

And returned to me, The listener, at the center.

Sounds that are made here Travel back again

In almost perfect unison.

They're synchronized.

This is a kind of Neolithic surround sound.

What we might hear as an echo, They might hear as something

Very much More mysterious or supernatural.

Maybe even these echoes Are the voices of ancestors.

♪♪

Narrator: 5,000 years ago, People arriving at avebury

Would have walked through One of four entrances

Surrounding the circle.

♪♪

Some people were permitted Inside the cove

Where they may have attempted To contact the dead

Using chanting and drum rhythms.

♪♪

The stones reflected the sound Within the circle,

Providing a unique, Magical experience

To only those permitted inside.

♪♪

Within the cove itself, sounds Were concentrated by the stones,

Making this The most intense experience

Of the entire monument.

♪♪

Engineering on this scale Required many people

Coming together To place the mighty stones,

But can experts find evidence

Of where this huge Number of people lived

And what they were really like,

And can dna extracted From ancient human remains

Reveal why they suddenly Disappeared?

♪♪

♪♪

Narrator: avebury, england,

The largest stone circle In the world,

Constructed 5,000 years ago As a ceremonial center

By a people with sophisticated Knowledge of stone

And sound engineering.

The huge size Of the individual rocks

Reveals that only a massive Workforce could have built it.

It was a huge effort to put up Just one of these stones.

This one we think probably Weighs about 40 tons.

You would need -- We think from experiments --

Probably around 200 people. You would have had

Huge communities Who were gathering here

To put up these stones At any one time.

Narrator: but archaeologists Can't find any evidence

Of the builders' houses And villages.

So, where did they live?

Will finding their homes Reveal who they were

And why they built avebury?

♪♪

Nick snashall Investigates this mystery.

Snashall: somewhere out there In the landscape are the places

Where the people who constructed These sites were living.

When we look at the settlements And the occupation,

There are bigger mysteries Still to solve at avebury

Than there are at stonehenge.

♪♪

Narrator: To hunt for clues, nick travels One mile northwest from avebury

To a stone age site Called windmill hill.

♪♪

Excavations here Reveal ancient animal bones

And evidence of cereal crops

That date to the time Of avebury's construction.

Is this where The builders lived?

Snashall: it's an incredibly Important site

Both in terms of what it tells Us about the first farmers

And in the history Of archaeology in this country.

Narrator: early farmers Tended to move around,

Living in temporary camps, But here at windmill hill,

There's evidence they built Permanent structures,

Possibly the very first In britain.

♪♪

Nick pulls up a map of the area

Made using satellite Lidar imaging.

This technology Reveals mysterious changes

To the landscape In minute detail.

You can see here we have Three circuits of ditches

With little banks behind them,

And these ditches Enclosed a space.

Narrator: did the builders Of avebury settle down

Within these circular trenches?

Nick examines the evidence.

Snashall: these enclosures seem To have been a gathering place,

A neutral space For coming together.

People would have Come here in order

To maybe meet their marriage Partners, to exchange goods.

It's probably not permanent,

But it's the closest We seem to come.

♪♪

Narrator: These temporary dwellings

Weren't the year-round homes Of the builders

Who constructed Avebury's sacred monuments.

The search is still on,

But a recent discovery Inside avebury's stone circle

Might finally solve the mystery About where they lived.

♪♪

At the center of The southern inner circle

Once stood the tallest stone In avebury,

A huge rock named the obelisk, Towering 20 feet high.

♪♪

But archaeologists discovered Evidence of a unique feature --

The only known example

Of a stone square In the british isles.

♪♪

But there are even More surprises --

Evidence of wooden foundations,

A neolithic timber building.

Is this where some of The builders of avebury lived?

♪♪

Mark gillings leads the team That made this discovery.

Gillings: so, I need to go Seven meters north

And one meter to the east.

Narrator: he believes The structure was once a home,

But that it was Far more significant

To the people of avebury Than just a simple house.

Gillings: There's corner number one.

Narrator: mark traces The structure's outline

With cones plotted via gps.

Gillings: It's a bit like a car sat nav.

It will tell me when I'm close.

The structure measures 527 square feet,

Easily large enough To accommodate a family.

I think what we've got here Is a house,

And an early neolithic House at that.

Narrator: but it's possible This structure was far more

Than just a simple home.

It could be Avebury's first house.

The people who lived in it Could be the site's founders.

Gillings: this house Would have been significant.

Even when the people living In the house have maybe gone

Or the house itself Had fallen into disrepair,

Its position was marked.

Narrator: The importance of this dwelling To the people of avebury

Could explain why it was later Enclosed inside a stone square.

The square surrounding The structure is interesting

Because it's the first stage

In what they did To memorialize the house.

Narrator: the structure Could have been home

To a handful of avebury's Earliest builders.

Its discovery reveals A critical insight

Into how avebury evolved.

Avebury began As a simple settlement.

The people here cleared dense Woodland to create open spaces

For farming and building Materials for early houses.

One of the first homes To be built at avebury

Was surrounded By a stone square,

A sign that it could have held Special importance

To the founding settlers.

The site was later transformed,

The house at its core Replaced by a giant obelisk

Standing 20 feet tall.

Over the centuries,

The neolithic builders Continued to expand avebury,

Adding increasingly ambitious Stone circles to the landscape.

♪♪

Mark and his team believe There are other houses

Still out there Waiting to be discovered.

The search goes on.

Gillings: You look at an area like this, Which today is just pasture.

There were quite -- Probably more houses here,

So to find out whether There were more houses,

We really need to dig More of avebury

Using modern methods And modern techniques.

Narrator: Evidence of this wooden house

Shows that some of britain's First ever farmers

Might have lived here,

A tough people who would build A whole ceremonial complex

Including this huge tomb,

But this monument comes With a further mystery --

Who removed the skulls from The human remains buried here,

And why did The people of avebury

Also build europe's largest Prehistoric pyramid?

♪♪

♪♪

Narrator: avebury, england,

A sacred ritual complex Of huge monuments

Built by a pioneering people who Settled here 5,000 years ago.

At its center is the largest Stone circle in the world,

But one mile away is a structure That's 600 years older --

West kennet long barrow.

This is a purpose-built Subterranean complex.

Its walls and ceiling are made From colossal sandstone blocks.

What was it for,

And what does it reveal About avebury's forefathers?

♪♪

Can the answers lie in solving

The long barrow's Grisly mystery?

♪♪

Beneath the earthen mound,

A stone corridor Stretches 40 feet.

♪♪

Branching off Are five burial chambers,

Each up to seven feet tall.

♪♪

Inside, archaeologists discover

The jumbled remains Of 46 people --

Men, women, old and young.

♪♪

But many of the skeletons Are incomplete.

Why were some bones taken And others left behind?

♪♪

It's this tomb's mystery

That fascinates Archaeologist josh pollard.

I think it's just that scale That really sets it apart

From other monuments Of its kind.

To build a tomb like this,

You need to understand How to move stones.

Narrator: Josh uses a laser distance Measurer to investigate.

[ device beeps ]

♪♪

In many ancient cultures, Tombs were sealed forever.

They were private places For the dead only.

1.94 meters.

Pretty wide For a tomb entrance.

Narrator: Josh thinks this structure's Large opening and tall ceiling

Suggesting whoever built it Had very different ideas

About their burial places.

Pollard: this has been built In such a way that it allowed

People to actually Go inside the tomb,

Probably to actually gather Inside the tomb.

Ancestors were regarded As critical

In looking after The lives of the living,

Ensuring the success Of crops and animals.

So if people aren't putting An effort into building houses

For themselves, What they're doing

Is putting effort into building Stone houses for the dead.

Narrator: But if the people of avebury Revered their ancestors,

Why is there evidence Of a strange burial practice --

The removal of body parts?

♪♪

The answer could be Locked inside these bones

Stored at cambridge university's Duckworth laboratory.

♪♪

Trish biers investigates The skeletons' secrets.

♪♪

Carbon dating reveals that All those buried at west kennet

Died within 30 years Of each other.

Biers: evidence suggests That they were a community,

Husbands and wives, Mothers and daughters,

Working together, Living together

And dying together At west kennet.

Narrator: it's likely The 46 people knew each other.

It's even possible they belonged To a single family or clan.

Could this help explain Why many of their skulls

Were removed from the tomb And never returned?

♪♪

Biers: These may have been actively Used in ritual practices.

Skulls are a very potent symbol Of our humanity.

Heads have a long history Of being moved about

Among cultures And throughout time.

Pollard: we've got evidence That bones would have been

Taken out of monuments Like this,

And they would have been Circulated among the living,

Particularly skulls.

So, the dead would have been Around people all the time.

♪♪

Narrator: Bodies were laid to rest Inside each chamber,

One on top of the other.

Exposed to the air, The flesh quickly rotted away,

Leaving a jumbled Pile of bones.

Evidence of feasting Outside the tomb

Shows that the living Descendants conducted

Special ceremonies Celebrating their ancestors.

Bones may have been Regularly removed from the tomb

To perform elaborate sacred Rituals before returning them,

But some bones never Came back to west kennet

And may have been moved to other Sacred sites around avebury

To ensure the dead's Continuing connection

With the landscape They once knew.

♪♪

It's likely West kennet long barrow

Was a vital and integrated Part of avebury.

In this purpose-built Ceremonial landscape,

It's a house for the dead

To complement the stone circle For the living.

♪♪

But the people here also built

Another gigantic monument Close by.

This is silbury hill.

It's the largest prehistoric Pyramid in europe.

It's also Avebury's greatest mystery.

What exactly is it for,

And did the people who built it Die in the attempt?

♪♪

♪♪

Narrator: avebury, england,

The stone age center Of spectacular monuments

Built by ingenious Ancient engineers

Who crafted A sacred landscape

Dedicated to the worship Of the living and the dead

As well as a gigantic Stone circle

And an ancient tomb.

They also built the largest Prehistoric pyramid in europe...

♪♪

...Silbury hill.

It's their greatest triumph

And their greatest puzzle.

Why did they build it, And what was it for?

Jim leary is The latest in a long line

Of archaeologists On a quest for answers.

♪♪

Throughout modern history, People have assumed

That there must be a burial In the middle of silbury hill.

I mean, why else Would you construct

Such a huge, Magnificent monument?

Narrator: over the years, Both treasure hunters

And archaeologists Have dug into the mound.

They have found nothing,

And parts of the ancient pyramid Have started to collapse.

Leary: looks like it Will be here forever.

Difficult to believe That only a few years ago,

Its position Was rather more precarious

And a hole appeared On the summit,

The legacy of centuries Of people digging into it,

Assuming that this is A large burial mound,

An english pyramid, If you like.

♪♪

Narrator: it looks like This monster mound

Will never reveal When or why it was built.

Then, a chance discovery Blows the mystery wide-open.

♪♪

In its prime, silbury hill Was shaped into a spiral

From a mound of compacted chalk

More than 13 stories high.

After centuries of excavations Searching for hidden treasures,

21st century engineers are Called in to repair the damage.

Near the top, they make And extraordinary discovery --

Parts of picks Made from deer antler,

Tools the mound's builders Left behind.

For the first time, Archaeologists can unlock

Silbury hill's mysteries And reveal when and why

The people of avebury's stone Circle built this huge monument.

♪♪

Leary: These antler picks are crucial Because we can date them.

We now know a huge amount About the date of this mound,

When it was constructed, How long it was used for,

And when the work On it finished.

Narrator: The picks date to 2,400 bc.

This reveals silbury hill Was the last stone age monument

Built in the avebury area.

It's the final masterpiece In a grand ceremonial project

1,500 years in the making,

But why, after centuries Building in hard stone,

Did avebury's people switch

To a completely different Material --

Chalk?

♪♪

Jim believes the answer Lies in a cultural shift

In avebury's society.

The stone circle and the tomb

Were designed, Built, and finished

By elite specialists,

But centuries later,

They decided on a new approach When constructing silbury hill.

It would be a project Everybody could join in with...

♪♪

...And light, soft chalk was The perfect building material.

Building a mound like this Is fundamentally different

To moving a great, Big, 100-ton stone.

This is a communal effort.

This is the community bringing Basket loads of material

And piling it up year on year,

And eventually, we end up With a mound like this.

♪♪

Narrator: shifting Avebury's stones to the henge

Was a huge logistical And technical challenge.

It took the coordination Of hundreds of fit people,

But silbury hill May have its roots

In a more socially Collaborative project.

However big or small, Each member of the community

Could bring their contribution To the growing mound.

Silbury hill became A social triumph,

A gleaming, white-chalk pyramid

Built by the people, For the people.

It became a new part Of an ancient sacred landscape,

The culmination of a project

That started Over 1,500 years earlier

And that dominates The landscape to this day,

♪♪

But crucial mysteries Remain unsolved.

If the tomb was A house of the dead

And the stone circle

A ceremonial center For the living,

What more did silbury hill Add to the ritual landscape,

And why was This precise location chosen?

Leary: the reason we have Just waded through

Such a hideous, waterlogged Field is to get to this,

And I promise you, It's worthwhile.

Narrator: 1,000 feet from silbury hill

Lies swallowhead spring,

An ancient water source

That flows east Into the river thames,

The most sacred river In the stone age british isles.

Jim believes It's the location of this spring

That explains why The ancient people built

Not only silbury hill,

But also avebury's stone circle And west kennet long barrow.

♪♪

Water is key to humanity,

And this would not have been Lost on our neolithic ancestors.

They would have seen this As a key resource,

And you can well imagine All the ceremonies

That would have gone on exactly In this spot, around this area.

All these amazing monuments That we see in this area,

They are located here For one reason --

The location of this spring.

Narrator: jim thinks The mound's true purpose

Was as a colossal Sacred monument

To the life-giving properties Of water.

To the neolithic people, Silbury hill was a holy shrine

Rising up Out of this water to the sky.

Leary: the surrounding ditch Would have filled with water,

A sort of mirror Reflecting silbury hill.

Just as it extends upwards Towards to the heavens,

It also appears to disappear Down into the underworld.

♪♪

Narrator: The community could have made Their sacred icon even bigger,

But around 2,400 bc, Work stopped...

...Not just here at silbury,

But across The greater avebury area.

Why did a people who valued Huge monuments so much

Suddenly put down their tools?

Did they choose To change their way of life,

Or were they replaced?

♪♪

♪♪

Narrator: avebury, england.

Over 1,500 years, A mysterious people built

A succession Of incredible monuments --

A tomb dedicated to the worship Of ancient ancestors --

Circles of giant stones,

Some three times larger Than at stonehenge --

And a huge pyramid, 13 stories high,

But then around 2,400 bc...

...Work stopped.

Why?

A clue to solving this mystery

Lies in unraveling the fate Of west kennet long barrow

And decoding the meaning Of a strange artifact

Found inside it.

♪♪

This tomb was designed To be open

To allow the living To visit their dead,

But after 1,000 years of use, Something changed.

♪♪

The last bodies Were laid to rest,

And the tomb was filled up With chalk and rubble.

♪♪

In the northwest chamber, An unusual pot called a beaker

Was positioned upside down On top of the rubble.

Does whoever placed this Artifact and sealed the tomb

Hold the key to solving

Why avebury's people Stopped building?

♪♪

The beaker excavated From west kennet long barrow

Is not unique.

To date, at least 38 have been Found in the avebury area.

All were placed in the ground From 2,400 bc onwards

When work on avebury's Giant monument ceased.

♪♪

Wilkshire museum curator David dawson

Is on a quest to uncover The identity of who buried them.

He uses 3-d scanning To forensically examine

This beaker for clues.

Dawson: it's the intricacy Of the decoration,

And also it's such fine pottery.

This was made not on a wheel,

But made by hand,

Coiling strips of clay And then smoothing it out.

Narrator: David thinks the beaker wasn't Made by the builders of avebury.

Its design Suggests it was created

By a completely different Group of people.

Whoever did this Really had an understanding

Of geometry and mathematics And measuring.

These pots appear About 4,500 years ago,

And it seems to be quite sudden,

So was this a new group Of people coming from abroad?

♪♪

Narrator: If the beaker people were New arrivals to the area,

Did they just stop The people of avebury building,

Or did they replace them?

The bones from tombs Where beaker pots were found

Could provide the answers.

At the wessex Archaeology laboratory,

Osteo-archaeologist Jacqueline mckinley

Investigates.

This is a young adult male, Probably late teens,

Early 20s, who's one of about 34 individuals we excavated.

He was buried in An ordinary earth-cut grave

Curled up like he was asleep Together with a beaker.

♪♪

Narrator: If these beaker people pushed Out the builders of avebury,

Analyzing the ancient dna Locked inside these bones

Will reveal who they were And where they came from.

The advent of ancient dna

Really does blow open Our understanding.

The bones themselves actually Tell you about the person

And how people Moved around in general.

Narrator: investigators send Samples of bone from this

And other skeletons to harvard University for dna analysis.

♪♪

The results stun The world of archaeology.

The beaker people didn't come From the british isles.

They were originally from A place much further away --

The steppe of central asia.

♪♪

This particular individual Was one of about 19

I sampled from this site.

All of those had That steppe ancestry.

♪♪

Narrator: The dna evidence reveals a Large-scale stone age migration

That brought new people And new ideas into europe

And ultimately All the way to avebury.

♪♪

It had huge consequences for Those who had been living here.

♪♪

4,500 years ago,

A group Of nomadic pastoral farmers

Began migrating their livestock Across central europe.

♪♪

Archaeologists have tracked this Movement via their burial sites,

Which contain distinctive Beaker-shaped pottery.

♪♪

Originating from The steppe of central asia,

Beaker people spread rapidly Across the continent

And mixed with The local population.

♪♪

New dna evidence reveals

That when the beakers first Arrived in ancient britain,

The native farmers disappeared

And the people From the steppe took over.

♪♪

The new arrivals' culture Pushed out the old ways

Of avebury's monument builders.

That might be why work on new Construction projects ceased.

♪♪

But what happened to The original people of avebury?

Were they killed, or did Something else wipe them out?

♪♪

♪♪

Narrator: For 1,500 years, a sophisticated Society of ancient engineers

Constructed giant monuments Around avebury, england.

Building ceased when New arrivals from central asia

Introduced their distinct Beaker-based culture,

But now dna testing Of ancient human remains

From the time Creates another mystery.

Within 200 years Of the beaker people's arrival,

The indigenous population Around avebury vanished.

Why did they disappear?

Analysis of The avebury builders' bones

Reveals these people Were dark-haired,

Short, and powerfully built.

The new arrivals Looked very different.

When I estimated his stature,

He was about 6'2".

He would have looked Like a giant of a man.

We also know he had Blond hair and blue eyes.

Narrator: with fair skin And light-colored eyes,

These new people Have more similarity

With the majority Of modern britons

Than the ancient Indigenous population.

♪♪

What we have got Is really exciting information

That demonstrates this group Hadn't been found in britain

Prior to this period.

It's a change That persisted for millennia,

So he really Is probably our ancestor.

♪♪

Narrator: a precious 4,000-year-old artifact

Could be a clue To the avebury builders'

Strange disappearance.

Dawson: the people who brought Beakers didn't just bring

A new style of pottery.

They also brought a new metal --

Bronze.

When new, this would have been Golden in color

And would have just Blazed in the sunshine

Totally unlike anything Anyone had ever seen before.

Narrator: Bronze tools and weapons Were technologically superior

To those made of stone Used by the avebury builders.

Did the newcomers wipe out The indigenous people

With weapons like this?

Archaeologist david dawson Believes

They had a different use.

Dawson: Often, there's only one side Of the blade has been sharpened,

And that makes me wonder, Was this really a weapon

Or was this used To kill animals?

Narrator: If the avebury builders weren't Killed by the new arrivals,

What else could explain Their disappearance?

A new field of genetic research

Promises to unlock the answer From the dna inside these bones.

One of the things that can Get trapped within the dna

Is sometimes evidence For certain types of disease.

♪♪

Narrator: researchers in germany Use the technique

To test the bones Of a beaker person

Buried in central europe.

They find bacteria Called yersinia pestis,

Better known as the plague.

♪♪

Did this deadly disease Wipe the avebury builders out?

Improvements in dna testing Will soon reveal the truth.

Mckinley: There may be more information To extract from the dna

From this individual, But it's a developing technique.

This is so important, This kind of information,

For how people were affected By different diseases,

How those diseases transmitted.

So, the chances And the opportunity

Are gonna be there in the future To do that kind of work.

♪♪

Narrator: the mystery lives on.

Over 1,500 years, a group Of skilled ancient engineers

Built an incredible Ritual complex

Deep in The english countryside --

Stone circles Larger than stonehenge

With extraordinary Acoustic properties,

A giant subterranean tomb To venerate the ancestors...

♪♪

...And a huge, chalk pyramid

All marking the site Of a sacred spring.

Their culture was replaced

By a technologically-superior One from europe...

♪♪

...But the monuments they left Behind weren't forgotten.

They still stand today, Testament to the vision

And engineering prowess of This ancient, pioneering people.

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