Bournemouth University’s Principal Academic in Prehistoric and Roman Archaeology, Dr Miles Russell welcomed broadcaster Sandi Toksvig to an archaeological excavation near Winterborne Kingston in Dorset to investigate a 2,000-year-old Iron Age settlement as part of a new Channel 4 television series called ‘Sandi Toksvig’s Hidden Wonders’.  

At each dig, Sandi is joined by archaeologist Raksha Dave who works with the teams of archaeologists excavating a site, as well as sharing the history of the most remarkable finds.

Sandi also searches for clues about the wider histories of the areas of each dig to answer questions the excavation raises, piecing together the stories unearthed at each location.

Sandi Toksvig said: “This is the dream job for a history and archaeology enthusiast like me. It is a total privilege to be given access to professional archaeological dig sites and to join Raksha and the teams as they dig to reveal the history of our country from right beneath our feet.”

In this first episode Sandi, Raksha and Miles continue to uncover the domestic dwellings and a cemetery of the Iron Age tribe called the Durotriges, who lived in rural Dorset before the Romans. Using the evidence they unearthed, they learnt more about how the these people lived and died, what rituals they might have used and the kinds of tools and implements that they made.   

Back in 2010 the archaeologists discovered the skeleton of a teenage girl buried face down in a pit. Analysis suggested that she could have met a violent death. They found she suffered damage to her arms and upper torso, possibly immediately prior to her death. Burying someone face down wasn’t usual practice at the time as in the case of the known iron age burials, the deceased were placed with care in graves.  Dr Martin Smith, associate professor in forensic and biological anthropology, said: “In the other burials we have found, the deceased people appear to have been carefully positioned in the pit and treated with respect, but this poor woman hasn’t.

“The young woman was found lying face down on top of a strange, deliberately constructed, crescent shaped arrangement of animal bone at the bottom of a pit, so it looks like she was killed as part of an offering.”

The team found the burial at Winterborne in 2010 and later revealed the woman in her late 20s had been brutally stabbed in the neck.

Her spine also showed evidence of hard labour, her ribs were broken and isotopes in her teeth suggested she grew up more than 20 miles away. The full report is available BRUTALISED, BOUND AND BLED: A CASE OF LATER IRON AGE HUMAN SACRIFICE FROM WINTERBORNE KINGSTON, DORSET | The Antiquaries Journal | Cambridge Core

More than 40 years after graduating from a degree in Archaeology and Anthropology from the University of Cambridge, Sandi has explored four sites of special interest in the brand-new series to unearth the secrets of Britain’s past.  

“Sandi was very interested in the artefacts discovered by students in the pits and with the deceased, such as bronze brooches, a bronze bangle and a bone comb. The finds were often in a Roman style, demonstrating a blend between Roman and traditional Iron Age customs, helping us to build up a picture of the how these people lived and died 2,000 years ago.”  

Ongoing work on the DNA and isotopes recorded for the burials is suggesting that the Iron Age Durotriges tribe were a matriarchal society, in which women owned the land, the men deriving from a variety of different locations around Britain and NW Europe. DNA evidence further indicate that the tribal lineage can be traced back to a single woman. This evidence points to communities being centred around the mothers of families and suggests that men were invited to live with women, not the other way round.  Dr Russell said it marked the first time researches had found evidence that some ancient western European societies were led by women and passed belongings down through the mother’s side of the family.

Hidden Wonders airs on More4 from Tuesday 4th November at 9pm. 
Sandi Toksvig to unearth the UK’s Hidden Wonders | Channel 4

BRUTALISED, BOUND AND BLED: A CASE OF LATER IRON AGE HUMAN SACRIFICE FROM WINTERBORNE KINGSTON, DORSET | The Antiquaries Journal | Cambridge Core Published online by Cambridge University Press:  14 May 2024