S1 E1 • The Romans

Dr Alice Roberts follows an entire year of British archaeology, joining up the results of digs and investigations the length of the country. The results are astonishing - and sometimes disturbing. Roman finds include the mystery of 97 babies murdered by the Thames, a fabulous Roman coin hoard found in Somerset and a man buried on a layer of dead animals.

Première diffusion : 19 août 2010

S1 E2 • Prehistory

Dr Alice Roberts continues her journey through this season's most important archaeology, with an amazing array of finds from prehistory. Her journey takes her from Orkney to Devon by land, sea and air. In Norfolk, flint tools unearthed this year push the earliest human occupation back by 200,000 years, to around one million years ago. In Orkney an early farm yields glimpses of our ancestors' earliest religious beliefs and customs - cattle skulls buried within building walls, and tiny household goddesses. In Devon, we find one of the oldest known shipwrecks. And a bronze age burial holds a mystery, and touching evidence of grief echoing down over 2000 years.

Première diffusion : 26 août 2010

S1 E3 • Anglo-Saxons

The Anglo-Saxons - they divided our land and heralded the arrival of the Dark Ages. But were they really just barbarians? Dr Alice Roberts continues her journey through a year of archaeology, visiting the key sites that are throwing light on this most mysterious of periods. She visits the royal seat of power at Bamburgh, Northumbria and sees how the skeletons tell tales of violent death, but also of tenderness. There's a remarkable community project in a shopping centre in Sittingbourne where people are curating the grave goods of their own ancestors. And there are treasures that make her wonder just how dark the Dark Ages really were.

Première diffusion : 2 septembre 2010

S1 E4 • The Tudors

In the final episode of the series, Dr Alice Roberts goes in search of the Tudor age, a time that saw momentous changes across all aspects of British life. Along the way, Alice visits excavations at Shakespeare's first theatre in London's Shoreditch, where the Bard began his career and Romeo and Juliet was first performed. Alice also joins a team sifting through Shakespeare's rubbish at his last home in Stratford-Upon-Avon, and finds revealing clues about his carefulness with money. In a remote corner of Wales, Alice meets a team of archaeologists uncovering the brutal realities of Henry VIII's dissolution of the monasteries, a conflict that would change the very fabric of Britain. On the muddy banks of the Thames, Alice discovers the rich history of a forgotten royal palace, which was home to the Tudor kings and queens. And she learns about a mysterious Tudor shipwreck which dates from this age of exploration and trade.

Première diffusion : 10 septembre 2010