Digging for Britain

Roberts pieces together the archaeological evidence to better understand Stonehenge’s mysterious rituals, a pagan Celtic tribe’s bizarre animal sacrifices to their gods, and the secrets of a site that contained Britain’s earliest human remains.

Traveling to the east of Britain, Roberts highlights the most exciting recent finds. In the Thames Estuary, divers battle the elements to solve a maritime mystery dating from the 1600s. Back on land, a team of archaeologists uncover a mass grave in the British capital, and an amateur metal-detectorist discovers how desperate the Anglo-Saxons were to make the Vikings go away.

In Scotland, a metal detectorist discovers a Viking hoard: arm rings, gold ingots, brooches, and a large Christian cross. But as Roberts explains, sometimes discoveries are made when least expected, such as when a new housing development unearths a graveyard of Iron Age warriors whose tribe may have traveled from continental Europe to settle in Yorkshire.