However, at Duropolis in Dorset – Britain’s largest known Iron Age cemetery – archaeologists are uncovering a society that looks less like a patriarchy and more like a sophisticated matrilocal network. New DNA evidence suggests that 2,000 years ago, it was the women who anchored the community, owned the land, and wielded the keys to the supernatural.

In History Hit’s documentary Iron Age Women: Rulers of the Land, Tristan Hughes explores how groundbreaking genetic research is dismantling the warrior myth to reveal the true prominence of women in pre-Roman Britain.

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Reassessing power

Traditional narratives focus on the localised male violence that met the Roman legions in 43 AD. However, modern archaeology is dismantling the myth of the singular “warrior king.” Evidence now reveals a nuanced social structure where women frequently held central authority. Findings suggest many hilltop strongholds were abandoned long before Rome arrived, replaced by settlements ruled not by male aggression, but by stable, female-led lineages.

Duropolis: the “silent majority” of the Iron Age

Fifteen miles east of Maiden Castle, excavations near Winterborne Kingston are rewriting history. Led by Bournemouth University’s Dr. Miles Russell, the site – dubbed “Duropolis” – reveals an expansive settlement of elite farmsteads. Unlike most tribes, the Durotriges practiced formal burial in large numbers, providing a unique bioarchaeological window into ancient life via 50+ unearthed skeletons.

Dr. Russell argues these domestic farmsteads are more representative of the true Iron Age experience than rare, militarised strongholds. Here, skeletal evidence provides physical proof of female prominence, suggesting a world where women held significant territorial and domestic authority.

Techniques such as photogrammetry create high-resolution 3D digital renders, enabling the preservation of the spatial context of remains for post-excavation study. This synergy of digital reconstruction and paleogenetics allows researchers to reconstruct Iron Age family trees with unprecedented accuracy.

Tristan Hughes and archaeologist Dr. Miles Russell from Bournemouth University, at the Duropolis site.

Image Credit: History Hit

The “Durotrigian Eve”

The most startling revelation comes from the laboratory. Tristan joins Dr. Lara Cassidy of Trinity College Dublin to examine the DNA of 55 individuals from Duropolis, which she explains reveal a “classic signature of matrilocality”. 

Two-thirds of the community share an identical mitochondrial type, tracing back seven generations to a single female ancestor – a “Durotrigian Eve” from the 2nd century BC. While these female lines remained unbroken, male lineages were incredibly diverse, with men migrating from as far as Derbyshire and France to join established, female-led households.

In archaeological terms, matrilocality is a high-accuracy predictor of elevated female status. As Dr. Cassidy notes: “If you were going to pick a period of prehistory to be a woman, it probably was a pretty good one.” This genetic precision allows researchers like Dr. Martin Smith to move beyond generalities, constructing specific “histories” of human connection that effectively bridge the gap between prehistory and the recorded past.

Dr Lara Cassidy, a Geneticist from Trinity College, Dublin, and Dr Martin Smith, Biological Anthropologist at Bournemouth University, with Tristan Hughes seeing three generations of female skeletons from the Duropolis site.

Image Credit: History Hit

Wealth, mirrors, and magic

Dr. Martin Smith (Biological Anthropologist, Bournemouth University) highlights that the ‘wealthy burials’ at Duropolis “always seem to be women”. These graves contain high-value objects suggesting women were the primary holders of material and spiritual prestige.

Among the most intriguing finds are rare Iron Age mirrors. Far from vanity items, Professor Melanie Giles from the University of Manchester, describes them as “potent, even dangerous weapons of the spirit world.” In the flickering light of a roundhouse, a woman wielding such a captivating object held a domain of authority reserved exclusively for females.

This power extended to the battlefield. One young woman’s grave contained a chariot amulet depicting a victorious female driver – a symbol mirrored in the massive Melsonby Hoard. It suggests the “War-Queen” archetype, famously associated with Boudica, was a standard feature of British social structures rather than a historical fluke.

Close-up of Iron Age mirror, found at the Duropolis site, with Celtic art motifs on one side

Image Credit: History Hit / The Dorset Museum

From ritual sacrifice to female judges

Bioarchaeological analysis also reveals a darker, more nuanced hierarchy. Dr. Martin Smith identified vitamin C deficiencies (scurvy) in certain skeletons, suggesting distinct dietary tiers and social differentiation. While elite women received elaborate burials, other remains found in storage pits point to potential human sacrifice.

Yet for the living, the roundhouse served as a sophisticated political hub. Therese Kearns of Butser Ancient Farm points to ancient origins of the “Brehon Laws” – suggesting women held high-status roles as Druids, poets, judges and healers. 

The end of an era

The arrival of the Roman Legions in 43 AD imported a rigid patriarchal hierarchy that effectively ended this age of female power. As Roman law took hold, the ancient custom of matrilocality faded. 

However, now, by combining archaeology, history, and DNA, we are finally reading the biographies of the women who truly ruled the land.

Watch Iron Age Women: Rulers of the Land now on History Hit to see the DNA evidence for yourself.

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In History Hit’s compelling documentary ‘The Face of Anne Boleyn: Capturing a Queen’, Professor Suzannah Lipscomb visits Hever Castle – Anne’s childhood home  – to explore a landmark exhibition, Capturing a Queen, that brings together the largest collection of Anne’s portraits ever assembled. The documentary highlights the cutting-edge forensic science being used to determine if any of these surviving portraits’ “faces” capture the real woman, or if they are merely products of dynastic propaganda.

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Beauty vs. deformity

The mystery begins with conflicting contemporary accounts. Contemporaries of Anne often noted her “beguiling dark eyes” and an elegant, olive-toned complexion. However, as Professor Lipscomb notes, “When it comes to Anne Boleyn, we need to think about who is writing the account.” The most enduring – and infamous description came decades after her death. 

In 1585, Catholic polemicist Nicholas Sander claimed Anne had a projecting tooth, a large cyst under her chin, and six fingers on her right hand. Writing 50 years after her execution, Sander’s “witch-like” caricature was a calculated attempt to delegitimise her daughter, Elizabeth I. This tug-of-war between admiration and vilification has coloured every artistic representation of Anne for centuries.

The “Most Happy” discovery

The documentary explores the collection of portraits of Anne from the 16th century, many of which depict her wearing a ‘B’ necklace – the iconic pearl strand that has become Anne’s visual shorthand. It also highlights a rare artefact: ‘The Moost Happi Medal’.

Loaned from the British Museum, this lead medallion from 1534 was cast when Anne was thought to be pregnant with a son. It is the only contemporary likeness of Anne undisputed by historians. Though damaged, it serves as a ‘Rosetta Stone’ for her features, providing a vital prototype to compare against later, potentially fictionalised paintings. 

‘The Moost Happi Medal’ – Left: original medal, damaged. Right: original sketch

Image Credit: British Museum / Hever Castle / History Hit

Icons of authority

In her lifetime, Anne was often defined by her personal iconography, which would have been familiar to everyone at court. These included a crowned falcon perched on a rose-bearing stump (a potent symbol of fertility and her promise of a male heir), and a leopard (a fierce emblem of royal authority). Such symbols of Anne were also found on her personal possessions.

At Hever, Suzannah examines Anne’s personal velvet-covered Book of Ecclesiastes. As Assistant Curator Kate McCaffrey remarks, “Her DNA is all over this.” It is in these intimate objects that we find a more authentic trace of Anne than many stylised portraits.

A dynastic mask

After her execution in 1536, Anne’s image was effectively purged from the royal record. It only resurfaced decades later during the reign of her daughter, Elizabeth I, as wealthy patrons commissioned ‘corridor portraits’ to signal Protestant loyalty to the Queen.

Scientific analysis, however, reveals a startling truth: many of these images were created using standardised “patterns” or stencils. Under-drawings suggest artists weren’t painting a woman they remembered, but were likely mapping Elizabeth I’s long, elegant face backward onto her mother.

During a perilous period for Elizabeth I’s reign, this “Elizabethanising” of Anne served to visually cement the Queen’s legitimacy to the court. As Suzannah summarises, this also implies that by the 1580s, painters didn’t know what Anne Boleyn looked like, so they were essentially “creating Anne from scratch on the basis of her daughter.”

Production shot of Prof Suzannah Lipscomb and Dr. Owen Emmerson discussing one of Anne Boleyn’s portraits on display at Hever Castle

Image Credit: History Hit

The Hever Rose portrait

A lot of the research done at Hever Castle has been focused on a well-known portrait in their own collection – the ‘Hever Rose Portrait’. 

Unlike the standardised Elizabethan patterns, this painting displays distinct facial variations and a deliberate later inclusion of Anne’s hands – showing a normal number of fingers – holding a rose of Lancaster, likely a direct rebuttal to Sanders’ ‘six-fingered’ rumours.

Dendrochronology has dated the wood panel used in the portrait to 1583. The portrait was sent to the Hamilton Kerr Institute at the Fitzwilliam Museum where an array of non-invasive technologies – including infra-red, x-rays, X-radiography and micro-invasive sampling – were used to help peer through the centuries of pigment and analyse the chemical composition of the paint. Research scientist Paul Van Laar explains that

“The exciting thing about many of these techniques is that we can look beneath what we see with the naked eye. We see the top paint layer but we never know what’s hidden underneath”.

Analysis of the Hever Rose portrait of Anne Boleyn

Image Credit: History Hit

The findings suggest that while this specific portrait was painted in 1583 – a perilous year for Elizabeth I’s reign – it was transferred from a master “pattern” that likely pre-dates the painting by decades. Could that master image date back to Anne’s own lifetime? This offers a tantalising possibility: a surviving link to a master image created during Anne’s actual lifetime.

The search continues

Finding the “real” Anne is about more than aesthetics. As Dr. Owen Emmerson observes, her contemporaries valued her “style, charisma, and intelligence” over her physical features. Yet, the quest to find the real face of Anne Boleyn is more than mere curiosity. Reclaiming her true likeness is an act of historical justice – stripping away the propaganda of her enemies and the political filters of her descendants to see the woman herself.

Join Suzannah Lipscomb at Hever Castle as she aims to uncover ‘The Face of Anne Boleyn: Capturing a Queen’.

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But in 100 BC, a child was born into an aristocratic yet faded lineage – a man who would dismantle this 400-year-old system and  build something new.

In the gripping documentary Rise of Caesar, renowned historians Adrian Goldsworthy, Dr. Simon Elliott, and Dr. Hannah Cornwell, alongside History Hit’s Tristan Hughes, peel back the layers of the man, the myth, and the massive political ego that transformed the Western world forever. Together, they trace Gaius Julius Caesar’s journey from a fugitive teenager to a ‘warlord’ who gambled everything on a single river crossing.

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The crucible of ambition

Born into the Gens Julia – an ancient aristocratic family claiming descent from the goddess Venus – Caesar’s lineage was prestigious, yet his family lacked the wealth and political clout of Rome’s top-tier elite.

Caesar’s hunger for power was forged in crisis. When he was just a teenager, his father died suddenly, thrusting him into the role of family patriarch. This premature responsibility forced a rapid maturity. As Tristan Hughes explains, the political landscape was already fracturing between the conservative Sulla and Caesar’s radical uncle, Marius.

The ‘Marian reforms’ had recently transformed the Roman army from a citizen militia into a professional force loyal to their generals rather than the state. “This suddenly gives you the power of a warlord,” notes Dr. Simon Elliott. When Sulla emerged victorious in a bloody civil war, Caesar found himself on a hit list. Only through his family’s influence was he pardoned – though Sulla famously warned that “in this Caesar, there are many Mariuses.”

The Cursus Honorum: climbing the ladder

To reach the top, Caesar had to navigate the Cursus Honorum (the “Ladder of Offices”). This was a rigid hierarchy of financial, judicial, and administrative roles that every ambitious Roman aristocrat was required to climb.

Caesar’s ascent was marked by a relentless pursuit of renown. After winning the Civic Crown – the Roman equivalent of the Victoria Cross – for saving a comrade’s life in battle, he returned to Rome to master the art of law and oratory. He famously took on high-profile legal cases just to get noticed, even if it meant making enemies of the senior nobility.

Caesar with Civic Crown

Image Credit: History Hit

His journey was never dull; while traveling to Rhodes to study, he was captured by pirates. In a display of the “immense self-confidence” Adrian Goldsworthy highlights, Caesar laughed at their low ransom demand, insisted they double it, and joked that he would return to crucify them – a promise he grimly kept.

Bread, circuses, and massive debt

By the 60s BC, Caesar understood that in Rome, politics was a rich man’s game. To win the hearts of the masses, he spent lavishly. As an Aedile in 65 BC, he staged games featuring 320 pairs of gladiators. “Being active in Roman politics is not cheap,” says Dr. Hannah Cornwell.

To fund this “bread and circuses” strategy, Caesar turned to Crassus, the wealthiest man in Rome. This calculated risk helped secure his election as Pontifex Maximus in 63 BC – the high priesthood of Rome. This move provided him with the sacrosanctity and influence needed to begin his true power play.

The documentary then details Caesar’s rivalry with Cato and his time serving as Praetor, before explaining how Caesar stayed ahead of his creditors by securing governorships abroad, first in Spain, and later in Gaul, where the spoils of war finally began to settle his astronomical debts.

The First Triumvirate

By 60 BC, Caesar realised that the Senate’s shared power was a wall he couldn’t climb alone. He orchestrated the First Triumvirate, a secret and staggering political alliance with Pompey the Great, Rome’s most celebrated general, and Crassus, its wealthiest citizen.

This was the moment the Republic truly began to wobble – the alliance effectively bypassed the Senate, allowing Caesar to secure the consulship and, subsequently, the governorship of Gaul.

Assignment of Roman provinces to Caesar, Pompey, and Crassus.

Gaul and the British expeditions

To rule Rome, Caesar knew he needed two things: gold and glory. The documentary takes us into the Gallic Wars, where Caesar’s genius for logistics and psychological warfare was on full display. He didn’t just conquer territories; he systematically erased opposition.

In 55 and 54 BC, Caesar turned his gaze toward the mysterious island of Britain. While these expeditions were militarily inconclusive, they were propaganda masterpieces. By crossing the “Ocean” at the edge of the known world, Caesar framed himself as a pioneer-hero, outshining even Pompey’s eastern victories.

The point of no return: the Rubicon

By 50 BC, Caesar had become too powerful for the Roman establishment to ignore. His former ally, Pompey, had aligned with the conservative faction led by Cato the Younger. The Senate issued an ultimatum: disband your army or be declared an enemy of the state (hostis). Caesar knew that returning to Rome without his legions meant certain prosecution and political ruin.

On 10 January 49 BC, Caesar arrived at the Rubicon, a small, unremarkable river in Northern Italy marking his provincial boundary. He’d been told to cross it with an army would be an act of high treason. With the famous words, “Alea iacta est” (The die is cast), he crossed. The Republic was dead; the Civil War had begun.

Caesar crossing the Rubicon, 49 BC

Image Credit: Lanmas / Alamy Stock Photo

Dictatorship and the Ides of March

The aftermath saw Caesar sweep through Italy, defeating Pompey at Pharsalus. His victory was the death knell for Republican governance. Eventually declared Dictator Perpetuo (Dictator for Life), he began a whirlwind of reforms, including the creation of the Julian Calendar and an expansion of the Senate to include his loyal supporters. 

However, his absolute power became his death warrant. To the old guard, Caesar wasn’t a reformer; he was a tyrant. On the Ides of March – 15 March 44 BC – the very principles the Republic was built upon – shared power and the rejection of kingship – struck back. Led by Brutus and Cassius, a group of senators assassinated Caesar in the Theatre of Pompey. While they hoped to restore the Republic, they only succeeded in accelerating its collapse, paving the way for his heir, Augustus, to become the first Emperor.

Step into the world of ancient Rome and learn more about what led to the gamble that ended an era in Rise of Caesar.

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Yet how much of this is historical fact, and how much is a brilliant exercise in 19th-century branding? The truth is far more complex, and infinitely more fascinating, than the legend.

The British Museum has recently unveiled an extraordinary new exhibition, bringing together 280 objects spanning six centuries of Japanese history. History Hit was granted exclusive, behind-the-scenes access to this incredible collection as it was readied for display. In our latest documentary, Samurai: Fighting the Myth, historian Matt Lewis goes beyond the glass cases to uncover the complex, adaptable, and often surprising reality of Japan’s elite warrior class.

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From mercenaries to masters: rise of the gentry

To understand the samurai, one must first dismantle the idea that they were always a landed aristocracy. Talking to British Museum curator and Japan specialist Dr Rosina Buckland, Matt Lewis explores the humble, often brutal origins of these warriors.

“The earliest appearance of these warriors as we think of them now is the 900s,” Dr Buckland explains. “You get this emergence of a class of mercenaries, and they are proxy warriors for these factions within the Imperial Court that are fighting against each other.”

Over time, these ‘swords for hire’ gained land and influence in rural regions, evolving into a landed gentry. By the late 12th century, following a series of brutal rebellions, the samurai wrested political control away from the Imperial Court in Kyoto. Establishing a military government in Kamakura in the east, they began a reign that would endure for nearly 700 years.

Japanese woodblock prints depicting samurai warriors, specifically portraying the historical figures Morimoto Gidayū Hidetora and Horimoto Gidayū Takatoshi.

Image Credit: History Hit

The three phases of the samurai

The long history of the samurai can be broken into three distinct eras:

Warfare (1185 – 1603): An age of constant internal strife, culminating in the Sengoku (Warring States) period, where rival clans battled for total dominance.

Peace (1603 – 1868): Following unification, the Edo period transformed the samurai. This “long peace” saw them transition from frontline soldiers to the nation’s administrators, government ministers, and ceremonial guardians.

Myth (1868 – present): Following the collapse of the Shogunate, the samurai passed into legend, and the modern misconceptions we hold today began to take root.

Engineering armour

Together with Dr Buckland, Matt takes a close-up look at a full suit of samurai armour. Far from being merely decorative, every lace and plate was a masterpiece of protective engineering.

“The helmet in a suit of armour is often the oldest part” explains Rosina. The striking star helmet (kabuto) featured in the documentary dates back to 1519, an era of intense combat. Designed for a high-ranking samurai, it was meant to be distinctive on the battlefield while directing the fighting. 

Matt and Dr Buckland discuss the intricate lacing of multiple overlapping iron plates, designed to absorb the impact of a blow while remaining flexible, as well as the articulated neck guards (shikoro) that offered protection without sacrificing mobility. The helmet features a dragon – a symbol of strength in East Asia – and a face mask (men po) with a fierce battle expression, designed to intimidate the enemy.

Interestingly, the armour also reveals early ‘globalisation’. Following the arrival of Portuguese traders in the 1500s, Japanese armourers began incorporating European styles – such as the rounded breastplate – into their designs to better defend against the new technology of musket fire.

Matt Lewis and Dr Rosina Buckland discuss a suit of samurai armour at The British Museum’s Samurai exhibition

Image Credit: History Hit

Mounted archers and “The Way of the Warrior”

Contrary to the ‘lone swordsman’ trope, the early samurai were primarily mounted archers. Combat usually took place in small, chaotic skirmishes in densely vegetated uplands. It was only in later centuries, as armies grew and battlefields widened, that infantry and the iconic curved blade (katana) became the central focus of warfare.

Underpinning this martial skill was Bushido, or ‘the way of the warrior’. This principle of honour and loyalty was the strategic glue that held clan alliances together in a world where betrayal could mean the total annihilation of a family line.

Beyond the battlefield

After decades of civil war, Tokegawa Ieyasu emerged victorious in 1603, establishing the Tokegawa Shogunate. This unified Japan under a central military rule that presided over two centuries of relative peace. 

Perhaps the most surprising revelation in the exhibition is what the samurai did when they weren’t fighting. During the Edo period, warfare became an identity rather than a daily reality, leading to a deep involvement in the arts. High-ranking samurai became masters of elaborate theatrical performances (Noh Drama), formal and highly ritualised tea preparation (Chanoyu), calligraphy and painting, and interestingly the connoisseurship of Chinese antiques.

Samurai women

The documentary also challenges the male-centric view of samurai society. While men held the public roles, women were the formidable ‘heads of the household’, managing complex operations involving dozens of staff and the vital education of heirs. In times of crisis, the wife of a regional lord was often left in charge of the defence of the castle, wielding significant tactical and political power.

Reproduction of 1867 ukiyo-e woodblock print created by the artist Utagawa Yoshiiku.

Image Credit: History Hit

The birth of a legend

Why did the myth of the ‘lone swordsman’ samurai persist so strongly in the West?  Dr Buckland explains that the samurai were meticulous “image-makers” themselves – “they’re very concerned with projecting the correct image” she says.

When the West encountered Japan extensively in the late 19th century, it lapped up this visual material. There was a fashion in Europe at the time for medieval imagery, and Japan offered an ‘ideal warrior’ that was wholeheartedly imported. To the Western imagination, the myth was simply more attractive than the administrative reality.

The end of an era, the start of a legacy

By 1868, the samurai had become an expensive relic. Reorganised under a new constitutional monarchy, they were stripped of their status and stipends, forced to find work in a rapidly modernising world. For a generation, they were seen as remnants of an obsolete past.

It was only when they were safely distant in history that nostalgia bloomed. This sentiment, combined with international fascination, rehabilitated the samurai into the global icon we recognise today.

The British Museum’s exhibition is a rare opportunity to see the artefacts that survived this transition – from the mud of the warring states to the refined tea rooms of Edo.

Watch Samurai: Fighting the Myth on History Hit and discover why the truth is far more legendary than the myth.

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Across February and March, Professor Suzannah Lipscomb is exploring the kings and queens of the Restoration on History Hit’s Not Just The Tudors podcast. This era represents one of the most volatile and vibrant chapters in British history, a period where the crown had to be reinvented for a new, skeptical age. This special series, Monarchs of the Restoration, peels back the velvet curtains on the Stuart kings and queens who steered Britain from the brink of collapse toward the birth of a global superpower.

How did a soot-blackened fugitive clinging to a tree become the king who triumphantly sailed home to reclaim his crown? NJTT covers Charles II’s survival, the sheer spectacle of his court, and the seismic transformation of England during the Restoration. From the return of the theatre to the birth of modern science, this series uncovers the drama of the Stuart dynasty’s final act.

Charles II: the Merry Monarch’s mask

The series begins with perhaps the most cinematic escape in royal history. Before he was the “Merry Monarch,” Charles II was a soot-blackened fugitive clinging to an oak tree, evading Roundhead patrols with a price on his head.

Charles II – Portrait by John Riley, c. 1683–1684

Image Credit: Public Domain

Professor Lipscomb traces this journey from desperate survival to the triumphant day Charles sailed home to reclaim his crown. But the Restoration was about more than just a king returning to his palace. Under Charles II, England emerged from the shadow of Puritan austerity into an age of unfettered pleasure, scientific revolution, and theatrical scandal.

Yet, as Suzannah discovers, this era of “glittering courts” was also defined by the grim realities of the Great Plague and the Great Fire of London. Was Charles a visionary who saved the monarchy, or a hedonist who nearly lost it again?

Listen to Episode 1: Charles II: Restoration of the Monarchy

James II: faith, fear, and the fall

If Charles II was a master of political pragmatism, his brother, James II, was a man of unyielding conviction. In the second episode, Suzannah is joined by Dr Breeze Barrington to uncover the man behind the myth of the “Last Catholic King.”

James II by Peter Lely, circa 1650-1675

Image Credit: Peter Lely, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

James II is often relegated to a footnote – the monarch swept aside to make room for William and Mary. However, behind the Glorious Revolution, his story is a high-stakes drama of religious devotion and political downfall. Was James a tyrant blinded by his Catholic faith, or a misunderstood visionary who genuinely sought religious toleration in an intolerant age? This episode unpicks the tensions that brought the nation once more to the brink of revolution.

Listen to Episode 2: James II: The Restoration’s Last Catholic King

Mary II: the power behind the “joint” throne

History often speaks of “William and Mary” as a singular unit, but Queen Mary II was a formidable force in her own right. In the third episode of Not Just The Tudors’ special series, Monarchs of the Restoration, Suzannah welcomes Dr Holly Marsden to discuss England’s first and only joint sovereign.

Portrait by Peter Lely, 1677

Image Credit: Peter Lely, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Far from being a passive partner to her Dutch husband, William of Orange, Mary was politically astute, deeply devout, and culturally influential. She played a pivotal role in the “Glorious Revolution” and the crafting of Britain’s constitutional monarchy – the very system that survives today. This episode reclaims Mary’s place in history, exploring her influence on gender roles and the radical political shifts of the late 17th century.

Listen to Episode 3: Queen Mary II & the Glorious Revolution

Queen Anne: the underestimated architect of Great Britain

The series concludes with the monarch who is perhaps the most unfairly caricatured of all: Queen Anne. Long dismissed as sickly, overweight, and easily manipulated by favourites like Sarah Churchill, the reality of Anne’s reign tells a vastly different story.

Queen Anne, portrait, 1705, by artist Michael Dahl

Image Credit: National Portrait Gallery, Public Domain

Joined by biographer Lady Anne Somerset, Professor Lipscomb examines the last Stuart monarch – a woman who presided over the Acts of Union that created Great Britain and who navigated a reign defined by near-constant global warfare. Anne attended cabinet meetings more faithfully than any ruler before or since, proving herself to be a conscientious and determined leader. Was she truly the “fragile” queen of legend, or was she actually one of, if not the, most hardworking monarch in British history?

Episode 4: The Last Stuart Monarch

Why the Restoration matters

The Restoration wasn’t just a “restart” for the monarchy; it was the crucible in which modern Britain was forged. It was the era that gave us the Royal Society, the professional theatre, and the legal framework that limits the power of the Crown.

Throughout the series, Not Just The Tudors offers more than just a history lesson – it provides a character study of four individuals who had to prove, against the odds, that the monarchy was still relevant in a rapidly changing world.

Listen to the Monarchs of the Restoration series now on Not Just The Tudors

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But hidden within ‘Cave 3’ was an anomaly that defied every convention of the collection. It wasn’t written on fragile papyrus or animal skin, but on pure copper. Heavily oxidised and encrusted with dirt, it contained no prayers or prophecies. Instead it was a cold, hard inventory of unimaginable wealth – recording vast quantities of gold and silver equal to millions today, buried across the Holy Land.

In History Hit’s latest documentary, The Copper Scroll: Dead Sea Scrolls Mystery, Tristan Hughes investigates one of history’s most tantalising cold cases.

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Discovery at Qumran

The story begins in 1947 with a shepherd named Muhammad edh-Dhib. While grazing sheep near Qumran, he tossed a stone into a cave and heard the distinct sound of breaking pottery. This led to the discovery of a cave containing a hidden library belonging to the Essenes. 

The Essenes were a respected ancient Jewish sect in Judea that flourished in the 1st century BC. They were known for their strict interpretation of Jewish law and their apocalyptic ‘end times’ predictions. Their theological beliefs are preserved in documents like the Testimonies, a collection of biblical quotes dating to the first century BC that prophesies the arrival of a new prophet and the destruction of the unfaithful. 

To protect their most important documents, including sacred guides and communal laws, they meticulously wrapped their scrolls in linen and sealed them inside ceramic jars, effectively transforming part of the Qumran caves into a protected archive. Today, the majority of the discovered scrolls are housed and exhibited in Jerusalem.

Qumran National Park

Image Credit: History Hit

The metal map

Tristan begins his journey at the Jordan Museum in Amman – home to the Copper Scroll. Following its discovery, researchers faced a daunting challenge: two millennia of oxidation had transformed the metal into a brittle, green crust, making it impossible to unroll without shattering the precious text within.

To solve this, the scroll was transported to Manchester University in 1955. Under the supervision of philologist John Allegro, specialist Henry Wright Baker used a modified, hair-thin circular saw to slice the scroll into 23 semi-cylindrical strips. As the layers were peeled back, they revealed a Hebrew script detailing 64 secret locations where a staggering 120 tonnes of gold and silver were purportedly hidden – a fortune valued in the hundreds of millions by modern standards.

Part of the Copper Scroll, with Hebrew text visible on the oxidised copper – on display at the Jordan Museum in Amman

Image Credit: History Hit

The scroll is now the centrepiece of a dedicated gallery in Amman. While the instructions are remarkably specific, experts such as Dr Jihad Kafafi remain divided on whether the scroll records a genuine buried treasury or represents an elaborate ancient legend.

Millions in gold?

To find out more, Tristan meets a leading expert on the Copper Scroll, Dr Joan Taylor at Manchester University to analyse a replica of one of the rolls that were contained within it. The text uses specific ancient measurements, citing distances in “cubits” and weights in “talents.”

The instructions are maddeningly specific yet geographically elusive:

In the ruin of the valley of Achor, under the stairs that ascend towards the east… at a distance of 40 cubits, there is a silver chest and its vessels, weighing 17 talents.

Dr Taylor points out a fascinating detail: although copper was a luxury material at the time, the script itself appears “rushed”, with letters bunched together, suggesting the scribe was working under extreme pressure or imminent threat.

Replica of some of the Hebrew writing found in the Copper Scroll

Image Credit: History Hit

The Temple connection

Why hide such vast wealth? The scroll mentions sacred items, including a High Priest’s ephod (a ritual garment), leading many to believe this wasn’t a private hoard, but the treasure of the nation from the Temple in Jerusalem.

Historians link this massive concealment to two major periods of crisis: the Great Revolt (70 AD), when the Temple was destroyed by Roman forces, or the Bar Kokhba Revolt (132-136 AD), a final, desperate where the ‘hurried’ script suggests a scribe recording the locations as Roman soldiers closed in on the final Jewish strongholds. 

The elusive hoard

To date, no-one has definitively claimed the treasure. Did the Romans torture the locations out of survivors? Or does some of the gold still lie buried beneath the sands of Jericho and the salt-crusted shores of the Dead Sea?

From the high-tech labs of Manchester to the sun-scorched cliffs of the Holy Land, Tristan Hughes pieces together a story of ancient survival and modern obsession.

Watch The Copper Scroll: Dead Sea Scrolls Mystery to see the evidence for yourself. The greatest treasure hunt in history is far from over.

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In History Hit’s new documentary, Beijing Central Axis: China’s Medieval Wonder, Dan Snow explores this perfectly straight meridian – a World Heritage site that still dictates the architectural symmetry and urban flow of the capital today. From its Yuan Dynasty foundations to the monumental projects of the Ming and Qing Dynasties, the axis connects icons like the Forbidden City and the Temple of Heaven, revealing a city whose modern footprint still honours a centuries-old imperial plan.

Cycling the length of this historic line, Dan follows in the footsteps of the emperors and labourers who built this vast capital, uncovering clues to China’s past hidden in plain sight. Featuring special access to some of Beijing’s most exclusive locations, the film offers a fascinating look at the ancient soul surviving within a modern giant – one of the most organised and awe-inspiring cities on Earth.

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The Mongol blueprint: from Dadu to Beijing

Dan begins his journey by bicycle in northern Beijing, tracing the city’s origins back to the 13th century. While the area has been settled for 3,000 years – a full millennium longer than London – it was Kublai Khan, grandson of Genghis Khan, who truly transformed the landscape.

In 1272, he established the Yuan Dynasty and renamed the city Dadu, the ‘Great Capital’. It was a staggering feat of urban planning, home to nearly a million people and enclosed by massive earthen walls that remain visible today. This was the Mongol city that mesmerised the Venetian explorer Marco Polo, whose accounts of its wealth and grid-like precision in his book ‘The Travels’ seemed like pure fantasy to medieval European ears.

The Kaogong ji: architecture as cosmology

Less than a century after Dadu’s completion, the Yuan Dynasty was overthrown by the Ming Dynasty, and Dadu was raised to the ground. However, in 1402, a new Ming Emperor seized the throne: the Yongle Emperor. Seeking a capital that reflected his absolute power, he ordered Beijing (the “Northern Capital”) to be reborn on Dadu’s foundations in 1403. 

Scale model of Beijing at the Beijing Planning Exhibition Hall

Image Credit: Beijing Planning Exhibition Hall / History Hit

At the Beijing Planning Exhibition Hall, Dan examines a scale model that reveals the city’s true “spinal cord”: the Central Axis. Unlike London or Paris, which evolved organically along meandering rivers, Beijing was built to a strict manual. The Kaogong ji (‘Records of Trades’), a Zhou Dynasty text over 2,000 years old, served as a technical and cosmological guide for the “correct” design of almost anything. 

Historian Jeremiah Jenne explains to Dan that the city’s layout was designed to mirror the heavens. Just as Polaris, the North Star, remains fixed in the sky, the Emperor was the fixed point on Earth – seated at the exact centre of a universal order.

The Drum and Bell

After gaining a bird’s-eye perspective of the city, Dan heads to the axis’s northern terminus: the historic Drum and Bell Towers. During the Ming Dynasty, these structures were the city’s official timekeepers. Their thunderous beats and chiming bells could be heard over 20km away, marking the vital pulses of daily life and dictating the rhythm of the imperial capital.

Dan at the Drum and Bell Towers, Beijing

Image Credit: History Hit

The heart of the Axis: The Forbidden City

Travelling south, Dan reaches Jingshan Park. This hill provides the ultimate vantage point, but is entirely man-made – constructed from the rubble of the demolished Mongol palace. According to the principles of feng shui, it was placed to protect the new Imperial headquarters from “evil spirits” drifting in from the north. 

From this height, the Forbidden City reveals its true scale. Constructed between 1406 and 1420 to be the most opulent palace on Earth, it housed 24 emperors over five centuries. Today, it is now the most visited historical site on the planet, welcoming 15 million people annually.

View of The Forbidden City from Jingshan Park

Image Credit: History Hit

Inside the Hall of Supreme Harmony, Dan views the Dragon Throne – the seat of the ‘Imperial Dragon’. He explains how the palace, while a masterpiece of joinery, was a nightmare for fire safety. Built largely of wood, the main halls were tragically burned by a lightning strike within a year of completion, leaving the Ming emperors in a constant state of vigilance.

Life in the shadows: The Hutongs

Beijing was never just a palace; it was a living, breathing community. To find the pulse of “Old Beijing,” Dan explores the Hutongs – tightly packed alleyways where the craftsmen, artists, and servants of the palace once lived.

The word Hutong comes from the Mongolian word for “water,” as these neighbourhoods were built around communal wells. Meeting with cultural heritage expert Matthew Hu, Dan learns more about the Courtyard Institute. These homes were built with the same feng shui rigour as the palace. Designed to foster communal life, Matthew Hu describes them as “like villages in cities.”

The Temple of Heaven

On the Winter Solstice, the Central Axis became the stage for China’s most important religious ritual. The Emperor would make a solemn procession to the Temple of Heaven. Located slightly southeast of the axis – the direction of the rising sun and “positive” energy – this temple was where the “Son of Heaven” prayed for good harvests and for the empire.

Historian Zhang Huawei explains that during this procession, the city went into lockdown. Commoners were forced to shutter their windows; to look upon the Emperor as he moved toward the temple was strictly forbidden.

Dan talks to historian Zhang Huawei

Image Credit: History Hit

Modern harmony: the Axis extends

Dan finishes his journey along the axis at the Yongdingmen Gate, the southern gateway of Beijing. Though demolished in the 1950s to make way for roads, it was meticulously reconstructed in the early 2000s.

Dan then concludes his visit at the Bird’s Nest Stadium, the centrepiece of the 2008 Summer Olympics. Strategically placed as a modern northern extension of the Central Axis, the stadium proves that Beijing’s 600-year-old “spine” is still growing. In Beijing, the ancient and the avant-garde sit in perfect harmony, balanced on a line drawn by emperors centuries ago.

Watch Beijing Central Axis: China’s Medieval Wonder now to see Dan Snow uncover the heartbeat of this magnificent city.

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Following her exploration of the Bronze Age marvels at Uffington and the atmospheric legends of Wayland’s Smithy, the second episode sees Mary-Ann Ochota complete her adventure, heading north through the Avebury World Heritage Site – a landscape so saturated with archaeology that prehistory feels palpable in every step. This is far more than a simple hike; it is a ground-level investigation into the minds of our ancestors, exploring why they spent thousands of hours moving earth and stone to create a landscape dedicated to both the dead and the divine.

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The first architecture: West Kennet Long Barrow

As the Ridgeway winds toward Overton Hill, the landscape undergoes a dramatic transformation. Here, the modern countryside recedes, and every other field seems to reveal a burial mound, an earthwork, or a weathered standing stone. Mary-Ann’s first stop is the West Kennet Long Barrow, a monumental tomb dating back to roughly 3,650 BC. To put its age in perspective, this structure was already over a millennium old by the time the iconic stone circles were raised at Stonehenge.

Mary-Ann Ochota talks to English Heritage Prehistory Curator Dr Jennifer Wexler at West Kennet Long Barrow

Image Credit: History Hit

At 100 metres long and three metres high, it is one of the largest and most impressive long barrows in Britain. Accompanied by English Heritage Prehistory Curator Dr Jennifer Wexler, Mary-Ann ventures deep into the dark, stone-lined interior.

“They’re the first architecture that we have,” Wexler explains, “they’re our first standing monuments.” Archaeologists discovered the remains of 46 individuals here, interred alongside pottery and stone tools. Remarkably, the barrow remained a site of active ritual for over 1,000 years. It was only around 2,000BC that the chambers were ceremonially filled with rubble and the entrance sealed by massive sarsen blocking stones.

Filming inside the West Kennet Long Barrow

Image Credit: History Hit

Thanks to a meticulous reconstruction in the 1950s, it is one again possible to step inside and experience the heavy, silent atmosphere of the tomb just as the barrow’s original Neolithic builders did five millennia ago. 

The mystery of Silbury Hill

Visible from the mouth of the Long Barrow is the enigmatic Silbury Hill. Built in several stages between 2,400 and 2,300 BC, this gargantuan chalk mound is a feat of engineering that continues to baffle experts. Standing nearly 40 metres high, it remains the largest man-made mound in Europe – a structure so vast that the entirety of Stonehenge could almost fit upon its summit.

The folklore surrounding the hill is as tall as the monument itself. Some say the Devil dropped the mound in a fit of rage after a defeat in nearby Marlborough; others believe the golden treasures of King Sil lie buried deep within. However, Dr Wexler explains that modern archaeology has revealed something even more fascinating: the mound contains no central burial or ‘kingly treasure’.

Instead, analysis of the internal layers reveals turf and material brought from across the wider landscape, suggesting Silbury was a massive communal project.  Dr Wexler theorises that its construction may have been a response to a period of “crisis” or rapid change at the end of the Neolithic, as new groups arrived from Europe with revolutionary metal-working technology. Perhaps the mound was a final, monumental effort to honour an old religion or anchor a shifting identity to the land.

Filming near Silbury Hill

Image Credit: History Hit

The Avenue

After a night camping at the Farm at Avebury – where she meets owner Rob Hughes to hear how his family have worked this land for generations – Mary-Ann follows the ancient tracks toward the village of Avebury, via the West Kennet Avenue. In antiquity, this ceremonial corridor was lined with 100 pairs of massive sarsen stones, some weighing upwards of 20 tonnes.

Experts believe these stones were meticulously paired by shape, often categorised as “male” (tall and columnar) and “female” (broad and diamond-shaped). This intentional design likely served to control, impress or even intimidate pilgrims as they progressed toward the sacred centre. Walking between these giants today, one can still feel the intended psychological effect: a sense of being funnelled toward something immense, ancient, and powerful.

Mary-Ann walking through part of the West Kennet Avenue

Image Credit: History Hit

Avebury Henge: megalithic stadium?

The journey reaches its climax at Avebury Henge. Unlike the fenced-off experience of Stonehenge, Avebury remains a living part of the landscape, where visitors are free to walk among and touch the ancient sarsens.

Construction here began around 2,800 BC, with the site evolving through continuous modifications over the next 600 years. The outer great henge spans almost 500 metres in diameter, and in its prime, the chalk bank towered 17 metres above the floor of a steep, deep ditch. Within this large perimeter stood an  outer circle of approximately 100 stones, which in turn enclosed two smaller stone circles containing complex arrangements of stone and timber. 

The Ridgeway’s proximity to Avebury is almost certainly no accident. Mary-Ann meets legendary archaeologist Phil Harding to discuss the colossal human effort required to sculpt this terrain. “You don’t build something like Avebury with a gang of ten people,” Harding notes. “You need masses and masses of labour.”

Mary-Ann Ochota and archaeologist Phil Harding at Avebury

Image Credit: History Hit

While we often view these sites with a sense of somber ritual, Phil and Mary-Ann explore a more vibrant, human theory: that Avebury functioned as a prehistoric “stadium.” With the capacity to hold thousands of people, it likely also served as a social hub – a place for festivals, dancing, and meeting new people from far-flung regions – and a site where the spiritual and the social collided in a magnificent, open-air arena.

Preservation

Phil describes walking the Ridgeway as “not just a walk in the countryside, it’s almost a spiritual thing”. The unique geology of the Wiltshire chalk served as the fuel for this prehistoric explosion of activity. Its well-drained, easily cultivated soil transformed the ridge into a bustling Neolithic highway of the Stone Age.

As Mary-Ann reflects on her trek, she observes that walking the Ridgeway is far more than a physical challenge; it’s an act of historical preservation. By following these ancient tracks, we forge a direct connection to the shelter, the industry, and the spirituality of those who came before us. As she poignantly concludes: “When we walk these ancient ways, we keep them alive.”

Watch Part 2 of Ancient Ways: The Ridgeway now, exclusively on History Hit.

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In the first episode of History Hit’s new documentary series Katherine Howard: Vixen or Victim?, Professor Suzannah Lipscomb sets out to dismantle these caricatures. By visiting the spaces Katherine inhabited – from the drafty corridors of her youth to the glittering galleries of Hampton Court – Suzannah searches for the real woman hidden beneath five centuries of Tudor scandal and myth.

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The ghost in the gallery

The tragedy of Katherine Howard is often synonymous with the “Haunted Gallery” at Hampton Court Palace. Popular lore describes a desperate Queen running toward the Chapel Royal in November 1541, her screams echoing through the corridors as she begged for mercy while guards dragged her away from a husband who had just discovered her past.

While Suzannah reveals that this specific, dramatic dash is likely an apocryphal Victorian invention, she acknowledges why the story persists: it perfectly captures the sheer, visceral horror felt by a young woman whose meteoric rise was met with an equally violent fall. Katherine ascended from a Maid of Honour to a Queen in mere months; just over a year later, she was headed for the block.

Filming in the “Haunted Gallery” at Hampton Court Palace

Image Credit: History Hit

Redefining the ‘child bride’

Episode One reveals a forensic re-examination of Katherine’s age. Traditional narratives often place her birth as late as 1526, making her a mere 14-year-old at the time of her marriage – a ‘child bride’ with little understanding of her situation.

However, Suzannah points to evidence from the French Ambassador, Charles de Marillac, which suggests she was likely born around 1522.

“This revised understanding significantly changes the way we see her,” explains Suzannah. “She was not the child bride that we have in our mind’s eye, in fact she was probably around 18 years old when she married Henry in July 1540” – a young woman with more agency than we often credit her.

Portrait of a Young Woman, c. 1540–45, Workshop of Hans Holbein the Younger

Image Credit: Public Domain / History Hit

Chesworth House: A world of “in-between” spaces

To understand the Queen, we must first understand the girl. In Episode One, Suzannah travels to Chesworth House in Sussex, where, following her mother’s death, Katherine was raised under the guardianship of her step-grandmother, the Dowager Duchess of Norfolk.

In the Tudor era, society believed that parental indulgence was a moral failing, consequently, noble children were often sent to be raised in another aristocratic household to ensure they received the rigorous discipline and social polishing deemed necessary for court life.

Chesworth House

Image Credit: History Hit

The documentary dismantles Victorian myths of a “lax” or “immoral” household, revealing instead the complex reality of Tudor wardship. Suzannah meets historian Dr Nicola Clark who explains how in the Tudor era, social classes mixed with surprising freedom. “The Victorians probably thought that these women and men of lower status are dragging Katherine down to their level, where in fact the evidence does not really suggest that at all” says Nicky. 

At the heart of this was the “Maiden’s Chamber” – a communal space where aristocratic young women shared beds, gossip, and secrets with those of lower social standing. It was in these “in-between” spaces that Katherine entered into relationships with two men: her music teacher, Henry Mannox, and the Duchess’s secretary, Francis Dereham.

• The Mannox Affair (c1536): Often framed as an abuse of power, research suggests her music teacher, Henry Mannox was only five years Katherine’s senior. Crucially, Katherine demonstrated a “head screwed on,” refusing to lose her virginity to a man of his low status despite his pressure.
• The Dereham Contract (1538): Her relationship with the Duchess’s secretary, Francis Dereham, was far more serious, and more widely known within Chesworth House. They referred to each other as husband and wife and engaged in full intercourse – a “pre-contract” that, under Canon Law, could be viewed as a legally binding marriage.

Rather than seeing Katherine as a passive pawn, the evidence reveals a young woman navigating these illicit encounters with a surprising level of command.

Prof Suzannah Lipscomb discusses Katherine Howard’s time at Chesworth House with historian Dr Nicola Clark

Image Credit: History Hit

The “Party Queen” of Hampton Court

By 1539, Katherine’s status as a Howard brought her to court as a Maid of Honour. She quickly broke things off with Dereham, who fled to Ireland heartbroken. At court, Katherine engaged in a flirtatious power play with the charismatic Thomas Culpeper, but the plan backfired; when she held him at arm’s length, he abruptly moved on, leaving her devastated and arguably more infatuated than ever.

However, her arrival was a breath of fresh air for Henry VIII, who found his current wife, Anne of Cleves, physically repulsive. Henry was visibly infatuated, showering Katherine with jewels and public displays of affection. 

Their courtship moved at a breakneck pace, and they married on 28 July 1540 – less than 3 weeks after his previous marriage was annulled. Katherine was probably just 18 years old, Henry was almost 50. As Suzannah points out, “the speed and intensity of Henry’s pursuit of Katherine raises the question of her agency. In what world could a young, noble woman reject the king’s advances, particularly one as strong-willed and powerful as Henry”.

Historian Gareth Russell

Image Credit: History Hit

Historian Gareth Russell joins Suzannah to discuss Katherine’s early successes. Far from a political failure, Katherine was the star attraction of the court. She navigated Tudor politics with careful neutrality, choosing to remain apolitical to avoid the fate of her cousin, Anne Boleyn.

“Doing nothing is a choice,” Russell notes. “Everything she did was a deliberate attempt to be the perfect, apolitical queen consort.”

She even handled the potentially explosive meeting with the divorced Anne of Cleves with extraordinary grace, gifting her puppies and jewellery to signal to foreign ambassadors that the English court was a place of harmony.

The turning point: The Progress North

Episode One culminates with the Great Royal Progress of 1541 – a monumental political and military operation involving 5,000 horses and a mobile court of 200 tents. Designed to project power over the rebellious North, this strategic display of regal authority sought to suppress religious dissent and stabilise the realm ahead of a potential invasion of France. Katherine’s job was to shine at her husband’s side.

At Lincoln Cathedral, Katherine reached the zenith of her power, embodying the perfect image of a pious, loyal Queen. Yet while she played her role flawlessly in the public eye, the ghosts of Chesworth House were beginning to stir. 

Depiction of King Henry VIII on the Royal Progress in 1541.

Image Credit: History Hit

Vixen or victim?

As Episode One concludes, Suzannah leaves us with a woman who was neither a fool nor a mere victim. Katherine Howard was a confident, commanded, and musically talented young woman who understood the social graces of her age. She made choices – for fun and for survival – in a world where the margin for error was zero.

In the next episode, Suzannah explores how Katherine’s past finally collided with her present – and the “Rose Without a Thorn” found herself facing the executioner.

Watch Episode 1 of Katherine Howard: Vixen or Victim? now on History Hit to see Suzannah Lipscomb uncover the real woman behind the Tudor legend. Episode 2 is also available to watch now.

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In the two-part special Ancient Ways: The Ridgeway, anthropologist and keen hiker Mary-Ann Ochota tracks these prehistoric pathways along the Ridgeway – one of England’s oldest routes and a true ‘Stone Age Highway’. Join Mary-Ann as she visits some of the trail’s most iconic landmarks, from the enigmatic Uffington White Horse to the megalithic wonders of Avebury Henge.

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A braid of routes

Five thousand years ago, the Ridgeway wasn’t a single, officially designated path; it was a braid of multiple routes heading roughly in the same direction across the high ground. While the modern Ridgeway National Trail spans 87 miles from Ivinghoe Beacon in Buckinghamshire to Avebury in Wiltshire, the original prehistoric route stretched much further – running from the Wash in Norfolk, southwest all the way to the Dorset coast.

“To understand the past,” Mary-Ann explains, “we need to understand how people moved and why.” The Neolithic people who first used this route – the same builders responsible for Stonehenge – were farmers who raised cattle and sheep. They travelled for trade, pilgrimage, and community events, using the high chalk ridges to stay above the marshy, wooded and often dangerous valleys below.

Production shot – filming on The Ridgeway

This path forms a distinctive white ribbon through the landscape. This chalk was formed 145 to 65 million years ago, in the age of the dinosaurs, when the area sat near the equator under a subtropical sea. Created by the compacted skeletons and shells of ancient sea creatures, this unique geology now supports a rare ecosystem of specialist plants, insects, and birds.

Production shot from The Ridgeway

Uffington: the horse and the hillfort

Mary-Ann begins her journey at Uffington Hill, a site thick with prehistoric treasures. At the summit sits a massive Iron Age hillfort, half a mile in circumference. But the true mystery lies beside it: the Uffington White Horse.

At 111 metres long, this semi-abstract ‘geoglyph’ is the oldest hill figure in Western Europe. National Trust ranger Andy Foley explains that while it looks like a simple chalk drawing, it is actually a complex feat of engineering. Trenches were dug a metre deep, backfilled with chalk rubble, and smoothed off on top.

Scientific dating reveals that the horse’s deepest layers are at least 2,500 to 3,000 years old. Created at the dawn of the Iron Age – coinciding with the introduction of domesticated horses to Britain – the figure was likely a tribal statement of status and power. Remarkably, the figure only remains visible because it has been scoured and cared for by the local community for three millennia. Andy suggests that the horse’s specific placement may indicate its care was initially connected to religion.

Mary-Ann Ochota with National Trust ranger Andy Foley at the Uffington White Horse

Image Credit: History Hit

Wayland’s Smithy

Walking west, Mary-Ann reaches Wayland’s Smithy, a burial chamber nearly 2,000 years older than the White Horse. This megalithic monument, dating to roughly 3,400 BC, is a ‘Cotswold-Severn’ type barrow, consisting of a stone edifice, an earthen mound over 100 metres long, containing a central passage with chambers inside to bury the dead.

Although seeming quite a straightforward burial site, archaeology reveals a complex history: a smaller timber-and-earth burial site existed here first. A century later, as farmers claimed territory more permanently, they constructed longer-lasting monuments to house the dead, including the massive stone edifice seen today. Curiously, historians believe the design was already ‘old-fashioned’ when it was built, suggesting the builders were attempting to claim a deep, ancestral association with the land to legitimise their presence.

Production shot of Mary-Ann Ochota filming at Wayland’s Smithy

Image Credit: History Hit

The site is steeped in Saxon legend. Historian and storyteller Jason Buck explains that the name comes from Wayland, the Germanic smith of the gods. Legend says that if you leave your horse here with a coin, the invisible smith will have it shod by morning.

Production shot – Mary-Ann Ochota shares a cuppa with historian and storyteller Jason Buck as she sets up camp for the night

Image Credit: History Hit

The Neolithic toolkit

After a night in a tent, Mary-Ann’s journey continues from Hackpen Hill to Fyfield Down, where she uncovers the reality of prehistoric industry. Though they lacked metalworking, people at this time were using stone tools, flint tools, leather, bone, antler, and natural textiles. As Mary-Ann explains, stone tools weren’t just bashing two rocks together, “they were really sophisticated craftspeople. They really understood their materials.” 

In the Neolithic period (4,500 BC to 2,300 BC), stone axes were one of the key components in their toolkit – the ‘Swiss Army Knives’ of the age. While flint axes were used for everyday timber work, ‘posh’ versions of axes made from carefully chosen polished volcanic and sedimentary stones were symbols of elite status. These were either ground into shape or, in the case of flint and chert, fashioned through ‘knapping’ – a precise process of striking the stone to chip away the edges. To achieve a mirror-like, glass-smooth finish, craftsmen would rub the piece against abrasive sarsen stones for days or even years to get it perfectly polished. 

Remarkably, these stones weren’t local; analysis shows that rough-cut blocks for polished axes were quarried across the UK – from the Lake District to Cornwall, even as far as Northern Ireland – and traded along the Ridgeway.

‘Polisher stone’ at Fyfield Down

Image Credit: History Hit

Mary-Ann visits a ‘polisher stone’ at Fyfield Down – a sarsen boulder featuring deep, smooth grooves used to create, sharpen and shape the edges of the axe. These marks were created by humans sitting for hundreds of hours, grinding stone axe heads against the rock using wet sand to achieve a mirror-like finish. Standing by the stone, one can almost feel the presence of the craftsmen who laboured here 5,000 years ago. It’s unknown why this particular sarsen stone was chosen above the others for this purpose, but it is seen as a treasure of the Neolithic age.

Watch Episode 1 of Ancient Ways: The Ridgeway on History Hit to join Mary-Ann Ochota on this incredible trek through time and learn more about these ancient landmarks.

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