History series which sees skeletons of everyday people from across the ages analysed in staggering detail, opening new windows on the history of our Ancestors by literally revealing the person behind the skeleton.
The Woman and Three Babies:
In the sleepy commuter town of Baldock in Hertfordshire the History Cold Case team is called in to investigate the discovery of a skeleton dating from around 100AD, buried in a bizarre position, along with the remains of three babies. Is she Celt or Roman? Is she the earliest recorded mother of triplets in Britain and what can her story reveal about the bizarre attitudes to pregnancy and childbirth during the Roman occupation of Britain?
The Woman and Three Babies:
In the sleepy commuter town of Baldock in Hertfordshire the History Cold Case team is called in to investigate the discovery of a skeleton dating from around 100AD, buried in a bizarre position, along with the remains of three babies. Is she Celt or Roman? Is she the earliest recorded mother of triplets in Britain and what can her story reveal about the bizarre attitudes to pregnancy and childbirth during the Roman occupation of Britain?
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TVTranscript
00:00At Dundee's Centre for Anatomy and Human Identification, the History Cold Case team prepares for an
00:08astonishing new case.
00:11The archaeologists have asked us to come in and assist on some of the cases.
00:15It's the one that nobody else solved.
00:18It's the one that's your challenge.
00:20Can you make a difference?
00:21The investigation will be led by world-renowned forensic anthropologist Professor Sue Black.
00:27While Dr Xanthe Mallett scours the UK for historical evidence, and Professor Caroline
00:32Wilkinson rebuilds the faces of the dead.
00:35I've got a team that is of world-renowned reputation.
00:39This case will take the team back nearly 2,000 years, to a time of invasion and great upheaval
00:44in Britain.
00:47Today's case, which is Roman Bulldog.
00:50Oh my goodness me.
00:52There's a female found buried with three babies.
00:56This is an unprecedented archaeological find.
00:59The remains of a woman and three babies, discovered in a sinister position, within a single grave.
01:06She doesn't look so much disrespectful as careless to me.
01:12Careless.
01:13Yeah.
01:14Rushed.
01:15By forensically reconstructing the fate of this woman, can we gain crucial new information
01:19about why she died?
01:22And how will her story change our views of the past?
01:27That's very difficult because it's very easy to kill a baby and leave no marks.
01:30A time of brutal medicine.
01:33It looks pretty vicious.
01:35That is for perforating a skull.
01:37And rife superstition.
01:39You were getting ghosts.
01:40If you take the head off, you know that person's not going to cause you trouble.
01:44When survival was far from guaranteed.
01:48As a result, all of them, all four of them have died.
01:52This is the kind of story that will resonate with anybody who's a parent.
01:56That's basically infanticide.
02:22The History Cold Case team has come to Bulldock, a Hertfordshire commuter town with a hidden
02:27past.
02:29They set up their mobile forensic lab on Clothal Common, where people have lived for over 5,000
02:40years.
02:44Iron Age remains have been uncovered around here, which suggest Bulldock may be the earliest
02:49town ever to develop in Britain.
02:55Members of the local archaeological community are laying out a selection of skeletons found
02:59here in 1989.
03:05This investigation will focus on the troubling remains from just one of the graves, a female
03:10buried with three tiny babies in what looks like suspicious circumstances.
03:17Who were they?
03:19And how did they all end up dead in the same grave?
03:26Dr Xanthi Mallett is on site first.
03:29She meets archaeologist Keith Fitzpatrick-Matthews, who supervised excavations of the area and
03:34called in the History Cold Case team.
03:36There's actually a late Roman cemetery under the tent.
03:41There's a temple over there, more burials over there.
03:44So we're really in a necropolis almost.
03:49The dating of the burials to the Romano-British period is so far based on artefacts found
03:55in the graves.
03:56One of the graves had this rather nice little 1st century AD jar.
04:01And because it's a fairly early style, we can be certain that most of the graves were
04:07of the Roman period, so it puts it very early on.
04:13Keith takes Xanthi to the nearby housing estate, where the female and babies were unearthed.
04:21Now this looks very suburban, but I guess it didn't look like this when our burials
04:26were in place.
04:27Absolutely not.
04:28When we were excavating here, this was open land.
04:31It had been farmland for centuries.
04:38This is an aerial photograph taken when it was still being farmed.
04:42The site of the burial is just there, which puts it underneath those garages opposite.
04:47Oh, we're really close.
04:48We are very close indeed.
04:51The archaeologists thought they were excavating the body of a man.
04:55Then the dig took an unusual turn.
04:58Once we'd excavated his grave, it became apparent there was another grave underneath.
05:05And beneath his head and shoulders were the head and shoulders of the woman who was lying
05:11at right angles to him.
05:13That's where things started to get really interesting, because once we were uncovering
05:17her head and upper chest, that's when the first baby turned up.
05:25As the dig continued, it became clear there was a second, then a third, set of infant
05:30remains in the grave with the woman.
05:33Finding three babies together in a grave this old was an unprecedented discovery.
05:42Professor Sue Black flies in from Dundee HQ to see the remains for herself.
05:49They're hoping the bones will provide answers as to whether this is a 2,000-year-old natural
05:53tragedy or, in fact, something more sinister.
05:59Sue immediately notices that the skeletons appear to be remarkably intact, which is promising.
06:05They're in very good condition.
06:11They begin their analysis on the first of the two boxes containing the remains of the
06:16woman.
06:17Let's have a look.
06:18Ooh.
06:19OK.
06:20Christmas.
06:21Do you know what that one is?
06:22Opening Christmas presents.
06:23Yes, it's definitely a lady.
06:24Look at that.
06:25That's very familiar.
06:26My goodness.
06:28As they begin to study, they start to build her physical profile.
06:30Ooh, it's a very short tibia.
06:31That's very short.
06:32Perhaps the, uh, tall she would have been.
06:33So the tib we're talking, it's coming in at 31.
06:34So 31, it's coming just short of five foot.
06:35So it's coming into the sort of four foot, four foot 11 sort of range.
06:36So very short.
06:37S1 and S2 are fused.
06:38So, so we're over the 20s barrier.
06:39We're probably up into the 30s barrier.
06:40Yeah.
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07:47but, but, but, but...
07:50And look at the brilliance.
07:51It looks like humerus.
07:52It's very difficult to tell.
07:53These are vertebrae.
07:54Look at these, aren't those beautiful?
07:56It's like, you know, that game of jacks you used to play.
07:58Yeah.
07:59It's exactly what they look like when they're like this.
08:00They are cute, aren't they?
08:04Look at this.
08:07Reading bones this small and this old is incredibly difficult.
08:12And there is a second tiny skeleton.
08:16seven, six, eight, three.
08:17Oh, there's a lot less of this, by the looks of it.
08:28And then, the third, recovered from the same grave.
08:34Oh, now this, oh, this one's much better preservation.
08:36Look at that, in relatively good condition.
08:40That's pretty good, actually.
08:41I have to say, the recovery's just fantastic.
08:42It's amazing for the first century.
08:46Although Sue is a world authority on juvenile anthropology,
08:50she has never faced a challenge like this before.
08:54You can't tell if they're boys and girls?
08:56No.
08:57Because they're not born pink and blue,
08:58which, if they were, would be nice.
09:00Forensically, the things that we look for are any injuries of,
09:03any trauma, anything that may have shown that, you know,
09:06the child has been dispatched, as it were.
09:09But, again, it's very difficult,
09:10because it's very easy to kill a baby and leave no marks.
09:12Yeah.
09:13It's quite an interesting one, isn't it?
09:14Who was this woman?
09:16Are these her babies?
09:19And, if so, why would a mother and all three babies
09:23end up dead and buried together?
09:27The team will need to gather
09:28every bit of forensic evidence they can muster
09:31to prove exactly what happened here.
09:34Scientific testing gets immediately under way
09:37in the mobile lab.
09:41A sample taken from the thigh bone of the woman
09:44will be used for carbon dating
09:46to confirm whether these bones are, indeed,
09:48from the early Roman era.
09:52The team will need to gather
09:53every bit of forensic evidence they can muster
09:55to prove exactly what happened here.
09:58A sample taken from the thigh bone of the woman
10:00will be used for carbon dating
10:02to confirm whether these bones are, indeed,
10:04from the early Roman era.
10:08The same sample will also provide a chemical profile
10:11that can reveal where the woman was from,
10:13as well as crucial information about her diet.
10:23And adult and baby bones are also sent for DNA testing.
10:28The only way we're ever going to really know
10:30whether these individuals are related
10:32is if we can extract any DNA.
10:34They're in a good condition,
10:35but they're not in a perfect condition.
10:37So I think we have to be realistic
10:39that it's possible we might not get DNA samples from them.
10:42But if we do,
10:43confirming that the DNA of all three babies matches
10:46would be fantastic.
10:48Matching it to what we think is a female skeleton
10:51would be even better.
10:54Alongside rebuilding the woman's face,
10:56this battery of tests
10:58will help create a profile of her in life
11:01that will be crucial in cracking this mysterious case.
11:05There are so many questions to be answered in this case.
11:09Who was she?
11:10Why was she buried in that way?
11:21In the meantime,
11:22Xanthi's task is to initiate the historic investigation.
11:26If our woman lived and died in Bulldock
11:30nearly 2,000 years ago,
11:32what kind of town could it have been?
11:37She meets up with Dr Jeremy Taylor,
11:39an expert on Romano-British history.
11:44So we're looking at kind of first century Bulldock.
11:47What would it have been like?
11:49Bit of a Wild West town.
11:50Oh, really?
11:51Yeah, certainly at that particular point.
11:52Yeah, probably were.
11:53Because until it settled down,
11:54local government was organised in towns like this.
11:57You know, these places,
11:58the rules are changing very, very rapidly.
12:00And civil government is only becoming re-established
12:03in the aftermath of the conquest.
12:04So thinking about it,
12:06as if we can see Roman Bulldock in front of us,
12:08what kind of people are using it in first century?
12:11They're a magnet for people from all walks of life
12:14who are coming as traders, artisans, craftsmen,
12:17following in the wake of the Roman army
12:20and Roman administration,
12:21hoping to make a living.
12:23So she could have been from anywhere
12:25doing anything, in essence, then?
12:27Pretty much, yeah.
12:30It's not what Xanthe wanted to hear.
12:33Although our woman could have been a local Celt,
12:36she could also have been a Roman
12:38from literally anywhere across the empire.
12:41The isotope results will hopefully help to pin this down.
12:48None of Bulldock's Roman buildings remain.
12:51But below the surface of this football pitch
12:54are the foundations of what was once
12:56a huge temple in the centre of town.
13:02Oh, excellent. Oh, look at that.
13:04On excavations of temple sites,
13:06we find chickens being sacrificed,
13:08but also sheep, sometimes pig.
13:10Oh, quite large mammals.
13:11Oh, yeah, certainly animals can be.
13:13Sheep and goat certainly are sacrificed.
13:15This is a centre of religious life here.
13:18People come from the local area,
13:20but also people who are travelling
13:22on the Roman road between the major cities
13:24are also going to be stopping here.
13:26There's a good chance, then,
13:27that the woman that we're looking at
13:29would have actually visited this site.
13:31And it's very likely
13:32that she would have come here at some point.
13:34That's exciting.
13:37Bulldock in the first century
13:39was clearly a volatile place,
13:41rife with religious superstition
13:43and clashing cultures.
13:50Could the new Roman cult religions
13:52that increasingly dominated this area
13:54after the conquest in 43 AD
13:56have played a role in how our woman
13:58and the infants lived and died?
14:02First, the team needs to find out
14:04whether she even lived during this period.
14:07Back at Dundee HQ,
14:09Xanthi joins Sue
14:10and Professor Caroline Wilkinson
14:12to hear the results
14:13of the carbon dating tests,
14:15which are now back.
14:16We're looking at the carbon dating previously.
14:18The only thing that was dating it
14:20was the grave goods,
14:21so we had context.
14:22So it didn't do carbon-reporting before?
14:24No.
14:25No.
14:26No.
14:27No.
14:28No.
14:29No.
14:30No.
14:31No.
14:32No.
14:33No.
14:34No.
14:35No.
14:36No.
14:37The carbon dating covers the span
14:39from 6 AD to as late as 215 AD.
14:43So that's right bang in the middle
14:45of when the Romans were kind of
14:47officially in Britain and coming to.
14:49So there's a lot of moving about
14:51at this time.
14:52So she could have come from anywhere.
14:54She'd come with Romans,
14:55literally, anywhere.
14:56We don't have the isotopes yet?
14:57Not yet, no.
14:58So that's going to be quite interesting.
15:00And we don't have the DNA yet either.
15:02So that's the first actual kind of
15:04scientific evidence
15:05we've had come back in
15:06and it agrees with
15:07exactly what we'd been expecting.
15:09We like it when things agree.
15:10Not everybody does,
15:11but we like it when it agrees.
15:12Yeah.
15:13Makes me feel comfortable.
15:14Yes.
15:18These results place our woman
15:20and the babies firmly within a time frame
15:22when Bulldock was under
15:23heavy Roman influence.
15:27By 215 AD,
15:29the Romans had brought
15:30their entire culture to Britain.
15:32Legal and political systems,
15:34architecture,
15:35a vast network of military highways,
15:38as well as their social attitudes
15:40and superstitions.
15:42When the woman's grave
15:43was first excavated in 1989,
15:45it was singled out as different
15:47from the other burials
15:48on the same site.
15:49But was this only
15:50because of the presence
15:51of the babies?
15:52I've actually got a visual
15:53that I can show you
15:54from the information
15:55we've received
15:56from the archaeologist
15:57which will really help actually
15:59from these lovely CGI moments.
16:02So this is looking
16:03at the graveyard.
16:04And are these roads?
16:05Yes.
16:06And where's the rest
16:07of the cemetery?
16:08The rest of the cemetery
16:09is actually partway
16:10kind of down here
16:11across the road
16:12on the other side.
16:13What we're looking at there
16:14is the male.
16:15Male.
16:16It's overlaying.
16:17Yeah.
16:18And then we'll go down
16:19and lay up.
16:21So you can see
16:22the baby over the shoulder,
16:24the second infant
16:25and the third.
16:28It does make you think
16:29about things
16:30in a slightly different way
16:31and about things
16:32in a slightly different angle.
16:33With mum being laid
16:34on her side,
16:35is that telling us
16:36something about
16:37how she's viewed?
16:38I don't know.
16:39If you look at the male,
16:40I think what's interesting
16:41is he's on his back
16:42in what you'd kind of expect,
16:43you know, lying.
16:44Well, she is
16:45placed differently.
16:46I don't know
16:47how important
16:48actual physical position
16:49was at that time,
16:50whether that in fact
16:51means quite a lot
16:52that she's placed like that.
16:55There is something odd
16:56about the position
16:57of the woman's skeleton
16:58that's making
16:59the difference
17:01and the position
17:02that's making
17:03the team uncomfortable.
17:13Xanthi returns
17:14to Baldock
17:15to discuss
17:16the burial site
17:17in more detail
17:18with archaeologist Keith.
17:21So we're going
17:22to have a look
17:23at some of the images
17:24now, aren't we,
17:25from the actual grave?
17:26Yes.
17:27I'm quite looking
17:28forward to seeing these.
17:29Yes.
17:30This is a woman
17:31laid out in the grave.
17:35This looks unusual
17:36to me
17:37by the fact
17:38that I would expect
17:39you to be lying
17:40on her back.
17:41It is relatively unusual,
17:42both in terms
17:43of where it is
17:44in the cemetery
17:45and in terms
17:46of the way
17:47that the body
17:48was laid out
17:49in the grave.
17:50OK.
17:51Where it was
17:52in the cemetery,
17:53why was that unusual?
17:54We're on the edge,
17:55almost on her own,
17:56not quite,
17:57but it's very much
17:58a peripheral position
17:59She's also
18:00been laid
18:01on her right side.
18:02There aren't any
18:03in precisely
18:04this position.
18:05This is
18:06a one-off.
18:07Is there
18:08a kind of
18:09a descriptor
18:10for this?
18:11Because of her
18:12unusual position,
18:13we would tend
18:14as archaeologists
18:15to describe this
18:16as a deviant burial.
18:17Not meaning
18:18that there's anything
18:19deviant about her
18:20as a person,
18:21but that
18:22as a burial
18:23it falls outside
18:24the statistical norms.
18:25So literally
18:26unusual.
18:27Unusual.
18:28And socially
18:29perhaps
18:30a bit
18:33unacceptable.
18:36Why was she
18:37not given
18:38a normal burial?
18:39Was she herself
18:40judged to be deviant?
18:42And if so,
18:43why?
18:44I don't know
18:45if you can make out
18:46up there
18:47that's the baby
18:48by the right shoulder.
18:49I can just
18:50see it in there.
18:51In a deeply
18:52superstitious society,
18:53could it have been
18:54that she was somehow
18:55deemed responsible
18:56for the death
18:57of her husband?
18:58It might explain
18:59why they were
19:00all buried together.
19:01That's sad, isn't it?
19:02It's very,
19:03very sad.
19:12A key part
19:13of the woman's
19:14physical profile
19:15will be provided
19:16by Caroline's
19:17facial reconstruction.
19:19Quite a
19:20strong brow
19:21for a woman.
19:24And the good news
19:25is we've got
19:26a nose
19:27which means
19:30that we can
19:31predict how
19:32much her
19:33nose
19:34projects.
19:36There we go,
19:37so that fits
19:38there between
19:39the orbits.
19:41Caroline always
19:42begins with a
19:43close examination
19:44of the skull parts,
19:45especially complex
19:46in this case
19:47given how old
19:48and fragmentary
19:49the bones are.
19:52It's quite useful
19:53to be able to
19:54slot some of
19:55the bones together
19:56before we scan
19:57them.
19:58When you do it
19:59by hand,
20:00you can feel
20:01how they slot
20:02together as well
20:03as see.
20:04The mandible
20:05is quite
20:06square,
20:07square chin,
20:08square jaw,
20:09so quite a
20:10masculine looking
20:11woman,
20:12not typically
20:13female.
20:15She captures
20:16the fractured pieces
20:17using a 3D
20:18laser scanner
20:19as the skull
20:20will be reassembled
20:21in the computer.
20:22It will take
20:23several weeks
20:24to bring the face
20:25of this woman
20:26back into view,
20:27but will it
20:28turn out
20:29to be the face
20:30of a social outcast?
20:37The suggestion
20:38is that this woman
20:39is dealt with
20:40almost as if
20:41she's a deviant
20:42in some way.
20:44Is that supporting
20:45the suggestion
20:46that perhaps
20:47they're outsiders?
20:50The whole thing
20:51just smacks
20:52of a bit
20:53of disrespect
20:54and I don't,
20:55I guess
20:56in today's society
20:57I don't quite
20:58understand
20:59why that should be.
21:08To find out
21:09more about
21:10whether our woman
21:11was considered
21:12different,
21:13Xanthi travels
21:14to London
21:15to meet Alison
21:16Taylor,
21:17an authority
21:18on deviant
21:19burial in
21:21London.
21:22Hi.
21:23Hi.
21:24Can you tell me
21:25a little bit
21:26about deviant
21:27burials
21:28and what that
21:29means in,
21:30I'm presuming
21:31she's Roman,
21:32Roman period
21:33anyway.
21:34Right,
21:35yeah.
21:36Looking at
21:37what we call
21:38the deviant
21:39burial might
21:40have been
21:41someone
21:42that they
21:43were a bit
21:44worried about.
21:45Worried about?
21:46Somebody
21:47who they
21:48may think
21:49the spirit
21:50was very
21:51unfortunate.
21:52And Alison
21:53knows of
21:54some bizarre
21:55attempts
21:56to stop
21:57people
21:58coming back
21:59from the dead.
22:00This one
22:01looks a bit
22:02odd.
22:03Yeah,
22:04this one
22:05has her
22:06legs
22:07resting
22:08on a
22:09horse's head.
22:10I wondered
22:11what that
22:12was.
22:13There you go
22:14and then
22:15her legs
22:16are actually
22:17placed
22:18on top.
22:19Decapitation.
22:20Quite a
22:21number
22:22of people
22:23did lose
22:24their head.
22:25It seems
22:26to have been
22:27done usually
22:28straight after
22:29death and
22:30there are
22:31cut marks
22:32on the neck
22:33and we
22:34do know
22:35from later
22:36accounts of
22:37this sort
22:38of burial
22:39is that if
22:40somebody was
22:41giving trouble
22:42you were
22:43getting ghosts
22:44if you take
22:45the head
22:46off you
22:47know that
22:48it was
22:49a very
22:50prone
22:51burial.
22:52There's a
22:53very long
22:54tradition of
22:55that being
22:56seen as
22:57very
22:58disapproving.
22:59Get that
23:00in lots
23:01of different
23:02cultures,
23:03lots of
23:04different
23:05periods of
23:06history,
23:07right through
23:08the middle
23:09ages,
23:10that can
23:11be done
23:12to certain
23:13people.
23:14It seems
23:15that what
23:16they really
23:17wanted to
23:18do was
23:19to
23:20find
23:21out
23:22what
23:23was
23:24going
23:25on
23:26with
23:27the
23:28body
23:29and
23:30find
23:31out
23:32what
23:33was
23:34going
23:35on
23:36with
23:37the
23:38body
23:39and
23:40find
23:41out
23:42what
23:43was
23:44going
23:45on
23:46with
23:47the
23:48body
23:49and
23:50find
23:51out
23:52what
23:53was
23:54going
23:55on
23:56with
23:57the
23:58body
23:59and
24:01find
24:02out
24:03what
24:04was
24:05going
24:06on
24:07with
24:08the
24:09body
24:10and
24:11find
24:12out
24:13what
24:14was
24:15not an outcast. She was buried on her side with all the respect afforded a
24:20pregnant woman.
24:24But this is the first historical evidence that a pregnancy may have been
24:28involved and none of the babies appeared to be inside the woman. So was she
24:36pregnant or not?
24:39Back in Dundee, Sue looks for clarification from the bones.
24:51One of the questions often asked is are there indicators on a skeleton of a
24:57woman who's been pregnant? Is there anything left behind? Because most of the
25:00the changes are soft tissue changes. We used to say that if you can see that
25:04groove there in one area of the pelvis, so this is at the back of the pelvis, we
25:10used to say that's an indication the person's been pregnant. We've completely
25:13thrown that out the window but it would make an awfully nice story if we could
25:18say just because that's there we know she was pregnant and and that's not the
25:23case. So it would be awfully nice if we had something on here that said oh yes
25:28there's a clear indication this was going to be her 24th pregnancy. There's
25:33nothing. The mother gives no clue but what of the babies themselves?
25:42Maximum length. But of course when you have multiple pregnancies often the
25:47babies are a little bit smaller. It's termed 40 weeks, it's a newborn baby.
25:55These three babies are aged around the time they would have been born, making it
26:01highly likely this is a mother and her three babies. Astonishingly, as they're
26:07also all of a similar size, it's probable they were from the same pregnancy, making
26:13them triplets. Only the DNA results will be able to prove this beyond doubt but
26:20it brings the bones alive for Sue. Those are three full-term babies. These have
26:26gone to their full duration, maybe not quite 40 weeks but close, and if you
26:31imagine the connotations that has for her, being a little woman, not of a very
26:37young age, carrying three full-term babies, the implications for her and for
26:43the people around her, that's a huge story.
26:50It's a crucial turn in the investigation. This could be the oldest
26:56archaeological evidence of triplets ever discovered. To find out more, the
27:02team must now shift its focus and view this as a multiple pregnancy.
27:09Only one in 80 pregnancies is with twins and only one in 8,000 is with triplets.
27:18In ancient Rome, successful multiple births surviving to adulthood were
27:23generally seen as a good omen and became part of mythology, like the twins
27:29Romulus and Remus who founded Rome. And there was even a heroic set of
27:34legendary triplets, the Herati, known as the champions of Rome.
27:43But what were the chances of our mother giving birth successfully to triplets in
27:49Roman Britain nearly 2,000 years ago?
27:54How were women treated in difficult childbirths in that time? How did they
28:00deal with that? What was the mechanism? What was the medical background
28:04available to help her? Was there anything or was she just on her own?
28:10Xanthi travels to the British Museum in London to meet curator Ralph Jackson, a
28:22leading expert in ancient Roman medicine.
28:27What kind of level of understanding did they have of the anatomy?
28:30Well, quite good in the kind of harder parts but not too good in deep inside in the
28:37profound and softer parts. So more superficial anatomy. Exactly so, bones and
28:42superficial anatomy simply because there was no dissection of human cadavers. This
28:47was not routinely done. So internal anatomy was patchily understood. Ralph
28:53has a wide array of surgical tools used during Roman times. But it seems like
28:59quite a range here. This is what I would expect almost to see in like a field kit
29:03now, an emergency field kit, just having a quick look. I think this is one of the
29:06amazing things. When you look back and you look forward again, you find that the
29:10instrumentation hasn't changed hugely. In the kind of basic kit, you have knives,
29:14surgical blades, scalpels with a huge range of different types of blade. There
29:20were a range of probes and then sharp hooks used for retracting the edges of
29:27wounds and incisions. Precision made tools, beautifully finished. Some
29:32instruments would even combine the practical with the divine. Over here, a
29:37folding handle for a drill includes the sort of mortal side, if you like. It's a
29:43precision tool. But at the end, there is a bit of decoration. It's a snake head. Why
29:48would you find a snake head on the end of a drill? It's because the snake was
29:52the creature of Asclepius. Asclepius was the great overarching healing god. And if
29:57you put his creature on the end of your tool, both the operator and the patient
30:02would feel reassured. This is a real combination. It is a real combination of
30:06divine and mortal healing. This toolkit, is this a medical toolkit or is this a
30:11midwife's toolkit? And was there any difference? I suppose there was a
30:15difference. It is a medical kit. It's a basic kit of surgical tools used for all
30:19of the routine surgery. The midwives certainly could have had
30:22instrumentation because although midwives, by definition, tended to look
30:27after women expecting babies, they also were expected to have knowledge of other
30:35aspects of medicine, and that included surgery. Our pregnant woman in Roman
30:41Bulldock could have had surprisingly advanced medical care available to her.
30:46We had people who came to Britain with written texts that talked about medicine
30:50and some of those will have been connected to childbirth. So we can't deny
30:54the possibility of knowledge of classical medicine, the text, the
30:58techniques, in Roman Britain, and not just in Roman Britain, but in Roman Bulldock.
31:02Yet something went terribly wrong. All three babies, along with their mother,
31:07were in the grave together. Why?
31:15In Dundee, Caroline has now reassembled the skull of our four-foot-eleven woman.
31:23So you can see here she's got quite a prominent lump above her eyes, quite a
31:28strong brow for a woman. We've also got quite prominent bone surfaces here.
31:35It suggests she didn't have small, delicate ears. She may have had quite
31:38large, prominent ears. I think she might have an interesting face, but I
31:44wouldn't go as far as to say she's going to be unattractive. I think that
31:48might be a bit harsh. With the skull reassembled, only the green areas are
31:54missing, which can be estimated by mirroring the opposite side. So what
32:00effect would pregnancy have on the woman's face? Well, often when women are
32:06pregnant they become fuller of face and usually later in the pregnancy it's more
32:11noticeable. But that's based on contemporary pregnant faces and
32:18obviously we're well-fed and pampered in relation to people from this period of
32:23time. So I don't know how much of an effect her pregnancy would have had on
32:28her face. If the isotope results come back that she was well-nourished, then it
32:33raises the question of why a healthy, pregnant woman would end up dead, along
32:38with all three babies.
32:43The team now hunts for clues in the baby's burial positions.
32:49When excavated, one baby was found underneath the woman, one between her
32:54legs and one near her shoulder. She doesn't look so much disrespectful as careless to me.
33:00Rushed, careless. I don't know. I just don't like that. I don't like a baby up on
33:07her shoulder. Because you wouldn't bury somebody with a baby there. No. You just
33:10wouldn't. I think that's an afterthought. It's just an odd placement. One of the babies
33:15was found at her shoulder. I don't quite understand why you would do that. You
33:20would think if you were burying a mother with her baby it might be across her
33:23chest, it might be in her arms. There's almost an element of discarding.
33:30Is there a cause of death that could explain why all three babies ended up
33:35dead and appear to be almost discarded?
33:47Xanthi goes to the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists in
33:51London to meet Dr. Helen King, an expert in Roman birthing and childcare.
33:58Helen offers a shocking possibility for what may have happened to the babies.
34:04In Roman terms, there was a ceremony after birth where the father of the child had to
34:09pick the child up from the ground. If he did that, it indicated the child was
34:13worth the rearing, is how they put it. So the father decided how the baby was
34:18treated? Absolutely. And whether it's exposed or not. This kind of idea of
34:23exposing a child, what's that? Well, exposure means that you leave the child
34:28to die after it's been born. And I think, although it sounds pretty weird to us, I
34:33think in Greek and Roman terms, that's just really a very late abortion.
34:36That's basically infanticide if you just abandon a child. In our terms, yes, it is.
34:41As far as they're concerned, at least you found out what you've got. You found out
34:44the gender of the child, whether it's healthy.
34:47Oh, so physical disability. That's right. But also, interestingly, how the
34:51pregnancy went. And if the pregnancy was a healthy one, then that's more likely
34:56that the child's worth rearing.
35:00It's possible one or even more of the babies could have been the victims of
35:06infanticide. Their bodies just dumped in the grave. But Helen knows of certain
35:13Roman birthing techniques that could also have been responsible for the
35:17baby's deaths. Do you know what that is? Well, my imagination is telling me
35:23nothing good. It looks pretty vicious. It's vicious. That is for perforating the
35:28skull. To kill the baby. It would kill the baby, certainly, but it would also
35:32release the material inside the skull. And what you're trying to do is reduce
35:36the contents of the skull. So you've kind of pierced the skull through the little
35:41soft part, kind of mashed the brain around to break it down so the
35:46baby would pass out more easily. Yes, so with a head presentation where the head's got
35:49stuck, it's just a very large head, that's what you'd use, absolutely. So there's no
35:54chance of a baby surviving with that one. No, but there is a chance the mother
35:57would survive, whereas if you left the baby there, the mother's gonna die.
36:00Certainty, yes. And then there are these, you know what that is? I do. Go on then.
36:05This would go in through the same soft area, the top of the head, and basically hook
36:09the baby out, wouldn't it? That's pretty well it. Or you could also do it through the eye
36:12cavity. So any orifice. Yes, anything you can grab, really, to pull.
36:18Yeah, that's pretty nasty, isn't it? Well, it is, but if the alternative is the
36:23woman's going to die, then this could be a lifesaver. This baby here, this is
36:29actually where the head's been left behind, and you're grabbing into the
36:33mouth and then exerting traction from there. Wait, it's gone wrong at this stage,
36:36we've got pregnantation and they're literally just extracting what's left of the baby.
36:40Yes, exactly. It's a great image though. But we do know that the Romans had access to
36:45texts which talked about using hooks to extract babies that are in a difficult
36:49position, so if she does come from a Roman background or has access to Roman
36:54help, she could possibly have had that sort of instrumental interference in her
36:59delivery. Are there any signs of intervention in our case that would
37:04indicate midwives had to deal with a difficult birth?
37:11In Dundee, the bones of the three babies and the woman are put through a CT
37:16scanner. This will look outside and inside the bones to reveal damage that
37:24can't be detected just with physical examination.
37:32Sue then analyzes the results with her colleague, Ruz. First, they look at the
37:39female's scans. The pelvis is like a basin, and it's a basin that's wide at
37:45the top and narrow at the bottom. What we haven't got intact is the bottom end.
37:49I don't think there's enough. So she's not going to tell us. The female's bones
37:55are strong and healthy, but show no signs of intervention.
38:02What of the babies? But you see the trouble is there's no skull there.
38:07There's really nothing. It's tantalizing, isn't it? There's nothing that suggests
38:12really there's anything going on there. We can't tell from this that she's had
38:17any obstetric assistance of any kind. Again, there are no marks on the bones to
38:25indicate use of Roman instruments or medical assistance. There's no evidence
38:31on the remains of the babies of trauma of any kind that might be associated
38:38with somebody trying to assist the birthing process. So mum's not helping us
38:44with the birthing process. The babies aren't helping us with the birthing process.
38:48It's a frustrating situation.
38:57But can the woman's remains help to shed light on this in another way?
39:03Chemical traces in her bones could reveal whether she was Roman or Celtic,
39:09which may in turn suggest what type of midwifery she would have had access to.
39:15The results of the stable isotope analysis are now back. We don't know the
39:21genetic relationship yet. We're kind of obviously postulating the babies are hers.
39:24But I do have the isotopic results. So it's going to tell us about their diet,
39:29their provenance. So this is really all hinging on are they Roman or are they
39:33local or what? Because that's going to have a massive impact on the whole case.
39:37Her diet is standard terrestrial, very low marine, which is exactly what you'd
39:43expect for around that area. So it's unexciting, but it does pin it down.
39:48A mixed diet, presumably. A bit of marine, a bit of fish, a bit of grain.
39:54Yeah, but mostly like the grain element, very minimal kind of marine. In terms of
39:59where she came from, geographical banding is looking at southern England and through
40:04to the central western area. Again, it corresponds with Bulldock. So in terms of
40:08diet and provenancing, basically she's local.
40:11If our woman was from a local tribe without access to Roman medicine,
40:19it was far more likely she would have had to try and give birth without intervention.
40:29Is natural childbirth to triplets now the most likely cause of death for this woman?
40:43To find out just how dangerous it is to try and give birth to triplets naturally,
40:48Santhi goes to Queen Charlotte's Maternity Hospital in London,
40:52which deals with more multiple births than anywhere else in the country.
40:57Hi, Santhi. Nice to meet you.
40:59She meets Chief Obstetrician Dr Sailesh Kumar.
41:03Hi, Charlotte. This is Anthony.
41:05Hello, good to meet you.
41:08I think we're here today because you're having a scan because you've got three, aren't you?
41:11It's triplets.
41:12Yes, just to check the growth of the babies.
41:17Dr Kumar is performing a health check on mother Charlotte,
41:20heavily pregnant with her own triplets.
41:27How far along are you?
41:2825 weeks and a few days.
41:31Triplets grow at the same rate as a single baby,
41:34putting much more pressure on the womb.
41:37Do they kind of fight for space?
41:39I know they kick each other.
41:41So this little one weighs about 753 grams
41:46and all the measurements are equivalent to about 25 and a half weeks,
41:49so pretty much spot on.
41:51One of Charlotte's babies is in breech position,
41:54meaning feet or bottom down,
41:56a much more difficult position to give birth to a baby.
42:00How normal is this in triplet childbirth?
42:03Is that what you'd expect with triplets, is one baby in breech?
42:05Yes, yeah.
42:07It would be unusual for all three babies to be head down
42:11because there's a limited amount of space within the uterus,
42:13so frequently you get one baby head down,
42:16the other baby lying across,
42:17perhaps the third baby in a breech position.
42:21So carrying triplets, you'd never give birth naturally?
42:24Well, you never say never,
42:25but it would be highly unusual these days to deliver vaginally.
42:27It's too dangerous?
42:28Yes.
42:29Charlotte's triplets are progressing nicely,
42:33but there will be major medical intervention,
42:35including a cesarean section to help her give birth.
42:39All three babies seem to be doing well, Charlotte,
42:42and I'll just let you listen to the baby's heart rate.
42:48But what of our mother and her three full-term babies
42:51found 2,000 years ago in Romano, Britain?
43:01In Dundee, Sue has gone back to the bones for one final examination.
43:07One of the babies becoming stuck in the birth canal,
43:09known as breech position,
43:11is the biggest threat to life in triple births.
43:16Yet according to their positions in the grave,
43:19none of our babies were found in the birth canal.
43:24So the overlays that Zant showed us in the briefing
43:27that came from the archaeologist are here,
43:29and if we just have a quick look at those,
43:31this is mum laid out in the burial outline.
43:36If you put the babies then, the position,
43:38the rough position of the babies,
43:40the first one is sitting here towards her shoulder.
43:44The second baby is sitting down in here
43:48between her thighs, a quite unusual place to find a baby.
43:52Quite difficult to explain what that's about.
43:57But critically, Sue now believes the position of the second baby,
44:01previously thought to have been born and outside the mother,
44:05is misleading.
44:06Now, if this baby is found outside mum's cavity,
44:10you have to say, well, was the baby born?
44:12And not necessarily,
44:14because if what happens, mum dies
44:16while baby is still trying to be born,
44:19then obviously that baby stays within the pelvic canal,
44:22within the birth canal.
44:24As mum decomposes, inside her gut,
44:29she creates a lot of gas.
44:31And a lot of gas inside her
44:33actually causes a rise in pressure inside her abdomen.
44:36And she can expel the baby after she's dead
44:41because of the rise in gases.
44:42But because the baby's decomposing as well,
44:45it's much easier now for it to get through the birth canal as well.
44:49So that this found outside mum
44:53doesn't mean that when she died, it was outside mum.
44:59If the baby was stuck in the birth canal,
45:02only to be expelled through what's called a coffin birth,
45:06this could explain how that baby and the mother died.
45:12And there's another revelation.
45:15Sue believes that baby number three was not found merely under the mother.
45:19It was still in the womb when it died.
45:23This little person here, nobody ever knew it existed.
45:27Because this one was still waiting to be born.
45:29This one was still in the queue.
45:31This is their secret child.
45:32She wouldn't have known it was there.
45:35We're the only ones that know that this baby existed.
45:41And the breech birth that killed the mother
45:44and two of the babies could also have indirectly led
45:47to the death of the baby that was born, found on the mother's shoulder.
45:52She'd already had one of the babies.
45:54That baby would have survived her.
45:56But, of course, if there isn't anyone to feed that baby,
45:59then that could have been an extra problem.
46:02But also babies who aren't with mum
46:06are in a very, very dangerous position.
46:10Even if this baby was born alive,
46:12without its mother, perhaps the odds were against its survival,
46:16which might explain why it, too, ended up in the grave,
46:19along with its siblings.
46:21So all four deaths could have come from one breech birth.
46:30And Sue has an astonishing X-ray from the 1950s
46:33that graphically illustrates exactly how a breech birth
46:37could have had such fatal consequences.
46:40It's a full-term foetus.
46:42So there's the baby's head.
46:44There's the baby's vertebral column coming down there.
46:47There's its leg, or one of its legs, sitting up there with a foot up here.
46:50Babies don't bend well in the middle, they really don't.
46:53That width isn't going to go through there.
46:56There's no space in there.
46:59And there isn't, and that's just with one that's gone to full term.
47:03Now, you imagine you've given birth to one already,
47:05head down and off it's gone.
47:07You've still got this one in here, in this kind of a position,
47:11and there's a third one in line, still waiting to come out.
47:15But she's not going to do it.
47:16So she's going to spend two, three days in labour,
47:20desperately trying to push out,
47:21getting weaker and weaker the whole time,
47:24and eventually she's going to die.
47:25And as a result, all of them, all four of them, have died.
47:31It's a tragic scenario.
47:34But until the DNA shows beyond doubt
47:36that the babies actually belong to the woman, it remains unproven.
47:48But who was she?
47:51The isotope results have already shown the woman grew up in the local region.
47:58So if she was from a Celtic tribe,
48:00what were the likely circumstances of the pregnancy?
48:07Zanthi goes to the bathhouse at Segedunum, near Newcastle,
48:11to meet historian Lindsay Allison-Jones,
48:14an expert on the lives of women in Romano-Britain.
48:18The tribe, local to Bulldock, were called the Catabalani,
48:22and there is evidence of how women from this tribe may have lived,
48:25including a surprising array of women,
48:28who were born in the early 1800s.
48:30Ooh, it's vinegar. It is.
48:32And that, if you soak sheep's wool in vinegar
48:35and use it as a vaginal pastry...
48:37Would it have worked? That would have worked, yes.
48:39It wouldn't have smelt very nice. No, it wouldn't.
48:41But perhaps slightly better would be the olive oil,
48:45and this, which is alum.
48:47What's this?
48:49Oh, this is a mineral, which would have been ground up
48:52and used as a paste to make a paste.
48:54It's a paste.
48:56Oh, this is a mineral, which would have been ground up
48:59and used as a paste within a pastry.
49:01If you'd stuck to it,
49:03if you'd made sure that you were using it properly
49:06and you always did it, then it would have worked.
49:10According to Lindsay, these techniques,
49:13and the fact that our woman was in her late 30s,
49:16make her pregnancy unlikely to be a mistake.
49:19Do you think the woman in Bulldock would have been married, then?
49:22Oh, yes, most people would have been married.
49:24Celtic law saw a marriage between a man and a woman as a partnership,
49:28and that they would go through life as life partners.
49:31That's very romantic, isn't it?
49:33You kind of imagine they would have had loads of children
49:36running around everywhere.
49:38What is very interesting about life in Roman Britain
49:40is that the evidence suggests that they are controlling the size of their families,
49:43and most families are having just two, perhaps three children.
49:46Would it have been a shock, do you think,
49:48because she's that much older to be a mother?
49:50It is quite late to be having children in the Roman period,
49:53and it may be that this is the result of a second marriage,
49:56because second marriages were quite common.
49:59But who might she have been married to?
50:02Surprisingly, Lindsay thinks it could have been the man buried just above her.
50:08The fact that they're actually one on top of the other at a right angle
50:12and very closely aligned, I suspect, suggests that this is her husband
50:17who knows exactly where his wife is buried and wants to be with her.
50:20So it wouldn't have been an accident that somebody would have been buried above her?
50:23I don't think it was, no.
50:26It's a real surprise.
50:31Was this man her husband and the father of the children?
50:36For Sue, it's an intriguing possibility.
50:40Is he involved with her? Does he have any relationship to her at all?
50:44We don't know, but what we can do, if we're lucky,
50:48is get enough DNA out of that material that says, can we match DNA?
50:53And we're back to paternity testing again.
50:56Gosh, you know, we're in the news with paternity testing right now.
50:59So, you know, here we go, Roman paternity testing.
51:02Could he have been Dad?
51:04A bone sample from the male was also sent for DNA testing.
51:10Meanwhile, Caroline is close to discovering what our woman may have looked like.
51:16You can start to see her face developing
51:19in terms of the overall position of the features and the overall shape.
51:23And because she had a normal, healthy diet,
51:25that doesn't suggest that she was emaciated.
51:28So we're keeping her at normal stature.
51:30Because of her pregnancy, she may have had a bit of a tumour.
51:34I think she might have a really interesting end-product face here.
51:48The case is that the male has been found to have been emaciated.
51:52So we're keeping her at normal stature.
51:54And because of her pregnancy, she may have had a slightly fuller face.
51:58But she's already got quite a square, rounded cheek look to her anyway.
52:03The case is now reaching a close, with only the key DNA results still to come.
52:10The team goes back to where the bones were found in Bulldog
52:13to reveal the details of their investigation to the local community.
52:18Keen to hear their findings are those who originally excavated the site,
52:22experts who have assisted the team and members of the local community.
52:28It's going to be really interesting to find out the results of the scientific tests.
52:33It's quite exciting because we've never had anything like this done with the stuff for Bulldog before.
52:38Often, as an archaeologist, when you look at skeletons, you do dehumanise them.
52:43So having the facial reconstruction is really an important thing.
52:47To me, this is absolutely what the fusion of history and science
52:51and archaeology and medical history and literary studies is all about.
52:55This is where it's at.
52:57The nightmare scenario would be discovering that the mother isn't the mother of the triplets.
53:02Feel free, come and have a look.
53:05What you're looking at is special. In fact, it is unique.
53:10And we've been very privileged to be allowed to look at these remains.
53:15We think we've got some very interesting information to tell you.
53:21Sue will reveal what the science has brought to the case.
53:24But how will those who've lived with the bones for over 20 years react?
53:29The carbon-14 dating that came back for Our Lady was between 6 and 214 AD.
53:35So our individuals are unquestionably in the early Roman period.
53:40What the isotopes tell us was that in terms of their diet, these are local individuals.
53:46They are local to Bulldog.
53:49But she's in her 30s. She's a late mum.
53:53She may well have been very, very heavily pregnant.
53:58She's gone to full term. She's gone the full distance.
54:02Wow.
54:03And she was only 4 foot 11.
54:06There's a lot of weight in there.
54:08Yeah.
54:10But what of the DNA?
54:12Will these final scientific results prove a familial link between the woman and the babies?
54:22There's good news and there's bad with DNA.
54:26I have to admit, looking at the quality of this, we said on the day,
54:31chances of getting DNA out of a woman are very slim.
54:37Chances of getting DNA out of this are extremely slim,
54:42which just shows how much we don't know.
54:46The DNA from baby 2 matches with the DNA from baby 3, which matches with mum.
54:57We couldn't get any DNA out of baby 1, which is just so unfair.
55:03But what's the chance that that baby doesn't belong?
55:07It's highly unlikely. It's got to belong to her.
55:10The woman was indeed the mother of the babies, but was the man the father?
55:16So, paternity testing?
55:21I couldn't get any DNA out of him. I'm so sorry.
55:26It's a remarkable story of a mother's struggle to give birth to triplets 2,000 years ago.
55:35It's about the journey that she has gone through,
55:38in an event that most of us take for granted will result in something that is terribly happy
55:43and terribly natural and will be just fine at the end because that's what we're used to.
55:49Her story isn't quite as successful, but it is incredibly important.
55:55Finally, it falls to Caroline to reveal the mother's face.
56:12To be able to see her face is really quite amazing.
56:16She's striking. She's definitely striking.
56:18She's very capable-looking.
56:20The face of a good childbearing.
56:24I like her, though. There's something engaging about her.
56:27But her story's complete, and in the completion of her story, then it's the closure of the case,
56:34and I think that we've gone as far as we can.
56:37I'm thrilled. Getting those results is just amazing. It couldn't have been better.
56:43She couldn't survive that with the sorts of conditions she was living in,
56:47with the sorts of help that was available to her, and that's very striking.
56:51It sort of rounds off a story that was started 20 years ago and a mystery and an enigma,
56:59and it's given us a vast new amount of information. I think that's great.
57:04This case started with a skeleton assumed to be a social outcast,
57:08maybe the victim of a suspicious death.
57:12But it's ended with the profile of a local, healthy and probably married woman.
57:17Strong enough to carry three babies to term, but in the end the victim of a simple human tragedy.
57:24Pregnant with triplets in a time when the odds of surviving were stacked against her.
57:31These extraordinary bones will now be handed back to the community.
57:35The only ever recorded case of Romano-British triplets is now closed.
57:40It is a sad case, but boy is she important when it comes to recording how we handled these kinds of multiple births.
57:50And that story has come from the remains.
57:53So we feel very privileged to just have the temporary custodianship of them so that we can work with them.
57:59From this point forward, her story will be remembered.
58:10Next this evening, we meet a young cancer sufferer in Alex, a life fast forward, part of our Extraordinary Me season.