Cold Case - Woman & Three Babies
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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.