Digging For Britain | Series 12 Preview (BBC Two)

During six exciting episodes, Professor Alice Roberts and her team of experts uncover some of the most remarkable finds the series has ever featured. Episode one sees Alice Roberts travel through the East of Britain to the area’s most exciting archaeological digs.

Alice joins archaeologists digging an astonishing Anglo-Saxon cemetery in rural Kent. Every grave is filled with exceptionally well-preserved and rare objects, including a complete Anglo-Saxon sword.

Archaeologists are working on one of the largest archaeological digs in the country at the construction site of the Sizewell-C nuclear power station in Suffolk. The team unearth a mysterious lump of lead, filled with hundreds of early medieval silver coins. The team bring the whole coin collection to the Digging for Britain tent for careful analysis, which could reveal why the hoard it was buried in the first place.

In Norfolk, Alice joins a dig in the grounds of a Roman villa in Norton. 2000 years ago, this villa was on the edge of Iceni territory - a powerful Celtic tribe, most famous for their revolt in 61 AD led by Queen Boudicca. The most exceptional find is a full military horse-burial, which suggests this villa on the edge of Iceni territory may have belonged to a retired Roman veteran.

Just outside of Peterborough, archaeologists have unearthed one of the most unusual burials of the year - an enormous Roman stone coffin, filled with white plaster. The stone sarcophagus was the centrepiece of an entire Roman cemetery, surrounded by a remarkable collection of other burial.

Finally, a team of volunteer divers are in a race against time to record and recover everything from the historically important shipwreck of ‘The London’ before it erodes and gets washed away by shifting tides and threat of modern shipping traffic.

Digging For Britain returns Tuesday 7th January at 8pm on BBC Two.