Sandi Toksvig is set to make a horrifying discovery during her new Channel 4 show, Hidden Wonders.
The 67-year-old comedian is digging deep on the four-parter, which sees her joined by a team of archaeological researchers and experts to excavate land in search of historical finds.
The former Bake Off host, who has a degree in archaeology and anthropology from Cambridge, is now set to help unravel the Iron Age murder of a girl.
During the filming of the Channel 4 show, researchers uncovered the skeleton of a teenage girl buried face down in a pit.
The team were particularly shocked to learn that the teenager, who was between 15 and 17 years old, is believed to have been murdered as a human sacrifice.
‘The arms had been tied together prior to death,’ Toksvig recalled (via The Mirror). ‘The nature of the death seemed to be violent and suggested this was perhaps a sacrificial grave. Everybody was being careful.’
She went on to say that, with the help of archaeologist Raksha Dave, they handled the skeleton ‘very carefully’.
‘I turned the face at last to the light and it felt like the person was looking at me,’ said the presenter. ‘At that moment, I unexpectedly burst into tears.
‘I could not stop crying. To hold that person’s head in my hands was one of the greatest privileges of my life.’
Raksha Dave, who joins Toksvig at each of the four archaeological dig sites the programme features, described the discovery as ‘gobsmacking’.
‘It’s very rare to find a human sacrifice. That’s not the first one they’ve discovered; there’s an obvious pattern that follows from years of digging,’ she said, adding that it suggests the practice was ‘the norm’ for the Durotriges, which was one of the Celtic tribes in Britain before the Roman invasion.
Who were the Durotriges?
The Celtic tribe lived in the south of the British Isles, across what is now Dorset and Somerset, during the Iron Age.
There is growing evidence to suggest the tribe was led by women and that the lineage can be traced back to a single woman.
It’s believed the tribe resisted the Roman invasion under the emperor Claudius in AD 43. But by 70 AD, they were included in the Roman province of Britannia.
The Channel 4 show, which is set to air next week, sees the Bake Off alum searching for clues about the wider histories of the areas of each dig to answer questions the newly excavated items raise, as well as meeting local historians to help piece together the stories unearthed at each location.
In the official announcement for the show, Toksvig described it as a ‘dream job’ as a history and archaeology buff.
‘It is a total privilege to be given access to professional archaeological dig sites and to join Raksha and the teams as they dig to reveal the history of our country from right beneath our feet,’ she added.
Hidden Wonders will be available on Channel 4 from Tuesday, November 4.
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