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from https://www.cnn.com/2024/03/20/europe/must-farm-bronze-age-britain-pompeii-scn

Best to go to the citation to see the drawings.

rCyBritainrCOs PompeiirCO reveals Bronze Age village frozen in time
Katie Hunt
By Katie Hunt, CNN
7 minute read
Updated 11:37 AM EDT, Wed March 20, 2024

9 comments
A metal axe head with wooden shaft was among the many well-preserved
artifacts discovered at Must Farm, near Peterborough in the county of Cambridgeshire in England.
A metal axe head with wooden shaft was among the many well-preserved
artifacts discovered at Must Farm, near Peterborough in the county of Cambridgeshire in England. Cambridge Archaeological Unit
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rCo
ItrCOs late summer 2,850 years ago. A fire engulfs a stilt village perched above a boggy, slow-moving river that weaves though the wetlands of
eastern England. The tightly packed roundhouses, built from wood, straw,
turf and clay just nine months earlier, go up in flames.

The inhabitants flee, leaving behind all their belongings, including a
wooden spoon in a bowl of half-eaten porridge. There is no time to
rescue the fattened lambs, which are trapped and burnt alive.

The scene is a vivid and poignant snapshot, captured by archaeologists,
of a once thriving community in late Bronze Age Britain known as Must
Farm, near whatrCOs now the town of Peterborough. The research team
published a two-volume monograph on Wednesday that describes their
painstaking $1.4 million (-u1.1 million) excavation and analysis of the
site in the county of Cambridgeshire.

Described by the experts involved as an rCLarchaeological nirvana,rCY the
site is the only one in Britain that lives up to the rCLPompeii premise,rCY they say, referencing the city forever frozen in time by the eruption of
Mount Vesuvius in AD 79 that has yielded unparalleled information about ancient Rome.

rCLIn a typical Bronze Age site, if yourCOve got a house, yourCOve probably got maybe a dozen post holes in the ground and theyrCOre just dark shadows
of where it once stood. If yourCOre really lucky, yourCOll get a couple of shards of pottery, maybe a pit with a bunch of animal bones. This was
the complete opposite of that process. It was just incredible,rCY said
Chris Wakefield of the Cambridge Archaeological Unit at the University
of Cambridge, an archaeologist and member of the 55-person team that
excavated the site in 2016.

rCLAll the axe marks had been used to shape and sculpt the wood. All of
those looked fresh, like they could have been done last week by
someone,rCY Wakefield added.

The remarkably preserved condition of the site and its contents enabled
the archaeological team to draw comprehensive new insights into Bronze
Age society rCo findings that could overturn the current understanding of
what everyday life was like in Britain during the ninth century BC.

Shown here is an artist's illustration of what the inside of the
roundhouses may have looked like.
Shown here is an artist's illustration of what the inside of the
roundhouses may have looked like. Judith Dobie
Must Farm domesticity rCo and a mystery
The site, which dates to eight centuries before Romans arrived in
Britain, revealed four roundhouses and a square entranceway structure,
which stood approximately 6.5 feet (2 meters) above the riverbed and
were surrounded by a 6.5-foot (2-meter) fence of sharpened posts.

The archaeologists believe the settlement was likely twice as big.
However, quarrying in the 20th century destroyed any other remains.

Though charred from the fire, the remaining buildings and their contents
were extremely well preserved by the oxygen-starved conditions of the
fens, or wetlands, and included many wooden and textile items that
rarely survive in the archaeological record. Together, traces of the settlement paint a picture of cozy domesticity and relative plenty.

The excavation of the site in 2016 involved a team of 55 people.
The excavation of the site in 2016 involved a team of 55 people.
Cambridge Archaeological Unit
The researchers unearthed 128 ceramic artifacts rCo jars, bowls, cups and cookware rCo and were able to deduce that 64 pots were in use at the time
of fire. The team found some stored pots neatly nested. Textiles found
at the site made from flax linen had a soft, velvety feel with neat
seams and hems, although it wasnrCOt possible to identify individual
pieces of clothing.

Wooden artifacts included boxes and bowls carved from willow, alder and
maple, 40 bobbins, many with threads still attached, various tools, and
15 wooden buckets.

rCLOne of those buckets rCa on the bottom of it were loads and loads of cut marks so we know that people living in that Bronze Age kitchen when they needed an impromptu chopping board, were just flipping that bucket
upside down and using that as a chopping surface,rCY Wakefield said.

rCLItrCOs those little moments that build together to give a richer, fuller picture of what was going on.rCY

Textiles made from flax linen were among the rare finds.
Textiles made from flax linen were among the rare finds. Cambridge Archaeological Unit
The circumstances of the event that brought it all to a halt are still a
bit of a mystery. The researchers believe the fire took place in late
summer or early autumn because skeletal remains of the lambs kept by one household showed the animals, typically born in spring, were three
months to six months old.

However, what exactly caused the devastating fire remains unclear. The
blaze could have been accidental or deliberately started. The
researchers uncovered a stack of spears with shafts over 10 feet (3
meters) long at the site, and many experts think that warfare was common
in the time period. The team worked with a forensic fire investigator
but ultimately couldnrCOt identify a specific rCLsmoking gunrCY clue pointing to the cause.

rCLAn archaeological site is a lot like a jigsaw puzzle. At a typical site
you have 10 or 20 pieces out of 500,rCY Wakefield said. rCLHere we had 250
or 300 pieces and we still couldnrCOt get the complete picture on how this
big fire broke out.rCY


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Mike Parker Pearson, a professor of British later prehistory at the
Institute of Archaeology at University College London, described both
the report and the site rCLas exceptional.rCY He wasnrCOt involved in the research.

rCLThe fire may have been disastrous for the inhabitants but it is a
blessing for archaeologists, a unique snapshot of life in the Bronze
Age,rCY he said via email.

Upending ideas about Bronze Age society
The contents across the four preserved houses were rCLremarkably consistent.rCY Each one had a tool kit that included sickles, axes, gouges
and handheld razors used to cut hair or cloth. With almost 538 square
feet (50 square meters) of floor space in the largest, each of the
dwellings appeared to have distinct activity zones comparable to rooms
in a modern home.

rCLBy plotting the positions of all these finds rCo pots, loomweights, tools and even sheep droppings, the archaeological team have reconstructed the housesrCO internal use of space,rCY Parker Pearson noted. rCLThe kitchen area was in the east, the storage and weaving area in the south and southeast
with the penning area for lambs, and the sleeping area in the northwest, though we donrCOt know where the doorway was for each house.rCY

Not all the items were of practical use, such as 49 glass beads plus
others made of amber. Archaeologists also unearthed a womanrCOs skull,
smooth from touch, possibly a keepsake of a lost loved one. Some of the
items the researchers found will go on display starting April 27 in an exhibition titled rCLIntroducing Must Farm, a Bronze Age SettlementrCY at
the Peterborough Museum and Art Gallery.

The village's inhabitants only occupied the site for a short time, but
they owned and used many rich and varied objects.
The village's inhabitants only occupied the site for a short time, but
they owned and used many rich and varied objects. Cambridge
Archaeological Unit
Lab analysis of biological remains revealed the types of food the
community once consumed. A pottery bowl imprinted with the finger marks
of its maker held a final meal rCo a wheat grain porridge mixed with
animal fat. Chemical analyses of the bowls and jars showed traces of
honey along with deer, suggesting the people who used the dishes might
have enjoyed honey-glazed venison.

Ancient excrement found in waste piles below where the houses would have
stood showed that the community kept dogs that fed on scraps from their ownersrCO meals. And human fossilized poop, or coprolites, showed that at least some inhabitants suffered from intestinal worms.

The waste piles, or middens, were one line of evidence that showed how
long the site was occupied, with a thin layer of refuse suggesting the settlement was built nine months to a year before it went up in flames.
Two other factors supported that line of reasoning, Wakefield said.

Analyses of Bronze Age dishes found at the site, such as the spoon
(left) and bowl (right) shown here, have helped reveal what Must Farm inhabitants ate.
Analyses of Bronze Age dishes found at the site, such as the spoon
(left) and bowl (right) shown here, have helped reveal what Must Farm inhabitants ate. Cambridge Archaeological Unit
rCLThe second was that a lot of the wood that was used in the construction
was unseasoned, it was still effectively green, it hadnrCOt been long in position,rCY he said.

rCLThe third one is that we have a lack of the kind of insects and animals that are associated with human habitation. It wouldnrCOt be long before beetles would worm (in) rCa but thererCOs no evidence of any of that in any
of the 18,000 plus timbers.rCY

The fact that the site, with its rich and varied contents, was in use
for only a year upended the teamrCOs preconceived rCLvisions of everyday liferCY in the ninth century BC and may suggest that Bronze Age societies
were perhaps less hierarchical than traditionally thought, according to
the 1,608-page report.

rCLWe are seeing here not the accumulation of a lifetime, but just a
yearrCOs worth of materials,rCY the authors noted in the report. rCLIt suggests that artefacts such as bronze tools and glass beads were more
common than we often imagine and that their availability may not in fact
have been restricted.rCY


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cnn-user-q02kqj
23 March, 2024

Fantastic, makes one want to visit the exhibit.


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cnn-user-8ierto
22 March, 2024

We are not so different from Bronze Age man as we think we are


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1



Poppawolf
21 March, 2024

looking at the dig site picture....it was very large find...awesome work....


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