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| Various pots during the pottery re-fitting exercise Photo: (c) Must Farm Website |
In an earlier blog post I wrote
about the Must Farm settlement in Cambridgeshire, England, which is one of the
most complete Late Bronze Age examples known in Britain. The settlement
consists of five circular wooden houses, built on a series of piles sunk into a
river channel below and seems to have been built around 1300 – 1000 BC. The
houses were subsequently destroyed by fire.
Specialist Analyses
The months of excavation work have
now been followed by a series of detailed scientific investigations exploring
the Must Farm settlement in much finer detail. The results of this post
excavation analysis so far are detailed on the Must Farm website. Almost 50
specialists are currently working on investigating 37 different aspects of the
settlement focusing on its material, environmental samples and dating the site
scientifically. It is during this wide-ranging specialist investigation that
theories and interpretations developed during the excavation can be tested or
expanded.
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| Selection of socketed axes Photo: (c) Must Farm Website |
The excavations at the Must Farm
site revealed a varied accumulation of artefacts consisting of metalwork,
textiles, animal bone, pottery and much more. Many of the objects were found in
remarkable condition while others were fragmented especially the large
collections of pottery and animal bone.
At Must Farm the preservation of
the material left behind is excellent because of the ideal combination of
charring and waterlogging. Textiles, wooden objects and environmental evidence
are among the finest examples from the Late Bronze Age found in Britain.
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| Late Bronze Age socketed axe complete with handle Photo: (c) Must Farm Website |
Wooden Objects
Must Farm has yielded an
abundance of wooden objects and implements, many of which have rarely, if ever,
been seen in a Late Bronze Age site. Over the 10 months of the Must Farm
excavation, archaeologists recorded over 5,000 pieces of wood ranging from
woodchips to huge oak timbers.
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| Residue of food in one of the Must Farm bowels Photo: (c) Must Farm Website |
Food
One of the most widely reported
finds from the Must Farm settlement has been the survival of food remnants
inside many of the pots. The fire which destroyed the structures helped these
organic materials to survive in a very charred form. This raises the
tantalising possibility that archaeologists will be able to find out what meals
were being prepared at the time of the blaze.
Quern-stone
During excavation of the
occupation deposits from the interiors of the collapsed building archaeologists
recovered the shattered remains of a flint quern. The flint had been heated to
a high temperature inside one of the structures during the large fire which
destroyed the settlement. When the floor collapsed and the heated quern hit the
water, it shattered.
The flint quern-stone has an
exceptionally flat surface unlike many prehistoric examples.
Characteristically, when a stone quern is used for grinding, the surface
develops a prominent indentation from constant rubbing with the hand-stone. One
possible explanation is that the quern was new and simply had not been used
enough to develop a depression. This interpretation would support the theory
that the settlement had not been lived-in for long before being destroyed by
the fire.
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| Socketed bronze axe Photo: (c) Must Farm Website |
Metalwork
The Must Farm site also produced
a large collection of metal tools and weapons for specialists to study. The
different types of axe all date to roughly the same period during the Late
Bronze Age. Many of these axes are incredibly well used and have been sharpened
many times. This wear on the blades is likely to have been due to the
construction of the settlement, which would have required extensive cutting and
shaping of hundreds of timbers.
Environmental
Conditions
The buildings at Must Farm were
built on stilts, situated above a river channel, before being destroyed by an
intense fire. Archaeologists noted patterns amongst the material that suggested
a strong association between objects and their original positions within the
Must Farm buildings.
Initial environmental evidence
suggests that the river channel was shallow and slow moving, supporting the
initial view of archaeologists that the material at the base of the river
channel had not travelled far from where it would have fallen. Analysis of
pollen data and plant remains, for example, has provided a more detailed
understanding of the river channel. While it was suspected that the river was
sluggish and shallow, the environmental data suggests that at times it may have
been almost dry.
The study of plant remains, and
related evidence indicates that the river channel had dense reeds along its
course and, importantly, underneath the structures. Archaeologists suspect that
the reeds created a “hairbrush” effect, catching artefacts and debris as the
structures burned and their floors collapsed.
This had the effect of slowing the material as it was deposited into the
channel. Artefacts simply dropped directly below the stilted buildings,
thereby, reflecting their original position inside the structures.
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| Image showing palisade posts Photo: (c) Must Farm Website |
Footprints from the
Past
During the excavation
archaeologists revealed preserved footprints surrounding the palisade. It seems
very likely that these groups of footprints were the result of people involved
in the construction of the palisade during a time when the river was dry or
shallow. Animal hoofprints are present alongside those of humans suggesting the
presence of various species at the site during the construction. This amazing
glimpse of a moment in the creation of the palisade over 3,000 years ago helps
connect us to the people involved in the creation of the Must Farm dwellings.
Animal Bone
A range of different animals was
recorded at the site including wild boar and red deer. The most prominent
feature of the animal bone was a preference for wild meat rather than the
domestic types typically associated with sites of this period in the Bronze
Age. The inhabitants of Must Farm appear to have had definite preferences for
certain joints of meat with red deer and boar forequarters present in several
of the houses. Around the outside of each of the site’s structures is a “halo”
of bone fragments that seem to reflect the waste of meal preparation.
Conclusion
The settlement at Must Farm has one of the most
complete Bronze Age collections of artefacts ever discovered in Britain, giving
us an unparalleled insight into the lives of the people who lived there 3,000
years ago. As archaeologists and various specialists examine the vast array of
samples from this site, we can look forward in the coming years to learning
much more about this fascinating and remarkable Late Bronze Age site and the Bronze
Age generally.
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