The Must Farm pile dwelling – taste, appearance, lifestyle and communication in the Late Bronze Age
Channel: Recording Archaeology
Date: 2017-05-31

It now seems that the Must Farm Bronze Age pile dwelling (aka Fenland’s Pompeii) was built, occupied and burnt down in quick succession. The brevity of settlement and its catastrophic demise provided a rare set of circumstances, which in turn ensured exceptional preservation. Individual roundhouses replete with entire household inventories (whole pots, tool kits, textiles, wooden vessels, weapons, food remains, etc.) were preserved within the gentle sediments of a small river buried deep beneath the fens. This talk will present the context, circumstance and public outreach of the excavation and, at the same, attempt to come to terms with the sheer quantity and quality of materials and what they might tell us about taste, appearance, lifestyle and communication in Late Bronze Age Britain and beyond.

David Gibson, Cambridge Archaeological Unit