The Must Farm pile dwelling - taste, appearance, lifestyle and communication in the Late Bronze Age

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

[@nickringastan7838]

Fantastic the most important discovery of British Bronze Age artefacts from last decade

[@KernowekTim]

What an unmitigated success, when 'the world' sits up, and comes to you. Brilliant...Without our ancestors, we are but nothing. Without those that show us our roots we would forever be at loss. Bravo to our archaeologists, past and gone, here and now, young, and less young, in years.

[@mkrmkr3805]

That was an excellent presentation. Thank you. 🙏

[@lisatwitchell403]

This is the best presentation hope what happened at Must Farm that I have ever seen. I was very interested in the excavation but I am far more interested in what the excavation found out about the society at that time. Fantastic! Thank you very much!

[@paularowe7651]

Excellent presentation

[@ThatLadyBird]

Great video, thanks for posting. Im most stunned by the textiles and processing material.

[@leedennehy5077]

Amazing

[@kc3718]

super exciting to see how this will unfold.

[@j.rivest]

Wow! This is exciting.

[@ingeleonora-denouden6222]

Not only interesting for those studying archaelogy, also for textile hobbyists like me (wanting to know about materials and techniques used by those early cultures here in northern Europe)

[@martinaaron609]

"...a sense of a context within a facet of a story, and a sense, I suppose, of exploring contexts with a sense of facets of that sense, which characterise a sense of potential within contexts which give a sense of..."

[@novianovioTV]

You need to read a lot of books on comedy right to get a sense of what makes something amusing

[@HighWealder]

Wow

[@novianovioTV]

Watched this today (20/3/2024) as I read the announcement of an exhibition on it starting next month in Peterborough . Time Team est your heart out. So much stuff he says I click a button and there’s more: ‘Bronze Age porn’ 😂

[@joelewis58]

could you change the name of the presenter/speaker since it is Mark Knight current Archaeologist of the Year 2017 award by Current Archaeology standing in for David Gibson he does say he is standing but since his introduction isn't on the video i guess you missed it.

[@davidevans3227]

what happened to the brick factory

[@alexlloyd6112]

im very curious, the must farm pile dwelling contains a lot of important metallurgy. for the inhabitants that fled, leaving metallurgy such as prepared axeheads etc behind would have been disastrous for future prospects or at least would have meant they would have had to start from scratch. combining that with the overall lack of weaponry and burning of the settlement, would it be a drastic assumption that this was an invasion as such by another community, and as such the inhabitants fled, and after seeing the settlement on fire the invaders continued after them? i cant fathom, within its context, another reason as to why such a newly established community would otherwise leave all the important aspects of that society such as the axes, but yet take the swords with them. I wouldn't, therefore, be surprised if within the locality we would find evidence of some form of mass burial (if the survivors were eventually caught) with evident superficial damage to bones etc.

[@KernowekTim]

The oBvious conclusion is that there was no time. I think that the fire started whilst the inhabitants were asleep. They would have been awoken by their dogs barking and their tethered lambs bleating in terror. They grabbed their babies, youngsters, and elderly and fled the scene in great haste. On open fens, therre is usually a breeze. On that night a stiff breeze would have soon turned the wooden and thatched material into an inferno of flame. In today's world, a house fire in the hours of darkness leaves us with thoughts of immediate self preservation. We flee the scene, if we are able. Fortunately for this community they were surrounded by water. unfortunately, they lost their homes and all within. Metal axe-heads, sickles, shears et cetera, were made in great abundance by the artesans. It was an 'industry', as was farming, fishing and fowling....They could soon be aquired after the event.

[@alexlloyd6112]

@@KernowekTim agreed, but the conclusion that there was no time also increases the liklihood that this in turn was an intentional act. We cannot just assume that this was a wayward ember from a fire too close too the thatch, after all, these peoples had been living and surviving for quite some time, and it would be an injustice to assume they were incompetent. i agree though that what could have started small would have spread rapidly, especially through the materials used. I think it is an injustice though to think that metal objects and tools were easily replaceable, especially considering the trade networks required to access tin -predominantly from the south west of England- and the considerable hours that went into the production of such cast objects. It is for that reason that i wonder as to the origins of the fire, secondly, had this fire been accidental, it is likely that the occupiers would have returned to collect such important tools once the fire had died down, yet from the evidence available this does not seem to have been the case. its an extremely interesting, and thought provoking site! im looking forward to the publications being released by CAU and Mark Knight in the future.

[@ingeleonora-denouden6222]

Not only the metal ... Those bundles of plant fibers must have been gathered and processed during at least a year!

[@shawnkelly2958]

I was hoping to find out if any bodies or skeletal remains were found to suggest the settlement was indeed attacked and some of the inhabitants perished in the attack. Anybody know?

[@meganw.4457]

@@pcoristi I can see that, except it doesn't appear the site was looted at all. Maybe an attacker didn't care about loot, but there were a lot valuables in there. Slavers were interested in value, so it doesn't make a lot sense that they would burn down houses full of goods out of pure spite. But I don't know, obviously. It really seems more like a catastrophe that forced people out and destroyed their valuables. I'm curious as to what conditions were like when the fire happened. Had it been particularly dry for a fire to spread so quickly? Or did it possibly burn while people were away on some errand so that they had no chance at stopping it?

[@KernowekTim]

No human remains were found. All residents got away, otherwise charred human remains and teeth would have been discovered along side the bones of the live lambs/sheep that died within. That is not to say that people may have drowned, attempting to flee, and their corpses recovered afterward for mortuary rites and in-humation.

[@ChristienJanson]

most about the project itself, i was looking for info on those bronze age people.

[@ivanolsen7966]

you looked up the wrong stuff

[@KernowekTim]

@@ivanolsen7966 Aye.

[@ivanolsen7966]

or is the " wheel " the remains of the floor that was covered with clay for the position of the domestic fire

[@KernowekTim]

No. If it were, such 'wheel formations' would be common place in all dwellings of this type, built on stilts above water.

[@sassulusmagnus]

Mmmm. A "pile dwelling".