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Perfectly-preserved ancient British town was wiped out by catastrophic fire 3,000 years ago
BRITAIN's version of Pompeii was only inhabited for about a year before it succumbed to a catastrophic fire, according to new findings.
The 3,000 year old Bronze Age site in Cambridgeshire got it's Pompeii nickname because it is so well preserved, enabling lots of fascinating discoveries about life in the Bronze Age to be made.
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Must Farm is located in a wetland area and it is these waterlogged conditions that have kept it so intact, making it a Bronze Age time capsule.
Houses at the site are said to be the "most completely preserved prehistoric domestic structures found in Britain."
Lead archaeologist of the Cambridge Archaeological Unit Mark Knight told : "Working at the site was a series of daily, almost hourly moments of astonishment and wonder - with each new discovery seemingly outshining the last.
"This was invariably accompanied by a faint rotten-egg smell that goes with most waterlogged sites - the smell of gradual organic decay.”
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Experts at the site are now certain that it was burnt down by a fire that started internally and was only inhabited for around a year.
This would have been a tragedy for the supposed 50 to 80 inhabitants of the site who lived there when it burnt down.
No solid evidence of people dying in the fire has been found yet and the only human remains at the site have been tiny bone fragments including pieces of skull, belonging to two individuals.
However, formal burial grounds in the Bronze Age weren't common and some archaeologists think it would have been normal for the Bronze Age Brits to dispose bits of skeletons around the site.
Knight and his colleagues now claim to have created the first “definitive time frame to Must Farm’s occupation and destruction" in around 1,000 to 800BC.
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The houses found at the site were round and set up on stilts above an ancient river.
The fire is thought to have burnt the platform that the houses stood on, sending them falling into the river and leaving all the artefacts to be preserved in silt.
The first find at the site came in the form of a fancy sword discovered in 1969 and since then other discoveries have included ancient food, jewellery, clothes and a wooden wheel.
All the findings have taught archaeologists around the world so much more about daily life in the Bronze Age, architecture and material culture and they are certain that even more information from Must Farm is just waiting to be revealed.
What was the Bronze Age?
Here's what you should know...
- The Bronze Age was the period of time between the Stone Age and the Iron Age
- It is characterised by the common use of bronze at the time and also the start of some urban civilisations
- In Europe, the Bronze Age occurred from around 3200 to 600 BC
- During this time period, ancient empires started to trade luxury goods
- Some civilisations also developed writing
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