Wooden artefacts from the Late Bronze Age settlement at Must Farm – specialism, craft and use.
An online talk organised by Peterborough Museum
Speaker: Michael Bamforth
Nearly 200 wood and bark artefacts were recovered from the Late Bronze Age stilted settlement at Must Farm, Cambridgeshire, during excavations by Cambridge Archaeological Unit between 2006-16. The settlement was destroyed by a catastrophic fire, perhaps as little as a year after construction, with the buildings of the settlement and their contents collapsing into the soft muds of the river below. The combined effects of the fire and the rapid burial in waterlogged muds led to exceptional preservation of organic remains, with many of the wooden artefacts recovered from their original positions in the collapsed buildings. The completeness of the assemblage, which includes a variety of bowls, hafts for axes, gouges and spears, textile tools and a complete tri-partite wheel, gives us a rare chance to see the tools used by people 3000 years ago. The artefacts provide valuable insights into how tools were made, what they were used for and perhaps even who made them.
