Data published Tuesday by the University of Cambridge revealed the prosperous lifestyle of an ancient farming village, which fell to a horrifying fate.
Excavations at the Must Farm Settlement near Whittlesey, England, revealed a series of wooden structures built over a freshwater paleochannel, dating as far back as 1100 to 800 B.C., according to the study published by the institution. Analysis reveals the site was “engulfed by a catastrophic fire less than a year after construction,” the authors wrote.
The fire was so destructive that it sent myriad artifacts into the waters below, forcing the villagers to flee for safety and abandon their homes. Everything from clothing, tools, beads, wheels, weaponry and even cooking pots still containing porridge were found six feet into the silty peat. Thanks to this excellent natural geological product, all of the artifacts were kept safe for nearly 3,000 years.
3,000 year old wooden artefacts from the Must Farm excavation https://t.co/Ktesu5LOlM archaeology #UK Bronze Age pic.twitter.com/nbfKfzXv3O
— Ticia Verveer (@ticiaverveer) April 11, 2016
Animal bones & other artefacts found at Bronze Age ‘Pompeii’ Must Farm quarry #Whittlesey https://t.co/5ITHuLWrhV pic.twitter.com/KHBEwM3lfu
— Peterborough Telegraph (@peterboroughtel) February 6, 2016
Bronze Age artefacts from ‘Britain’s Pompeii’ Must Farm could go on display at Heritage Centre https://t.co/YsHMJevCb3 #Cambridgeshire pic.twitter.com/h4fQNUuot0
— CAMBRIDGESHIRE (@DailyCAMBRIDGE) April 1, 2017
“This didn’t feel like archaeology,” project director Mark Knight told the New York Times. “At times, excavating the site felt slightly rude and intrusive, as if we had turned up after a tragedy, picked through someone’s possessions and got a glimpse of what they did one day in 850 B.C.”
The wealth of data held in the peat-bog at Must Farm offers the most incredible snapshot into real life in ancient Britain. (RELATED: ‘Unique’ Dig Reveals Potential 6000-Year-Old Settlement Along Highway)
The site is compared to Pompeii on the Italian island of Sicily. In 79 A.D. the eruption of Mount Vesuvius sent a pyroclastic flow through the city, essentially scorching and petrifying everyone and everything in its way. Citizens were turned into stone casts of themselves in an instant, many of them cowering and shielding their bodies from the superheated ash and dust.
In contrast, Must Farm sank into a fossilized-type state, capturing a moment in history where our ancestors went through incredible agony to hand us a story for thousands of years to come. Let us pray that a similar catastrophe does not befall too many more modern cities and settlements.