Blog Archives
Dig Diary 43: Investigating our Timber Causeway
September 4, 2016Over the past few weeks we have been investigating an earlier element of the Must Farm settlement – the timber causeway – in more depth. read more
Comments Off on Dig Diary 43: Investigating our Timber CausewayDig Diary 42: The Archaeology of the Settlement’s Construction
August 21, 2016We’ve been working hard to record and remove the last of the archaeology at the site, and are now finishing the lowest deposits which are tied to the very beginning of the settlement. read more
Comments Off on Dig Diary 42: The Archaeology of the Settlement’s ConstructionDig Diary 41: An Update on our Outreach
August 7, 2016Since the beginning of the project, we have always wanted to share our enthusiasm and passion for the excavation, and be as open and translucent about the actual process of archaeology. read more
Comments Off on Dig Diary 41: An Update on our OutreachDig Diary 40: Exploring the Eastern Area of the Excavation
August 1, 2016In this diary we are turning our attention to the opposite edge of the excavation and exploring the small, but no less important, Eastern Area. read more
Comments Off on Dig Diary 40: Exploring the Eastern Area of the ExcavationDig Diary 39: Exploring the Western Area of the Excavation
July 25, 2016As we near the completion of the central area, our attention has been turning to the east and west of the site. These areas have given us new challenges and more fantastic archaeology. read more
Comments Off on Dig Diary 39: Exploring the Western Area of the ExcavationDig Diary 38: Announcing our Finds
July 18, 2016Two artefact types we haven’t discussed are metalwork and textiles. In this diary we give a brief overview of these two groups and will discuss them in greater detail over the coming weeks. read more
Comments Off on Dig Diary 38: Announcing our FindsDig Diary 37: Decoration and the Must Farm Settlement: Part Two
July 4, 2016This week we continue to detail more interesting trends in the decoration of the material we are finding at the settlement, including wooden objects and textiles. read more
Comments Off on Dig Diary 37: Decoration and the Must Farm Settlement: Part TwoDig Diary 36: Decoration and the Must Farm Settlement: Part One
June 27, 2016We can be fairly confident that the material we are recovering and examining represents a very high proportion of what would have been present at the site during its use. read more
Comments Off on Dig Diary 36: Decoration and the Must Farm Settlement: Part OneDig Diary 35: The Must Farm “Menu"
June 20, 2016There are some interesting patterns emerging in the distribution and condition of animal bone, with striking differences in remains discovered inside and outside the roundhouses. read more
Comments Off on Dig Diary 35: The Must Farm “Menu"Dig Diary 34: Examining our Clay and Turf Material
June 13, 2016Two types of material have given us pause for thought: “clumps” of unburnt clay and dark, organic turf-like patches. We have just begun to get some preliminary results back relating to them. read more
Comments Off on Dig Diary 34: Examining our Clay and Turf MaterialDig Diary 33: The Palisade and its Construction
June 6, 2016Is Must Farm necessarily an exceptional settlement or could it in fact be just one example of other similar settlements throughout the Fens? read more
Comments Off on Dig Diary 33: The Palisade and its ConstructionDig Diary 32: The Lifespan of the Must Farm Settlement
May 30, 2016Our picture of the disastrous event that destroyed the settlement is slowly becoming clearer as we excavate, but how long before the blaze was the settlement built? read more
Comments Off on Dig Diary 32: The Lifespan of the Must Farm SettlementDig Diary 31: Moving Towards the End of Excavation
May 23, 2016We are beginning to enter the final stretch of our work in the field. This last stage is one of the most important as we investigate the material associated with the homes before their destruction. read more
Comments Off on Dig Diary 31: Moving Towards the End of ExcavationDig Diary 30: Our Houses: What We Know and What We Don’t – Part Three
May 16, 2016In this third diary entry about the construction of the homes at Must Farm we focus on structure of the roundhouse roves and the presence of unburnt clay. read more
Leave a commentDig Diary 29: Our Houses: What We Know and What We Don’t – Part Two
May 9, 2016This site diary is the second in a series that is exploring our current theories, and questions, about the construction of the homes at Must Farm. This week we look at floors and walls. read more
Leave a commentDig Diary 28: Our Houses – What We Know and What We Don’t, Part One
May 2, 2016In recent updates we have discussed the contents of the roundhouses that we have discovered, but what do we know about how they were constructed? read more
Leave a commentDig Diary 27: Pottery
April 25, 2016Why are we so excited about the ceramics emerging from the Must Farm excavation and how do they relate to other typical assemblages from this period? read more
Leave a commentDig Diary 26: Exploring Inside a Bronze Age Home
April 18, 2016Since we first realised we had five roundhouses we always knew that the excavation was going to help refine our current understanding of Bronze Age life. read more
Leave a commentDig Diary 25: Wooden Objects
April 11, 2016Wood makes up a very significant portion of the site’s assemblage and is giving us some incredible, and unprecedented, insights into Late Bronze Age objects. read more
Leave a commentDig Diary 24: Visualising the Site
April 4, 2016Excavating such a dense and complex site requires the use of a variety of means to record and visualise the archaeology, including photography, illustration and photogrammetry. read more
Leave a commentDig Diary 23: Footprints and Posts
March 28, 2016Alongside the fantastically preserved objects and timbers from the site we are also finding other evidence of the people who lived at this settlement. read more
Leave a commentDig Diary 22: A Tour of the Excavation: Part Two
March 21, 2016In our last post we began our overview tour of the excavation. This week we are discussing the central areas of the site: mainly our roundhouses and the remnants of the timber causeway. read more
Leave a commentDig Diary 21: A Tour of the Excavation: Part One
March 14, 2016Currently we are in a fantastic position with the archaeology, with most of the site uncovered, so we wanted to provide a photographic tour of the excavation. read more
Leave a commentDig Diary 20: Excavating in the Fenland Landscape
March 7, 2016It is important to consider the significance of previous projects. Here we give a brief introduction to the archaeological work that has been carried out within the Flag Fen basin. read more
Leave a commentDig Diary 19: Discovering Britain’s Oldest, Complete Wheel
February 29, 2016A few weeks ago, we had absolutely no idea that sitting underneath the river sediment would be yet another fascinating piece of Bronze Age technology: a complete wheel. read more
Leave a commentDig Diary 18: Looking Inside and Outside Roundhouse One
February 22, 2016We have currently finished our initial excavation of the first, second and third quadrant in “Roundhouse One” and are well on the way to doing the same on the second. read more
Leave a commentDig Diary 17: Formality and the Must Farm Settlement
February 15, 2016Now that we have excavated a much larger area of the site and are beginning to uncover occupation material, what are our current thoughts? read more
Leave a commentDig Diary 16: Earlier and Later Periods in the Fenland Basin
February 8, 2016What characterises the Middle Bronze Age and Early Iron Age in the Flag Fen basin and how do those characteristics relate to Must Farm? read more
Leave a commentDig Diary 15: Exploring the Occupation Deposit
February 1, 2016We’ve finished recording the timbers across the entirety of the first quadrant of the house in the western portion of the site, allowing us to begin working on the “occupation” deposits. read more
Leave a commentDig Diary 14: Excavating our Structures
January 25, 2016We have had a little more time to examine the buildings and their architecture is very consistent with what we know about later Bronze Age structures. read more
Leave a commentDig Diary 13: Exploring Our Earlier Oak Post Alignment
January 18, 2016During the 2006 evaluation we came across a number of very substantial oak posts or piles. These were enormous, worked timbers that were driven deep into the sediments of the river channel. read more
Leave a commentDig Diary 12: Discovering Our First House
January 11, 2016As we finished exposing and cleaning the burnt wooden debris in our first two areas, it became clear we had a circular building that strongly resembled a round house. read more
Leave a commentDig Diary 11: The Importance of the Wood Record
January 4, 2016One thing that is so defining about the Must Farm excavation is the sheer quantity of wood. In just over two months we have already numbered over 550 individual pieces. read more
Leave a commentDig Diary 10: Looking Further Afield
December 21, 2015From the earliest evaluations into the Must Farm timber platform it was clear that this site was something rather unusual for the later Bronze Age in the Fens. read more
Leave a commentDig Diary 9: The Site and its Environment
December 14, 2015The settlement we are currently excavating is strongly suggestive of a “fixed” lifestyle, making it highly likely that the people who lived there were not chasing the fluctuating wet-dry edge of the Fens. read more
Leave a commentDig Diary 8: Understanding the Site
December 7, 2015Preparing for an excavation is always an incredibly challenging proposition. It is very difficult to accurately predict what archaeology we will encounter. read more
Leave a commentDig Diary 7: What is the Timber Platform?
November 30, 2015The excavation falls under part of an age-old archaeological discussion: is the site ritual or something less “special” – and is this opposition a useful way to look at the archaeology we have at the site? read more
Leave a commentDig Diary 6: Textiles
November 23, 2015The timber platform has a combination of preservation factors that help to ensure the survival of even the most fragile of materials, including pieces of textile which have remained intact for 3000 years. read more
Leave a commentDig Diary 5: Revealing the Remains of the Fire
November 16, 2015The largely sterile upper river silts have now been mostly removed leaving a shell-rich layer which we are taking away, to uncover the burnt “wood mass” that lies underneath. read more
Leave a commentDig Diary 4: Asking the Right Questions
November 9, 2015Attention to detail is essential but we must not forget to ask the important questions. If we do, we may fail to place the site in context and, ultimately, lose sight of why we became archaeologists. read more
Leave a commentDig Diary 3: Uncovering the Archaeology
November 2, 2015The layer of river material that covers the settlement debris is virtually sterile and it is only very occasionally that we find small pieces of bone or fish scales. read more
Leave a commentDig Diary 2: Introduction to 2015 Excavation
October 30, 2015After the Timber Platform was evaluated in 2006, and the scale and importance of the site became clear, a decision had to be taken on what should happen next. read more
Leave a commentDig Diary 1: Setting the Scene
October 28, 2015Why is Must Farm important? The Must Farm Timber Platform is an incredible site. It has surviving 3,000 year old clothing fragments, the remains of a Late Bronze Age structure and even … read more
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