Preserved by the luckiest fire in history

AS the flames raged, the occupants of Must Farm – thought to have been several extended families – had no time to carry their array of luxury goods away from their ancient equivalent of Downton Abbey.

A bronze dagger, a cauldron handle and a delicate, curved brooch have all been dug up at the site. There were clothes made from lime tree bark, and more than 35 storage vessels, fragile cups, jars and bowls, in all sizes.

Two pots still contained the food the residents were eating – one was even discovered with a wooden spoon resting in it. The fire that engulfed the settlement was so intense that it vitrified the scraps, turning them into a type of glass.

These Bronze Age toffs ate well. Burnt ears of wheat and barley have been excavated, and pike bones have been discovered – but the Must Farm families didn’t just restrict themselves to fish. The bones of pigs, sheep, horses and a dog the size of a wolf have also been uncovered, while the spine of a butchered cow was found in the mud of the kitchen.

So, the inhabitants did not rely on the river to feed themselves. Instead, they may have been there to control traffic on the water and perhaps take tributes from passing boats.

Residents would have lived in extended family units, perhaps around six or more in each roundhouse. But they would have also been members of a clan of blood relations, who might have moved freely around the various households, and are likely to have paid homage to a local ‘king’ or holy man.

Discoveries of a sword and rapier at the site in 1969 suggest that arms were necessary to defend their privileged lifestyle, and their complex was surrounded by a palisade, a wall made out of ash timbers for defence.

Not everyone may have escaped when the fire struck. Peeping through the mud was the domed top of a human skull. Its owner may have died in the fire – or could have been buried there before the fire as ‘ritual decoration’, say archaeologists.

That explanation fits with where the skull was found, by the south-east corner of a large hut. Bronze Age front doors tended to face south-east, to meet the rising sun.

The recent excavations have made it clear that Must Farm is one of the great European prehistoric wetland sites. The discovery also helps archaeologists appreciate the importance of East Anglia in the Bronze Age, so named because the discovery of how to make bronze revolutionised everything from weapon-making to woodwork.

At the beginning of this era, in around 2,500 BC, when Stonehenge and Avebury were being built in Wiltshire, west Britain was the heart of ancient British life.

But 1,500 years later, when Must Farm was thriving, the action had moved to East Anglia and the ancient ‘motorways’ of south-eastern England – the great rivers such as the Nene and the Thames. Access to water also gave access to trade with the continent.

‘This area was incredibly important,’ says David Gibson of Cambridge University. ‘There would have been a lot of bronze, and a lot of wealth in this area, as the tin and copper needed for bronze were taken up and down the river.’

Indeed, the wealth of the area suggests there must have been many more places like Must Farm perched over the Nene. But only one Pompeii of the Fens has ever emerged – thanks to the luckiest house fire in history. Harry Mount is the author of How England Made The English (Viking)