You could almost see and smell their world: Remnants of Britain’s Pompeii reveal details of life in Bronze Age village

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The remnants of an ancient village known as "Britain’s Pompeii" are offering archaeologists new insight into the Bronze Age inhabitants who lived there, including how they seasoned their porridge and wild game.

Archaeologists discovered the settlement, known as Must Farm, during the 2015-2016 field season in the Fenlands, a swath of marshland in eastern England. The settlement, which dates to around 850 B.C., includes the remains of "four large wooden round houses and a square entranceway structure," all built on stilts. Excavations also revealed dozens of artifacts as well as human remains.

The site was largely destroyed in a fire that engulfed the village roughly 3,000 years ago and was completely abandoned by humans. However, similar to Italy’s famous Pompeii, it was partially preserved by the environment, according to a statement from the University of Cambridge.

In the years since the site’s discovery, researchers have studied Must Farm extensively, which has given them a better understanding of its unique architecture and the people who lived there, according to two new reports published March 5.

For instance, the unique roundhouses built on stilts provided researchers with a "blueprint" of circular architecture from that time and place, as well as clues about what Bronze Age domestic life would’ve been like, according to the statement.

"These people were confident and accomplished homebuilders," report co-author Mark Knight, an excavation director in the Cambridge Archaeological Unit (CAU), said in the statement. "They had a design that worked beautifully for an increasingly drowned landscape."

Source: https://www.livescience.com/archaeology/you-could-almost-see-and-smell-their-world-remnants-of-britains-pompeii-reveal-details-of-life-in-bronze-age-village?utm_term=23709803-D360-4259-9C73-BE4FF46B5C71&lrh=eeb99ac19903b638bde682c575bd3d0872a9ced83f83db97fc733a25835de83a&utm_campaign=368B3745-DDE0-4A69-A2E8-62503D85375D&utm_medium=email&utm_content=2E6C8CC2-3C1A-4193-8312-70A465EC6DE5&utm_source=SmartBrief