by Bronze Age families feasted on honey-based meat stew with dumplings and venison, a Cambridge University study has found.
The settlement of Must Farm near Peterborough – known as the Pompeii of Great Britain – produced the largest collection of everyday Bronze Age artefacts found in the UK.
Among the items that survived after a catastrophic fire destroyed the settlement just nine months after it was first occupied 3,000 years ago were the remains of dishes including porridge topped with meat juices.
A new series of studies by Cambridge University’s Archeology Unit (CAU) into Britain’s best-preserved Bronze Age dwellings provides an unprecedented insight into the domestic life of our ancestors.
Researchers found that the destruction and collapse of the fen site meant that objects placed in the muddy water below reflected their original locations within the houses, allowing archaeologists to see how spaces were used.
Thousands of household items survived the combination of charring and weathering, including nearly 200 wooden artifacts, more than 150 fiber and textile items, 128 pottery vessels and more than 90 pieces of metalwork.
This time capsule also contained rare personal items including decorated textiles – some of the finest produced in Europe at the time – as well as pots and jars containing food remains.
The food items were analyzed using a combination of lipid analysis and microscopy, including scanning electron microscopy, to help identify the components.
This showed that the villagers were eating meat stew, dumplings and bread, and lamb and pork chops, as well as honey-based venison and wheat grain porridge mixed with animal fats from goats or red deer.
They seemed to prefer a cut of meat, often bringing back only a boar overlay for roasting, as well as eating pike and bream caught in the waters around them.
Colorful beads of glass, amber and siltstone have also been found from as far away as Denmark and even Iran and the Middle East, showing what archaeologists say is “a sophistication not normally associated with the Bronze Age”. The footprints of the people who once lived in the settlement were also discovered.
Following concerns about the location and future preservation of the site near Peterborough, the remains were removed for recording and analysis by the CAU, as part of a £1.1 million excavation project funded by Historic England and the owner land of Forterra.
Archaeologists discovered four round wooden houses built on stilts above a slow-moving river, with paths connecting the main houses.
One of the largest roundhouses appeared to have separate zones of activity, with nearly 538 square feet of floor space, comparable to rooms in a modern house.
The roofs were insulated with three layers of thatch and turf and finished with clay, making the houses warm and watertight but well ventilated.
Dr Chris Wakefield, the CAU’s project archaeologist, said: “In a freezing winter, with the wind blowing across the Fens, these round houses would have been quite comfortable.
“The site is providing us with recipe tips for Bronze Age roast breakfasts and dinners.
“Chemical analyzes of the bowls and jars revealed traces of honey along with ruminant meat such as deer, suggesting that these ingredients were combined to create a type of glazed prehistoric venison.”
Two books published on Wednesday, March 20, detail the findings of the study, and an exhibition of artefacts opens next month at Peterborough Museum and Art Gallery.
Mark Knight, excavation director and co-author of the study, said: “These people were confident and skilled house builders. They had a design that worked beautifully for an increasingly submerged landscape.
‘You could almost smell her life’
“While excavating the site there was the impression that its Bronze Age inhabitants had only just left. You could almost see their world and smell it, from the glint of metal utensils hanging on narrow walls to the sharp sweetness of brewed porridge.”
The Must Farm settlement dates to the end of the Bronze Age (850 BC) and was made of trees taken from a local woodland where its inhabitants also hunted wild boar and red deer.
More than 18,200 pieces of structural timber have been recorded since the remains of timber posts were first identified on the site in 1999, leading to preliminary excavations in 2004 and 2006.
