1. Types of artefacts Education Pack
This PPT looks at all the different types of artefacts found at the recent archaeological excavations of a Bronze Age village in Cambridgeshire. It is designed to be used with the other suggested classroom activities on: More information about the excavations can also be found at

2. Inside the houses there was a pattern to where different things were found.
Inside the houses there was a pattern to where different things were found. This made archaeologists think the houses were arranged into areas - a bit like we have rooms for different activities today.

3. Every house had some evidence of spinning and weaving taking place.
Spindle whorl
Loom weight
Fabric
(textile)
Every house had some evidence of spinning and weaving taking place. Textiles, loom weights and spindle whorls were found on site showing that spinning and weaving took place there.

4. spun around on a spindle where they twist together
Spinning is how a bundle of wool or other fibres (often from plants) is turned into thread, that can then be used to weave fabric.
The fibres are
spun around on a spindle where they twist together
to form thread.
Bundle of wool before spinning
These photographs show how the spindle whorls would have been used to make the fabric that was found.
Finished thread after spinning
Spindle whorl
A modern ‘drop spindle’ with a wooden spindle whorl

5. Weaving is how the thread made by spinning is turned into fabric that can be used to make clothes.
Loom weight
These photographs show how the loom weights would have been used to make the fabric that was found. Usually cloth is woven on a loom. There are two sets of threads on a loom - the warp which are the long threads fixed onto the loom and the weft which is the thread that is woven in and out of the warp threads. People in the Bronze Age did their weaving on warp weighted looms. The long warp threads were tied around weights at the bottom to hold them straight. The weft thread would be wrapped around a bobbin to help weave this thread in and out of the warp threads.
A reconstruction of a loom with weights holding the warp threads tight.

6. They also found bobbins with thread still wrapped around them.
They also found evidence for the bobbins that would have been used. The weft thread would be wrapped around a bobbin to help weave this thread in and out of the warp threads.
Bobbin
The weft threads wrap around a bobbin
and are pushed through the warp threads.

7. Large piece of folded fabric
The most exciting discovery was actual pieces of fabric.
It is very rare for these to survive on British archaeological sites.
Close up of the fabric
The folded pieces of fabric are some of the largest found in Britain. They were probably ready to be made into clothes, but never got the chance to be used as the houses burnt down. This would have been an expensive item to have lost in the fire as it takes a long time to make it.
Large piece of folded fabric

8. There were also balls of thread ready to be used.
These show that people were making and building up a store of wool ready to be used for weaving fabric and sewing the fabric into clothes. Have a go – try weaving on a cardboard loom:

9. Wool wasn’t the only thing used to make fabric, this fabric is made from knotted tree bark.
Fabric made from bark could be used to make clothes such as capes as it is surprisingly waterproof.

10. Rope was found as well as fabric
Rope was found as well as fabric. This piece was found on one of the oak posts that formed the walkway across the site.

11. The beads were made from coloured glass, amber and jet.
Beads are evidence that the people living there wore jewellery.
Amber bead
Amber is fossilised tree resin. Jet is a type of soft stone made from compressed decaying wood, which if left and compressed for even longer would become coal. It is black,hard and goes very shiny when it’s polished. What makes these even more interesting is they travelled along way to get to Must Farm. Jet is found in Britain, but not near Must Farm, Whitby in North Yorkshire is famous for it. The glass and amber beads were imported from the continent (Europe) and the Middle East, possibly Turkey. This shows just how far the trade networks of the people at Must Farm stretched. They were international traders.
Glass beads
The beads were made from coloured glass, amber and jet.

12. Every house had some pottery.
A sample of the different sizes and shapes of pots found at Must Farm.
So many pots have survived at Must Farm because as the wooden houses burnt down, the pots fell through the floor and onto the soft river mud below.

13. How the houses collapsed
The houses collapsed directly onto the river bed below. This meant that not only were the artefacts and buildings well preserved but we can also work out exactly where the artefacts were within the houses.

14. Although some pots cracked the archaeologists could find all of the pieces and put them back together.
Pot
Wooden
platter
Pot
Pot
Pot
Pot

15. These are some of the different types they found
These are some of the different types they found. All of the photographs have a scale in them so that you can see how big the pot is.

17. This tiny pot is really delicate.

18. Archaeologist have created a diagram to help show all the different types and sizes of pots they found.

19. These pictures show the condition in which many of the pots were found.
Black marks caused the flames from a fire
Diagram showing how vessels can come to rest in the river sediments. The position of the sooting and spalling show where the outside of the pot was damaged by the fire that caused the houses to burn down. Where this damage is found on the pot is likely to reflect where the pot was positioned in the building when it caught fire. The pots contents often come to rest at odd angles; a result of the vessel falling unevenly into the silt.
Damage caused by really high temperature

20. Decoration
Most of the pots at Must Farm weren’t decorated but some were burnished (polished) to make them shiny.
Potters today burnish pots by rubbing the dried pots (before firing them) with the back of a spoon or a polished, smooth stone. This suggests that most of the pots were for practical everyday use, not high-status pots for showing off or showing how rich they were

21. There were a few exceptions.
A rare example of decoration on one of the coarseware jar from Must Farm. This is a style of fingertip marking around the shoulder of the vessel.

22. How did they make the pots?
At Must Farm they made coil pots. Can you?
To do this you roll out clay into long thin ‘sausages’ and coil them around to make the shape. Then smooth the pot with wet hands until the joins between each layer of ‘sausage’ can’t be seen. This was one of the main ways of making pots in Britain, before the potter’s wheel was ever used here. Why not have a go yourselves:

23. Archaeologist also found a large number of animal bones
Archaeologist also found a large number of animal bones. These the bones of a calf.
Where the houses collapsed during the fire that burnt them down, archaeologists found the articulated (jointed together) bones of both lambs and calves. This means the bones were from animals that were most likely alive, not ‘butchered’ joints of meat, which would just leave some of the animals bones, but not all of them. Overwhelmingly, these animal bones are domestic and dry land in character (lambs and calves). This trend would not be unusual in a more typical Late Bronze Age site on the dry land, but here in the watery environment of Must Farm, it is very interesting. Were the animals living/around the raised houses?

24. Bronze axe-heads
A wide range of metal objects survived in good condition at Must Farm. Although metal survives well on many archaeological sites it is often quite corroded as the metal oxidises (combines with oxygen present in the air). As much of the metal at Must Farm was buried in the river silt, where there is no oxygen, it has survived in much better condition than usual.

25. How the axe-heads were used
This photo shows how the bonze axe heads were attached to a wooden handle to be used. Archaeologists call them ‘socketed’ axes because there is a hole or ‘socket’ in th end of the bronze axe head to allow the wooden handle to be slotted in.

26. Woodworking tools: A chisel (?)
Metal tool end
Wooden handle

27. Woodworking tools: A gouge
The metal tool end removed from the handle
You can see how the curved end could be used for gouging out wood when doing wood carving.

28. Farming tools: Sickles
The metal tool end removed from the handle
Sickles were used for cutting and harvesting crops.

29. Farming tools: Sickles
More than one shape of sickle was found
The sickles in particular are very exciting, as there is a variety of different types and their condition is often spectacular. The sickles are also very useful as they suggest the cultivation of domestic, cereal crops such as wheat and barley. Both of which have been found in the sediments underneath the buildingss and also inside some of the pots. This combination of farming tools and the crops they were harvesting is incredibly valuable evidence and helps reconstruct the lifestyles of the people who lived at the Must Farm settlement in much greater detail. Interestingly, several of the sickles have the cutting edge on the outside of the curve. Did these particular sickles serve a slightly different function?

30. Tools or Weapons?: Spears
Spearheads without their wooden shafts
Spears could have been used for fishing, hunting or fighting.

31. Tools or Weapons? Rapier / sword
Long metal blades without their wooden handles
Spears could have been used for fishing, hunting or fighting.

32. Personal objects: Brooch/pin
Small metal pin, possibly used to fasten clothes

33. Personal objects: Razor
This object may have been used as a razor
We don’t know what the people who used these artefacts looked like. However, a razor suggests both men and women could have had part shaved hair styles and men may have shaved/trimmed their facial hair?

34. Do you think that any of the artefacts found at Must Farm mean that the people there were warriors?
Some things to think about:
Archaeologists think that people throughout prehistory may have placed weapons and other things of value into rivers and streams. The nearby site of Flag Fen has evidence of metal items such as weapons and jewellery being thrown, or placed, into water. Most of these objects were deliberately broken before they were placed.
Not all of the possible weapons found at Must Farm were broken.
Most of the possible weapons were found alongside the causeway which is earlier than the settlement.
If people were warriors they would probably have had shields as well as swords. None were found at Must Farm and even if they had been made of wood or animal skin it is likely, given what else survives at Must farm, that they would have survived.
Axes were found with wooden handles (or hafts) still attached but few of the weapons had handles suggesting that they may have been broken.