Replicas of Bronze Age artifacts discovered at a site dubbed “Britain’s Pompeii” have been created by experimental archaeologists.
The finds were unearthed in a burnt-out 3,000-year-old village at Must Farm quarry in Cambridgeshire.
A sickle, a razor blade and a two-part ax are among the objects recreated in the University of Cambridge-funded project.
Their co-creator James Dilley said many were “not too far from our modern woodworking tools of today”.
The village, which was discovered by the Cambridge Archaeological Unit (CAU) between 2015 and 2016, was preserved along with its contents as it fell into river silt.
CAU commissioned Dr. Dilley and Emma Jones, of AncientCraft, to recreate nine of the objects found at the site.
Dr. Dilley said thanks to Must Farm “we have a much, much better idea of what the tools looked like in the Bronze Age as full, complete units – and they’re not that far from our modern woodworking tools today”.
He compared the Bronze Age to a “1000 piece jigsaw puzzle”.
“We know it’s a colorful, vibrant period with culture, food, clothing, but over the course of 3,000 years 995 pieces will rot or disappear into the ground, so you’re left with a few bits of rock or traces in the ground .” he said.
“But at Must Farm, because it’s preserved in the Ven, you might get a few hundred extra pieces.”
Miss Jones said they worked largely with photographs, illustrations and detailed measurements collected by CAU archaeologists.
“This helped us get as accurate reproductions as possible without having the actual thing in front of us,” she said.
CAU archaeologist Chris Wakefield said the replicas were commissioned so they could be taken to schools to teach children about the Bronze Age.
The project was funded by the Cambridge University Arts and Humanities Impact Fund.
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