Bronze age objects from ‘Pompeii of the Fens’ to go on display

Settlement on stilts dropped into River Nene after a fire nearly 3,000 years ago and was preserved in silt

A bronze age settlement built on stilts that dropped “like a coffee plunger” into a river after a catastrophic fire has provided a window on our past lives, according to the archaeologist that led the investigation of the Cambridgeshire site.

Must Farm, nicknamed the Pompeii of the Fens, offers “exceptional clarity” because of a combination of charring and waterlogging, said Mark Knight, of Cambridge University’s archaeological unit.