Scenes From Prehistoric Life

The recut ditches of the second-century AD settlement at Fengate produced large quantities of pottery made in the semi-industrial workshops of the nearby Roman town of Durobrivae (modern Water Newton) just 11 kilometres (7 miles) to the west. In among the pottery were a few pieces of Samian ware, glossy and finely finished red pottery that was made

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Many of the well-established British tribal kingdoms had good relations with Rome and certainly in better-off parts of south-east England people from richer families drank wine and used olive oil imported from the Mediterranean. In the late Iron Age, many more people began to use a type of sprung brooch, which closely resembles a large modern safet

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The Romans undoubtedly brought to Britain some very important technical innovations, ranging from the first use of new ploughs that actually turned the soil over (earlier ones had simply cut deep channels in it), to the introduction of cement and plaster, bricks and tiles. The Romans also introduced writing and efficient systems of governance suita

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Bricks and masonry were ideas imported from the Mediterranean, along with towns, most of which didn’t thrive for very long after the Roman withdrawal. The British had returned to using what they were familiar with: building materials and carpentry that had mostly been developed in later prehistoric times. But people hadn’t forgotten about the Roman

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We know from sites in the Somerset Levels and at Flag Fen and Must Farm in the Fens that the prehistoric inhabitants of Britain were very good at woodwork.c It would seem that these traditions of craftsmanship continued to develop through Roman times because they again became evident in the early post-Roman Saxon period. This was the time when timb

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The marks were clearly the ruts made by a two-wheeled vehicle and the thickness of the wheels was about the same as the Flag Fen wheel.9 The two wheels were about 1.1 metres (3½ ft) apart, which would suggest a small cart or carriage, appropriate for a single person. At one point, the vehicle had got stuck in the mud and we could see how it had bee

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The fact that nearly all prehistoric wooden buckets are found in fens and bogs, or at the bottom of disused wells, is no accident. Most carved wooden water containers will very soon split and cracks will appear if they are stored in the open air and allowed to dry out. The same can also be said for canoes and other craft carved from single logs. So

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Archaeologists approach prehistory through studying pottery, metalwork, flints, bones and other things that survive in the drier conditions found on most archaeological sites. But if through great good fortune you are able to work with waterlogged organic material, such as wood, you soon find yourself taking a rather different position from your co

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We can see this, for example, in the straightness and high quality of the roof timbers used for houses at Must Farm. This timber must have been grown and set aside for building purposes – people didn’t just stumble upon such well-formed young trees by accident. There is now abundant evidence that prehistoric woods were being carefully managed as lo

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