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Britain's 'Pompeii': UK's Largest Bronze Age Find (bbc.com)
43 points by wood_spirit 3 months ago | hide | past | favorite | 11 comments



Another nice source of information about this fascinating archaeological site is the official website of the Must Farm Project. In particular, I have found their "about" page to be quite interesting: https://www.mustfarm.com/bronze-age-settlement/about/

This page contains, among several things, pictures and plans of the excavation area, sketches of metalwork, photos of various artefacts, etc. Quoting from their page:

> Alternatively, the presence of weapons, such as swords and spears, and shields during the Late Bronze Age suggests that conflict was an aspect of society at this time. Swords and spears were found at Must Farm, the settlement was built in a defensible location over water with a palisade of sharpened stakes surrounding it. Could it be that the settlement was burnt down in an act of aggression? However, a lack of human remains from the site suggests none of its occupants died during the fire, could they have been driven away?

> Ultimately, despite the incredible preservation at Must Farm, the cause of the site’s destruction is likely to remain elusive.


Why do scientists feel the need for clickbait? It has nothing to do with Pompeii, yet they named it Britain's 'Pompeii' for PR reasons. There was no Volcano, there are no corpses, there was no catastrophe.

If we call this 'Pompeii' because a settlement burnt down, then there are many Pompeii,

"In the archaeology of Neolithic Europe, the burned house horizon is the geographical extent of the phenomenon of presumably intentionally burned settlements. "

See: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Burned_house_horizon

Overall this reduces trust in science further.


It's because of the preservation of a moment in time, not the fire.

Everybody chases funding. Such is life.


As a researcher who wasted some years, the chasing of funding has fuelled the downfall of science.


What's a viable alternative to distribute research funding? I don't think we should return to the day of gentleman scientists who fund their own research during their leisure time.


We should give funding by scientific merit, not for PR stunts and fashion hypes like String theory.

Most of the funding is a scam. Governments announce funding, people relabel their work to fit the funding requirements to get money. Next wave of funding is announced, researches relabel the same work to get into the new funding.


Looks like the issue is that Goodhart's Law is at play here, and there's no infallible algorithm for determining scientific merit.


Another fascinating time capsule is Sandby fort on the island of Öland in the Baltic.

It was a field that was rumoured to be haunted. Archeologists examined it and discovered a round defensive iron-age settlement that had been razed.

All the inhabitants were found killed in their houses and left with their artifacts. In their mouths were coins to pay the ferryman, but too little, as though condemning the killed to limbo.

http://www.sandbyborg.se/en/home


There is a brilliant documentary series about metal detecting in the UK called The Detectorists. It's very insightful and highly recommended.


Hope you were having a joke - it's a comedy show. It's great but it's not a documentary


Of course I was joking.




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