3000 Year Old Yarn

Help in locating blog post topics can come in many different forms. This one comes from Tena's husband, Ron who sent this out on Facebook: "For you Knit-Night-ers: Tena, Pam & Jan!"
Along with it came this link.

Archaeological work is being done near Cambridge, England in an area called Must Farm referred to as Britain's Pompeii. It is speculated about 3,000 years ago this site had a small settlement on it. Something happened that caused homes to collapse into the mushy bog they were built on. In this swishy mud things were preserved. Many historical items have been located; you can read about those items here.

According to the Guardian

They have already found a trove of incredibly preserved objects from the daily lives of these Bronze Age people–"jewelry, spears, daggers, giant food storage jars and delicate drinking cups, glass beads, textiles and a copper spindle with thread still wound around it."

On July 29 they posted finding and cleaning an old ball of thread or yarn. Obviously it was quite fragile and cleaning it was very delicate work. This is what it looked like as posted by the Must Farm Facebook page:

That 1 cm is less than 1/2 inch in diameter. Finding anything created in the Bronze Age is always exciting, but locating a textile is truly rare. To have this news come to me from a Knit Night buddy's husband, now that is priceless. Thanks again, Ron.

BTW the BBC is airing a documentary on Tuesday, August 2 about this site. No word yet when the rest of us will be able to view it. If you want to read more about Must Farm check this out located on the University of Cambridge website.

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Flagel Knitting Files

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