Meare Lake Village

Meare Lake Village is the site of an Iron Age settlement on the Somerset Levels at Meare, Somerset, England [1]. In prehistoric times there were two villages situated within the now-drained Meare Pool, occupied at different times between 300 BC and 100 AD [1]. The villages were built on a morass on an artificial foundation of timber filled with brushwood, bracken, rubble and clay [1]. The two villages, east and west, within Meare Pool appear to originate from a collection of structures erected on the surface of the dried peat, such as tents, windbreaks and animal folds [1]. There were 50 to 60 hut sites in each of the villages [1]. The Meare villages were discovered in 1895, but excavation did not start until 1908 [1]. Archaeologists uncovered several hearths in the buried ruins of one of the houses [1]. The archaeologists also found several artefacts, including cut pieces of red deer antlers, pieces of iron, the rim of a bronze bowl, a spiral finger ring made from bronze, and a decorated amber bead [1].