The Must Farm timber platform was a Late Bronze Age pile-dwelling built above a watercourse that traversed the southern margins of the Flag Fen Basin. The settlement comprised at least five individual roundhouses, all of which were destroyed by fire. The site’s premature destruction helped amplify its preservation, leaving much of its architecture and contents intact. Remarkably, each roundhouse shared the same configuration (including form and distribution of artefacts). Consistent and coherent sets of material culture ‘occupied’ each household. At Must Farm pattern pervades in exceptional ways, and in turn this gives us confidence in understanding its context. This presentation describes the context of Must Farm and the implications of its discovery.