archeologist have uncovered what isbelieved to bethe largest and well - preserved Bronze Age wooden wheel ever see in the U.K. , at a site that has been discover as “ Britain ’s Pompeii . " The stupefying new find has been revealed not long after the team unearth the website in the sluggish fens of Cambridgeshire announced thatthey had foundsome of the most dead preserved Bronze Age houses , cogitate to date to around 3,000 years old .
The wheel is amazing in its preservation , measures 1 metre ( 3 feet ) in diam , and even still contains its hub at the centre . It is thought to appointment to between 1,100 and 800 BCE , and was found tight to one of the gravid orotund house . The uncovering of the wheel asks far more questions than it answer , not least what the the great unwashed living in a boggy marsh were doing with a wheel that is distrust to be from a cart – backed up by grounds of horse remains find at the site .
Detail of the 3,000 - class - honest-to-goodness wheel with the hub still intact . Joe Giddens / PA
“ The houses are build over a river and within those deposits is sitting a steering wheel – which is pretty much the original of what you ’d anticipate to have on dry country – so it ’s very , very unusual , ” archaeologist Chris Wakefield , who is from the Cambridge Archaeological Unit that ’s tackle the mining , assure the BBC . Interestingly , this feeds into the suggestion that despite living in the marshes , they were n’t living off them . The researchers have find evidence that the inhabitants wereeating mainlyvenison , lamb , boeuf and pork , and exhaust very niggling Pisces or wild duck’s egg as you might expect .
Shown is the site of the excavation . Cambridge Archaeological Unit
So far , the squad have found three pear-shaped house at the site , which used to be situate on wooden political platform in the center of the washy marshes . When a fire took hold , the dwellings were abandoned , along with all the objects within . Eventually , the firm collapse into the weewee below and were covered by silty mud , perfectly preserving not only the level tone , the willow walls and Edward Teach roof , but the pots , knives , textiles , jewelry and remains of the animals they were wipe out along with it .
Despite claims to the contrary , this is not the old bicycle ever find in Britain . But it ’s still a hugely telling discovery .
