Archaeologists have uncovered another ancient artifact from the 3000 - year - old resolution that ’s been nicknamed “ Britain ’s Pompeii . ” The discovery , a complete wooden rack believe to date back to at least 800 BCE , has been report by experts as " unprecedented"—and the large example of its sort ever chance in the UK , the BBC cover .
The settlementoriginally sat above a riverin Cambridgeshire , England , supported by a series of longlegs , until a fire caused it to give way into the droppings below . There it model , mostly undisturbed , until 1999 , when an archeologist remark wooden poles sticking through the mud . Several excavations watch over , and scientists have since uncovered a wealth of well - bear on Bronze Age point , include farming peter , cooking supplies , a bronze reap hook , and glass beads .
The recently chance upon wheel , however , may be the settlement ’s most telling find yet .
" This remarkable but fragile wooden wheel is the earliest complete good example ever find in Britain , " Historic England ’s main executive director Duncan Wilsontold the BBC.“The existence of this steering wheel expands our understanding of Late Bronze Age applied science , and the layer of edification of the lives of people living on the bound of the Fens 3,000 years ago . "
While it ’s too soon to nail the wheel ’s purpose , the discovery of the spine of what ’s think to be a horse nearby leads some experts to believe the wheel may have belonged to a horse - drawn handcart . If so , the go-cart was likely used to transport food and other goods to the settlement , which , according toevidenceuncovered at the site , never utilized the Pisces , clams , and other foods uncommitted from the river .
As David Gibson fromCambridge Archaeological Unit — the group responsible for leading the shot — told the BBC , the wheel " demonstrates the inhabitants of this washy landscape ’s links to the dry land beyond the river . "
The location of the discovery also show something else . Mark Knight , the Cambridge Archaeological Unit land site director , toldThe Guardianthe bike was discovered lying on top of a wood flooring and may have been hanging from a wall , where , Knight speculates , it might have been awaiting repair . “ My hunch is that 3,000 yr ago there was a go-cart park up on the dry land , with a wheel missing , ” he say .
And it ’s probable not the only intact wheel to be found , according to Knight . “ On this site objects never see anywhere else tend to turn up in multiple , so it ’s for sure not impossible we ’ll go on to find another even better wheel . ”
[ h / tBBC ]
