The wheel is the latest in a series of exciting finds at the Must Farm site, near Whittlesey in Peterborough, currently being excavated by the Cambridge Archaeological Unit (CAU).

It has emerged close to the largest of one of the roundhouses found at the settlement last month.  At a full metre in diameter, the wheel is one of the largest Bronze Age examples ever unearthed by archaeologists.  It was made almost 3,000 years ago and was found still attached to its hub.

Now the site is dry land. But originally the small group of roundhouses stood on a timber platform built on wooden stilts in a river surrounded by marshland.  "It is," said site director David Gibson of the CAU, "the last thing I would have expected to find."  "It's discovery demonstrates the inhabitants of this watery landscape's links to the dry land beyond the river."

Further reading:

http://www.mustfarm.com/

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-cambridgeshire-35598578

https://www.theguardian.com/science/2016/feb/19/archaeologists-excavate-bronze-age-wheel-cambridgeshire

Posted 19.02.2016