Photo: Cambridge Archeological Unit
You never thought you’ll get news from 3,000 years ago when you accessed autoevolution.com, but what can we say, we’re full of surprises. And so is the earth underneath the Must Farm archeological site in Britain.
It seems that if you built a time machine and went back 3,000 years on the same territory the United Kingdom currently occupies, you’d have to come up with something more advanced than a wheel to impress the locals, as they already had those. Maybe give them a few leaves of tea, just to drive them mad and go look for India sooner?
The team working at this Bronze Age site that has been described as Peterborough’s Pompeii for the abundance of findings has just uncovered what seems to be the oldest and also best-preserved wheel ever found on British soil. Well, you know, technically it’s “in British soil,” but let’s not get caught in such technicalities.
The wooden wheel is one meter in diameter and was so well kept over the years that the hub is still perfectly visible. The secret behind this unusual conservation is linked to where the settlement the archeologists are now uncovering was built. It appears the small hamlet had round houses built on stilts over a slow-moving river, and after a devastating fire wreaked havoc through the community, the remains were quickly covered in the river’s sediments.
Speaking to the University of Cambridge's website, Duncan Wilson, Chief Executive of Historic England, said, “This remarkable but fragile wooden wheel is the earliest complete example ever found in Britain. The existence of this wheel expands our understanding of Late Bronze Age technology and the level of sophistication of the lives of people living on the edge of the Fens 3,000 years ago.”
The Must Farm site was already providing scientists with significant information about life in the late Bronze Age in these territories, but this newly discovered wheel is the first item that can shed some light over the means of land transportation these people had, despite living in a watery environment.
Speaking about the importance of the Must Farm site, Kasia Gdaniec, Senior Archaeologist for Cambridgeshire County Council, declared, “Among the wealth of other fabulous artefacts and the new structural remains of round houses built over this river channel, this site continues to amaze and astonish us with its insight into prehistoric life, the latest being the discovery of this wooden wheel. Believed to be the most complete example yet found from this period, this wheel poses a challenge to our understanding of both Late Bronze Age technological skill and, together with the eight boats recovered from the same river in 2011, transportation.”
The team working at this Bronze Age site that has been described as Peterborough’s Pompeii for the abundance of findings has just uncovered what seems to be the oldest and also best-preserved wheel ever found on British soil. Well, you know, technically it’s “in British soil,” but let’s not get caught in such technicalities.
The wooden wheel is one meter in diameter and was so well kept over the years that the hub is still perfectly visible. The secret behind this unusual conservation is linked to where the settlement the archeologists are now uncovering was built. It appears the small hamlet had round houses built on stilts over a slow-moving river, and after a devastating fire wreaked havoc through the community, the remains were quickly covered in the river’s sediments.
Speaking to the University of Cambridge's website, Duncan Wilson, Chief Executive of Historic England, said, “This remarkable but fragile wooden wheel is the earliest complete example ever found in Britain. The existence of this wheel expands our understanding of Late Bronze Age technology and the level of sophistication of the lives of people living on the edge of the Fens 3,000 years ago.”
The Must Farm site was already providing scientists with significant information about life in the late Bronze Age in these territories, but this newly discovered wheel is the first item that can shed some light over the means of land transportation these people had, despite living in a watery environment.
Speaking about the importance of the Must Farm site, Kasia Gdaniec, Senior Archaeologist for Cambridgeshire County Council, declared, “Among the wealth of other fabulous artefacts and the new structural remains of round houses built over this river channel, this site continues to amaze and astonish us with its insight into prehistoric life, the latest being the discovery of this wooden wheel. Believed to be the most complete example yet found from this period, this wheel poses a challenge to our understanding of both Late Bronze Age technological skill and, together with the eight boats recovered from the same river in 2011, transportation.”
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