This wheel is 3,000 years old!! (Photo: Cambridge Archaeological Unit)

Archaeologists in England, still at work excavating a small, Bronze Age settlement near Cambridge, have turned up one of man’s greatest accomplishments: a wheel.

On the site of the third house in the settlement, the team found a wheel sitting on top of a floor board. It’s the largest and most complete Bronze Age wheel ever found in England: the edge is still mostly round, the interior is still intact, and the wheel is still attached to its hub. It has a small hole in it, too, from when, in the 20th century, a geologist bored through, likely without realizing what his probe had touched. 

The wheel was made of oak planks, and the site’s director, Mark Knight, told the Guardian that it may have been brought inside for repairs. 

“My hunch is that 3,000 years ago there was a cart parked up on the dry land, with a wheel missing,” he said.

This wheel came from one of the most impressive and significant Bronze Age sites in the country, dubbed ”Britain’s Pompeii”. Only one wheel that dates back further has ever been found in England, but that wheel is smaller and less well preserved. 

Bonus finds: A snake in a can of green beans

Every day, we highlight one newly lost or found object, curiosity or wonder. Discover something unusual or amazing? Tell us about it! Send your finds to [email protected].