Britain's best archaeological finds

Wherever you walk in Britain, beneath your feet there may lurk remnants of a long-vanished civilisation. History buff Dixe Wills goes on a tour of his favourite discoveries

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SKARA BRAE, ORKNEY

A UNESCO World Heritage Site – and older even than Stonehenge – this coastal Neolithic settlement is the finest example of its kind in Western Europe and so well preserved it has been called the Scottish Pompeii. Unearthed by a violent storm in 1850, it gives an astonishing insight into the lives of our forebears five millennia ago. Wander the village to see inside their homes, some complete with stone box-beds, seats and dressers.

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SUTTON HOO, SUFFOLK

Situated on a picturesque bend of the River Deben, Sutton Hoo's treasures were discovered in 1939 after Edith Pretty commissioned a dig of the extensive grounds of her home. The site provided an archaeological double whammy – it was not only the location of a royal cemetery from the early Middle Ages, but also of the ship burial of 7th-century Anglo-Saxon King Rædwald and his famous Sutton Hoo helmet (now on display at the British Museum).