Archaeologists were hopping with excitement today after a ‘gold mine’ of 8,000-year-old buried treasures was dug up – by burrowing RABBITS.
The wild rodents unearthed ancient arrow heads, flint tools and crude knives or hide scrapers as they built a network of warrens close to Land’s End.
Excited experts dated the relics back to the Neolithic Age or Stone Age.
As they began to probe further they uncovered Bronze Age burial mounds and an Iron Age hill fort – all within 200 yards of the famous Cornish landmark.
Land’s End is considered a place of great archaeological interest as so many people have been buried there over the years because of the views.
The excavation of the site will be managed by a team from archaeologists Big Heritage, based in the Wirral, Merseyside.
Team leader Dean Paton, 30, said: “It seems important people have been buried here for thousands of years – probably because of the stunning views.
“It’s a million-to-one chance rabbits should make such an astounding find.
“They dug two little burrows right next to each other and all these treasures were thrown out of the earth.
“No one knows the scale of it but it’s a gold mine. A family of rabbits has just rewritten the history books.”
Big Heritage now plans to create an “archaeo-bunnies” children’s trail at Land’s End.
Dean added: “The bunnies are quite nosy and come out to see what we are doing.”