An intact Bronze Age pot and a previously unknown Saxon village with a large hall were among the “exceptional” finds unearthed during a dig.

Britannia Archaeology experts have been working on the site near Ely, Cambridgeshire, for nearly a year.

They expected just a few months’ work, but instead found evidence of thousands of years of occupation.

Archaeologist Alice Schute praised the craftsmanship of the artefacts, saying “it’s a site that keeps giving”.

“Exceptional really is the word. It’s something you won’t come across often in your career, the sheer intensity and amount of finds,” she said.

The nearly intact 35cm-high (14in) late Neolithic or early Bronze Age urn, dating back about 4,000 years old, was a particularly rare find.

Project officer Miss Schute said: “Normally we find fragments of pots which are a bit smashed and broken. We don’t usually get a whole vessel that’s 95% complete and still standing.”

Martin Brook, Britannia Archaeology director, said they expected the pot’s sides to cave in as they retrieved it from the earth, but this was not the case.