JUST as in 2007 we worry about climate change and the impact it will have on our lives, it seems our ancestors in Peterborough were doing the same 3,500 years ago.

In 1350 BC, sea levels were rising.

For people in the Fens, this would have meant less and less land to farm on, and archaeologists believe this in part explains what has been uncovered at Flag Fen.

The Guide: Places to visit: more Flag Fen information.

What has been found there is a Bronze Age ceremonial platform the size of Wembley stadium, and a ritual causeway leading from Northey Road to the power station.

Initially, the causeway at least may have come about as a way of getting across wet or boggy ground.

But the form it has been found in, along with the artefacts left deliberately there, rather than dropped or buried to hide them from Vikings, indicates it was something more spiritual, as Georgia Butters, general manager of Flag Fen, explained.

"We believe they were making offerings. They were using this site as ways of telling the gods to get their act together and stop making the area so wet," she said.

As well as for making offerings, the site would have been used for birth, death and marriage ceremonies, and animal bones found there suggest it was used for feasts.

It was, Georgia said, Peterborough's first cathedral.

Altogether, the team estimates the site consists of 60,000 upright timbers and 250,000 horizontal planks.

There are also countless fascinating metal artefacts.

In one excavation, on the site of what is now the power station, 300 pieces of metal work were found – a haul most archaeologists can only dream of.

This included knives, axes and the tools to make them. There were rivets from helmets or shields, and a sword which is one of the earliest examples of Celtic art in the country.

A wheel was discovered which is the oldest wooden wheel in England.

Georgia said: "This site is of national and international significance. It is the best preserved site of its type in northern Europe.

"In terms of what it meant 3,500 years ago and the effort it took to create and make this, it is as significant as Stonehenge."

However, this magnificent find almost did not happen.