An astonishing late bronze age collection of swords, axes, spearheads and bracelets discovered in east London is to go on show in the capital next year.

Dubbed the “Havering hoard” after it was discovered in Rainham last year, the collection is composed of 453 items, together weighing more than 45kg, which date to between 800 and 900 BC. It is the third largest hoard unearthed in the UK – and the largest in London.

Kate Sumnall, the curator of the exhibition, said the hoard was discovered during archaeological excavations undertaken before land could be opened up for gravel extraction. However, there had been tantalising signs from aerial photographs taken in the 1960s that the site might hold secrets.

“From the aerial photos we can see crop marks, so earthworks, which revealed the outline of a bronze age enclosure,” she said. But, she added: “We had no idea that there was going to be a hoard on site.”

Facebook Twitter Pinterest An axe from the Havering hoard. Photograph: Museum of London/PA

The region, Sumnall said, was known to be rich in bronze age remains. “[Archaeologists] have found lots of bronze age sites in that area – enclosures, settlements, field systems,” she said, adding that other hoards had also cropped up around the country.. “[The Havering hoard] is not one of a kind, but rather interestingly it fits into a much bigger pattern and also gives us a little bit more evidence, a little bit more information, about the people who are living and working in this area in the bronze age.”

The hoard will go on show at the Museum of London Docklands from April 2020, in an exhibition that will attempt to unpick why the objects – almost all of which were damaged – were deliberately collected and buried together in a pit a couple of metres across.

“We do have quite a few weapons, a lot of tools that relate to woodworking, so gouges, chisels, things like that, [and] we have a lot of objects that are used in metal working – like ingots that would be melted down to be able to cast the bronze tools and weapons,” said Sumnall, adding that while the hoard included bracelets there was otherwise little jewellery. Intriguingly some items, including a number of woodworking axes, are more typical of elsewhere in Europe.

“Our site is not a little isolated site, it is much part of a bigger European connection, with a lot of trade, a lot of movement, a lot of communication of ideas and also of goods as well,” said Sumnall, adding that the axes appeared to have crossed the Channel. “Either it is trading or it is people coming across, bringing their own stuff with them.”

According to Sumnall there are myriad possible explanations for the hoard, ranging from it being an offering to gods to being a rubbish pile of bronze goods that were thrown away as iron took over as the metal of choice.Another suggestion is that it could have been the stash of a travelling metalworker who travelled from settlement to settlement.

The exhibition would examine various theories, she said, but would leave visitors to make up their own minds.

“It is guesswork pretty much as to the intentions – we have got the evidence, we will be putting forward our best theory,” she said. “We can never definitively know.”