Burnt flint

 

An area of burnt flint caught my eye whilst out walking this morning; it had been exposed by a small rivulet coming off Ocknell plain feeding the nearby head waters of Bratley Water. Spreads of burnt flint like this aren't a natural occurrence and mark a site of some kind of human activity, often older than you'd imagine too, maybe as far back as prehistoric in origin. Beyond the exposed area, in the section carved by the water, you could see the spread appeared to extend a couple of meters; much of the flint shows evidence of being heavily burnt, being well fragment. If it is prehistoric, scatters, spreads or low mounds of burnt flint were thought to be associated with cooking practices, although that's less than definitive as there’s often little evidence to support cooking. I'll have to take a closer look next time I'm passing.