Boiling mound

 

Thought to be Bronze Age in date 2500BC to 700BC there are in excess of 1600 boiling mounds or burnt mounds in the New Forest, mounds of severely fractured burnt flint. It's believed they're the result of heated stones placed in wooden troughs or leather bags filled with water, in order to.....?  Well, it could be to cook with, or brew, or tan, for a sweat lodge, or for all  manner of things domestic, or the prehistorians catch all, ritual. There was some research into Irish burnt mounds suggesting they were used in the textile production process. This mound, 4m or so in diameter, has a narrow path cutting through it, creating a natural sondage clearly showing the burnt flint deposit in section, a nice cross section of the entire feature, from the thin covering horizons down to the prehistoric ground surface the it sits on. Nice.