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Summary

Two Bronze Age burnt stone mounds and associated troughs were found during excavations at Town Farm Quarry in 2005.

Location

Protected Status: none recorded

Other References/Statuses: none recorded

Monument Type(s) and Dates

• BURNT MOUND (Bronze Age - 2200 BC to 701 BC) + Sci.Date

Full description

Griffith, F., 1999, Devon County Council Archaeology Service (Article in Serial). SDV360507.

Rescue excavation by Exeter Archaeology, in advance of a quarry expansion, at Burlescombe identified a pair of smelting furnaces of a type previously unknown to these parts.

BBC News Website, 10th May 2005, 2005, 7. Iron Age Shoe Unearthed At Quarry (Article in Serial). SDV352745.

BBC News website article, 10th May 2005. 'What we have now found is a Bronze Age 'industrial site' consisting of two mounds of burnt stone - dated to 1460 to 1290 BC - and two water-filled troughs'.

Reed, S. + Horner, B., 2005, Britain's Oldest Shoe: Waterlogged Revelations from a Devon Quarry, 1,8-9 (Article in Serial). SDV338023.

Remains of the first Bronze Age 'burnt mounds' to have been found in Devon were found during excavations prior to the extension of Town Farm Quarry at Burlescombe in 2005. The spread of charcoal and heat-fractured stone was radiocarbon dated to 1440-1260 BC. The mounds were associated with, and sealed, two rectangular troughs. One contained fragments of timber planking with two flat stones set into the base at either end. The former presence of a timber lining was indicated in the other trough by the vertical sides and sharply defined edges. The fact that both spreads of burnt stone and charcoal sealed their respective troughs indicates the mounds had been levelled after the site had fallen into disuse. Although relatively common in other areas the exposure of two burnt mounds at Burlescombe were the first in Devon and the South West. Burnt mounds are generally sited at or near a water supply where a pit or trough can be easily filled with water. Stones were heated in fires and placed in the troughs to heat the water. The mounds are an accumulation of charcoal from the fires and stones shattered by the fire or by immersion in the cold water. Suggested functions for these sites vary from ancient cooking places, to Prehistoric saunas, to 'industrial' sites involved in the processing of wool or plant-based fibres for textile production. It is hoped that analysis of the timber and stone recovered from the trough may identify chemicals to indicate a function. The charcoal included alder, hazel, birch, oak and willow or poplar. A few metres to the north of the mounds an irregular shaped waterlogged pit contained 23 timbers including oak planks and to the west two later wells or spring heads had been sunk to tap the same water source.

BBC News Website, 2005, Iron Age Shoe Unearthed at Quarry, 10-11 (Article in Serial). SDV322361.

Excavations by Exeter Archaeology at Town Farm unearthed two mounds of burnt stone, dated to 1460-1290BC and two water-filled troughs.

Nash, J, 2005, Old Boiler Makes Hot News (Article in Serial). SDV360537.

Article in the Wellington Weekly news, 9th February, 2005, describes the excavation of a hot water system which is believed to date back 3,500 years. The burned mound was lying beneath 2 metres of topsoil and overburden. The quantities of charcoal have lead archaeologists to believe that it may have been used for charcoal production to fuel a Saxon furnance, dating back to around AD700, which was discovered in another corner of the site in 1999.

Green, C., 2005, Quarry Gives Up an Ancient Secret (Article in Serial). SDV360538.

Article from the Somerset Country Gazette (February 4th, 2005) describes the excavation of a rare, 3,500 year old, burnt mound used for heating water. It consists of a series of troughs surrounded by piles of burnt charcoal and stones, which may have been heated on fires, then plunged into the troughs to heat the water.

Best, J. + Gent, T., 2007, Bronze Age Burnt Mounds and Early Medieval Timber Structures at Town Farm Quarry, Burlescombe, Devon (Article in Serial). SDV360988.

A multi-period site was exposed during top soil stripping at Town Farm Quarry in 2005. Surviving remains included two Bronze Age burnt mounds and associated troughs.
Trough 659 and mound 569 were the earliest dated features on site, with charcoal returning calibrated radiocarbon dates of between 1620BC and 1430BC. Trough 659 was 2.5 metres long, 1.1 metres wide and up to 0.45 metres deep with a rounded eastern end around which was the burnt mound. The fill of the trough appeared to be waste material derived from burning activities associated with its use, including burnt clay. The burnt mound, formed from repeated episodes of burning and dumping of material, comprised two layers of heat-shattered chert and quartzite gravel in a matrix of sandy silt and charcoal, between which was a layer of grey sandy silt clay. It is suggested that the trough was in use for a comparitively short period of time and that the burnt mound that had accumulated around its eastern end eventually slumped into the trough and down the slope. No dateable artefacts were recovered. The predominent species of wood identified from the charcoal were oak, birch, hazel and hawthorn, which presumably had been used for fuel.
Trough 645 was 2.4 metres long, 1.0 - 1.2 metres wide and up to 0.3 metres deep. It had near vertical sides and a flat base indicating that it was originally timber lined; several degraded fragments of timber planks were recovered. The trough had been infilled with a grey sandy silt clay with pieces of burn quartzite and chert gravels and charcoal with the greater concentration of burnt material being at the eastern end of the trough closest to its associated burnt mound. Charcoal from the mound returned a calibrated radiocarbon date of 1420-1320BC.
About 1.0 metres south of the trough was a pit which may have been used as a water reservoir. Again, no dateable artefacts were recovered.
See report for full details.

Gent, T., 2007, Bronze Age Burnt Mounds and Early Medieval Wells at Town Farm Quarry, Burlescombe, 35-45 (Article in Serial). SDV344682.

Two Middle Bronze Age burnt mounds with asociated troughs and pits. Burnt mound 569 was about 4.0 metres diameter and up to 0.3 metres thick. It comprised two laters of heat-shattered pebbles, gravel and charcoal. Its associated trough (259) was 2.5 metres long, 1.1 metres wide and up to 0.45 metres deep. Its near vertical sides and flat base suggested it was originally timber lined. Calibrated radio carbon dates from the mound and trough suggests that they were in use from 1720-1490BC until 1530-1340BC.
The second burnt mound, just to the east, was some 14.5 metres long, 6.0 metres wide and 0.4 metres thick. Its associated trough (645) was 2.4 metres long, 1.0 - 1.2 metres wide and up to 0.3 metres deep. Three degraded fragments of timber lining were recovered. Calibrated radio carbon dates from the mound suggest use between 1530-1380BC and 1420-1250BC. No dateable artefacts were recovered.
See report for further details.

Scott Wilson, 2008, Hanson Town Farm, Devon. Archaeological Desk-Based Assessment, 8 (Report - Assessment). SDV344495.

Other details: Site 1.

Bayliss, A. + Cook, G. + Ramsey, C. B. + van der Plicht, J. + McCormac, G., 2008, Radiocarbon Dates from Samples Funded by English Heritage under the Aggregates Levy Sustainability Fund 2004-7, 42-3 (Report - Scientific). SDV364816.

The results contribute to providing a chronological sequence for the site, strongly suggesting that burnt mound 549 was employed after burnt mound 569 went out of use. Further analysis of results (Best and Gent Forthcoming) also provides an estimate of the span of use of burnt mound 549 at 0–60 years (95% probability), and an estimate of the span of use of burnt
mound 569 at 10–170 years (95% probability).

Tilley, C., 2009, Jacob's Well, Black Hill. A Bronze Age Water Shrine on Woodbury Common, 35-36 (Article in Serial). SDV344776.

Compared with burnt mound at Jacob's Well, Woodbury.

Sources / Further Reading

Associated Monuments

Associated Finds: none recorded

Associated Events

• EDV4635 - Archaeological Desk-Based Assessment of Hanson Town Farm, Devon
• EDV4749 - Excavation at Town Farm Quarry, Burlescombe
• EDV4775 - Carter's excavation at Jacob's Well, Woodbury Common

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