Posted by deadvey

Burnt mounds and shattered rock

What they are:
Burnt mounds are archeological sites, largely found in the UK.
They are beleived to date back to 1500 - 1000 BC, when Britain was in it's Bronze Age.
Burnt mounds usually consist of "shattered rock" and burnt ground and are typically found near river, or where rivers are beleived to have flown at this point, this points to the likelyhood that water was a crucial in the usage of these, and the burnt ground evidently points to the fact that burning and fire occured at these sites.

The Shattered Stones:
The shattered stones show evidence of shattering due to heat, this lines up with the burnt ground present.
The stones are found to have "hairline cracks" across their surfaces, due to heating, and in the places where the stones have shattered, there are sharp corners and jagged edges, due to the abrasive breaking, some stones can even be ripped apart down the hairline cracks.
If you live near any burnt mound sites, then you can often find these stones on the site, or downstream from a site.

Possible usages:
The two most probable usages are for
I. Cooking
II. Steam Saunas
Cooking seems like the go to answer here, due to the fire, however rarely is bone found around the site, which would be a clear giveaway for cooking occuring at the sites.
One proponent of the Steam Saunas theory is Mike Hodder, the theory is that stones where heated up on a fire and then carried into a makeshift tent (possibly using a deer antler to carry the hot stones) and placed in a bath of water from the river, the stones would boil the water and create a steamy environment within the tent.
This theory has been recreated in Mosely Bog and shown to work, some people describe exiting the tent as giving a feeling of being "reborn", so could Bronze Age citizens have used the Saunas a religious experience?
It's unlikely we will ever know for sure which theory is correct, or maybe both are completely wrong and it's something else entirely (other, less popular theories have been proposed), either way, it's interesting to think about the possibilities and to visit sites.

Fly You High - DeaDvey