A burnt mound at Rodway on the Weald Moors
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A Burnt Mound at Rodway on the Weald Moors
In February 1998 the Archaeology Service undertook the excavation of a burnt mound which was exposed during pipelaying work by Severn Trent Water at Rodway on The Weald Moors north of Telford.
Burnt Mounds comprise roughly circular deposits of burnt and fractured stones in black sooty soil, generally between c.10m - 20m in diameter and, if not ploughed down, they can survive up to 1m in height. They are usually situated close to a source of water, and are usually associated with a pit or sunken trough, lined with stones, wood, or clay. Burnt mounds are thought to be the remains of prehistoric cooking sites: stones would be heated on a hearth and dropped into the water-filled trough in order to boil meat. The stones would eventually fracture with repeated heating and rapid cooling, and would be discarded, together with cinders from the hearth, to form a mound. Other interpretations for burnt mounds have included the suggestions that they might have been wool processing sites (where woven wool was steamed to remove lanolin prior to dyeing) or saunas.
Burnt mounds are known from Ireland and the Northern Isles, and a number are also known from the West Midlands, particularly in the South Birmingham area. A few of these latter sites have been excavated, and radiocarbon dating has shown that the majority date to the Middle Bronze Age, from the period c.1500 - 1000 b.c.. Over 50 burnt mounds have also been recorded in Shropshire, mostly from around the edges of the former wetlands of northwest Shropshire and The Weald Moors. The burnt mound at Rodway is the first of these Shropshire sites to have been archaeologically excavated. The mound was similar in size, form, and composition to other excavated examples in the West Midlands, particularly those of the South Birmingham area.
The Rodway mound was seen to survive to a height of 0.2m and a large pit, interpreted as a water-trough, was found on its northern side. A grinding or rubbing stone was also recovered from the water trough. The stone might have been used for grinding meal, or for sharpening cutting tools - the latter use in particular would be appropriate if the site had been used for the butchery and cooking of cattle or game. A sample taken from the burnt deposits within the mound was sent to Queen's University Belfast for radiocarbon dating, and has given a date for the mound of c.1000 b.c..
The salvage recording and radio-carbon dating of the mound were funded by Severn Trent Water.
