I also tried out a replica of the Bow Hill pot. Although it did not contain as many side hoes as the others, it performed just as well. The capacity was 20g, when raised on potsherds the flame height was 32cm, and the burning time was 15 minutes.

In all cases, when the burners were raised on sherds, the fires could be easily fed from the bottom and the burning time extended almost indefinitely.

There is therefore a strong case for identifying these objects as burners. But if they were used for soldering, how could the object for soldering be suspended without the use of a mesh-covered tripod such as we use in laboratories ? I thought at first that the burner could be placed between two larger stones and a metal plate for soldering on it could be suspended between them. This however would have been insufficient for work on smaller items.

I then remembered another fragment of pottery from Ledro with holes 1cm wide, which could have been part of a large round burner. The formation of the holes on the underside, however, was interesting. When making the burners, the holes were pushed through the walls of the vessels with sticks from the outside. In the Ledro fragment, the holes looked as if they had been made on a flat surface and not through the walls of a pot. It seemed to me that this piece was from another device altogether. Could it have been from a ceramic grill suspended over the burner and resting on stones?

A replica worked wonderfully. The burning time was the same, as the flame filtered through the grill making a hot soldering area to work on, and although I am not a jeweller, I found it easy to solder in this way.

It then occurred to me that this device could also be used for enamelling if a metal object was put on the burner and the Ledro 4 funnel placed on top to make a sort of furnace oven. When the funnel was tried on top of a piece of metal over the grill, it seemed to draw the hot air through it, without affecting the flames.

So what about cheese making? A simple curd was using cheese rennet in much the same way as it would have been made in prehistoric times. The replicas were lined with muslin, although in earlier times a loose weave linen would have probably been used. The curd was spooned into pots, which were then placed on wooden platters to contain the whey. In all cases with the exception of the Bow Hill pot, the whey only filtered out of the bottom and not through the side holes unnecessary for cheese straining. The Bow Hill pot let some of the whey run out of the bottom holes, but most of it came out of the base.

The experiments showed very clearly that this type of pot is not suitable for making cheese. It works very well, however, as a Bunsen burner type bench fire for soldering or enamelling. I should be very glad to know of any similar vessels, whole or fragmentary, from other sites in Britain.

Cliff Dreamers (Podcast)
http://www.myspace.com/cliffdreamers
A magical stoneage adventure novel written and presented by archaeologist/author Jacqui Wood. Full of mysticism, adventure, coming of age and humour. Set 6000 years ago in northern Europe.
www.archaeologyonline.org