These stones mark the site of an umu (earth oven) that has been excavated from volcanic ash on the slopes of Mt Taranaki, and carbon-dated at approximately 1500 CE. Many of the stones show the heat fractures that are typical in such oven stones. The umu was overlaid by volcanic ash and lapilli (tiny fragments of lava) from the Burrell eruption, around 1655 CE.
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Photograph by Brent Alloway
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