I think Adze has a great idea. A gentle enquiry to the local ranger service might well clarify the mystery. In the unlikely event of them not knowing anything about the mound you can bet they'll want a look see.
A curious mound i found today...
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I think Adze has a great idea. A gentle enquiry to the local ranger service might well clarify the mystery. In the unlikely event of them not knowing anything about the mound you can bet they'll want a look see.
For those that believe this may be a criminal burial site, don't you think that the person or persons that suppossedly buried a dude here & presuming they didn't want the corpse found , would have made sure that the grave didn't look like one?.......all that's missing is the wooden cross 
There may well be bodies buried in Epping Forest but you wouldn't recognise the sites even if you walked on them.....
.
There may well be bodies buried in Epping Forest but you wouldn't recognise the sites even if you walked on them.....
.
xylaria
Bushcrafter (boy, I've got a lot to say!)
I was sort of joking about the grave.
but
when I do a pumpkin trench, I dig down a foot or two and fill with rotting kitchen waste. I get rodent tunnels that look identical to those in the piccy. They only do it to get to the food underneth, they dont tunnel into an ant nests.
The clay under epping is yellow london clay. It looks like the clay from a few feet down has been deposited up on top. Could moles do that?
Thinking about it if you had a job of having to dig a hole large enough to deposit maybe a ten stone carcass, and you had a to do it in the dark in a hurry , you might do a shoddy job esspecially if you weren't used to doing that type of job. If you were paid to a proper job and were suitably qualified, you might take more time with an axe and saw, and something creative like an acid bath, take away kebabs, a hungry pig, or a boat trip to isle of sheppy. Hopefully no-one reading has any expertise on body disposal methods, i just know quite few murders victims have been found by mushroom hunters and dog walkers looking for a dog walking off a path.
It is probably something natural, but personally if there is chance it isn't i would get someone to look at.
but
when I do a pumpkin trench, I dig down a foot or two and fill with rotting kitchen waste. I get rodent tunnels that look identical to those in the piccy. They only do it to get to the food underneth, they dont tunnel into an ant nests.
The clay under epping is yellow london clay. It looks like the clay from a few feet down has been deposited up on top. Could moles do that?
Thinking about it if you had a job of having to dig a hole large enough to deposit maybe a ten stone carcass, and you had a to do it in the dark in a hurry , you might do a shoddy job esspecially if you weren't used to doing that type of job. If you were paid to a proper job and were suitably qualified
, you might take more time with an axe and saw, and something creative like an acid bath, take away kebabs, a hungry pig, or a boat trip to isle of sheppy. Hopefully no-one reading has any expertise on body disposal methods, i just know quite few murders victims have been found by mushroom hunters and dog walkers looking for a dog walking off a path. It is probably something natural, but personally if there is chance it isn't i would get someone to look at.
Considering the amount of my dog walking I spend "off-piste" I'm always expecting to stumble across a body...
Well there wasn't any noticeable smell, either rats/weaels or what i imagine to be the smell of a rotting body. It's probably not fly tipping, as where it was was off the tracks and i couldn't see a van or even a car getting in there without difficulty (and leaving no tracks). I'm away for most of the week now, but i'll be back up that way next wkend and if i can find it again i may well phone it in to the rangers (or have a little dig) and i'll post the results back here.
Those 'pellets' look like frost weathered clay. Funny how no leaf litter on the top of the mound though; maybe heavy wind and rain ?
Don't suppose there's a new fallen tree around ?
In weather as cold as that looks, human noses are not usually able to smell rotted bodies under a pile of earth....think graveyard, you don't smell them there. Besides, less than a foot down and the carion rotters will make swift work of soft tissues. Ants are incredibly good at it, but so are mice and rats and worms.
Graves pack down pretty flat pretty quickly, but quick ones are usually messy around about. That mound looks 'tidy'.
cheers,
Toddy
Don't suppose there's a new fallen tree around ?
In weather as cold as that looks, human noses are not usually able to smell rotted bodies under a pile of earth....think graveyard, you don't smell them there. Besides, less than a foot down and the carion rotters will make swift work of soft tissues. Ants are incredibly good at it, but so are mice and rats and worms.
Graves pack down pretty flat pretty quickly, but quick ones are usually messy around about. That mound looks 'tidy'.
cheers,
Toddy
The only reason I said tipping is that the ovoid shape suggests multiple journeys from the same direction with a wheelbarrow. At least in my mind it does anyways.
That's a really nice quote from Plutarch there BTW
That's a really nice quote from Plutarch there BTW
P
Passer
Guest
mice, looking at the holes in the photo, it's mice.
They probably moved into the mound which would have been left there by some other animal, possibly human
They probably moved into the mound which would have been left there by some other animal, possibly human
