For half a millennium, successive generations of Late Bronze Age/Early Iron Age farmers maintained their animals at the same site at Potterne. The evidence comprises a dark man-made soil, rich in artefacts, domestic and industrial waste, forming a colossal mound 3.5 ha in extent and up to 2 m thick. Exploratory excavations have led to the definition of what was a previously unrecognised phenomenon. The progressive accumulation of a vast quantity of material has necessitated a consideration of the role of farming, especially cattle husbandry, in the later prehistoric society of southern Britain.