182 WITH REMARKS UPON THE OBJECTS FOUND. 



There would be abundant economic reasons for making the 

 pans on the spot out of the clay around. The pans, being very 

 rude and fragile, would be frequently broken, and would thus 

 provide the store of fragments which puzzle us to-day. 

 The mode of baking the pans and the great fires that would be 

 necessary in evaporating the brine would be a sufficient source 

 of the vast quantities of burnt debris accumulated during the 

 long years of the industry. Considerable quantities of salt 

 must have been required in early days for curing fish and meat, 

 and later, perhaps, in the making of the great ewe-milk cheeses, 

 for which Essex was long so famed ; while, as the output of 

 these primitive salince could not have been great, a considerable 

 number of them would be called for to satisfy the country-side, 

 and possibly every settlement had its own salt-pans. 6 



In estimating the period of these remains some latitude must 

 be allowed. As Mr. Stopes remarks, " the character of the 

 associated pottery, the absence of any trace of metal, and the 

 downward extension of the calcined masses to the London Clay 

 argue a high antiquity, higher than that of the surrounding 

 alluvium, four or five feet in depth, perhaps higher than the 

 change in the course of the river to which I have referred 

 already." The hill at Burnham is now a considerable distance 

 (about ij miles) from the river Crouch, whilst the one at 

 Bower Hall, East Mersea, has been cut through by the 

 Pyefleet, and must consequently have been accumulated 

 previous to the erosion of the present channel. The absence 

 also of any allusion in old authors and of local traditions 

 respecting the red-hills favours the throwing their origin 

 back to a remote age. Mr. Frank W. Reader has kindly 

 examined the hard pottery obtained during our explorations, and 

 reports thus : — 



" The ppttery specimens from the Red-hills at Burnham and Bower Hall 

 Farm, E. Mersea, are clearly fragments such as are commonly found on 

 Romano-British sites, and including two pieces of Red Samian of a rather .soft 

 quality. 7 



6 It mav be conjectured that the appearance of glaze on the two pieces of rough pot 

 from the "Grassy Marsh " Red hill at E. Mersea (ante p. 176) was caused by the fusion 

 of salt on the ware by intense heat. 



7 The two pieces of Samian came from the hill af Burnham, and as before hinted (ante, 

 p. 173) were probably accidental and may have come from the surface. At any rate, we 

 have net found any Samian elsewhere. 



