EXPLORATION OF SOME " RED-HILLS IN ESSEX, 



17 



is from a drawing made from the point of view of a boat in the 

 channel at low water, by H. A. Cole, in August, 1896. 



The excavations were made (by the kind permission of Mrs. 

 Harvey, the owner) on two days in August, 1892, and the 

 working party comprised my brothers, B. G. and H. A. Cole, 

 Mr. Charles Wilson, and myself. We were assisted in the 

 digging by Mr. David King, the well-known postman of the 

 island. A very long cut, 2ft. 6in. wide, was made, extending in 

 a westerly direction from the extreme outer margin of the " hill " 

 to the centre. As far as we could judge we went down to the 

 solid clay, below the alluvium, as at Burnham. After removal 

 of the purely surface soil, the whole heap was found to consist 

 of burnt rubble with the usual large intermixture of the rude 



FIG. 3. — POTTERY FRAGMENTS (ROMANO-BRITISH) FROM RED-HILL ON 

 BOWER HALL FARM, EAST MERSEA. 



thick pottery. There was no evidence of stratification ; the soil 

 worked evenly and homogeneously from top to bottom. We 

 were at once struck with similarity between the objects found 

 here and at Burnham. There were the " T-pieces," the wedges 

 (F, and G., Fig. 2), and the very small proportion of hard ware 

 (shown at Fig. 3, J. to M.) which appears to be like the other 

 examples, Romano-British. At Fig. 2, the objects F. and G. 

 are from this Red-hill. The object E is like the «* T-pieces" in 

 material and shaft, but it has a circular boss or foot, as shown. 

 This piece was found by Mr. G. E. Vaughan several years 

 after the date of our exploration, at the natural section formed 

 by the Pyefleet, at low water, washed out of the clay, with 



