PILE-DWELLING SITE AT SKITT S HILL, BRA1NTREE. I45 



growth, the land Cultivation and the baring of the virgin soil. Bearing this 

 •consideration in mind, we may say that the pre -historic accumulation was 

 perhaps ten times slower than the Roman, and that of recent times much more 

 rapid than the Roman and Mediaeval." 6 



With the section as now revealed, this view must be consider- 

 ably modified. Instead of the relic-bed resting directly on the 

 river-ballast, we have beneath it an alluvial accumulation of 

 7-8 feet, or a total depth from the surface of 17-18 feet. Mr. 

 Kenworthy lias given us the depth of 4 feet 6 inches from the 

 surface as the lower horizon at which Roman objects occur; we 

 now have 13 feet of deposition below this representing pre- 

 historic accumulation. 



As the silting-up of our present river-system is generally 

 considered to be coeval with the commencement of the Neolithic 

 period, the assignment of the Skitt's Hill pile-structures to this 

 era was, perhaps, incontrovertible so long as their foundations 

 were said to rest close on the river base, and Mr. Kenworthy 

 might well suppose that the silting-up of the river was so much 

 slower in pre-historic times, if after continuous occupation 

 through the long period of the Neolithic and Bronze ages only 

 about three feet of filling had been accumulated, while above 

 was about 6 feet 6 inches, representing the comparatively brief 

 period of historic times. 



The brick-earth provides very little reliable evidence as to 

 period, owing to its being the result of rain-wash. It may conse- 

 quently contain objects derived from higher levels, which would 

 not occur in any regular order of superposition. Romano- 

 British pottery extends more or less throughout this deposit. 

 Although some of the pottery may be of the class now recognised 

 as late-Celtic, it is impossible to decide this from the fragments 

 that have come to hand. Many of the forms of late-Celtic 

 pottery survived into the Romano-British period, and are 

 commonly found in association with the more purely Roman 

 shapes. It is only when late-Celtic pottery is found quite 

 distinct from Roman relics, that it can be taken as any indication 

 of an earlier age. 



In the absence of positive evidence, therefore, I have thought 

 it better to omit any portion of the rain-wash as being late-Celtic, 

 and simply to divide the whole filling of the stream broadly into 

 historic (including Romano-British) and pre-historic. 



5 Ibid. p. 99. 



