144 PILE-DWELLING SITE AT SKITT'S HILL, BRA.INTREE. 



stream were greatly increased, after which the normal conditions 

 are resumed, and a further 12 inches of line clay is deposited. 



Again at b (I., Fig. 4) comes a seam of very black earth, 

 eight to ten inches deep, largely composed of organic matter, 

 which shows that the stream had assumed lacustrine conditions, 

 either through a lowering of the level of ihe land or the passage 

 of the stream having become obstructed. This state of things 

 must have lasted for a considerable period for such a depth of 

 leaf mould to accumulate, even allowing for the probable greater 

 luxuriance of the vegetable growth of that time. 



This period of quiescence was followed sharply by one of 

 activity, which suggests the bursting of a dam, for the top of the 

 black earth was covered with a thin layer of sand and pebbles 

 to the thickness of an inch. Overlying this, the fine clay is again 

 regularly laid, followed eventually by the brick-earth and surface 

 soil. 



The uppermost deposit of clay is broken at the side of the 

 stream by the irregular and mixed deposit, considered to be the 

 artificially constructed platform of the pile-dwelling community. 

 This contains stones and other objects which seem to be beyond 

 the carrying power of the normal stream at the time, judging by 

 the portion of the deposit at the same level, but nearer the centre 

 (see section, Fig. IV.) unless we are to regard this irregular 

 deposit as a buried channel, the result of excessive flood, cut in 

 the regularly laid clay. The probability of this view is increased 

 by the sandy nature of the lower portion of this deposit. 



Although the examination here recorded has not given 

 definite evidence of the pile-structures, it serves to throw some 

 light on the age to which the relic-bed belongs by the addition 

 of the underlying deposits to the section. 



The relic-bed having previously been supposed to rest 

 directly on the base of the old river, it was concluded that it 

 represented the entire accumulation since the silting up of the 

 stream bed. Owing to this it was further held to have been 

 occupied by man as a dwelling site from Neolithic times down 

 through the bronze and early iron ages. 4 



From this misconception of the actual facts Mr. Kenworthy 

 was led to say : — 



" I think that the silting up has been much more rapid since the occupation 

 by the Romans, owing probably to the destruction of the forest and its under- 



4 Essex Naturalist, Vol. xi., p. 1 16. 



