no ANCIENT URNS AT BRAINTREE. 



flats bordering the rivers — contain implements and other relics 

 which constitute a record of the third or Neolithic period of the 

 Stone Age These occur in the lowest and oldest layers only, 

 for the upper beds range in age from the prehistoric bronze and 

 iron epochs right up to historic times. 



Of the implements found in the Neolithic alluvium, flakes and 

 flake-tools still constitute the vast majority. The former are 

 always neat and small, and seldom attain the size of the average 

 Palaeolithic flake, while minute examples with three or more 

 faces and a well developed bulb of percussion are not uncommon, 

 which shews that the art of producing flakes had now reached 

 its highest level. The scraping tools bear a general resemblance 

 to those of the earlier periods, but the average of excellence of 

 workmanship is greater. 



The other implements, however, are very different. The 

 tongue-shaped and discoidal weapons of Palaeolithic times are 

 replaced by thin, symmetrical and skilfully chipped javelin- 

 heads, which are often neatly and uniformly notched on either 

 side to facilitate the hafting ; by beautifully finished daggers, not 

 tinlike the javelin-heads, but usually with a distinct handle 

 worked at the end of the flat blade ; and by axe-heads with a 

 straight oi slightly curved ground edge like that of a chisel. The 

 last mentioned are usually more or less polished all over. While 

 evidence of the knowledge of the bow appears for the first time 

 in the shaoe of often exquisitely finished arrow-heads. 



ANCIENT URNS AT BRAINTREE. 



By W. COLE, 



A DISCOVERY of considerable interest was made at 

 Braintree on September 4th, in the course of excavating a 

 field for building cottages. A workman's pickaxe came in contact 

 with some pottery, about 2 feet below the surface, whicli 

 proved to be cinerary (?) urns of great antiquity. The site, 

 half-way between Chapel Hill and Rose Hill, is on the 

 immediate north side of the supposed Lake DweUing described 

 ■by the Rev. J. W. Kenworthy and others in the Essex 

 Naturalist (vol. xi., 94-126) and opposite to the north side of 

 Messrs. Courtauld's silk-mill. One urn, which was unfortunately 

 broken by the pick-axe, contained a quantity of fragmentary 



