ANCIENT URNS AT BRAINTREE. 



Ill 



bones, presumably human. This urn is of elongate form and 

 unornamented. The second urn is globular in shape, and 

 ornamented with ribbed bands ; it is stated to bear a potter's 

 mark. It was taken out of the earth in excellent condition. Mr. 

 Kenworthy informs me that fragments of the same kind of 

 pottery and bones of tlie horse and ox have been turning up on 

 this site since Mr. Parmenter began excavations in the spring of 

 this year. He states that lie has several pieces of pottery which 

 he took out of the dehvis, and that he thought they were of 

 Roman make. But I understand that tlie British Museum 



authorities put down the urns as ''Late Celtic" or Neo-Celtic. 

 Mr. Kenworthy states that fragments of a third urn were 

 unearthed, but it is not known at what depth, or whether in 

 proximity to the others. " The diggers were too rough-and- 

 ready to take observations of particulars of tliis kind." He adds 

 *' the Skitts Hill locality seems to go along witli Chapel Hill and 

 to constitute the earliest habitable ground liere — as early, at 

 least, as the Neolithic times. The road leading from Chapel 

 Hill is long anterior to the Roman period and to the leading 

 roads now in use. It seems to be an early British road. You 



