I02 A SUPPOSED NEOLITHIC SETTLEMENT. 



up in the autumn from the forest floor ; and this was done, no 

 doubt, each year, in order to form a fresh floor for the winter. 

 In this way we may account for the immense quantity of vege- 

 table matter brought together. There is no evidence to show 

 whether the platforms were rounded or square, but it is certain 

 that they did not extend far into the lake, and that they were 

 placed within easy distance from the land side and were joined 

 to it by a faggot road made like the raised floors. These dwell- 

 ings, and the occupation of them, lasted so long as to come 

 down to the period when finer clay for pottery was used, with 

 vessels of thinner walls, more perfectly burnt, and of a more 

 graceful form and when cooking was carried on in earthenware 

 pots. Probably, some kind of occupation continued with the 

 un-Romanized inhabitants of this part of Britain, down to the 

 end of the Roman period, judging from the numerous objects of 

 the Romano-British period, found in the layer (No. 3) above. 



List of the Various Articles found in the Excavations 

 AT Skitts Hill. 



The objects which have been preserved, and which I have 

 presented to the Essex Field Club, may be classified as Human 

 and Animal Remains, Stone, Bone, and Wooden Implements, 

 and Pottery. 



Of the first the only specimen found in the relic-bed was a 

 Htiman Frontal Bone. There is a lineal mark across the forehead, 

 which Mr. Newton considers to be merely an iron stain, and not 

 a healed fracture, as was at first imagined. 

 Animal Remains — Bones. 



The bones of animals which have been identified may be 

 treated under the heads of (a) Wild animals and {b) Domestic 

 animals. Such of the wild animals as were found were common 

 in Britain during the Neolithic age, and were, no doubt, abun- 

 dant in the forest lands adjacent to our settlement. Some 

 survived into Roman times, but most of them have been long 

 absent from our district. 



The Celtic Short-horned Ox {Bos longifvons). — This is 

 abundantly in evidence in the shape of various fragments. 

 Several specimens of the upper part of the skull, of limb bones, 

 many of these being fractured or split, possibly to obtain the 

 marrow. 



A Large Ox. - Some bones of a much larger ox have been 

 found, but it is not certain that tliey represent the Urus {Bos 

 tatmis). These bones must have belonged to animals much 



I 



