A SUPPOSED NEOLITHIC SETTLEMENT, II5 



state which many still retain. In the drier overlaying beds, the 

 condition of the specimens was different ; there the bones were 

 left on the surface of the soil, exposed to atmospheric influences 

 before being finally covered up by the floods, and they are there- 

 fore generally very earthy, and, in many cases, completely 

 decayed. In the lowest bed, at the depth of g to lo feet, not 

 only the bones, but leaves, grasses, rushes, acorns, &c., have 

 been saved from decay by the anti-septic action of the peaty 

 matter. The objects, like the material in which they were enve- 

 loped, were stained of various hues of green, red, and bluish- 

 black, by the percolation of coloured fluid. Whole spadesfuU of 

 the earth were noticed to be deeply coloured when first lifted up. 



General Conclusions. 



One of the first questions which suggests itself in taking 

 a retrospect of the subject is — what could have been the motive 

 which led early man to form lake-settlements and habitations ? 

 Light may be thrown upon this by a comparison of the settle- 

 ment now under notice with those of Switzerland, so fully 

 treated of by Dr. Keller and other Continental writers, and 

 from the summary of their works given by Stevens in Flint 

 Chips. Their conclusions are that the motive was the desire of 

 protection and defence, in the first place, against the wild ani- 

 mals, and, secondly, against the aborigines who, it is suggested, 

 might have been fierce enemies of the Lake-dwelling invaders 

 and colonizers. 



Taking tiie evidence of the flints, we come to the conclusion 

 that Neolithic man here, at Braintree, lived in villages, and had 

 their settled habitations within, or very near, the watercourse 

 and sloping ground suitable for cultivation. At the same time, 

 they were herders of tame cattle, as well as hunters in the 

 forests. The river served two purposes to the dwellers — giving 

 a constant water-supply, and a line of defence from predatory 

 man and beast. It is most probable that both sides of the 

 valley were occupied by the same people ; arid, in fact, on the 

 opposite side of the Pods brook and its slope traces of 

 workings or of habitations have been discovered. 



Whether the lake-habitations at Skitts Hill belong to the 

 earliest Neolithic settlers in this locality, or not; or whether 

 there were in the district earlier and ruder men of the Stone- 

 age before the arrival of the lake-dwellers ; or whether this 



