EARLY MAN 



burnt clay have been found at Southminster and other places. These 

 are usually styled ' net sinkers,' but it is open to question whether they 

 were not used to support pots in burning in the kiln. 1 



Other collections contain articles found in Essex appertaining to 

 the early iron age, but the exigences of space compel us to pass to the 

 later portion of the period under consideration, the time that produced 

 those vessels upon which so much light has been shed by Dr. Arthur 

 Evans in his paper on a late Celtic urn field at Aylesford, Kent. 1 Dr. 

 Evans lucidly shows how this late (probably Belgic-Celtic) pottery was 

 developed from bronze models, both in decoration and, in some instances, 

 in shape also, and the course of the migration from northern Italy is 

 indicated. We may not dwell on this, but use for illustration the vessels 

 now in Colchester Museum which came from the rich ground of Shoe- 

 bury in i8 9 6 s (figs. 35, 36, 37, 38). 



In the same museum we see an urn of this period 8| inches in 

 height which was found in Colchester ; this we illustrate (fig. 39), as 

 well as a beautifully turned vessel 4^ inches high discovered in the 

 neighbourhood (fig. 40). These are of dark grey colour. 



In the Joslin collection at Colchester may be seen examples of this 

 late Celtic workmanship, showing sometimes by their juxtaposition that 

 the earlier tradition of this form had survived in Romano-British days. 

 Fragile bronze fibulas of remarkable beauty accompanied an earthenware 

 vase of polished red surface with a handle and the * carinated ' form 

 suggestive of a bronze model* (fig. 41). 



Lord Braybrooke has some late Celtic pottery at Audley End, and 

 it is not difficult to find examples in other Romano-British collections. 

 Chigwell has provided some fragments, and one vessel found at Southend 

 is preserved in the Technical Schools in that town. 



To the late Celtic period is assigned work in gold and some 

 enamel decorations found in various counties, but in Essex we have no 

 definite record of such finds, though possibly the beautifully enamelled 

 vase, discovered in one of the Bartlow Hills in 1835, and attributed to 

 the Romans, was the work of Celtic enamellers to a Roman design. 8 



In the British Museum is a small wheel-like article of unknown 

 purpose, which (judging from somewhat similar forms found in Gaulish 

 contemporary cemeteries) is of the late Celtic period. It is I \ inches in 

 diameter, has four spokes, and is not pierced in the centre of the hub, 

 as would be the case were it part of a toy. This was found at Col- 

 chester some years since (fig. 42). 



Here it may be well to refer to the recent discovery of a British 

 dug-out boat or canoe, near Walthamstow, in the course of excavations 



1 See similar articles from continental lake dwellings in British Museum. 



1 Arthttotogia (1890), lii. 



8 Essex Arch. Sor. Trant. n.s. vi. 222. 



* Group 30, No. 178, Joslin collection, Colchester Museum. 



1 This vase was greatly injured in the fire which destroyed Easton Lodge in 1847. A portion of 

 it is in the British Museum, and a facsimile of the whole vessel stands by its side. It was illustrated in 

 colours in Arckteologia (1836), xxvi. A facsimile is also in Saffron Walden Museum. 



i 269 34 A 



