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DISCOVERY OF CELTIC URNS AT
COLCHESTER.
By HENRY LAVER, M.R.C.S., F.S.A., Vice-President E.F.C.
On August 21st, 1889, the Corporation workmen, in laying a drain
in Water Lane, on the north side of the Cattle-market, came upon
some large Celtic Cinerary Urns. The exact spot was in the middle
of the road, opposite the first row of houses, just where the land
begins to rise above the level of the valley.
On examination I found that there were the remains of two large urns,
each, if perfect, measuring 24 inches high and 15 inches wide over
the mouth, and one less perfect of the same form, but only 11 inches
in diameter. Both contained fragments of burnt bones. Accom-
panying these were portions of four other urns, two of which were of
a later type.
The older urns were ornamented with impressions of the tip of the
finger, a favourite style of decorating these vessels in the south-east
corner of England, and seemingly almost confined to that district.
It would appear that there had formerly been a tumulus over
these burials, and that later interments had, as was often done, been
placed in the barrow at a higher level than the earlier ones; the
result being that the later urns were more seriously damaged during
the removal of a portion of the tumulus when the road through it
was formed. The fragments of teeth found would indicate that
remains were not those of aged individuals.
Somewhat similar urns have been found in Long Barrows, so that
the older remains at Colchester would appear to have been deposited
before the Bronze Age and possibly during the Neolithic period.
I have restored the urns as far as possible and they have been
placed in the Colchester Museum.
Destruction of Game and so-called Vermin.—"All that is not 'game'
is 'vermin,' according to most keepers : both are destroyed, the one because it is
'game,' the other because it is 'vermin ;' and what an enormous destruction of life
is the result! During the shooting season of 1888 the following species were killed
on the Austro-Hungarian Crown-lands of Salzburg :—294 stags, 1,505 roe-deer,
1,270 chamois, 3,562 hares, 3 marmots, 178 capercailzie, 176 black-game, 222 hazel-
grouse, 471 pheasants, 1,237 partridges, 40 quail, 65 snipe, 10 woodcock, and 357.
duck. Besides these there were destroyed 980 foxes, 252 martens, 72 polecats, 9
otters, 11 wild cats, 76 badgers, 9 eagles, 22 owls, and 770 hawks of various kinds.
Years hence, when some of the wild creatures here mentioned will have become
extinct, the above will be an interesting, though melancholy, record of man's
propensity for destroying life."— From the "Zoologist" for September, 1889.