102 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
Human 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—Bows.
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 longifrons).—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 they represent the Urus (Bos
taurus). These bones must have belonged to animals much