110
ANCIENT URNS AT BRAINTREE.
flats bordering the rivers—contain implements and other relics
which constitute a record of the third or Neolithic period of the
Stone Age These occur in the lowest and oldest layers only,
for the upper beds range in age from the prehistoric bronze and
iron epochs right up to historic times.
Of the implements found in the Neolithic alluvium, flakes and
flake-tools still constitute the vast majority. The former are
always neat and small, and seldom attain the size of the average
Palaeolithic flake, while minute examples with three or more
faces and a well developed bulb of percussion are not uncommon,
which shews that the art of producing flakes had now reached
its highest level. The scraping tools bear a general resemblance
to those of the earlier periods, but the average of excellence of
workmanship is greater.
The other implements, however, are very different. The
tongue-shaped and discoidal weapons of Palaeolithic times are
replaced by thin, symmetrical and skilfully chipped javelin-
heads, which are often neatly and uniformly notched on either
side to facilitate the hafting; by beautifully finished daggers, not
unlike the javelin-heads, but usually with a distinct handle
worked at the end of the flat blade; and by axe-heads with a
straight of slightly curved ground edge like that of a chisel. The
last mentioned are usually more or less polished all over. While
evidence of the knowledge of the bow appears for the first time
in the shape of often exquisitely finished arrow-heads.
ANCIENT URNS AT BRAINTREE.
By W. COLE.
A DISCOVERY of considerable interest was made at
Braintree on September 4th, in the course of excavating a
field for building cottages. A workman's pickaxe came in contact
with some pottery, about 2 feet below the surface, which
proved to be cinerary (?) urns of great antiquity. The site,
half-way between Chapel Hill and Rose Hill, is on the
immediate north side of the supposed Lake Dwelling described
by the Rev. J. W. Kenworthy and others in the Essex
Naturalist (vol. xi., 94-126) and opposite to the north side of
Messrs. Courtauld's silk-mill. One urn, which was unfortunately
broken by the pick-axe, contained a quantity of fragmentary