146 PILE-DWELLING SITE AT SKITT'S HILL, BRAINTREE.
Below the brick-earth comes the upper surface of the relic-
bed, which is also the level at which the alluvial clay terminates
in the general filling of the stream's bed.
It seems certain that no Roman pottery has ever been found
at this depth, and that we may safely place this deposit as pre-
historic. It is here that all the remains have occurred which
have been thought to indicate the existence of pile structures.
It was pointed out in a note to the former account" that the
occurrence of stone implements and flint flakes is not necessarily
an indication of the Stone-age.7 Stone implements have
frequently been found in association with later remains, while
flakes occur in great numbers in the Romano-British villages,
exceeding the proportion found in the settlements of the Bronze
Age. Large numbers of flint flakes also frequently accompany
the interments of the Anglo-Saxons. The great abundance of
flint-flakes in Roman times was referred to by General Pitt-
Rivers in his address to the Archaeological Institute, 1897.8 He
indicates difficulty of accounting for these, and suggests the use
of the tribulum and their uses for other agricultural purposes.
Although no object of metal has yet been produced from the
relic bed at Skitt's Hill, it has also been pointed out that this
cannot be regarded as evidence of the Neolithic age of the
deposit in the face of the abundant evidence of the use of metal
tools on the antler and bone objects.
Another example of this indication is here presented (Fig. B.,.
Plate XXVII). This piece of rib-bone bears unmistakable marks,
produced undoubtedly by a good metal saw, while its peat-
stained condition shows clearly that it came from the relic-bed.
This object was discovered in the previous excavation, but was
by an oversight omitted from the former report.
In the filling under the relic-bed we now have the
the deposition that may be attributed to the earlier divisions of
the present geological period, viz., the Neolithic and the Bronze
ages, while the relic-bed may with more reason be considered
to represent the early Iron age, the period to which most of the
relics that have been produced from it seem to belong.
If, then, this fresh evidence serves to remove any grounds for
supposing the Skitt's Hill pile-dwelling site to be of Neolithic
6 Essex Naturalist, Vol. xi.. p. 119
7 Ancient Stone Implements, Sir John Evans, p. 282.
8 Cranborne Chate, Vol. IV., p. 17.