182 WITH REMARKS UPON THE OBJECTS FOUND.
There would be abundant economic reasons for making the
pans on the spot out of the clay around. The pans, being very
rude and fragile, would be frequently broken, and would thus
provide the store of fragments which puzzle us to-day.
The mode of baking the pans and the great fires that would be
necessary in evaporating the brine would be a sufficient source
of the vast quantities of burnt debris accumulated during the
long years of the industry. Considerable quantities of salt
must have been required in early days for curing fish and meat,
and later, perhaps, in the making of the great ewe-milk cheeses,
for which Essex was long so famed; while, as the output of
these primitive salinae could not have been great, a considerable
number of them would be called for to satisfy the country-side,
and possibly every settlement had its own salt-pans.6
In estimating the period of these remains some latitude must
be allowed. As Mr. Stopes remarks, "the character of the
associated pottery, the absence of any trace of metal, and the
downward extension of the calcined masses to the London Clay
argue a high antiquity, higher than that of the surrounding
alluvium, four or five feet in depth, perhaps higher than the
change in the course of the river to which I have referred
already." The hill at Burnham is now a considerable distance
(about 11/4 miles) from the river Crouch, whilst the one at
Bower Hall, East Mersea, has been cut through by the
Pyefleet, and must consequently have been accumulated
previous to the erosion of the present channel. The absence
also of any allusion in old authors and of local traditions
respecting the red-hills favours the throwing their origin
back to a remote age. Mr. Frank W. Reader has kindly
examined the hard pottery obtained during our explorations, and
reports thus:—
"The pottery specimens fiorii the Red-hills at Burnham and Bower Hall
Farm, E. Mersea, are clearly fragments such as are commonly found on
Romano-British sites, and including two pieces of Red Samian of a rather soft
quality.7
6 It may be conjectured that the appearance of glaze on the two pieces of rough pot
from the "Grassy Marsh" Red hill at K. Mersea (ante p. 176) was caused by the fusion
of salt on the ware by intense beat.
7 The two pieces of Samian came from the hill at Burnham, and as before hinted (ante,
p. 173) were probably accidental and may have come from the surface. At any rate, we
have not found any Samian elsewhere.