200 PREHISTORIC INTERMENT NEAR WALTON-ON-NAZE.
traversed by rootlets, now much decayed. These belong to the
plants which grew upon the Buried Prehistoric Surface. They do
not belong to plants which grow upon the present salting surface
above. It was clearly these rootlets which caused the network
of markings upon the bones.1 As these rootlets had penetrated
to the interment and worked their way round the bones during
the life of the plants to which they belonged, the interment must
FlG. I.—PREHISTORIC INTERMENT NEAR WALTON-ON-NAZE. FROM A PHOTO-
GRAPH BY MR. MILLER CHRISTY TAKEN AS SOON AS THE SOIL HAD BEEN
REMOVED AND BEFORE THE BONES HAD BEEN DISTURBED.
have been made some little time, at least, before the submergence
of the ancient surface. For it is perfectly certain that the
plants could not have lived upon this surface after the sub-
mergence had taken place.
The interment was of the contracted type, presenting one
unusual feature, and the grave was only just large enough to
1 The question of the network of black markings upon the bones gave rise to consider-
able discussion after the reading of the paper. My theory of their origin was called in ques-
tion by several of the speakers. I have since found a skull of Bos longifrons in the Alluvium
of the Lea Valley presenting some markings of the same character. Upon carefully washing
away the adherent material, I found decayed rootlets lying in contact with the bone along
the lines of the black markings. I think this goes far to confirm the correctness of the inter-
pretation given in the text.