49
SOME NEOLITHIC SITES IN THE UPPER
VALLEY OF THE ESSEX CAM.
By GEORGE MORRIS, B.Sc., F.R.A.I.
With 2 Plates and 1 Text Map.
[Read 28th January, 1922.]
INTRODUCTION.
FOR the past ten years the writer, in conjunction with Mr. Guy
Maynard (late of the Saffron Walden Museum), has been
engaged in collecting flint implements of the Neolithic period
in the area surrounding the town of Saffron Walden.
As the investigation progressed many interesting problems
in relation to the settlements, dispersal and origin of the Neolithic
peoples arose, and had to be set aside for lack of sufficient data.
The question as to what route these people followed to reach the
area often occupied our attention; did they arrive from the
N.E. or SW. by way of the Chalk escarpment of the Chilterns
or were they coastal tribes of the Thames estuary who penetrated
inland up the valleys of the Lea, Pant, Blackwater, etc., and so
over the forested water partings to the valley of the Cam and
the surrounding Chalk lands?
A year ago it occurred to the writer to compile a list of the
Neolithic sites recorded in the County, and to plot them on a
fairly large scale map with a view to obtaining information
as to the distribution of the Neolithic population, and also to
find out whether the forests of the clay areas had proved a serious
obstacle to travel and settlement.
With this end in view, a list of sites, recorded in the Essex
Naturalist, The Victoria County History, and other publications,
was compiled, visits were paid to the county museums at Strat-
ford and Colchester, and a careful examination was made of the
material available there. A few words as to the net result
of this enquiry up to the present time may be of interest.
The data were classified under the following headings:—
a. Flakes, scrapers and miscellaneous implements.
b. Polished celts and adzes.
c. Chipped celts and adzes.
d. Arrow heads.
D