EXCAVATIONS IN LOUGHTON CAMP, EPPING FOREST. 137
the thickness, much softer and sandy, and contains very little
crushed flint.
From the third cutting at Loughton Camp in 1882 were
obtained twelve pieces of this finer ware, and this year (1927) we
found another fragment near the same place. All the fragments
appear to belong to one vessel, and it has been possible to join
some together and to reconstruct the original form. The frag-
ments represent about one-quarter of the rim and upper part of a
hemispherical bowl, and there is also a small piece of a widely-
splayed base (fig. 3).
Fig. 3. Reconstruction of Bowl from Loughton Camp,
Essex. x 1/2.
The flat rim is irregularly made and slightly bent outwards.
The colour is dull reddish-brown, with black patches, due to
burning, which has made the paste friable and caused the outer
surface, originally smooth, to scale off in places. As restored,
the height is about 41/4 inches, rim diameter 5.4 inches, and base
diameter about 2 inches.
Mr. Reginald A. Smith, F.S.A., noted the resemblance of the
coarser pieces to the pottery of the earlier or Hallstatt period of the
Early Iron Age (probably about the 5th century B.C.), but they
are more likely to be the domestic pots contemporary with the
finer ware, which dates from early La Tene times, that is, a