120
THE ESSEX NATURALIST.
as carrying a light woodland growth in early times. Reference
has also been made to the almost insuperable difficulties the
heavy clays presented to prehistoric man with his primitive
means of ploughing. The people responsible for the great
number of prehistoric remains on this last-named soil are the
final Iron Age Invaders. These folk—the so-called La Tene III.
people—are a race which recent researches have indicated as
possessing an unusually high type of culture. To them we must
ascribe the second stage in the work of the deforestation of the
Forest of Essex; the clearing of the comparatively light wood-
land obtaining on the eastern London Clay.1
To the La Tene III. people the County owes the introduction
of the three-field system and the coulter plough; the latter
implement allowing these early inhabitants to bring into culti-
vation the heavier clay soils which required deep ploughing.
Little else except their ploughs and burial urns remain to-day
to indicate to what extent these interesting people pursued
the clearing and cultivation of the more lightly wooded clays.
From the remains of their successors—the Romans—we may
draw some conclusions concerning the activities of the La
Tene III. folk and the extent of their deforestations in Essex.
Collingwood has recently suggested that the Romans did
nothing materially to increase agricultural knowledge in Britain2;
nor did they clear soil of a new type. A comparison of the
distribution in Essex of La Tene III. and Saxon remains, cer-
tainly shows a great similarity, apparently supporting Colling-
wood's contention. It also seems that, as far as it is possible
to draw conclusions from Roman remains, the Roman Occupation
was not responsible for any great increase in forest clearing for
settlement. Rather, the Roman Occupation seems to have
resulted in Essex in a period of consolidation, during which
agricultural activity was confined to soils already cleared or
partially cleared at the time of the Invasion. These districts
would have been the three light soil belts and a large tract of
the eastern London Clay. This cessation of forest clearing
probably lasted until the Saxon settlers began the deforestation
of the main Boulder Clay tract. Undoubtedly, the "Pax
Romana" increased agricultural production, and it seems
1 See Antiquaries' Journal, 1933. "The Coulter Plough," Karslake.
2 Antiquity, 1929.