116 THE ESSEX NATURALIST.
The rim is so far everted that it actually projects beyond the
shoulder, an unusual feature at this early date. Such bowls
occur at Sheepen among the earliest deposits, but only in very
small numbers. They are usually very heavy.
Plate X, fig. 9. Fragment of the rim of a grey-brown platter
of a very well-known and early type. It was very common
at Mt. Beuvray (Dech. Pl. XXI, 2, b and c), and later became
one of the favourite forms used by the Gallo-Belgic potters. As
such it occurs in many hundreds at Sheepen in Terra Nigra
ware, but once only in Terra Rubra, at Braughing. It would
appear that these were copied by native potters in Britain, such
copies being quite plentiful at Sheepen, where they seem to
occur chiefly in the upper layers. A complete example was
found with a pedestal urn and a butt-beaker at Burnham a few
years ago.
Another rim fragment from Trench 18 is of a form also found
at Sheepen. It is from a deeper dish in native ware. Fig. 2,
No. 11.
Plate X, figs. 10 and 11, may be described together, both are
drawn from fragments and there are remains of a third exactly
similar but larger. They are of thin native ware with smooth,
soapy surface, slight cordon on neck and simple rim with no
thickening at the lip. Fig. 11 has the base preserved, but
it is distorted. Both belong to the common type to which
references have been given under fig. 7 above.
Plate X, fig. 12. Beaker of reddish-brown ware, very soft
and friable. The everted rim is hollowed inside in typical Belgic
fashion (compare figure 2, No. 10) and the shoulder bears a
deep groove. The body is almost covered by zones marked
off by horizontal grooves and ornamented by scored wavy
lines.
The vessel, which is very shattered and lacks the base,
combines the outlines of the commonest beaker at Sheepen
with that of the elegant beakers of Gallo-Belgic orange-red
ware of the Continent. The former was also exceedingly common
in Roman times, especially in the Flavian period and in the
Colchester district (May, Colchester, Pl. III, 16 and 17), while
the latter is much less known and died out with Gallo-Belgic
ware in general about A.D. 50 (Loeschcke, Haltern, Abb. 42,
7, 8 ; Vermeulen, Nijmegen, Pl. VI, 30, 31); our decoration is