148
THE ESSEX NATURALIST.
"them water was obtainable easily from springs and shallow
"wells; they were the only sites suitable for settlements, and all
"the evidences of prehistoric man in this area are found on them
"or in their immediate vicinity.....
"The gravel areas were relatively small and could supply
"only a scanty population, and successive civilizations occupied
"the same sites. De-forestation was impossible with the labour
"and tools available and was hardly attempted before the
"Roman occupation."
Conditions between the estuaries of the Blackwater and
Crouch to the north, as already pointed out, must have been more
favourable for early settlement.
Living in such settlements and not far removed from the
Red-hill sites on the edge of the creeks we can imagine the
workers descending in summer to manufacture the crude red
pottery necessary for salt-making and possibly for domestic
use at home. If this class of pottery was in use at the inland
settlements themselves one would expect to find briquetage in
the sub-soil there. This is a point worth consideration when
excavation work is undertaken at inland sites, but, in any case,
disintegration of much of the ware must have occurred and its
presence would be difficult to establish.
As regards the use of sea-water for the manufacture of brine,
the late Dr. H. C. Sorby (Ibid, 1905-6, vol. xiv., p. 235) made
systematic determinations of the salinity of the creek waters in
the Thames Estuary over a number of years for the summer
months—early May to late September. He found that in the
summer months of certain years the water in some of the Essex
estuaries, e.g., Paglesham, West Mersea and Burnham-on-
Crouch, is more salt than the water outside coming in with the
high tide, and that along the coast of Essex in summer the sea-
water is somewhat more dense than that of contiguous parts in
the North Sea. "At all events," he says, "in summer water in
"the estuaries would be very suitable for the purpose of salt-
"making by evaporation."
Salt is an essential food substance, apart from its use for
pickling meat and fish, and would surely be manufactured at the
creeks.