150 THE ESSEX NATURALIST.
reached at 5ft. depth; this was probably the extreme depth
reached at this point by the early workers.
At hole B1, 5 yards further down the slope, the stiff loam
immediately below the turf was highly charged with fragments of
shells, indicating the possible existence at a later date and prior
to the erection of the sea-wall of a shell bank at this level of the
hill.
The tailing off of the alluvium as one ascends the hill is
clearly shown in the sectional elevation.
Hole BII was dug on the same E.-W. line as BI, but 6ft.
further east. In this case the excavation was carried to a depth
of 8ft.—one foot below the standing water level of the site. What
is believed to be the raw material of manufacture was here
located at 4ft. depth; it rested on a layer of blue clay (8 per cent.
sand) of undetermined thickness.
It was hoped that the character of the objects found in the
various strata disclosed by excavation on the mound would afford
an indication of the chronology of the site. It is true that
immediately beneath the surface fragments of mediaeval pottery
were found, and at a depth of 1ft. a micaceous schist hone of the
nth to 13th C (of West Normandy origin), indicating that at least
the site had been visited in post Romano-British days, but the
fragments found at the lower levels were all considered to be
of Romano-British character, and Mr. C. F. C Hawkes, of the
British Museum, who was kind enough to examine the pottery, is
unable with certainty to assign a date earlier than 50 A.D. to any
of the pieces, though at holes BIII and CII the sherds included
pieces of "gritted" ware of possibly pre-Roman date.
The concentration of the briquetage at the red-floor level
indicates that there we may be at the "Kiln" level of the site.
The "gritted" ware of pre-Roman character may have been
left on the old land surface and been swept up later and tipped
with burnt earth waste in Romano-British days.
Thin bands and patches of carbonaceous matter, including
carbonised twigs, were noticeable in the cindery layer at all
depths, indeed, the dark character of the burnt earth on this site
is due to the large amount of carbonaceous matter present and
the relatively low percentage of fine burnt clay associated there-
with.