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THE ESSEX NATURALIST
infilled hole on the inner or western face. This can be seen to be
associated with the earliest ditch and would appear to be a post
hole, but no similar feature was found at any point on the inner
face of the section at Cutting I.
Sherds of pottery were found in each ditch section. In Cutting
I sherds of 1st/2nd century and 3rd century wares were recovered
from the final infilling, but apart from fragmentary and
unidentifiable bones, nothing appeared from the earlier levels.
Cutting IV was more profitable. Late Iron Age pottery types were
found in both lower ditches and the uppermost level produced a
mixture as in Cutting I, this latter also produced a 1st century
brooch.
The area inside the house ditch was carefully cleaned and
Cuttings II, III, V, VI and VII laid down. These works were
intended to section visible features. Cutting II exposed a shallow
drainage gulley below a shallow deposit of dark earth. Cutting
III proved abortive in finding structures but resulted in the dis-
covery of a quantity of undistinguished potsherds. Cuttings V
and Vl sectioned a cropmark running obliquely through Squares
78/77 and 79/77; this proved to be a length of hard-packed
gravel similar to road metalling but only 1 M in width. It was
aligned with the largest of the buildings discussed below but its
purpose remains obscure. Cutting VII sectioned a drainage
gulley sloping westwards towards the western side of the house
ditch.
In the course of clearing operations some eighty postholes were
found within the house ditch enclosure, along with fragmentary
surviving areas of beaten earth floor and several hearths. It is
obvious that the postholes refer to more than one period of
occupation but following a study of relative superimposition it
has proved possible to make a tentative identification of five
buildings and to suggest a possible order of construction.
In the western half of the enclosure were two roughly circular
structures, A and B; to the south of these a sub-rectangular
structure, C, and superimposed on B a further sub-rectangular
structure, D. The eastern half of the enclosure was found to be
largely occupied by the large rectangular structure, E. The posi-
tions of some of the postholes related to this latter building
suggested that it continued over a filled and levelled section of the
ditch. Sections of clay floor were found in A, B and E but not in
C or D. The centre of C was occupied by a rubbish pit which
almost certainly postdated the decay of the structure and all
traces of a floor may have been removed in the development of
the rubbish pit. The mechanical stripping of topsoil from the
site by the gravel company has removed the remains of drip
water gulleys except at the western end of structure E, where the
divergence of the sharp edge of the drip water gulley from the
apparent line of the post holes suggests the existence of an
entrance porch probably supported on lighter posts than those
used for the rest of the building.