228 Report of Committee on the
small fragments are available for determination. He is,
however, disposed to rank the potsherds found as of Late
Celtic age and manufacture. The pottery and flints have
also been carefully examined by General Pitt-Rivers, who
has written a Report upon them, which we give in his own
words :—
"I regret much that the pressure of other business has
prevented me, excepting on one occasion, from being present
at the excavations at the Loughton Camp; but I have
examined the specimens found in the cuttings, and very
carefully preserved and ticketed by Mr. Cole.
" The pottery found in the first section on the old surface
line, and in the body of the rampart, is of the coarse kind,
with some large grains of some foreign material intermixed,
which is commonly found in the ramparts of British camps.
The pottery of the third and fourth cuttings is of a superior
quality, without large grains, and apparently better baked;
but the vessels had small irregular rims, and there is, I think,
sufficient evidence upon them to show that they were hand-
made, and not lathe-turned. Pottery of these two qualities
not unfrequently occur together in British camps. There is
no ornamentation to positively identify any of the fragments
as Late Celtic; but, judging from the results of other ex-
cavations, I see no reason why they should not be of that
period. I should certainly consider them pre-Roman.
" With respect to the flint flakes found in the body of the
rampart and on the 'old surface line,' I do not consider the
presence of flakes in these positions to afford positive proof
that they were in use at the time of the construction of the
camp. There are many spots on the surface of hills in
which, if a rampart were to be thrown up now and explored
at some future time, both the old surface line and the body
of the rampart would be found to contain numerous flakes,
the remains of earlier occupation by prehistoric man. I have
also quite recently found the old surface line of the rampart
thickly strewed with flakes, while other cuttings in the same
rampart have shown evidence that the camp was of a more
recent date than that in which the flint tools were used. The