A HANDBOOK TO THE COLLECTION
OF
Prehistoric Objects in the Essex
Museum of Natural History.
By F. W. READER (Member of the Council of the Essex
Field Club).
THE collection of objects representing Prehistoric Man in the
Essex Museum will be found to be arranged in three
divisions. The first is a series of typical objects from various
localities, to show the phases of culture through which man
has passed during the prehistoric periods. The second division
illustrates what are known as " Survivals," while the third
comprises the objects that specially relate to Essex, and which
are arranged in groups from definite localities where possible : to
show what has been discovered to throw light on such ancient
sites as the Loughton Camp, Ambresbury Banks, the Dene-holes,
the supposed Lake Dwelling at Skitt's Hill, Braintree, the Red
Hills, &c. There is also a collection of Palaeolithic and
Neolithic Stone Implements and other relics from various
localities in Essex.
The objects from the district of Epping Forest will be found
in the Epping Forest Museum at Chingford.
The Type Collection exists solely for purposes of comparison,
so that the relations and purpose of the Essex relics may be better
understood. It would be quite outside the sphere of a local
museum to accumulate a large general collection of antiquities
and ethnological objects with any view to completeness, but
a small series may explain the continuous development of
man's handiworks, and, by comparison, show to which ages
the various relics of Essex Antiquities must be referred.
For the same reason objects provided by existing or recent
primitive men (often called "savages") are exhibited when
they serve to explain the use of ancient specimens. This
Type Collection is at present very imperfect, many gaps having
to be filled with photographs or models, but it is hoped that
members and friends will place objects at the disposal of the
Curator in order to remedy this defect.
Before proceeding to describe the Essex antiquities it will,
perhaps, be advisable to give very briefly an outline of what has