26
hand-made pottery. The pottery was unornamented and not
sufficiently characteristic to afford any certain evidence of the
age of the camp, but it may be fairly assumed to be of British
origin and probably pre-Roman.
Ambresbury Banks. This camp has long been traditionally
associated with the name of Queen Boadicea. A section was
cut through the ditch and rampart, and although the examina-
tion was not extensive enough to produce conclusive evidence,
there is good reason to suppose that there is not much difference
between the age of the two camps, and that this, like Loughton
Camp, is of British origin,
In both the Epping Forest Camps the sides of the ditches
meeting form a point at the bottom, which is an uncommon
feature in camps of British origin, the ditches of which are
generally flat at the bottom.
The Dene - Holes. Fifty or sixty of these interesting
excavations can still be traced in Hangman's Wood, near
Grays. Several have been examined with great care and much
expense by the Essex Field Club. Unfortunately so little
evidence resulted from the exploration that the date of their
origin or the explanation of their use is still greatly a matter
of conjecture. They consist of narrow shafts, about 3ft. wide
and 80ft, deep, which are driven through layers of gravel and
Thanet-sand down into the Chalk where they lead to clusters
of chambers, usually six in number, arranged in the form of a
double trefoil (see plan fig. 24)
The evidence furnished by the explorations is mostly of a
negative nature. It is clear that they were not flint mines like
Grimes-graves and Cissbury because the chambers have been
formed without regard to the seams of flint which occur. The
marks of the picks appear to show that metal tools were used.
That they were not excavated to obtain chalk seems certain,
for chalk could be obtained close to the surface a quarter of a
mile distant without the labour and danger of sinking shafts
through 60ft. of soil.
The general opinion arrived at is that the pits were formed
as refuges or were used for the storage of grain and food supplies.