EARLY MAN no traces of cave-dwellers in Essex, though it is possible that the chalk range of the north-west or the outcrop on the south afforded opportunity for excavating such homes. 1 THE NEOLITHIC PERIOD Ere neolithic man appeared great geological changes occurred, separating our lands from the continent by a channel. How long a time elapsed before the new race occupied the land we know not, nor where the continuity of the human species was maintained. We do know that man survived in more favoured regions of the earth, if not here, and migrated thence, bringing with him a higher civilization than had existed in the older times. That he was far in advance of his palaeolithic predecessors is amply evidenced by the greater variety of implements, the higher finish of many, and the introduction of pottery. The most prolific sources of relics have been burial barrows (generally long in shape and with skeleton remains, showing that the practice of inhumation prevailed), the sites of lake or mere-dwellings, and those of neolithic manufac- tories. That the characteristic long barrows of neolithic man have existed in Essex is likely, but probably in the days of prosperous agricultural operations every example was destroyed, and we can only surmise the possibility of their existence at places where many relics have been found together. Nor have we yet discovered any example of a pile or fascine dwelling of undoubted neolithic date, though it seems possible that the recently-discovered traces of early habitation in the hollow of the Brain or Pod river near Braintree are of very early origin (see p. 270). It is tolerably certain that a ' factory ' existed near Walton-on-the- Naze, where so many neolithic weapons have been unearthed, as chips and waste are also found. The wide range of articles of the neolithic period makes it necessary to refer to the principal forms only. Typical neolithic celts are of well-polished flint or other hard stone, but some which we know to be of the same period, from the circumstances of the discoveries, are rough-hewn or chipped, as were the palaeolithic weapons. The celts were used as hatchets, adzes or axes, the cutting end of the weapon being sharpened to an efficient edge by grinding. 1 Stone imple- ments of similar form are still used by the North American Indians as skinners for removing the hides of animals from the flesh (figs. 3, 4). Wheresoever neolithic man's traces are observable, we find flakes of flint some mere wasters thrown aside when the parent block was struck 1 The Hon. R. C. Neville (afterwards Lord Braybrooke) in 1848 opened a chamber at Heydon on the extreme north-west of Essex, which contained Roman remains. The chamber may possibly have been excavated long before Romano-British days, though used in that period.
- A remarkable example from Walton, of greenstone, with grooves worked vertically to its cutting
edge, is in Dr. Layer's collection. 263
