EARLY MAN burnt clay have been found at Southminster and other places. These are usually styled ' net sinkers,' but it is open to question whether they were not used to support pots in burning in the kiln. 1 Other collections contain articles found in Essex appertaining to the early iron age, but the exigences of space compel us to pass to the later portion of the period under consideration, the time that produced those vessels upon which so much light has been shed by Dr. Arthur Evans in his paper on a late Celtic urn field at Aylesford, Kent. 1 Dr. Evans lucidly shows how this late (probably Belgic-Celtic) pottery was developed from bronze models, both in decoration and, in some instances, in shape also, and the course of the migration from northern Italy is indicated. We may not dwell on this, but use for illustration the vessels now in Colchester Museum which came from the rich ground of Shoe- bury in i8 9 6 s (figs. 35, 36, 37, 38). In the same museum we see an urn of this period 8| inches in height which was found in Colchester ; this we illustrate (fig. 39), as well as a beautifully turned vessel 4^ inches high discovered in the neighbourhood (fig. 40). These are of dark grey colour. In the Joslin collection at Colchester may be seen examples of this late Celtic workmanship, showing sometimes by their juxtaposition that the earlier tradition of this form had survived in Romano-British days. Fragile bronze fibulas of remarkable beauty accompanied an earthenware vase of polished red surface with a handle and the * carinated ' form suggestive of a bronze model* (fig. 41). Lord Braybrooke has some late Celtic pottery at Audley End, and it is not difficult to find examples in other Romano-British collections. Chigwell has provided some fragments, and one vessel found at Southend is preserved in the Technical Schools in that town. To the late Celtic period is assigned work in gold and some enamel decorations found in various counties, but in Essex we have no definite record of such finds, though possibly the beautifully enamelled vase, discovered in one of the Bartlow Hills in 1835, and attributed to the Romans, was the work of Celtic enamellers to a Roman design. 8 In the British Museum is a small wheel-like article of unknown purpose, which (judging from somewhat similar forms found in Gaulish contemporary cemeteries) is of the late Celtic period. It is I inches in diameter, has four spokes, and is not pierced in the centre of the hub, as would be the case were it part of a toy. This was found at Col- chester some years since (fig. 42). Here it may be well to refer to the recent discovery of a British dug-out boat or canoe, near Walthamstow, in the course of excavations 1 See similar articles from continental lake dwellings in British Museum. 1 Arthttotogia (1890), lii. 8 Essex Arch. Sor. Trant. n.s. vi. 222.
- Group 30, No. 178, Joslin collection, Colchester Museum.
1 This vase was greatly injured in the fire which destroyed Easton Lodge in 1847. A portion of it is in the British Museum, and a facsimile of the whole vessel stands by its side. It was illustrated in colours in Arckteologia (1836), xxvi. A facsimile is also in Saffron Walden Museum. i 269 34 A
