Page:Archaeological Journal, Volume 6.djvu/48

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20
MEMOIR ON ROMAN REMAINS,

and a very singular vase of pale red-coloured ware, not lustrous, of peculiar form, and having on each side a ring attached, as imitative handles, resembling in its general fashion the curious vessel found at Felmingham, Norfolk, with a remarkable assemblage of Roman remains.[1] There were also found an olla of brown-coloured ware, impressed apparently by three fingers, whilst the clay was soft, possibly a mark of capacity; (See Woodcut); and a large two-handled amphora, similar to one figured in Mr. Neville's "Antiqua Explorata," Pl. V. Numerous bronze and bone pins were found, with tesseræ, fragments of tiles, a bronze armilla of slender fabric, and a curious object of bronze, resembling the pendant, or tag, of a girdle, but fitted to a kind of sheath, the use of which it is difficult to explain. A similar relic of bronze is preserved in the York Museum, found with Roman remains; and another, deprived of its sheath, is given in Mr. Artis' Durobrivæ, Pl. XLI., Fig. 10. A small bronze spoon, was also discovered. The ground-plan of this building, taken by Mr. Buckler, and illustrated by his observations, will supply satisfactory information in regard to this example of the habitations of Roman times.

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Of the fictile vessels, some were found within, and others just outside the walls. Besides the relics now enumerated, there was afterwards found, in breaking up and removing the foundation walls, a diminutive brass coin, much defaced by age and decay, an undescribed type of the British period, and attributed by some antiquaries to Cunobelin. On the obverse appears to be represented the head of an animal (?) On the reverse, slightly convex, a goat, (?) with a flower or star of ten points over it. No similar type is found in the British Museum, or amongst the coins of the earliest age, of which a series is represented in the recently published "Monumenta Historica Britannica." A small ring-fibula of bronze, set with four fictitious gems of blue paste (one of them lost), was also discovered, of which a figure, of the original size, is given.

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It is difficult to conceive how similar ornaments of this diminutive size, which occur not only amongst Roman, but Medieval remains, could have been used. Various implements, formed of iron, much decayed with rust, were also found amongst these remains, including

  1. Antiquities of Norfolk, by the Rev. R. Hart, Plate II. Norwich, 1844.