ROMANO-BRITISH DERBYSHIRE coins, fibulas, Samian and other potsherds, spindle-whorls, rings, armlets, bracelets, iron spearheads and nails, glass beads, bone pins, etc., with bones of animals, pot boilers, and the like. All these were imbedded in the earth and clay forming the cave floor, or in the stalagmite crust below that, and constituted a definite Romano-British stratum, distinct from the underlying traces of neolithic life. The coins are variously given by various writers, but seem to have included one Nero or Vespasian (corroded Second Brass), two silver Trajan, five Third Brass Tetricus, and a score or more others of the period A.D. 250-353, ending with copper of Constans (died A.D. 353). There were also three barbarous imitations of Tetricus, which have been often attributed to the fifth or sixth century. But such coins were certainly minted in the third century, and our specimens may most reasonably be referred to that date, since actual issues of Tetricus were found with them. The fibulae Fie. 41. FIBUL.S FROM VICTORIA CAVE, NEAR SETTLE. (J. From drawings in the Free Library and Museum, Exeter.) appear to belong to the second and early third centuries (fig. 41). In general, the remains much resemble those found at Thirst House, but they indicate a more considerable inhabitation, perhaps greater wealth on the part of the occupants, and either a longer period of occupation or possibly two occupations. 1 (c) The Dowkerbottom cave, on the moors between ArnclifFe and Kilnsey, was explored about 1859 and a gain in 1881. It has yielded much pottery, including some pieces of Samian ware, several bronze and iron fibulas, some coins, a pehis (mortarium) inscribed 1 C. R. Smith and Jackson, Arch. xxix. 384 (excavations of 1837-8); Boyd Dawkins, Cave Hunting, pp. 81-101 (and references there given) ; C. Roach Smith, Coll. Ant. i. 69 ; Ecroyd Smith, Trans. Hist. Soc. of Lane, and Ches. v. (1864), 208. I have found especial difficulty in determining what coins were actually found. The various accounts differ widely, and I am not sure that I have even now reconciled them. 239
