Page:Archaeological Journal, Volume 11.djvu/473

 THE AKCHAEOLOGICAL INSTITUTE. 409 and not far above the remains of Roman building in a very picturesque frontier. Roman pottery and a coin of Licinius lay near the coffins, which, as before noticed, were three in number, two of large size containing the skeletons of females, and about two feot distant from one of them lay a skeleton bent round the head of the coffin. The third, placed a few inches apart, of smaller size and square at each end, contained the skeleton of a male of small stature. The heads were to the north. The most remark- able features of this discovery were, as briefly described before, that in a line with the three cists, about nine feet to the west, was a square stone chest full of burnt bones, and on the other side, twelve feet distant towards the east, another chest containing the head of a horse. ^ To all of these receptacles stone covers were fitted. Mr. Scarth is disposed to assign these interments to the later Roman period, possibly not long prior to the Saxon invasion. The juxtaposition of deposits in cists without cremation, of an interment without a coffin, and of sepulture after cremation, is deserving of notice. The deposit of part of a horse, in the mode here observed, and with the same provision for its preservation as is shown in regard to the human remains, is so far as has been ascertained, without precedent. Mr. Scarth sent numerous drawings in illustration of this curious subject, representing many of the sepulchral cists found at Bath, as also several of undoubted Roman origin disinterred at York and on the continent.^ Dr. TiiURNAM sent a memoir on the recent examination of the chambered tunmlus near Ulcybury. It is given in this volume, p. 315. Mr. Yates called attention to the discovery of a lai-ge hoard of Roman silver coins, near Coleraiue, some impressions from which had been produced by Mr. Way at a previous meeting.^ Mr. Yates gave some further particulars received from his friend Mr. Scott Porter, who had carefully investigated the facts connected with this remarkable discovery. In the conversation which ensued. General Fox suggested the possibility that a mint might have existed in that part of Ireland, in times long subsequent jierhaps to Roman dominion in this country ; and he considered this hoard in some respects analogous to that brought to light in Cuerdale, in 1840, of which a full account has been given by Mr. Hawkins in this Journal.'' In that instance the silver coins, six or seven thousand in number, were chiefly Saxon, with a few of oriental origin ; the remarkable feature in both these discoveries was the occurrence of small ingots, suited for the purposes of coining, and of ornamented objects of silver cut in pieces for facility in melting. The objects of this kind in the Coleraiue hoard are of totally different character to those found at Cuerdale, the ornament presenting for the most part the appearance of late Roman work. Mr. Franks observed that the Coleraiue discovery comprised ingots closely resembling one now preserved in the British Museum, and found during the last century in the Towner of London. The impress upon that ingot had been erroneously given in the Archfeologia as lioxouil, but the correct reading is UONOUINI, as it lias been given in the " Monumenta Historica." (Inscriptions, p. cxx. No. 144a. Archseologia, vol. V. p. 292.) •' See notices of remains of the horse •• Mr. Scarth's curious Memoir will be found in early interments, in Dr. Wilson's fjiveii at length in the Transactions of the Prehistoric Annals of Scotland, pp. Somerset Ardueological Society. 455, 552. Memoires, Soc. iles Antitju. * See p. '2!J3j in tiiis volume. de Picardie, vol. v. p. 145. ^' Vol. iv. pp. Ill, 189.