Page:Archaeological Journal, Volume 2.djvu/442

414 Two of the curious arched graves formed of tiles have been discovered, one of which is engraved, Archæologia, II. pl. xi. fig. 2, and the other preserved in the museum at York. The tiles are such as were used by the Romans in roofing houses. They are about 1 ft. 8 in. long, are slightly curved, and are inclined against each other at such an angle as to form a Gothic arch of about 2 ft. diameter. At each end of this chamber was a tile, and the roof was surmounted by a row of ridge tiles. See Pl. XI., p. 104.

In one of these tombs were found some urns containing ashes and earth, and near it a coin of Vespasian, and another of Domitian. Each tile was stamped LEG. IX. HISP., Legio Nona Hispana. The other tomb contained nothing but a layer of charcoal and bones and some iron nails. The tiles had the mark LEG. VI. VI., Legio Sexta Victrix. Mr. Wellbeloved mentions other instances of these tombs; and we may add that this mode of sepulture was not peculiar to the Romans, but was in common use among the Greeks, for the majority of the graves found at Athens are so formed, the tiles used being both flat and curved, and some of them stamped in the centre with the letters ΑΘΕ, and the cavity within containing bones and urns. See Dodwell, Tour through Greece, I., p. 452; and for three varieties of this kind of tomb, Stackelberg, Die Gräber der Hellenen, tab. vii. p. 41.

In the museum is also preserved a coffin found in the neighbourhood of York, half-filled with lime, which still retains the impression of a human body originally laid in it; a number of female ornaments, consisting of gold ear-rings and bracelets, and copper and jet rings, were discovered imbedded in the lime.

Great abundance of the so-called Samian ware has been found at York, and a most excellent collection is exhibited in the museum there. It is probable that a Roman pottery was established in the neighbourhood, where there is abundance of clay. Mr. Wellbeloved gives a very full list of the names of potters stamped on the fragments found at York, which should be compared and incorporated with the lists drawn up by archaeologists in this and other countries occupied by the Romans. See a work published at Leyden, 1842, by Dr. Conrad Leemans, keeper of the Museum of Antiquities at Leyden, entitled Romeinsche Oudheden te Rossem, pl. xv. pp. 118, 119. A comparison of the list of potters there given with Mr. Wellbeloved's exhibits the following coincidences:

The groups in relief on this kind of ware frequently exhibit subjects of mythological interest, and the compositions seem often borrowed from those on late sarcophagi. See among the specimens engraved in pl. xvi., a vessel on which figures are represented under arches.