Page:Archaeological Journal, Volume 6.djvu/138

72 wares. The annexed representation, of the same dimensions as the original, will convey a better idea of its form than any description. On the lid, which is slightly convex, appears a cruciform ornament, composed of small circles impressed by a punch, resembling the mode of ornamentation seen on objects of bone and metal of the Roman, Saxon, or even the British period. There is nothing, however, serving to fix either the age or the use of this little object: it is not probable, as it is of bronze, and liable to corrosion, that it was a pyx for sacred uses. It has been supposed to be a box for unguent, pigments, or possibly for containing a "nest" of bronze weights, and attracted notice on account of its close resemblance to two bronze boxes found on the site of Lewes Priory, and now in Dr. Mantell's Museum.

—A collection of discs of clay and other materials (sometimes termed tesseræ), chiefly found at Colchester, and in the eastern counties. Some of them are formed of pieces of tile, probably Roman, of various sizes; one was of mottled green marble, some were perforated, and two bore devices incised upon them. The authenticity of these had been questioned by some antiquaries, but they resemble examples, apparently authentic, found at Colchester, and now in the Collection of Mrs. Thorley, which excited great interest at the French Congress of Archaeologists at Trèves, in 1846. One of Mr. Whincopp's incised roundels (of ashy-grey pottery) exhibits on one side a rhinoceros, traced in rude outline, with the characters ETKERON. Diameter, 1$5⁄8$ inch; thickness, $1⁄4$ inch. It appears to have been cut out of the foot of a fictile vessel. On another, of nearly the same dimensions, stated to have been found in a Roman cemetery, to the west of Colchester, are these devices: two birds on the wing, their feet united by a kind of true-love knot, inscribed COTVRNIX ÆLIAN. Reverse—two weapons (?) crossed, some unknown characters above, and, beneath, AVIS LVCIS. The intention of these various discs has not been explained: they may have served as counters for the abacus, or for some game, such as the ancient game of tables. It is possible that some may have served as weights, or tickets of admission at public sports. We hope to resume this subject on a future occasion, and to give representations of various types.

, F.S.A.—A silver cord or chain of very delicate workmanship, woven like the work of Trinchinopoli, and resembling portions of chain discovered near Preston, in Cuerdale, with Anglo-Saxon ornaments and coins of the early part of the tenth century, as described by Mr. Hawkins, in his Memoir given in this Journal. It was found by himself, a few years since, in the Isle of Inchkenneth, one of the Hebrides, the property of his father, with a hoard of one hundred silver coins of Edgar and Ethelred, Sihtric (an Irish king), and foreign coins; with these, also, were three silver armillæ, resembling Indian bangles, and some weights of lead, bound with iron. He exhibited some illuminated MSS. of value, and two rings, one supposed to be a recent imitation of the enamelled ring of Ethelwulf, preserved in the British Museum: the other, a massive silver ring, of questionable antiquity, bearing the head of Christ crowned with thorns, two imperial eagles, and the legend—Ricardus Romanorum Rex,