Page:Archaeological Journal, Volume 8.djvu/156

114 11-i NOTICES OF ARCHAEOLOGICAL PUBLICATIONS. and appeared as if placed on different occasions : they ordinarily consisted of a bottle-shaped vase, a Samian dish, and two or three other pieces of pottery placed around the urn containing the bones, which was always uppermost and upright. There were no remains of ashes nor anything to mark that the body was burnt near the spot." (p. 45.) Well-preserved specimens of this curious embossed ware are rare and highly to be esteemed : Mr. Neville possesses some, found at Chesterford, which have been represented in the Journal (vol. vi., p. 19). A very spirited example of the stag-hunt, thus portrayed, will be found in Mr. Artis' " Durobrivse," plate 28 ; but incomparably the finest piece of this ware is the large vase, found at Bedford Purlieus, Northamptonshire, given amongst the illustrations of Mr. Hartshorne's Memoir in the Archae- ologia (vol. xxxii., plate 3). The height of this vase, on which appear human figures with the stag and hound, is 15 inches. A further discovery of Roman remains took place near Ham Bridge, Auc 29, 18-15, of which the following particulars are related by Mr. Dixon. He obtained, on this occasion, five perfect funereal vessels, and three which were broken ; but the fractures were not recent. ♦' This appeared to have been another grave, about 4 feet from the last ; the contents consisted of two urns — one, 8 inches high, G inches at top, 3^ inches at bottom, in- creasing to 8 inches in the centre, containing burnt human bones ; the other, 9 inches high, 3 inches at bottom, 7 inches in the middle, 5 inches at top, containing the bones of a bird, the size of a crow ; and burnt human bones, five or six nails, &:c. ; near this urn was a small bottle. Surrounding the other, were two vessels like drinking cups, two black saucer-shaped pieces of pottery, and one beautiful specimen of glass, quite perfect, of a trans- parent green colour, 2 inches high, with handles, and very similar to one in the museum at Boulogne. A small fragment of glass was also found with the human bones in the large urn : the urns containing the calcined bones were, in every instance, nearest the surface. At the bottom of this tomb was a flat metallic substance, 8 or 10 inches in length and breadth, much broken, having a few iron nails near it, but not more than eight or ten, and larger than those in the prior discovery. Iron is also the principal ingredient of this vessel or shield, but it is not oxidised like the nails, and was originally broken, for I found pieces of it, with two or three nails, in the urn containing the bird's bones, <kc., which must have been placed there at the interment." (pp. 45, 46.) These details are interesting : the little glass diota probably served to contain perfumes ; specimens precisely similar may be seen in Montfaucon, tome iii., pi. 79, p. 146, and Dorow (Die Denkmale Romischer Zeit, in den Rheinisch-Wesfahschen Provinzen, Tab. xi., Stuttgart, 1823). Perfect specimens of glass funereal vessels are, as Mr. Dixon remarks, rare in England : he describes two, discovered at Avisford, near Arundel, in 1817, one of them something similar to those just noticed. He had also seen portions of a very fine glass vase fouud at Warburton, near Arundel, containing burnt bones, with a coin of Vespasian. We hear with satisfaction that Mr. Figg and Mr. ^Mark Antony Lower are engaged in collecting all vestiges relative to Roman occupation of this part of Britain, and we hope that all such particulars will be duly detailed, and representa- tions given of these antique remains, for which a suitable place of perma- nent deposit will at length, we trust, be found, through the well-directed energies of Sussex archaeologists, in the venerable castle of Lewes. The valuable assemblage of organic remains, described in the work thus