Page:Archaeological Journal, Volume 8.djvu/68

40 or usual store vessel, such small quantity of precious ointment, or frankincense, as might be required. (See cuts, orig. size.)

The mirror is formed of a circular plate of silver, decorated on one side with concentric incised circles, and a leaf-like border surrounds the edge, which, having been only soldered on, has in a great degree been detached and lost. The mirror was found upon the saucepan, and has been supposed to be its cover. It may have been so, but it appears to be much too large for that purpose; it has all the usual form of Roman mirrors, and seems to have had some alloy mixed with the silver to adapt it for taking a polish. This has perhaps rendered it brittle, and it has been broken into several pieces; it has been repaired, not in a very graceful manner, by attaching to one side of it an ill-formed piece of silver.

One object only remains to be noticed, of little value in itself, but important as fixing the date of the objects with which it was found; it is one of the 280 denarii. It is of Antoninus Pius, struck in his second consulate, corresponding to the year 139 of our æra; and, as this was the latest coin discovered, it may reasonably be concluded that these articles were all deposited in his reign, which terminated in 161, twenty-two years after the date of the latest discovered coin, or at least before the coins of his successor could have come into general circulation in this country.

Of the Deæ Matres, with whose religious rites and ceremonies these objects appear to be connected, nothing is to be learned from ancient authors; it is only from still-existing monuments, becoming the subject of investigation by archaeo-