Page:Prehistoric Times.djvu/34

20 very considerable; indeed, for France and Switzerland alone they amount to between 30,000 and 40,000, and the number is continually increasing.

The value of this evidence will be better appreciated after reading the following extract from Mr Wright's Essays on Archæology:

"All the sites of ruined Roman towns with which I am acquainted present to the excavator a numerous collection of objects, ranging through a period which ends abruptly with what we call the close of the Roman period, and attended with circumstances which cannot leave any doubt that this was the period of destruction. Otherwise, surely we should find some objects which would remind us of the subsequent periods. I will only mention one class of articles which are generally found in considerable numbers, the coins. We invariably find these presenting a more or less complete series of Roman coins, ending at latest with the emperors who reigned in the first half of the fifth century. This is not the case with Roman towns which have continued to exist after that period, for then, on the contrary, we find relics which speak of the subsequent inhabitants, early Saxon and Mediæval. I will only, for want of space, give one example, that of Richborough, in Kent. The town of Rutupiæ seems to have capitulated with the Saxon invaders, and to have continued until its inhabitants, in consequence of the retreat of the sea, gradually abandoned it to establish themselves at Sandwich. Now the coins found at Richborough do not end with those of the Roman emperors, but we find, first, a great quantity of those singular little coins which are generally known by the name minimi, and which, presenting very bad imitations of the Roman coinage, are considered as belonging to the age immediately following the Roman period, and preceding that of the Saxon coinage."

We may assume, then, on the authority of Mr Wright himself, that if all the bronze arms which are so abundant