Page:VCH Hertfordshire 1.djvu/290

 A HISTORY OF HERTFORDSHIRE It is possible that Berkhamsted Castle l stands upon the site of an earlier camp, as British and Roman coins have been found there. The mound or keep, like those at Bishop Stortford, Pirton and Hertford, is probably Saxon. The oval camp known as ' Aubury,' or ' The Aubreys,' * near Red- bourn, may be assigned to a pre-Roman date. A few barrows of pre-Roman date have been opened, one of which, at Therfield, has already been mentioned as having contained some bars of copper. One near Hitchin, 3 to the south of the Icknield Way, proved to contain burnt bones, a small blade of copper, and an urn of coarse clay. In a barrow near Royston * a so-called incense vessel was found, but in one opened at Easneye 6 near Ware, in 1899, burnt bones and charred wood were all that rewarded our researches. There are several earthworks and camps of Roman origin in the county as well as some of Saxon date, like ' the Bank ' at Cheshunt, but these do not belong to this section of the County History. References to them will however be found in the ' Archaeological Survey of Herts,' printed in the 53rd volume of the Archteologia? DESCRIPTION OF THE PLATES OF COINS PLATB I GOLD COINS No. I. Obv. Cruciform ornament formed of wreaths, with crescents and ring ornaments in the centre and V-shaped and open crescents in the angles. Rev. TASCIOVAN. Horse galloping to the right ; above, a ring ornament sur- rounded by pellets ; below the horse, and above its head, a ring ornament ; pellets before and behind. J 85 grains. Found at High Wycombe. A. B.C.? pi. v. No. 7. No. 2. Obv. Nearly similar ornament, but the wreaths less curved and pellets in the field. Rev. [TJASCIAV. Horse to the right ; above, a bull's head between two pellets ; below, a curved object and a ring ornament ; over the horse's head a rosette of pellets ; behind, two pellets. A/' 85 grains. Found at High Wycombe. Another found near Chelmsford. A. B.C., pi. v. No. 8. No. 3. Obv. Similar to No. i, but with annulets and pellets in the field, and one of the wreaths curved in the opposite direction. Rev. TAXCI. Horse to the right, with much the same adjuncts as No. 2. PJ 82^5- grains. Found at Dorchester, Oxon. Another found at Shorne, near Gravesend. Others at St. Albans, Maldon (Essex), and Leicester. A. B.C., pi. v. No. 9. 1 Arch. Jaunt., JDOC. p. 407 ; St. Albans A. and A. S. Trans., 1890-91, p. 17. 4 Arch. Journ., v. p. 235. 6 Proc. Soc. Ant. 6 1892, p. 245. 7 A.B.C. indicates The Coins of the Ancient Britons, already often cited. 244
 * St. Albans A. and A. S. Trans., 1887, p. 66. 3 Cussans, iii. p. 13.