Page:VCH London 1.djvu/63

 ROMANO-BRITISH LONDON building of some kind, an unlikely place for burials if the buildings were standing and inhabited at the time. The Roman level was reached at 12 ft., and at the bottom of a deep trench a human skeleton was found lying east-and-west, accompanied by nails 2-7 in. long with flat heads and four-sided spikes (or shafts). These were with reason considered to have belonged to a wooden coffin, as at Strood, Kent. °^ Another east-and-west burial, with signs of boarding, was discovered in the north-west border of West Smithtield, near West Street (Plan A, 54)." The body had been placed on a number of branches cut into equal lengths and placed transversely ; and the Roman character of the interment was proved by the associated pottery. A small black urn of Upchurch ware had been placed at the crown, and a patera (dish), ampulla (bottle), mortarhim (mortar), &c., were near the left-hand side of the cist, but whether inside or outside is not stated. These vessels were said to be of the rudest quality and of extremely late date, an attri- bution supported to some extent by the recovery of a small coin of Gratian (375—83), which bore the labarum and Christian monogram ; but the association is not fully authenticated. The coffin found in Cock Lane (Plan A, 55) 12 ft. deep, containing a skeleton with bronze armlets on the wrists, was probably also of wood, but further details are wanting.'*' Adjoining the stone sarcophagus at Netting Hill (p. 16) were found the remains of three wooden coffins '^ also lying north-and-south, containing bones that crumbled on exposure to the air. As several pins of bone or ivory were also discovered (as in St. Paul's Churchyard) they may well be classed as Roman, with similar finds in the neighbourhood of stone coffins at Spital- fields (p. 15). In the same field as many undoubted Roman urn-burials were also ' human skulls and bones that seemed to have been interred in wooden coffins of which nothing remained but the large iron nails which had fastened them together.' '° Some indication of the date of such burials is affiDrded by a discovery made during 1873 in Moorlields, the exact spot not being recorded. The oak coffin of a child was found containing three small bracelets of jet, a finger ring of gold wire, and a coin of Salonina, wife of Gallienus (253—68).°°^ These relics passed into the hands of the Rev. S. M. Mayhew, and are now in the British Museum. Several other interments in the area under notice are recorded without any reference to a coffin, cist, or other protection, and though some might, with more careful excavation, have been classed among the foregoing, they may be considered here together as completing the series of Roman burials in London. The most useful discovery was made in 1864 during the excava- tion of a trench at the corner of Grove Street, Southwark. " Between two skeletons lay the remains of an earthenware jar (called an o/Az), containing small bronze coins of which Mr. Gunston secured no less than 554, and described them as ' rude imitations of the imperial money of the second half '' Coll. Atitiq. i, 18, 20 ; cremations also on this site. " Lond. and Midd. Arch. Soc. Trans, iii, 37. West Street was near the Ram and Rose inns, leading to Chick Lane. "' Arci. Rev. i, 276 ; Lond. and Midd. Arch. Soc. Trans, iii, 37. '° Lond. and Midd. Arch. Soc. Trans, iii, 209. "' Strype, Stow's Survey, ii, 99 ; Proc. Soc. Antiq. (Ser. i), ii, 121, the theory of a crucifixion discussed. "' Journ. Brit. Arch. Assoc, xxxi, 209. " Journ.' Brit. Arch. Assoc, xx, 339 : probably The Grove is meant, which is now part of Ewer Street (Plan A, 56). 23