Page:Archaeological Journal, Volume 5.djvu/446

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ARCHAEOLOGICAL INTELLIGENCE.

328 ARCHAEOLOGICAL INTELLIGENCE. With the weapons, figured in Mr. Jesse's " Gleanings," an elegantly ornamented object of bronze is given, with a spike which may have been intended to support a standard or Roman eagle. The form is shewn by the annexed woodcut. It measures about thirteen inches in length. The facts, for which our thanks are due to Dr. Roots, must be regarded with consider- able interest, whatever view may be taken of the vexata qumstio of Caesar's campaign. We have been favoured by Mr. Gerard Moultrie with notices and repre- sentations of Roman remains found near Rugby. In reference to the sin- gular discovery in the tumulus at Ryton, as related in a previous page of this Journal", Mr. Moultrie states that Mr. Bloxam, who was unavoidably absent when the excavation was made, had examined the iron concretion, in appearance resembling a mass of decayed shields, and had found much difficulty in determining its nature : " It is his opinion now, however, that it is not iron, but merely sand-stone strongly impregnated with oxide of that metal : it is very remarkable that it should actually ring like metal, as well as bear all the outward appearance of it ; and at any rate the discovery of so large and flat a mass in a mound containing no other stone of the size of a cricket-ball, seems well deserving of notice." The Roman antiquities, communicated by Mr. Moultrie, consist of paterte, cups and urns of Samian, black and other wares of the Roman period, with a good example of the fine blue ware, embossed with figures of four animals, probably dogs and wolves, resembling the curious pot- tery described and figured by Mr. Artis, in his Account of Castor and its fictile INIanufactures. It is of similar workmanship and general fashion as the remarkable vase found at Bedfoixl Purlieus, and represented in Mr. Hartshorne's Memoir on Roman remains in Northamptonshire, printed in the Archa?ologia°. These discoveries were made recently near the site of the Roman station at Princethorp, on the Foss Way, and on the north bank of the Leam, of which an interesting account is given in Mr. Roach Smith's " Collectanea Antiqua," as a post mentioned by Richard of Ciren- cester. The vase, above mentioned, with figures in relief, was found with other vessels, and a few relics of bronze and iron, near Cave's Inn, the re- puted biith-place of Urban Cave, about half a mile higher up the road. They were brought to Mght in digging gravel, and a human skeleton was disinterred, with great quantities of fragments of " Samian," of mortaria impressed with the potters' stamps, necks of amphoraj, bones, and coins of Nerva, Trajan, Antoninus Pius, Alexander Severus, Commodus, and Con- " ArchcCologicalJournal.vol. V. p. 217. height. The example found by Mr. Moul- ° Areha'ologia, vol. xxxii.pl. 111. This trie is about one-third of that dimension, singular vase measures about 15 inches in the design equally spirited in character.