Page:Archaeologia volume 38 part 1.djvu/221

found in Central Italy. 193 have been the manufacture of some of the earliest settlers, by whatever name they may have been known : a race, however, who may have retained their pristine habits in mountain districts, like the ancient Welsh, long after the occupation of the level country by a more civilized people. But the most important fact perhaps connected with the hut-urns of Albano and Vulci is the discovery of urns of the same or similar form in regions far beyond the Alps ; in various parts of Germany, for instance, and on the eastern side of the Baltic ; proofs of which have recently been afforded by the late Mr. Kemble, and in the work on Ancient Pottery of our esteemed Fellow Mr. Birch." This fact, to which may be added the discovery of an urn of similar form, though of different materials, in Lycia, by Sir Charles Fellows, appears to me to establish a strong presumption of kindred race between the several nations who manufactured them ; and seems to confirm the opinion entertained I believe by the sag'acious Niebuhr that the principal race of immigrants who invaded and long occupied central Italy were Pelasgians coming from Asia Minor and Thessaly, a portion of whom in their progress through central Germany may be presumed to have diverged towards the north, and to have settled down on the shores of ancient Scandinavia. I now come to the examination of Class 2, consisting of from twenty to thirty vases of different forms and sizes. Nearly the whole of thorn, together with several of the vases in the preceding class, are the property of my friend Mr. Belt. They were all found I believe within the boundaries of ancient Latium several of them at Ardea, and others in various parts of the Campagna. The clay of which they are composed is volcanic, and with some exceptions differs but little from that of Class 1. They evidently belong to a very early period, and probably represent the ordinary ware of the ancient Latin people. Several of them, however, were found just outside the Porta Maggiore, in company with vases of a reddish clay, and of a somewhat later form, which the present Commondatore Yisconti considered to be peculiarly characteristic of the earliest Roman ware, and one of these has the Etruscan initials A3 marked on the foot. Perhaps we shall not greatly err in assigning this portion of the vases to the kingly period at Rome. We heard of the discovery of about twenty or thirty more vases of the Latian period, but these passed into the hands of an American visitor before we could secure them. Their rudeness, however, finds but little general favour with modern antiquaries, and it is difficult to obtain any specimens among the principal dealers: but they may occasionally be picked up from the peasants. I have ventured to call them the Latian ware from the sites in which they are usually found. See Archseological Journal, vol. xiii. p. 273. Birch's Ancient Pottery and Porcelain, vol. ii. p. 391. VOL. XXXVIII. 2 C