ROMANO-BRITISH LONDON containing two figures of Minerva and the lower a pair of scallop- shells. Most of the bones were found within, but no traces of the skull or any grave furniture. The Bexhill coffin-lid is divided into several compartments, some of which have a saltire like the three central panels on that just described ; but this Kentish example is more richly ornamented with four heads of Medusa, and five pairs of confronted lions, separated in each case by a vase containing a pair of torches, while the lion and Medusa's head are freely used on the ends. Mythological subjects are not likely to have been employed to decorate the coffin of a Christian, at least apart from any recognized symbol of the faith, nor is there any evidence at present for regarding the scallop-shell as such a symbol. It occurs again in Kent on coffins from Crayford and Chatham, and more than once at Colchester,^' while further west, in the district controlled by London, an example was found in 1902 at Enfield^* in association with cinerary canisters of lead resembling those from Fenchurch Street and Endell Street. Part of a leaden coffin from Syria in the Cinquantenaire Museum at Brussels has dividing lines of bead-and-reel moulding, and in the spaces an eight-rayed star (as on the Warwick Square canister, p. 10) and several small scallop-shells *° with dolphins and other emblems. But the pattern seems to be of rare occurrence beyond the borders of London, Essex, and Kent, and indicates a common origin for these coffins, or, at least, community of sentiment in this respect. In the middle ages the scallop-shell had a great vogue as the symbol of St. James of Compostella, but its use in Roman times was probably due to the fact that a shell of that kind was suitable for impressing the sand mould in which the lids were cast, producing, as it did, a symmetrical pattern in low relief, that could be repeated at will. It has been observed that in some cases the moulds have evidently been prepared in this way ; but, if the sketches which alone survive can be trusted, the natural shell was not always used, and a conventional form was produced by hand. A symbol of another kind appears on a leaden coffin found in 1844 at Bow,** the surface being quite plain except for an incised swastika or fylfot near the centre of the lid. The device was common and widely spread in the ancient world, and is held to represent the sun. It may have been added as an ornament in the present case, without any religious signification, but it is interesting to note that it occurs at the upper angles of a stone altar dedicated by a Spanish cohort**' at Bremenium (High Rochester, Northum- berland). Mithraism was especially the religion of the Roman army, and had a long struggle with Christianity. Traces of it in London are neither numerous nor certain, but a typical Mithraic sculpture set up by a soldier of the 2nd Legion on obtaining his discharge, is said to have been found on the bank of the Walbrook ; **" and a symbol found on the base of a leaden ossuary in Warwick Square may also belong to that religion.
- ' CoH. Antiq. iii, pi. xiv, figs. 3, 4. " Proc. Soe. Antiq. xix, 206, 208.
" These can hardly be recognized in the photograph given in Clermont-Ganneau's Album d'Antiquitis orientaks, pi. L. The date suggested on the label is 3rd century. Five actual shells of this kind were found inside a leaden coffin at Angers (Maine et Loire) in 1848 ; their French name is pikrines de Saint-Jacques : Cochet, Memoire sur les cercueih de plomb, 31.
- ' Arch, xxxi, 308 ; Joum. Brit. Arch. Assoc, ii, 300.
- '" Roach Smith, Coll. Antiq. iii, 165 (fig. 60).
" Arch. Ix, 46, pi. X, where the date is given as about 150 a.d. 21
