1 58 



such as the Vadstrna bracteate existed in Greece and Etruria. 1 

 The earliest graves in the Roman colonies in which there 

 is writing an- very few; what writing there is is never in the 

 language of the people, but always in Latin : and nearly all, if 

 i mi all such graves, are those of Christian people. 



The art of writing shows the advanced civilisation of the 



Fig. 2<S."). A fibula of silver, partly gilt, with same runic letters, with slight 

 variations. Real size. Charnay, Burgundy, France (of Norse origin). 



people of the North compared with that of the other 



1 Dennis, p. 306. See Signer Gamur- 

 rini, who lias described and illustrated 

 thi'in (see Ann. lust. 18VI, pp. 156-16U). 

 Kranzius, in his ' Elementa Epigraphices 

 Grace,' p. 'J'J, 4to, r.erolini, 1840, 

 gives three Greek alphabets found in- 

 scribed in the same manner on various 

 objects. No. 1, of twenty- four letters, is 



on the Agyllic vase first engraved by 

 Lepsius ('Annal. Hist. Archaeol. Rom.,' 

 vol. viii., p. 186). The second is a frag- 

 ment, only sixteen letters, found on the 

 wall of an Etruscan sepulchre (' Lanzi 

 Saggio di ling. Etr.,' ii., p. 436). The 

 third is incomplete, having only the be- 

 ginning, or thu first fourteen letters. 



