Jan., 191 2. Antiquities from Boscoreale. 209 



MILL. 31699, 1, 2. [Plate CLXIL] 



Found in Villa I, in the excavations of 1898. 1 



It is well preserved, except that such portions as were of wood or 

 iron are missing. There was also a basis of masonry, which is not now 

 with the mill. The stone is a gray lava. 



As at present installed, the mill consists of three pieces, two of 

 which are of stone, the third of lead, but it is necessary to supply 

 in imagination the missing parts, in order that the manner of operation 

 may be intelligible. The lower stone, called from its resemblance 

 to the conical tops of the goals in the race-course, the meta, was sunk 

 to the height indicated by the discoloration, in the solid basis above 

 mentioned. The top has the form of a cone truncated near the apex. 

 Here there is a vertical hole with rectangular sides, in which an up- 

 right post was formerly inserted. About the edges of the opening, 

 on top of the meta, there is lead, which was run for the purpose of 

 holding the post in position. The upper stone, somewhat like an hour- 

 glass in shape, is hollowed out within in a manner corresponding to 

 its exterior form. The interior of the lower half forms the upper 

 grinding surface, the upper part served as a hopper — whence the name 

 catillus, applied to the entire stone. On the outside, where the diam- 

 eter is smallest, there are, on opposite sides, rectangular projections 

 or shoulders, with a rectangular hole in the face, and a round hole 

 extending horizontally through both sides. The former hole received 

 the stout wooden bars, by means of which the stone was turned, 

 while the round hole held the pin, which passed through and fastened 

 the end of the bar. A raised band about the center suggests that 

 the two parts of the catillus may at some time have been separate pieces. 



As the heavy upper stone would have been turned with difficulty, 

 had it rested directly on the meta, the operation was effected by means 

 of a frame, which held it suspended from a vertical pin fastened into 

 the top of the upright post above mentioned. In a relief in the Vati- 

 can 2 this frame is represented as consisting of a thick rectangular 

 wooden bar, extending across the top of the catillus, and attached to 

 the handles by means of curved pieces of similar material and size 

 extending down the sides. 3 In the mill in Field Museum, however, 

 the cross-bar at the top and the side-pieces would seem to have been 

 made of iron, probably a single piece, as the sockets in the edges above 

 the shoulders are too small to hold a wooden frame of sufficient strength. 



1 Notizie degli Scavi, 1899, p. 16. 



* Cited by Bluemner, Tech. u. Term. I, p. 44 and Mau-Kelsey, Pompeii (2d ed.). p. 390. fig. 222. 



' Cf. restored section, Mau-Kelsey, op. cit. p. 389, fig. 221. 



