Il6 ON SOME DIGGINGS NEAR BRASSINGTON, DERBYSHIRE. 



found quite intact. A fine large oyster shell and the fragment 

 of another were associated with the above " finds," in such a 

 way as to preclude any doubt as to their contemporaneity. The 

 bones of domestic fowl were absent. 



The Age. — If the above-stated points of difference between 

 the Harborough and the British barrow-pottery is accepted as 

 indicating a difference of age, the village cannot, of course, be 

 regarded as contemporary with these barrows. An all-round 

 consideration of the facts of the case will, I think, convince that 

 the alternative that would make it earlier is untenable. All whom 

 the writer has consulted, including Mr. Franks of the British 

 Museum, Rev. Dr. Cox, Mr. Boyd Dawkins, and Rev. Canon 

 Greenwell, concur in regarding these finds as belonging to the 

 early part of the Iron Age, and as free from Roman influence — 

 that is, they make them to be of late pre- Roman date. There 

 are, however, several little circumstances that, when taken col- 

 lectively, have some weight in favour of a Roman date. The 

 oyster shells, for instance — the fact that ihey were associated 

 with refuse indicates that the shell was not so novel as to 

 be regarded as a treasure by these ancient folk ; we con- 

 clude, then, that this mollusc was a well-known article of 

 food. But surely the condition of Britain before the Roman 

 Occupation was never such as to allow of the transit of perish- 

 able articles of food so far inland from the sea, while it is 

 well-known that the oyster was a favourite of the Romans, and 

 that they imported it into all parts of the country. Then the 

 wheel-turned potsherd — in spite of the uncertainty of its position — 

 counts for something in favour of the later date ; and so also the 

 other fragment found near the house, and a Roman coin picked 

 up some years ago. Against this, however, may be urged the 

 absence of the characteristic Roman forms of ainphorce, ampulla, 

 and mortaria : and this objection is, at first sight, strengthened 

 by the results of the Romano- British excavations of General 

 Pitt Rivers, in which, excluding certain barrows of older 

 date, the potsherds were almost invariably of Roman type 

 and character. But, in the case of another Romano-British 



