Rcinano-BritisJi Iiitcriuents. l8l 



surrounded by four or five vases. In some instances a bronze 

 fibula was laid upon the bones. Another kind of sepulchre 

 hitherto not met with in Kent is the " Tile tomb." At 

 Litlington,* in Cambridgeshire, two vases with two cinerary 

 urns containing bones were found covered with a large roof 

 tile. At York f it appears to have been the custom to place 

 the tiles over the deposit in the form of a house roof, the ridge 

 being covered with ridge tiles. Stone sarcophagi are of rare 

 occurrence in this country ; examples have been discovered 

 at Keston,J York,§ and London. || Some of the latter are 

 inscribed, one as follows : — 



D. M. 



AVR. SVPERO. CENT. 



LEG. VI QVIVIXITANIS 



XXXVIII Mini DXIII AVRE 



LIA. CENSORINA CONIVNX 



MEMORIAM POSVIT. 



Diis Manibus. Aurelio Supero Centurioni Legionis Sex tex, 

 qui vixit annis xxxviii, Mensibus iiii, Diebus xii. Aurelia 

 Censorina Confunx Memoriam Posuit. To the Gods of the 

 Shades. To the memory of Aurelius Superus, Centurion of 

 the Sixth Legion, who lived thirty-eight years, four months, 

 thirteen days. Aurleia Censorina, his wife, set up this. 



Stone coffins usuall}' contain burials b}' inhumation, as do 

 the Roman leaden coffins. The latter are of much interest, 

 and generally highly ornamented ; the principal decoration 

 consists of various kinds of bead, fillet and cable moulding, 

 with medallions of Medusa, Pallas, and Minerva, disposed 

 between the bands of moulding the escallop shell was 

 also a favourite design. At Bexhill, Milton,^ we found the 

 head of Medusa in combination with lions. A mile to the 

 west of the town of Sittingbourne, and a few yards from 

 the Watling Street road a child's coffin was discovered, orna- 

 mented with cable moulding and oxen yokes. It contained 

 the bones of a very young child, together with two gold 

 armillffi, a gold finger ring, and a jet armilla outside the 

 coffin ; at the head and foot were two earthen vases and a 

 white clear glass cup. 



Mr. Roach Smith has published accounts of most of the 

 discoveries of leaden coffins found in this country, and in 



* Collectanea Antiqua, Vol. i, pi. xii. 

 t Eburacum, pi. xi. 



I Archgeologia, Vol. xxii, pi. xxxii. 

 § Eburacum, pi. xii. 



II Collectanea Antiqua, Vol. iii, pi. xiii. 

 IT Archseologia Cantiana, Vol. ix. 



