NOTES ON A COLLECTION OF ROMAN ANTIQUITIES. 249 



and unquestionably in Roman times such a natural source of 

 water was a necessity to the occupiers of this little tract of 

 country. Around this well, then, was a small settlement, and 

 within a few hundred yards of it nearly all the objects pre- 

 sently to be described were found.* Near the Hall, on the 

 Humber bank, I have unearthed human skeletons at a depth 

 of about five feet, and a skeleton from the same place was 

 found by Mr. Havercroft which had a number of beads 

 around its neck. These would appear to indicate a 

 cemetery. Nearer the well "Coin Tommy," on more than 

 one occasion, found cinerary urns of Roman date, in which 

 cremated human remains were still preserved ; and one of 

 these, he thought, contained nothing but bones of fingers 

 and toes. I have also secured portions of cinerary urns, 

 some containing bones. Several objects were obtained many 

 years ago whilst digging a gravel pit to the east of the spring, 

 amongst them being a number of swords, a small lead coffin, 

 etc. ; but these appear to have been lost. 



At the present time remains of two wells, lined with 

 squared stones, exist ; one is now some distance from the 

 cliffs, and the other is at low water mark and cannot be 

 reached. From these facts it would appear that on this site 

 was not only a small settlement of Romans, but they must 

 have existed there for some length of time, judging from the 

 artificial wells, from the enormous quantity of pottery, &c. , 

 which has occurred, and from the fact that their dead were 

 both inhumed and cremated, and buried in the vicinity. 

 Some fourteen or fifteen years ago an interesting section of 

 the cliff showed a fireplace still in position at a depth of four 

 or five feet. This was built of flat angular pieces of Oolite 

 (not the local chalk), and amongst them was the half of a 

 Roman millstone, or quern, of sandstone. The stones were 



* The occurrence of the extraordinary collection of fibulae, ring's, 

 beads, and coins near this spring' (and especially the coins, which 

 number some thousands) is very suggestive of many of the objects 

 having been thrown into a well as votive offerings — as was the case 

 elsewhere in Roman times. In this way the unusual accumulation of 

 relics at Ferriby may be accounted for. A similar instance is on record 

 in the well-known well of the Goddess Coventina at Carrawburgh, near 

 Chesters, on the Roman wall. In this well were over 13,000 coins 

 (ranging from B.C. 31 to A. D. 383), altars, fragments of Samian ware, 

 bones of animals, earthenware vases, brooches, rings, beads, dice, and 

 other objects. See " Description of Roman Remains discovered near to 

 Procolitia, a Station on the Wall of Hadrian," by John Clayton, 

 " Archaeologia ^Eliana," 1876, vol. viii., p. 1 ; also "An Account of the 

 Roman Antiquities preserved in the Museum at Chesters, Northumber- 

 land," 1903, pp. 145-173. 



