404 Notes on Objects of Late Celtic Character found in Wiltshire. 



On the other hand, it should be remembered, that out of a total 

 of about one hundred and fifteen bow fibulae illustrated in General 

 Pitt-Eivers' Excavations as found in the Eomano-British villages, 

 and associated with objects of the Eoman period round Eushmore, 

 on the borders of Wilts and Dorset, ten are of this type, which 

 goes to prove that they continued to be used well on into Eoman 

 times. 



Fig. 22. Found on Beckhampton Down and presented to the 

 Devizes Museum by Mr. W. Brown, is an example of a later type 

 of fibula, perhaps of the second century A.D., which though 

 certainly of the Eoman period yet shows in the swelling "lip 

 ornament " at the head, and on the centre of the bow, distinct 

 signs of British or Celtic rather than of Eoman feeling. . 



The remarkable fibula illustrated in Fig. 23 is of an entirely 

 different class. It seems undoubtedly to belong to the type of 

 which the splendid example found at QEsica, and illustrated by 

 Dr. Arthur Evans in Archa:ologia , Iv., 179, is the finest known 

 example. Dr. Evans regards these fibulie as probably dating from 

 the end of the second century A.D. The body of the fibula is 

 formed of a flat triangular plate broadening out at the foot to the 

 under side of which the large catch plate is fastened, whilst from 

 the head a second plate curves over and is rivetted to the centre 

 of the first, both plates being originally covered with a thin plate 

 of tin or some other white metal, which still has the remains of 

 repousse ornament, apparently of Late Celtic type ; the spring, 

 originally of eight coils, works on an axis the ends of which are 

 fixed in slots in the side pieces turned down from the head ; the 

 loop passing over and being secured to the head of the fibula by a 

 strong hook. The pin is lost. Length Ifin. ; width at foot, }gin. 

 It was found at Winterbourne Bassett, in North Wilts, in 1866, 

 probably by flint diggers on the down, and was presented to the 

 Devizes Museum by the then Eector, the Eev. H. Harris. It was 

 then believed to be of Anglo-Saxon date, and is so noted in Wilts 

 Arch. Mag., x., 114. A bronze fibula plated with tin similar to 

 this example in form but smaller, from Water Eaton, Oxfordshire, 

 is in the British Museum. 



