ARCHEOLOGY. (SCANDINAVIANROMAN.) 



29 



in the ordinary way of commercial exchange from 

 a considerable distance. 



Scandinavian. A book on the Kitchen Mid- 

 dings of the Stone Age in Denmark, published 

 in Copenhagen, contains the contributions of 

 seven scholars who have been making studies of 

 these deposits during the past eight years, inves- 

 tigating the subject from the points of view of 

 botany, geology, zoology, as well as of arche- 

 ology. In these papers the theory is confirmed 

 that the middens are representative of the stone 

 age in all its periods but the latest. They are 

 all near the water-line, and consist chiefly of 

 oyster shells cast there after eating, with remnants 

 of other articles of food. Remains of the dog 

 are found there as the only domestic animal of 

 the people to whom they appertained. Two of 

 them contained human skeletons, sometimes in 

 rude stone coffins. Great numbers of articles in 

 stone and clay taken from them have been de- 



An inscription found during the excavations at 

 the Forum in 1900 seemed to identify the ruins 

 under the Church of Santa Maria Liberatrice as 

 those of Santa Maria Antiqua. When the former 

 church was torn down, the ruins of another were 

 found a little behind it, in such a position that 

 while Santa Maria Liberatrice stood outside the 

 Palatine, the newly excavated church, that of 

 Santa Maria Antiqua, is inside it, with its en- 

 trances facing the Forum. " As we go through 

 the grand portal to read the new inscription," 

 says Mr. William J. D. Croke in the Catholic 

 Standard and Times, " we observe Christian and 

 pagan coffins the latter will have been adapted 

 to Christian burial bones and skulls, broken 

 earthenware of all kinds, a profusion of marble 

 of varied sorts and colors, broken capitals and 

 painted pillars, all on the ground. Still standing 

 are high and noble walls, decorated all over with 

 Christian paintings; the perfect form of a Chris- 



TERRA. GOTTA VASES FOR HOLDING GRAIN, EXHUMED AT VILLA FASANELLA. 



posited in the museum. Remains of cooking 

 places have been found, but none of dwellings. 

 Remains of several extinct animals and birds were 

 among the contents of the middens. The papers 

 contain full information concerning the species 

 of trees that nourished during the period of the 

 middens, based on examination of the charcoal. 



Roman. At Bosco Reale, at the foot of Mount 

 Vesuvius, private excavations are conducted by 

 the Deputy di Frisco, owner of the Villa Fasa- 

 nella, under his own villa and upon an adjoining 

 property. A Roman villa has been discovered, 

 which is adorned with " beautiful and very inter- 

 esting " frescoes, in a state of preservation de- 

 scribed as " superb," and of a style of picture 

 which has not been found before in a Pompeian 

 house. The drawings are of houses of several 

 stories, and views which, barring defects in per- 

 spective, were the work of good artists. 



tian basilica, the remains of the sanctuary, the 

 apse entire, the very altar steps, the most sacred 

 symbols in the apse. Had the history of early 

 medieval Christian painting been unknown, it 

 could have been made up by an inspection of this 

 Christian Pompeii." Among the paintings are 

 many of the Virgin, and a Crucifixion is espe- 

 cially spoken of. On a slab of eight sides in the 

 ambo or sacred enclosure are two inscriptions, 

 one of which reads, " Johannes servus scce Marice," 

 which is translated, " John, the Servant of our 

 Lady," while the translation given of the other 

 is " The Gift of John, the Servant of the Mother 

 of God." The Greek crosses preceding the in- 

 scriptions and their general style are paralleled 

 in the inscriptions of Pope John VIII in the crypt 

 of St. Peter's. The Liber Pontificalis relates that 

 this Pope John (A. D. 705-707) decorated the 

 basilica of the Mother of God with paintings. 



