A HISTORY OF LEICESTERSHIRE 



certainly suggestive of the late Celtic pottery of the Aylesford and 

 Essex type. 



There are one or two vessels in Leicester Museum of rather coarse 

 manufacture, which may also be of this period. 



MISCELLANEOUS ANTIQUITIES 



A few miscellaneous antiquities remain to be described. 



A cist burial, probably of the prehistoric age, was discovered at Stonton 

 Wyville 19 in the year 1869. The grave consisted of slabs of stone set 

 up in the form of a stone cist, and contained the skeleton of an adult 

 person, with the leg-bones gathered up, lying on the side, whilst some 

 charcoal and ashes were found near it. The size of the cist was 3 ft. 6 in. 

 in length, and i ft. 10 in. in greatest width ; at the east end it narrowed to 

 a width of about i ft., whilst the west end terminated in the form of the 

 bow of a boat. Three slabs of ironstone, ingeniously put together, inclosed 

 the north side of the grave ; another slab of stone was placed across the 

 eastern end, and the south part was built up of small stones, making a kind 

 of rubble wall. 



The cist was found at a depth of 6 ft. below the surface of the church- 

 yard, and on the spot where the south aisle of the Norman church formerly 

 stood a situation which suggests the possibility of the burial being of 

 Norman or mediaeval date. The circumstances of the burial, however, the 

 crouched-up position of the skeleton, the associated ashes and charcoal, and 

 the method in which the cist was constructed, all point with conclusive 

 unanimity to a prehistoric origin. 



ANCIENT BRITISH COINS 



Of the few ancient British coins found in Leicestershire one or two are 

 of considerable interest. 



An uninscribed gold coin found at Hallaton belongs to a type which is 

 particularly worthy of note from the fact that it proves the derivation of the 

 cruciform ornament which occurs on the coins of Tasciovanus and Andro- 

 comius from the laureate busts of the early coins. Sir John Evans points out 

 that the obverse (consisting of cruciform ornament of two wreaths with two 

 open crescents back to back, and locks of hair in the angle spaces) resembles 

 the coins found at Wonersh ; whilst the reverse (comprising a fairly well- 

 shaped horse, a radiated pellet, perhaps the sun, and a wheel below the horse) 

 is more nearly connected with the Whaddon Chase coins of Buckingham- 

 shire. 



A coin found near Leicester, much like the type inscribed TAXCI, but 

 without other inscription, is probably one of the coins of Tasciovanus. Above 

 the usual figure of a horse is the representation of a bull's head, a curious and 

 significant coincidence, in view of the two representations of bulls' heads on 

 the mounts of late Celtic buckets in this county. It points, perhaps, to the 

 existence of some kind of cult of the bull in this district, and probably forms 



19 Trans. Lac. Arcbit. and Arch. Sue. iv, 7-10. 

 174 



