WINTERBORNE KINGSTON ROMAN WELL. 3 



including two fibulae, a large pin, and other fragments. I was able 

 to recover only six coins, whose dates extended over a wide range 

 from A.D. 82 to A.D. 330, including the reigns of Domitian Nerva, 

 Faustina wife of Antoninus Pius, Victorinus, and Constantine. 

 Bones of domestic animals occurred at all depths ox, sheep, pig, 

 dog. 



There were no land-shells; the only mollusc was the edible 

 oyster, the valves of which were plentifully distributed, sure 

 indications of the Roman period, as they are not met with in pre- 

 Roman times. There were several pieces of unworked Kimmeridge- 

 shale, but no ornaments or vessels of that material as are so 

 often found in deposits of this period. General Pitt-Rivers found 

 several at Woodcuts and Rotherley, including the curious circular 

 pieces known as coal-money, doubtless of Roman manufacture, 

 and probably the cast-off discs or cores of lathe-made rings. 

 The presence of Kimmeridge-shale in a locality so far distant from 

 its derivation-beds might be attributed to the superstitious value 

 in which it was held by the British (not the Romans) on account 

 of the inflammable properties of the material ; whom, it is known, 

 held fire in much veneration, and was an important factor in the 

 direction of human affairs. 



The site of the well is 13 miles from the sea. It is within a few 

 hundred yards of the Via Iceniana, also of an extensive series of 

 earthworks on Kingston Down, which have long attracted the 

 notice of archaeologists from Stukeley's to the present time. It has 

 been supposed by some to have been a station between Vindogladia 

 and Dorchester, which had dropped out of Antonine's Itinerary of 

 the Via Iceniana, and was the subject of an animated discussion 

 when Dr. Smart's paper upon " Badbury Rings " was read last 

 year. It is possible the archaeological section of our club may one 

 of these days organise an examination of these prehistoric remains, 

 which I believe will be found to occupy a considerable area and 

 yield an harvest equally rich as Woodcuts, Rotherly, and Bokerly 

 Dyke have yielded, under the indefatigable energy and liberality 

 of General Pitt-Rivers, by whom the history of the latter especially 



