188 KIMMERIDGE COAL-MONEY. 



extant before the Roman period. The barrows, which are deci. 

 dedly British, yield nothing manufactured from the Kimmeridge 

 shale, although unworked pieces often occur for reasons to 

 be accounted for a little further on ; there is no doubt that the 

 coal-money is merely the refuse or core from the lathe. Sir 

 John Evans thinks they must have been worked with metal tools ; 

 as a mass of them have been found conglomerated together by the 

 presence of irony matter. The numerous chippings of flint which 

 are often found with the shale were probably used for roughing it 

 out in preparation for the lathe. In some places the discs are 

 scattered about promiscuously in all directions, as if they 

 were of no value, while in others they appear to have been 

 hoarded up with much care in large or small quantities. They 

 are often associated with interments, leading me to think that 

 their inflammable properties invested them with a fetish character 

 upon the minds of the relatives of the deceased Eriton. Flints, 

 too, are frequently met with in interments decidedly British, 

 which being spark-producers, had also a superstitious value in 

 the estimation of the Briton. The abundance of coal-money 

 at the Corfe Castle kiln, as compared with that found in 

 other Romano-British settlements, extending far into Wiltshire, 

 leads to the supposition that there was a manufactory in the neigh- 

 bourhood in connection with an industry in which Kimmeridge 

 shale was an ingredient, this was probably in the valley of 

 Kimmeridge, which exclusively consists of this material. We 

 have seen how coal-money lies about indiscriminately under the 

 surface and in graves ; they are often heaped together in 

 considerable quantities depots perhaps for future use. Their 

 regular and neat forms, so favourable for transport, gave 

 them perhaps an attractiveness to the superstitious Romano-Briton, 

 in preference to the rough unworked slabs of shale which their 

 ancestors made use of in their funeral rites. From the earliest 

 times fire has been an element of superstitious veneration. 

 It was an important factor in the ancient religion of the 

 Accadians, which retained its hold so strongly upon their con- 



