FIG. 36. MORTARIUM INSCRIPTION, DEEP DALE. 

 (Mr. Salt's Collection.) 



A HISTORY OF DERBYSHIRE 



Victorinus, Claudius Gothicus. There are many bow-fibulas (fig. 35), 



and three remarkable shield-shaped fibulas with central bosses (fig. 34), 



parallels to which have occurred in Poole's Hole, on the Roman Wall, 



and at Woodeaton in Oxfordshire ;* an enamelled dragon-shaped fibula of 



late Celtic character, assignable perhaps to the second century of our era, 



several penannular 



specimens, and a bronze 



'chatelaine,' which 



also recurs at Poole's 



Hole. Further, there 



is much pottery, in 



particular embossed 



Samian,and the broken 



rim of a pehis or morfarium, inscribed with incised cursive lettering too 



fragmentary to be properly deciphered (fig. 36). There are also 



spindle-whorls of lead and pottery, needles of bone, small iron objects, 



bones of animals, a bit of red ochre used for rubbing something 



(p. 237), etc. 



Two fairly perfect interments were also noted in the midst of the 

 rubbish stratum which contained these remains. One, found near the 

 bottom of the valley in April, 1896, consisted of a full-length skeleton 

 with a bronze armlet of noticeable workmanship (fig. 33), a bronze 

 ring and pin, and fragments of a wheel-made urn containing burnt bones 

 all enclosed in a cist-like structure of limestone blocks without a cover.* 

 The other, found two years later, in the middle of the slope, was a cist of 

 which one side was formed by the hill (fig. 37), containing a skeleton 

 and an iron spear-head. Several other traces of burials were noted in 

 the rubbish. 3 It is difficult to date them, but they must be either Roman 



or prehistoric ; 

 they do not ap- 

 pear to be later 

 insertions. 



The age of the 

 Roman remains 

 is given roughly 

 by the coins, of 

 which the earli- 

 est is dated 

 A.D. 154, and 

 the latest repre- 

 sents an emperor 

 who reigned 

 A.D. 268-270. 



FIG. 37. BURIAL OUTSIDE THIRST HOUSE. Ine IlDUlaS 



1 P. 235, below ; Bruce, Roman Wall (ed. 3, 1867), p. 226 ; Ashm. Mus. Oxford. A similar 

 boss occurs on a slightly different disk-fibula from Hanham, near Bristol. 



* ReRquary, 1897, p. 196. Turner, Ancient Remains near Buxton, p. 58. 3 Turner, p. 63. 



234 



