On the Prick Spur 23 



Stour, which shows unmistakable evidence of having been 

 altered and occupied by the Romans. Distinct traces remain of 

 a smaller quadrilateral Roman camp within the more extensive 

 British camp. The spurs, which are made of bronze, were 

 found together with spear and javelin heads, fibulae, and coins 

 undoubtedly Roman. The coins are of the reign of Augustus, 

 Agrippa, Germanicus, Nero, and Caligula. The sides of these 

 spurs are longer than the sides usually were up to this period, 

 being three and a half inches long, with a spread of three inches. 

 They are about one-eighth of an inch thick and rather more 

 than a quarter of an inch wide for the greater part of their 

 length, and at the heel about half an inch wide. The sides 

 are of oval section and the ends are beaten out, with an 

 elongated rectangular perforation. There is no neck, and a short 

 rounded spike five-eighths of an inch in length projects from 

 the heel-plate. In one of them the spike is absent, and only 

 the hole remains. The length of the sides of these spurs and 

 the form of termination are so like those of the Norman period, 

 that, had they not been found together with objects so 

 undoubtedly Roman, they might well have been thought to 

 have been of the eleventh century. The spike, however, is 

 unlike the later period, and is typically Roman. These spurs 

 are illustrated on Plate 6. 



This form of primitive spur, with a short straight spike 

 never exceeding an inch in length, and generally much less 

 than that, continued in use, no doubt, for a long period — 

 several hundred years, perhaps — and then, gradually, as the 

 skill of artificers in metal improved, elaborations began, and 



