rUMULI OF ALESIA. 



12' 



twelve more), one of which was furnished with a short 

 iron sword (figure 7) and bronze scab- |\ 



bard, and which were probably the re- 

 mains of the chariot driver and the 

 warrior, the principal iron-work of an 

 ' essedum ' was found. This consisted 

 of eight cylindrical iron boxes with 

 their nails yet adhering, and which had 

 served as mountings to the ends of the 

 axletrees ; four iron hoops almost entire, 



one of which was found in a perpen- 

 dicular position in the ground. From 



the traces of wood yet remaining on 



their entire inner surface, there is reason 



to believe that they were fixed on the 



massive wooden wheel the ancients called 



a tympanum, from its resemblance to a 



drum-head. The imprints of wheels on 



the Celtic roads corresponded exactly 



with the appearance presented by the 



debris of the chariots exhumed from 



these tumuli. Taking the maximum of 



the diameter of the wheels, this was sup- 

 posed to be about 37 inches, minim. 31 



inches for the wide wooden ones ; the 



thickness of the felloes w^as from i to i^ inches. These 



remains of the car showed workmanship not coarse and 



heavy, as we might suppose, but fine, light, and very 



advanced. Most important, however, was the discovery, 



beside the relics of a horse, of two pieces of a bronze 



V^ 



is 



.-==>^ ¥ 



fig- 7 



