138 HORSE-SHOES AND HORSE-SHOEING. 



form of the nail-head in the Vingeanne specimens is that 

 always found with the Gaulish or Celtic shoe. 



The museum of Besanqon is v^ery rich in specimens of 

 Celtic horse-shoes, as well as those of the Gallo-Roman 

 and middle-age, according to M. Megnin. This may 

 be explained by the importance which always attached to 

 Besanqon ; at one time it ranked as the chief town of the 

 Celtic Mandubians {Man Diibis=.M.an of Doubs) ; under 

 the Romans it was the capital of Sequanian Gaul, Visonti- 

 uni ; later, it was the principal city of the kingdom of Bur- 

 gundy ; as Bisanz, it was a part of the German empire ; 

 then it became the metropolis of the Bisontine arch- 

 bishops, potent individuals in the middle ages ; and lastly, 

 it was the capital of Spanish Franche-Comte. 



Its sub-soil offers traces of the industry and the arts 

 of each of these epochs. More than a hundred pieces of 

 antique farriery figure in its museum. Twenty of these 

 are from the tumuli of Alesia ; others have been found at 

 variable depths in the sub-soil of the town in digging 

 sewers, or excavating foundations for houses, and often 

 side by side with mutilated marble statues, indicating that 

 they belong to the Gallo-Roman period. Other shoes, 

 apparently belonging to this epoch, have been met with 

 by M. Delacroix in the clayey soil of Beaune and Can- 

 dar ; and some have been found at Montbeliard and 

 Mandeure. At Besanc^on, but at a less considerable 

 depth, shoes of better workmanship are encountered, but 

 they are much heavier and clumsier than the Gallic and 

 Gallo-Roman shoes, and may be allotted to the middle 

 ages. 



M. Delacroix reports in 1863: 'Excavations are 



