MONTE-CHALENCON. 147 



M. Traullc, an antiquarian of Abbeville, who died in 

 1828, stated that he had seen a large number of males 

 shoes extracted from the battle-field of Saucourt, where 

 Louis III. defeated the Normans in 881 or 882/ 



M. J. Long, author of a memoir on the Roman an- 

 tiquities of Vocontia, which appeared in the transactions of 

 the Academie des Inscriptions et Belles Lettres, states : — 

 ' I possess a horse-shoe slightly different from that now in 

 use, and in perfect preservation. It was found in the 

 neighbourhood of Monte-Chalenc^on, among cinders, 

 with lachrymatories and burnt bones. Its preservation 

 ought to be attributed to the cinders and animal charcoal. 

 The branches of this shoe are very narrow ; the stamping 

 of the nail- holes has produced bulgings. These stamp- 

 ings are elongated apertures ; those of modern shoes are 

 square. The ancient shoe has no ajustwe, or concave 

 form, which facilitates support. The freshness of the 

 stampings and the state of the toe, leads to the presump- 

 tion that it has been little worn. It therefore appears 

 that, contrary to the opinion of several authors, horse- 

 shoeing was known to the ancients.' The remains ac- 

 companying this article were pronounced to be Gallo- 

 Roman. 



At Premeaux, arrondissement of Nuits, a quantity of 

 horse-shoes were exhumed in the vicinity of a road of 

 Rom^an construction by the pickaxe of a labourer. Many 

 of them were found buried beneath the strata of the road. 

 ' This circumstance is worthy of notice, because it has 

 been asserted that the ancients were not in the habit of 

 shoeing their horses. Found in such a bed, these shoes 



' Le Tom beau de Cliilderic. 

 10 * 



