SmSS RELICS. 



i6g 



which were classed as belonging to the Helveto- Roman 

 age.' 



The Museum of Avenches exhibits many shoes ob- 

 tained from the Roman ruins of Avencium, the ancient 

 capital of Helvetia. They have all, with one exception, 

 six nail-holes ; the largest has eight," In the excavations 

 made at Grange, near Cossonay (Canton Vaud), relics of 

 the same kind have been picked up. The figure of one 

 designed by M. Bieler, gives its size as barely 4 inches 

 in length and 3 inches in breadth (fig. 27). It has low 

 calkins, and a slight groove 

 runs from heel to heel. Al- 

 together, it looks a much more 

 recent shoe than any of those 

 usually ascribed to the Celtic 

 or Gallo-Roman age ; though 

 M. Bieler is of opinion that it 

 belongs to the third century. 

 A specimen in the Berne Mu- 

 seum, and which was dug out 

 of a tumulus at Garchwyl, near 

 Berne, does not differ much in appearance from the last. 

 It was found with a very fine specimen of a vase and 

 other articles, but their age is uncertain. The tumulus 

 was supposed to be very old — anterior, it was surmised, 

 to our era, and at any rate not dating any later than the 

 third or fourth century.^ In appearance it is more 

 modern, and is chiefly remarkable for having the groove 



' Recueil d'Antiq. Suisses. 



.' Bieler. Journal de M^d. Vet. de Lyon, vol. xiii. p. 246. 

 ^ Ibid. 



