VOL. LXXXVI.] PHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS. SQ 



This solder, which was readily melted out by a red-hot iron, was ascertained to 

 be merely tin ; for it afforded rapidly oxyde of tin by applying nitric acid : the cold 

 saturated solution in muriatic acid afforded Cassius' precipitate on dropping into it 

 nitro-muriate of gold ; and it afforded no acetite of lead on digesting it in acetous 

 acid. The black coating was easily scraped off with a knife, but the quantity of it 

 was too small to enable me to determine whether it had been applied by art, or was 

 the accidental effect of the mud or earth in which it had been buried for many ages. 

 The ancients, as Pliny informs us, stained plates of one sort of copper, the aes corona- 

 rium, with ox-gall to make it look like gold ; and the crowns and chaplets of public 

 actors were made of copper so coloured *. It perhaps will not appear very impro- 

 bable that the coating of the lituus was with this substance. 



2. Fig. 2, represents a spear-head. In Sir Jos. Banks's collection there is a 

 British spear-head of bone, a Norman one of iron, and a third, the article before 

 us, of copper, which is believed with the greatest reason to be Roman workman- 

 ship-j~. This Roman spear-head is worthy of admiration and imitation, on account 

 of its figure, weight, and size, as an offensive weapon. It is however made of 

 cast metal, as appears from its rough surface, figure, texture, and grain. That it 

 is made of bad metal will be made appear hereafter. It has not been hammered, 

 but has been cast hollow to receive a wooden shaft, and in order to be light and 

 save the expence of metal. It is evident from its figure, that it is of the very best 

 conceivable form for piercing, and for inflicting the largest wound at the least ex- 

 pence of weight and bulk. 



3. The sauce-pan is represented in fig. 3. From its form and the grain of its 

 fracture, and its being one entire piece, it appears to have been made of cast metal. 

 It is considered to be a piece of Roman workmanship. It is neatly and curiously 

 grooved at the bottom, to admit the fire to penetrate to the contents more easily. 

 On the handle is impressed, seemingly with a stamp, c. arat; which letters may 

 possibly signify Caius Aratus, as the latter part of the stamp seems not to have 

 made an impression. It appeared to have been tinned, but almost all the coating 

 had been worn off. As it was said that it had been used by some boatmen, for 

 some time after it had been found, it might have been tinned after it got into their 

 possession. The art of tinning copper however was understood and practised by 

 the Romans;}:, though it is commonly supposed to be a modern invention; so that 

 it is not very improbable that this utensil was originally covered with tin by that 

 people. 



4. Fig. 4 represents the scabbard with a sword of iron within it, supposed to be 

 either Danish or Saxon, being found in the Witham near the scite of Bardney 



* " Coronarium tenuatur in laminas, taurorumque felle rinctum, speciem auri in coronis histrionum 

 praebet." Pliny, lib. 34, cap. 8. — ■+ An instrument is described and represented by a figure in the 

 Archaeologia, vol. 9, fig. c, exactly like this spear-head, and it is deemed to be Roman. — J '* Stan- 

 num illitum aeneis vasis, saporem gratiorem facit, et compescR seruginis virus." Pliny, lib. xxxiv. 

 cap. xyii.— Orig. 



