676 



ON THE THKEE PERIODS KNOWN AS 



deposit of lime, probably the remains of quicklime which the 

 Eomans often put into their coffins, as may be seen to great advan- 

 tage in the museum at York. I did not observe this till the bones 

 were cleaned in the museum here; and I did not note whether 

 there was any hole in the bottom of the coffin, whereby an exit 

 would be possible for this lime as dissolved by carbonated water 

 passing down into the coffin. Some of the other bones were 

 blackened in places by carbonaceous deposit from the leaves and 

 other vegetable matters, such as, if my memory serves me, beech- 

 nuts, which had found their way into the coffin and decayed there, 

 and also from the decay of the soft parts of the body and the wrap- 

 lings of it. The nail found in the coffin may, indeed, appear to 

 indicate that some sort of coffin of wood was used, as well as the 

 coffin of stone ; there would have been plenty of room for one, as 

 the length of the Roman body was but five feet one inch, whilst 

 the internal length of the stone coffin was 5' 8^' ; but I think this 

 nail may have worked its way in from without, through the same 

 chinks which gave inlet to the other foreign bodies already men- 

 tioned. 



The left arm lay alongside the body, and the left hand rested 

 on the pelvis ; the right arm was stretched upwards with the hand 

 at the face ; the left leg was drawn up to the centre of the body, or 

 thereabouts. The distance from the end of the coffin to the pelvis 

 was 1! I \'\ leaving a space of about 4''' between the sole of the 

 foot and the end of the coffin. 



My thanks are eminently due to Professor A. H. Church and 

 to E. C. Sewell,^Esq., for their help before, after, and during this 

 disinterment. For the measurements and descriptions following, 

 I am more entirely responsible than for what has preceded. 



MEASUREMENTS AND DESCRIPTION OF SKELETON, 

 FROM STONE COFFIN IN OAKLEY PARK, 



On the Estate of the Eael Bathurst, August 27, 1877. 

 Measurements of Skull. 



