TRANSACTIONS OF SECTION H. 653 
which of the three periods a given wall should be assigned. In all its stages its 
plan was that characteristic of the larger houses at Caerwent, z.e., it had rooms 
round all the four sides of the central courtyard. In this yard a well was dis- 
covered ; samples of the mud were taken from the bottom (21 feet 6 inches below 
grass level) and, as before, examined for plant remains and small animal re- 
mains by Mr. A. H. Lyell, the seeds being submitted to Mr. Clement Reid, and 
the bones, &c., to Mr. E. T. Newton. The only novelty among the former was 
the sorrel (Rumewx acetosa), the other species found haying already occurred at 
Caerwent. 
Another sample, taken from a pit at a depth of 19 feet below grass level, pro- 
duced a sample of the raspberry (Rubus Ideus), which is another species new to 
Caerwent. 
A very remarkable discovery was made in one of the rooms on the south side 
of this house. A large grey pot was found standing upright, sunk in a hole in the 
concrete floor of the room: it was covered by a mortarium, which had apparently 
been cemented on, and contained two smaller pear-shaped black pots and three red 
bowls, one with white painted decorations; also a pewter bowl with a foot, and 
fragments of another similar vessel, and an iron hook. In the larger of the two 
pear-shaped pots were some pieces of fabric; but though the earth found in the 
large pot was carefully examined, no clue could be obtained to the object of this 
strange deposit. 
Work was also done on the mound on the north side of the city, but, as it is 
to be continued in the present year, it will be better to defer a report upon it till 
then. 
The excavations of 1807 have led to the discovery of the Forum and Basilica 
of Caerwent. 
They occupy the more sunny of the two central insule, that on the north of 
the high road. On the edge of this are remains of what may have been a monu- 
mental gateway: this leads into the open area of the Forum, on the east side of 
which we have found traces of taberne. On the north side of this space is the 
Basilica ; the total extent of the building (including the rooms attached to it) is 
176 feet from east to west and 104 feet from north to south. 
The existence of a continuous flight of steps along the south front leads us to 
suppose that there were arcades all along. The aisles are about 13 feet wide and 
the nave 25 feet wide; the walls dividing them are 5 feet 4 inches wide. They are 
constructed of tiles—partly of broken flanged tiles—upon which were laid sand- 
stone slabs which carried the columns, but which have disintegrated or been 
carried away for building material. 
A drum of one of the columns is nearly 3 feet in diameter, and fragments of 
Corinthian capitals, very like those of the Basilica at Silchester, have been found. 
At the east end of the south aisle is a doorway leading into the street, and at 
the east end of the nave is a chamber heated by a hypocaust, and approached 
from the nave by broad steps, probably the Curia. To the north of the Basilicais 
a range of rooms to which belong those described as a portion of house No. XVI. N 
in our last report (‘ Archeologia’ Ix. p. 128). The west termination of the 
Basilica lies under a garden, and has not yet been attacked. To the north of this 
block of buildings is a road along the south side of which we have traced the 
course of a line of wooden pipes—for a water-supply, no doubt. To the north of 
this road, in the courtyard of a house, another well, 17 feet deep, has been found, 
and samples of mud taken for examination. 
4, Some Sociological Definitions. By W. H. R. Rivers, ID. 
Anthropology has now reached a stage in its development in which it has 
become imperative that its technical terms should acquire definite meanings, and 
some kind of collective action is necessary to do what is possible towards obtain- 
ing general agreement in the use of such terms. The following are to be regarded 
merely as suggestions for the use of any body which may undertake the task of 
