44 Discovery of an Ancient Town near Behut. [Jan. 



within cognate limits through the very fortunate discovery of many coins 

 imbedded in the same place with the bricks and bones. The coins belong 

 to three different species already made known through Mr. Wilson's 

 paper on the Society's cabinet*. 



1. The Indo-Scythic coin, or that having the figure of a man in a 

 coat of mail, offering something on a small altar (Nos. 23 to 33, Plate II. 

 As. Res. xvii.), whicb has been referred with much probability to the 

 commencement of the Christian era : — of this only one coin is recogni- 

 zable out of 26. 



2. The chief part of the coins belongs to the series No. 69, Plate III. 

 of the same volume, of which nothing at all is known ; only two have hi- 

 therto been seen, one of which was dug up in cutting the trench of the 

 new road from Allahabad to Benares : this however was square, as was a 

 duplicate in Colonel Mackenzie's collection, but all those now brought 

 to light are circular : they are identified with it by the elephant on one 

 side, and by one or more singular monograms. Some of them differ 

 considerably in other respects, having a Brahmany bull on the reverse, 

 and an inscription in unknown characters round the edgef. 



3. The third species of coin is of silver. A square lump with no regu- 

 lar impression, but simply stamped with various chhdps, asmight have 

 been the custom anterior to the general introduction of coined money. 

 Of this ancient coin, the Mackenzie collection furnishes abundant exam- 

 ples, (Plate V. figures 101 to 108,) but his researches altogether failed in 

 ascertaining their date, or even their genuineness, both which points are 

 now satisfactorily developed by the present discovery. They must all 

 date posterior to the Indo-Scythic dynasties in Bactria, and belong to a pe- 

 riod when (as in China at present) silver was in general current by weight, 

 while the inferior metals (for all of the present coins are not of copper) 

 were circulated as tokens of a fixed nominal value. 



This discovery alone would be of great value, but it is only one of im- 

 munerable points for which we may eagerly expect elucidation from this 

 Herculaneum of the East. 



The appearance and state of the tooth and bone sent down are also of 

 high interest ; they are not entirely deprived of their animal matter, 

 though it is in a great measure replaced by carbonate of lime. The tooth 

 is of the same size, and belongs to the same animal (the ox) as those of 

 the Jumna fossils, presented by Capt. E. Smith at the last meeting, but 

 the mineralization in the latter has been completed, whereas in these it 

 remains imperfect. J. P. 



* See Asiatic Researches, vol. XVII. 



f We shall insert drawings of these coins, and of other objects discovered on 

 the same spot, when Capt. Cautley favors us with further particulars. 



