Avcliceologia. 395 



belonging to horses' trappings, umbos of shields, swords and other 

 arms, axes, sickles, hammers, etc., etc. The ignorant peasants who 

 had found these interesting objects immediately carried them to a 

 brazier, who valued them at one franc and forty centimes the 

 kilogramme, and the whole amounted to about sixty-six kilo- 

 grammes (a kilogramme being rather more than two pounds three 

 ounces English) ; but the discovery having come to the knowledge 

 of a local antiquary, the whole were saved from the melting-pot, and 

 secured for the local museum. They are described as being all of 

 good workmanship and elegant design. Unfortunately, the published 

 report of the discovery is not accompanied with engravings, 

 without which we can form no very definite opinion of them. It 

 appears to us, however, that it is a mere assumption that they 

 belong to a bronze age, or that this was the site of a manufactory 

 of bronze. They evidently formed the stock-in-trade of some 

 general dealer in objects made of bronze ; perhaps an itinerant 

 merchant, who moved from locality to locality, and of course 

 carried no other metal than that in which he dealt, but that must 

 not be taken as evidence that other metals were not in use at the 

 same time. The discovery of a group of objects made all of gold 

 would not be taken as a proof that they belonged to a golden age, 

 in which that was the only metal in use. Similar discoveries of 

 bronze objects, with no intermixture of other metals, are not at all 

 uncommon in our island, though in smaller quantities, and they are 

 usually accompanied with pieces of the residuum of the melting-pot, 

 and of pieces of metal to be used in it, and sometimes with moulds. 

 In each case they represented, no doubt, the stock of some itinerant 

 dealer. It was the common practice to put things of value in a 

 place of security by burying them in the earth, and this is, no 

 doubt, the proper explanation of deposits of this description. It 

 may be satisfactory to some of our friends who are going to the 

 French Exhibition to learn that, after the 27th of the present month 

 of May, the whole of the objects found on this occasion will be on 

 view in Paris, at the house of M. Mazaroz-Ribaillier, sculptor, 

 Boulevard des Filles du Calvaire, No. 20. 



We are glad to be able to announce that preparations are 

 making for recommencing exCxYvatioxs at Wroxeter, the site of the 

 Roman Uriconiwn, without delay. It is proposed to begin with a 

 large square room, adjoining the apartment containing the re- 

 mains of furnaces, which has been called the enameller's shop, 

 and the opening of this room is expected to lead to very interesting 

 results. T. W. 



