Notes on Iron Objects of Roman (?) Age in the Society' s Museum. 479 



Age, and creates a presumption in favour of others found with 

 them or under similar circumstances being also really of that age. 



Plate I. 



On Plate I. are shown the most important of the iron objects 

 discovered on the site of the Eoman settlement at Botley Copse, 

 about a-mile-and-a-half from Baydon and just outside the county 

 boundary. Mr. W. Cunnington, F.G.S., carried out some explora- 

 tions on this site in May, 1859, and in his account of his discoveries 

 {Wilts Arch. Mag., x., 104 — 109) he notes the presence of slag and 

 cinders, apparently the remains of iron workings, accompanied by 

 fragments of bituminous coal, which was evidently used here for 

 smelting purposes. Two fibulae and several coins of the Constantine 

 period, together with a quantity of fragments of pottery, occurred 

 on the site of the settlement. The most remarkable of the iron 

 objects found was the double comb 1 (Plate I., No. 3) measuring now 

 lOfin. in length by 3|in. in breadth, Mr. Cunnington regarded 

 this as a carding comb for wool or flax, and counted twenty six 

 teeth ontheoneside, andforty-seven,muchsmallerones,onthe other. 

 He also remarks on the great skill necessary to make such an 

 implement, and the excellence of the iron used in forming it. I 

 do not know of any similar implement found on a Eoman site in 

 Britain. 



No. 2 on the same Plate is a strong narrow chisel of square 

 section, 9^in. in length, with a rounded knob on the handle and a 

 very slightly curved blade. An almost exactly similar chisel is in 

 the Silchester Collection, at Beading. 



No. 4 (Plate I.) is a lance head 4|in. long, with a rather narrow 

 blade. This is probably the " arrowhead " mentioned in company 

 with the iron billhook (Plate I., Pig. 1), as found by Lord Craven 

 in a T-shaped hypocaust near Ashdown House, about 1\ miles 

 from Botley and described by him {Wilts Arch. Mag., x., 106) as 



1 This comb is also illustrated in Wilts Arch. Mag., x., 107 ; it was pre- 

 sented to the Museum by Mr. B. J. Wilkes, of Baydon Manor Farm. Ibid, 

 vi., 119. 



