14 
Esq. According to the account furnished by that gentleman, 
it was found in 1850, when workmen were excavating the sites 
of the houses, 15 and 16, in Park Place, Monkgate, hut at what 
depth is not known. It does not appear that any other Homan 
remains were found along with it. It is of that coarse gritstone 
which the Romans so commonly used for their sculpture. The 
peculiarities of the inscription will be seen in the arrangement 
below. The whole reads 
SVIS§MAECVS 
EVSTIVS§YSL 
M A S S A L M. 
The first line is mutilated at the beginning, hut there can be 
no doubt that Matribus has been the original reading. The 
stonecutter has executed his work in a manner which has made 
it very perplexing. The name of the dedicator is Marcus 
Rustius Massa; but instead of placing the three names in a 
continuous line he breaks off* after Rustius, and puts Massa in 
the line below ; filling up the remainder of the space with the 
first half of the votive formula Votum Solvit Libens, and putting 
the remainder Lmtus IMerito at the end of the line below. It 
appears, therefore, that the altar was dedicated by Marcus 
Rustius Massa to the Deee Matres, those mysterious divinities 
to whom numerous altars were dedicated in Germany, Gaul, 
and Britain. Instead of Matres the title Matronm is often 
given to them; and, as they are represented holding baskets of 
fruit and flowers, they probably denoted the genial and pro¬ 
ductive powers of nature. An example from Ancaster, the 
Causennee of the Itinerary, is given in the Journal of Arch. 
Institute, vol. 26, p. 8. They have generally epithets derived 
from the locality in which their worship prevailed. A small 
altar in our Museum^ is dedicated to the Matres of Africa, Italy, 
and Gaul; another, found at Doncaster, which is also in our 
Museum, to the Matres simply. In the Newcastle Museum is 
a stone, found at Bowness, on the Roman Wall, inscribed, like 
that before us, Matribus Suis, those of the dedicator’s home, 
wherever that may have been. His names, Marcus Rustius 
Massa, all occur in inscriptions. That of Massa has an 
* See Eeport, 1861, p. 35. 
