COUNCIL FOR 1877. 
9 
The Antiquarian Department has received some important 
additions during the past year, the chief of which is the very 
interesting tomb of Julia Fortunata, wife of (M) Yerecundius 
Diogenes, which was discovered by the excavators of the new 
Railway buildings in the month of March. It is a remarkable 
circumstance that the monument of her husband was found at 
the same place exactly three centuries ago. M. Yerecundius 
Diogenes prepared his own tomb, and it may perhaps be 
inferred from the absence of any age upon the coffin of the 
lady, and from the peculiar wording of the inscription, that 
he made ready the memorial of his wife during her life¬ 
time. The epitaph discloses the fact that she was a native of 
Sardinia, and the bones in the tomb, which were in a good 
state of preservation, proved her to have been a tall and 
masculine person. 
The formation of a new road across Scarcroft yielded in the 
month of May several curiosities, and a fragment of a votive 
inscription. Other excavations in the same neighbourhood 
have revealed the interesting fact that the Roman road to 
Tadcaster did not run through Micklegate Bar, as has been 
stated by various antiquaries, but a little to the north of it; 
indeed it seems evident that it did not strike the modern high¬ 
road at all on this side of the Yillage of Dringhouses. It is 
the intention of the Curator to prepare a map in which the 
recent discoveries on the Micklegate side of the Ouse will be 
carefully laid down. 
The excavations at the new Railway Station have yielded to 
the Museum an impression of the body of a female, in gypsum, 
which is remarkably perfect, and a very fine stone coffin, the 
largest that the Society possesses, eight feet in length, and 
proportionately thick. This has been placed in the row of 
Roman tombs in the Hospitium, and in it has been carefully 
laid the gypsum in which the body was enveloped. 
In the new Ethnological room the large collection of flint 
and stone implements which the Society possesses has been 
arranged, and Dr. Gibson has very kindly fastened the 
specimens to the boards on which they are exhibited. 
Considerable progress has also been made in bringing 
B 
