ROMAN POTTERY FOUND IN BRITAIN. 23 
Trier Mus. on an Urn, No. 44, p. 100, Hettnev, Fiihrer duvch Prov. 
Mils, in Trier , p. 100. 
VR PV and VRCEVS et MEL P XXVIII.* 
Reims, Cat. of Mus., No. 4564 (See Behn, Rom. Ker., p. 221), 
OLLA MEL. 
1, Mainz, PIISP; 2, Xanthen, PHIL; 3, Kdln, PIV.; 4, Metz, 
T PVI ; 5, Andernach, XIIS. 
At first, by way of ornament, they had only from 1—3 girth- 
grooves between the handles, but others lower down the side were 
added subsequently. 
The two small upright loop handles are supposed to have 
served for retaining a sealed fastening band drawn through them 
and across the coverlid, to exclude flies (and fingers) on transit. 
On a like example from an early pit, No. LXXV 1 . (a.d. 80—100) 
at Newstead, (Op. cit. p. 244, plate XLVII.) two small conical 
cups, with solid pedestals reaching to the shoulder, placed midway 
between the handles, may have been intended to receive and pro¬ 
tect leaden seals on the ends of a metal band crossing the lid in 
the opposite direction, as an additional security against pilfering 
during the journey northwards. 
Early examples are described by Schumacher as being care- 
full)/, artistically, and strongly built, but later ones display the 
degradation in form, material, and technique, which overtook all 
the arts and crafts of the Lower Empire. 
Eleven such vessels, found in cremation graves, Nos. 2, 8, 22, 
23, 25, 26, 68, 71, 76, 124, Joslin Collection at Colchester, (Price, 
Colchester Museum Cat.), have been used as Cinerary Urns. They 
extend over about three centuries, from Grave-group 124, con¬ 
taining a number of St. Remy green-glazed figurines, dated not 
later than a.d. 50, by 30 coins from Agrippa to Claudius, down to 
Group 71, which includes a glass unguentarium, having four 
indentations on the side of IV. Century type (Hettner, Fiihrer durch 
Prov. Mus. iu Trier, p. 107, fig. 20). 
# Behn, CIL XIII., III., 1, p. 90, No. 44. 
