These ancient implements or weapons, although not found in the course of our explorations near Birtley, are of special interest, being from the same locality and not previously described. They serve as representative weapons of the first, the aboriginal or Celtic, inhabitants of the old fortified town and its circular dwellings recently explored.

SECOND OR ROMANO-BRITISH OCCUPATION.

As it seems thus certain that some tribe or clan of the Celtic stock constructed and first dwelt in these North Tynedale hill-forts, so also we infer that their descendants of the pure British or else of Romano-British race continued with slight intermission to inhabit these primitive abodes, perhaps during all the centuries of the Roman rule in Britain, and even after the recall of the legions to the defence of the Eternal City. It may be that at first the Britons who lived to the north of the Roman Wall, entrenched in stronger positions, such as the Gunnar Heugh and Mill-Knock Camps, and in more numerous hill-forts and valley fastnesses, opposed themselves still more resolutely than their compatriots, who lived to the south of the Great Barrier, to the victorious legionaries of Agricola and Hadrian. In the Late Celtic bronze buckle used in the trappings of their chariot-horses we possess a remarkable proof of the existence, even among the Britons so far north as the vale of North Tyne, of the Esseda, Rheda, or Covinus of the Roman writers, the travelling or war-chariot, whatever its name might be, that in these far-distant days used to pass in its rapid course along the ancient native trackways or Roman roads of the district, if not before, yet certainly during, the long period of the Roman supremacy. As in the barrows at Arras, near Godmanham, among the Yorkshire Wolds, the buried remains of more than one old British chariot have been found, interred together with its former possessor and his war-steeds," so here in the hut-circle of the Carry House Camp among the Northumbrian hills we have come for the first time in the two northern counties of England upon a slight but sufficient indication of the same kind of vehicle and the same mode of warfare, in which, like the ancient Greek heroes, the Britons of this age excelled. Their marvellous dexterity in the very

a History and Antiquities of the County and City of York, in which see the account of the discovery at Arras, by the Rev. E. W. Stillingfleet, in 1816-17.

turmoil of battle, as we all know, called forth Julius Cæsar's undisguised admiration."

But here, too, within these ancient circular dwellings, the Roman masters of the land, the second dominant race, also appear on the scene. They have left a few relics, faint but unmistakeable evidence of their civilizing influence, probably also of their presence, in the scattered fragments of stone-coloured and Samian ware, now first brought to the light of day after the lapse of so many centuries of dark oblivion.

THIRD OR SAXON OCCUPATION.

It appears to be equally plain, from the singular discovery of the Saxon sword of iron, still sheathed in its bronze-tipped scabbard, that a third race came into possession of the ancient town as conquerors in the land, like their Roman predecessors, and also of an alien stock. Teutons, not Celts or Romanised Britons, they drove out the original owners or the then inhabitants, who may have suffered before this from the fierce Pict and Scot, and who were apparently contented to live on in the self-same way and on the same site, within the same entrenched and strongly-palisaded camp, occupying the same circular dwellings, only renovated or repaired as to wattled wall and thatched roof, as circumstances required or necessity urged them, perhaps for hundreds of years afterwards, in medieval times and under Norman rule."

It is a remarkable coincidence, which I must not omit to record, that near the village of Barrasford, about four miles to the south-east of Birtley, we have an

a De Bello Gallico, lib. iv. c. 33, already cited. This mode of fighting with chariots seems to have been limited to the Britons, and not to have been in use among the other nations of Europe in the Roman period. As we know from many references in the Old Testament and from sculptures on the ancient monuments, war-chariots were common among the Jews, Egyptians, Assyrians, Persians, Greeks, and Trojans. Hence, Geoffrey of Monmouth argues that the Britons were of Trojan origin. Scythe-bearing chariots (apμara Sрeñarnoópa) held a prominent position in the military arrangements of the ancient Persians especially. See Xenophon's Anabasis, bk. i. c. vii. §§ 10, 11; described Ibid. bk. i. viii. 10, on which is a note in Dr. White's edition. It is said that scythed-chariots were first introduced by Cyrus the Great, but, according to Diodorus, Ninus possessed one. Compare Josh, xvii, 18, where Gesenius (Hebrew Lexicon) translates "chariots with scythes;" occurring also Judges, i. 19, iv. 3, et passim.

This may be an allowable conjecture, but no proof of a later occupation of British sites than that of the early Saxon invaders, as in this Carry House Camp, has been discovered hitherto, so far as I am aware. Further explorations may throw light on this point.

374 Researches in Ancient Circular Dwellings, near Birtley, Northumberland.

instance of a similar Anglo-Saxon appropriation of a British work. This was a secondary (Saxon) interment, found in a Celtic barrow or cairn. The projecting part of the umbo or boss of an Anglo-Saxon shield, discovered there above the primary interment, was of extraordinary dimensions, and several ornamental discs of silver, varying in size, were found with it, which Mr. H. Maclauchlan, F.G.S. brought to London soon after they came into his possession, about ten years since, to show to our Director, Mr. Franks, and to the late Mr. Way. These silver discs had served in part to cover the rivet-heads which attached the boss to the wooden shield, and the relics are now in the museum at Alnwick Castle, with some fragments of an Anglo-Saxon sword which was found also above the site of the British interment in the same barrow. The primary interment was known to be Celtic from the character of the rudely-scored unglazed pottery, a broken urn which was brought to light at the same time in excavating the railway cutting that passed through the great cairn then standing on the brow of the deep ravine of the Swinburn, near the Barrasford Station.

a

And thus, without entering at present into any minute details connected with the primitive life and social customs of the ancient inhabitants, and whether or no we admit an early or later medieval occupation of the Carry House, and other adjacent camps and hut-circles, of which we have up to the present time obtained no decided indications, we may safely make some interesting deductions. From the data already ascertained and described in the preceding pages we have arrived especially at this one definite fact, which is of some historical and archæological interest and significance, that the three earliest races of mankind of the Aryan stock, who possessed Britain one after the other, are represented, in the sure evidence of characteristic relics found in situ, as the successive occupants of the circular dwellings of this ancient British town.

a The ancient weapons, &c. found in the course of these explorations in the Carry House Camp, near Birtley, have also found an appropriate resting place in the same museum.

XVII. On the Alban Necropolis, said to have been covered up by a Volcanic Eruption. Communicated through W. M. WYLIE, Esq. F.S.A. by PADRE RAFFAELE GARRUCCI, Hon. F.S.A.

Read June 24th, 1876.

TEN years have passed away since the Duc de Blacas," at a meeting of the Society of Antiquaries of France, discussed the question of the celebrated Alban Necropolis, discovered in 1817, by Giuseppe Carnevali, beneath an undisturbed mass of peperino, while nearly the same space of time has elapsed since the revival among ourselves of the question of the discovery of vessels anterior to the last volcanic eruption round about the crater of the Alban lake.

The Duke had no doubts as to the truth of this discovery, which, moreover, was strengthened by the legal document that Carnevali caused to be drawn up and duly attested. Among the attesting witnesses are certain workmen, who depose as to their knowledge of the frequent finding of nails, bits of iron, and like objects, in the solid mass of peperino. It is true there were complaints at the time on the part of Signori Fea and Valadier, but not of a nature to raise doubts as to the truth of the transaction. They only asserted that the discovery of the vessels took place in 1816, and was made by the labourers employed in levelling the road leading from the Albano highway, by the Pascolare of Castel Gandolfo, to the villa of Prince Giovanni Torlonia, so that from that time forth Professor Ponzi considered the fact proved beyond all doubt, since, as he writes, "the discovery was authenticated in legal form, and cannot, therefore, be controverted."

Then we read a similar opinion given by Sir John Lubbock, MM. Pigorini,

1 Mémoire d'une découverte de vases funéraires près d'Albano. Paris, 1865.

b Visconti, pp. 38-40. "Lettera al Signor Giuseppe Carnevali di Albano, sopra alcuni vasi sepol crali rinvenuti nelle vicinanze della antica Alba Longa." Roma, 1817.

c Il Periodo Glaciale. Roma, 1865.

Fiorelli, De' Rossi, Rosa, and Ponzi, who in 1866 made an excursion to the Pascolare di Castello. In the same tone also L. Ceselli refers unreservedly to the finding by Colonel Alessandro Gariboldi, at Fontana di Papa, between two beds of peperino, of a cist of the same stone, containing six vessels, with a bronze knife, all which were presented by him to Ceselli. Then comes Signor M. S. De' Rossi's account of other discoveries of a like nature, among which the most remarkable are those of Alberico Cittadini and a certain Evangelisti. So that it truly would appear an act of temerity to attempt opposition in the face of such and so many discoveries and witnesses.

Nevertheless, being here upwards of twelve months at Villa Torlonia, close to Castel Gandolfo and the Pascolare, I thought it well to occupy myself with these discoveries, and to make myself fully acquainted with them. This the more, since, in 1865, the Duc de Blacas had written to me that the Society of Antiquaries of France had not given credit to the statement of Signor Cartacci, of Genzano, that a melted semis had been struck out of a mass of peperino in blasting the rock. I must, however, confess that during all this time, notwithstanding my very close researches, I have not succeeded in discovering anything of the kind, so I betook myself to interrogating the workmen, who for many years have quarried the peperino, and broken it up for repairing the roads; as also the proprietors, who every year carry on works in their vineyards. I will now state the results of my inquiries.

The labourers, and especially a foreman of road works, who has been so engaged above twenty-seven years, and directs the quarrymen employed all the winter in breaking up the solid mass of peperino with wedges and hammers, as also those labourers whose duty it is to break the stone into small pieces for mending the road from Albano to Marino, by Castello, all agree in declaring that never, during the whole course of their works, have they found any kind of manufactured objects in the peperino-neither in the mass, nor when broken up for repairs of the road. And it cannot be said that they have not paid attention to

a Notes on Hut Urns, &c. from Marino, near Albano. Archæologia, vol. XLII. p. 99-123.

It should be stated that an unfortunate error has occurred in the plates of this paper. The Etruscan vessels (pl. ix. figs. 1, 2, 3, and pl. x. figs. 2, 5) were found, not at Marino, but in the famous ReguliniGalassi tomb at Cervetri. Four of these vessels are in the Vatican Museum and one at Parma. We owe the discovery of this error to Count Conestabile, of Perugia, who points it out in his work, "Sovra due Dischi in Bronzo," p. 29. Torino, 1874.

b Dell' Arte Ceramica Primitiva di Lazio, p. 20. Roma, 1868. Also Notice by W. M. Wylie, in Archæologia, vol. XLII. p. 487, pl. xxxi. Secondo Rapporto. Roma, 1868.