THE ESSEX FIELD CLUB.
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went on investigating Roman Colchester, they would certainly have to find some
place outside the Castle in which to place the remains. Their friends had done
very much indeed to relieve them of that difficulty, inasmuch as almost every
museum in the kingdom had a very large number of antiquities from Colchester.
Who took them away from the town he did not know, but in the British Museum
and in the museum at Edinburgh and other places, they found things labelled
"From Colchester." He hoped that in future, now that there was a real interest
awakened in these investigations, all the specimens unearthed in Colchester might
remain in the town. The principal part of the Roman collection was almost of
necessity connected with burial customs. Colchester itself, inside the walls, was
on more than one occasion entirely destroyed, but the Romans practised extra-mural
interments, and therefore outside the walls of the town were the cemeteries, and it
was from them that the greater part of the remains came. As a general rule
cremation was practised by the Romans, but there were also interments of dead
bodies. In the Museum they had a great number of specimens of the urns in
which the bones, after cremation, were gathered together. What might have been
the idea of the Romans as to the condition of their friends after death it was diffi-
cult to tell, but the usual plan of interment was a tomb, or small chamber cut out
in the ground, lined with tiles, and into that was set the urn containing the bones
that had been gathered from the pyre after cremation, and they also placed in and
round about the urn a number of earthenware vessels of various kinds. This was
the method adopted in the better class of burials. Mr. Acland described the
simpler style of the common interments, and referred to the celebrated Colchester
Vase in the Museum which forms so prominent a feature in Mr. Alma Tadema's
picture of the "Visit of the Emperor Adrian to the British Potteries." They also
had in Colchester numbers of leaden coffins, or the leaden linings of coffins which
were made of thick wooden planks, because they generally found the iron nails
wherewith the planking had been fastened together. He called attention to one
of the lead coffins in the Museum, which when found was almost entirely full of
gravel. When it was sorted over there were found some teeth and a few portions
of a skull, and these showed that they belonged to a girl. There were also two
little tiny gold earrings, which were interesting because they were not put in in
the way earrings were worn now, but the piece of wire was passed through the
lobe of the ear and then twisted round, so that it was irremovable. Mr. Acland
next showed another leaden coffin, and pointed out that from the upper part of the
head there proceeded a leaden tube, opening directly into the coffin, and com-
municating with the open air.
Dr. Laver (interposing) mentioned that since this coffin had been found there
had been discovered some large Roman cemeteries near Seville in Spain, and
curiously enough there were leaden pipes going from the outer air into the tombs,
directly over where the bodies were placed. Another cemetery had been lately
found in Italy in which some of the tombs had also a pipe connected with them.
There was no explanation yet given of it.
Mr. Acland pointed out that in the case of the Colchester coffin the pipe com-
municated directly with the interior of the coffin, and so far as he knew it was quite
unique. He then called attention to the collection of Samian ware in the Museum,
a kind of ware which the Romans valued so much that they repaired it when
broken, and the rivets were still to be seen in some of the vases unearthed. After
alluding to the ostone implements of prehistoric age found at Colchester, Mr.
Acland next referred to the discovery of the massive Roman Votive altar found
lying exactly across the cutting that was made in Balkerne Lane a few years ago
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