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ANCIENT ROMAN SKULL.
PROM STONE COPEIN, AT BATH.
(BATH, THE EOMAN AQU^ SOZIS, PIEST TO FIPTH CENTURY A,D.)
Cranium from Stone Sarcophagus at Bath.—Quarter-size.
In 1852, seven stone coiBns were found in improving a sewer in EusseU Street, Bath, nearly half
a mile beyond the site of the north gate of the Roman city, and close to the supposed line of road
to the west, to Abone, Trajectus and Isoa Silui-um. Other stone coffins have been found in Russell
Street, and it would otherwise appear that the principal cemeteries of Roman Bath were on this
side of the city. The coffins lay in a row, with the heads somewhat east of north*. They were
rudely hewn from the stone of the district; wide at the head and narrow at the foot; the
covering stones, with one exception made to fit, were of plain flat slabs. Skeletons found upon
the lids of the cofans, seemed to show that the spot had been used as a cemetery for an extended
period. All the coffins contained the remams of skeletons; in the foui-th were those of a female
and a child, a corroded metal pin, the head of another, and some bituminous substance which
left a greasy, piu-ple stain. Near this were fragments of pottery and beautiful green glass. Not
far off were a quern-stone, and many bones of graminivorous animals; and coins, one each, of
Elagabalus, Constantino, Constantine II. and Gratian, were found in the course of the excavations.
The fifth coffin contained a larger skeleton than any of the others, the skull of which,
here described, has been preserved by the care of Mr. E. Hunt, Surgeon. Near the right
shoulder was the small vase of common Roman pottery shown in the woodcut f . At the feet
* Rev. H. M. Sciu-th, in " Proceedings of the Somerset f This vase and the quern-stone are preserved in the Mu-
Arehteologieal Society," vol. V. p. 49. ArchK^ologicaUonrnal, seum of the Bath Literary and Scientific Institution. The
1854, vol. 11. p. 408. stone coffins are in the " dry-arches" beneath the Pump Boom
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