Further Discoveries of Late-Celtic and Romano-British Internments at Walmer

INTERMENTS AT WALMER. 13 been able to ascertain, for it had been thrown out with the chalk and removed to some distance, must also be referred to the period of Late Celtic art (see PLATE IV., No. 2). This fibula came into the possession of Mr. Cave of Deal, who presented it to the British Museum. The peculiarity of the class to which this example belongs is that they are made in one piece of metal, whereas the Eoman provincial fibulae of the ordinary type are formed in two pieces, the pin and spring being distinct from the bow. One of the latter occurred in these Walmer graves (see p. 16, No. 22). The pin, it will be observed, is twisted round at one end to form a spiral spring to keep it in position in the guard, and so well has the metal been preserved in the dry chalky soil of this high land that the spring still retains its elasticity. The material is bronze of a bright golden alloy. The flat bow is thickened about the centre, where it is of circular section, and ornamented with diagonally crossed incised lines to give a firmer hold. Mr. Arthur G. Wright, in a note in the Reliquary* on fibulae of this class, states that examples have been found on the sites of Celtic settlements in France and Bohemia, the Lake Dwellings of Moeringen and Bstavayer, and the "island stronghold" of La Tene. The Late Celtic urn-field at Aylesford, explored by Mr. Arthur Evans, yielded a fibula of this type, which, judging from the accompanying relics, he refers to the early part of the first century B.C Mr. Wright also notes that a fibula of this kind was found with others at Springhead in this county, together with a Gaulish coin and Eoman coins dating from Augustus to Gratian. t Another, which Mr. Eoach Smith figured in Collectanea Antiqua,% from the Hartlip Villa, was associated with an iron knife resembling in form those of the Bronze age found on the sites of Lake Dwellings, and Eoman coins ranging from Claudius to Honorius. One of similar but * Vol. viii., New Series, p. 48. Mr. Wright has arranged and classified several Late Celtio fibulse in the Guildhall Museum found during London excavations. Some of these are illustrated in his Paper, and he refers to Mr. Romilly Allen's explanation of their evolution and characteristics. t C. Roaoh Smith, Collectanea Antiqua, vol. i., p. 110. j Ibid,, vol, ii., p. 1.