Page:VCH Suffolk 1.djvu/355

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ROMANO-BRITISH SUFFOLK urns of white ware, a lump of red earth, and many shards or cinerary urns. Near, and probably originally within the largest of the glass vessels, was a white glass lachrymatory, one of those small perfume bottles sometimes buried amongst the ashes in the cinerary urns. In both cemeteries just mentioned the two methods of burial seem to have been practised, thus indicating a comparatively late date in the Roman period. To complete this list of cemeteries the one already noted in the Stonham parishes may be called to mind. Another indication of dwelling-places or their near vicinity is to be seen in the hoards of coins which have been disclosed from time to time. Either these must have been buried plunder or the treasure of an individual who had deposited it in some spot within his observation. Such hoards of Roman coins have been turned up in various places in Suffolk. One of bronze coins is recorded to have been discovered in Ickworth,'" and another of the same metal at Lakenheath." A small collection of British coins was found at Santon Downham ^^ in the year 1870. It is named here because it included two second brass of the Emperor Claudius. An important find was made in the year 1874 at Lavenham, in a field near Lavenham Lodge, where a labourer ploughing turned up from about a foot underground a rude earthen vessel, filled with silver denarii, 197 in number ; 187 of these were saved. The earliest in date, as far as could be ascertained, were three of Mark Antony (b.c. 44-30), the latest twenty-eight of Trajan (a.d. 98-1 17). A still larger hoard of upwards of 900 silver pieces was discovered when a new turnpike road was being made through the parish of Benacre in 1786.'* It is said that none of these were earlier in date than Vespasian (a.d. 69-79). Not far from the site of the interment at Mildenhall,'^ previously mentioned, were found in 1833 two vessels of clay and the remains of a third containing coins rusted into a mass. A much earlier find was made, viz. in 1764, of ' a pot full of Roman coins of the Lower Empire' at Stowlangtoft.'* Again, in 1870, at Sutton, another deposit, of two urns containing coins of the period of Constantine (a.d. 307—337), was turned up; and later, in 1874, a labourer ploughing a field on land called Dix's Charity land at Icklingham " discovered a hoard of silver pieces numbering in all probability about 400. Those which were preserved and examined showed a range of date from Constantine I (a.d. 307-337) to Honorius (a.d. 395-423). Regarding only the value of the metal, the most remarkable of these Suffolk hoards was that discovered near Eye,'* on Clint Farm, in 1781. This consisted of several hundred gold coins (600 it was said) in good preservation, inclosed in a leaden cist, ranging in date from Valentinian (a.d. 364—375) to Honorius (a.d. 395—423). There appears to have been an interment close by the site of this find, as was also the case near that made at Mildenhall. In both instances the treasure may have been deposited in burial-places attached to private houses. Finally, the mention of a hoard of the latest period, not an unimportant one, may close this list of finds '» Camden, Brit. (ed. Gough), 1789, Add. ii, 81. " Joum. Brit. Arch. Assoc. 1880, xxxvi, 104. " Arch. Jourrt. 1870, xxvii, 92 et seq. " Proc. Suff. Inst. Arch. 1874, iv, 414 et seq. " Gent. Mag. cvi, pt. i (1786), 472-3. " Archaeokgia, 1839, xv, App. 609. ^ Camden, Brit. (ed. Gough), 1789 (Add.), ii, 81. " Proc. Suff. Inst. Arch. 1874, iv, 282 etseq. " IpstLicbjoum. 19 May 1781 ; Camden, Brit. (ed. Gough), (Add.) 1789, ii, 90 ; Gillingwater, Hist. of Lowestoft, 1790, p. 38 n. 29s