In Buried Cities.
The curios which have been preserved for centuries beneath the soil are often of priceless value, telling of the habits of peoples of whom history has told us little. Celts, knives, spear-heads, and food receptacles are discovered on the sites of prehistoric camping-grounds. The delicately tooled bronzes from buried cities like Pompeii and Herculaneum come to us with almost a living force in this twentieth century. As we gaze at the wonderful beauty of their forms and the charming patina of green with which they are covered, we can almost imagine what they looked like in the hands of patrons of art in the far-off times when they were first fashioned. Our own country is full of ruins of ancient cities far below the present roadways. When the Romans built Bath it was in a hollow much deeper than the level of the modern city, and it is in these lower levels that relics of Roman Bath are found.
There is a ring of sadness in the desolation of such ancient cities as Verulamium, Cirencester, Kenchester, and similarly deserted locations where modern excavations have been going on recently. It seems curious how the very sites of such once famous places have been lost, but not strange when we remember that more recently occupied towns are but grass mounds—to-day explorers are cutting into the turf-covered mounds of Old Sarum to ascertain where its chief buildings stood. The finds on these ancient sites are varied; many of them are metallic, and although of trifling intrinsic value are prized as being authentic curios.
FIG. 4.—PART OF THE HOARD OF IMPLEMENTS OF THE LATE BRONZE AGE, FOUND IN KING'S CO., IRELAND.
(In the British Museum.)