This industry flourished throughout the last half of the 19th century. The "coprolites" were phosphatic nodules found in the greensand and dug for use as manure.
These are of bronze, with closed ends, pitted for the needle as now, but of size for wearing upon the thumb.
There seems no valid reason for doubting that the horseshoes found associated with Roman pottery, etc., in the ashpits of the Cam valley, Dorchester, etc., are actually of Romano-British date. Gesner maintains that our method of shoeing horses was introduced by Vegetius under Valentinian II. The earlier shoes seem to have been rather such slippers as are now used by horses drawing mowing-machines on college lawns. They were sometimes of rope: Solea sparta pes bovis induitur (Columella), sometimes of iron: Et supinam animam gravido derelinquere caeno Ferream ut solam tenaci in voragine mula (Catullus, xvii. 25). Even gold was used: Poppaea jumentis suis soleas ex auro induebat (Suet., 'Nero,' xxx.). The Romano-British horseshoes are thin broad bands of iron, fastened on by three nails, and without heels. See also Beckmann's 'History of Inventions' (ed. Bohn).
This is true of the whole of Britain, even along the Wall, as a glance at the cases in the British Museum will show. There may be seen the most interesting relic of this class yet discovered, a bronze shield-boss, dredged out of the Tyne in 1893 [see 'Lapid. Sept.' p. 58], bearing the name of the owner, Junius Dubitatus, and his Centurion, Julius Magnus, of the Ninth Legion.