"In addition to the Roman relics above mentioned, others of ruder construction remain to be described. They consist of what, in the absence of any evidence respecting their uses, may be called handles and points of bone. The former are composed of the metacarpal bones of the red-deer and Bos longifrons cut through in the middle, and roughly squared at the small end; the others, which are called by the workmen spear-heads, are pointed at one end and hollowed out at the other, as if to receive a shaft. Both Professor Owen and Mr. Blake concur in thinking these implements may possibly have been formed with flint, but I cannot ascertain that they were found at a lower level than the Roman remains, nor have any flint implements, to my knowledge, been found in the place. With them were also found the two bone skates on the table; they are of the metacarpal bone of a small horse or ass, one of which has been much used on the ice. Exactly similar skates also of the metacarpal of the horse or ass have been found in a tumulus of the stone period at Oosterend in Friesland; a drawing of them is given in Lindenschmit's Catalogue of the Museum at Mayence, etc. Others have also been found in Zeeland, at Utrecht, and in Guelderland, and there is a specimen in the Museum at Hanover. Professor Lindenschmit attributes all these to the stone period, but the specimens on the table are evidently of the iron age, the holes in the back having been formed for the insertion of an iron staple. Similar skates have been found in the Thames, but they have not hitherto been considered to date so early in England as in Roman times."
Throughout the peat were several kitchen-middens. One deposited a foot and a half above the gravel is thus described: "A layer of oyster and mussel shells about a foot thick, with a filtration of carbonate of lime permeating through the moss. In this kitchen-midden Roman pottery and a Roman caliga were found. Close by, the point of a pile, part of which is exhibited, was found upright in the peat; it had been driven in in such a manner that the point descends to the level of the kitchen-midden and no further. Now, as a pile, in order to obtain a holding, must have been driven at least two feet in the ground, it is evident the peat must have grown at least one foot above the summit of the kitchen-midden before this pile was driven in."
A second kitchen-midden is noted at a height of 31⁄2 feet above the gravel, "composed of oyster, cockle, and mussel shells, and periwinkles, with Roman pottery and bones of the goat and Bos longifrons, etc., split lengthwise as if to extract the marrow, with the skulls broken and the horns cut off. It is about a foot and a half thick in the centre, thinning out towards the ends as a heap of refuse would naturally do, and from 12 to 14 feet long; above this is peat for about a foot or a foot and a half, and above the peat another kitchen-midden of the same kind as the preceding. Lastly, the soles of shoes and Roman pottery of the same kind as that found lower down have been taken out at the very top of the peat."
The author being subsequently anxious to obtain further evidence as to the thickness of the stratum in which the Roman remains were found, states that he determined to watch the workmen for four or five hours together during several successive days, while they dug from top to bottom, commencing with the superficial earth, and passing through the peat to the gravel below. The result was as follows: "Roman red Samian ware is found as high as 13 feet from the surface, but very rarely, and in small quantities. At 15 feet it is frequently found, and from that depth it increases in quantity till the gravel is reached at 18 to 21 feet. The chief region of Roman remains is within 2 to 3 feet of the gravel."
Amongst the animal remains were, according to Professor Owen, those "of the horse or ass, the red deer, the wild boar, the wild goat (bouquetin), the dog, the Bos longifrons, and the roebuck. The horns of the roebuck, I afterwards ascertained, were all found at a higher level. These, and also the horse and goat, entered the superficial earth, in which glazed pottery was also found; but the remainder, including the red deer, wild boar, and Bos longifrons, appeared, so far as my observations enabled me to judge, to be confined to the peat."
Subsequently Mr. Carter Blake identified amongst these remains no less than four different kinds of the genus Bos, viz., primigenius, trochoceros, longifrons, and frontosus; as also a specimen of the ibex of the Pyrenees.
Some human skulls were also found in the lowest formation of the peat, or immediately over the gravel. Along with the skulls only three human bones were found; but this, according to the author, was not the result of an oversight, as both the Celts and the Romans were known to have practised decapitation.
The piles at the south end were identified as elm, the remainder were oak (Quercus robur).
General Lane Fox stated that recently similar piles with large horizontal beams and Roman pottery were discovered in New Southwark Street.
I find it impossible, even with the above large extracts, to give more than a very general idea of this most interesting and highly suggestive paper, and the important discussion to which it gave rise in the Society.