Welsh Journals

Search over 450 titles and 1.2 million pages

gtrrtaflltfgia (tetrad, FOURTH SERIES.—No. V. JANUARY, 1871. CELTIC SPOONS. {Reprinted, by permission, from the Journal of the Archaeological Institute.) Whilst excavations, lately made in Rome and its neigh¬ bourhood, have brought to light spoons that have been lying buried, perhaps a thousand years, every now and then, very recently, odd chances have been finding for us in these islands other spoons of an older age, and fashioned after quite another form. In the recent num¬ ber of the Bullettino diArclieologiaCristiana for Novem¬ ber and December, a.d. 1868, its far-famed editor (an honorary member of our Institute) has sent forth, drawn up in his accustomed lucid and learned manner, an article entitled " Cucchiari d'argento adorni di simboli e nomi Cristiani"; and along with it a plate on which are shown, figured in beautiful metalised colouring, several of them. In this paper the Cav. Giovanni de Rossi tells us that, besides other silver spoons which have been found at Porto (on the banks of the Tiber, near Ostia), nine others of the same metal have come to light during the last year (1868) in places about Rome. These he deems to be of the fifth century. The bowls are narrow, and drop about a quarter of an inch below the handle, which is long, and tapers to almost a point: in fact, excepting the midriff in the bowls, they are quite like our precious coronation-spoon spoken of at the end of this memoir. One of our Vice-Presidents, Mr. Albert Way, whom 4th seb., vol. ii. 1