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XXX. Account of a further Discovery of Antiquities at Southfleet in Kent, in a Letter from the Rev. Peter Rashleigh, Rector of that place, to the Rt. Hon. Sir Joseph Banks, Bart. K. B. P. R. S. and F. S. A.

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 July 2012

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Extract

As I have made some further progress in my researches in Sole Field, in which I have been successful, I take up my pen to send you some account of what I have recently discovered in the same spot; which I think will decidedly determine it to be a Roman burial place. Within a small distance of the former tomb, and at about three feet beneath the surface of the earth, I found a pavement of stone, of the common Kentish ragstone, which being removed, I discovered under it, nearly in the centre, a sarcophagus, or massy stone, divided into two parts, top and bottom, very nicely fitted in a groove; upon taking off the top, I found it had been excavated in an oval form, both top and bottom, with a rough or coarse stonemason's chissel; in this oval recess were placed two large glass urns or Vases, containing each a considerable quantity of the remains of burnt bodies; both the urns were open at the top, but one of them, containing the lesser portion of the bodies (which occupied about one third of it) was filled to the very brink with a transparent liquor, which did not appear to have been diminished in the smallest degree, by evaporation, (this circumstance appears extremely curious): the liquor has no taste or smell, has no acid or alkali, but is probably some mucilaginous substance, which I wait the result of a chemical inquiry to ascertain.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © The Society of Antiquaries of London 1803

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References

page 221 note [a] See Pl. XXXVIII. fig. 1, 2.

page 221 note [b] Pl. XXXVIII. fig, 3, 4.

page 222 note [c] See Pl XXXIX.

page 222 note [d] See Pl. XL. fig. 1, 2, 3, 4.

page 222 note [e] Pl. XL. fig. 5, 6, 7, 8.

page 223 note [e] See Pl. XLI.