The terracotta antefix here published possesses some interest in itself, but more perhaps from the place and circumstances in which it was found. It is one of those examples of architectural decoration which date from an early time when the roofs and cornices of buildings were made of wood cased with terracotta. In such circumstances the vertical joints of the roof-tiles had to be protected against rain by covering-tiles, imbrices, which it was usual to make semi-cylindrical in shape. At the lower extremities these imbrices, presented a disagreeable aspect which called for decoration, and this decoration very frequently took the form of a palmette or a female face in relief which was repeated from the same mould and placed in a continuous series along the top of the cornice of the building. Till within recent years very little was known of this sort of archaic decoration, as may be seen on reference to the valuable memoir of Dörpfeld and others on the subject published in 1881. And though a good many objects of this class have been discovered since then they have not yet been collected and published.