The Birmingham age-herald., 1921-10-15
From the London Times. A

II eAA AiCW III tAiC oSohblSh
 National museum In Edin-
 burgh two cases containing an exhibit of unusual interest--namely, the so-ealled Traprain silver. Ira, of felsite, something over 700 feet high, which stands a conspicuous landmark nearly midway between Haddlngton and Dunbar, about four miles from the sea-. 1t Is on the Whittingehame estate, the property of MT. Balfour; with whose approval and encouragement the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland have for some years past been excavating there, Mir. Balfour generously mak- ing gift to the National museum of everything that is found.
 Successive floor jewels have been uncovered. with hearths and the stone foundations of buildings the vanquished superstructures of which were presumably of turf. A large number of minor articles had been found--stone, bronze and iron, bits oi glass and pottery. personal orna- ments, and so forth, chiefly Celtic, but also in part Roman, of great in- terest as throwing light on the hab- it's and state of civilization of the pcriod-when, on May 12, 1919, the great discovery was made.
 The foreman in charge of the work. gently breaking through one of the floor levels. brought up, to his astonishment, on the point of his pick an ancient silver bowl. The pick was laid aside and careful ex- ploration with knife disclosed a large cavity in the earth filled with metal objects. Some were taken out, the rest left in situ. until A. O. Curle. the present director of the National museum, could be fetched from Edin- l.burgh. Says Mir. Curle in a report to the Society of Antiquaries:
 The sight that met my gaze on reaching the ground was one that the most sanguine of excavators' can hardly ever have dreamed of. Bowls, cups. spoons and miscellaneous collection of pieces of plate, tar nished and soiled. but obviously of silver, lay spread on the ground. i The immediate realization of tho notable character of the find made the moment one never to be forgot ten"
 How did this precious store get into a hole in the Haddington hill- ! side? Almost certainly it is cache of robbers loot, and not the booty 1 from a raid of some extent. Many of the pieces after being cut were folded over and pressed or hammered into little packets for convenience in transport or to be melted down; and among it was found one drop of run silver. That it was not the fruit of single robbery the nature of the articles themselves seems to declare.
 A number of them are plainly Christian. They bear the Chi Rho, or labarum, monogram. One has Jesus Christus" engraved on 1t. An other is decorated with scenes from the Bible story. They. with certain vessels of sacramental usage, can hardly be other than the loot of . religious establishment. But others are as plainly pagan with figures of Pan and Hercules and Venus. one may call them all Roman. The dec- oration is in some cases curiousiy oriental, but in the majority the de- signs and modelling are so finely
 free and flowing as to be fairly described as classical at its best. All these were not stolen surely from the same place as the religious ves- ,I sels
 | Four coins were found amid the
 store, the earliest of the Emperor ' Valens, who began to reign in A. D.
 s64. and the latest of Honorius, who died in A. D. 463.. Independent evil dence points to the early fifth cen- tury as the probable period of habi- ltation of the highest floor level, and
 one seems able to assume almost twith confidence that this-not far 4 from 1,5oo years ago-was. the date when the cache was made.
 The Saxons were notorious ma rauders and sea raiders then. as the
 native Celts were not, What, then.