The New York herald., 1921-10-12

articles had been found-stone, bronze
and iron. bits OF glass and pottery. per-
sonal ornaments, and so forth, chiefly
Celtic, but also in part Roman, of great
interest as throwing light on the habits
and state of civilization Of the period
when. on May IL. 1919. the great dis
covery 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 sill
yer bowl. The pick was laid aside and
careful exploration with knife dis
closed large cavity in the earth Allied
with metal objects. Some were taken
out. the rest left in stu. until Mr.. A. o.
Curle, the present director OF the Ma
tional Museum, could be fetched from,
Edinburgh Says Mr.. Curle in a report
to the Society Of Antiquaries:
'"rhe sight that met my gaze pr
reaching the ground was one that tho
most sanguine OF excavators can harlly
ever have dreamed of. Bowls, cups
spoons and a miscellaneous collection
of pieces OF plate, tarnished and solicit.
but obviously Of silver. lay spread on
the ground. The immediate rea izatioa
Of the notable character of the find
made the moment one never to be for
gotten"
How did this precious store get into
a hole in the Haddington hillside? Al
most certainly 1t is cache of robbers
loot. and not the plunder of a single
robber nor of single robbery. It was
cIo H. ~
some extent. Many Of the pieces after
being cut were folded over and pressed
or hammered into little packets for con-
venience In transport or to be melted
down; and among 1t was found one
drop of run silver. That II was not the
fruit of single robbery the nature OF the
articles themselves seems to declare.
A number of them are plainly Chris
tian. They bear the Chi Rho. or la
barun1, monogram. One has Jesus
Christus" engraved on 1t. Another is
decorated with scenes from the Bible
story. They. with certain vessels OF
sacramental usage. can hardly be other
than the loot of a religious establish
ment. But others are as plainly pa
gan with figures of Pan and Hercules
and Venus. One may call them all Ro-
man. The decoration Is In some cases
curlously Oriental, but in the majority
the designs and modelling are so finely
free and flowing as to be fairly de-
scribed as classical at it's best. All
these were not stolen surely from the
same place as the religious vessels.
Four coins were found amid the store,
the earliest of the Emperor valens. who
began to reign in A. d. 1854. and the
latest of Honorius. who died in A. d.
4e3. Independent evidence points to the
early NTH century as the probable
period of habitation OF the highest floor
level, and one seems able to assume al
most with confidence that this--not far
from 1900 years ago--was the date
when the cache was made.
The Saxons were notorious maraud-
ers and sea raiders then. as the native
Celts were not. What, then. Is more
likely than that. after a Saxon raiding
expedition which had successfully har-
ried the Gallo coast. IL was one band
or section of the marauders that buried
It's share OF the plunder here? Why
It was buried we can only conjecture.
II the hoard was originally wrapped
In any envelope or container all trace
OF II has rotted away. II was appar-
emily thrust hastily and anyhow into n
shallow and hurriediy dug hole In the
ground And why did those who buried
II never come to reclaim their treas
ure7 One can only guess; but the sug-
gestion Is strong that what irnpelled
the burial was the approach of another
and stronger force. which. though per-
haps no better than the thieves them
selves. was at least the instrument Of
a Just retribution.