Besides these signs of an inhabited house, a lead coffin was found before 1838, a little to the south, and in it a ‘small vessel of Roman earth.’³⁰ A piece of paved way running east and west across the site of Strood Dock has been thought, if Roman, to have connected the house with the London road. See below, pp. 142, 170.
   25. GREENWICH PARK.—Important remains of Roman occupation have been found in the north of Greenwich Park, about 100 yds. from its east wall, and halfway between the Vanbrugh and Maze Hill gates, just at the point where the high ground of the main area of the park reaches its northern limit. They came to light accidently in 1902, and were examined by Mr. Herbert Jones and others. Of actual buildings little seems to be left. The excavators succeeded only in finding a small piece of plain walling in Kentish rag and three patches of flooring, one of coarse red tesseree, the rest of opus signinum, scattered over an area about 15 ft. by 50 ft. The tessellated floor was about 3 ft. higher than the others, and was thought, therefore, to belong to a later period, while the occurrence of much burnt matter suggested that one of the periods ended by fire. Beyond this the foundations gave no indication whatever of the character or fortunes of the original structures. The debris and smaller remains were far more important. These comprised, in the first place, much building material—roof and other tiles, hypocaust pilae, wall-plaster painted (it is said) in as many as twelve patterns, tesserae both rough red cubes of brick and finer specimens in other colours, a piece of green porphyry which may have belonged to a marble wall-lining, nails with burnt wood attached, worked and moulded blocks of oolite, parts of the drums of three diminutive columns, and some window glass. These structural remains were accompanied by numerous smaller movable objects. Several pieces of inscribed and sculptured stone provide a feature unusual on these sites:—
   (i) Sandstone fragment, 6½ in. long by 8 in. tall, bearing the ends (outside right hand) of the two first lines of an inscription in 1¾ in letters

                                                            CVLAP
                                                            IATVS

   It is not quite clear whether the final letter in the first line is R or, as I think, p. If the latter, we may conjecture . Aesculapio.
   (2) White marble fragment 6 in. high by 4½ in. wide with fin, letters, from the left-hand side of a longish inscription
                                                              NV
                                                              CV
                                                              MO
                                                              SI

                    Possibly nu[minihu Adug . . . but conjecture is useless.

   (3) White marble, like (2), bearing the tops of three letters which might be ASS.
   (4—6) Three other fragments, bearing parts of letters.
   (7) Part of a figure in oolite about ⅔ life-size, showing a right arm with elbow bent and hand turned back to the body: on the forearm is a armlet and drapery falls over the shoulder to the hand. The armlet and the slenderness of the arm suggest a female figure.
   Besides these notable pieces, there came to light much pottery in many varieties, including one cup of Samian ware stamped MII?T?A and two embossed pieces of form 37; Upchurch, Castor, Cologne ware; two pelves stamped SANIЯ and FLVGVDV ; two pieces thought to be pre-Roman, and a puzzling little terra-cotta head of a lion with a nail through the open mouth. There were also bronze fibulae, nail-cleaners, box hinges, iron nails of various sizes (2—6 in. long), key, knife, rings, hooks and the like; bone pins and a carved piece showing a woman holding a shield above her head; bottle glass, and lastly, oyster shells; and many bones of horse, sheep, oxen, deer, and teeth of dogs, rabbits and (it is stated) camels. Coins abounded to the number of about 300, and ranged from Claudius to Honorius. Almost every emperor from Claudius to Commodus is represented by one or two ‘large brass’; Plautilla and Gordian have each left a denarius; there is some ‘small brass’ of the 3rd century from Gallienus onwards, and abundance (perhaps 200) of Constantinian copper with a few pieces of later rulers down to Honorius. A legionary denarius of Mark Antony (Leg. xiv) was dug up about 100 yds. to the north-east of the other remains.³¹
   To complete the description of the site, we must add that the probable line of Watling Street crosses Greenwich Park, a little to the south, though it has never been actually traced. Moreover, a few yards to the south-east, and near the Vanbrugh Gate, there survives the corner of a perhaps
   ³⁰ See Topographical Index, p. 154.
   ³¹  H. Jones, Home Counties Mag. v, 49, 213, with plan of site; A. D. Webster, Greenwich Park (Greenwich, 1903), 71, not agreeing exactly in detail; Daily Graphic, 14 June 1902; information from Mr. Jones. The objects found are principally in Greenwich Town Hall, where we have examined them: the terra-cotta lion’s head, bone carving, and pre-Roman potsherds we have not seen. For the inscribed fragments, which are now in the British Museum, see Ephemeris Epigr. ix, 992—3. Roman London (R. Comm. on Hist. Mons., 1928), p. 151, p1. li.