If we still possessed the book of Diodorus, or according to some, Heliodorus, entitled “About Monuments,” it would undoubtedly prove a mine of information. Plutarch has referred to him, to determine the places of sepulture both of Themistocles[238] and Hyperides[239]. In the tomb, with the dead body, were placed various vessels and trinkets. In the coffin found at Same, were two small _lacrimatories_ of unbaked clay; a wine beaker; the _kylix_, a kind of libation vessel; the _prochoos_, a pitcher usually having two handles and used for holding pure wine or water; an alabaster box for jewels, called the _kylichne_; and a bacchic mirror cover[240]. The child’s coffin, previously mentioned[241], disclosed eleven different vessels and four clay images of _Gaea Olympia_ in a sitting posture. The vessels were three _lecyths_, two large _cotyli_, one small _cotylus_, used for catching the blood of the victim which was sacrificed, a lamp, a _diota_, and a sort of child’s plaything[242]. Besides these vessels, tombs have been found in which all sorts of jewelry figured as parts of the contents, such as golden finger rings set with garnets, gold ear-rings wrought in fantastic shapes, and cornelian ear-rings. Some of the tombs contain wreaths of laurel, oak, olive, or myrtle, sometimes interwoven with gold; while a brass buckle with an allegorical representation of Cupid in the palestra, a golden girdle, female statues, figures of Persephone and Hecate, a statue of a priestess of Dodona with a dove on her shoulder, and mirrors with brazen handles and backs have all been found[243]. This custom of interring valuables with the deceased was very old. When the so-called grave of Alcmene was opened by Agesilaus, there were discovered within, a small brazen armlet and two jars, containing earth which had become petrified. This grave must have been dug in very ancient times, for tablets of brass were found within written in unintelligible characters[244]. This practice of burying various articles with the dead must have continued during the best period of art in Greece. That fact is attested by the workmanship of the vases that have been exhumed. They are many of them of the finest quality and artistic excellence. The custom however, had died out before the Christian era, for the colonists whom Caesar had sent out to restore Corinth, in moving the ruins and digging open the sepulchres, came across works of pottery and brass, the workmanship of which was greatly admired and the vessels sold readily at fabulous prices as curiosities[245].