A guide to the antiquities of the bronze age in the Department of British and mediæval antiquities . uently found. In shape anddecoration they vaiy considerably, but are generally pierced inone or more places as if to assist combustion. The more 46 DESCRIPTION OP CASES 12-20 characteristic forms are illustrated and many have loops forsuspension, while in some cases the bottom is ornamented withcruciform and other designs similar to those already referred tooncertain •food-vessels, but which are in all probability devoid ofany special significance. As some specimens are unpierced, it isunHlvely
A guide to the antiquities of the bronze age in the Department of British and mediæval antiquities . uently found. In shape anddecoration they vaiy considerably, but are generally pierced inone or more places as if to assist combustion. The more 46 DESCRIPTION OP CASES 12-20 characteristic forms are illustrated and many have loops forsuspension, while in some cases the bottom is ornamented withcruciform and other designs similar to those already referred tooncertain •food-vessels, but which are in all probability devoid ofany special significance. As some specimens are unpierced, it isunHlvely that they were used for incense, even if we suppose incensewas then procurable, but the same objection is valid against theiruse as braziers to carry sacred fire from the family hearth to thefuneral pyre ; and the perforations negative the idea that theywere used as lamps. Whatever their use, they seem in nearlyevery case to have been placed in the grave after the ijody hadbeen reduced to ashes. Though found throughout Britain andIreland, they occur Vjiit rarely in Dorset and the neighbouring. ^ cr rrrrr// U^-^^ Fig. 17.—Ineense-cup,Roughridge Hill, Wilts, ft districts to the north and west, and so far as is known arealtogether wanting on the Continent, though a few similarspecimens are recorded from tombs in the Channel Islands. Cases 12, 13. The gloljular cinerary urn from Lambourn Downs, here illus-trated (fig. 18), belongs to a type found also in Dorset (Case 16),and has a chevron pattern barely discernible, as well as lugs orbosses round the shoulder. A specimen from Ashford (fig. 19), ofsimilar form, shows a pair of holes bored near the brim to repaira crack before its deposit in the earth ; and other examples of thispractice are shown froin Middlesex, Dorset, Wilts, and Berks.(Case 15). This is one of an interesting series of urns shown hereand below the main shelf in Cases They were all found onthe common between Ashford and Sunbur}^ Middlesex, arrangedin
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1900, bookdecade1900, bookidcu3192402992, bookyear1904
