DRINKING CUPS. 173 



ancient dwelling-places. It is formed of the same material 

 as that found in the tumuli, but is of different and plainer 

 forms, and generally entirely without ornament. The pottery 

 of the pre-Eoman tumuli is very distinctive, and differs in 

 material, form, colour, and mode of decoration, both from that 

 of the Eoman and of the Anglo-Saxon periods. It is, I believe 

 I may say invariably, hand-made; and is never artificially 

 coloured. 



Numerous as are the varieties of pottery found in ante- 

 Eoman tumuli, they appear (so far, at any rate, as those 

 discovered by Mr. Bateman are concerned) to have been all 

 made by hand, without any assistance from the potter's wheel; 

 they are formed of clay tempered with sand, and often with 

 pebbles ; they very rarely have handles, and spouts seem to 

 have been unknown ; the ornaments consist of straight lines, 

 dots, or marks, as if a cord had been impressed on the soft 

 clay; circular or curved lines are rare, nor is there the slightest 

 attempt to copy any animal or plant. In some cases it is 

 obvious that woven fabrics have been impressed on the clay 

 while still soft, and we thus obtain proof of the existence of 

 pre-historic textile fabrics, the actual specimens of which have 

 long ceased to exist.* 



As a general rule the megalithic monuments are constructed 

 of rough stones neither hewn nor ornamented. Lately, how- 

 ever, several instances of engravings have been observed. In 

 the north of England and in Scotland these generally take 

 the form of cups, spirals, circles with a dot in the middle, or 

 incomplete circles with a dot in the middle, or incomplete 

 circles with a line running from the centre through the 

 interval, as in fig. IGl.-f- We have as yet no satisfactory 



* See, for instance, Holmes, Rep. Sculpturings of Cups and Concen- 



of U. S. Bur. of Ethnology, 1881. trie Rings, etc. Proc. S. of Anti- 



f See Tate on the Sculptured quaries of Scotland, vol. vi. 1867. 



Rocks of Northumberland, 1865. The monuments described by Mr. 



Sir J. Y. Simpson on Ancient Stuart, in his great work on the 



