144 ANNALS OF SCOTTISH NATURAL HISTORY 



these burials. 1 For the most part they have been thin blades, 

 leaf-like or triangular in form, and either with or without a 

 tang for the attachment of a handle. From their shape they 

 might have been used as spear-heads, daggers, or knives. 

 Not unfrequently the surfaces of the blade were ornamented 

 with a punctated or incised pattern. Sometimes bronze pins, 

 rings, and bracelets have been obtained from these interments. 

 It should, however, be stated that the bronze articles and 

 ornaments of gold found in association with the burials are 

 of a more simple character, and present less variety in form, 

 purpose, and decoration than those which have been got in 

 hoards in various parts of Scotland. It would seem, therefore, 

 as if the people of this period, even if they were in possession 

 of such finished and beautifully decorated swords, bucklers, 

 axes, and bronze vessels as have been got in the hoards just 

 referred to, did not deposit them in the graves of their deceased 

 friends and relatives. It may be, however, that the simpler 

 articles found in the interments represent a period in the 

 Bronze Age earlier than that in which the art of making the 

 more elaborate articles had been acquired, when perhaps the 

 custom of depositing grave goods had been more or less 

 departed from. 



Cinerary urns are not the only utensils formed of baked 

 clay to which the term urn has been applied, and archaeologists 

 recognise by the names of " incense cups," " food vessels," and 

 " drinking cups " three other varieties. 



The examples of so-called incense cups are not numerous 

 in Scotland ; they were associated with cremation interments 

 and have usually been contained in cinerary urns ; they are 

 the smallest of all the varieties of urn, and are as a rule from 

 2 to 3 inches high, and about 3 inches wide. In one speci- 

 men from Genoch, Ayrshire, the cup possessed a movable lid. 

 Not unfrequently the outer surface was patterned with hori- 

 zontal, vertical, and zig-zag arrangements of lines. In a few 

 cases the sides were perforated as if to allow the escape of 

 fumes, and it is probably from this character, as well as from 

 their small size which fitted them for being easily carried in 

 the hand, that they have been termed incense cups. The 

 burning of incense would, however, imply, on the part of the 



1 "Scotland in Pagan Times." 



