172 ON RAINS CAVE, LONGCLIFFE, DERBYSHIRE. 



once formed a part was rather unusual. The mouth was 7 in. 

 across ; the lip recurved, but the neck short ; and the sides so 

 upright that the upper portion of the vessel must have had a 

 jar-like appearance. At about 4 in. below the shoulder, the sides 

 took a rapid curve inwards, suggesting a rounded flat bottom. 

 The decoration is sufficiently elaborate to warrant our regarding 

 the vessel as sepulchral. The upper surface of the lip has two 

 rows of straight punctures, apparently produced by a small chip 

 of wood impressed in a slanting direction. The outer edge has 

 a row of finger-nail impressions. The lower part of the shoulder 

 has a row of small gashes. The upper part of the body 

 has another row of finger-nail impressions. The middle portion 

 of the body is decorated with more or less vertical grooves, made 

 by a bluntly pointed object stroked over the surface ; and the 

 lower portion has several irregular rows of oblique impressions, 

 perhaps of the same object. The superficial colour is a dusky 

 brown, and the paste is mixed with broken spar or limestone. 



Fig. 2 is a curious perforated cylinder of similar texture and 

 colour as the last, close by which it was also found. It is in 

 length 3I in., and diameter about 2^ in. : and the perforation, 

 which is circular, is about ^ in. in diameter, but it slightly 

 contracts towards the middle of the cylinder. The imprint of the 

 fingers of the hand that shaped it can still be traced, and even 

 the grain of the skin. Several fragments of another cylinder of 

 similar size were found near the above. I have been unable to 

 obtain any clue as to the use of these objects. Mr. Franks, 

 F.S.A., informs me that there are only two objects at all like 

 them in the British Museum — the one was found at Long 

 Wittenham, Berks., and the other in a barrow at Shefford, in the 

 same county, and associated with two vessels of British pottery 

 and some flint scrapers. 



Most of the otlier fragments of pottery were either plain, or, 

 when decorated, too small to enable one to form much idea 

 of the vessels of which they once formed part. The few hand- 

 made potsherds found so near the surface as to suggest a much 

 more recent origin, were, like the curious earthen cauldron 



