238 Cinerary Urn Found at Xewtonrigg. 



Andson and Mr J. Lennox ; Curators of Herbarium, Mr Scott- 

 Elliot and Miss Hannay ; Ordinary Members, Dr Maxwell Ross, 

 Dr Martin, and Messrs J. S. Thomson, J. Davidson, S. Arnott, 

 and Dr Semple, and Misses Hannay and Cresswell. 



14tli November, 1902. 



Chairman, Mr James Barbour, Vice-President. 



New Ordinary Member. — Sir Herbert Maxwell, M.P. 



I. — Cinerary Urn found at Newtonrigg, Holywood, in 



Cairn Valley Railway Cutting, May, 1901. 



By Dr J. W. Martin. 



In this paper Dr Martin gave a description of a Cinerary 

 Urn, which was found by one of the workmen engaged in the 

 construction of the Cairn Valley Railway. He exhibited the 

 fragments, and gave an interesting description, of which the 

 following is a summary : — 



The urn had unfortunately been shattered by a workman's 

 pick before it was observed. It was found on a somewhat 

 flattened-out knoll, which is level at the top and overgrown with 

 trees, at a depth of three and a half or four feet, embedded in 

 loose earth, with no evidence of a cist or cairn. It had the 

 appearance of a solitary burial, the body having first been re- 

 duced to ashes. The urn was of clay, probably baked, sun 

 dried, and not wheel made. Particles of sand were mixed with 

 the clay, which was yellow without and black in the inside. It 

 broke with a coarse fracture. The diameter would probably be 

 8f inches across the mouth, and the clay was five-eighths of an 

 inch thick at the lip, narrowing as the vessel sloped inwards to a 

 thickness of three-eighths of an inch. There was a slight bead 

 ornament round both the top and bottom of the broad flat band 

 which formed the top of the urn. It contained numerous small 

 fragments of human bones, apparently those of an adult female. 

 Tt was undoubtedly an example of ancient British burial, 

 probablv pre-Roman, and, of course, pagan. 



