122 



§ix t|e ^ttckttt &e d a small Clag Cuj, 

 fomti nniv Coujijton in Wiivfakltrfre, 



AND COMPAKISON OF IT WITH StONE YeSSELS OF A SIMILAR SIZE FOUND 



IN Orkney, and Collateral Elucidation of the use of clay 



VESSELS called Incense Cups, discovered in the Barrows of 



Wiltshire and elsewhere. 



By the Rev. A. fl. "Winnington Ingeam, F.G.S., Hon. Canon. 



^^SHE cup represented in its actual size, plate I., fig. 1, was 

 fflMII found four feet below the surface in a gravel-pit on the 

 bank of the river Arrow, near the village of Cough ton, Warwickshire. 

 It is of rude workmanship, and made of coarse gritty pottery, 

 projecting at the sides into three ears perforated with holes, through 

 which some ligament has doubtless been inserted for the convenience 

 of carrying or suspending it. I dismiss the idea that it was em- 

 ployed as a drinking vessel because its cavity, only I5 inch in 

 depth, seems too shallow to favour that supposition. The opinion 

 which I have formed concerning its use after comparing it with 

 the stone vessels, plate I., figs. 2, 3, placed in my hands at 

 Edinburgh by the courtesy of Mr. Macculloch, the Curator of the 

 Museum of Antiquaries of Scotland where they are preserved, is, 

 that it, and the hollowed stone, plate I., fig. 4, found in Aberdeen- 

 shire, and clay cups of a similar depth of cavity, and diameter of 

 orifice, such as the vessels called incense cups, a specimen of which 

 found also in Aberdeenshire, is represented plate I., fig 5, serve for 

 the purpose of containing pigment which was mingled in them 

 by the primitive races of our island, with a view to staining their 

 bodies. The custom of body-painting in Britain in ancient times, 

 seems to have extended to both sexes. Caesar (Com. V. 14.), informs 

 us that the Britons dyed their bodies with woad to give themselves 

 a bluish colour and become more terrible in battle. Pliny, (Nat. 

 Hist, xxii., 2) writes, " There is a plant in Gaul called by the name 



