By Mrs. M. E. Gunnington. 11 



earth was a little reddened and discoloured as if by fire, and there 

 were a few specks of charcoal ; but the traces of fire were slight, 

 and quite local. The vessel might be chosen as typical of a cinerary 

 urn from its general shape and heavy overhanging rim, which 

 latter feature Canon Greenwell says may be regarded as the 

 principal characteristic of this class of urn.^ But in spite of its 

 form, as it contained no bones or ashes, one is forced to the con- 

 clusion that it may have served the purpose of a food vessel, and 

 that it had probably contained some form of food offering made 

 to the dead at some time subsequent to the burial, and during or 

 after the piling up of the barrow. 



There are several recorded instances where urns of a characteristic 

 cinerary type have apparently been used to contain food offerings 

 instead of the more usual form of food vessel or di-inking cup f 

 there are also instances where the food offering appears to have 

 been placed at a considerable distance from the resting-place of 

 him to whose service it was dedicated.^ 



About a foot beneath the urn there were a few broken and 

 much decayed bones, about one-half in quantity and similar in 

 character to those found in front of the skeleton ; this gave rise 

 to the hope that there was another interment somewhere near, but 

 the hope proved groundless, and it seems possible that this had 

 also been a food offering of a date later than that of the burial. 



The Grape Cup was found behind the neck within a few inches 

 of the shoulders — so close, indeed, that some of the vertebrae had 



' Sritish Barrows,'' p. 68. 



- " On Langton Wold, and in a few cases, a vessel which is in every respect 

 of form and ornament a cinerary urn was placed close to an unburnt body," 

 British Barrows, p. 62. " Not infrequently a food vessel is of the cinerary 

 urn type, though its size is that of an ordinary food vessel. And in rare 

 instances a real cinerary urn, both in size and type, seems to have been used 

 as a food vessel, and placed near a heap of burnt bones, and not containing 

 them," J. E. Mortimer, Burial Mounds of East Yorkshire, p. liv. 



^ Mr. J. R. Mortimer says : — " We have in several instances found vases 

 which had every appearance of having been deposited with food in them, 

 where no trace of an interment could be discovered," Burial Mounds of East 

 Yorkshi)-e, p. 55 (note) ; see also jijrf,pp.l07. 314 (Barrow 247), 316 (Barrow 

 250), 323 (barrow c. 90.) 



