Like all pottery of this period, it is hand-made, the paste contain- 

 ing small fragments of pounded shells. This latter ingredient and 

 the method of manufacture are the principal characteristics of the 

 Stone Age pottery. 



Owing to its extreme rarity, but few museums are the fortunate 

 possessors of these fragmentary relics of the Neolithic potter's 

 art. However, through the kindness of a great friend, I am 

 enabled to lay before you two pieces of this interesting ware. 

 They were found with others lying underneath the previously 

 undisturbed chalk silting on the bottom of the ditch of a long 

 barrow on Handley Down, Dorset. Another fragment identical in 

 quality to these was found near the primary interment ; and, 

 judging by the results of very critical tests afterwards applied by 

 General Pitt Rivers to ascertain the rate of the disintegration 

 of the sides of the ditch and the consequent accumulation of 

 silting at the bottom, there seems no question as to their being of 

 the same age as the barrow itself. Furthermore, I can personally 

 vouch for their authenticity, as it was my good fortune to conduct 

 the excavation of the barrow in question, and to be present during 

 the whole time that the work was in progress. 



Method of Manufacture. — In the endeavour to unravel 

 the knotty problems which beset the scientist in his study of the 

 arts and customs of prehistoric races, he has frequently found the 

 elucidation of many obscure points by turning his attention to the 

 study of savage life, and of the peoples who retain in their habits 

 and arts the survivals from primitive ancestors. The value of this 

 comparative study is well exemplified in the case of stone imple- 

 ments ; and it may not be inopportune to adopt the same plan in 

 dealing with the probable methods employed by the Stone Age 

 race in the manufacture of their pottery This will also form an 

 excellent preliminary to our consideration of the pottery of the 

 succeeding period — the Bronze Age. 



The material illustrations of hand-made pottery which I have 

 selected from the museum collections for this purpose, are two 

 Hebridean " craggans," and a pot made by West African savages 

 in the Hinterland of Sierra Leone. The two former were actually 

 used as late as 1896 by the inhabitants of the Hebrides. They 

 were presented to the Museum by Mr. A. F. Griffith, and were 

 obtained from crofts or huts near Barvas in the Isle of Lewis, N.B. 

 Until thirty years ago there was little communication between 

 these islands and the mainland ; and, in their daily life, the 

 inhabitants retained habits which were of the most barbaric 

 simplicity. Time does not admit of anything like a description 

 of this interesting people, so I must restrict myself to the con- 

 sideration of their pottery. 



It appears that the making of this class of pottery fell to the 

 lot of the Hebridean women. The process of manufacture has 

 been so well described by Dr. Sir Arthur Mitchell, that I cannot 



