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prominent spot on the Downs or on other high land ; as a rule 

 a trench was next dug round the grave at a distance of some, 15, 

 20, or 30 feet from the interment, and the whole of the material 

 got out of the ditch was thrown over the grave, and so the burial 

 mound was formed. 



These cinerary urns are of varying shapes and sizes, their 

 capacities ranging from less than a pint to more than a bushel. 



In'cense Cups or Immolation Urns. — Very frequently 

 small vessels of pottery which rarely exceed two inches in height are 

 discovered with cremated interments; sometimes they are within the 

 mouths of the larger cinerary urns, sometimes standing close by 

 them, and at other times they are the only accompaniments of 

 interments which have not been deposited in urns. 



The probable use of these little vessels is a moot question. 

 Many archaeologists term them incense cups under the supposi- 

 tion that they were the receptacles of incense burnt at the time of 

 the cremation of the body. The forms of some certainly suggest 

 that they were used for the purpose of burning some substance or 

 other, and it may be that the sacred fire was carried in them to 

 ignite the funeral pile. As they frequently contain burnt bones, 

 another view as to their use has been promulgated, to the effect 

 that they were intended to receive the ashes of infants sacrificed 

 at the death of the mother, hence the name Immolation Urns. 



Drinking Cups. — Perhaps the highest class of the Bronze 

 Age pottery consists of the so-called drinking cups found with 

 interments of this period. When discovered they contain no 

 substance other than the material in which they are buried. 

 Many specimens, though, are stained or encrusted up to a certain 

 level, and the opinion is that they contained some liquid placed 

 with the dead. When these vessels are discovered with the 

 crouched skeletons they generally occupy a position at the feet, 

 as may be seen from the illustrations in the volumes of 

 " Pitt-River's Excavations." 



Food Vessels. — The so-called food vessels form another 

 type of pottery principally accompanying unburnt bodies of this 

 period. Like the drinking cups, they are usually found standing 

 upright, and, where the mouths have been protected in such a way 

 as to prevent any material falling into them, they are generally 

 quite empty. Some, however, contain a little dirt or decayed 

 organic matter, and they are supposed to have contained offerings 

 of food placed with the dead. They are elaborately ornamented, 

 even more so than the drinking cups. These two types of 

 pottery, the drinking cup and the food vessel, seem, according to 

 Dr. Thurnam's views, to have belonged to what we may term 

 the table ware of the Bronze Age Britons. 



Ornamentation. — Another interesting feature of the 

 pottery of this period is the ornamentation which consists princi- 

 pally of patterns of dots and straight and curved lines. 



