A HISTORY OF NORTHAMPTONSHIRE 



obtained from a cemetery at Mount Batten' near Plymouth in 1865 

 is figured in Archaologia, vol. xl. plate xxx., one found at Sandy in 

 Bedfordshire is now in a museum at Bedford, another one in the 

 Gloucester Museum* was found near Birdlip Hill on the Cotswolds. 

 The fourth came from some graves in the parish of St. Keverne in 

 Cornwall, and the engraved pattern on the back of this specimen 

 so closely resembles that on the locket of the Hunsbury sword-sheath 

 that it might have been executed by the same artist. The last one 

 is in the Mayer collection at Liverpool ; it is not known whether it 

 was found in England. There are also a bronze pin, 3I inches long, 

 having a twist in the shank which is peculiar to this period ; a similar 

 shaped pin was found in the so-called Danes' Graves near Driffield, only 

 the ring part bore traces of enamel ; a spoon supposed to have been used 

 for medicinal purposes ; four rings (two of which are ornamented with 

 knobs) belonging to horse harness ; there are several of this kind in the 

 British Museum among the Polden Hill remains, and another from 

 Hamden Hill is figured in vol. xxi. of Archaologia ; fragments of an 

 article the use of which is not determined ; this is a hollow ring enclosing 

 a circle of 2\ inches in diameter, which was filled with a thin plate of 

 perforated bronze ; two whetstones, one having a hole for suspension ; 

 light spindle whorls of various kinds of stone ; and remains of more than 

 100 beehive querns or millstones, some having an iron drill fixed in 

 them, which held the two portions together when grinding ; and in several 

 pits were found remains of charred corn. 



Up to the time of the excavations at Hunsbury the majority of 

 the ancient British pottery found in Britain was obtained from burial 

 places and for the most part belonged to the Bronze age. This 

 pottery it is usual to classify or arrange in four groups, which have 

 already been mentioned in dealing with the Bronze age. Now nearly 

 all the pottery from our camp was for domestic purposes with the 

 exception of two small vessels like the so-called incense cups — these 

 are small shallow vessels not unlike salt cellars in form ; they are both 

 ornamented with rude indentations — and one other vessel which also 

 throws back as it were to the Bronze age. This resembles in shape 

 some of the drinking cups figured in Jewitt's Ceramic Art : the lower 

 portion is globular and ornamented with an incised pattern, it is contracted 

 in the middle and slightly expands at the mouth ; it is of much ruder 

 make than those drinking cups of the Bronze age which the writer has 

 seen. Of the ornamented earthenware fragments some seem to have had 

 more care bestowed upon their manufacture than others. These are of a 

 finer substance coated with a glossy pigment. The material of these 

 bowls is not unlike that of the cinerary pots from Aylesford, though the 

 shapes found at Hunsbury are wholly absent at Aylesford ; only at 

 Glastonbury do we find anything approaching in quantity and nature or 

 decoration the collection of pottery from Hunsbury ; it seems to be of a 



* Vol. rxx. of the Anhaologual J oumal, p. 467. » Vol. xxvi. of the Anttquarf, p. 70. 



150 



