84 INTRODUCTION. 



most commonly with the latter. They are by far the most frequent 

 of the sepulchral vessels met with in the barrows of the wolds. In 

 the 73 cases where they have occurred in that series of barrows, 

 they were all, with the exception of 16, associated with unburnt 

 bodies, and these 16 include 9 which were not of a purely 'food 

 vessel ' type. The proportion has not been so great, though still 

 very large, being 12 with unburnt to 5 with burnt bodies, in the 

 barrows I have opened in other parts of England ; and the same 

 appears to have been the case in the Derbyshire and Staffordshire 

 barrows, in which Mr. Bateman and Mr. Carrington discovered 

 25, and of these 19 were placed with unburnt bodies. In the large 

 series of Cleveland barrows, however, in which, as has already been 

 mentioned, Mr. Atkinson met with no burials by inhumation, 

 though the number of burnt bodies he found was very great, there 

 was not one which had a distinctive ' food vessel ' accompanying 

 it. They seem to have been very rarely met with, in the south of 

 England; and they are of infrequent occurrence in East-Anglia, 

 where the kindred ' drinking cup J is also, but not commonly, found. 

 Two or three vessels, which probably answered the same purpose 

 as this class is supposed to have done, were all that were discovered 

 by Sir R. Colt Hoare in Wiltshire ; nor do they appear to have 

 been more frequently found in Dorsetshire and the other south- 

 western counties. They are, however, common in the northern 

 parts of England, as they are in Scotland. In Ireland they are 

 also numerous, many of them being artistically made and very 

 beautifully ornamented. 



When they are deposited with burials after cremation, they do 

 not contain any of the bones, but are placed sometimes amongst 

 them, but more frequently upon or at the side of them l . There 

 is no difference in the form or style of ornament between those 

 found with burnt and those found with unburnt bodies. 



They vary in size from about 3 in. to 8 in. in height, and are more 

 diversified in shape than those of any other class. The prevail- 

 ing type is one which is in form like figs. 69, 70, 71, sometimes, 

 but not always, contracting towards the mouth. This type has 

 frequently projecting knobs or ears, of a greater or less number, 

 placed round the shoulder of the vase, which are sometimes 



1 Mr. Bateman, speaking of one, says, ' It is of that class of vessel indifferently 

 deposited with human remains, burnt or unburnt, and which may probably have con- 

 tained food or drink, but never the remains, as is the case with cinerary urns.' Ten 

 Years' Diggings, p. l 



