106 INTRODUCTION. 



so temporarily), it might be drunk from, for the thinness of the 

 walls and its shape make it not unsuitable for that purpose. 

 But if it is on the whole better fired, and in consequence harder, 

 than the other classes, many of these 'cups' are, nevertheless, 

 much too porous to enable any liquid to be retained for more 

 than a very short time. As vessels for eating from they would 

 be most inconvenient, on account of their height and comparative 

 narrowness. 



The profuseness of ornament, which is lavished upon even 

 the least highly decorated of these several vessels, is a fact which 

 seems to be more in favour of their sepulchral than of their 

 domestic intention. It is not probable that the amount of labour 

 which must have been bestowed upon them would have been 

 expended on utensils for daily use, and such as must necessarily 

 have been subjected to various accidents almost every hour. On 

 the contrary, it is just what we would naturally look for in vessels 

 intended to be associated with the dead, about whose burial no 

 expenditure of time or labour was thought too great. The special 

 manufacture of vessels to be deposited with the dead has prevailed 

 in other countries, abundant evidence of which is found for 

 instance in Greek and Etruscan tombs. In our own country 

 we find the practice to have been common at a time long sub- 

 sequent to that of the barrows of the wolds. The narrow-necked 

 and frequently highly ornamented urns, which contain the burnt 

 remains of those whom the late Mr. Kemble justly considered the 

 pagan Anglo-Saxons, are certainly sepulchral in their origin as 

 well as in their use. 



But perhaps the strongest objection to their having fulfilled 

 a purpose in the household, is the fact that they possess but 

 little in common with the pottery, which, without much doubt, 

 is domestic [figs. 91, 92]. It is true that not very much of this 

 has been discovered, but quite enough has been found to enable 

 us to judge pretty accurately of its character. It has not indeed 

 been proved conclusively that the people who occupied the hut 

 circles and pit dwellings were those who erected the barrows so 

 often met with in close proximity to them, but if we may judge, 

 as I think we fairly may, from the identity of the flint imple- 

 ments found in each, there can be little doubt that they were, 

 the one the dwelling-place, the other the burial-place of the 

 same people. Now the pottery which has been discovered on 

 the site of dwelling-places is a dark-coloured, hard-baked, perfectly 



