PARISH OF GOODMANHAM. 307 



way it narrowed to the width of the cover,, if indeed that 

 ever quite closed the mouth, it is impossible to say, and it is 

 difficult to understand how any vessel in shape like the ordinary 

 sepulchral ones could have narrowed to the extent required for 

 the cover to fit the mouth. The vase is 3Jin. wide at the bottom, 

 the cover being 2 Jin. wide. The ornamentation, so much of it 

 as is left, is confined to the lowest part, and occupies a space 

 |- in. deep ; it consists of an encircling band of two rows of tri- 

 angular impressions, the bases being in juxtaposition, and the 

 whole forming a lozenge-shaped mark divided through the 

 centre ; below are two sets, each of three encircling lines of very 

 minute thong-impressions. The cover, which is conical, will be 

 best understood from the figure; the triangular-shaped impres- 

 sions upon it are made by the same tool as those on the vessel 

 just above described. It is evident, when the composition and 

 colour of the paste as well as the style of ornament and the way 

 in which the pattern has been applied are all taken into con- 

 sideration, that these several articles of fictile ware have proceeded 

 from the hand of the same artist, and that a very skilful one and 

 possessed of much taste and judgment. They afford indeed very 

 conclusive evidence of the perfection to which in some respects 

 these people had brought the fabrication of pottery. It might 

 be thought that the vessels in question belonged to a later time 

 than that during which the ordinary sepulchral ware of the barrows 

 was manufactured, and indeed it is possible that they may have 

 been made during the latter part of that period. Their superiority 

 however may be equally due to individual skill and taste, and they 

 may have been produced at the same time as other and much ruder 

 specimens of the potter's art. It is no uncommon occurrence to 

 find in the same barrow, and under circumstances which show that 

 the several vessels are the products of the same period, some which 

 evidence abundant skill, whilst others might have been made by 

 the veriest tyro in the trade. On the whole it is probable that the 

 vessels in question were produced at a time when the cultivation of 

 the people of the wolds had reached its highest developement ante^ 

 cedent to the introduction of iron, and before the corresponding 

 advantages attending the use of that metal had brought about a 

 still further advance in the arts and appliances of life. The orna- 

 mentation, though it has been most skilfully disposed and possesses 

 something of an individual character, is nevertheless such as does 

 not separate itself in any marked way from the usual forms and 



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