PARISH OF DODDINGTON. 411 



contents having- been preserved. In some of these disturbed grave- 

 mounds I found portions of cinerary urns and burnt bones, and I 

 should be inclined to think, judging- from the remains still left in 

 them, that the burials had been principally after cremation. Cists 

 containing unburnt bodies, placed in the ground without any 

 apparent grave-hill above them, have also been met with by casual 

 discoveries from deep ploughing or in the course of other agri- 

 cultural operations. The most remarkable of them, so far as I 

 know, was one of which the contents have come into my possession 

 through the kindness of the late Rev. William Proctor, junior, of 

 Doddington, to whom the archseological world is deeply indebted 

 for the discovery of many of the circular-marked rocks in the 

 district, as well as for their careful preservation. 



CLXXXIX. The cist was found, June 21, 1867, in a sandy 

 knoll, upon the slope of the hill rising from the river Till, and in 

 close proximity to one of the rocks engraved with the circular 

 markings. It lay east and west, being 3 J ft. long and 3 ft. wide, 

 and was made of five side stones with a sixth as a cover. The body, 

 one of small size but probably of a man between 24 and 30 

 years of age, was placed in it on the right side, with the head to W. 

 The person in this cist had apparently been interred in a leathern 

 dress, parts of which showing the stitching were still existing 

 at the time of the opening of the grave. Close to the head was 

 what must probably be classed as a food vessel, though of peculiar 

 form [fig. 78]. It is 6| in. high, 7 in, wide at the mouth, and 

 3 in. at the bottom. Just below the rim are four handles. It is 

 ornamented on that part immediately below the handles with a 

 band of four rows of lines arranged herring-bone fashion, above and 

 below which are three encircling lines; the pattern does not 

 however quite surround the vessel, apparently through an ac- 

 cidental failure of the impression ; one of the handles has a chevron 

 pattern upon it ; the whole of the lines have been made by a sharp- 

 pointed tool rather irregularly drawn over the moist clay. There 

 were also found in the cist a chipping of flint and a knife of the 

 same material, carefully flaked along one edge (which is slightly 

 curved) and at the point. It is in general form very like fig. 145, 

 and is 2 J in. long and 1J in. wide at the broadest part; the one 

 face remains as it was when struck off from the core, the other, 

 which is convex, has been partly chipped over, and has still some 

 of the original white skin of the flint nodule left upon it. 



