438 NORTHUMBERLAND. 



bones, those of an adult ; above it was placed a whinstone boulder, 

 rounded in form and nearly 2ft. in diameter, which was packed 

 closely round with smaller stones. The rim of the urn was 4ft. 

 below the surface of the ground. Amongst the bones was an 

 unburnt flint knife of a square form, l|-in. long- and l^in. wide, 

 and finely chipped along the edge opposite to that where the bulb 

 shows the blow had been applied to detach the flake, out of which it is 

 made, from the core. The urn [fig. 57] is an unusually fine specimen 

 of a cinerary vessel, and one which presents some peculiarities, the 

 form being rather that of a tall ' food vessel ' than of a cinerary urn. 

 It is 9J in. high, 8 in. wide at the rim, and 4J in. at the bottom ; 

 and the whole surface is covered with ornamentation. The inside 

 of the lip (one inch deep) has a pattern consisting of alternate series 

 of vertical and horizontal lines, the same pattern being repeated on 

 the outside of the rim ; below this, for a space of 2f in. in depth, 

 the pattern is formed of lines arranged herring-bone fashion ; and 

 from thence to the bottom of the urn the markings are irregular, 

 forming no very distinct figure. All the impressions have been 

 made by the application of closely-twisted thong. Ten feet north- 

 west of the cist was a second cinerary urn, also reversed, and, like 

 the first, covered by a whinstone boulder 17 in. long by 16 in. wide ; 

 it was filled with the burnt bones of a full-grown person. The urn 

 [fig. 59] is 15 in. high, 13 in. wide at the mouth, and 4 in. at the 

 bottom, and possesses the rare feature of having raised bands upon 

 the rim 1 ; these have been applied when the clay had become partly 

 dried, the union in consequence not being very complete. Fourteen 

 feet from the cist already noted was a second, lying east-south-east 

 and west-north-west, 3 ft. 7 in. long, 2 ft. 9 in. wide, and 1 ft. 4 in. 

 deep. It was formed with six slabs of sandstone and a cover, 5 ft. 

 by 3 ft. 5 in., which was placed 14 in. below the natural surface ; 

 the bottom was paved with small pebble-stones. There were no 

 traces of bone remaining in this cist also. Six feet south-south- 

 west of the first was a third cist, with an east and west direction, 

 made with six stones set on edge and two cover-stones, the upper 



1 Cinerary urns with raised bands have occurred in the north of England and the 

 south of Scotland, though by no means frequently. I possess one found many years 

 ago near Ford, Northumberland. One discovered at Spottiswood, Berwickshire, is 

 figured in the Proc. of the Society of Ant. of Scotland, vol. v. pi. ix ; and another 

 from Belhelvie, Fifeshire, is engraved at p. 13, Cat. of Exhibition of the Edinburgh 

 Meeting of the Archseol. Institute. One, having a raised chevron pattern, is noticed 

 by Pennant, as having been discovered near Banff, filled with burnt bones. Tour in 

 Scotland, p. 140. pi. xii. A very fine one, found, in enlarging the reservoir for the 

 Sunderland Water- works, on Humbleton Hill, is noticed in the text, p. 440. 



