SEPULCHRAL POTTERY. 127 



with deposits of burnt bones ; but their use is still a matter of 

 conjecture, and the name is merely conventional. 



The drinking cups, or beakers, are considered to be the earliest, 

 and are on the whole the most graceful of the various types. 

 The food vessels vary greatly in shape, but are never very large, 

 while cinerary urns exhibit the utmost variety of construction, 

 size, and design ; there are several distinct types, the height 

 varying from 5 or 6 inches to 24 inches, or even more. 



The Dorset barrows have yielded very few specimens of 

 drinking cups, and as a result our collection contains only two 

 or three examples, Nos. 93, in ; but we are fortunate in having a 

 considerable number of food vessels, such as Nos. 52, 64, 101, 

 1 14, and 115. Incense cups are represented by a few interesting 

 specimens, but all more or less injured, Nos. 25, 71, 90, and 125 ; 

 and out of the large number of cinerary urns it will be sufficient 

 to refer to a few typical examples of the different varieties. 

 ( i ) Those with overhanging or moulded rims, which may be said 

 to consist of three members, an upper rim, a neck, and the bod} 7 ; 

 Nos. 2, 22, 37, 38, 78, and no. (2) Those which may be 

 described as consisting of two truncated cones joined at their 

 bases, barrel shape, and provided with loop handles or knobs ; 

 Nos. 34, 87. (3) Those with straight sides, cylindrical, or 

 nearly so, Nos. 4, 5, 46, 75, 79, and 112 ; and (4) globular, such 

 as Nos. 8, 9, 1 1, 42, 43, and 49. 



Although simple burial of the body in a contracted position 

 appears to have preceded the custom of cremation, Mr. Bateman, 

 in his book " Antiquities of Derbyshire," gives a table presenting 

 the characteristic features of both kinds of sepulture, practised at 

 the same period ; and to show how difficult it would be to draw 

 reliable conclusions as to the relative dates of Dorset barrows 

 merely from the character of the burial, I will refer to an excava- 

 tion made by Mr. Warne at Dewlish. The barrow contained 

 evidence of at least seven distinct interments, five of which were 

 cremations, and two of unburnt bodies. The earliest, i.e., the 

 lowest, burial was in a cinerary urn, elegantly shaped and of 

 compact texture, "the most beautiful specimen," says Mr. Warne, 



