POTTERY OF THE BAEROWS. 65 



brownish yellow, and at times of a grey tone ; it ranges, however, 

 through all the intermediate tints, and in the better-burnt speci- 

 mens is sometimes almost red. The fracture shows that the firing" 

 has been almost always very imperfect, the inside, except in some 

 of the thinner ware, being usually black. There is no instance 

 where any process of artificial colouring appears to have been em- 

 ployed ^ ; nor has there been ever seen any appearance of true glazing. 

 Upon most of the ' drinking -cups,' and also upon some of the other 

 vessels, there is however found a polished surface which almost 

 amounts to glazing. This may have been produced by rubbing 

 the hand over the partially-dried vase, but more probably by the 

 use of a smooth stone, or an implement of bone like fig. 35. 



The ornamentation of the pottery, which will however be con- 

 sidered more in detail under the description of each class of vessel, 

 has never been found to exhibit any representation of animal or 

 vegetable form. It consists principally of combinations of straight 

 lines in an almost inconceivable variety. The patterns have been 

 made by a sharp-pointed instrument drawn over the moist clay; by 

 stamping with a narrow piece of bone or hard wood, cut into alter- 

 nate raised and sunk squares, or simply notched ; by rows of dotted 

 markings, round, oval, and triangular, of greater or less size; by 

 the impression of the finger nails ; and most commonly by impres- 

 sions of a twisted thong, generally made of a strip of hide, but cer- 

 tainly in many cases of string manufactured out of some vegetable* 

 fibre, and consisting in some cases of two if not three plaits. 

 Curved lines and circular markings, though they occur now and 

 then, are uncommon, the pattern being generally made up of straight 

 lines arranged in cross, zigzag, chevron, saltire, reticulated, and 

 herring-bone fashion. 



It has been suggested that the ornamentation originated in an 

 imitation of basket-work, for the manufacture of which Britain was 

 celebvated ; the hascauda, largely exported in lloman times, being 

 not vessels of pottery, but made of wicker-work. This does not 

 seem to me likely; for, apart from the fact that the sepulchral ware 

 in question dates from a time long antecedent to that when these 

 baskets were made, the ornament is j)recisely that which would be 

 developed by the art instincts of a people in a comparatively low 



• Messrs. Blackmore and Stevens found in some pits at Highfield, near Salisbury, 

 fragments of pottery which were coloured. Their impression is, and for many 

 reasons it appears to be a true one, that the pits belong to a time after the introduction 

 of iron. 



