76 INTRODUCTION. 



perforated with two holes, just above the foot, and some are 

 ornamented on the bottom^ [figs. 65, 66]. 



The clay of which the 'incense cups' are made differs a good 

 deal in fineness, but it is generally of much better quality than 



that of the cinerary urns. The colour varies from an ashen grey 

 to red, and depends in a great measure upon the greater or less 

 degree of firing to which they have been sulgccted, as well as 

 to the different nature of the clay of which they are formed. 

 Though broken stone is sometimes mixed with the clay, it is 

 not usually present. 



The ornamentation consists of almost all the patterns noticed 

 in the account of the cinerary urns, with many others in addition. 

 The markings, as has alreadjj^ been mentioned under the descrip- 

 tion of the cinerary urns, are made with a pointed instrument 

 in lines drawn upon the moist clay ; frequently by impressions 

 of twisted thong or cord, and sometimes by punctured dots. 

 Many of them have the pattern extended on to the bottom ; a 

 very rare feature in the vessels of the other classes. This 

 pattern on the bottom assumes peculiar forms, of which the 

 cross is by no means the most uncommon. That figure, which 

 has the effect of quartering the space it covers, can scarcely be 

 regarded as being anything more than ornamental, though it 

 has been in use in many different countries as a religious 

 symbol in times long antecedent to Christianity. The form 



* Two specimens are figured in Hoare's Ancient Wilts, pis. xviii, xxxiii, fig. 3, and 

 three others in Archajologia, vol. xliii. pp. 363-1. 



