78 



INTRODUCTION. 



the country, having open work all round the side, the piercings 

 taking their place as part of the ornamental work of the vessel ' 

 [fig. 67]. Some of them are perfectly plain. 



There is one feature very common in the 'incense cups,' but 

 which very rarely occurs in any of the other classes of fictile 

 vessels. They are often perforated with holes ^ These, which 

 are usually two in number, are found at different places on the 

 sides. They are most commonly near the top, but often midway 

 down one side, and sometimes near the bottom of the vessel. 

 A second pair of these perforations occurs now and then opposite 



Fiff. 67. i. 



to the first pair, and at other times three sets of two holes are 

 placed at intervals in the sides. In one example [fig. 63], which 



bottom of a cup with this pattern upon it, found on the site of a Lake Dwelling, on 

 the Uberlinger See, is figured in Keller's Lake Dwellings, ed. Lee, pi. xxx. fig. 6. 



^ Pierced ' incense cujjs ' have Ix^en found near Dewlisli (and this one forms the 

 frontispiece to Wanie's Celtic Tumuli of Doi"set) : at Xormanton, near Aniesbury ; 

 Hoare, Ancient Wilts, vol. i. p. 201, pi. xxx : at Uulford, Wilts [fig, G7], which also 

 has the bottom ornamented with a central raised point, and concentric rings round it ; 

 Archaeological Journal, vol. vi. p. 319 : at Great SliefPord, 15erkshire j Journal of 

 Ai'chaeological Association, vol. xxii, p. 459: at Stainton Moor, Derbyshirc; Archajol. 

 vol. viii. p. 59 : at Bryn Seiont, Caernarvonshire ; Hydriot. Cambr. p. 40 : on the Moors 

 near Scarborough, now in the Scarborough Museum : at Corn-Boots, near Ilackness, 

 North Riding ; Ai'chffiol. vol. xxx. p. 458. One with slits on the lower part, found at 

 Clayton Hill, Sussex, is figured in the Ai"cha?ological Journal, vol. xix. p. 185. They 

 have also been met with in Ireland ; one, discovered in a larger vessel, together with 

 burnt bones, at Killucken, County Tyrone, is figured Proc. Soc. of Ant. of Scotland, 

 vol. ix. p. 197 ; another, but an imperfect one, also from Ireland, is noticed on the 

 same page. 



^ A very remarkable featm-e, connected with these perforations, occurs in one found 

 by the Rev. W. C. Lukis, in a ban-ow on Melmerby Common, in the North Riding. 

 ' On one side of the cup at its base are two small holes, about one inch apart, which 

 appear to have passed through to the inside ; but before the vessel was Ixiked a thin 

 coating of clay was smeared over the inside and the holes are obliterated there. 

 Within the cup was the fragment of another still smaller cup, also rudely and not 

 so carefully ornamented.' The bottom of this curious 'incense cup' has a cross 

 pattern upon it. Flint Implements and Tumuli of Wath, p. 6. 



