yO INTRODUCTION. 



respective cup\ Sir R. Colt Hoare describes one found at 

 Lake, Wiltshire, 'which is perforated at the bottom like a 

 cullender, and has two holes on the sides'.' A very curiously 

 ornamented one was discovered at Meinau'r Gwyr, Pembroke- 

 shire; it is drum-shaped, and has vertical ribs in relief all 

 round the sides ^ 



' Incense cups,' when discovered, invariably * accompany deposits 

 of burnt bones, placed both among-st and upon them, but scarcely 

 ever, except accidentally, containing them ^ They have been found 

 not unfrequently with the burnt bones inside a cinerary urn. 

 They have sometimes been met with in pairs ; in the cases 

 where this has occurred, it is probable that the deposit of burnt 

 bones contained the remains of two bodies. I am acquainted 

 with one instance where an 'incense cup' had apparently been 

 burnt with the body, amongst the bones of which, themselves 

 enclosed in a cinerary urn, it was found; but except in that 

 single case, so far as I know, these vessels have been placed 

 with the burnt bones, after the latter had been collected from 

 the funeral pile^ They have often occurred in association with 

 bronze articles, such as knife-daggers, awls, &c., and at other 

 times with implements of flint and ornaments of jet. 



* Figured, Ancient Wilts, pi. xiii. p. 111. 

 2 Figured, Ancient Wilts, pi. xxx. p. 209. 



^ Figured, Hydriotapliia Camljrensis, j). 41. 



* An 'incense cup' is said to have l)een found by Mr. Ruddock, near Pickering, in 

 the North Riding of Yorkshire, with- an unburnt body. Mr. Ratcnian tells us, at 

 p. 227 of Ten Years' Diggings, where the relation occurs : — ' Were it not for the 

 extreme accuracy of Mr. Ruddock's notes, I should feel disposed to think that the 

 skeleton had undergone combustion, as the incense cup has uniformly lx?en found 

 with such.' At page 214 of the same book Mr. Bateman says, ' From the vagueness 

 of the original notes (Mr. Ruddock's) it is uncertain whether the human remains 

 found with these articles were calcined or not.' It is clear therefore that no con- 

 fidence can be placed in the account which states that the ' incense cup ' was found 

 with an unburnt body. Mr. Bateman is, however, doubly inconsistent with reg;ml to 

 this fact, for in another of his books (Vestiges, p. 39) he says, ' Amongst the Iwnes 

 of these four skeletons (unburnt) a small rude incense cup was found, which is of 

 rather uniisual form, being perforated with two holes on each side, opposite each 

 other.' 



^ The Rev. J. C. Atkinson met with one in Cleveland, covered by a flat piece of 

 charcoal evidently designedly placed there, which contained a single burnt human 

 tooth. 



•^ Mr. Bateman recoi-ds the finding of a small vase, which had ' passed through the 

 fire,' in company with a deposit of burnt bones. This may possibly have been an 

 'incense cup.' Ten Years' Diggings, p. 161. He also mentions 'the fact that por- 

 tions of earthen vessels were sometimes burnt along with human bodies j' /. c. p. 190. 

 Sir R. Colt Hoare, Ancient Wilts, pi. xviii, figures an 'incense cup,' which he says 

 (vol. i. p. 174) 'has been burnt and cracked, probably by the heat of the funeral 

 fire.' 



