DRINKING CUPS. 



101: 



doubt, was that of the other ; and it can scarcely be questioned 

 that they were the receptacles of food, and as such were placed 

 in the grave. Like the ' food vessels ' they have occasionally 

 been found to contain a dark-coloured substance, which has all 

 the appearance of being- the remains of solid food, and which 

 analysis has shown to be sometimes of animal, at other times of 

 vegetable, origin. No liquid could have left such a residuum, 

 and in fact the vessels are too porous in texture ever to have 

 retained fluid for any length of time. It has been suggested 



il-. 81). 



that they were intended to hold a light ; but besides their in- 

 appropriateness for any such use, there has never been seen upon 

 them, or found in them, anything which favours such a sup- 

 position. A very remarkable burial, in a cist at Broomend, near 

 Inverurie, Aberdeenshire, may help us towards a solution of the 

 question \ The cist contained two skeletons, of a man and an 

 infant, with two 'drinking cups;' hanging over the edge of the 

 larger vessel, which was associated with the adult body, was an 

 article which at first was supposed to be a lamp. The cup-like 

 end was outside the vase, and the long tang- like handle was re- 

 curved over the edge, and hung down on the inside. At the 

 bottom of both 'drinking cups' was some black earthy matter, 



* Proc. Soc. of Ant. of ScotlaiKl, vol. vii. p. 116, where an engraviug of the larger 

 'drinking-cup,' and of the horn spoon, there called a lamp, is given. 



