108 INTRODUCTION. 



people seem to have come to a sudden and untimely end, by the 

 cave becoming' flooded, and not only were they themselves left 

 there, until the working away of the rock revealed their presence, 

 but also their whole belongings, weapons, implements, ornaments, 

 together with the whole balterie cle cuisine in pots and pans. 

 This pottery, which was very abundant and which presented 

 a great variety of different vessels, was in perfect agreement with 

 that which has been found in other places of habitation, but had 

 nothing in common with the pottery of the barrows, except that 

 there was the same admixture of broken stone in its composition. 

 Not a single vessel showed any trace of ornament, but all were 

 plain, strong, and useful, such as we mig-ht look for in the domestic 

 economy. Is it possible that, if cineraiy urns, 'food vessels,' and 

 ' drinking cups ' were the ordinary utensils of daily use, we should 

 not have frequently found them in other situations than burial 

 mounds and cists? 



It has already been mentioned that potsherds are met with, 

 and sometimes in large quantities, scattered indiscriminately 

 amongst the material of the barrows. These are in many cases 

 fragments of vessels of similar shape and manufacture to those 

 found on the site of dwelling-places, and are almost certainly 

 the remains of domestic pottery. Pieces of ' drinking cuj)s,' 

 cinerary urns, &c. are also discovered in the barrows, but these 

 are often, if not in all cases, portions of disturbed sepulchral 

 vessels, broken by the introduction of secondary interments. 

 Two quite distinct kinds of pottery then are found, belonging 

 unquestionably to the same period, since both are met with 

 under similar circumstances, in one and the same barrow. One 

 of these, from the resemblance it bears to the ware occurring 

 in the hut-circles and pit-dwellings, must be regarded as that 

 made for domestic use ; the other is invariably found in associa- 

 tion, more or less close, with interments. The one is only on 

 the rarest occasions discovered in intimate connection with the 

 buried dead; the other never in connection with their dwelling- 

 places when they were living ; can we hesitate then to say that the 

 first was manufactured for use in life, the second for one purpose 

 or another after that life had passed away ? 



The conclusion to which all the evidence we are able to put 

 together appears to lead is, that cinerary urns, 'incense cups,' 

 ' food vessels,^ and ' drinking cups ' were especially made for the 

 burial, and that they had no place in the house, nor wore ever 



