PARISH OF ALWINTON. 423 



of the body were discovered in this or in any other part of the site 

 of the barrow which was explored. The cists were too near the 

 surface and too much exposed to the admission of air and moisture 

 to have allowed any unburnt bones to have remained undecomposed. 

 The vase is somewhat in shape like fig. 69, 6 in. high, 6| in. wide 

 at the mouth, and 3| in. at the bottom ; it is covered over the 

 entire surface with encircling lines of oval impressions. At a 

 distance of 4^ ft. north of the last (the measurements being from 

 centre to centre) was a second cist, quite like it in structure, lying 

 north and south ; it was 3| ft. long, 2| ft. wide, and 1 ft. 7 in. in 

 depth. In the south-west corner was a ' food vessel,' in shape like 

 fig. 71, 5 in. high, Q\ in. wide at the mouth, and 2| in. at the 

 bottom. It has four thick and unpierced ears at the shoulder, and 

 is covered for a space of 3\ in. below the rim (the pattern being 

 carried over the lip of the rim and the ears) with encircling bands 

 of lines, made by a sharp-pointed instrument, arranged herring-bone 

 fashion. On the inside of the sandstone slab forming the south 

 side of the cist was a very peculiar figure cut in outline with some 

 fine-pointed tool, the marks left by which are as sharp as if made 

 only yesterday. It is reniform, or perhaps more like the shape of 

 a human foot, 5| in. long, and 3 in. wide at the broadest part. 

 It is possibly an abnormal form of the sculptured pits and circles 

 so often referred to, which, though they have usually their place 

 on rocks and earth-fast stones or ' standing stones,' have on several 

 occasions been found in association with burials, and often engraved 

 on the underside of a stone placed as a cover for a cinerary urn or 

 a deposit of burnt bones. I have not hitherto known them to have 

 been found in connection with an unburnt body ; but allowing for 

 this, and for the variation in form of the marking, I should still be 

 inclined to refer the one in question to the same class of symbolic 

 figures, assuming them to be such. Immediately north of the cist 

 just noticed was a cinerary urn reversed, and full of the burnt 

 bones of an adult ; it was so far sunk into the ground that its rim 

 was H ft. below the natural surface. Though very much decayed, 

 sufficient was left of it when discovered to show that it had been 

 1 ft. 4 in. high, and ornamented on the overhanging rim with lines 

 of twisted-thong impressions arranged in a pattern of chevrons set 

 on edge. Three feet south-east of the cist was a deposit of burnt 

 bones, the remains of a child, laid upon the natural surface in a 

 round heap Sin. wide. Six feet and a-half north-west of the same 

 cist (the second) was a ' food vessel' [fig. 71], placed on the surface 



