60 THE CELTIC TUMULI OF DORSET. 



thick, coarse, and friable texture ; of a brown or reddish colour ; 

 and it is evident that they were not wheel-made or kiln-baked. 



All these varieties of size, shape, and ornament are beautifully 

 illustrated in the plates to Mr. Warne's Work. The typical forms 

 of these sepulchral vessels have a general resemblance in all 

 districts, but peculiarities of style may be recognised in different 

 counties. In our heath districts the specimens which have been 

 found denote a very primitive and rude kind of manufacture, the 

 materials so loosely incorporated that it is very difficult to procure 

 a vessel entire, and fragments only reward the explorator ; but 

 there may be sufficient to shew the poverty or absence of ornamen- 

 tation. The urns of this kind which have come under my 

 observation were about a foot in height and 10 inches in diameter 

 of the mouth.* This is a type of urn very seldom found in the 

 upland and Down districts, and may be taken as evidence of a very 

 early and primitive race. It may be so, but I am more inclined to 

 the opinion that it denotes the existence of tribes of low culture 

 which have adhered to their old rude fashion and style of manu- 

 facture, whilst their neighbours may have farther advanced in 

 artistic taste and skill. 



The number of interments in each Tumulus was subject to much 

 variety. Whilst some contained only one, others contained from 

 20 to 30 each, and might take rank as family or tribal burying 

 places. Our division of the county into three districts is seen to 

 bring out the fact that the custom of burying the body unburnt 

 prevailed much in the South ; less so in the Central ; and still less 

 in the North. There is a decreasing ratio from South to North. 

 In the North cremation marks about 74 per cent. (Table I.) ; in- 

 humation about 26 per cent. ; whilst in the South the relative 

 proportion is 59 per cent, for the former and about 41 per cent, for 

 the latter (Table 2). This excess in the number of simple interments 



* This type is represented by Turn. 18, p. 15, Celtic Tumuli. It was 

 found in a Tumulus on Boveridge Heath, Verwood. It measured 10 inches 

 in height, 11 inches in diameter of mouth, 38 inches greatest circumference ; 

 it was inverted. - 



