A HISTORY OF DERBYSHIRE 



29 drinking cups, all associated with unburnt interments ; 



65 food vessels, of which 48 were associated with unburnt, and 17 with burnt inter- 

 ments ; 

 1 1 incense cups, all associated with burnt interments. 



These numbers must be taken as approximate only ; and it is a 

 question whether some of the smaller food vases associated with the burnt 

 interments should not be regarded as incense cups, but the numbers are 

 sufficiently trustworthy for the present purpose. 



The association of certain types of vessels with certain modes of 

 burial is not confined to Derbyshire, but appears to be general throughout 

 the country ; it suggests therefore a progress in time rather than local 

 or tribal peculiarities. Far back in the Bronze age, inhumation, it would 

 seem, was the sole mode of sepulture, and that during the earlier part of 

 that stage the drinking cup was first used and was afterwards supplanted 

 by the food vase. Then during the reign of the latter, cremation, 

 which had hitherto been confined to certain subsidiary interments referred 

 to above, passed into a general fashion. But it must not be inferred 

 from this that cremation supplanted inhumation. For anything we 

 know to the contrary, the two modes may have continued side by side 

 until the Roman occupation. At first, it would seem, the cremated 

 remains were deposited in cists or were otherwise disposed of after the 

 manner of inhumated bodies ; but soon they were placed in or under 

 the familiar cinerary urns and were sometimes accompanied by the little 

 incense cups. 



That the table represents a sequence, has much of a confirmatory 

 nature from other sources. In no ' multiple ' barrow in our area has a 

 drinking cup interment been found under conditions which can be said 

 to prove that it was of later introduction than a neighbouring food vase 

 or urned interment, if present ; nor is there an example of a food vase 

 inhumated interment succeeding an urned cremated one ; whereas the 

 converse has been frequently noted. 



If we apply the tests of vertical and horizontal positions, we get 

 similar results. The usual position of a primary interment is on or 

 below the old natural surface ; of a secondary, on or above that level. The 

 following table gives the percentages of these positions, when ascertain- 

 able. 1 



Interments 



Drinking cups 

 Food vases 

 Cinerary urns 



Below 



83 

 43 

 36-5 



On 



'7 

 3i 



36-5 



Above natural level 

 . . O 

 . . 26 

 . . 27 



It will be observed that in passing from the drinking cup to the 

 urned interments, the proportion of those below the old natural level 



1 Tabulated in the same manner, Messrs. Bateman and Carrington's Staffordshire excavations give 

 the following results : 



On Above natural level 



'5 o 



13 37 



33 60 



I 7 8 



Interments with Below 



Drinking cups . . . . 85 



Food vases 5 



Cinerary urns .... 7 



