DISCOVERY OF A GOLD CUP IN CORNWALL. 45 



metal, as in the deposit described by Mr. Smirke, are very rare. 

 He lias adverted to tile remarkable discovery of a one-handled 

 cup of amber, accompanied by weapons of stone and bronze, in a 

 barrow near Brighton. Such precious relics were, doubtless, 

 objects that had been most prized in life by the deceased. A 

 singular little cup, described as of oak, but possibly of the Kim- 

 meridge shale obtained near the shores of Dorset, was found in 

 that county in 1767, in a grave-hill known as the King Barrow 

 near Wareham. In this instance the corpse had been placed, 

 wrapped as it appeared in deer-skins, in a large hollow trunk of 

 an oak ; no weapon was noticed with the bones nor any trace of 

 metal, with the exception of a portion, as stated, of gold lace. 

 The little bowl-shaped vessel had no foot or handle, it Avas of 

 oval form, the diameter at the mouth being 3 in. by 2 in. ; the 

 depth about 2 in. ; the whole of the surface was engraved with 

 horizontal and oblique lines.* It is supposed that it had been 

 placed at the head of the corpse. 



A small wooden vessel has been described by Professor Wor- 

 saae as found in a similar depository in Denmark in 1827. The 

 oaken trunk lay in a barrow, near the village called VoUersley ; 

 an urn was first disinterred in the superincumbent earth ; below 

 this was a heap of small stones, that covered the wooden coffin 

 in which lay some locks of human hair, a woollen mantle, a sword 

 and dagger of bronze, a palstave also with a brooch of the same 

 metal, and a horn comb. The little cup that accompanied this 

 remarkable interment had two handles ; it contained some deposit 

 having the appearance of ashes.t Several interments of the same 

 description have been noticed in the Archceological Journal as oc- 

 curruig in the northern part of Sleswick. With the unburnt 

 bodies, wrapped in woollen cloth and laid upon hides, had been 

 deposited swords and other objects of bronze, with other relics, 

 including cups of wood described as turned on the lathe, and in 

 some instances ornamented with minute studs of tin skilfully 

 hammered in. One of these curious cups, found in the trunk of 



* See the account by Mr. Hutchins, in his Comity History, and in Gent. 

 Mag., Yol. xxxvii, p. 53 f given also by Mr. Warne in his Celtic Tumuli of 

 Dorset, in the Section of " Tumnli opened at various periods," p. 4. Tha 

 cup, as stated, afterwards belonged to G-ough. 



f Worsaae, Primeval Antiquities of Denmark, p. 96» 



E 



