146 NOTICE OF A CINERARY URN AT HUSTYN. 



Ornamental lines are impressed on these handles, and around that 

 portion of the urn which rises above the bulge and them. The lines 

 were made by applying plaited grass or rush to the clay whilst it 

 was soft. The handles are striped perpendicularly with parallel 

 lines, and the upper part of the urn is encircled with horizontal 

 lines, between which are a great number of chevrons or acute zig- 

 zags, arranged with their points directed sideways — some of them 

 being made to blend or conjoin. Zigzags or chevrons placed as 

 described'* occur on urns, &c. found in many places far distant from 

 each other. Examples very much resembling the Hustyn device, 

 are met with in Ireland. 



The Pottery is rather coarse and soft — the upper portions being 

 especially liable to crumble. The lower part was probably hardened 

 to some additional extent, by receiving the ashes and bones whilst 

 they were yet hot from the funeral fire. In color, the upper por- 

 tion is of a yellowish-drab, more or less dull, containing red particles ; 

 the lower, of a light reddish brown, without, and black within : — 

 each of these tints meeting the other in the thickness of the material 

 near the outer surface. The bottom of the urn is of a pale dull 

 yellowish stone color. 



I observed slight traces of the pressure of fingers on the clay, just 

 within chose parts to which the handles are attached. Such marks, 

 occurring during manufacture, have been noticed by Jewitt, who 

 has writtenf as follows concerning urns found in Barrows : — 



*' I apprehend from careful examination that the urn being formed 

 of the coarse common clay of the district, —most probably (judging 

 from the delicacy of touch, and from the impress of fingers which 

 occasionally remains) by the females of the tribes, — and ornamented, 

 was placed in the funeral fire and there baked while the body of 

 the deceased was being consumed. The remains of the calcined 

 bones, flints, &c., were then placed in the urn, over which the 

 mound was next raised. Many of the urns bear evidence of having 

 been filled with the burnt bones and ashes of the deceased while 

 those ashes were of a glowing and intense heat.". . . ." Those urns 



* Ncenia pp. 168, 174, 187, 207, 223, 231, 234, 246. Grave Mounds, pp. 89, 

 94, 95, 98, 99, 103. Journal of Royal Hist: omd Archwolog: Association o 

 Ireland, Vol. II, part 2, p.. 311, &c. 



f Grave Mounds and their Contents, pp 83, 4, 5. 



