242 Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy. 



measures 13 inches in height, and no less than 40 inches in circumference, 

 and is thus one of the largest cinerary urns preserved in Ireland. The 

 decoration is elaborate, and although two examples of urns with a rope- 

 and-dot scroll ornamentation on the outside of the rim are preserved in 

 the R.I.A. collection, none appear in the large collection of urns in 

 the Belfast Museum, nor in the British Museum. The art of rope- 

 twisting must evidently have been known at the uncertain period when 

 these urns were made. An interesting question therefore arises : Is 

 there any evidence tending to show what textile material for rope-making 

 was available ? Flax was not a native plant ; were the textile properties of 

 nettles, now little known, familiar to the early Irish, and if not of what did 

 they make their ropes ? 



So far as I can see we found nothing in our investigation from which it 

 could be at all inferred that the urn is of the same period as the cromlech 

 itself. I think the probability is that the urn interment is of much more 

 recent date than the other interments in the cromlech. 



The urn and its contents have been deposited in the Belfast City Museum, 

 and will prove well worthy of inspection. 



