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Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy. 



pointed instrument. The ornamentation on figs. 16, 17, and 21 has 

 heen made apparently by stamping. The markings of plaited cord are 

 shown in fig. 19, and a combination of scratched lines and cord marks 

 is shown in fig. 20. The ornamentation on fig. 18 shows lines or small 

 grooves with marks between, which were probably impressed or 

 stamped. 



Fig. 1. 



Other specimens show raised marks made by the finger and 

 thumb, and there are grooves round some vessels as in fig. 1, which 

 were made by the finger or a bluntly-pointed instrument when the 

 clay was soft. I believe these examples give a fair idea of the orna- 

 mentation on the pottery from the sandhills, though the patterns 

 produced by the different styles of ornamentation show great variety. 



It has been asserted that the pottery of the sandhills in nowise 

 differs from the ordinary sepulchral vessels which belong principally 

 to the Bronze Age, and is found accompanying interments in different 

 parts of Ireland, but I think anyone comparing a series of both kinds 

 of vessels would see a considerable difference though there will likely 



