Lawlok — ^nmc iiivflstifintions oh the Souterrain. 215 



seem to show that the custom of constructing underground hnuscs, although 

 widespread while it lasted, was not of very long duration. 



In my recent excavations in raths, of which 1 have now completed several, 

 wiiile I tind the souterrain type unmistakalily in evidence, it is mixed pretty 

 equally with other types showing progress of fashion, and ihe development of 

 the potter's art, all contributing to suggest, generally speaking, a greater 

 length of occupation. The absence of variety in the fictilia of the caves con- 

 versely implies shorter occupancy as dwellings ; but it is known that as store- 

 houses, hiding-places, and even as poor men's shelters, they continued to be 

 used to a gradually decreasing extent for hundreds of years. 



The remaining o per cent, of pottery found in the caves includes a few 

 fragments of a wheel-turned pot found in Ballyniartin cave, and one or two 

 fragments showing mediaeval glaze, where the cave had been used in compara- 

 tively recent times. In my references to our excavation at the foundry 

 remains at Ballykennedy, I endeavoured to show that up to about the eighth 

 century the Irisli potters had not adopted the potter's wheel, and that the 

 earliest wheel-turned pots are of about this date and later. In the Loan 

 Collection is one fragment of pot found in a sandhill kitchen- midden near 

 Groomsport, which I have included to show this mark of ])rogress in Irish 

 pottery. That this is of about the tenth century, I have since found confir- 

 mation, by the discovery of an exactly similar fragment in the priest's kitchen 

 inside the stone church of Ballyniartin, Co. Antrim. Other signs of progress 

 in the potter's art, illustrated in the collection, may be seen in the finishing 

 of the surface of. the pot with a separate fine-ground paste. No examples of 

 this pottery were found in the souterraius, though a few are shown from the 

 sandhills. A bowl of this ware was also found in the Ballymartiu church 

 priest's kitchen. 



In most of the caves excavated, a few flint flakes were found ; these, with 

 those found in the Ballykennedy cave, are chiefly remarkable for their extreme 

 crudeness : that they were found, however, a few in each cave, is remarkable, 

 as showing that their use seems to have continued into the late Iron Age. 

 No authenticated instances are known where arrow-heads or finely worked 

 flints occur in connexion with souterraius. 



Ill all my excavations, in cave dwellings I only found one single article of 

 personal adornment — part of a ^child's bracelet of coarse jet or slate. That no 

 implements of bone or wood survive is not surprising, as all the caves e.xcavated 

 were exceedingly damp, and all such objects must have long since rotted away. 



The geographical distribution of the souterrain iu the United Kingdom is 

 worthy of note. In England and Wales none are found, except in the Duchy 

 of Cornwall. In Scotland they are found only in the eastern half, between 



