EARLY MAN 
cups have a polish, probably produced by rubbing them with a smooth 
Stone or a bone. The general system of ornamentation consists of com- 
binations of straight lines in an almost inconceivable variety. 
The patterns have been made by a sharp-pointed instrument, drawn over the moist 
clay ; by stamping with a narrow piece of bone or hard wood, cut into alternate 
raised and sunk squares, or simply notched ; by rows of dotted markings, round, oval 
and triangular, of greater and less size ; by the impression of the finger-nails ; and 
most commonly by impressions of a twisted thong, generally made of a strip of hide, 
but certainly in many cases of string manufactured out of some vegetable fibre, and 
consisting in some cases of two if not three plaits. Curved lines and circular markings, 
though they occur now and then, are uncommon, the pattern being generally made up 
of straight lines arranged in cross, zig-zag, chevron, saltire, reticulated and herring-bone 
fashion (British Barrows, p. 65). 
The cinerary urns are those vessels which contain a deposit of 
burnt bones. The most common shape, indeed in Cumberland the 
normal shape, is that of 
two truncated cones, placed the one upon the other, the broadest parts in apposition, 
the upper rather overlapping the lower, and being about half its depth. The mouth 
is therefore contracted, and the upper cone constitutes the rim, which is overhanging. 
- . . The bottom of the urn is small in comparison with its mouth, and is usually . 
not above one-third of its diameter (British Barrows, p. 65). 
Cinerary urns of this form are of large size, ranging from g or 
10, to 16 or 18 inches in height. Deviations from this form occur, 
but mainly in the south of England, and are generally smaller and of a 
finer clay. Those of the larger and more common form frequently 
contain flint implements along with the calcined bones. Flint imple- 
ments rarely occur with the smaller and more unusual forms, but articles 
of bronze are occasionally found. Hence the conclusion is that the 
vessels of the larger and more common form are the most ancient in date. 
Their overhanging rim is available for securing by means of a cord a 
cover of skin or cloth over the mouth of these vessels, which are not 
infrequently found inverted and standing on a flat stone or piece of 
slate. At other times they are found erect, with a flat stone or slate 
covering the top: sometimes they are found in a cist of stone slabs. 
Several urns of this larger and more uncommon form were found 
when the County Lunatic Asylum was built at Garlands, near Carlisle, in 
the years 1860 and 1861. This find consisted of cinerary urns, food 
vessels, incense vessels, stone implements and a flint arrow-head. No 
written or printed account of this interesting discovery exists: but the 
architect, the late Mr. J. A. Cory, an able and skilful antiquary, had all - 
the objects found placed in a case and kept in the committee room at 
the Asylum. They remained there for some years, but were removed to 
the Museum in Carlisle, and are now in Tullie House, though it is 
doubtful if they could be all identified. Several urns, also of this type, 
and full of calcined bones, were dug up in the year 1881 on Aughertree 
Fell, near Ireby, by an enthusiast who worked at night by the light of a 
! Personal information. 
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