Mounds at St. Andrews. 333 



either way, still appear to me to exhibit a greater regularity of 

 the concentric marks on their surfaces, than might perhaps be 

 expected to occur on hand-made pottery. In these cases the 

 potter may have used, if not a wheel, a mould or gauge of some 

 kind to assist him in giving a more regular shape to the better 

 class of vessels. This ware varies from a yellowish to a blackish 

 colour; some examples are brown on the outside and inside 

 surfaces, and have the interior paste almost black. Some, again, 

 are brown on the outside, and the paste and inside black, while 

 other pieces are of a blackish colour throughout. All this 

 earthenware has been made of very coarse clay full of small 

 stones, some of them one-fourth of an inch or more in size, and 

 from their number they give a rough, and in some cases a 

 porous-like appearance to the fractured edges. There were a 

 number of pieces of handles found; and from the size of some 

 of them it is evident that they had pertained to vessels of consider- 

 able dimensions. Most of the handles are punctured in a very 

 irregular manner, the holes often extending right through ; this 

 is the only ornament observable on any of the fragments, if 

 ornament it can be called. From the irregular way in which 

 this has been performed, and from the brims of some of the 

 utensils where the walls are thickest being punctured in a similar 

 style, it is just possible that it may have been intended as much 

 to assist the baking as to improve the look of the vessel. One 

 of the bottom pieces of a vase bears the impression of the pot- 

 ter's fingers very distinctly on the lower side ; the fingers seem 

 to have been small. According to Birch*, finger-marks are not 

 unfrequently met with on old Celtic pottery. Two or three of 

 the shards have here and there patches of a greenish-coloured 

 glaze on their surfaces, this appears to be the result of vitrifica- 

 tion ; for there is generally a small hole about the middle of 

 each patch, out of which the vitrifying matter seems to have bub- 

 bled during the process of baking. Miss Meteyardf, speaking 

 on this subject, says, il In Scotland, where rocks abound, mica 

 or other fusible matter might be present in clay of which vessels 

 had been formed, and yet be unperceived till, in some solitary 

 instance, partial vitrification had ensued from a higher degree of 

 heat during firing/'' 



It is now necessary to say a few words touching the probable 

 antiquity of this mound, so far as the remains found in it 

 and their condition seem to warrant. It may be observed that 

 the species of animals are not numerous in this mound when 

 compared with those of the Danish mounds and the lake-dwell- 

 ings of Switzerland, although the bones were broken apparently 

 in a similar manner. Whether this has been done by people 

 * Ancient Pottery. f Life of Wedgwood. 



