5 32 A Late Celtic Inhabited Site at All Cannings Cross Farm. 



querns and mealing stones tliab the bammerstones on this site were 

 mainly xised.^ 



The Pottery. 



A large quantity of pottery was found, but only in fragments, 

 the half of a small bowl (Plate II.) being the most complete piece. 



The majority of the pottery appears to be hand-made, but some 

 of it has been turned ou a wheel of some sort. Generally speaking 

 it may be described as well made and well baked, some of 

 the pieces being burnt to a uniform red right through, and as 

 a rule the ware is thin for the size of the vessel. Most of 

 the pottery is a reddish brown in colour, the shades varying ac- 

 cording to the sharpness of the baking, but some of it is black 

 right through, the result, probably of a fuming or dipping process. 



' Similar hammerstones are actually used in making querns in Africa at 

 the present time. For the purpose of hollowing out the quern, the method 

 employed there is the constant dropping, or throwing, of a stone held in 

 the hand, on to the surface of the quern in the course of preparation. Mr. 

 A, D. Passmore, of Swindon, who has during the past year been engaged in 

 excavating in the Soudan, and who has seen querns in the course of pre- 

 paration by the women there, has kindly given the following account of the 

 process: — "I observed near Wad Medani, south of Khartoum, a woman 

 (to what tribe she belonged I cannot say) making a plain hollowed quern 

 or mealing stone of granite for use with a rubber. She continued the work 

 for nearly an hour whilst I watched her. At times she threw the hammer- 

 stone hard on the quern, which made it re-bound a considerable height^ 

 but becoming tired she gradually reduced the height between her hand 

 and the quern till the stone re-bounded, itself, into her hand, from about 

 four inches. No eflfort Avas required to do this, and becoming refreshed 

 she gradually brought force into play and the harder she worked the 

 greater the re-bound. When I first saw her the hammerstone was fairly 

 round, and just before leaving I examined it carefully and it was exactly 

 like the so-called hammerstones of our Downs. What the stone was like 

 before, I cannot say, but it is obvious that only more or less round stones 

 would be selected. The hour's work observed by me produced a hollow in 

 the quern stone, more than might have been expected. I questioned the 

 woman as to the finish of the quern stones and I understood from her that 

 they are finished by rubbing." This process explains the bruised sufaces 

 and ball-like roundness of so many of the hammerstones, and the use to 

 which they were put ; but Mr. Passmore's account does not explain the use 

 of those stones on which the sharp edges and points only are bruised ; these 

 latter were probably used in the shaping and rough dressing of the outer 

 parts of the querns. 



