586 On some Bronze Age Pottery of " Food Vessel " Type. 



before firing it has been taken between the hands of the potter and 

 pressed in such a way that the part between the palms was little 

 affected, but the part between the fingers has been pressed together 

 and narrowed till the mouth of the vessel is triangular in outline. 

 Observing the vessel from the widest end and looking towards the 

 apex of the triangular surface, at the mouth, it is to be noticed 

 that on the right side there are marks, on the rim, as if the clay- 

 had retained the impression of the joints of the first finger of the 

 potter. Experimentally a pot was made of finely tempered clay 

 and while still wet it was pressed as described above and exactly 

 the same shape and marking resulted. This, however, must not 

 be taken as proof, as the distortion may have been caused by burial 

 in damp ground and the pressure of the superimposed earth. The 

 point has been dwelt upon because of the similarity to another 

 vessel described below. From a greatest base diameter of 95mm. 

 it gradually increases in size to an average height of 86mm. when 

 it contracts from a slight shoulder to a greatest lip diameter of 

 158mm., while that of the shoulder is slightly larger, the whole 

 height being 12imm. Immediately below the shoulder and on 

 opposite sides of the cup are two small knobs which protrude 9inm. 

 in one case and 11mm. in the other. Inside there still remains a 

 quantity of burnt matter, which when microscopically examined 

 proved to have been vegetable, but there is no trace of bone, burnt 

 or otherwise. 



In the Stourhead Collection, at Devizes, is a small vessel, num- 

 bered 43, and described as a 



" Small urn -shaped Food Vessel with projecting ridge, pressed into 

 oval shape before burning, height 3|in., diam. at top 4| x 3in., at base 

 2jin. Upton Lovel. Barrow I." {Illustrated.) 



In Hoare's " Ancient Wiltshire" I,, 74, Station III., it is recorded 



that the above vessel was found as follows : — 



"No. I. a circular barrow, situated on the west side of Upton Lovel 

 Down, was opened by a labourer in order to procure flints ; and Mr. 

 Cunnington hearing by accident of his operation, attended at the spot, 

 just as he had discovered a large rude urn, which was broken in taking 

 out of the cist ; it was full of burned human bones and amongst them 

 was found the elegant pair of nippers engraved in Tumuli, PL. IX. In 

 turning the barrow completely over for the sake of flints, he found at 

 about six feet from the central interment, a small urn imperfectly baked, 

 and full of redlearth and vegetable mould." 



