410 



DISCOVERY OF A CIST. 



THE POTTERY (see illustrations A and E). 



The nearly perfect urn (illustration E) found in the 

 recess at the entrance of the chamber has already been 

 described. It resembles very nearly in shape the cinerary 

 urn found at Clahar Garden, Mullion, Cornwall, illustrated in 

 Abercromby's Study of the Bronze Age Pottery of Great 

 Britain and Ireland, Vol II., Plate XCL, fig. 429a, except 

 that the latter has no "mamelon" between the handles. A 

 similar arrangement of handles and mamelon s is however 

 shown on another urn of slightly different shape from 

 Melbourne, St. Andrews, Dorset, see figure 456k, Plate 

 XCIII. of the work quoted above. 



On examination of the fragments of pottery found in the 

 interior of the cist, it was found that enough pieces could be 

 put together of several urns to give a fair idea of their size 

 and shape. The largest number of pieces belonged to a 

 flower-pot shaped urn (illustration A, figs. 1, 4 and 8), with a 

 curved over rim, of dark brownish grey colour, burnished 

 outside and ornamented with a narrow raised band running 

 round the neck, 1^ inches below the rim. This was about 

 5f inches (30cm.) in diameter at the mouth, and was probably 

 about 6^ to 7 inches (31-33cm.) in height and had a flat base, 

 resembling fig. 416, Plate LXXXIX., in the above-mentioned 

 work, except that the raised band on the latter is ornamented 

 and the rim is not so much curved over. Another urn (figs. 

 2 and 3) was of a light greyish red colour, burnished and of 

 rather thicker paste than the last, but smaller and of less 

 diameter. Another urn was of very coarse and thick red 

 pottery, but the fragments were too small and worn at the 

 edges to allow them to be put together to determine its shape. 

 Fig. 5 is of the fragments of the urn discovered in the first 

 excavated circle, that to the N. They are of a coarse neo- 

 lithic pottery, of a dark brown colour, ornamented with a lug 

 or mamelon 1^ inches (3*25 cm.) below the rim and had evi- 

 dently formed part of a flower-pot shaped vase. Fig. 6 

 was of an urn of thick brown paste with a straight rim. 

 Probably a fragment with a raised band of the same paste 

 belonged to this urn, and possibly it was also of flower pot 

 shape. Fig. 7 belongs to an urn of fine texture, burnished, 

 grayish black in colour, but only the rim was found, and as 

 the neck curved outwards gradually from a straight rim it 

 was probably of globular shape. It is to be noted that no 

 traces of beakers or caliciform urns were found, though many 

 specimens of these urns have been found in Guernsey dolmens. 



