ON AN ANCIENT BURIAL URN. 
245 
of between seven and eight inches. This would indicate a diameter 
at the mouth of about 1 5 inches \ but as the sides rounded out 
somewhat below, the extreme diameter was certainly sixteen 
inches, which the two handles would increase for the total 
breadth to twenty. The breadth at the bottom can only be 
guessed at, the largest fragment of this part being 6f inches by 
5f inches ; but in all probability it was about a foot. 
There is much the same difficulty with regard to the height. 
The largest piece of the side is 7 \ inches by 6 \ inches, and the 
whole of this is ornamented. It is not unusual in these urns to 
find the ornamental portion occupy a third of the total height ; 
and I think the probability is that in this case the height was 21 
or 22 inches. 
The handles are an exceptional feature, absent from the majority 
of examples of this funereal pottery. The one which has been 
preserved is 3 J inches by 3 inches, and stands out 2 inches from 
the fragment of the urn to which it is attached. There is an 
irregular hole through it, varying from 1|- in. to If in. in diameter 
— the longest diameter being vertical on one side, horizontal on 
the other. The vessel has apparently been carried by a cord of 
some kind passed through these holes. The urn swells out into a 
ridge near the attachment of the handles ; and the inner edge of 
the lip is neatly chamfered. The rim is generally about half an 
inch thick, but at parts only a quarter ; at the base of the chamfer 
it is three quarters. The average thickness of the urn is about 
half an inch ; but parts of the bottom are seven-eighths. 
The ornament is composed of lines and chevrons, chiefly made 
up of coupled or alternated oval indentations, much like a willow T 
leaf in shape, and ranging up to the eighth of an inch in length. 
Some of these bands may have been produced by the pressure of 
a roughly-twisted cord; but some must have been impressed 
directly by hand, and with no little skill. 
Inside the rim there is a pattern composed of two single rows of 
these indentations with double diagonal rows between. 
On the outside the pattern begins with three double horizontal 
rows of dentures, which occupy an inch in depth. Below this 
2f inches are filled in with vertical chevrons — each line being 
composed of the coupled markings. The chevrons are about \\ 
inch deep across the base of the opening, and about the same 
breadth from an imaginary base line to the point. Beneath the 
