Notice of a cinerary urn, containing a small-sized urn (in which were the bones of a child), discovered in Fife-shire : with notes of similar small and cup-like vessels, in the Museum of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland / by John Alex. Smith.

Date:
[1871?]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Notice of a cinerary urn, containing a small-sized urn (in which were the bones of a child), discovered in Fife-shire : with notes of similar small and cup-like vessels, in the Museum of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland / by John Alex. Smith. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh. The original may be consulted at the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh.

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    iuclies in height, and about 4 in diameter. It is ornamented with alter- nating Vandyke patterns and straight lines, the same being repeated on the under surface, and was found on levelling a tumulus on the Dighty Water, near Monifieth, Forfarshii-e; when found, it was filled with black earth and burnt bones. ^ XIII. and XIV. These are two small rounded urns of coarse clay, without ornament of any kind. One measures 2^ inches in height, by 3 inches diameter across the mouth. It is pierced with two small holes, about 1^ inch apart, on one side of the vessel. The other urn measures 2f inches in height by inches in greatest diameter, and 2| inches across the mouth; it is also of a rounded form, and, like the other, is somewhat contracted in shape at the top and bottom. It is also pierced with a single pair of small holes, 1 inch apart, at about the middle of its height. A group of cinerary urns was discovered at Westwood, on the Tay, near Ferryport, in 1867. It consisted of eight large urns with overhang- ing rims, generally ornamented with chevron or herring-bone patterns, disposed in a circle round a central urn, the diameter of the cu-cle being about 15 feet. The urns varied in size from 5 to 15 inches in height. Some were placed erect, others inverted, and all contained burnt bones. In two of the urns these two small cups were found, filled also with burnt bones, and lying above the other bones in the large urns. In one of the erect urns another urn was enclosed in an inverted position, also covering burnt bones. This discovery was described by Andrew Jervise, Esq., F.S.A. Scot., in vol. vi. p. 388 of the Proceedings of the Society, where the urns are figured and described. XV. The last urn is of blackish clay, a regularly rounded or globular cup-like vessel, apparently made by the hand, and without ornament, except a row of punctured dots along the edge of its slightly everted lip. It measures 2J inches in height, and 3^ in gi-eatest diameter, and 2^ inches across its mouth. Its history is, unfortunately, not known. Judging from its appearance, however, and its general resemblance to some hand-made clay vessels in the Museum to be afterwards described, I am inclined to think it must belong to the same class of vessels made for ' See Proc. vi. p. 313.