Page:The Ancient Stone Implements (1897).djvu/473

Rh were found by Canon Greenwell, in the excavations at Grimes' Graves.

A cylindrical stone vessel, 5 inches high and 6 inches in diameter, with a cup-shaped cavity above, and a small hole below, as if for fixing it on a stand, was found at Parton, Kircudbrightshire. Another, found with a polished stone hatchet in a cairn in Caithness, is of circular form, ribbed externally like a melon.

Cups without handles have been found in Orkney and Caithness, some with a place for a wick, so as to serve as lamps.

In a cist in a barrow in Orkney the cinerary urn was formed of "mica stone," about 19 inches high and 22 inches in diameter, and covered with a lid of undressed stone. Another of nearly the same size was found in a barrow at Stennis. Another stone urn and two stone dishes, with handles or ears, were found in a grave in Forfarshire; and two stone urns, one within the other, were turned up by the plough at Aucorn, near Wick, Caithness. One of these was 13 inches high and 21 inches in diameter, with two handles rudely cut in the sides. The other was 8 inches in height and 11 inches in diameter, and was provided with a stone lid. Long oval vessels from Shetland probably belong to more recent times. The "mell" for preparing pot-barley may be still in use.

Stone vessels, one with a movable bottom and partly filled with burnt bones, have been found in the Shetland Isles.

Stone vessels have also been discovered, though rarely, in barrows in England. One such was found by Mr. Bateman, in company with a small bronze bucket with an iron handle, in a barrow at Wetton. It is only 4 inches high, and carved in sandstone, with four grooves running round it by way of ornament. It is probably of late date.

A few urns formed of stone have also been found in Ireland.

One of the varieties of steatite has long been in use for the formation of hollow vessels for cooking and other purposes, and is still known by the name of Pot-stone in English. Many of the cooking vessels of the Eskimos are made of this material.

I now pass on to the consideration of personal decorations formed of stone.