BRONZE-AGE POTTERY
[Illustration: Fig. 80.--Incense cup.]
[Illustration: Fig. 81.--Cinerary urn.]
[Illustration: Fig. 82.--Food-vessel with cover, Danesfort,
Co. Kilkenny.]
In Ireland the pottery of the Bronze Age is principally represented
by the type of vessel known as a food-vessel. We may commence with
these, as there has only been one undoubted find of beakers made: this
consisted of the remains of three vessels found together at Moytura,
County Sligo, and preserved in the National Collection. A beaker is
stated to have been found at Mount Stewart, County Cavan; but the
vessel is not extant, and the evidence as to its discovery is not
perfectly satisfactory. The Irish food-vessel is derived directly
from the round-bottomed vessel of Neolithic times. Some of these
round-bottomed bowls have been found with Neolithic remains at
Portstewart, County Down, and there is one in the National Collection
described as found in a cavern associated with stone implements beside
the moat of Dunagore, near the town of Antrim. The development from
the Neolithic bowl can be clearly traced in the Irish series. The
earliest are flat, almost saucer-shaped bowls, which are generally
covered all over with ornament, and often have a cruciform pattern on
the base which has been thought to indicate that the vessels were
turned mouth downwards when not in use.[50]
[50] Abercromby, "Bronze-Age Pottery," vol. i, p. 121.
[Illustration: Fig. 83.--Cinerary urn, Carballybeg, Co. Waterford.]
These bowls have a very pleasing effect; and, as Dr. Abercromby says:
"The small native women, sometimes under five feet high, who made
these little vessels, had certainly a fine sense of form and a
delicate perception of the beauty of curved forms. The care and
precision with which the ornament was effected, and the richness of
the effect produced by simple means, may excite our admiration."[51]
[51] Abercromby, _op. cit._, p. 121.
[Illustration: PLATE XI. Food-vessels in the order of their
development. _p. 96._]
[Illustration: Fig. 84.--Model of cinerary urn, showing its position
in cist over burnt bones and small vessel, Greenhills,
Co. Dublin.]
In the next stage a slight indentation about the centre of the
vessel can be noticed, the ornament being arranged on either side
above and below this; next two small ridges develop out of this, which
are at first close together, but are afterwards placed further apart,
and in the later stages the vessel becomes considerably higher, the
base assuming the form of a cone, and the upper portion having an
everted lip. Some of these latter vessels have a number of small ribs
encircling them. Plate XI shows a series of food-vessels placed in
the order of their evolution. The decoration can be well seen. It
consists for the most part of chevron, herring-bone, and other linear
ornament, but wavy lines can be seen in some examples. In some rare
cases the food-vessels were provided with lids (fig. 82). All of these
vessels were made by hand; and though the baking of the pottery
varies, it was evidently done over a fire.
[Illustration: Fig. 85.--Cinerary urn, Cookstown, Co. Tyrone.]
The food-vessels, which are found both with unburnt and burnt
interments, continued in use during the greater part of the Bronze
Age, and the name food-vessel is hardly appropriate in Ireland, as in
many cases these vessels have been found containing cremated bones,
having apparently served the purpose of cinerary urns.
The so-called cinerary urns are large vessels which have been usually
discovered containing human bones; they have often been found inverted
over cremated remains. They can be conveniently divided into several
types, of which the type with the overhanging rim may be mentioned
first. In this type the vessel consists of two portions, a lower
flower-pot-like cone, on which is placed a larger truncated cone,
which forms the overhanging rim. This type is widely distributed in
England, and in Ireland has been found in the Counties of Antrim,
Down, and Tyrone. The cordoned or hooped type is developed from the
preceding type by replacing the overhanging rim by a moulding, both
types being contemporary. In the encrusted type the urn, which is of
the flower-pot shape, is decorated with strips of clay in the form of
chevrons and bosses, the ornamentation assuming a rope-like form. Urns
of this type have been found at Greenhills, Tallaght, County Dublin;
Gortnain, Broomhedge, County Antrim; Tullyweggin, Cookstown, County
Tyrone; Closkett, Drumgooland, and Glanville, Newry, County Down.
Very small vessels, of usually about 2 to 2-1/2 inches in height, are
often found in interments associated with the large cinerary urns, and
occasionally, when the latter are inverted, are found inside them. The
exact use of these small vessels, which are called "incense-cups" or
"pygmy-cups," is a matter of speculation; several theories have been
advanced to explain the purpose of placing them in graves, but none of
them are altogether satisfactory.[52]
[52] See Abercromby, _op. cit._, vol. ii, p. 24, who discusses these
small vessels at length.
Like the other vessels, they can be divided into different types, of
which some are peculiar to England, and even there confined to
certain counties. In Ireland several of these small cups have
perforated walls, while some have handles. One remarkable specimen
found at Knocknacoura, Co. Carlow, is covered all over with ornament.
In the fine cist discovered at Greenhills, County Dublin, and now set
up in the National Museum, a very remarkable little cup was found
inside the large inverted cinerary urn (fig. 84). The form of this
small cup appears to be originally derived from a metal prototype, and
exactly resembles pottery-vessels of Iron-Age date found in the
cemetery at Marne.