Our experience in barrow-digging will justify the statementi that all the vessels exhumed from Celtic Tumuli may be arranged in one of four classes, which are —

I Cinerary or Sepulchral XJents — such as have either contained, or been inverted over, calcined human bones, and which alone are correctly styled Urns.

II Incense Cups — so called, though their real purpose is doubtful. Diminutive vessels, only found with calcined bones, and frequently enclosed in urns of the first class.

III Small Vases — probably intended to contain an offering of food; usually found with unbumt bodies but not imfrequently with burnt bones, though never containing them.

IV. Drinking Cups — tall and highly-ornamented vessels, constricted in the middle, and no doubt named in accordance with their use, by Sir R. C. Hoare.

Cinerary urns from the Yorkshire barrows are, in some instancesi more elegant in shape, taller in proportion to the diameter, and have the inside of the border ornamented, a feature never found in any of the older Derbyshire or Staffordshire urns. It would appear that a considerable interval elapsed, in which burial by inhumation was in vogue, before a return to combustion rendered cinerary urus again requisite, and in the meantime some improvement had taken place in the» ceramic art. We find the urns much smaller, from five and a half to nine inches high, still with the overhanging border which seems characteristic of cinerary urns. A reticulated pattern seems almost to have supplanted the chevron; the clay is mixed with coarse sand instead of pebbles, to prevent its cracking; the substance is thinner, and being more firmly baked, shows a lighter colour, varying from a red to a yellow brown outside; the paste and inside dark grey. It will be evident that the bones must have been more perfectly burnt than before, to enable them to be enclosed in such small vessels. The illustration, in which the lower figure represents an incense cup, is from an urn 5¼ inches high, found on Stanton Moor, Derbyshire, in 1799.

Urns of a still later period, occasionally found as secondary deposits in some of our barrows, are palpable imitations of the conunon globular urn of the Romano^British period, both in form and materiaL There are two varieties. One of clumsy shape, modelled by hand from clay containing an unusual quantity of sand, and pretty well baked, often presents, besides the narrowed mouth distinctive of late pottery^ and never seen in the archaic, another peculiarity in having occasionally a couple of perforations about an inch apart at the side. This form merges, by insensible gradations, into that of the Teutonic pottery sometimes found in connderable quantity in the cemeteries of Nottinghamshire asd Lincolnshire. The other variety is a close and well-made imitation of the Roman urn, in day mixed with angular fragments of quartz, turned on the wheel, and firmly baked to what may literally be denominated pot metal. The outer surface is rather rough, owing to the angular fragments of stone; its colour a bluish grey, the inside more or less red, and the paste mostly grey. Coins of the Lower Empire, chiefly of the family of Constantine the Great, have been found in connection with these urns.

The second class includes all varieties of the small vessels called incense cups, the tise of which is not satisfectorily decided. They differ greatly in shape, but agree in being very small, seldom three inches high, more usually one and a half or two. They are found with calcined bones only, most frequently within larger urns, though occasionally with bones that have not been inumed, and are much more plentiful in Yorkshire than in other coimties. There is reason to suppose that they do not accompany the earliest interments. From their small size, they are generally found in good condition. The oldest resemble the urns in their style of ornament, which is generally incised, and not pressed in by twisted cords. They have also, in many cases, two perforations at the side; rarely, two at opposite sides, as if for suspension. A later variety, generally very firmly baked, is quite plain, with the upper edge turned in towards the mouth, presenting a depressed outline oflen resembling a fiattened sphere. The paste is generally less mixed with pebbles or sand than that of the larger ves- selsi as there was not so much risk of their cracking whilst being fired. They are also lighter in colour, firom being more perfectly baked. The woodcut represents a cup found inside a cinerary urn on Baslow Moor, Derbyshire, about 1830.

The third division, comprising the vases for food, includes vessels of every style of ornament, from the rudest to the most elaborate, but nearly alike in size, and more difficult to assign to a determinate period than any other, from the fact of a coarse and a well-finished one having several times been found in company. They occur both with skeletons and burnt bones; perhaps more firequendy with the former, where they are often found near the head. Where two have been found, it has generally been with burnt bones, and probably indicates the combustion of two bodies. The woodcuts show two found in the barrow on the circle at Arbor Low [Map], in 1845, with a ground plan of the cist indicating their position.

They yary from 4½ to 5½ inches in height, and have generally a wide mouth and a small bottom. They are composed of clay very similar to that used in the cinerary urns, and are pretty much of the same colour, though on the whole a shade lighter. The plainer specimens are ornamented by incised lines, disposed herring-bone fashion round the upper part, which is generally moulded with a simple hollow, the decoration extending to the edge; sometimes the whole of the outside is marked by the end of the finger. A good average specimen of the plain variety is represented in the cut; it was found at Crosslow [Map], Derbyshire, in 1843.

Two aberrant varieties have been observed, a single specimen of each having occurred. One, furnished with a handle or loop at the side, found near Pickering, in January, 1850, is described in a former part of this volume; and another, of very small size, and peculiarly elegant shape, here represented was found with an assemblage of beautiful flint weapons, behind the shoulders of a skeleton, near Biggen, Derbyshire, in 1843. It is only from the circumstances of discovery that we are enabled to identify it as a Drinking Cup, as it differs from all others that we have seen.

It is remarkable that the usual shape of these vessels is analo- gous to that of a series of larger vases of the earliest Greek drab- coloured ware, to be seen in the Vase-Room at the British Museum: the geometrical ornament, too, offers many points of resemblance, although produced by brown pigment on the Greek, and incised upon the Celtic earthenware.