Late Celtic site at All Cannings Cross. (cf. W.A.M., vol. xxxvii., 526–538.) W. Fragment of strainer of coarse brownish-black ware. (Eight fragments with various sizes of holes were found.) X. Fragment of hypocaust flue with deep regular grooves, brick-red in colour. (Eighteen fragments were found.) Y. Perforated bone, whorl (?). from a human patella.) (Two of these were found, one made Z. Part of quern. Diam. 12in. (Large numbers of fragments of querns were found scattered over the site.) NOTES ON RECENT PREHISTORIC FINDS.1 By MRS. M. E. CUNNINGTON. EARLY BRONZE AGE BEAKER AND FLINT DAGGER FROM WEST OVERTON. The beaker and the flint dagger, here illustrated, were found with the skeleton of a man in a shallow grave, apparently without any mound over it, near the schools at Lockeridge, in the parish of West Overton, in 1919. The grave was discovered by Mr. C. Francis in digging gravel, and its contents subsequently passed into the hands of Mr. J. W. Brooke, of Marlborough. An account of the discovery in a local paper states that the skeleton was in the usual "sitting position, facing towards the setting sun," while "close at hand were a large flint spear head and some fragments of an urn." 2 The bones were sent to Sir Arthur Keith, and his report is quoted, together with a notice of the discovery in W.A.M., xli., 187. In 1924 the dagger was sold by auction in London without its history, described as found at Avebury, and was bought by Mr. C. Vincent, of 86, St. Mary Street, Weymouth, in whose collection it now is (1925). Soon afterwards the beaker was bought by Mr. B. H. Cunnington from Mr. J. W. Brooke, and is now in the Society's Museum at Devizes. The dagger was referred to by Mr. R. A. Smith in his paper on "The Chronology of Flint Daggers,,' in Pro. Soc. Ant., xxxii., 14. According to the local paper it seems that another skeleton was found near the same spot some months earlier. The beaker (Pl. I., fig. 1) is complete except for a few fragments of the rim. It belongs to type "B" as described by Thurnam and Abercromby. The ware is thin and of a deep red colour on both inner and outer surfaces, but soft and black in the fracture. The question as to the method of the production of this red colour was referred to Mr. Thomas May who kindly reported on the ware as having been made of "unwashed or unlevigated clay, baked in contact with the fuel in a covered fire at a low heat in a reducing medium, but not in a "smother kiln.' The redness is due to a coloured paste or slip finally exposed to greater heat in an open fire. This soft surface slip has allowed the elaborate pattern to be made with a wooden comb by prodding or a toothed wheel by runnering.' The redness may be due to iron in the slip coating (a mixture of powdered ruddle which is a mixture of clay and iron oxide) or any other form of rust in a silicated condition." The ornament as usual consists of a series of "notched lines, the arrange The Society is indebted to Mrs. Cunnington for the gift of the blocks illustrating these notes. 2 North Wilts Herald, September, 1919. ment of which will be seen in the illustration. The plain surfaces are tooled very smooth; the horizontal lines bordering the zones are remarkably regular and seem to indicate the use of a running serrated wheel rather than the application of a notched tool (see Abercromby I., p. 51). The dagger is some 54in. long by rather over 2in. wide: though a fine specimen its workmanship does not seem to be quite equal to some other specimens of the type. Pl. I., fig. 2. OPENING OF A BARROW AT MARKET LAVINGTON. In May, 1924, a barrow on Freeth Farm (Goddard's "List," Market Lavington 2, W.A.M., xxxviii.) was opened with the permission of Mr. Seymour, to whom the land belongs. This and the neighbouring mound (No. 1) have been under cultivation for many years and are much lowered and spread about. They are in an unusual situation in comparatively low lying country, only just over 200ft. O.D. on an outcrop of Lower Greensand. The mound was composed of unstratified reddish ferruginous sand; owing to continual ploughing in one direction it had become oval in form, measuring 100ft. by 80ft.; its original size or shape could not be determined. The primary interment was found on the ground level at a depth of 5ft., under what had probably been the centre of the mound. It consisted of a burnt interment in a cinerary urn and the remains of what was thought to be the funeral pyre. Over an area of some 8ft. by 6ft. the soil was burned to a deep red colour with charcoal and fragments of bone embedded in it. In the centre of this burnt area a cinerary urn was found upright and full of burnt human bones and infiltrated sand. The urn stood in a hole some 9 inches deep, so that the rim was on a level with the burnt layer, the body and base being distinctly below it. It seems therefore that after the body had been burnt in this fire the bones were put into the urn which was then placed in the hole dug in the middle of the funeral pyre. The bottom and sides of the hole in which the urn stood were not discoloured by fire, but the mouth of the urn was filled with burnt soil and charcoal. A flint "knife," well worked on one side only (Pl. III., fig. 3), was found among the bones in the urn. The bones were very thoroughly burnt and broken into very small pieces, indeed much of the material in the urn was little more than bone dust. Two secondary cremated burials were found in the mound above the primary burial (see Section, 3 and 4). The one at "3" was some 4ft above 03 5° 10° 15 20' Section across central area of Barrow 2, Market Lavington. I-I-Cremation area. 2-Cinerary Urn (size somewhat exaggerated), 3-4-Secondary burnt interments. 5-Site of fire. ƒ-Undisturbed ground. |