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418

Examination of a Chambered Long Barrow

structed at least some of the vessels. As it is, the variety of form and ornament, of colour and texture displayed by them is even more remarkable than their number. In hardly more than three cases were two or more fragments of the same vessel met with. In stating that there were parts of not fewer than fifty different vessels, we shall probably be very much within the truth. They have been of every size, from that of a small salt-cellar to a vase holding a couple of gallons.

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Fig. 14.

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Fig. 15.

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Fig. 16.

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Fig. 17.

Fragments of British Pottery from the Chambered Long Barrow, West Kennet. (Fig. 14, actual size; figs. 15, 16, 17, two-thirds size.)

That the pottery had been formed of the "plastic clay" of the district, of which bricksare still made, appears from the amount of flint, in the shape of angular fragments white from the fire, which the black or red paste contains. It is needless minutely to describe the character of the pottery, which is unequivocally hand-made, and of the British or Celtic type. It appears, however, to have been more profusely covered with ornament, impressed or scored, than the cinerary urns in the barrows of South Britain usually are. In this respect it assimilates more to the style of the "drinking cups" of these barrows, and to that of the

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