Fig. 80.—Incense cup.
Fig. 81.—Cinerary urn.
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]
