In the first volume of this work I have written much upon early fictile art, and in other works have treated so fully upon the contents of the barrows[61] of early ages, that it is not needful to pursue the subject here. I may, however, with special reference to Irish examples, quote the words of my late friend, Sir William Wilde—one of the most painstaking authorities upon Irish antiquities-and then pass on to a consideration of some of the examples that remain to us. “Irish cinerary urns have,” Sir William says, “been found under three circumstances: in small cists, placed without any ostensible mark, at least at the present day, beneath the surface of the soil, each just sufficiently large to hold one or two vessels. The chamber is sometimes occupied with the urn and its contents alone; in other cases, it also contains charcoal and portions of burned bone; and, in some instances, the flooring-stones have become vitrified upon the upper surface, thus leading us to believe that the funeral pyre was lighted over the grave after it was formed; of this, the charcoal and the vitrification of the stones afford presumptive proof. These small chambers are sometimes found near the surface, or on the periphery of the larger tumuli that usually cover cromlechs or surround extensive sepulchral chambers, and appear to be of a much more recent date than the original structure of the tumulus in which they are placed. Such minor interments may have been those of the family or descendants of the persons originally interred beneath; or the place—strong in the odour of sanctity—may have been resorted to as a burial-ground long subsequent to its original foundation, from that feeling of veneration which instinctively consecrates the resting-place of the dead. These urns are also found imbedded in the earth, in which case they are generally aggregated in cemeteries upon the sides of hills.“ As in England, so in Ireland, interments both by cremation and inhumation[62] were made, and, with the latter, vessels of clay of various forms were placed.
Fig. 664.—From Altegarron, near Belfast.[63]
Fig. 665.—From Ballon Hill, Co. Carlow.
The material of the early Irish urns is simply coarse clay, but this varies in different localities. With some sand has evidently been more or less mixed with the clay, while “in those which show a higher degree of culture in the makers,” as Sir William Wilde says, “sand and small fragments of stone, possibly broken for the purpose, were mixed through the plastic mass, and also rubbed (perhaps to assist in drying, as well as in giving them stability) upon the inner surface, especially near the bottom. A micaceous clay here appears to answer the same end; but in some of the very fine specimens minute particles of quartz and felspar may be observed coating the interior, which, from the sharpness of their fracture, would appear to have been broken specially for the purpose. These fragments of sand or stone may also be seen in the fracture, but are never observed upon the outer surface. In colour the Irish urns differ considerably upon the outer and inner surfaces. The latter is almost invariably blackish or dark brown, the result of partial torrification, and perhaps from the heated bones and charcoal placed within them, either when soft or after they had been sun-baked.[64] The colouring generally passes through four-fifths of the mass. The outer surface is either a light red, grey, or brown. The first is most usual, and appears to be the result of the atmosphere, which was, however, excluded from the interior by the mass of the contents of the urn. The colour of the exterior usually passes for some distance within the lip. The drab or clay-coloured urns bear but little mark of fire, either within or without. The brown belongs only to the thinnest and hardest description of pottery. Assuming that the majority of the mortuary urns (except those for very distinguished persons) were constructed at the grave, the artist was indebted to the clay at hand in the locality for the materials with which he worked, and hence the great variety in the composition of our cinerary urns.”
Fig. 666.—From Cairn Thierna, Co. Cork.
Fig. 667.—From Ballydoolough.