The ornamentation upon the earliest Irish pottery, both cinerary urns and otherwise, is extremely varied, both in character and in mode of arrangement. Sometimes simply a number of dots, or punctures, pretty nearly cover the surface; at others, these punctures are intermixed in regular patterns with other ornaments. Sometimes again they exhibit ridges or raised bands more or less decorated, and at others the usual herringbone or zigzag patterns produced by incised or impressed lines are the most prominent feature. Again, in some examples, patterns produced by pressing a twisted thong into the pliant clay are met with, while incised or impressed circular, semicircular, and other lines ornament others. “Many of these lines have a pectinated appearance, as if indicated with a traverser, or a rowel-like instrument, such as that used by pastry-cooks” at the present day, and sometimes the ornament is produced by simple scratches. Other urns are one mass of ornament, rich in appearance and varied in character; and others have what may not inaptly be called flat circular medallions on their sides. Others, again, present a series of “slashes” with intervening impressed ornaments.
Fig. 668.—From Trillick Barr.
It is a remarkable fact, as pointed out by Sir W. Wilde, that no examples, so far as his knowledge went, occurred on which “any trace of the spire, which characterizes the decorations of some of the very oldest sepulchral monuments in Ireland,” is to be found; but a peculiar form of ornamentation, made by straight lines, is identical with that on some carved stones at the entrance to the most remarkable of these edifices—that of New Grange.
Fig. [668] is a remarkably elegant urn found in a cairn at Trillick Barr, Tyrone. In general form it is slightly contracted towards the mouth, and has two raised encircling bands, and an extended rim at the base. The lower part of the body is decorated with vertical lines, the spaces between being here and there filled in with impressed ornaments; and the portions between the encircling bands are also filled in with diagonal lines of indentations. These also are continued round the rim at the mouth, while the raised bands bear a double engrailed pattern. Fig. [669], five inches in height, was found at Ballybit, Lisnevagh, county Carlow. Like the last, it contracts slightly towards the mouth. It has three encircling raised bands, with intervening indented ones, around its centre, and these are richly ornamented. The upper portion of the vase bears a border of curved lines—a large species of engrailing—incised, and the lower portion similarly produced lines forming herringbone and “crossed” patterns; around the rim and the upper rib it is elaborately ornamented with impressed points.
Fig. 669.—From Ballybit, Co. Carlow.
Fig. [670] is of a totally different character, both in form and ornamentation. It was found in a cist, on the lands of Mackrackens, in the parish of Leckpatrick, county Tyrone, and is five inches in height. “At its greatest circumference, it is surrounded by a narrow, circular groove [much of the same character as some Celtic urns found in Derbyshire, and this groove is, as it were, clasped by five small pierced knobs, equidistant from each other. From their shape, and closeness to the vessel,” continues Mr. Geoghegan, “I cannot think they were intended for handles. There are no indentations or marks to lead us to suppose they were designed for that purpose. It appears to me their use was to retain in the groove a strong cord which twined round the urn. From this strong cord three strings could be attached, meeting in a knot, for the purpose of carrying or conveying the urn from the scene of cremation to the cist in which it was finally to be placed, or from the place where it was made.” It bears a strong resemblance in outline to the wooden vessel, Fig. [667]. In the museum of the Royal Irish Academy urns of this same general form are preserved, as are also examples of almost every known variety. Figs. [671 to 675] are from that Museum, and tell their own tale, both as to peculiarity of outline and richness of decoration. An immolation urn, found within a larger vessel at Mayhora, near Castlecomer, of much the same form as Fig. [671], has been described by my friend Mr. Graves in the Archæological Journal; the lower part is elegantly ribbed.
Fig. 670.—From Mackrackens, Co. Tyrone.