106 CRANIA BEITANNICA. [Chap. V.
i :
were probably intended ; and the art of enamelling in colours, and that of plating bronze with
tin, silver and gold, seem aKte to have been their invention. Objects have frequently been discovered
in England, some silvered or gilded, and others fm'ther decorated with colom-ed enamels
or vitreous pastes, which can only be identified with the phalerse, staticula and other ornaments
and trappings of horses and chariots, siich as are referred to by Pliny and Phüostratus. It may
be sufficient to name those found at Pohlen and Hamden HiUs, Somersetshire, and at Stanwick,
Yorkshire*, the other objects found with which are of the British period. The shields of
bronze and hilts and sheaths in the same metal, of hon swords and daggers, ornamented in a
similar fashion, have already been described; and there can be no doubt that they have the same
origin and belong to the same period. The style of ornament which prevails on them aU is
peculiar, and differs altogether from that on undoubted Eoman work. The curved lines and
spirals of which they chiefly consist are arranged with great skill, and imply no mean geometrical
science. With these are often combined a conventional foliage and certain zoomorphic
forms—especially traces of the heads of horses. Peculiar as is the style of ornament, it is perfect
of its type; in this respect differing greatly from that of Anglo-Saxon and Prankish metal-works
of the fifth century, which is a debased imitation of Boman and Byzantine forms. That simple
rings of bronze for harness, probably for the yoke of the essedum, were cast in Britain, seems
proved by a stone mould found at Camelford in Cornwallt. That, however, the art of plating
them and other articles was imderstood and practised previous to the Boman conquest there is
no proof; and after that event it is probable that the metallurgic arts of Bome were followed,
rather than those of Gaul. Further discovery, however, may modify om- conclusions on these
questions.
Among minor industrial arts, the Britons excelled in wicker work of difierent kinds; of such
theh- coracles were formed, and the sides probably of theh- carts and waggons, whilst coarser
wattled work was employed in the construction of the walls of their dweUings and rude
enclosures. The very name of basket is British, and is found, in but slightly varying forms, in
the Cymric, basged, and Gaelic, hascaid, at the present day. The word {bascauda) found its
way into the Latin language; and the article itself, as a foreign luxury, for use at table, was
imported into Home, in the age which witnessed the conquest of Britain i.
Of the fictile art, as practised by the Britons, no notice is found in ancient authors. Strabo
indeed says that one of the commodities with which the Phoenicians traded to the Cassiterides
was earthenware §, but it does not appear that any pottery discovered in Britain can have been
derived from this som-ce ||. There is, however, nothing improbable in the statement, as appears
m, inira intelligitur, sed frequenter ad, pro;[)e, a])ud, circa.'*—
Schweigliauser. Polybius, ii. 66. 10. ev r^ TopyvXtj)-¡roTafxi^,
on the banks of the river Gorgylus. We owe this note to
the kindness of a distinguished scholar.
* Similar objects have been found at Hagboume Hill,
Berkshire ; West Hall, Suffolk; Saham Toney, Norfolk; at
Arras and near Eeeth, Yorkshire ; and in Annandale, Dumfriesshire.
(See, for references. Description of Ancient British Skull
from barrow at Arras, pp. 3, 5.) These objects have puzzled
our best antiquaries. Mr. Kenrick appears first to have identified
the plated part of them with the processes described by
Pliny (Proceedings of the Yorkshire Philosophical Society,
vol. i. p. 54). Mr. Albert Way pointed out, that those which
are enamelled in colours coincide with the description of Philostratus.
Archieological Journal, vol. ii. p. 156. The Gauls
must have been acquainted with the art of working in glass, at
the early period to which these objects are to be referred. See
p. 84, note *, ante. Comp. Pliny, lib. xsxvi. § G6.
t The mould, which is in two halves, is in the Museum of
Economic Geology, London. It has been described and figured,
Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries, vol. iv. No. 48.
X " Barbara de Pictis veni bascauda Britannis ;
Sed me jam mavult dicere Roma suam."
Martial, lib. xiv. ep. 99. Comp. Juvenal, Sat. xii. 46.
§ Strabo, lib. iii. c. 5. § 11.
II A single example indeed, from a British barrow nea
Stonehenge, differs so entirely from all others, that its foreign
origin may perhaps be asserted ; but whether it be Phcenician,
Greek or Roman, there is no proof. Hoare, "Ancient Wilts,"
vol. i. p. 122. plate 15. fig. 1.
OiiAP. v. ] HISTOBICAL ETHNOLOGY OE BRITAIN. 107
from other accounts of the Phoenician merchandise ; Scylax stating, of the ships which traded
with the Ethiopians of the remote Oerne, that among other things they brought pottery, which
was bought at Athens at the Eeast of Cups*. The drinking-vessel, called clous, seems to
have contained two sextaria, nearly equal to two English pints. Greek vessels may thus have
been the models of the native British potters, as they possibly were of those of Gaul. Posidonius,
at least, about a century before our era, in describing the table customs of the Transalpine
Gaulst, says that the Uquor was carried round in vessels of sflver or earthenware,
such as the Greeks caU amUcas. Whatever was the form of this vessel, it is clear that it was
somewhat capacious, the guests bemg described as drinldng from it leisui-ely, not more than a
cyathus at a time. The form of these drinking-eups is probably preserved in those shown m the
hands of the curious little bronze figures found at Lyons, so iUustrative of Gallic costume and
manners.
Om- knowledge of British pottery is chiefly derived from the numerous examples exhimied
from barrows. It is aU more or less rude, and, as its lightness, porosity and fragflity show, is
merely sun-di-ied, or, at the most, imperfectly baked and reddened on the outside, at an open fire,
or in a rude kiln of piled stones. It is often disproportionately thick and imsymmetrical, and
exhibits no trace of the use of the potter's wheel i. The form and ornament must equaUy have
been given by hand, unaided unless by a spatula or other sunple instrument of wood or bone.
The mouth is nearly always the widest part of the vessel, in which it differs from other ancient
pottery found in Britam, as that of the Romans and Anglo-Saxons. The ornament has been
incised in the soft clay, with some simple tool liaving a plain or serrated edge like a comb, and
not stamped in, as in Anglo-Saxon pottery, with a die; or the markings, which are often of
a herring-bone, zigzag or salth-e pattern, may have been produced by a twisted cord, or
by wicker-work. It has mdeed been suggested that this primeval pottery was formed on the
model of the British basket §. The vessels from the barrows are naturaUy divided into three
principal forms |1. 1. Large coarse vases, holding from three or four pints to as many gallons,
somewhat resembling a common flower-pot in form, and the ornament on which is confined to
markmgs on a broad moulding carried round the top. They usuaUy contain a deposit of burnt
bones, and are known as Cinerary Vrns. That they were made purposely for sepulchral use is
the more probable, as in a few mstances of large earthen vessels, from what appear to have been
British dweUhigs, the form and style are altogether differentlT. 2. Vases of much better form and
proportions, holding from two to three pints. They are of finer clay, and better baked than those
last described, high in proportion to their width, and constricted m the centre. The whole of
the exterior is ornamented with varied and often not inelegant patterns, in bands, squares or
lozenge-forms. They are generally found at the head or feet of skeletons, and had probably
been deposited with food or di-inli. They seem appropriately called Drinldng Cups, and are
* Scylax, Periplus, H 11 • Quoted by Kenrick, Phajnicia,
p. 226, whose note see; and likewise the article " Chous,"
Smith's Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities. Athens
was celebrated for its potteries.
t Atheuffius, lib. iv. c. 36. p. 152; quoted ante, p. 74.
t Dr. Wilson (Archifiology of Scotland, p. 279-290), we
think without proof, holds that some of the British pottery
is wheel-made. Mr. Wilde says the same of some of the Irish
fictilia. Catalogue of Museum of Royal Irish Academy, lSo7,
p. 175.
§ Vaux, Handbook of Antiquities in the British Museum,
1851, p. 171. Phillips, Rivers, Mountains, S:c. of Yorkshire,
1853, pp. 220, 290.
II Hoare, "Ancient Wilts," vol. i. p. 25.
^ As in that found in the cavern at Berry Head, Torbay ;
and in the hut-circles at Worle Hill, Somerset. Archseological
Journal, vol. ix. p. 93. Proceedings of the Somerset Archieological
and Natural History Society, vol. iii. 1852, p. 9, and
plate.