DESCRIPTIONS OF CRANIA.
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Brinking-mp, 7-4 inches Idr/h.fro m Greeti Loive Barrow.
This Tase has been elaborated witb great pains, and as much taste as the simple method of
decoration admits. The ornamentation has been done with a pointed tool, by fxee-hand
di-awmg; and the lines afterwards stippled with rows of dots, perhaps by means of a crenated
pieee of wood. Besides the horizontal lines ro.md the vase, the ehief design is a double zigza^
which occurs m th.-ee series, the first in the neck, the two lower on the beUy-the lowest line
being confined to a single zigzag. No doubt this specimen of the flguline art, to be devoted
to the funereal honoui-s of most likely a chief, was produced by delicate female hands. Vessels
of this kind, as IS weU known, are not cinerary ui-ns, but appear to haye held potations for the
presumed posthumous repasts of the dead, ^ e n found, they do not contain ashes, but are
generally empty; in some instances they have unequivocal marks, inside, of haying been partly
filled with hquids *. o i ^^
* In tills spot we may briefly record the loss of the valued
friend and aceompHshed working antiquary, to whose kindness
we owe the means of describing the Green Lowe skull with its
associated relics. Mr. Thos. Bateman died August 28, 1861,
aged 39 years, to the great grief of his friends. It was thil
gentleman, on a visit paid by us to his house and museum, just
12 years before, in the pleasant month of August, 1S49, who
threw out that suggestion which, in the mind of the writer,
led to the conception and projection of the present work. Mr.
Bateman. at the same time, placed at the writer's disposal his
unique and unrivalled collection of aboriginal skulls, which he
justly prized very highly, for the purposes of such a publication.
The readers of the " Crania Britannica " will have perceived,
by Plates 1, 2, 12, 13, 33, 34, 35, and 41, how freely
we have availed ourselves of this offer. The many other means
and occasions of assistance to us, of a subsidiary kiud, it would
be difficult to enumerate, and still more difficult adequately to
estimate. The progress of the present work was always an object
of much interest to Mr. Bateman. and we have reason to
know that it was a source of much gratification also. We cannot
help lamenting that he should not have lived to see the
"Crania Britannica" completed. This would have rejoiced
him greatly, and have imparted a mutual pleasure.
See a tribute to the memory of Mr. Bateman in "The
Staffordshire Advertiser" of September 7. 18G1, by the present
writer ; and a Memoir of him, by Mr. Llewellynn Jewitt,
F.S.A., in his very agreeable Miscellany, "The Reliquarv."
for October 1861.
(J. B. D.)
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