Bronze-Age Pottery

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]

These bowls have a very pleasing effect; and, as Dr. Abercromby says: “The small native women, sometimes under five feet high, who made these little vessels, had certainly a fine sense of form and a delicate perception of the beauty of curved forms. The care and precision with which the ornament was effected, and the richness of the effect produced by simple means, may excite our admiration.”[51]

Plate XI.

In the next stage a slight indentation about the centre of the vessel can be noticed, the ornament being arranged on either side above and below this; next two small ridges develop out of this, which are at first close together, but are afterwards placed further apart, and in the later stages the vessel becomes considerably higher, the base assuming the form of a cone, and the upper portion having an everted lip. Some of these latter vessels have a number of small ribs encircling them. Plate XI shows a series of food-vessels placed in the order of their evolution. The decoration can be well seen. It consists for the most part of chevron, herring-bone, and other linear ornament, but wavy lines can be seen in some examples. In some rare cases the food-vessels were provided with lids (fig. 82). All of these vessels were made by hand; and though the baking of the pottery varies, it was evidently done over a fire.

The food-vessels, which are found both with unburnt and burnt interments, continued in use during the greater part of the Bronze Age, and the name food-vessel is hardly appropriate in Ireland, as in many cases these vessels have been found containing cremated bones, having apparently served the purpose of cinerary urns.

The so-called cinerary urns are large vessels which have been usually discovered containing human bones; they have often been found inverted over cremated remains. They can be conveniently divided into several types, of which the type with the overhanging rim may be mentioned first. In this type the vessel consists of two portions, a lower flower-pot-like cone, on which is placed a larger truncated cone, which forms the overhanging rim. This type is widely distributed in England, and in Ireland has been found in the Counties of Antrim, Down, and Tyrone. The cordoned or hooped type is developed from the preceding type by replacing the overhanging rim by a moulding, both types being contemporary. In the encrusted type the urn, which is of the flower-pot shape, is decorated with strips of clay in the form of chevrons and bosses, the ornamentation assuming a rope-like form. Urns of this type have been found at Greenhills, Tallaght, County Dublin; Gortnain, Broomhedge, County Antrim; Tullyweggin, Cookstown, County Tyrone; Closkett, Drumgooland, and Glanville, Newry, County Down.

Very small vessels, of usually about 2 to 2½ inches in height, are often found in interments associated with the large cinerary urns, and occasionally, when the latter are inverted, are found inside them. The exact use of these small vessels, which are called “incense-cups” or “pygmy-cups,” is a matter of speculation; several theories have been advanced to explain the purpose of placing them in graves, but none of them are altogether satisfactory.[52]

Like the other vessels, they can be divided into different types, of which some are peculiar to England, and even there confined to certain counties. In Ireland several of these small cups have perforated walls, while some have handles. One remarkable specimen found at Knocknacoura, Co. Carlow, is covered all over with ornament.

In the fine cist discovered at Greenhills, County Dublin, and now set up in the National Museum, a very remarkable little cup was found inside the large inverted cinerary urn (fig. 84). The form of this small cup appears to be originally derived from a metal prototype, and exactly resembles pottery-vessels of Iron-Age date found in the cemetery at Marne.