vessels." The former are tall (6 to 9 inches in height) and highly ornamented vessels, narrowing from the mouth to near the middle, then bulging and again narrowing at the base. Beakers are almost invariably associated with unburnt bodies with brachycephalic skulls—only two out of twenty-four having been found by Canon Greenwell in the wold barrows with cremated burials. The food-vessel has a wide mouth, a narrow base, and, though shorter, weighs more than the beaker.
The cinerary urns vary greatly in size, form and ornamentation, being generally from 10 to 18 inches in height. They are either narrow-based and wide-mouthed, with a broad overhanging rim, to which the ornamentation is generally restricted; or shaped like a flower-pot and ornamented by one or two parallel ridges round the body. The urns containing the cremated bones are placed in the earth with a flat stone over the mouth, or, in some instances, they are placed mouth downwards covering the calcined bones.
Menhirs, Alignments, etc.
Menhirs.—Standing stones appear to have been erected at all times for a variety of commemorative purposes, such as to mark the site of a burial, a battlefield, or boundary line. Throughout the British Isles such isolated monuments are widely distributed, especially in the less cultivated districts.
