Crundale Grave 5

Soon after this, we found another nest of them. The great urn, or ossuary, was already broken, perhaps by some heavy carriage having gone over it, for its mouth could not have been more than about ten inches under the surface, at about which depth we found all those already mentioned. This urn seemed to have been nearly of the same shape and size as that described at No. 3; it was made of a coarse bluish earth; it contained burnt bones, ashes, and wood-coals, as before. Amongst them I found four square pieces of ivory (as it seems) [M 6550]; each piece is near an inch square, and about the eighth of an inch in thickness; each piece has four round holes in it, at each corner, one. These I take to have been used about the garment of the deceased, and were, I imagine, a son of tesseræ palliorum, described by Albertus Rubenius, in his book De re vestiaria; they were, when first taken out of the ground, very soft and rotten; but by being a few hours exposed to the sun and air, are now pretty hard, but very brittle. Out of the same nest, or barrow, I saved a very fine patera (for I think I may venture to give it that name) of clear white glass [M 6639]; it is five inches and three-quarters diameter, and two inches and a half deep, and has a little foot to it, two inches diameter. When found, it was incrusted, or coated, with a very fine armatura, or electrum, as it is called, which, by the putting it into warm water, in order to wash the dirt from it, immediately came off. The glass is nearly as clear as what they usually make now-a-days. Here was also a small urn of white earth [M 6784]. It will hold about three-quarters of a pint; it has a biggish belly and a narrow foot, and has been blacked over. Mr. Thoresby mentions urns of this sort.