another is spherical; a third (fig. 8) is ornamented with triangles rudely engraved on the face, which is convex, and on the other with an object which may represent a collar or necklace. All these were found in the souterrain, or near it. I call these articles spindle-whorls, although archæologists are not yet agreed as to their real character. Some have considered these to be the beads of necklaces, but in that case traces of the suspending cord would have existed equally on the edges of the apertures on each side, and this is not the case in the present instance. In all instances I have noticed the hole conical. Its edges are intact and perfect in the side where the aperture is smallest, but it bears marks of much usage in the case of the larger aperture. It appears, therefore, that some object of conical form must have been introduced, and such as the lower part of a spindle; for the sake of comparison reference should be made to the representation of the Fusus given by Mr. Anth. Rich in his Dictionary of Greek and Latin Antiquities. 10. A vase, almost perfect, of coarse material, mixed with quartz fragments, and which appears to have been made by hand. The height is seventeen centimetres, and its greatest breadth eighteen. It was originally of a reddish colour, but it has been so burnt in the interior, where some fragments of charcoal still remain, that it has for the most part lost its colour. It was found in the bottom of the couloir near the gallery. 11. A mass of burnt clay, nineteen centimetres in diameter, enclosing fragments of quartz. It was found in the couloir. 12. Such a quantity of broken pottery of all kinds as to fill several baskets. All kinds were represented, from the rudest hand-made ware to fine Gaulish pottery, covered with a slight varnish of graphite, and ornamented with festoons formed of concentric circles, joined by dotted arches. Several of the fragments show that the vases had been internally burnt, but it would be useless to attempt to classify them all. It should, however, be remembered that mere rudeness does not prove antiquity, for I have found in dolmens remarkably fine specimens of pottery, and in Gallo-Roman ruins specimens of extreme coarseness and rudeness. Figures 9, 10, 11, 12, plate IV, will serve to show the character of the ornamentation. 13. The fragments of several hundred Gallo-Roman little figures in baked clay, and of white colour, representing a great variety of personages and animals. There must have been some manufactory of these figures not far from the Roman station mentioned above. 14. Several portions of a Gaulish statuette of red baked clay, but painted white. These portions are the entire head. (Plate v, fig. 1.) Part of the breast, (plate v, fig. 2), an arm, and the lower part of the body. (Plate v, figs. 3, 4.) When perfect, it must have been twenty centimetres high. The personage represented, and which must have been a divinity, perhaps Fig. 9. O Fig. 10. Fig. 11. Fig. 12. FRAGMENTS OF GAULISH POTTERY FOUND IN OR NEAR THE SUBTERRANEAN CHAMBER AT LA TOURELLE, NEAR QUIMPER, BRITTANY. ARCH. CAMB. VOL. XIV. (Figs. 9, 10. Original size. Figs. 11, 12. Half original size.) |