The principal collections are to be seen in the British Museum and the museums at Devizes, Sheffield, Edinburgh, and Dublin. These have been derived from the barrows opened by Sir R. Colt Hoare in Wiltshire, T. Bateman in Derbyshire and Staffordshire, Rev. Canon Greenwell and the Rev. J. C. Atkinson in Yorkshire, C. Warne in Dorsetshire, and W. C. Borlase in Cornwall. The pottery from the round barrows exhibits an endless variety of form, but as regards their suggested use, they may be divided into four classes, namely:— (1) Cinerary urns. (2) Food-vessels. (3) Drinking-cups. (4) Incense-cups. There is no doubt as to the use for which the cinerary urns[53] were intended, because they are found filled with burnt human bones, sometimes placed in an inverted position upon a flat stone, and sometimes mouth upwards. The cinerary urns vary in height from 6 inches to 3 feet, and the most common shape resembles that of an ordinary garden flower-pot, with a deep rim round the top, probably to give the vessel greater strength. [53] Greenwell’s _British Barrows_, p. 66. [Illustration: BRONZE AGE URN OF “INCENSE-CUP” TYPE FROM ALDBOURNE, WILTS; NOW IN THE BRITISH MUSEUM HEIGHT 3½ INS.] [Illustration: BRONZE AGE URN OF “FOOD-VESSEL” TYPE FROM ALWINTON, NORTHUMBERLAND; NOW IN THE BRITISH MUSEUM HEIGHT 5 INS.] The so-called food-vessels[54] have received this name because they are believed to have contained food for the deceased in the next world. In support of this theory it may be mentioned that remains of substances resembling decayed food have been found in some of the vessels in question. Urns of the food-vessel type are shaped like a shallow bowl, and they vary in height from 3 to 8 inches. They are usually found placed beside the deceased. The use of the so-called drinking-cups[55] is suggested more by the form, which resembles that of a mug, or beaker, slightly contracted in the middle, than by any actual facts connected with their discovery. They are generally placed near the deceased. The height of the drinking-cups varies from 5 to 9 inches. The Hon. J. Abercromby, F.S.A. (Scot.), has recently published an elaborate monograph on the drinking-cups of the Bronze Age entitled “The Oldest Bronze Age Ceramic Type in Britain; its close Analogies on the Rhine; its Probable Origin in Central Europe.”[56] Incense-cups were conjectured by Sir R. Colt Hoare and the earlier archæologists to have been used for burning some aromatic substance during the funeral rites. The view taken by the late Mr. Albert Way, and supported by Canon Greenwell,[57] is that they were for carrying burning wood to light the funeral pile. The incense-cups are the smallest of the sepulchral vessels of the Bronze Age, being only from 1 to 3 inches high. The shape is like that of a little cup. The sides are sometimes perforated. The incense-cups are often found inside the cinerary urns. [54] _British Barrows_, p. 84. [55] _Ibid._, p. 94.