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1884.35.32

Ceramic urn. This object has a flat bottom and expanding sides. This pottery urn is made of coarse brown ware with blackening spots. [MOBB [OPS move] 04/05/2016]

1884.35.32

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Collection type
Object
Description
Ceramic urn. This object has a flat bottom and expanding sides. This pottery urn is made of coarse brown ware with blackening spots. [MOBB [OPS move] 04/05/2016]
Long description
British urn of coarse pottery
Date / Period
Archaeological period: Neolithic
Date collected
1869
Acquisition information
Donated: 1884
Materials and processes
Material Pottery, Process Handbuilt, Process Impressed
Dimensions
Height: max 205 mm, Diameter: max 185 mm
Object numbers
Accession number: 1884.35.32 Other numbers: 9 487 PR Cat other PR nos: 3487
Research and responses

In October 1869 Pitt Rivers visited his maternal uncle Lord Penrhyn at Penrhyn Castle near Bangor. He opened two cairns on Moel Faben near the castle. [Bowden, 1991: 75] Pitt Rivers 'On the opening of two cairns near Bangor North Wales' Journal of the Ethnological Society of London NS 2 [1870] 306 - 324: 'In 1868 whilst on a visit at Penrhyn Castle, my attention was drawn to 2 conspicuous cairns upon the summit of Moel Faban .... The cairns stand out so conspicuously ... that I was unable to resist the temptation of examining them. Accordingly on 16th October 1869 I ascended the hill accompanied by the three gardeners whose services ... [had been] placed at my disposal ... in the south eastern corner [of the northern cairn] the urn [Pl xxiv fig 1] was found broken in several pieces ... All the pieces were found capable of being united, an operation which was kindly undertaken and efficiently executed by one of the ladies of the house ... it is of flowerpot shape, 8 inches high small at the bottom and widening to 6 1/2 inches at the top, two roughly formed welts run round the urn at 2 and 3 inches from the top the rim is bevelled in the inside and a row of punch marks along the bevelled surface form the only ornament [etc] ...'[AP Leverhulme project on founding collection 1995-1998]

The article published by Pitt Rivers on Moel Faban can be accessed online through JSTOR, the stable URL is http://www.jstor.org/stable/3014457. The full article reference is: Lane Fox, A. 1870. On the Opening of Two Cairns Near Bangor, North Wales. The Journal of the Ethnological Society of London Vol. 2, No. 3: pp. 306-324. [MN 07/07/2009]

The Moel Faban [SH 6315 6789] cairn cemetery excavated by Pitt Rivers is recorded on the Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Wales National Monuments Record under NPRN 302854. The site is described as comprising an "extensive ridge-top cemetery of cairns, running for some 300m, aligned north-east to south-west with the ridge. Part of wider cemetery which extends to the west (NPRN 302854).". [MN 11/09/2009]

Associated publications
This urn is illustrated by Pitt Rivers in an 1870 article about his excavation at Moel Faban [see research notes] as figure 1 on Plate XXIV on an unnumbered page between pages 308 and 309. The article can be accessed online through JSTOR, the stable URL is http://www.jstor.org/stable/3014457. The full article reference is: Lane Fox, A. 1870. On the Opening of Two Cairns Near Bangor, North Wales. The Journal of the Ethnological Society of London Vol. 2, No. 3: pp. 306-324. [MN 07/07/2009]

Search terms: Pottery, Vessel

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