ng may have been used in the first instance merely
to serve as a support while the vessel was dried. At a later stage the
ornament is generally obtained by scratching with a tool, by pressing
the end of a hollow stick into the clay to form rows of circles, by
using a stick cut at the end into the shape of a half-moon, or other
equally simple decorative device. In certain tropical countries this
rudimentary pottery becomes hard enough for a certain amount of use when
merely dried in the sun, but in all northern and temperate countries it
must have been fired, probably in the most imperfect way, in an open
fire or in such a kiln as could be formed by sinking a hole into the
ground and erecting round it a screen of stones. How imperfect the
firing was is shown by the ashen-grey colour due to smoke. In those
countries where the ware has been more perfectly fired the pieces
naturally become buff, drab, brown or red.

The primitive vessels that have been found in the grave-mounds of
England and the northern countries generally have received a number of
fanciful names for which there is very little warrant except in the case
of the cinerary urns. These are generally the largest vessels of this
class, and as they were used to contain burnt bones there seems
sufficient warrant for the supposition that they were made for this and
for no other purpose.

Our knowledge of primitive pottery has been greatly improved during
recent years by the labours of a number of American students connected
with the United States Geological Survey, who have carefully recorded
the present-day practices of those native tribes who make and use
pottery in various parts of North America and Mexico; while, in the same
way, Peruvian, Brazilian and other South American pottery has been as
closely investigated by European observers. It should be noted that no
primitive pottery reveals any trace of a knowledge of glaze, though much
of it has been highly polished after firing, and in some cases a varnish
has been applied which may perhaps be regarded as the earliest kind of
"glazing" ever applied to pottery vessels.

LITERATURE.--On primitive pottery the following works may be specially
mentioned. W. Greenwell, _British Barrows_ (1877); Boyd-Dawkins,
_Early Man in Britain_ (1880); Mortimer, _Forty Years' Researches in
British and Saxon Burial-mounds of East Yorkshire_ (1905); Abercromby,
"The Oldest Bronze-age Ceramic Type in Britain," _J. Anth. I