76
W. SCHOFIELD
Other stamped designs of various kinds, curves, ovals, paired spirals, chevrons, etc., lie at an average depth of 127 cm. Sherds without patterns numbered 33, distributed at all depths averaging 115 cm. Many are jar rims or come from jars with equatorial ridges, plain above and patterned below, so that statistics would be useless. Some of these were food vessels buried beside the dead, of very fragile material, broken in fragments as they lay buried by the weight of earth and sand piled on them, but still keeping their upright position. Two such, as well as the only perfect jar found, came from the north extremity of the west beach, under the hill, so that earth washed off it adds to the measured depth of the vessels. This averaged 161 cm. for the three vessels, 40 cm. below the 122 cm, which was the chief culture level.
This area probably served at one time as a cemetery of the early inhabitants. The complete jar was partly filled with decayed granite rainwash, lying against the side of the vessel when I found it at the foot of the low cliff. No stratum level could be assigned to it, but its perfect condition shows it could hardly have dropped from any great height and was most likely washed out of its matrix by rain and fairly gentle wave action. Its form is worth noting. Below the plain, slightly flared lip, pinched into two rough spouts on opposite sides, it expands gradually to the ‘equator'. Above this it is undecorated: below, a neatly impressed network of vertically arranged rhombs covers the rest of the body surface, in each mesh a raised stud which I interpret as a watching eye, or the pupil of an eye. The base is hollowed into a dinge for stabilising the vessel and is also ornamented.* The food vessel in grave IV at Shek Pik, of coarse pottery, also had stamped ornament, and two spouts on the rim.†
The distribution in depth of soft pottery bearing stamped designs other than net patterns shows a certain slight degree of concentration around the 122 cm. level, with three above and three below it: they number only eight. All but one were found in the sand sectors of the site. The only tentative conclusions that may be drawn are that such designs were less favoured for funerary pottery than the net patterns, and that they were known
*This jar is illustrated at Plate 5.
† See Schofield, op. cit., p. 269, cxxi.