In a gravel pit not far from Mannington, Norfolk, a number of cinerary urns have been from time to time exposed. The pit, perhaps better described as a sand pit, is on the summit of a mound or low hill, which does not appear to have been artificially raised, and the fact that some urns have been found in an adjoining field, also a low hill, renders it less likely that the natural contour of the ground has been disturbed. The urns lie a very short distance beneath the present surface, not more than from six or eight inches up to a foot, as a rule, and so they are generally much broken by ploughing, etc. But they are not so much disturbed but that their contents remain in situ.
The urns vary in the excellence of their workmanship, but none is very fully burnt. The accompanying photograph (Plate XXXV.) represents an exceptionally perfect one, and also some fragments of others showing the decoration. But the immediate purpose of this communication is to call attention to one in the bottom of which there was an oval hole. This had been mended by pouring molten lead into it; apparently the urn was stood upon sand and the molten lead poured into the inside, the excess running out into a feather edge. An examination of this specimen shows quite conclusively that the lead was used deliberately to mend the hole, and was not derived from some article of lead melted in the urn and accidentally running into the hole.