Urn

(ŭrn.) [From L. urn a.] (Antiq.) A kind of vase of a roundish form, but largest in the middle, destined to receive the ashes of the dead. The substances employed in the construction of these ve els are numerous. Among them are gold, bronze, gla , terra cotta, marble, and porphyry. Many urns have been discovered bearing inscriptions; others with the name only of the person whose remains they contained. The Romans derived the form of their urn from the Greeks, who did not, however, use urns as receptacles of the ashes of the dead. It was also customary with the Romans to put the names of those who were to engage at the public games into urns, taking them in the order in which they were drawn out. Into such a ve el also they threw the tickets containing their votes at elections. [s. 924]