228 CRANIA BRITANNICA. [CHAP. IX.
evidently works of art and objects of luxury, wliich the later tribes, their descendants, have left
behind them.
In going back to the most primitive times our inquh-ies have reached, the human remains
yield the impression that a certain amoimt of diversity has obtained from the beginning—that
the ancient Britons, although formed upon a model consummately adapted to the climate of the
islands, never appear as if formed, as it were, in one pristine mould. Diversity of statm-e, of
form in every part, and, no doubt diversity of powers also, within definite limits and in accordance
with the beautiful order of nature, have always prevailed.
Besides the sexual differences, the hidden causes of which have yet to be developed, and are
not likely to be resolved by the doctrine of " natural selection," the ancient Britons exhibit
diversities in the form of the skull, and especially such differences in its relative proportions, that
both brachycephalic and dolichocephalic heads appear to have always occurred. The early inhabitants
of these islands, like other ancient races of northern and western Europe, are distinguishable,
nevertheless, for an unusual prevalence of brachycephalism which is natural to them ;
though in some cases it may have been increased, to a certain degree, by the peculiar customs they
observed in the mirsing of their infants. Yet the ancient Britons had no systematic method of
distorting the skull by art, such as has prevailed among some other ancient races *. It is on
account of the prevalence of this brachycephalism among the ancient Britons that we have
designated this shape of their skulls typical. It is not by any means universal among their
osseous relics, but so frequently present, and so peculiar, as to deserve to be marked as characteristic.
It is not confined to the remains of men, but, what makes it worthy of a higher appreciation,
as a stamp of nature, it is seen in those of women and even of young children. The
latter fact, when it occurs without any sign of deformation and can clearly be received as connate,
is an emphatic expression of this brachycephalism being a normal feature.
Prom these remarks it will be seen that om- researches lend no countenance to the doctrine
we believe too hastily assumed, that at a very remote period, before any mixture of blood could
have occui-red, a uniform brachycephalism was universal among the British tribes. However
unwilling to destroy the few postulates which have been used to guide our uncertain steps in these
investigations, we are constrained to say that the evidence does not lead to any more positive
conclusion than, that in a certain race an unusual amoimt of brachycephalism was present from
the beginning. It is most probable that in the contemporary people of northern and western
Europe the same proposition holds good, but nothing fm-ther can he maintained. Basing upon
the observation that the primitive European races were distinguished by brachycephalism (which
is generally admitted t , although, as before said, facts do not warrant our taking this proposition
too strictly), it has been thought that the degree of deviation from this brachycephalism, regarded
as the standard point, may indicate the measure of the admixture of blood within the race J.
Some excellent observers have attributed much weight to the occurrence of dolichocephalic
crania in "Long Barrows" and in Chambered Barrows, and have not hesitated to refer them to
* They did not adopt distortions of tlie skull, or any muti- détruire cette -vérité, solidement démontrée."—Mém. de la Soc.
lations, such as punching out the incisor teeth, common among
African and Australian tribes. These seem to be the practices
of people low in the intellectual and moral scale—cruel and
sanguinary.
t The language of Dr. Broca is, " La population pré-celtique
du Danemark, des îles Britanniques, de la France, de la
Suisse, était en grande partie brachycéphale. Bien ne peut
d'Anthrop. vol. ii. p. xxxi.
I Carl Vogt, 'Vorlesungen über den Menschen,' 18G3, i.
S. 68. It seems probable that the absence of brachycephalism
among the western Irish, who, although of the purest aboriginal
blood of any population of the islands, can scarcely be regarded
as at this day wholly unmixed, may be considered to
afford proof of this position.
CHAP. IX.] CONCLUSION. 229
an anterior " pre-Celtic race," who lived before the ancient Britons of the circular barrows*. "We
believe that this is assuming too high a value for the fact of relative length of crania, which
alone is not an adequate basis for so important an hypothesis—that the archajological evidence
for the greater antiquity of the two classes of barrows just named is so contrary to the common
principles of antiquarian reasoning, and is of so doubtful a nature, and, even if we admit the
arguments of those who favour this hypothesis, is of so conflicting a character in the different
parts of the islands, that we have never been able to receive the doctrine. We can readily conceive
how alluring it must seem in the illumination of a very dark antiquity, and how truly
acceptable it would prove were it placed on a stable foundation; but, until its advocates have
succeeded in accomplishing this task, it is only prudent to entertain a dubious hesitation t. We
believe that aU which can be safely said is, that the crania from the long and chambered
barrows are more uniformly doKchocephaUc than those from the cu-cular barrows, cists, &c.
Whether this dolichocephalism is to be attributed to the remarkable frequency of abnormal
synostotic skuUs in these barrows, to some slight admixture of blood in the aboriginal race, to
some change in the mode of nursing infants, or to other secondary influences, cannot at present
be definitely determined {. Nevertheless it may be said that it is contrary to observation to
* That New Grange could be one of the earliest attempts
of the first inhabitants of Hiberuia at a sepulchral mound, is
so improbable and so contrary to all we know of the simplicity
and imperfection of pristine human works, that it would require
evidence of the most cogent nature to prove its precedency
to the circular eistic barrows. So also of the stone
barrows of Wellow, of Uley, of Minning Lowe, &c. There is
no inherent improbability in looking upon the rude and heavy
drift implements as the earliest attempt of man to make himself
lithic tools. But to regard the colossal mound of New
Grange, and the elaborate galleries and chambers of Wellow,
Uley, and other barrows of this kind as the most primeval is
difficult, if not impossible, unless the support of other very
convincmg evidence could be adduced.
t One of the very earliest observers who was impressed with
the brachycephalism of the crania from the Jettelime, or Kaynpehiiie,
i. e. Giant's barrows of Denmark, was the late Prof. D.
F. Eschricht, who pnbhshed a rather famous figure of a calvarium
discovered in a chambered barrow in the island of
Moen in 1830 (Dansk Folkeblad, Sept. 1837, p. 111). The
cast of this skull was also figured by Prichard, ' Researches,"
vol. iii. pi. 3 ; andEschricht's figure was copied by Mr. (now
Sir W. Ii.) Wilde (Ethnology of the Ancient Irish, p. 9). Eespecting
the crania from the two barrows in the isle of Moen,
we must first of all remark that they are not by any means
uniformly brachycei)halic. There are at this time one cranium
and four calvaria of this find in the University Museum at
Copenhagen, labelled in Esehricht's autograph, " IvKrapehoi,
Moen,—Hage." The relative latitudes of these calvaria are as
follow, taking the length of each as I'OO :—No. I, ij, is -76 ;
No.2, cJ,-83; No. 3, cJ,-77; No. J, '76; No. 5, $,-85.
So that the proportionate breadth of these calvaria ranges from
'76 to '85 ; hence, according to our rule, three of them are dolichocephalic,
and two only brficliyceplinlic. This is a diversity
we were hardly prepared to expect.
Eschricht iu a subsequent page (115) delineates another
calvarium, found in 1821, in a barrow in the isleofFyen, of a
posterior age, viz. belonging to the bronze, or metallic period,
which is distinguished by its dolichocephalism. But, again,
this skull is, we believe, sxjnostotic., and abnormally narrowed
and lengthened by premature ossification of the sagittal suture
; in fact, it is one of the scaphocephalic calvaria. The
sutures in Eschricht's figure are altogether unnatural and incorrect.
Hence it is an error to quote it as an evidence of a
dolichocephalic race having come into Scandinavia, sxiperseding
the primeval brachycephali, and bringing in with them
the use of metals. Every testimony for such, a doctrine, based
upon this calvarium, falls to the ground.
In the Museum of Northern Antiquities at Copenhagen,
there is a collection of crania from the Danish barrows, of the
chief of which, or all those of " the stone age," we have introduced
measurements in our Table III, Besides these, there
are two of "the bronze age," which have both belonged
to women, and are both imperfect calvaria. When we reacli
" tlie iron age " there are only two examples. One of these,
from Vester Egitsborg in Seeland, has, the length taken as
I'OO, a breadth of -73. The other, which has been regarded
as a demonstrative proof of the decided dolichocephalism of
this age, is much longer, but it is scaphocephalic from synostosis
of its parietal bones, abnormal, and therefore inadmissible
as evidence.
i The large "Long Barrows" of Wiltshire were always a
problem to Sir R. C. Hoare. In the latter period of his explorations
he passed them over, as he says they were " so
uniform in their construction and uninteresting in their contents."
(Anc. Wilts, vol. i. p. 93.) He found them to be
composed chiefly of soil, with commonly a pavement of flints
at the bottom, upon which the skeletons were laid without any
particular order, or in disorder, and with a small cist or cists
by the side. The conspicuous one figured in his Plate of the
Winterbourn Stoke Down group (ih. p. 121), has since been
opened by our coadjutor. Dr. Thurnam, in the spring of 1863.
2 H