30 CRANIA BRITANNICA. [CHAP. IY. CHAP. IV.] DISTORTIONS OF THE SKULL. 37
people M-ho dwelt in Pannoiiia and tliis part of the present Austria, A.D. 563, and subsequently
for about two centuries*. In 1843 Ratlike communicated to MiÜler's ' Archiv für Anatomie,'
the figure and description of a very imperfect skull from an ancient burial-place near Kertcb in
the Crimea, the ancient Panticapajum, offering the same depression of the frontal bone, which
he regarded as having belonged to one of the MacrocephaU. And as other sinrüarly distorted
crania have been derived from this soiu-ce, it is concluded that they have all belonged to the
Macroccphali of Hippocrates, and also that Blumenbach's specimen had a similar origin. Two
years afterwards the same Journal contained a Memoir by Tschudi, in which a carefiü comparison
was made between the Grafenegg cranium and those of the ancient Huancas of Peru, that this
traveUer, as we have already seen, maintains to present theü- congenital forms. This comparison
resulted in Dr. Tschudi's regarding them, not as simüar, but identical, and expressing a decided
opinion that the Austrian skull must have been originaUy derived from Peru—a circumstance
he thought not improbable, when it is recoUected both countries were undei- the same dominion,
that of the Emperor Charles V., at the time in which he conjeetui-ed the cranium had been
brought with other curiosities from America, and afterwards by some means cast away.
Professor A. Retzius, however, pointed out differences between the Austrian and Peruvian crania,
which he regarded as essential t . But in the year 1840 a more perfect skull retaining the lower
jaw was discovered at Atzgersdorf, within a short distance of Vienna, which agrees exactly in all
its pectdiarities of form m t h that found at Grafenegg i- The evidence, therefore, seems pretty
complete that the south-eastern parts of Europe have at a remote period been inhabited by a
people, or by tribes, who have used artificial means to distort the cranium in infancy. At the
same time it has been generaUy agreed that these were the Avars, or some cognate tribe of
Huns. In support of this latter view, Eitzinger makes reference to medals struck to commemorate
the destruction of the splendid city of Aquüegia by the famous Attüa, king of the Huns, in
452. Upon one side they exhibit the ruins of the city, and on the other the bust of Attila; the
contour of the head having so strong a resemblance to the form of these distorted skulls, as
involuntarily to lead to the opinion that the artist has employed one of them as his pattern—
an opmion since confirmed by Prof. Retzius from an examination of specimens of the same
medals contained in the cabinet at Stockholm §. It may also be added, that the historian
Priscus, who visited the camp and the capital of Attüa, with whom he was brought into personal
communication, describes him as being of short stature, his breast broad, his liead exceedinrjly
large, his eyes small, -nith a thin beard, inconspicuous nose, and of dark colour. Sidonius
ApoUinaris, a contemporary Gaulish poet, in his panegyric upon the Emperor Anthemius,
describing the white Huns, does not fail to give a prominent place to this peculiarity :—
" Consurgit ill arctum
Massa rotunda caput."
M. E. Ti-oyon of Bel-Air near Lausanne, an eminent antiquary well knoTO by his researches
* A small wood-cut of a cast from this skull appeared in
Wilde's •Ethnology of the Ancient Irish,' p. 6 ; and a coloured
lithograph of the natural size illustrates Fitzinger's exact
historical and excellent paper "iJber die Schädel der Avaren,"
1853; from the Denkschriften der Academie der Wissenschaften
der Wien, Band V.
f Ilornschuch's Archiv skandinavischer Beiträge zur Naturgeschichte,
i. p. 151, 1845.
I Fitzinger, Taf. II.
§ This distinguished anatomist and ethnologist has illustrated
the subject of these curious deformed crania by contributions
to the Academy of Sciences at Stockholm (Vetenscaps
Academiens Ilandliugar, 1844 and 1854), to the Meeting
of Scandinavian Naturalists at Christiania, and the Ethnological
Society of London, 1854.
in the ancient cemetery of that place, has more recently discovered another cranium, presenting
an artificially depressed frontal bone. The tombs investigated in this place of sepulture by
M. Troyon amount to more than 300 in number, are marked by three distinct series or strata of
graves one above the other; and belong to periods varying from the commencement of the 6th to
the 9th century. This latter singularly compressed skull was found in the lowest layer*; and
offers an exact counterpart of the Grafenegg and Atzgersdorf examples. It even exhibits the
distinct prominence at the top of the frontal bone, about an inch from the junction of the
coronal suture with the end of the sagittal, which is peculiar to the series; a peculiarity, which
justifies the conclusion that the distortion in every case has been produced by similar means—
an apparatus of the same construction. And by a comparison of the figm-es of these skuUs vrith
the liorizontally elongated, somewhat cylindrical ones obtained by Dr. Morton from the ancient
Peruvian cemetery at Aricat, there seems to be reason to infer that the distortion has been
produced, if not in the same, yet in a very similar manner. It has not been effected by a board,
at least alone, which is sometimes employed, but by bandages. Eirst of all, a compress, a folded
cloth or some harder substance, has been placed on the centre of the frontal bone, extending from
the frontal sinus to about an inch and a half from the coronal suture, and bound down tightly,
probably in the two folds indicated by Morton, so as to leave a slight elevation in the middle
between their edges; and a third fold of the bandage has passed across the fore-part of the
parietal bones just behind the coronal suture, occasioning a depression there. TMs comparison
also shows a difference between these European skulls and those of the Huancas figured in Rivero
and Tschudi's Atlas (Lamina VI. and VI. a). They, however, agree very closely with the
tercera forma of Dr. Tschudi, which he describes in the volume of text.
M. Hippolyte Gosse has discovered in an ancient cemetery at ViUy near Reignier in Savoy,
a fourth instance of a skull bearing imequivocal marks of the same peculiar mode of distortion J.
It appears to have been in consequence of this discovery, made by his son, that Dr. L. A. Gosse of
Geneva, a man of much worth, whose name is justly esteemed in medical literatm-e, has been
induced to investigate the subject of artificial distortion of the cranium and collect into one view
nearly aU that is kno-mi upon it§.
Another distinct mode of distortion, which wUlin future be required to be taken in to consideration
in aU investigations having reference to these deformed crania, has, however, been
pointed out by our coUeague Dr. Thurnam, who first clearly attributed it to its true cause. We
refer to posthiunous distortion; the occm-rence of which, at first view, seems highly improbable ;
* To the polite attention of M. Troyon we are indebted not
only for these particulars, but for outline drawings of the skull
of the natural size.
t Morton's Illustrated System of Unman Anatomy, p. 90,
1849; and Ethnography and Avchoeology of the American
Aborigines, p. 18, 184(i. The modes of "artificial distortion
have been and are various. In this latter work Dr. Morton
has pointed out four quite distinct. Wc have very recently
obtained a cranium derived from Tacna in Peru, which presents
this jieculiar mode of distortion.
t Notice sur d'anciens Cimetières trouvés, soit en Savoie,
soit dans le (Janton de Génève, 1853.
§ Essai sur les Déformations Artificielles du CnW, 1855.
This is a work of curious research and great interest, in whiph
Br. Gosse describes upwards of sixteen different forms of distortion
of the skull. Some of these numerous varieties seem
to us to be hardly well defined. The author's advocacy of the
Ilippoeratic doctrine, that artificial distortion can result in an
hereditary conformation by long continuance of the deforming
practice, and by an extension of it to the two sexes, so as to
embrace both parents in a succession of generations, appears to
be equally wanting in vahd foundation with his proposal to
modify the intellectual and moral faculties, and give a favourable
direction to human character in certain prognathous races
by artificially moulding the heads of infants according to an
ideal model—an improvement which is expected to be permanent
in the race, from the presumed heritable nature of such
modifications. It should be added that Dr. Gosse regards the
Villy cranium as of Moorish origin.