40 CRANIA BRITANNICA. [CHAP. IV.
into account in the subject now treated of, and may probably present itself as a complicating and
aggravating influence in distorted crania, whether they have been primarily deformed by art or
disease—another mode of deformation which produces singular- changes, hitherto not suificiently
studied.
In the excavations made in the Anglo-Saxon cemetery at Harnham in AViltshire in 1853,
under the careful and judicious supervision of the Secretary to the Society of Antiquaries, Mr. J.
Y. iU^erman, an example of a distorted cranium was brought to light of much interest. We are
indebted to the kind desire of that gentleman to promote the present inquiry for this and other
valuable specimens of ancient skuUs, to which we shaU have to refer hereafter. Of this the subjoined
woodcut presents a flgui'e reduced to half the diameter of the original. It occiu-red in the
Lign. 3. Distorted Skull of an Anglo-Saxon Woman, at. c. 30, Harnham Rill, Wiltshire.—Half-size.
grave No. 54, the result of the investigation of which is described in these words " Skeleton
of an adult, about 5 feet 7 inches long. The skuU of very peculiar form. Fragments of bronze
on the left of the pelvis, and, on the right," a glass bead. Beads of glass, and a bronze ring at
the waist. A very broad ii-on buckle at the waist. A bronze flat circular fibula on each collarbone.
* * * The length of the skeleton, which from the state of the teeth was doubtless that of
a person who had attained the midcUe age, together with the glass beads, favom- the inference
that the individual was a woman*." The broad iron buckle, originally covered with some
ornament which has perished, at the waist of this skeleton is represented at fig. 8 of our Plate
of Spear-heads, &c. from the Harnliam Hill Cemetery. The brom;e ring, which bears a monogram,
is depicted in the volume of the Archajologia, pi. XII. fig. 7. The general thinness and
lightness of the bones of the cranium, the smaUness of the teeth, deHcacy of the face, and
the fullness of the lower occipital region, confirm the archisological inference that this is the
skull of a woman—probably of aboiit 30 years of age. And it is this circumstance of the sex
* An Account of Excavations in an Anglo-Saxon Burial-ground at Harnham Hill near Salisbury. By John Yonge Akerman,
F.S.A., Archseologia, xictv. p. 264, &c. 18.53.
CLIAP. IV. ] DISTORTIONS OE THE SKULL. 41
of the subject to whom it has belonged, which, in the present state of our knowledge, tends to
embarrass the conclusion that this remarkably regularly distorted cranium was moulded by art
in infiincy. The Austrian, Swiss and Savoy skulls are those of men ; and it is weU known that
the processes of distortion are usually, although not universally, appUed to men only, and those
of a superior class, never to slaves. In the language of our motto, " they think those the most
noble who have the longest heads." This cranium is weU deserving of a more minute examination
; for if it must be considered as an instance of mechanical distortion during hfe, and
we do not see how this conclusion can be avoided, it is so far as we know unique in being derived
from an Anglo-Saxon cemetery. As the reader will perceive, it presents a prognathous
character, in the projection of the alveolar processes and in the low facial angle. The frontal
bone is strikingly shallow from before backwards, or depressed and flattened out. The same
is the case with the occipital bone. But the compressing force has spent its influence chiefly
upon the parietals. These bones have acquired an increased arched form, obliquely from before
backwards, which gives them the appearance of being shortened in the direction of the longitudinal
diameter of the head ; a change that is apparent in the woodcut, and especially so when
compared with another woman's skull from Harnham, which exhibits a much longer parabolic
curve. They are bulged out at the centre of each bone to a point behind the vertex, so as to
present a regular inflated prominence. In other words, this prominent bulging descends from
about the vertex, through the middle of each parietal bone, to the middle of the squamous
portion of each temporal bone above the auditory foramen. The same distending power has
given a swoln shape to the lower angle of the parietals and to the temporal bones ia the
region above the mastoid processes. The angle of the lower jaw is unusually obtuse. The state
of the teeth by no means accords with the popular impression that their diseases are the result
of the habits of modern civilization. One of the lower molars has perished during the earlier
years of the woman's life, and the alveolar process is absorbed. Another is in the acute stage
of caries, and the presence of stumps shows that this disease has destroyed the crowns of three
others*.
After an attentive examination of this singular cranium, we are led to the conclusions,—
that it does not present the natm-al form ; that the distortion is not the result of disease, and
we beHeve is not posthumous ; and that in aU probability it was produced by art in infancy from
mechanical compression. There are doubtless some difficulties in arriving at a confident opinion
upon the subject, difficulties that can only be satisfactorily dissipated by further investigation.
As far as we are aware, it has not hitherto been supposed that any of the ancient German
nations or their neighbours adopted the practice of distorting the cranium f . It now therefore
* The measurements by Herr Fitzinger of the two deformed
skulls of the presumed Avars, are not given sufficiently explicitly
to enable us to institute a comparison with those of this
cranium. "We will, however, set down a few of the dimensions
of this Anglo-Saxon example, specify how they are taken, and
add the corresponding millimetres. Had Herr Fitzinger
stated his method of measurement, it would have been easy
to have made a complete comparison; the reader always
bearing in mind that.our specimen is the skull of a woman,
whilst the two others are the rehes of men. Length, from the
glabella to the occipital protuberance (measured with callipers),
(i-2 inches, or 0-157 millim. Height from occipital edge of
foramen magnum to the junction of the coronal and sagittal
sutures (do.) 5'8 inches, or 0'147 millim. Greatest breadth of
the frontal bone (do.) 4 7 inches, or 0-120 millim. Greatest
breadth from the most prominent part of the squamous portion
of one temporal bone to that of the other (do.) S S inches,
or 0-140 millim. Circumference round the glabella and occipital
protuberance (measured with tape) 187 mches, or 0-476
millimetres.
t Vesalius informs us, that the Germans of his day, the
middle of the 16th century, had a broad head with compressed
occiput, which he attributed to the custom of binding infants
in cradles upon their backs.
G