Bt ' ' 11
DESCRIPTIONS OP CRANIA.
The upright and covering stones, of whicli the chamber and its appendages were formed,
were of the hard siliceous grit or Sarsen stone of the district; the horizontal masonry (of which
there were traces between the uprights at the bottom of the chamber and gaHery, as well as
surrounding the base of the mound) was of tile-like stones of calcareous grit, the nearest quarries
of which are in the neighbourhood of Calne, about seven miles to the west.
The skulls, of which four are nearly perfect, are more or less of the lengthened oval form,
with the occiput expanded and projecting, and present a strong contrast to skulls from the
circular barrows of WUts and Dorset. They confirm the observation ab-eady made *, that
crania from the long chambered tumuli of this pai-t of Britain are usually of a narrow and
peculiarly lengthened form. The forehead is mostly low and narrow; the face and jaws, as
compared with the usual ancient British type, decidedly small.
The principal skeleton, to which the skull figured in the Plate (by far the most characteristic
9f the series) belongs, was that of a man about thii-ty-five years of age. It was deposited
in the north-west angle of the chamber, with the legs flexed against the north wall. The
thigh-bone measured I7f inches, giving a probable stature of 5 feet 7 inches. The skull faced
the west. The lower jaw was found about a foot nearer to the centre of the chamber, as if it had
fallen from the cranium in the process of decay. Being imbedded in the clayey floor, the jaw
was singularly well preserved, of an ivory whiteness and density, and even retained distinct
traces of the natural oil or medulla. Near the skuU was a curious implement of black flint—a
sort of circular knife with a short projecting handle, the edges elaborately chipped (p. 2. fig. 1).
The skeleton was, perhaps, that of a chief, for whose burial the chamber and tumulus were
erected, and in honour of whom certain slaves and dependants were immolated.
The valuable cranium we have to describe is not only remai-kable for its form, and for the
character of the tomb whence it was derived, but also for being restored from an extraordinary
number of fragments t- Notwithstanding this disadvantage, the original form has evidently
been reproduced. The skull is thick, measuring nearly half an inch in the thickest parts of the
parietals. It is of medium capacity, and has contained a brain weighiag about 50^ oz. Av., or
about the average weight of the adult male brain. It is decidedly dolichocephalic, narrow, and
very flat at the sides, and realizes more nearly than any we have yet had to figure the kumbecephalic
or boat-shaped form described by Dr. D. Wilson. The frontal region is narrow, moderately
arched and elevated at the vertex, but slopes away on each side. The parietal region is
long, and marked by a prominent ridge or carina in the line of the sagittal suture, which is far
advanced towards obliteration, whilst the other sutures are quite as perfect as usual. The
occiput is fuU and prominent; the supra-occipital ridges only moderately marked. There is a
deep digastric groove, and a slight paroccipital process on each side. The external auditory
openings are somewhat behind the middle of the skull, and very much behind a vertical liue drawn
from the junction of the coronal and sagittal sutures. Turning to the face, we notice the decidedly
full glabella and overarching brows, continued almost to the external angles of the small
retangular orbits : the eyes must have been very deeply set. The narrow nasal bones are separated
from the forehead by a deep indent, and are implanted at a very abrupt angle. The malar
bones are somewhat flattened, and have a nearly vertical position; notwithstanding which the
* Deaciiptions of Skulls from Uley and Littleton Drew, Plate 5. p. 5 ; Plate 24. p. 4.
t No fewer than sixty pieces had to be cleansed, adjusted, and 6xed in their proper position with liquid shell-lac cement.
The lines of junction are shown in the hthograph.
50. W
ANCIENT BRITISH—WEST KENNET, NORTH WILTS.
narrow forehead and high vertex above give a decidedly pyramidal aspect to the front view of the
skuU, such as is considered characteristic of the Turanian type *, and has before been observed
in skuUs from the chambered long barrows of this country, as in that figured in our Plate 5.
The face has been small, short, and narrow; the superior maxiUa is very short; the alveolai'
processes (intermaxillaries) not so prominent as in many skulls from the round barrows; and,
though the upper incisors overlap the lower, the jaw is tolerably orthognathic. The teeth are
of medium size; the enamel of the crowns moderately reduced by attrition, but not sufficiently
so to expose much of the dentine. The canine teeth are much smaUer than is usual in the British
series; and this is particularly obvious in the less external prominence of the fangs of these
teeth in the upper jaw, upon which the semiprognathic and broad muzzle-like character of the
jaw in the skulls to which we refer seems in part to depend. In the lower jaw, which deviates
considerably from the normal type, a very prominently angular and square but narrow chin is
observed; the base is unusually thick, measuring seven-tenths of an inch at the thickest parts;
the ascending rami are rectangular and broad, and the angles remarkably everted. The breadth
of the base of the jaw (which is very unusual) nearly equals the greatest breadth of the face, and
adds materially to the pyramidal appearance of the front view of the skuU.
I n the following Table, under column A, we give the measurements of the skuU lithographed
in our Plate, and, under column B, those of another skull from the same chamber,
which most nearly resembles it in form. It belonged to the skeleton occupying the south-west
angle of the chamber. AU its characteristics are less marked; but it bears a striking resemblance
to skull A, and, like it, presents no marks of violence: they are possibly those of brothers. The
two skulls which appeared to have been fractm-ed during life are of less elongated form, and
otherwise differ from those before us,—as is consistent with the view that they belonged to
slaughtered slaves, taken perhaps from some other tribe. ^
MEASUREMENTS.
Occipital Region.—Length
Breadth
Height
Intermastoid arch . . .
Internal capacity . . .
Eace.—Length . . . .
Breadth . . . .
In like manner as the BaUard Down skuU (Plate 45) recaUs the cranial form of many
American and Polynesian tribes, so does that now described the narrow and elongate skulls of
the Australians and Esquimaux. The Ballard Down skuU bears marks of artificial flattening of
the occiput; this calls to mind the artificial lateral flattening of the skull characteristic of the
ancient people called MacrocephaK, or Long-heads, of whom Hippocrates tells us that, " while the
head of the child is still tender, they fashion it with their hands, and constrain it to assume a
lengthened shape by applying bandages and other suitable contrivances, whereby the spherical
torm of the head is destroyed, and it is made to increase in length." This mode of distortion is
* The woodcut of the front of the skull, unfortunately, does not show the pyramidal aspect as it actually exists, the narrowness
of the frontal benig by no means fully expressed. '
50.
A. B.
Horizontal circumference . 21-2 21-2 in.
Longitudinal diameter 7-7 7-6 „
Erontal Region.—Length 5-2 4-8 „
Breadth 4-5 4-7 „
Height 4-9 4-6 „
Parietal Region.—Length 5G 5-7 „
Breadth 5-1 5-5 „
Height 4-9 4-9 „
A. B.
4-8 4-5 in.
5 5 „
4-2 4-3 „
15-1 151 „
76 78 oz.
4-3 4'5 in.
4-6 4-5 „
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