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DESCRIPTIONS OF CRANIA.
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manent frontal suture *. It is that of a large thoiigli probably short man, with coarse, heavy
features, and short, broad upper jaw. In another (No. 6), the frontal and right parietal are
gashed in various directions; the difference in the appearance of the cleft portions, which had
fiillen down and been preserved by the clay at the bottom of the chamber, is very striking. In
a fourth instance (No. 8), the angular fragments are so numerous that one might suppose the
gashes had been inflicted in sheer wantonness. Many of them retain the natural oil of the
bono, and the edges are as sharp and fresh as if the wounds had been inflicted yesterday.
Cleft Skull (No. 5) from Chambered Barrow, RoJriiarton, Gloucestershire.—Half-size.
The skull selected to be lithographed is that of a man of about 50 years of age. It is one of
the most dolichocephalic we have figured, being e x c e e d e d in absolute length (7-9 in.) only by that
from Uley (PL 5, " 8-1 in."). The proportion of the breadth to the length is "72; whüst in the
skuU from Uley, and in another from Rodmarton (No. 3), it is '711. The sm-face is equable and
smooth, the processes and ridges for muscular attachment being moderately marked. Viewed
from above {norma verticalis), the lengthened-ovalform, relieved only by the parietal eminences,
more pronounced than usual in this class of skulls, is very striking. Behind is seen the full,
prominent, and projecting occiput, with no trace of flatness on its upper scale. The degree of
occipital prominence is measured by the difference between the greatest length, 7-9 in., and the
length measured between the glabella and the external occipital protuberance, or inion (" inial diameter
"), which is 7-4 in.,—giving a difference of five-tenths of an inch, or about 12-7 millimetres Í.
writer in other chambered and long barroivs. In that near These last, however, are not hrachyeephalic ; tliey have the full
Tilshead, opened in 1863, no fewer than six out of eightskulls
( 3 male, 3 female, and 2 infant) were most extensively cleft.
I t seems clear that the practice imphed by these appearances
belongs especially to the age of the long barrows.
• It is remarkable that the largest of the cleft skulls from
the West Kennet chamber has also the frontal suture persistent,
thus giving it a broader and less dohchocephalic form
than the rest. So far as our observations extend, the perfect
skulls from these barrows, inferred to be those of chiefs, are of
considerably more elongate type than those which are cleft.
59.
and rounded occiput, and there is scarcely sufficient ground
for referring them to a different tribe or race ; they may have
been those of serfs, of less pure blood than their lords.
f The skull from the chambered barrow at West Kennet
(PI. 50) is of still more elongate form, the breadth being
•09 of the length ; but this exaggerated dolichoccphalism is no
doubt in part due to infantile synostosis of the parietals.
I M. Broca, in his memoirs " Sur les Crânes Basques "
(Bull, de la Soc. d'Anthrop. de Paris, tom. iii. and iv.
18G2-3), insists much on the importance of distinguishing
(4)
ANCIENT BRITISH—RODMARTON, GLOUCESTERSHIRE.
In most of the brachycephalic British skulls figured in these pages there is little or no difference
between these two dimensions; so that the glabeUo-inial diameter is also the measure of
the greatest length. The skull is of low elevation, the great length compensating for the
defident height, which is only as -69 to the length. ExternaUy the great sutures are tolerably
distinct, though, with the exception of the squamous, they appear to be obUterated internally.
Of the fronto-sphenoid, the lower parts of the coronal, and the left occipito-mastoid there
is scarcely a trace within or without. The frontal region is narrow, but not particularly low.
The glabeUa and superciHaries are moderately full; the nasals large, arched, and expanded.
The face, especiaUy in the alveolar region, is rather short and tolerably orthognatliic. The
mancUble is rather shallow, the ascending ramus oblique; the chin square and broad, but not
prominent. Many of the upper teeth have been lost during life; one of the incisors has been
broken off at the fang.
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Horizontal circumference
liongitudinal diameter
Prontal Region.—Length
Breadth
Height
Parietal Region.—Length
Breadth
Heiifht
MEASUREMENTS.
22-0 inches.
7-9
5-4
é-7
4-9
5-7
5-6
5-0
Occipital Region.—Length . . 5-2 inches.
Breadth . . 5-1 „
Height . . 4-6 „
Intermastoid arch 15-7 „
Internal capacity 90 ounces.
Pace.—Length 4-5 inches.
Breadth . . . . . . 5-2 „
Length of Femur 171
In conclusion, the observation made in the first Decade of this work, issued in 1856,
(PL 5. p. 5), that the skulls from the chambered long barrows of the south-west of Engknd
are " of a narrow and lengthened form," has derived nothing but confirmation from'' our
successive researches (Pis. 24. p. 4, 50. p. 4), and is especially supported by these skulls from
Rodmarton, which form the subject of the writer's concluding Description. During the past
year, 1863, after many failures, he has succeeded in obtaining skuUs from the long barrows of
South Wilts—tumuli which are similar in outward form to those of Gloucestershire and North
Wiltshire, but differ from them in containing no chambers or cists of stone, the materials for
which are wanting in this chalk region. The skulls obtained from the long barrows of Winterbourn
Stoke and Tilshead (the measurements of which will be found in theii- proper places, in
Table II.) are also markedly dolichocephalic, and in other respects resemble those from the
chambered barrows of the oolitic Cotteswold district of the Dobuni. For this part of Britain
(and this is probably appUcable to the rest of the island) the writer beHeves that, in regard to
these two diameters in dolichocephalic skulls, and especially in
those of the Basques, so similar in many respects to the skulls
from the chambered long barrows of south-west Britain. To
this form of dolichoccphalism, dependent in great measure on
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the backward development of the posterior lobes of the brain,
and which is similar to that of the African races, M. Gratiolet
gives the name of occipital dolichoeephalism, as distinguishing
it from Oiefrontal dolichoccphalism of Indo-European peoples.
(5)
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