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CRANIA BRITANNICA.
five. There were no other relics *. In the second cist there were as many as twenty-two
skeletons, nearly half of which were removed in the writer's presence. Several bones of dogs,
swine, sheep, and oxen, a few fragments of rude hard black pottery, and a large conical sort of
muller-stone of Sarsen, weighing 12^ lbs., were found with the skeletons, which were those of
persons of ages varying from five to seventy years, about one-third being of females. Three of
the skulls of men from thii-ty-iive to sixty years, present remarkable clefts in the frontal and
parietal bones which it is scarcely possible to doubt were inflicted during life. They must
indeed have been the death wounds of these unfortunates, who were probably sacrificed over
the grave of their chief f . The cuts are of great length, extending from front to back, with very
sharp edges having a slightly brown discoloration. Adjoining the clefts the bones present
curious black stains, perhaps from the absorption of blood. In the third cist, covered by a
smaller stone, were the decayed remains of two or three skeletons. In the fourth, imder the
most northern and distant of the stones, was the skeleton of a man, and with tliis the curious
objects now in the collection of the Wilts ArchiBological Society, viz.:—1. a recurved knife of flint
Scinches long, finely chipped at the sharp convex edge and still retaining its transparency ; 2. a
beautifully veined ovoid implement of serpentine, 4 inches long and 2 broad, the apex at each
Implement of Serpentine {two-thirds diameter), and Iting of Jet (actual size), from Cist No. 4, at Monidon.
end ground flat ; 3. several objects of fine jet, viz. two large and one smaU button, the largest
almost 3 inches in diameter (all similar to that from Tosson, figured in these pages, PI. 54.1, p. 2),
and a ring. The unique ring of jet i is elaborately ornamented with fine raised lines, the inner
Two Earthen Vases {restored—one-third diameter) from Cist No. A, Winterbourne Monition.
* Wilts Arch. Mag. 1854, vol. i. p. 303.
t For other instances of skulls thus cleft during life, see
ArchEeologin, vol. xxxviii. pp. 413, 419. Description of skull
from West Kennet, PI. 50, p. (4) ; also PI. 59, p. (3).
58.
I Similarly formed rings of jet have been found in the barrows
of South Wilts (Iloare, vol. i. pp. 172, 239, Pis. xiii.
xix. xxxiv.), but this is unique in its elaborate finish and oniame;
it. One of those figured by Sir Kichard Iloaro, and com-
ANCIENT BRITISH SKULL—WINTERBOURNE MONKTON, NORTH WILTS.
surface being perfectly smooth. On one side are three perforations, as if for attachment or suspension.
It may have been intended as a fastening for the dress, on the same principle as the rings
now sometimes worn at the neck. Lastly, 4, were the broken fragments of two " drinking-cups "
of British pottery, weU fii-ed and covered with elaborate vandyked and lozenge-shaped designs.
There are as many as twenty-seven skulls and calvaria, from Cists 1 and 2, of which some
description can be given. They are generally very thick. They depart little from the orthognathic
type, and in this respect, and in the smaller, shorter, and less angular form of the face and jaws,
they resemble the skulls from the long chambered barrows of this part of England, rather than
the massive semi-prognathic crania from the circular tumuli of Wilts and Yorksliire. Similarly
the chin is narrow and receding rather than prominent, and the teeth only moderately eroded.
AU are more or less dolichocephalic ; but if, as desirable, we admit an orthoeephalie type,
intermediate to the brachy- and dolicho-cephalic, one-third of the number may be so classed,
though even these incline to dolichocephalic proportions. Of twelve crania which can be
measm-ed, eight have the breadth from 64, to 72, and four from 73 to 75, to the length taken as
100 *. In the whole series the occiput is prominent, and the backward projection of this region
is in general a marked feature. With one exception, the parietal tubers are not prominent, and
the sides, especiaUy in the skuUs of women, are more or less flattened. The vertex is flat and low,
or platycephalic. The frontal region is generally low and narrow, and the superciliary arches
slightly prominent. The sutures in nearly all are more obliterated than usual. Three calvaria
of men, of 50 to 65 years, present considerable rugosities in the line of the obliterated sagittal,
which in two assumes the form of a carina continued along the frontal. These three are the most
dolichocephalic of the series (•64.--68). Probably the synostosis ^'as premature, and had some
influence in the production of the lengthened form ("transversely contracted [long] skuU " of
Virchow). The ealvarium of a girl of about seven is a curious example of the " obliquely contracted
[wry] skuU," and " posterior variety " of the same writer. The right frontal eminence
is about half an inch in advance of the left, whilst the left half of the occipital projects to the
same extent beyond the right. The stjnostosis is confined to the left side of the lambdoidal
suture. There were originally two interparietal bones, the suture separating which remains
distinct. At an early period the right interparietal became united to the riglit supraoccipital,
and the left to the upper and posterior angle of the left parietal. The bizarre, and at first sight
puzzling, outline of the occiput is explained by this unsymmetrical and rare form
I n nearly the entire series a narrow depression crosses the skull immediately behind the
coronal suture. In the skulls from Cist 1 the depression is but slight. Of eighteek skulls from
Cist 2, ten have it in a marked form, whOst in the remaining eight the traces are more or less
obvious. In the skull of a boy of five years, and in that of the girl of seven, the depression is as
apparent as in any of the adults, including the subject of our lithograph. In the girl's skull
there is a parallel depression across the posterior third of the parietals, producing a subglobose
dilatation of the intermediate parietal region, approximating to that observed in the macrocepared
by him to a pulley, is derived from the only interment
on record similar to these of Monkton. " A shepherd pitching
his fold above Durrington Walls near Ameshury, found his iron
bar impeded by what proved to be a large Sarsen stone covering
the interment of a skeleton, with which were a finely chipped
flint dagger, a small whetstone, a cone and ring of jet like a
68.
pulley, and two little buttons of marl or chalk." These
" cones " or buttons and rings of jet seem generally to accompany
each other, and the buttons to be two, or at the most three,
in number.
* For the measurements of several of these skulls and calvaria,
see ante. Chap. VIII. Table II.
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