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DESCRIPTIONS OP CRANIA.
phalio crania from the Crimea and from Peru. The only other skull figured in our pages -wliich
exhibits a notable degree of this sincipital depression is that from Roundway (PL 43), a locality
very near the limits of the Dobuni. A less degree of the same depression, though in front of the
coronal suture, is apparent in the skull from Morgan's HiU (PI. 32)*, a place even more likely
to have been once Dobunian. In the skuUs from the chambered barrows of Gloucestershire and
North Wilts, there are frequent traces of it. This is obvious in the skull from Uley (PI. 5), and
even more so in that of the child found -^vith it. In the crania from the chamber at West
Kennet, traces of it distinctly appear, though in the one lithographed (PL 50) these are most
obvious on the right side. Prom a chambered barrow at Nympsfield near Uley, a skull and
calvarium were obtained in 1862, the latter exhibiting it in a marked degree. In the large
series of calvaria from the long barrow at Littleton Drew (PL 24), traces of the same are in nearly
all visiblet- The absence of it in the brachycephalic and sub-brachycephalic crania from the
round barrows of South Wilts and Dorset (the territory of the Belgse, an intrusive and probably
more recent race than the Dobuni) is very striking. In these, the occiput is generally abbreviated
and flattened, and the vertex elevated, as seen in the skulls from Codford (PL 14), Roundway
(PI. 42), Ballard Down (PL 45), and Bincombe Down (PL 57). The same is seen in three imperfect
skulls recovered from the circular barrows of the Stonehenge district opened by Sir R. C. Hoare J.
This coronal depression in dolichocephalic skulls thus seems to assume a sort of tribal characteristic.
Found, however, as it is at the present day, in the skuUs of various peoples, including
Negroes, it is a character of only secondary importance; but, as regards the ancient populations
of these islands, it may be asserted that it is British, rather than Roman or Saxon. In our considerable
collection of Roman and Anglo-Saxon skuUs, scarcely one distiuct example of siich
depression is observable ; whilst it is by no means rare in the ancient British series, and especially
in the Caledonian tribes. It is clearly marked in the skuU from Aberdeenshire (PL 25).
I n a series of Orcadian skulls from Birsay, it is a striking featm-e in the dolichocephalic skulls
of women, but only appears in one brachycephalic male crauinm; and iu nearly every example
of another series from Cladh nan Druidlmeac, lona, it is more or less observable. That the
character is one which appertains especially to the more primeval British period, is perhaps
confirmed by its presence in the imperfect skulls from caves, river-beds, and deep cuttings,
which have recently attracted much attention. Pour examples from Heathery Burn, Muskham,
Mewslade, and East Ham, all dolichocephalic, present distinct traces of this " post-coronal
depression," referred to by Mr. C. Carter Blake, as " perhaps indicating the use of a constricting
bandage " passed round the head in a vertical direction §.
There are two views which may be taken of the coronal depression now described. Either
it is a natural form, normal or the reverse, or it is the result of an artificial though undesigned
deformation of the skull. In some cases it may probably be the one, and in some the other.
* In the Description, this skull is said to " approach the
brachycephalic form." This must be corrected—the proportion
of breadth to length (-/S) showing that it inclines to
the dolichocephalic type, thus agreeing with other crania in
which sincipital depression appears. Tbe large acrocepbalic
skull from Kennet Hill (PI, 11) differs materially from the
Dobunian type, and has the broad flattened occiput of tbe
Belgic skulls, to which tribe (that of the Belga:) it may possibly
be referred.
t Traces of this depression are observable in the dolichoce-
58.
phalic skull from Long Lowe, Staffordshire (PI. 33). In
another remarkably long scaphocephalic skull, also frotn a
chambered long barrow, Mr. Batcman points out " tbe singular
depression just behind the parietal (coronal) sutures, as if
effected by constriction."—Ten Years' Diggings, 1861, p. 262.
J From the barrows marked No. 16 on Sir Richard's map
of tbe Wilsford group, and No. l.oO on the larger map of the
Stonehenge district. See Chap. VIII. Table II.
§ Geologist, vol. T. 1862, pp. 201-204, 210-216, 313-316.
Trans. Ethnol. Soc. London, N. S., vol, ii. p. 226, note *.
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ANCIENT BRITISH—WINTERBOURNE MONKTON, NORTH WILTS.
Professor von Baer observes that, in dohchocephaUc skulls regarded by him as undistorted, there
is often a shaUow depression behind the coronal suture, which he thinks may depend upon a
stronger than usual development of the anterior and posterior genu of the corpus callostim *. We
requii-e a test to distinguish a normal depression of this sort from one, in the same situation,
described by Drs. Poville and Lunier as still produced, in various parts of Prance, by the use in
infancy of a constricting bandage, which is placed across the crown of the head and carried
downwards and backwards to the nape, or sometimes below the jaw—the resulting deformities of
the skull being those caUed, by Gosse, the annular and bilobed {tête annulaire and tête bilobée) t.
The existence of a coronal depression in so large a series of skulls as that from Monkton, is
perhaps most easily reconciled with the idea of its ai-tificial production. It is at least obvious
that the Dobuni, by whom the chambered and other long barrows were constructed, had not the
custom of nursing their infants on the cracUe board, by which the back of the head would have
been flattened, and a brachycephalic form favoured or increased. On the contrary, they seem to
have covered the head with a bandage which was carried under the jaw, by which the coronal
region and sides of the skull were constricted and compressed, and that particular variety of
annular deformation produced which is known as the bilobed head.
:
•I
The skuU flgm-ed in our Plate, restored from numerous fragments, is that of a man of about
thirty years, and is almost sufladently described in the notice of the series to which it belongs.
I t is enough to refer to its decidedly doHchocephaUo type, its greatest breadth (5-G inchL)
being as 72 to the length (7-7) taken as 100,—and to its flattened form, its height (5-8 inches)
being as 75 to the length. The postcoronal depression has a width of about two finger-breadths,
and is gradually lost in the temporal/o^s«. The occiput is fuU, prominent, and rounded. The
superciliary ridges and glabeUa are fuU, but project rather less than usual in the British series.
The orbits are somewhat smaU; the face is rather short, the malars slightly prominent ; the intermaxiUaries
broad and semiprognathic. The thick lower jaw has the ascending ramus short
and square. The crowns of the teeth are moderately worn. The second upper and the third
lower molar on the left side have each lost a portion of their substance, as if from some hard
body having been forcibly dragged between them.
In the Table which foUows, we give the measui'ements of a second male skuU, B, which
wants the lower jaw. It is of larger size, but otherwise very similar to the skuU A. The skull
B. is in the Museum of the Wiltshire Archoeological Society. Both are from Cist No. 2.
* Die Makrokephalen der Krym, &c,, 1859, p. 11. Dr.
Rolleston also notices " a broad and shallow depressiou in the
line of the coronal suture as often seen in well-developed
crania."—Brit, and For. Med. Chir. Rev., April 18C3,p. 60S.
t Foville, • Déform du Crâne resultant de la méthode de
couvrir la tête des Enfans,' 183.4. Lunier, "Deform, du Crâne,
dans le département des Deux-Sèvres," Annales Méd. Psychol.
1852, tom. iv. pp. 42, 56. Gosse, ' Déform. Artif. du Crâne,'
185.5, pp. 62, 66, pl. ii. fig. 3 ; iv. 3 ; v. 1, 2. An example
of tbc tite annulaire is figured in our pages (ante, p. 43). A
skull in our collection, of a French Zouave, obtained from the
"Malakoff in 1856, also presents this deformation. It is pro-
58.
duced by a mechanism similar to that by which the designed
distortion in the ancient Macrocephali was effected, though in
their case two bandages were employed. This is clearly shown
by Von Baer (loc. cit. p. 17), who admits the relationship of
the distorted French skulls to the Macrocephalous ones from
the Crimea (ib. p. 9). Dr. Knox does not admit the effect of
bandages in producing the coronal depression in the Frencli
skulls. In describing a narrow elongated cranium in the crypt
at Hythe, " with the remarkable transverse depression across
the head," he adds, " which Foville, erroneously no doubt,
ascribed to tight swathing of the child immediately after
birth." -Tr a n s . Ethn. Soc., N. S. vol. i. p. 239.
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