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DESCRIPTIONS OP CRANIA.
care liad been bestowed on tie interment. The subjoined wood-cut, from a sketch made at
the time, represents the cist and its contents on their &st expos.u:e, as weU as the position of
the skeleton.
Jmijier Green Cist, with Skeleton and Vase in situ.
At the opening of this primeval cist, Professor Daniel Wilson of University OoUege
Toronto, then Secretary of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland, Mr. Robert Chambers, ^ d
some other gentlemen, were present. In the foUowing month a notice of the discovery the
cranium and vase now in the Museum being exhibited, was laid before the booiety o
Antiquaries, by its Secretary, of which no farther record has been preserved. We owe an
expression of our warm thanks to the Council for their UberaUty in allowing us the use of
this skull to be Uthographed for the " C r a n i a Britannica,"-to the present Secretary of the
Society, John Alexander Smith, M.D., for much polite attention,-and to the two gentlemen
before named, especially Professor D. WUson, for every information respecting the excavation m
their-power to impart. _ -
The body had been placed at the bottom of the cist on its left side, m the contracted position,
for which these short sepulchres were designed, with its head resting, piUow-ways upon a
flat stone. The direction of the head was nearly due east, or east by north. Behind the right
shoulder stood a vase, of which we are able to present the following figure
Br,t,ah Vase from Juniper Green Cist.-Height 6| inehes, diameter at top inches.
This earthen vase is of the kind denominated " drinking-cups " by Sir R. C. Hoare. It
stood upright, and contained nothing but a small portion of sand; the food, or more probably
ANCIENT BRITISH—JUNIPER GREEN, MID-LOTHIAN.
drink, which in aU likelihood it formerly held, having speedily, therefore, long since, been dissipated.
The style of ornamentation upon tliis vessel is, we bcKeve, somewhat peculiar to the
northern British tribes, and not belonging to the very earliest times. The cist contained no
other object whatever, though at the time it was thought there were some slight indications of a
liaen covering visible, especially round the logs. Stone cists of this kind have often been met
with in this part of Scotland, and evidently constituted a common mode of interment among the
primitive inhabitants.
The skeleton contained in this stone sepulchre was well preserved, so much so that Professor
D. Wilson considers that it admitted of being ai-ticulated. The skull, on the decay of the fleshy
ligatures, had rolled on to the bottom of the cist, and had perished in that part which was in
contact with the ground, thus producing a large hole in its left side. It is unusually thick and
heavy, weighing in its present mutilated state mth the lower jaw 27 ounces Av., and has
belonged to a man who had lived at least fifty years.
Wo are much gratified in beiug able to present our readers with the portrait of the cranium
of an ancient Briton derived from a district so northern, constituting the limits of the Roman
sway in the island, near the Vallum of Antonine. This circumstance imparts to it unusual
interest and importance, and affords the means of useful comparison. Its general contour will
be not unfamiliar to the eye of those who have studied the crania derived fi'om more midland
and southern regions of our island. It presents the same severe countenance, the same
regularity of outline, and the same tendency to the brachy-cephalic form, in this case in a more
eminent degree. The resemblance is so great to skulls that have abeady passed before our
review, that it would be superfluous to describe it minutely. We wiU therefore confine ourselves
to a notice of a few of its peculiarities. The face has been of agreeable form, greatly resembling
that of the cranium derived ii-om the Green Gate Hill Barrow (Plate 3.); indeed its similarity
to this skull is considerable in many points. The nostrils are a little narrower, as well as the
nose itself; the orbits a little deeper; the surface of the superior maxillaries a little smoother.
The lateral projection of the malar bones has not been more marked. The forehead is a little
narrower and slightly smaller, but is nearly as upright and well-arched. The breadth of the
post-parietal region is a little greater, which, together with the narrower frontal, gives the
vertical outline a somewhat different form. There is a depression from about the posterior third
of the sagittal suture to the tip of the occipital bone ; and a want of symmetry in the posterior
superior region of the parietals, that on the right side being less prominent than that on the left,
—not improbably a posthumous deformation. The skull is of more braohy-cephaUc conformation
than that from the Green Gate Hill Barrow. Years and use have caused considerable deterioration
of the teeth, which are worn away, on a level plane, in both mandibles. In all other particulars
these two crania coincide so much, that the eye alone can detect their differences. And an
attentive study of the full illustrations we are able to give of them both, wiU instruct the reader
more and better than anything that words can convey. The beautiful regularity of the Green
Gate HUl specimen unquestionably claims the precedence.
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