- i
II; i ñ
í
i; i
DESCBIPTIONS OE CRANIA.
Vase from Tosían Cist.—5-o inches Myh.
Besides the earthen vases other objects of interest were disinterred from the cists. One of
these was the lower portion of an antler of a Red-deer, Cermis Elaplms; another a small plain
bronze buckle, figured below* ; besides which the cists yielded two studs, or buttons, made of
jet, and the remains of a spear-head of iron. The jet studs are of different sizes, but othermse
alike. The larger is 2 inches in diameter. The smaller is here delineated of full size. They
are slightly conical and much polished by use on one side, flat on the under side. On this latter
surface, two smooth holes have been driUed obliquely, so as to meet in the centre, and afford the
means of secure attachment to the dress t - The small h-on spear-head, muc h corroded with
Jet Stud, upper and under side, and Bronze Buckle, from Tosson Cists—Full size.
rust, is 6 inches long, 4 belonging to the blade and 2 to the socket, which retains a portion of
the wood of the shaft. The latter must have been broken on interment t.
* This object is one of very rare occurrence in ancient British
barrows. Lord Londesborough mentions the finding of a
small bronze buckle in a short cist which contained a skeleton
in the contracted position, in his account of the opening of
some ancient British tumuli in the East Riding of Yorkshire.
(Archeeologia, Tol. xxxiv. p. 254.) Another, of the same form
and size as the Tosson example, is depicted in the description
of the examination of a Danish barrow in Lincolnshire.
(Archoeclogical Journal, -vol. vii. p. 37.)
t Necklaces and other objects of this material occur in ancient
British sepulchres in all parts of the islands. (Hoare's
" Ancient Wilts," vol. i. p. 46, Tumuli, pi. 3.) The same contrivance
for attachment is seen in similar bone studs, ib. pi. 12 ;
54.
Description of Skull from Middleton Moor, PI. 35, supra,
pp. (2) and (3) ; also Description of Skull from Monkton,
Wilts, PI. 58 ; Wilde, Cat. of iVIus. Eoy. Irish Acad. p. 241,
where an Hibernian specimen of the same kind, but square, is
figured ; Bateman's " Vestiges," p. 69.
+ Mr. Tate, in his memoir "On Celtic Sepulchral remains
at Tosson, near Eothbury, Northumberland," gives a figure of
the two rusted fragments of this very rare and interesting object.
He describes it in these terms: " It is a javelin head,
broken into two parts, but the portions nearly unite. The
blade was 4 inches long, and the tubular portion, which admitted
the wooden pole, is 2 inches long. The wood still remains
in the tube, though in a decayed state."
(2)
ANCIENT BRITISH—TOSSON, NORTHUMBERLAND.
A word of regret may be expressed that this excavation was not conducted with care, by
competent hands. No doubt, however, exists that a bronze buckle was found in one cist, and
the h-on spear-head m another; yet the construction and position of the cists leave no question
that the interments belong to the same age and period. That this was late, the presence of the
iron weapon seems to indicate. Very probably it may have been during the early occupation of
Britain by the Romans, before the intramural province was denominated Valentia, on its being
subdued by Theodosius, in A.D. 369. The neighbouring country affords many examples of groupt
of hut circles, or British viUages, with their tnmular cemeteries, " usually on high ground," and
strongholds on the summits of the hüls; one of the latter of which to the north, " Brough Hill,"
is not much removed from the site of the Tosson cemetery. Mr. Tate testifies to traMS of'a
cultivation of the soil being stül visible in proximity to these British settlements, and fragments
of porphyritic querns are turned up in their exploration. He regards the wide terraces which
rise above one another on some of the hill-sides as being formed for the growth of com *.
This capacious skull, which there is every reason for concluding to be Otadenian, is that of
an old man, who has probably reached the age of 70 years. All the sutures, save the squamous
are obliterated, and the crowns of the teeth worn to a low level. It is one of the typical series'
of ancient British crania. The face is distinguislied by flatness and breadth ; the nose is short
Its apertiu-e wide; the chin prominent; the forehead is not high, but square; the supranasal
and supercihary eminences obvious, although not strongly expressed; the ealvarium short and
globose, very wide both in the intertemporal and interparietal regions above the mastoids, so as to
present a broad oblate oval vertex, having a depression of the external table, from some accident
during life, near the middle of the right parietal. There are some slight indications of parietooccipital
flatness, but these are by no means so distinct as to justify the opinion that the wide
region before it, interparietal and intertemporal, is at all compensatory and the result of undesigned
deformation in infancy. We must rather regard the brachycephalism of this skull as
a natural and normal feature appertaining to its race t.
MEASUREMENTS.
Horizontal circumference
Length
Frontal Region.—Length
Breadth
Height
Parietal Region.—Length
Breadth
Height
21-2 inches.
7 - 1 „
5 - 4 „
5-3 „
4-8 „
4'4 „
5-V „
4-9 „
Occipital Region.—Length . . 5-2 inches.
Breadth . . 4-6 „
Height . . 4-2 „
Intermastoid arch 15.3
Internal capacity 85 ounces.
Eace.-Length 4.3 ¡j^ehes.
Breadth
Its greatest breadth, 6-1 inches, is interparietal, and the proportion of this to its length, as
* Our account of the Tosson antiquities has been mainly
derived from Mr. George Tate's e.xeellent description. Proc. of
Soc of Antiquaries of Scotland, vol. iv. p. 58. from which
much further information may be obtained.
For the use of the skull and other relics we are indebted to
04.
the politeness of the Rev. W. Greenwell, of Durham, into whose
possession they have come.
t Note on the Distortions which present themselves in the
Crania of the Ancient Britons. By J . Barnard Davis. Nat
Hist. Rev.. 1862, p. 290.
I
R! )'• I