DESCRIPTIONS OF CRANIA.
1000, is 859, only a small fraction below that of the Hitter Hill skull (PI. 53).
inches, computed in the same way, is 746.
Length 1000, breadth 859, height 746.
Its height, 5-3
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This is the first good example of an Otadenian cranium that has been recovered and figured,
and possesses special interest from being of unquestionably ancient British lineage and yet interred
with an ii'on weapon—a collocation previotisly unknown. The zealous antiquary Mr. George
Tate, with his associated brethren of the active Berwickshire Naturalists' Club, have done much
to explore the scattered remains referable to primeval times in the Border coimtries. Their
valuable Reports will be found in their " Proceedings " *. This retired region, like that of North
Derbyshire, so well explored by Mr. Bateman, has been an old and well-peopled country of the
aboriginal inhabitants of the island, where they had rendered themselves secure by fortifications
on the hills, and where, nursed in the invigorating air of the mountain-sides, provided with a
large and diversified field for the chase, and, as in Derbyshire, nourished by the cereals they
cultivated, they enjoyed a long and probably a late abode f .
* " On the old Celtic Town at Greaves Asb, near Linliope,"
&c., by George Tate, F.G.S., Corr. M.S.A- of Scotland,
vol. iv. p. 203. " The Antiquities of Yevering Bell and Three
Stone Burn," &c., by the same, p. 431.
t Mr. Tate has more recently stated his matured views
upon the antiquities of the Otadenian region. He thinks it
probable that the oat was the cereal cultivated by these ancient
people, and that they were not unacquainted with iron.
In a barrow on Yevering Bell some lumps of iron slag were
discovered, along with flint weapons. Heaps of iron slag or
refuse occur in several places in the wild moorlands, not far
distant from British camps and forts. " Probably enough,
iron was more in use than is generally supposed j for from its
rapid oxidation, it is only in very dry situations that it can be
preserved." The Tosson cists were placed on dry jointed
hmestone. Bearing upon the subject of the crania, he adds,
" I conclude that the remains belong to the Celtic race, such
as were in possession of the island when Csesar invaded Britain.
Of any preceding race we have no evidence in Northumberland.
No kumbekephalic skull has ever been discovered. All that
I have seen or heard of were of the brachycephalic form,
which I regard as the true type of the Northumbrian Celts."—
Anthropological Review, vol. i. p. 425. See also "An account
of an ancient British Grave discovered at North Sunderland,"
by Rev. F. R. Simpson ; with a description of a calvarium of a
girl found therein, by J. Barnard Davis, M.D., with a Plate
( X I I I . ) of two urns and of the calvarium, Proc. Berwicks.
Nat. Club, vol. iv. p. 428.
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I.
(J. B. D.)