ii
DESCRIPTIONS OE CRANIA.
said of that from " Mouse Lowe," which retains the frontal suture, and a beautiful pearly set of
teeth,—an advantage, it may be of age, and, perhaps, also of station.
Wo may not pass over this decided example of a platy-cephalic cranium of an ancient
Briton from a Barrow of the primeval " stone period," without remark. Om- researches liitherto
have led us to regard a more brachy-cephalio, therefore somewhat more elevated skull, such as
those from BaUidon Moor and Green Gate HiU Barrows (Plates 1,3 and 4), as most deserving to
be denominated the typical form of the ancient British cranium. But in this stone Barrow on
Wetton HUl, presenting only rude flint instruments, British pottery, the primitive flexed position
of the skeleton, and the short rude cist; therefore, with every mark of the primeval period, and no
element of remote antiquity wanting; we meet with two separate and distinct aberrant forms of
skull in interments of the same age. It appears to be of great importance to call attention
as distinctly as possible to this fact. In the one case, we have the skull which is presented
to the reader in this Plate, offering an unusually flat, broad appearance, with a short vertical
diameter, an ample horizontal circumference, and an imusually long parietal diameter,—a
conformation fully entitling it to be regarded as a weU-marked instance of platy-cephalic form.
In the closest proximity, and on the same level with this, occurs another skeleton, the cranium
of which, ah-eady briefly aUuded to, belongs to a distinct variety, the acro-cephalio,—a skuU
as remarkable for its development in a vertical direction, as this is for its expansion in
the horizontal. Therefore, two crania offering the most decided contrast in their construction
and outlines, and yet both presenting unequivocal signs of their ancient British lineage.
As to the identity of the age and of the race to which these two men have belonged, there
has been no doubt, and we believe no reasonable doubt whatever can be raised. Such a discovery
as this may well cause reflection, as it proves to us that a great diversity of form has
existed among the aboriginal inhabitants of the British Isles, even, there is every reason to
think, in the same tribe ; without, however, lending any support to the opinion, that cranial forms
are arbitrary, indefinite, or interchangeable, for this to an instructed eye the slightest inspection
of the skulls will at once refute. They both present clear and unmistakeable indications
of an ancient British origin, and consequently may be quoted as a confirmation of the remarks
made in our Introduction (p. 14). "Whether such a discovery as this may not have an important
bearing upon the hypothesis, founded on the dolieho-cephalic skulls from certain Barrows, and
referred to in our Chapter II. p. 19, seems to us to be weU-deserving of much farther consideration.
(J. B- D.)
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