m
DESCRIPTIONS OF CRANIA.
feet deep, too narrow to admit of reclination in the usual primitive flexed position. The body
had consequently been placed in a sitting posture. In this respect it is perhaps unique amongst
the Derbyshire Barrows hitherto examined, although such mode of depositing the body has been
observed by Sir R. C. Hoare in a "Wiltshire Barrow; and Dr. P. C. LuMs, in the Cromlech
Du Tus of the Island of Guernsey, found two skeletons kneeling in opposite directions. The
sitting posture is very general in the tombs of the native tribes of America, from one end of the
continent to the other. The soil that had been washed into this natm-al cist in the course of
long ages, to which indeed we ai-e indebted for the great preservation of the bones, contained
some portions of an earthen cup, a variety of animal bones and teeth, some of them calcined,
and thi-ee fragments of flint. Two of these are the remains of implements of the simplest and
rudest kind. One, only three-quarters of an inch in length, presents a neatly chipped narrow
rounded point, the other likewise has an irregular pointed extremity twice as long, and the third
is a longer thin flaie. Although this latter is uncbipped into any useful form, it has still
retained a value suiiicient to express the sentiment of honour considered due to the dead, and to
supply his anticipated needs in the chase of a future life. All these fragments of silex present the
dull blanched aspect so general in the barrow flints, the result of calcination. The body had
been rudely enclosed in its last resting-place by three large flat stones, reaching quite over the
sides of the iissure, one piled upon the other; and, the more effectually to ensure security, long
flat stones had been inclined over these on either side.
Upon the covering stones of this primary mterment, which without doubt belongs to the
early " stone-period," was another skeleton unprotected, and therefore very imperfectly preserved.
This subsequent deposit in aU probability may be referred to a much later age, the first introduction
of the " bronze-period." The body had been laid in the primitive flexed position, as
usual on the left side. Near its upper part there lay a finely-formed gi'anite axe-head four
inches long, and nearly two in breadth, pierced with a perfectly round hole, nine-tenths of an
inch in diameter. The graceful rounding of this implement on its two outer sides, and hoUowing
on its other two long surfaces, with the curved edge, aU mark it as an elegant object of primitive
art, although the lapse of centuries has much fretted its surface by the decomposition of the
granite. Beside this stone instrument lay the bronze head of a dagger in excellent preservation,
greened with verdigris. Its handle, probably of wood or bone, had perished, leaving the marks
of having terminated in the usual crescent-shaped end towards the blade, and the three tliick
bronze rivets quite perfect, in situ. The blade is fom- inches and three-quarters long, and two
and a half across its greatest breadth.
This very perfect cranium is that of a man of about fifty-five years of age. The face derives
a somewhat wild expression from the prominence of the alveolar arch of the upper jaw, the large
frontal teeth, and the widely separated everted angles of the lower jaw. Its surface is rugged
from deep muscular impressions. The zygomatic arches enclose a large space. The teeth, two of
the lower molars having been in an active state of caries at death, are thickly fm-red with tartar,
and deeply ground down, some of the molars to the very heart. The nose prominent, but
slightly arched; nasal opening an inch broad; frontal sinuses projecting, but not unusually so.
Forehead moderately arched, and broad; the superciliary ridges not strongly expressed. Parietal
protuberances marked, especially that of the right side, making this diameter full. The upper
part of the occipital bone prominent in the middle; but no remarkable development of the hindhead,
except in the diameter of the skuU immediately above the mastoid processes; which exists
likewise in that from BaUidon Moor.
(2)
ANCIENT BRITISH—PARSLEY HAY LOW, DERBYSHIRE.
MEASUREMENTS.
Horizontal circumference . 21-2 inches. Occipital Region.—Length . 4-7 inches.
Longitudinal diameter . . • 7-5 „ Breadth . . 5-3 „
Frontal Region.—Length • 5-1 „ Height . • 3-9 „
Breadth . • 4i'9 „ Intermastoid arch . . . . . 15-0 „
Height . • 4-6 „ Internal capacity . . . . . 72| ounces. ii
Parietal Region.—Length • 5'1 „ Face.—Length 4'7 inches. Í •
Breadth . . 5-7 „ Breadth . . . . . 5-4 „
. , • 1
Height . • 4-8 „ Length of the Femm- . , . . 18-3 „ ' • 1 •
In general form this cranium is tolerably fuU and evenly rounded, the projection of the
upper part of the occipital bone being the only material break in the profile. In the view from
behind the prominent parietal protuberances give to the vertical region of the skull a slightly
roof-like aspect, in the shape of a pyramidal slope, passing from the sagittal suture downwards;
and as these protuberances somewhat exceed the supra-mastoid diameter, a rather polygonal
aspect is imparted to the sides of the sktdl, which, it may be observed, is a character of some
other crania, as, for example, that of an ancient Assyrian from Nimroud in the British Museum*.
The skuU is of medium thickness and weight, and on the whole agrees with that from Ballidon
Moor, belonging also to the same primeval period. In the vertical view they differ only slightly,
in the particulars of the occipital and parietal eminences already pointed out. They both present
a large supra-mastoid diameter, and then- general aspect seems clearly to indicate their having
belonged to the same race, or even tribe. Still the individual characters of this cranimn—its
broad forehead, less marked superciliary ridge, projecting sides above the temples and ears, and
less elevated vertex—are points of distinction deserving our notice. We would therefore regard
this more flattened, more square shape as one of the forms of the ancient British skull, inclined
to plaiy-cephalic variety. (J. B. D.)
This skull is figured in " Types of Mankind," p. 427. See ! )p. 720.
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