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DESCRIPTIONS OE CRANIA.
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it may justly be entitled to be regarded as the primary deposit. In making the excavation
which led to cist D, a later interment, without cist, at a higher level, H, was encountered.
Tliis is well exHbited in the woodcut on the preceding page.
The dimensions of cist D were, length 3 ft. 4 in., width at foot 2 ft. 4 in., and general depth
1 ft. 8 in. " The floor was composed of the natural rock, with some smaU flat stones to make it
level; and at the narrow end a raised edge of stone rudely hollowed in the centre, formed a pillow
on which the head rested. The sides of the cist were square on the one side to the length of
twenty-eight and on the other of twenty-one inches, and it then gradually became narrower until
at the head its width was only ten inches." This cist, so neatly constructed, had received the
body of a man of advanced age, who had been reverently deposited on his left side, but without
any relic whatever. His skuU forms the subject of oiu- Plate 53, and, in its different aspects, of
the preceding outline-figures.
It is the cranium of an old man, without question a chief of importance, who had reached,
if not exceeded, his 70th year. The ossified state of the sutures and the worn condition of the
teeth, all of which have been in their places on interment, confirm this. Those of the upper
jaw present some anomalies. The last molar of the left side {m 3) has probably not been
developed ; that of the right is a small cylindrical cusped toothlet with one fang. The form of
the face is quite in accordance with that usual among the ancient Britons. The chin is both
prominent and of good breadth, the superciliary ridge strongly expressed, the forehead broad,
the interval between the orbits wide, and the cheek-depressions converted into pits, no doubt
the result of years. This most brachycephalic and globose calvarium of any of our whole
series is elevated in the vertical and preeminently wide in the intertemporal and interparietal
regions. The indications of parieto-occipital flattening are not unequivocal; if admitted to exist,
they probably may be the effects of nursing in early infantile life *.
MEASUREMENTS.
Horizontal circumference 20"4 inches. Occipital Region.--Length . 4'1 inches.
Longitudinal diameter . . • 6-8 „ Breadth . . 4-6 „
Erontal Region.—Length • 5-0 „ Height . • 3-8 „
Breadth . • 4-9 „ Intermastoid arch 16-2 „
Height . • 4-8 „ Internal capacity 82 ounces.
Parietal Region.—Length • 5-4 „ Eace.—Length 4-5 inches.
Breadth . • 5-2 „ Breadth . 5-6 „
Height . • 4-9 „ Femur.—Length . 19-0 „
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The cranium exhibits the typical, or most characteristic and proper, form of the Ancient
British skull in an eminent degree. ^.4í i1í !I '
* This subject has attracted the notice of many observers,
as well as that of the writer. The late Mr. Bateman was
struck by it at an early period of his researches. (Ten Years' „_, „.
Diggings, p. 273, and other places.) Dr. Daniel Wilson speaks vol. ii. p. 291.)
of it with much confidence in many of his writings. (Pre-
53.
historic Annals of Scotland, vol. i. p. 271. Note on the Distortions
which present themselves in the crania of the ancient
Britons, by J. Barnard Davis, Nat. Hist. Rev. July 1802,
(J. B. D.)
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