OBSERVATIONS ON A COLLECTION OF PAPUAN 

 CRANIA, By GEORGE A. DORSEY. 



INTRODUCTION. 



While considerable numbers of crania from New Guinea have 

 been described, and while the type of the Papuan is fairly well deter- 

 mined, it has seemed that fhe collection which furnishes the basis of 

 this essay combines a sufficient number of characters to make its 

 description of interest and importance. In the first place the skulls 

 come from a single locality, having been received from a native chief 

 who used them for the adornment of his house and prized them, it is 

 said, as trophies of war. In the second place each skull has been deco- 

 rated in the frontal region by designs in incised lines, and the jaws are 

 bound to the skull by bandages which pass through the nares around 

 the symphysis, and around the zygoma through a hole in the ramus 

 just beneath the sigmoid notch. 



No attempt has been made to compare the results obtained in 

 the present examination with those of previous investigators. This 

 is to be regretted, but the available literature on the subject is not 

 sufficient to make the undertaking at all satisfactory.* This being 

 the case only the facts which have been obtained by observation have 

 been recorded. In the first part there is a somewhat detailed descrip- 

 tion of each skull, the collection being divided according to sex, then 

 follows a summary in which the two sexes are contrasted and aver- 

 ages for the entire series given, together with a table of measure- 

 ments and plates. There is finally, in the second part, a description 

 of the frontal carvings and the bandages by Prof. W. H. Holmes, to 

 whom I am much indebted for consenting to undertake this work, 

 and to whom I herewith offer my sincerest thanks. 



As may be seen, the collection comprises sixteen skulls, distrib- 

 uted as follows: males, eight ; females, seven ; child, one. Apart 

 from the child's skull there is very little discrepancy in the age of the 



*This does not mean, however, that I have made no use of the standard works on anthropol- 

 ogy, and I wish to take this opportunity to express my sense of obligation to that most valuable 

 monograph on skulls. " The Report on Human Crania," by Sir William Turner, in the Xth volume 

 of the Challenger Report. 



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