168 ORIGINAL ARTICLES. 



by the discovery, about to be related, of skulls exhibiting "a yet closer 

 correspondence with it than do those already mentioned. 



At the meeting of the Lower Rhine Society, on the 9th July, 1857, 

 Herr Noggerath stated that, in the Transactions of the Imperial Rus- 

 sian Mineralogical Society of St. Petersburgh, of the year 1842, an ac- 

 count was given by Dr. S. Kutorga, of two human skulls from the Go- 

 vernment of Minsk, and that one of the skulls there figured presented a 

 great similarity with that found in the Neanderthal. Both these skulls 

 were discovered near Bobruysk. One was found in the sandy bottom of 

 a hollow, apparently an ancient river-bed, in a locality where numerous 

 human bones had been occasionally met with for a very long period; and tra- 

 dition said that a town formerly stood there, which was destroyed by an 

 inundation. Of this cranium only the frontal and two parietal bones re- 

 main. The frontal is strongly depressed, the supraorbital ridges, in- 

 cluding the border of the orbit, form prominent elevations ; the two halves 

 of the frontal bone are unequal, and the sagittal suture manifestly flat- 

 tened. Dr. Kutorga considers it very probable that this conformation was 

 brought about by artificial compression ; but the figure which he gives 

 does not convey the decided characters of an artificial deformity. The 

 other skull, taken from an ancient sepulchral mound in the same region, 

 exhibits a well-developed forehead ; but both the frontal and parietal 

 bones are still more unsymmetrical than in the former skull. On the 

 right side is a very well developed tuber frontale, which is wholly want- 

 ing on the left ; the left parietal bone, also, is smaller than the right. 



Shortly afterwards, in September, 1857, my attention was directed 

 by Herr L. Lindenschmit to the cast of a frontal bone having exactly 

 the same conformation, in the Romano- Teutonic Central Museum, at 

 Mayence. This cast had been taken from a skull found near Plau, in 

 Mecklenburg. At the meeting of the Association of German Naturalists 

 and Physicians, at Bonn, in the same month, these peculiar cranial forms 

 were exhibited in plaster casts, the difference between them and the 

 crania of other lower races pointed out, and the opinion again expressed 

 that this hitherto unknown form of skull probably belonged to a primi- 

 tive race, settled in North Europe before the Germanic immigration. 

 Having made application on the subject to Dr. Lisch, Keeper of the 

 Archives in Schwerin, where the crania are preserved in the Grand 

 Duke's collection, I was furnished with precise information respecting 

 the discovery of the remains at Plau ; and the portions of the skulls, to- 

 gether with similar relics found in Schwaan and other places in Meck- 

 lenburgh, were most readily sent to me. Thus were afforded the ma- 

 terials for a brief report upon the subject, which was read at the sitting of 

 the Lower Rhine Society, held on the 3rd February, 1858.* The parti- 

 culars are as follows : — A human skeleton in a squatting, or almost 

 kneeling posture, together with implements made of bone, a battle-axe 



* Verhandl. des naturh. Vereins des preuss. Rheinl. u. Westphal., 1858. xv. 



