SCHAAFFHAUSEN ON THE CRANIA OF THE ANCIENT RACES OF MAN. 169 



of stag's-horn, two boar V tusks, which had been cut off, and three in- 

 cisor-teeth of a stag perforated at the root, was found near Plau,* in si- 

 liceous sand, six feet below the surface. A very high antiquity was 

 assigned to this grave, as it was wholly unprotected by any masonry, and 

 afforded no trace of cremation having been practised, nor any implements 

 of stone, clay, or metal. Dr. Lisch, who had been struck with the unusual 

 prominence of the supraorbital border, the wide root of the nose, and the 

 strongly retrocedent frontal, accompanied the account of the finding with 

 this remark : — "The formation of the skull indicates a very remotely dis- 

 tant period, at which man presented a much lower degree of development. 

 Probably this grave belongs to the autocthonous population." I suc- 

 ceeded, with some trouble, in putting together the skull, which, as well 

 as the skeleton, had been broken to pieces by the labourers, from the 

 twenty-two fragments transmitted to me. "Notwithstanding the great 

 similarity in the form of the forehead between this skull and that from 

 the Neanderthal, the prominence of the supraorbital ridges in the latter 

 is more marked, and they are completely continuous with the orbital- 

 margin, which is not the case in the former. But the skulls are essen- 

 tially distinguished by their general form, which in the one is long- 

 elliptical, and in the other rounded. In the skull from Plau, a portion 

 of the upper jaw with the teeth, and the entire lower jaw, have been 

 preserved ; it is orthognathous. The bones are thick, but very light, and 

 adhere strongly to the tongue. The muscular impressions on the occi- 

 put above the mastoid process are very strongly developed ; the sutures 

 are wholly unossified ; the last upper molar on the right side has not 

 yet come through the alveolus ; the teeth are worn away, the entire 

 crown in some of the molars having disappeared ; the lower canine teeth 

 are far larger than the incisors, and project in front of the row of teeth ; 

 the foramen incisivum in the upper jaw is very large, exceeding 4 mm in 

 width. The wide and short ascending ramus of the lower jaw rises at 

 a right angle. The muscular impressions on the lower jaw are also 

 well marked. On the right parietal ^bone is an elongated indentation, 

 apparently caused by a blow. The dimensions are as follows : — 



mm. 

 Circumference over the supraorbital ridges and the 



superior semicircular lines of the occiput, . . . 445(17.7") 

 From the root of the nose over the vertex to the supe- 

 rior semicircular lines, 320(12.7") 



From the root of the nose over the vertex to the fora- 

 men magnum, , 380 ( 15") 



Length from the glabella to the occiput, . . . . 168 ( 6.5") 



Breadth of frontal, 107 ( 4.1") 



Height from a line connecting the squamous borders 



of the parietals to the middle of the sagittal suture, 80 ( 3.2") 



* Jalir. d. Vereins fur Mecklenburg. Geschichte und Alterthumskunde, herausg. von 

 G. S. F. Lisch, Schwerin, 1847, xii., p. 400. 

 VOL. I. N. H, R. % 



