442 thj: oraniology ob^ man and anthropoid apeh. 



same plan, in Ireland, England, the greater part of Europe, the west 

 of Asia, India, Arabia, and northern Africa. The construction of 

 these dolmens, wherever met with, is so similar in style that we 

 conclude the}^ were the work of one race, or at least of one special 

 confederacy of races. They were not onl}" sepulchers for tlu^ dead, 

 but many of them also contained an altar, a place of mourning and of 

 offering, where intercession was made to the spirits of departed chiefs 

 by their relations and tribesmen. The Rodmarton long dolmen or 

 temple toml) (near Cirencester) affords us a good example of one of 

 these structures; it is 180 feet in length and TO feet l)road. We have 

 in our museum a fine human skull which was found in this dolmen, 

 with sonu^ well-polished stone implements. If we compare this skull 

 with that of the fJava or the Neanderthal grou)3 of men or with the 

 skulls of the early Neolithic human inhabitants of western Europe, 

 we are struck by the marked difference that exists between them and 

 the Rodmarton skull. Dr. Thurnam's unique collection of crania may 

 be seen in the Anatomical Museum, Cambridge. These crania for the 

 most part were unearthed by himself from various English long 

 dolmens and barrows, and they resemble in form, although thc}^ are 

 of a higher t3^pe than, the skulls found in the caves of Cro-Magnon 

 and Mentone; they are identical in character with skulls found in the 

 long dolmens of France and other countries of Europe. The cranial 

 index, capacity, and other features of the bones of these skulls lead us 

 to assign them all to one and the same race, of which the Cro-Magnon 

 are probably some of the earliest specimens as yet discovered in 

 western Europe. The three Cro-Magnon and three Mentone skele- 

 tons were those of people some feet 4 inches and upward in stature, 

 so that a race of giants in far distant times was no myth. Their 

 cranial ca])acity was above that of the average Europeans of the 

 present day. From their physical conformation and from th(^ I'cmains 

 of the animals found buried with th(>m. which are of Asiatic species, 

 and from other c\idence, we arc led to the conclusion that the Cro- 

 Magnon race represent the advance guard of the proto-Ai-yan human 

 family, of which tlu^ Rodmarton" and many other long dohnen skulls 

 show a more advanced type. Tiu^si^ people in far distant ages migrated 

 from t\\o East into western Euroi)e, and from thence spread into our 

 islands; southward they passed into India, Persia and Arabia, Asia 

 Minor, and northern Africa. Over this vast area and far away in 

 eastern Asia we find their remains, with Hint and stone implemcMits of 

 the early Neolithic type, buried in long dolmens or barrows. The 

 roots of many of the words used by this ancient people exist in most 



«In the History of Ancient Wiltshire, by Sir H. C. Hoare, Vol. I, pi. xvii, p. 

 164, there is an account of a skull found in a long barrow near Stonehenge, which is 

 now to be seen in the Anatomical Museum at Cambridge (No. 180a), of which I 

 have a photograph. 



