174 SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS VOL. 83 



This proved to be the frontal of a human skull, the outer surface of which had 

 become completely detached from the surrounding deposit, while the inside re- 

 mained filled with travertine. Three-quarters of an hour later the removal of 

 another large block exposed a broken edge of a human parietal lying about i m. 

 to the east of the frontal and at the same depth from the surface. The crack in 

 the travertine had passed right through the bone, breaking up the edge which 

 bore the sagittal suture, but I was able to recover the fragments. The part which 

 remained in sitit was completely embedded in the matrix, and it was necessary 

 to chip away a block large enough to contain the whole bone. 



The deposit surrounding the skull was carefully searched, but without result, 

 and at the end of a week I was obliged to close down the dig on account of the 

 heat. I returned to Gibraltar early in October, and three weeks later found a 

 human lower jaw, right maxilla, and right temporal in layer 4, all lying close 

 together in the mouth of the cave, 5.50 m. from the place where the frontal and 

 parietal had been found. The jaw and temporal were in the crumbling tufa 

 already described as filling the fissure at this level, but the maxilla, although 

 only a few centimeters away, was embedded in a bank of hard travertine which 

 lined the eastern wall. 



Although layer 4 was afterwards searched over its whole extent, no other 

 human bones were found. 



It seems clear from the position of the bones that the skull originally lay 

 in the mouth of the cave, but as it belonged to a very young individual it fell 

 apart along the sutures, and the frontal and left parietal, together with those 

 parts which are missing, were washed forward on to the terrace by the waters 

 of the spring which converted the original sandy layer into travertine. The 

 missing parts were probably carried further forward than the others, and so 

 rolled down the slope and were lost. 



It is probable that the skull was already separated from the body when it lay 

 in the cave, for if the whole skeleton had been present some, at least, of the bones 

 must have been found. On the other hand, the fact that the lower jaw lay 

 quite close to the temporal and maxilla suggests either that decomposition was 

 not complete at the time of deposition or that the jaw was fastened to the skull 

 by a thong or string. In either case it seems impossible to avoid the conclusion 

 that the skull was intentionally preserved, either as a trophy or in fulfilment of 

 a pious rite. 



THE SKULL 



The human skull is described most carefully and v^ith much detail 

 by Professor Buxton. The main results of his study are : 



The Devil's Tower bones are the remains of a single individual skull belong- 

 ing to a child of five years old, probably of the male sex The form of 



the face and jaws is essentially that which we associate with Neanderthal man. 

 Many of these features can be shown, however, to owe their characteristic ap- 

 pearance partly to the great size of the teeth and partly to functional activities, 

 but the general massiveness, not only of the jaws but also of such features as the 

 tympanic plate, is remarkable. 



.... the contours of the forehead are, when seen from the side, almost ex- 

 actly similar to contours of the La Quina child, but the size of the specimen is 



