1897.] on Early Man in Scotland. 405 



and Round barrows. There is a consensus of opinion that the long 

 barrows were constructed by a race which inhabited England prior to 

 the construction of the round barrows. The long barrows are indeed 

 the most ancient sepulchral monuments in South Britain ; obviously 

 they were erected before the use of bronze or other metal became 

 known to the people. They belonged, therefore, to the Neolithic Age, 

 as is testified by the implements and weapons found in them being 

 formed of stone, flint, bone and horn, and by the absence of metals. 

 They are not widely distributed in England, but are found especially 

 in a few counties in the north, as Yorkshire and Westmorland, and 

 in the Western counties in the south. The builders of these barrows 

 in their interments practised both inhumation and cremation, but the 

 burnt bones were never found in urns. 



The study of the human remains obtained from the English long 

 barrows by Drs. Thurnam and Eolleston proves that the crania were 

 distinctly dolichocephalic, and that the height was greater than the 

 breadth. Those measured by Dr. Thurnam gave a mean length- 

 breadth index 71*4, whilst Dr. Eolleston's series were 72*6. 



The round barrows were constructed by a bronze-using people. 

 The crania obtained in them were, as a rule, brachycephalic. Of 

 twenty-five skulls measured by Dr. Thurnam seventeen had the 

 length -breadth index 80 and upwards, and in six of these the index 

 was 85 and upwards. Only four were dolichocephalic, whilst in 

 three the index ranged from 77 to 79. In the brachycephalic skulls 

 the height was less than the breadth. 



As similar physical conditions prevailed both in England and 

 Scotland during the Polished Stone and Bronze periods, there is a 

 strong presumption that the two races had, in succession to each other, 

 migrated from South to North Britain. Unfortunately very few 

 skulls have been preserved which can with certainty be ascribed to 

 Neolithic man in Scotland, but those that have been examined from 

 Papa Westray, the cairn of Get and Oban, are dolichocephalic, and 

 doubtless of the same race as the builders of the English long 

 barrows. 



Seventeen skulls from interments belonging to the Bronze period 

 have been examined by the author. The mean length-breadth index 

 of twelve was 81*4, and the highest index was 88 '6. In each skull 

 the height was less than the breadth. In the other five specimens 

 the mean index was 74 ; the majority, therefore, were brachycephalic. 

 In only one specimen was the jaw prognatliic ; the nose was almost 

 always long and narrow ; the upper border of the orbit was, as a rule, 

 thickened, and the height of the orbit was materially less than the 

 width. The capacity of the cranium in three men ranged from 1380 

 to 1555 c.c. ; the mean being 1462 c.c. In stature the Bronze men 

 were somewhat taller than Neolithic men. The thigh bones of the 

 Bronze Age skeletons gave a mean platymeric index 75 * 1, materially 

 below the average of 81*8 obtained by Dr. Hepburn from measure- 

 ments of the femora of modern Scots. The tibiae of the same 



Vol. XV. (No. 91.) 2 b 



