2G8 PHYSICAL ETHNOLOGY. 



the decomposition of tlic fleshly ligatures ; and, as is common in crania discov- 

 ered under similar circumstances, it had completely decayed at the pai;t in con- 

 tact with the ground. A portion of the left side is thus wanting ; but with this 

 exception the skull Avas not only nearly perfect when found, but the bones are 

 solid and heavy ; and the whole skeleton appeared to me so well preserved as 

 to have admitted of articulation. Above the right shoulder, a neat earthen vase 

 Lad been placed, probably with food or diiuk. It contained only a little sand 

 and black dust Avhen recovered, uninjured, from the spot where it had been de- 

 posited by afiectionate hands many centuries before, and is now preserved along 

 with the skull in the Scottish Museum of Antiquities. 



As the peculiar forms of certain skulls, such as one described by Dri Thur- 

 nam, from an Anglo-Saxon cemetery at Stone, in Du'-kinghamshire,* and another 

 from an Indian cemetery at Montreal, in Lower Canada.t as well as those of 

 numerous distorted crania, from the Roman site of Uriconium and other ancient 

 cemeteries, have been ascribed to posthumous compression : the precise circum- 

 stances attendant on the discovery of the Juuiper Green cist are important, from 

 the proof they afibrd that the body originally deposited within it, had lain there 

 undisturbed and entuxdy unafTected by any superincumbent pressure from the 

 day of its interment. Two, if not three, classes of skulls have been recovered 

 fiom early British graves. One Avith a predominant longitudinal diameter, in 

 the most marked examples difliers so essentially in its elongated and narrow 

 forehead, and occiput from the modern dolichocephalic head, hat I was early led 

 to assign to it a separate class under the name of kumbecephalic or boat-shaped. | 

 Anoiher has the longitudinal diameter little iu excess of the greatest parietal 

 breadth. In its general jnoportions, its occipital formation, and even in some 

 ot its facial developments, it presents analogies to the Aineiican brachvcephalic 

 skull ; though it lacks the characteristic flattened and receding forehead. This 

 British bi achy cephalic skull occupies an intermediate place in its relative pro- 

 portions among ancient British crania, and is no less str, kingly distinguished 

 from the prevailing modern head, whether of Celtic or Saxon aieas, by its short- 

 ness, than the other is by its length, when viewed eithei iu proflle or vertically. 

 The Anglo-Saxon type of skull appears to be intermediate between those two 

 forms, with a more symmetrical oval, such as is of common occurrence in mod- 

 ern I'^nglish heads. 



The significance of the skull-forms of ancient British graves has been studied 

 ■with intelligent zeal in recent years; and the discovery of essentially distinct 

 types, suggests the inquiry as to traces of the existence of older races iu Bi itaia 

 than the Celtae found in occupation of the islands at the period of Roman inva- 

 sion. The result of my own observations on such examples of ancient Biirish 

 crania as were accessible to me, before the interruption of my researches in this 

 department of craniology, by my removal to Canada, was to impress me with 

 the conviction that the evidence pointed to the existence of more than one early 

 race; and that traces seemed to be recognizable, suggestive of one characterized 

 by great length and narrowness of head, a remarkable prolongation of the occi- 

 put, and poor frontal development. To this another appeared to have succeeded 

 with a short or brachycephalic head, prominent parietal development, and trun- 

 cated occiput. Accordingly, when the questions involved in such researches and 

 speculations w-ere brought under the notice of ethnologists iu a papcu- read by 

 me before the British Association iu ISoO, I there remarked: "Not the least 

 hiteresting of the indicatinns which this course of investigation seems to estab- 

 lish iu relation to the primitive races of Scotland, are the evidences of the exist- 

 ence of primitive British races prior to the Celta? ; and also the probability of 

 these races having succeeded each other in a different order from the primitive 



* Crania Britannica, Dec. I, p. 38. 



tEdm. PLilosoph. Juuinal. N. S XVI, p. 2G9. 



tPrelustoric Amiais of Scotiaud, pp. 161), 177. 



