NOTES ON A PRE-HISTORIC BURIAL-PLACE AT MEGDALE. 47 



imperfect tibia, and it has the flattening of the shin 

 (platycnemism) frequently noticed in these ancient remains. 



So far as we can judge from these imperfect skeletons, the 

 people buried in this Megdale vault were dolichocephalic, slight 

 in build and short in stature. None, certainly, attained to old 

 age ; it is doubtful whether we can say that any of them even 

 reached the later half of middle life. One — the owner of 

 Skull D, the jaw without wisdom-teeth, and the juvenile femur 

 — appears to have died in early youth. 



With these human bones, as sent by Mr. Parker, were a few 

 teeth and fragments of bones of various animals, among which 

 the boar, the ox, a young deer, and possibly the horse, were 

 represented. Presumably these teeth and bones were found on 

 the site more or less associated mth the human bones, in which 

 case we may regard them as relics of the funeral feast or of 

 food offered to the dead. 



So far from being the victims of a direful tragedy half a 

 century ago or less, these skeletons, if they were still living 

 among us in their dotage, would be garrulous in reminiscences 

 of the Roman legions, and would date their first grey hairs 

 from the Battle of Hastings. 



