Figure 7: Partial endocast of Australopithecus africanus from Sterkfontein, 

 to show the clear markings of the sagittal suture (A) and of the lambdoid 

 suture (B). 



As standardized, for example, by Breitinger (1936), this method has been 

 widely used in studies on long series of modern skulls. 



All three methods— the determination of the volume of a natural and of 

 an artificial endocast, and the determination of the capacity of the braincase 

 —provide one with an assessment of the volume of the space within the 

 cranium. They do not provide us with the volume of the brain as such. For 

 it must be remembered that the cranial cavity accommodates a great deal 

 more than simply brain. Thus, when we say that a skull has an endocranial 

 capacity of 1400 c.c, this includes the roots and intracranial trunks of no 

 fewer than 24 cranial nerves, the thick outer brain covering, or dura mater, 

 the 2 thinner coverings, or leptomeninges, namely the arachnoid and pia 

 mater, the subarachnoid space and its enlargements, the cisterns, containing 

 cerebrospinal fluid, numerous blood vessels including larger meningeal and 

 cerebral arteries and veins, and the enlarged venous channels called cranial 

 venous sinuses, blood, and cerebrospinal fluid. 



Thus, only a proportion of the cranial capacity is made up of brain 



^ 8 



