HRDLICKA] 



SKELETAL REMAINS 



43 



Zee Islands a skulls, in lowness and in other features approximating 

 to the type of the Neanderthal cranium. One of these specimens, a 

 female skull from the Marken island, showed a height (German 

 method) of only 12 cm. 



Finally, toward the end of 1875 J. Gildemeister published a very 

 interesting account of a series of remarkably low skulls, from burials 

 in the dune under the Bremen cathedral. 7 * The burials, about 30 

 in number, were all of comparatively modern date, the oldest being 

 from the ninth or tenth century of the present era. The majority 

 of the crania belonged to the ordinary type, showing a fair height; 

 thirteen of the skulls, however, presented chamaBcephaly, six of them 

 to a most extraordinary degree (see appended measurements). Gilde 

 meister regards these specimens as representative of a distinct phys 

 ical and hence ethnic type, persisting along parts of the northwestern 

 coast of Europe to modern times. The resemblance of this type to 

 that of the Neanderthal skull is striking, though the lowness of the 

 forehead of the latter and its great supraorbital ridges are not 

 approached. 



Gildemeister s measurements of the six most pronounced of the 

 Bremen low skulls follow : 



The specimens, it is seen, are dolichocephalic to mesocephalic, differ 

 greatly in size, and are extremely low. The height-length indices 

 are the lowest recorded from any part of the world. c None of the 

 skulls is reported as in any way pathological. 



The foregoing accounts, which do not seem to have been followed 

 by any additional observations of importance on similar material, 



n That is, Marken, Schokland, Urk. The account includes reexamination and illustra 

 tion of Blumenbach s &quot; Batavus genuimis,&quot; Decades craniorum, pi. Ixiii. See also H. 

 Welcker, Craniologische Mittheilungen, Arch. f. Anthrov., i, 153, 1866, footnote; reports 

 on 15 skulls from Urk and Marken, with the average height of 12.7 cm. 

 &amp;gt; b Ueber einige niedrige Schadel aus der Domsdiine zu Bremen, AWiandL naturw. 

 Vereine Bremen, iv, 513-524, taf. xii-xiv, 1875. Also Neue Schadelfunde am Domberge 

 zu Bremen, VerhandL der Berliner Oesellsch. f. Anthrop., Ethnol., and Urgesch., 120, 

 Berlin, 1875. 



c The height-length index, based on the vertical, or maximum, height, averages in whites 

 near 75 and is generally above 70. 



