618 



DESCRIPTION OF FIGURES OF SKULLS. 



protuberance, is only y 1 ^"; and the dolicho-cephaly of the skull 

 depends upon the length of the parietal bones ; the length of the 

 parietal arc, 5-5", being more than half an inch over the average, 

 whilst that of the occipital, 4* 6", is identical with it. The mastoids 

 are large, the jaws orthognathous, the lower jaw well formed, lying 

 evenly on a horizontal plane, with a bifid mentum, a long coronoid, 

 and a square angle. The nasals are saddle-shaped, the nose in life 

 may have been, judging from the rise of these bones distally, a 

 ' Roman ' one ; but at any rate it must have differed from the all 

 but Grecian profile given to the Celtic face in the jffis grave 1 of 

 Rimini, a work of art of probably the fifth century B. c. 



In the norma verticalis this skull presents a bluntly oval contour, 

 remarkable for very considerable asymmetry 2 on the right half of 

 the parieto-occipital region, due probably to the mode of carriage 

 in infancy. This distortion is less common in the dolicho-cephalic 

 than in the brachy-cephalic variety of crania, both in ancient and 

 in modern times. The posterior part of the sagittal and the upper 

 part of the lambdoid sutures are extensively obliterated, both ex- 

 ternally and internally. As in many skulls with long parietals, 

 the apex of the lambdoid suture forms a widely open angle. The 

 parietal tubera are well marked, and one of them is the seat of 

 an exostosis ; the walls of the skull below widen only very slightly 

 as they pass down to the mastoids ; the point however of maximum 

 width lies below that of the parietal tubera and on a level with the 

 posterior and superior angle of the squamous. A dilatation in 

 the line of an accidental fissure running about midway between 

 the upper and lower borders of the left parietal bone marks the 

 exact position of the parietal tuberosity of that side ; which, as 

 is the rule in skulls of this type, is seen to be both further forward 

 and lower down than it, with the part of the brain which it 

 covers (for which see Huschke, 1. c. p. 143), would be in brachy- 

 cephalic forms. The upper tinea semicirculares for the origin of 

 the temporal muscles are plainly seen above the parietal tubera. 



1 See Frontispiece to Ethnogenie Gauloise, par Roget Baron de Belloguet, 1861. 

 Sambon, Recherches sur les Monnaies antiques de FItalie, 1870, p. 71. The backward 

 position of the ear in this figure is nearly as clear an indication of its having been 

 intended for a representation of a brachy-cephalic head as the tore round the neck is 

 of its having been intended for a Gaul of early Roman history. 



2 For a discussion upon the mode of production of such asymmetry, see note, pp. 

 572, 573, supra ibique citata. 



